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It's been a good day. I've done the traditional turkey, not being ready to be vegetarian, but with loads of vegetables: and one of my guests brought a bottle of Champagne with her, which was great. It's been the sort of Christmas I enjoy, relaxed and doing little other than cook the lunch (which I really enjoy doing).
We've used a good bit of energy, of course: I've had the heating on nearly all day, which I don't usually do even in the present cold snap. I find the house is well enough insulated that if I warm it up in the morning, it's warm enough until dusk when the outside temperature does start dropping fast and I begin to feel distinctly chilly. The neighbours on one side have been away, which doesn't help: when both neighbours are home I benefit from having little or no heat loss through the long party walls. The house was built before the days of cavity walls os I can't have cavity wall insulation: but the roof is well insulated and everywhere is double glazed.
I'm convinced that reduction in energy use has to be a major part of becoming a greener nation, a greener world. Less energy use means we won't need to decide what sort of power stations to build: the answer could be 'none', or relatively few.
Could I have been greener? Well, frankly, after finishing off the champagne, I couldn't really say. So I'll just wish all my readers a very Happy Christmas.
No, I've not become a Celtic fan: it’s been snowing! There’s been a fair covering, lying on the roads, though as my street is a major bus route it never stays too long. But my lovely little Buttercup is sitting firmly in the carport – well, car space, as there’s no roof at present – and if I need to go anywhere I’m using public transport.And that’s a Greenish reflection: that the way to avoid driving in the snow is to go, as far as possible, on the bus. Yes, it’s slower and involves standing waiting in the cold: but it’s safer as well as less polluting. I went to Sainsbury’s today, waiting all of two minutes for the bus there and having to run for the one home! Mind you, I’m well aware how very fortunate I am to live where I have a bus to Sainsbury’s in one direction and Morrison’s in the other.Meanwhile, news is coming in from Copenhagen, and it’s not good. I’m not at all convinced that it’s going to end in anything but failure, even if they do agree to some sort of statement. What is undoubtedly needed is measures that will hurt everyone to an extent, and the rich and powerful to a bigger extent, and nobody seems willing to agree to such measures. We do indeed seem to be in the Age of Stupid. What price the Green party getting a massive increase in their vote? It would be good to have some Green MPs, and if Gordon & Co. let us down seriously, it could happen.A thought: should I have Christmas lights on, to give a bit of festive cheer, most of the time? I put them on at dusk, and turn them off when I go to bed at around midnight, and they are low power LED lights, but it’s still electricity, more than the TV takes on standby and I get told off if I leave that on. But I like my lights, I like to see them as I walk home down the street, making the place look a bit less gloomy than the wintry weather.The house is getting full of food. I keep seeing these scrummy looking things, like a Stollen slice and some mini rum truffles, and three jars of fruit in something alcoholic (cherries in Kirsch, peaches in brandy, pears in..er.. red wine?, cos they were three for two), and I can’t resist them. So we move towards the usual situation on Christmas eve, when the house is full of food and there’s nothing to eat! There will be, though: not sure what I have down for next Thursday but I’m sure it’s something tasty. Could well be fish of some sort, as I won’t be having fish on the Friday – oh, yes I will, smoked salmon and cucumber on thin wholemeal bread and butter, for tea, along with leftovers, a bit of salad maybe, some humous perhaps…. Not to mention the Christmas cake which I’ve not iced yet. Might do that this evening. I have to make a trifle tomorrow for the Bring and Share lunch at Meeting, but I’ve all the ingredients for that. Really I should fast all day on Monday, in preparation, but I don’t suppose I will.And meanwhile, they played the wonderful Harold Darke setting of ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ on Classic FM just after I got into bed last night. And snow was indeed falling, snow on snow: and it was a magical moment. May all our Christmases be green and white!
For most people, 'one of those days' means one where everything goes wrong. But no, for me today was quite the opposite: it was a day when every moment seemed precious, when I was so moved to joy that I started singing, and when at the end of the day I took a major step to fulfilling a lifetime's ambition.
I awoke, after a not totally restful night, to a glorious morning: sunshine, blue sky, little wind. Definitely a day for Belinda (those who are new to this should know that Belinda is my trusty bicycle and means of keeping slightly fitter than a couch potato!) So after a healthy breakfast (cereal and scrambled egg) I grabbed the shopping list... and then had a thought. Almost ready for posting was a parcel for my grandson (Dan, if you're reading this, then the cat is well and truly out of the bag!) So I addressed it, found the parcel tape and taped it up more securely than the mere sellotape it had had before, and put it in a bag for attaching to Belinda's carrier.
Off I set, with the morning sun at my back. I have a standard route for exercise combined with shopping: about the first mile is on road, then I get onto a bridleway which goes up quite a hill, steep indeed at the end, and then a bit more on road before more bridleways which decant me just up from Morrison's. I was delighted to get up the steepest bit still riding: sometimes I have to get off and walk, but today - admittedly in the lowest gear going - I kept riding. The short stretch of road to the next bridleway has a lovely view out towards the coast - you can just about see the North Sea at one point - and from the vantage point of a quite high saddle you can see even more! I felt at peace, and very content, as I turned off the road: I was keeping fit, doing a useful task - indeed two, posting the present and shopping - and the sun shone so I was riding 'in the light', a good Quaker term! I began to sing 'Oh what a beautiful morning' as I rode along, being only slightly embarrassed when I realised that a couple of dog walkers had been in earshot.
Arriving at the shopping centre, I locked up the bike and took the parcel to the post office: over £5 postage! But my grandson is worth it and I've no other way of getting it to him this side of May: I just hope he likes it. (He's very computer literate and has his own blog, so I'm not going to say what was in the parcel as he could well read this!!) Then to the shop, to get milk and a few other things I needed: and then back home, a slightly long way round to avoid riding behind a lorry with the most dreadful exhaust emissions possible. It was smoky enough riding away from it!
After my usual light lunch (soup and garlic bread and a yoghurt) I went back to the kitchen and began work on the next task: making the Christmas cake. I love doing this sort of thing: it was great to find all the ingredients, prepare the tin, make the mix and set it to bake. Then I went to have a nap.
Just as I was ready to get up, a friend rang me and suggested meeting for lunch tomorrow: so I have that pleasant event in prospect. I went and took the cake out of the oven, stuck in a skewer to check it was cooked (it was) and left it to cool in the tin as the recipe says. Then, finally, I went for my 'morning' bath, a relaxing soak in sensuous aromatherapy bubbles. I got out just in time to get dressed and catch the Metro into town, to meet my friend Julia for a meal prior to yet another visit to our wonderful concert hall, The Sage Gateshead. A pleasant, if over-generous, pasta al forno and a bus ride which should have been about ten minutes but took 25 due to a silly, round the houses route and heavy Christmas traffic, and we were there. The concert was a Classic FM one, in every sense: Elgar, Vaughan William's exquisite 'The lark ascending' played as well as I've ever heard it by Bradley Creswick (who should be hetter known than he is), and then after the interval a vivacious performance of the Mozart Clarinet concerto, making this 'old chestnut' sound like a new and fresh piece. The concert ended with the emotive 'Variations on a theme of Thomas Tallis', a piece I've loved since I was a teenager and once wanted to use as the background for an anti-war film shot entirely in cemeteries.
So all in all a good day: and the icing on the cake was yet to come. I thought I'd do a preliminary sketch for a new blog: I'm going on a long trip to Australia and New Zealand next year, and I want to blog every day so friends back home can see what I'm doing. So to start it off I thought I'd write a bit of background as to why I was going, starting with a wish to go to the opera in Sydney. I wanted to mention 
the designer of the Opera 
House and couldn't remember his name, so I looked it up... and the site had an inviting link to 'buy tickets'. So after finishing the draft (far too long) of the blog entry, I went to see if booking had opened for March, and it had (unlike last time I went, a month ago). So I registered, looked up what was available (horribly expensive, one of the two seats I bought was over £100), threw caution to the winds and booked for my two favourite operas which happen to be the ones they're doing on the two dates I can go! One is La Traviata and the other is Tosca: and I have the seats booked and paid for, to collect on arrival. My lifetime ambition is one step closer! What a way to end a really good day.
I said I'd say a bit about the meeting. It's now a week plus later, and to be honest I don't remember all that much, except that there was in the end a good debate about coal fired power stations. One man, an experienced engineer, pointed out that if you replace an old coal fired power station running at 35% efficiency by a modern one, even without carbon capture, running at 46% efficiency then by building 'new coal' you're actually reducing CO2 emissions. This didn't go down too well with the green brigade, but to me the only answer is to ask how you can be sure it's a replacement and not an addition. That would be my worry.
I'm beginning to realise that a majority of people in the developed world are going to have to make major changes in their lifestyle if we are going to succeed in keeping global warming to a level where it won't be a total disaster. Those who suggest it's not man made miss the point, here: it's not in doubt that man contributes to greenhouse gases, and if that's the case than we can lower the rate of warming by contributing substantially less. (Actually, the world's major science academies all agree that the phenomenon is human caused: one researcher tried to find what the balance was between scientific papers in refereeed journals which supported the idea that global warming is man made and those that opposed that idea. She found the ratio was 100% in favour: no papers at all in her substantial sample suggested that this is a natural phenomenon. It's only irresponsible journalists like Melanie Phillips, on Question Time recently, who suggest differently: Melanie had the gall to say that the ice caps aren't melting and polar bears are thriving. She's clearly on a different planet: the evidence is overwhelming.
So what sort of changes will we all have to make? One suggestion is we should go vegan, because of the amount of methane produced by livestock. But I do wonder about this one... what about the methane produced by all those bean-eating vegans! I want to look for some proper research on this one, and haven't got round to that yet. And I don't believe we've evolved to be vegans. If the problem, then, is too many cows, surely the answer is eat less meat rather than no meat, and eat meat other than beef which is apparently the chief offender. Having just eaten a delicious piece of Farmers Market local leg of lamb, I'm not feeling in the least guilty. Maybe more insulation (but how many emissions were produced in making it?) and more public transport (but I've done only about 1500 miles in six months in the car, hardly heavy motoring!) are part of the answer. But then..... you'll have seen I'm resisting not having my milk and cheese. Others will similarly resist not having their 4x4 or their long haul flight holidays..... and there are no easy answers.
I'm not optimistic about Copenhagen. There will be millions of words, but will it save even as much in the way of emissions as was created by having the conference in the first place? Somehow I can't feel sure even of that. But watch this space: you never know.
It's been an amazing day, starting with a visit to the dentist for bite impressions so that the new denture I'm having made will be a perfect fit. I'd decided to go on into town to get just three things: first, the rest of my Christmas cards which I always get from the charity card shop they have in St. Thomas Church, opposite the University in the centre of town. Second, I wanted to look at placemats for my nice new dining table which Liz said she'll give me for Christmas, and finally I wanted to go over to The Sage, our superb concert hall on the south bank of the river, to get tickets for Murray Perihia who's coming in January. But it didn't quite work out like that!
I went to get the cards first: and whilst I was at it, I picked up some Fair Trade honey from the fair trade shop, also in the church. I do like to use fair trade products as much as I can, and the Sweet Justice honey is highly recommended, having a lovely subtle taste and going very well with my Sunday croissant. Then I walked up to the Eldon Square shopping centre, thinking I'd go to John Lewis' to get navy tights (so few people keep navy nowadays) and to use their quite posh loo. Now the ladies' loo is next to the toy department, and that brought to mind my lovely grandson Danny (isn't it a pity I can't put his photo on here, for 'child safety' reasons). I found a present for Danny (I read his blog, so he might read mind, so I won't say what I got!), but didn't look at their place mats as I'd done so previously and they hadn't inspired me. Instead I went into Fenwicks, found a lovely set with matching coasters, French bistro scene, and bought them while they were there rather than leaving Liz to get them. I'm pragmatic like that and so is she, she won't mind at all that I found and got them.
This was all getting quite heavy, so I thought I'd better get down to The Sage to get the tickets, and then take everything home. But as I arrived at the Monument, the nearest metro station (for as a paid-up Greenish Woman I'd naturally taken public transport and left Buttercup, my shiny yellow car, at home), I found that the Christmas Market was on! I love this market: there are both food stalls and gift stalls, it's the only place I know outside Australia where you can get kangaroo burgers (not to mention Ostrich burgers, Wild Boar burgers and a few other very odds and sods) and loads of other culinary offerings. I had a quick look, and decided that having lunch there whilst carrying heavy shopping wasn't on. So I took the Metro home, dumped the luggage and came more or less straight out again on the metro back to town.
Now as an over 60 I can do this with impunity: I have a Gold Card which costs all of £12 a year and gives me free Metro travel after 9.30 and any time at weekends. But if I didn't qualify for one, all these journeys would have added up, and a much cheaper and more convenient option would have been to take the car, put it in a car park and dump luggage in it as and when necessary. And were there two people without cards, the metro fares would have added up to around £20 (unless you'd known in advance you were going to go back and forth, in which case you'd have got a day ticket - but of course I hadn't planned it that way). So my Greenish poin is, why can't everyone have cheap, subsidised Metro fares to encourage them to leave the car at home? We know that measures to avoid climate change will cost money, but this would be relatively cheap and could cut down a lot of short journey emissions.
Sermon over! I had a delicious Maltese spicy beef wrap for my lunch, washed down with a traditional glass of Gluhwein (German mulled wine, gorgeous in the open air on a winter's day), followed by some mini Dutch pancakes with maple syrup. Then I went round the shops, buying some cheese, some olives, some stuffed pepper things which make a lovely starter, some Dolmades (always a favourite, I love Greek food and these are little parcels of rice wrapped in vine leaves) - not to mention some assorted marzipan and a copy of the Big Issue. I'm so grateful to have a lovely warm home that I feel for the homeless, and selling the Big Issue must be a thankless task.
So finally over to the Sage on the hybrid electric bus to get the tickets: back on the same bus, it having gone up to the Gateshead interchange and back whilst I was getting them, and another walk past market and shops en route to the Metro. At one of these (I won't say where as the recipient reads this blog) I bought what I hope will be a nice present for my niece Angie... oh, and dropped into Moben Sharps Dolphin who put in my beautiful bathroom two years ago to ask about new kitchens. Finally back home, where very soon I went for a nap.... and woke up at 6.15 p.m., disastrously late for eating and going to a meeting at 7! So I settled for the meeting, having a quick cuppa and a macaroon to keep me going. And the meeting? well, see the next post!
Those who know me know that I hate gardening! So it was perhaps a little surprising that I spent most of this morning in my tiny garden, which is at the front of the house, just one bed some 14 feet by about 8.
Part of the reason was that the autumn leaves had again piled up on my front path, and in particular had blocked the drainage channel. Now we've not had it nearly so bad over here as they have in Cumbria, but you never know, and a clear drainage path seemed like a good idea. The other thing bugging me was that there is a bush in the garden, goodness knows what it is but it has darkish green shiny leaves, rather like a laurel but much, much bigger than bay leaves: and it had grown seriously too big. My friend Sue, who knows about these things, recommended to me that I should prune it in the autumn: but October was a busy month and I'd not got round to it.
So today I fetched bin bags, gloves, kneeling mat (a couple of newspapers in a supermarket carrier bag!), saw and secateurs, and set to work. First I cleared up all the leaves I could, which was most off the path, though I've left, on the whole, the ones on the bed itself to turn themselves into leaf mould which will feed the soil.... won't it? I must say the path looked a lot better for it. Then I set to on the bush. First I went outside, and cut off everything that was overhanging the pavement: this entailed sawing off some quite big branches, which I dumped on the front path to be dealt with later. Then I went round on the garden side and snipped and sawed off a good bit more.
Finally, I spent at least an hour sitting on the little low wall between my house and next door, with a bag between my legs, cutting everything into six inch lengths that would go easily into the bag and not make holes in the plastic. By noon I had two and a half bin bags full of garden waste, and the place looked a lot tidier. Very satisfying!
So now: do I try to find someone with a brown wheelie bin in which I might be able to put my waste, or do I just put it in the ordinary bin? I don't really want it to go to landfill when it could be either burned or (preferably) properly composted. But I have neither the knowledge, skill or equipment to do anything with it myself, so I'll be dependent on others if I'm to dispose of it in a green manner. Any suggestions?
The big project at the moment is planning a visit to the Antipodes, next February to April. It started with a long held desire to go to the opera in Sydney: I've always loved opera and I've long admired that unique building. I couldn't, however, go all that way whilst my elderly parents were still alive and might need me at short notice. Now they have died, both at well over 90, I can go for a decent length of time without worry.
And then it came to me that I might travel amongst Australian Quakers. I'd been reading a book by a well known Australian Friend, Janie O'Shea, and it described the tradition of 'intervisitation'. I consulted with others, and concluded this was something that it was right for me to do. So the plan is to start in Adelaide, and thence to Geelong, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Newcastle (I couldn't go to Australia without seeing their Newcastle, could I!) and Brisbane. After that, back to Sydney and meet up with my sister, and then over to New Zealand for a three week holiday tour, coming back to Sydney for a night before going to Uluru (the Aborigine sacred site, aka Ayers Rock) and then finally to Perth whence I return home.
So I've just booked all the travel: this means flying some 25,000 miles in all. And I keep thinking that this is hardly greenish! But some of my greenest friends have been to Australia and/or New Zealand, without a qualm, so I do feel it's kind of 'my turn'. I've not done a long haul flight since Vancouver two years ago, and before that since being sent to do a job in Singapore in 1998. So I'm not really a world traveller, and there will be those who've done more air miles going to places in Europe, North Africa or the Middle East than I have to date. Still, Australia and NZ, and back, is a lot of miles.
Buying carbon offsetting is one way to restore a bit of self respect. I've been told this isn't always effective, but I do believe it's better than nothing, and it's one thing I like about EasyJet: they have buying UN approved carbon offsetting built into their ticket-buying website. But I do respect those who just won't fly any more, even if I'm not yet ready to join them, just as I'm not ready to give up meat and still less dairy produce. Someone has already asked me if I'm going by ship: but the cost of this is prohibitive, it's even more than a first class airfare.
So I end up feeling that I will do what I can: but reducing my carbon footprint by 10% in 2010 won't be possible, unless I can count the carbon offestting in too. But then, think how much less will be that footprint in 2011! I'll be Greenish Woman of the Year, I should think!
Today being remembrance day, I've been acutely aware of how the parents of all those young men killed in Afghanistan must feel. As a Quaker pacifist, I don't think that war is ever the answer: but when confronted with men like the Taliban (and I mean men - can there be any women who truly believe they should be treated as the Taliban treat them?) I find this view seriously challenged. It's a dilemma: should we allow evil to flourish in order to maintain a principle, or should we consider every situation on its merits, and recognise that in practice we really can have a choice between two evils and end up with the lesser.
I've been reading, or rather dippping into, a fascinating book called 'The Pig that Wants to be Eaten' after the creature imagined by the late Douglas Adams in 'The Restaurant at the end of the Universe'. The book is a series of moral dilemmas, posed and then discussed, with a conclusion in each case. Several are relevant to Afghanistan. But I can see both sides of the argument: to have left the Taliban, with their American arms supplied in order to get the Russians out (ask an Afghan which was the better regime!) and let them create a school of terrorism on Al-Quaida principles, or to invade and try to restructure the country as a 'western' democracy because 'we think it's better for them', and how patronising is that!
What I've been told of the Taliban (which I have to recognise is necessarily one sided) makes them seem to be the most oppressive regime on earth, worse even than Hitler's Germany or Attaturk's Turkey (the first nation to commit modern genocide). I find it hard to understand how human beings can treat their fellow humans like that, and to pretend that this is in the name of religion - a religion whose very name means 'peace' - makes it even worse. It's a form of collective mysogeny and sadism combined. So what does a peaceful person do when confronted by this?
My one comfort is remembering the Soviet story. In 1985, I took part on one of the most memorable experiences of my life, singing in the Royal Festival Hall on Easter Monday. What we sang was a specially written cantata telling the story of the women of Greenham Common and their fight against the deadly cruise missiles, which had they ever been used would have slaughtered countless Russian women and children. The Greenham women felt part of a sisterhood of all the women of the world, and that the men-tality that produced the missiles was entirely wrong. Little did we think, as we told their tale that day, that within five years the Cold War would be over, the missiles gone and the Berlin Wall taken down, and that a little time later the base at Greenham would be demolished and the land returned to the people as a common once again. And all this without a shot being fired, a soldier being killed. But then, the Soviets were not driven by a supposed religion ('real' Muslims tell me the Taliban take on Islam is nothing to do with that religion but is a cultural distortion of the true faith): they were driven by an ideology and it just became clear that it didn't altogether work. Even the more fundamentalist-communist Chinese have realised that capitalist practices bring more wealth, which is how they have become a much richer industrialised nation in the last 20 years (though there is still immense poverty). I have a lot of sympathy for the Chinese government because the scale of what they have to do is so vast that the problems are pretty intractable, and I do believe that they will gradually drop the oppressive side of their system, stop shooting so many people, and even possibly free Tibet. We won't need to invade them.
But meanwhile British troops are in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future, and British hearts will continue to break as the death toll goes on, and on, and on. I wouldn't live in Wooton Basset for the world: I'd find the pain too much. I have cried over the coffins and mentally stood with the parents and wives of the dead, and agonised over what can be done: but I can't find any answers. Was it Wilfred Owen who said 'All a poet can do today is warn'?
I said in the last post that I'd say something about the course I'd got on at the Quaker study centre in Birmingham. Well,,, it was about the wide diversity of belief amongst Quakers. Most people think of us as a religious group but then there are Quakers who don't believe in a God... and others who have a pretty conventional view of Christianity. I said at one point that I thought most people who call themselves Christians would accept two basics: first, that Jesus was the one unique incarnation of God, and second that his death in some way enabled the salvation of mankind. As I don't believe either of those things, certainly not expressed like that, I feel I've moved on from orthodox Christianity and would call myself a Post-Christian, that is someone who tries to follow the teachings of Jesus but without attaching any kind of 'magic' either to Jesus the person or to his teachings as they have come to us in the bible.
But enough of theology. The weekend was also great because of the company, the setting, the lovely gardens, and because by staying on an extra night I was able to see my daughter and grandson who live down in Oxfordshire. That was good too: and I couldn't have done this if I hadn't gone by car (or not easily, at any rate). I'd taken my lovely new car, called Buttercup because it's bright yellow, largely because having only got on the course at the last minute it was too late to get cheap train tickets. And when I left on the Monday, I could pootle back home at whatever pace I liked, avoiding the horrendous road works that delayed me literally for hours on the way down, and stopping when I felt like it.
Going by car, of course, isn't even slightly greenish when there's only one person in it, even when it's a greenish car with low emissions and only £35 a year road tax. But whilst public transport has such a silly fare structure, people will go on using cars. If all the trains were cheaper, we'd all use trains, they'd have to put more on and so there would be more money to invest in infrastructure. It could be a positive feedback system....
And meanwhile I've been having conversations about why others think I should be vegan and why I shouldn't have a kettle. Apparently cows pass so much methane it contributes more per meat-eater to greenhouse gases than a 4x4. (I find that hard to believe, especially as the statistic comes from a confirmed vegan! I mean, they would say that, wouldn't they. The kettle one was even odder: apparently, if you have a gas hob, it pollutes the world less if you boil water in a saucepan on a gashob, because the power stations that power your kettle are so inefficient. Again, I'm unclear: nuclear power stations, whatever other problems they bring, don't produce much by way of greenhouse emissions, and nor do wind farms: I'm on a green energy tariff.
What it all goes to show is that the issues aren't as straightforward and obvious as some would have you believe. My advice: don't believe what people with vested interests tell you, and use common sense.
OH, dear! I really am NOt a natural blogger. I'd intended to write every day on my trip away...ah, well, I'll try to make up for it a little.
the rest of my Cornish trip was wonderful: you can see a little of it on my friend Angie's blog (Angie's Aspirations, on here). We visited St. Michaels Mount, the Lizard and had a day shopping in Truro. At the end of the week I was dropped off at my cousin Anne's in Bristol: I'd met her for the first time only last year at my Dad's memorial service. We got on just so well, had a lovely day visiting the SS Great Britain (the world's first luxury liner) and Wesley's first chapel, the New Rooms in Bristol. Then it was off to catch the EasyJet to Edinburgh, to stay with my friend Madeleine before talking to Quakers about the Quaker operation in Europe, on the council of which I served for seven years or so across the millenium year. That too was a very pleasant episode: Madeleine and I worked together organising the huge Quaker event in York this summer - that is, we were both on the organising committee - and her husband Robin does the same job I once did with the Open University, training and managing tutors.
I finally got home on the Wednesday afternoon, nearly a week ago now, to a committee meeting in the evening and a study group the next day! Sing ho for being retired..... and then I heard I had a place on a course at the Quaker study centre in Birmingham. More of that next time.
Tis again a long time since I've posted on here. But right now I'm on an extended trip away from home, and it may be of a little interest to some to see what I've been up to.
First stop, then, last Friday, was in London. I went down, travelling First Class which I must confess I do find more comfortable nowadays, for a meeting of the Quaker Yearly Meeting Agenda Committee. This was the first meeting of the cycle to plan for the meeting next May, so it was mostly about getting to know new members and becoming a team. I was privileged to be able to offer an epilogue on the Saturday: I read Oriah Mountain Dreamer's inspirational prose poem 'The Invitation' (see http://www.oriahmountaindreamer.com/), and having discovered how to play music through my laptop from my MP3 player, I played the first section of the second movement of Schubert's haunting string quintet in C - listen on Spotify if you don't have a CD. It was a good weekend, we did get through a lot, with a new clerk (chair) and I left feeling well pleased.
I stayed on Sunday night with my eldest daughter Clare in London, and we went walking in the afternoon in their local preserved woods. This is an area beside the Grand Union Canal, roughly in Greenford, which was established and preserved by Gilbert White of Selboure fame, an
d it's called Selbourne Woods. It was a lovely afternoon, and a pleasant way to relax after being in committee all weekend. You can see the canal through the railings, behind my daughter and her husband.
Monday morning saw my hosts and my granddaughter all off early to work and school respectively, leaving me to get up at my leisure, wash my hair and pack in peace and without haste. In due course I took a bus to Ealing Broadway and a train to Paddington, where I lunched on a steak pie whilst waiting for my train to Cornwall. First Great Western use refurbished but old rolling stock and engines, the old HST sets, but - especially in First Class - it was very comfortable. I sat at a table for four with one other person (a rather nice man!) sitting diagonally opposite, and had the table all to myself for the last third of the journey. I'd intended to watch a film en route, but spent the time doing 'The Times' test sudokus for selection to the National Championship finals. By the time we reached Redruth I'd done all four, though hardly in the time expected of the experts!
I was met at Redruth by my honorary niece Angie, and so began a lovely relaxing week in Cornwall. More of this on the next post.
It's been nearly two years since the last post. I guess I'm not a natural blogger. But a friend has just started a new blog, and that's inspired me to go back to this one.
The elections for the European Parliament will soon be upon us. Most people in the UK regard this as a totally yawnsville event, something that doesn't affect us and simply isn't worth bothering with. We're expecting a turnout of 20%. And yet what the European Parliament does affects us all, on a day to day basis, and quite a bit of our domestic legislation is simply putting into place what's been agreed on in Brussels.
Climate change is one of the big issues of this election, and indeed of this year. The Copenhagen Summit in December is really our last chance to take action: if we don't come up with an agreement to take drastic and immediate measures, then soon it will be too late, we will be in positive feedback, the warmer we get the warmer we'll become and that will be the end for the human race and a lot of other species on our planet. I want my grandchildren's grandchildren to survive, but for many of you - if you're under about 35 - it's doubtful that even your grandchildren will live out their natural span. Go and see 'The Age of Stupid' if you've not seen it: and in my view it gives a fairly optimistic picture, not an alarmist one.
I was at a meeting of four of our EuroParliament candidates on Friday. Two of them - the Green Party candidate and the LibDem member - put Climate change at the top of their agenda. If everyone who believed in the importance of addressing this issue voted Green, the Green candidates would get in everywhere, because so few people actually vote at all: but I make no secret that my vote is with the LibDems. Our candidate for North East England is a sound and experienced MEP, not at all a single issue person, and seems to me the most likely to influence the Parliament to deliver value for money. If you've seen Nigel Farage's Party Political for UKIP, by the way, don't believe it: I personally think that much of what he says is simply untrue. (Was it he who said Britain is not at war - where has he been these last few years!!)
But whatever your views - if indeed anyone actually reads this - can I urge you to use your vote on June 4th or whenever it is, and show that you're aware enough to realise that the European Union and its structures affect us all and so need people who are chosen by us as a whole, not just a few of us.
