Pete Blogs

A frenetic day, a frenetic week

2012-01-27T18:48:00.006Z

It's been a frenetic day at home with various people coming to our house to deliver equipment and install things like a hand rail in the bathroom and blocks to make mum's bed higher, as well as a pager system which tells me if mum has fallen or got out of bed during the night by a vibration alert under my pillow. Tonight a carer is coming for the first time and the Memory Clinic made an appointment to do a home visit in February. Add to that is the work I have been doing to make my own changes to the home by cleaning and tidying, and throwing stuff away. It's only three days since Social Services came here to assess mum and it shows they can move fast when need be. It has been a frenetic week, too, and changes have happened quicker than I dared hope. Now, how about that application for Attendance Allowance? Would it that the DWP could also get their finger out!

Update on CRB

2012-01-26T18:41:00.004Z

In one of my blogs recently I wrote that I had written to my local MP, Douglas Carswell, about CRB checks in which I objected to jobseekers having to pay for the checks done where the job requires it. I suggested in my letter that the system was unnecessarily bureaucratic and disproportionate and has become a money-spinner for some and a rip-off for those who have to pay for the checks when jobseeking. Well, today I received a reply to my letter. Douglas Carswell agrees that the system is disproportionate and told me what the present Government is doing about it.

The Government set up a review of criminal information management including the use of CRB checks. The recommendations are that criminal record checks should be portable, that is, transferable, so that one doesn't have to get a new CRB check done each time one is offered a job or some other activity that involves checks, such as voluntary work or looking after someone else's children. Another recommendation is that the CRB set up an online system to allow employers to to check if updated information is held on an applicant. So, for example, if someone has a CRB check done some time before, in which time that person may have committed a criminal offence but still have an apparently 'clean' record on their last CRB disclosure, this can be updated without having to go through the rigmarole of applying for a whole new disclosure. A further recommendation is that CRB disclosures are only issued directly to the individual applicant. There are several other recommendations which I won't go into here. But the recommendations have been accepted by the Government and will be included in a Bill being passed through the Lords now, the Protection of Freedoms Bill. If it becomes Law, it will result in a simplification of the system, cut back on red tape and scale the system back to common sense levels. These measures are to be welcomed as far as they go, but there is one issue that hasn't been answered yet.

Douglas Carswell wasn't able to answer all my points on the CRB checks. The one I was most concerned about was the ability of employers to require job applicants to pay for their CRB checks in some cases, a major obstacle to people being able to accept jobs, but which might, in the current climate, mean that their Jobseekers' Allowance would be suspended if they refused a job they were offered. In other words, a jobseeker having to pay for a CRB check to be done would be a tax on jobs from the jobseeker's point of view. The onus of a CRB check should be on the employer. He has referred this issue to the Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, and will let me know the response. I won't hold my breath that there will be any change to this, as the Conservative Party are the party of business and their position would probably be that for an employer to be forced to pay for the CRB check would also be a tax on jobs. My response would be simple: Why not make them free to all? I will give a further update when I have received a response. In the meantime, I won't be holding my breath!

Adapting to changing circumstances

2012-01-26T18:16:00.006Z

I have heard from Social Services to say that the care worker is starting here tomorrow night. Thank God for that. We will then be having someone in the morning and at night every day, so I understand. We have had some stuff delivered today to help manage mum's condition and more is coming tomorrow. Last night and this morning were difficult but I hope that with the help we are now getting and the support aids and equipment, the burden will be lighter. I am the main carer in our family and have been having some rows with my brother over lack of help at times, and we have been shouting at each other at times as I try to deal with my mother's care on my own. We are both going to have to adapt our lives to changing circumstances but my brother seems less adaptable to the potential changes than I and keeps finding objections to the various help we shall be getting by pointing out the disruption we may have to suffer by having people in and the adaptations needed to the house, such as support aids.

There is much more stress looking after someone who is a member of one's family than doing it for a living because one can escape a job if it gets too much. One can't do this when one is caring for a member of the family. My stress levels have reached an all time high recently although I am now beginning to adapt to the changes. But I recently started smoking again. I have smoked a number of times over the past three years or so and usually given up after a while. If the habit doesn't become too entrenched, it is not hard to give up. But I am smoking more now than I was before. It helps me get through the day and gives me something to look forward to at intervals, and at the moment I feel I would miss these 'smoking breaks'.

I feel I need some counselling, to deal with the issues raised by being a carer and the sometimes angry feelings that come up. Because he is housebound by a social phobia (a fear of meeting people) it is me who has to deal with callers and that means I often have to stay in when I would rather be out just to wait in for someone to call. In other words I have a double burden: looking after my mother and having to do things that my brother can't (or won't) do, and it makes me bloody angry! So perhaps after all, it is not counselling I need so much as a different brother!

Help at last

2012-01-25T17:51:00.006Z

At last, things are finally happening with help for my mother and myself as her main carer. Today, we had a social worker and a community matron visit together and they have assessed us and we shall get quite a lot of help including paid care workers, support aids, a communication system for night times, other professional help such as a dietician and an occupational therapist, and the possibility of a day centre for my mother so she can mix with other people of her own age and give me some respite. She has agreed to this although in the past she has not been keen on this and I don't know if she will go when the time comes. It feels like a tremendous weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I shall still have things that I need to do but some of the jobs I am reluctant to do or am unable to do will now be done by a paid care worker. I am still awaiting a decision on Attendance Allowance but I think there is a good chance she will get that, and if she does, I can apply for Carers' Allowance.

I love mum to bits but I hate the disease that is afflicting her and hundreds of thousands of others in this country and millions more around the world, and that is only the diagnosed cases. There must be many more in this country who remain undiagnosed. The majority of people with dementia, and Alzheimers Disease is but one of several types of dementia, are elderly, and the elderly are not a very glamorous or trendy group to work with and in some cases, elderly care is the Cinderella of services. What is the point of having people reaching 85, 90 or even a hundred if in so many cases they are being affected by dementia? Or for that matter when it means people have got to carry on working until they drop because pensions can no longer be afforded at age 65? I just hope I don't live much beyond 75 if it means the price to pay is confusion, memory loss, incontinence, inability to move, loss of independence and lack of dignity.

The taste of Egypt comes to Clacton!

2012-01-23T15:23:00.006Z

Went to the Grub Club today, for the first time in two weeks. Wasn't able to go last week because of the way things were at home. It is still a difficult time at home and the weekend that has just gone was a really bad time. But things were slightly better this morning so I felt able to do my voluntary work at Foodcycle, an afternoon shift again. Today's three course meal consisted of a spicy soup, a spicy Middle Eastern dish, whose name I didn't catch, but it was influenced by Chef's recent holiday in Egypt, and a sponge cake for dessert.

I did some serving and washing-up and had a meal myself, one of the perks of the job. Didn't have to wear my Ena Sharples hairnet today as I wasn't preparing food! We had a few people attend that we haven't had there before, including a friend from the time bank, who came there because I told him about it. There was enough food left over for some of us to take home with us. Some people with special needs came for the meal and helped us to clear up afterwards.

Things seem to be moving

2012-01-21T13:58:00.006Z

Feeling a little better now that I have sorted out some of the problems I was having as a carer. A friend of mine in the time bank got things moving with Social Services and not long after his intervention I received a phone call from Social Services and they will soon be coming here to do an assessment of what we need in order to look after my mother. In addition to that, the application for Attendance Allowance is now being processed, though how long that will take is anyone's guess. After all, I had to wait twelve weeks for my JSA after losing my job last year. If AA is paid, I can then apply for Carer's Allowance, and I can sign off the dole, as I am unable to apply for many of the jobs on offer because so many of them require evening or night work, and with my situation now, I am unable to do that. Things are moving at last.

All this is having an effect on my own health. If my health goes, I shall be no good to anyone, least of all as a carer. It has been an eventful week as far as my caring role is concerned.

Sherlock or Holmes?

2012-01-21T13:36:00.007Z

I am not that impressed with the BBC series, Sherlock. I like my classic series, such as Dickens novels, Sherlock Holmes and even Shakespeare plays to be set in their original context, warts and all. What I particularly enjoy about Sherlock Holmes when set in late Victorian and Edwardian London are the cosy coal fires and the atmospheric foggy streets, and in these more carbon-aware days there was obviously a connection between the two! Sherlock has neither of these, set as it is in modern day London. The best Holmes, in my opinion, was played by the late Jeremy Brett in the 1980s and early '90s, which is now being re-run on ITV3. He had the right looks and mannerisms, slightly cruel, asexual, ascetic, rather camp, melancholic, took drugs and played the violin something awful! I would imagine that Arthur Conan Doyle would approve of Jeremy Brett playing his detective if television had been around then. The final episode of the latest series saw Holmes jumping off a tall building after an encounter with his arch-enemy Moriarty, instead of the Reichenbach Falls which is the scene of the original apparent death scene in The Final Problem. And why call him Sherlock? Dr Watson never called him that! In the manner of former public schoolboys, they always called each other by their surname. Sherlock or Holmes? It has to be Holmes.

Mr Banks

2012-01-21T13:21:00.008Z

Spare a thought for poor Sir Fred Goodwin, the former Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The poor man faces the humiliation of being stripped of his knighthood. If that happens Sir Fred will become just plain Fred. Will it be like the humiliation Mr Banks, the bank manager, underwent in Mary Poppins, when he was stripped of the trappings of office and had his bowler hat ruined? One hopes not. Sir Fred was nominated for his knighthood in 2004 by that great Prime Minister, Tony Blair for services to banking. So having to hand back his gong will hit Fred particularly hard, as it will be a sign that he failed. Many people are now calling for bankers like him to have their bonuses cut. Really! What is this country coming to, when spivs can't make a decent living?

Feeling sorry for myself!

2012-01-17T10:02:00.005Z

Things are getting worse at home with my mother's condition getting worse. I sometimes feel as though I would just like to escape from here, but I can't; I have responsibilities which I can't just turn my back on. Feeling fed-up, depressed and isolated.

Incredible Edible

2012-01-15T18:17:00.005Z

I watched Songs of Praise this evening as I was eating my dinner, and this week it came from the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, and it featured Incredible Edible Todmorden, a wonderful scheme in which vegetables, fruits and herbs are grown in many public places and spaces, such as the police station, health centres, schools, and car parks for people to take as they wish. Wouldn't it be great if we could get more towns growing food like this?

Click on the link to Songs of Praise while you can. The bit about Incredible Edible is about two thirds of the way through.

http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b019q6ct/Songs_of_Praise_Calderdale/

The Mummy!

2012-01-14T19:31:00.009Z

I recently tweeted that the former Dear Leader of North Korea would be embalmed, Lenin-like, in a mausoleum. At the time I was only half-serious. But as we know, the absurd world we live in is sometimes cornier than the jokes we tell each other, and it has now been revealed that the former Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il, will indeed be embalmed so that his loyal subjects can revere him for the god he is for hundreds of years to come. There will no doubt be a compulsory pilgrimage for all North Koreans to view the mummy of their former daddy. Anyone refusing will be re-educated, or if that doesn't work, eliminated.

https://twitter.com/#!/Gessum

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/12/kim-jong-il-embalmed-display

First gardening this year

2012-01-14T13:22:00.006Z

Went to the allotment this morning for the first time in nearly two months. I went there partly to check if things were okay shed and plant-wise (ie: no more vandalism) and partly to dig up some winter vegetables that were left, these being jerusalem artichokes and oca. I dug these up and dug the soil over where the plants had been while I was at it, although some of it was hard because of the frost.

I noticed that the gate on the community allotment compost enclosure had gone and the heavy planks of wood that we put on the carpet covering our heaps had been moved. Whether this was a minor act of vandalism I don't know. But there was nothing else missing or damaged as far as I could see and the remaining shed window and the board that I put up to replace the broken one are still intact. The shed roof seemed to be sagging though, so it is possible water is still getting through. Although I have heard of daffodils being in flower in some places because of the hitherto mild winter, there were none in flower on the allotment. I spent about an hour there and met no-one else there. A lovely, if cold, morning to be on the allotment.

I also did some work in my garden. I harvested the rest of the brussels sprouts from the single plant in the garden, but some of those I picked were not much good and had to be discarded (in the compost bin of course!) I took away the netting and pulled the plant up and dug the soil over where it had been. Some of the sprouts and oca will be used in a vegetable casserole this evening.

Blowin' in the Wind

2012-01-13T19:48:00.005Z

Went to our singing group today, or maybe that should be a duet, because this morning that is all we were. Still, at least I wasn't solo! A friend of ours who phoned while I was there told me later that strange noises were to be heard coming from the vicinity, and the police were called but found nothing of note! Can't think what that would have been!

Today, we belted out Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind, We shall not be moved (a good old protest song from the '60s and one we still used on the demos I went on with CND in the '80s), World of our own (both of these songs were sung by The Seekers in the 60s), Born Free (a song I shall always associate with lions and Africa) and Morning has broken. We also tried Ring of Bright Water, from the film of that name, but we couldn't get it right. That will need more practice and hearing it sung and then singing along with it. We did that today, too For the next couple of weeks we shall be practicing for the possibility of doing some singing at Foodcycle next month, although details have not been discussed yet. The day of our singing group is to change from a Friday morning to a Wednesday afternoon, at least for the time being, as someone has found a singing coach to help us, but she can only make it on Wednesday at the moment. That starts next week.

Optimist or Pessimist?

2012-01-13T19:04:00.005Z

Went to the meeting of our local Eco-Group last night at which there was a presentation on carbon footprints. It looked at a 'typical' (but fictional) family called the Meanwells and the energy used and how that affected their carbon footprint. It was high, needless to say, and those of us there were asked to make suggestions on how the Meanwells could lessen their carbon footprint by, for example, using the car less, sharing the car, cycling instead of driving, buying more locally produced food, taking less foreign holidays, insulating the house and eating together to save on use of the oven. They were already doing some positive things, such as having a conservatory and double glazing. But as always in these issues it is not straightforward. For example, solar PV panels save on using fossil fuels and eventually can save money, but they have what is called embedded energy, which is the energy used in their maufacture and transportation which takes several years to be paid off in energy terms. Most solar panels seem to come from China. Is it better for someone who currently commutes to their job to get a flat as a single person in order to be near their place of work? Is it more energy efficient to drive to that Spanish holiday once a year or to fly? Is it better to buy organic vegetables in the shops if they come from half way around the world than to buy locally produced vegetables that have been grown using chemical fertilisers? These are some of the ethical dilemmas which people may face when trying to reduce their carbon footprint. I thought that some people have too much faith in technology to save the world and said so and that in my opinion it would be better if we all lived simpler lives. I realise that most people would not be attracted by that, but one day it may be forced on us by changing circumstances.

Towards the end, someone suggested we go round and ask who is optimistic and who is pessimistic about the future. We didn't go round but a handful of people declared their 'mism. A couple of people declared their optimism but I am a pessimist; always have been and always will be. It goes with the depression, I suppose but it also comes of experience. To me the glass is not half full but half empty! I tend to see the future through a glass darkly. As a Christian, I suppose I should be optimistic at the ultimate destination, but I tend to have a rather more pessimistic view of humanity or put another way, a greater sense of human sin than is probably good for me!

But having said that, if I thought the world was going to end in, say, two years time, I would carry on doing the things I am trying to do now to make things better, such as growing my own vegetables on my allotment, caring for nature and doing voluntary work because they are the right things to do and because whatever happens after we die, while we are alive, we need to have a sense of purpose to keep on keeping on.

A tax on jobseekers!

2012-01-11T16:19:00.009Z

I notice that a lot of employers state on their advertisements that CRB checks are to be paid for by the applicant, in other words the jobseeker. At £61 a time this is like a tax on starting work, and for many people on the dole, who have no savings, to get a job would mean a large payment, almost a week's dole money. I think this is grossly unfair. If CRB checks have to be done, then the employer should pay for it or they should be done free so that no-one has to pay for them. What was originally a system for protecting children and vulnerable adults in the wake of the Ian Huntley affair has become a money-spinner for some and a rip-off from the point of view of the person who has to pay the fee, which in many cases are unemployed people who are hardly in a position to pay it. In particular it seems to be mainly two-bob employers, like those paying the minimum wage or just over (like my former employer), who require the applicant to pay for the check to be done. This may not be a lot to pay if one is going to earn a good salary but with the minimum wage being just over £6, it is hard to see how anyone who has just signed off the dole to start work can afford to pay this fee.

So I have written to my MP, Douglas Carswell about it. I don't expect anything to change because although I think our MP is a good MP (even if he is a Tory whom I didn't vote for!) trying to get a straight answer out of the Minister of a Department, who in this case will be either Chris Grayling or Iain Duncan Smith, is like trying to get blood out of a stone! I have written before on matters relating to Jobseekers Allowance and get the standard response, which they probably write to everyone who complains. But it makes me feel better!

I have suggested that CRB checks are more flexible, that where CRB checks are done, people who are going to be earning £12k or under should not have to pay for their checks to be done, that where checks are paid for by the applicant, there should be the option of paying the fee in instalments interest-free, or that the fee can be offset against tax, and that CRB checks are zero-rated for VAT. This would take a substantial amount off the fee. The Government says it wants to cut red tape for business but how about cutting red tape for employees and jobseekers for a change?

Voluntary organisations such as time banks and small charities are also required to pay a fee although it is reduced to an administrative fee of about £10 but even this can add up over a period and could lead to the closure of cash-strapped voluntary organisations, which a lot of organisations are now thanks to cuts in government spending.

I have also signed an e-petition at Number 10 for all CRB checks to be done free, which is surely the simplest solution to cut down on red tape. Go to my Twitter page for the link:

https://twitter.com/#!/Gessum

Wheels are in motion

2012-01-11T16:08:00.004Z

I went to the Dementia Cafe this morning and had a talk with one of the facilitators about my situation. She offered to help out with getting Social Services involved as I have not heard anything since my telephone appointment before Christmas, which was for a Carers' Assessment. Later she phoned to say that my case has been handed to the Community Care Team so I should hear soon and they will make a home visit. Also, yesterday, I had a lady come here from our GP's surgery to help me fill in a claim form for Attendance Form and she was very helpful and knowledgeable and thinks I have a good case for getting AA for my mother and therefore Carers' Allowance for myself. She has made an appointment for a doctor to visit next week to see us with a view to making a referral to a memory clinic, which will give us a better chance of getting AA although it is not essential. So the wheels are in motion at last.

If I can get Carers' Allowance I can sign off the dole as I simply don't have time for all the jobseeking I am supposed to be doing in order to get my dole money, nor are there the jobs to look for.

Zen and the art of washing-up!

2012-01-09T17:31:00.005Z

Went to Foodcycle today for the first time this year, but this time did the afternoon shift. From now on I shall be doing alternative shifts, morning one week and the afternoon the next, unless for some reason I can't do one of them. Apart from preparing the food some of us also befriend the people who come to eat. Some of them probably don't get much of a chance to talk to people who will listen. Today, we had a homeless person, and if what she says is true, she has had a colourful life and is well educated.

Today we had a thin vegetable soup, roast vegetables and a choice of two cakes for dessert. I had seconds and also took some away with me as there was quite a lot left over. Most of my work today was washing up, which I don't mind. I am used to it at home so can go into almost a revery while doing it. Zen and the art of washing-up!

There is a possibility of having our singing group sing at Foodcycle if I can get my singing colleagues to agree to it. Hopefully it wouldn't put people off their food too much!

Paxo meets the Canon

2012-01-06T19:15:00.009Z

Watch this replay of Jeremy Paxman's interview with the former Canon of St Paul's Cathedral, Dr Giles Fraser, while you can. It will only be available online for a few more days. This is the interview referred to in my blog post yesterday about the time bank. The reference to city bankers not having a clue about how to resolve the crisis is towards the end of the interview.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16420184

Time Bank meeting

2012-01-05T19:28:00.007Z

Our time bank had its bi-monthly public meeting this afternoon. Although I had inserted a free ad in our local paper, no listings appeared today, so effectively there was no advertising, except for the paper's online listings. Similarly, I had put a free ad in a local free advertising magazine before Christmas, but as far as I know the magazine has not been distributed yet, so that wasn't of much use, was it! I think in future, word of mouth is the best method of telling people about our meetings and the time bank. Personal recommendation is always going to be more effective than impersonal advertising. Anyway, two new people came today, and both signed up to the time bank.

We had prepared some light entertainment put on by ourselves. One of our number read an amusing poem he had written about time banking, and three of us sung. I was a little nervous before I stood up to sing, but as there was only a small audience, it wasn't too scary! We sang the Beatles song, Yesterday, and Edelweiss from The Sound of Music, and we did it in reasonable harmony! It seemed to go down quite well anyway. We have now been practicing in the singing group for a few weeks, and we will continue to practice for our next event, whenever that is.

Several people spoke about the challenges lying ahead for the time bank because of the economic crisis and our broken society and it seems we are part of a social experiment, which is both daunting and exciting. Daunting because we are only a small organisation and the challenges are enormous; exciting because we may be part of an alternative economics. We as a society are facing the biggest economic crisis since the 1930s and we may be on a precipice or we may be at the beginning of a breakthrough. That is what makes it both daunting and exciting. This is not what was said by the speakers exactly but it was sort of implied, and what follows are some of my thoughts brought on by the things that were said.

What it comes down to is that services are being cut to the bone (in our area alone, social services are being cut by about 50%, and this in a part of Essex which includes two of the most deprived areas of the country) and it may be that the only thing we can rely on is one another, helping our neighbours and by that I mean neighbours in the Christian sense of the word, and not just those who live next door to us. As one of the speakers pointed out, the former Canon of St Paul's Cathedral, who resigned late last year, was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman last night and he (the former Canon) had spoken to a number of bankers and executives in the City of London and even they don't have a clue how to put right the mess caused by the financial crisis. This being so, we shall have to rely on each other by cooperation and mutual aid, and it seems the Government are so desperate that they are willing to try radical means to overcome the crisis, and this may include time banks. The question is, do we want to be part of an experiment? Well, from my point of view, if it leads to a radical change in the way we do things, the way we earn a living and the way we organise our society, then yes, I am up for it. But we do not want to be used as a cheap alternative to the welfare state and proper healthcare. If the Government thinks that it can think again. One thing is for sure, we can't go on the way we are, bailing out every country whose economy has gone under and borrowing money we don't have.

Despite the low numbers today, I and my colleagues on the committee were very encouraged by how the meeting went. Our next meeting will be in March.

Justice at last

2012-01-04T18:51:00.010Z

Justice at last for Stephen Lawrence, of sorts. It should never have taken this long to get justice, and the parents of Stephen should never have been put through this. If the police had done their job properly at the time, Stephen Lawrence would have got justice 18 years ago. Now that Gary Dobson and David Norris have been found guilty of murder, one hopes that the police will get new evidence and look at the case of the other three alleged attackers to see if they can get a prosecution for each of them.

It is only because of the doggedness and fortitude of Neville and Doreen Lawrence that these two racist thugs have been finally brought to book. If the law on double jeopardy had not been changed, they could not have been charged a second time for the same offence. I think they should have got longer. For a crime like that, life should mean life, unless they can prove that they are truly remorseful for what they have done and as they have shown no remorse so far, 19 years on, it is highly unlikely they ever will. But because they were minors at the time they carried out the attack in 1993, they have been sentenced to what they would have been had they been prosecuted at the time. But still, they have been marked for life, and not just them, but the other alleged attackers. Everyone will know who they are, and what they have done. They will carry the Mark of Cain for the rest of their lives, which is perhaps as good as a life sentence. And Dobson and Norris will go through it in prison.

Stephen Lawrence was a bright young man and wanted to be an architect. Sadly, it wasn't to be thanks to these Hitler admirers, but at least the spirit of him lives on in the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust set up by his parents and others:

http://stephenlawrence.org.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Stephen_Lawrence

Great expectations!

2011-12-30T18:35:00.010Z

I had great expectations of the latest Dickens adaptation on the BBC and I wasn't disappointed. Indeed, in my opinion, it was the best thing on television over the Christmas period, which isn't perhaps saying much as the tv schedules over Christmas were pretty dire. I watched some films, Downton Abbey, The Borrowers, Doctor Who and a few other things, but by far the best programme was Great Expectations, which along with some other Dickensian programmes are to mark the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens.

I wouldn't say I am a great fan of Dickens' novels. I read a few for English Literature in the 1980s but most of them are just too long for me, especially now that I have such a short attention span. But I am a fan of BBC adaptations of the novels because they are without exception of good quality and not generally too revisionist. This latest one was shown over three consecutive nights. There was great acting, suitably Dickensian characters, it was atmospheric and some of the scenes and characters positively oozed evil and corruption, especially Orlick, Drummle and Magwitch's adversary, Compeyson.

The beginning, in which young Pip encounters the escaped prisoner, Magwitch, on the eerie Kentish marshes, sets the tone for this dark tale of poverty, debt, class and social climbing and how wealth can change people for the worst. When the teenage Pip hears that he will come into a fortune when he comes of age by an unnamed benefactor and that he is to become a 'gentleman' he becomes a conceited snob, who turns his back on his loyal brother-in-law, Joe Gargery, a blacksmith, because he is ashamed of his class background. But Joe is there for Pip at the end when his money runs out. Like most of Dickens' novels this is full of twists and coincidences.

All the acting in this drama was faultless but my favourite was that of Gillian Anderson's Miss Havisham, a tormented soul, who with her pale, thin figure, looked more like a ghost than a living woman. In modern terminology, we would probably say she she had an obsessive compulsive disorder and agrophobia, with her hoarding of things from her past and her fear of going outdoors and her desire to turn her adopted daughter, Estella, into a cold-hearted hater of life and men like herself. But towards the end I almost felt sorry for her. It turns out that the man who jilted her on her wedding day which has turned Havisham against life, was Magwitch's adversary, Compeyson.

Pip's benefactor, as everyone knows who has read the book or seen one of the films or tv adaptations, is Magwitch. After he was caught at the beginning of the story, he was transported for life to Australia, where he made his fortune in sheep farming. But he made the mistake of returning to England which in doing so broke the terms of his life sentence of exile and faces the death penalty if caught, so Pip and his London friends try to help him escape, but he is caught. He dies before the authorities can hang him, but Pip loses his fortune and his status of 'gentleman' and has to return to his humble home on the marshes. But at the end, with Estella's evil husband, Drummle, dead, Pip marries her. A dark tale with a happy(ish) ending.

My one criticism of this adaptation is that the pouting teenage Pip looked too much like a boy band singer with his almost girlish good looks, which I think looked a bit out of place in a Dickens drama.

Looking forward now to the next Dickens adaptation in the new year, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens' unfinished novel (because he died before he could finish it).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expectations

Crunch time

2011-12-29T19:35:00.004Z

I had a frugal Christmas as intended. I probably spent less than almost anyone. I don't believe in getting into debt, spending money I don't have. And yet, despite the recession and apparent lack of money, that is precisely what millions were doing, both in the shopping before Christmas and the Boxing Day sales. Have they learned nothing from the credit crunch? For them the crunch will come later on when they have to pay their credit card bills, and find they can't do it because they have lost their job or are faced with a higher than usual gas bill.

I predict 2012 will be the year when the euro will finally collapse after a slow, agonising decline.

The hills are alive...

2011-12-16T18:06:00.006Z

Several of us from the time bank held our singing group today, the first for two weeks. We couldn't have it last week as a few of us went to the workshop in London. We are hoping to sing some songs at our next public meeting in early January so are preparing for this. I took along my Sound of Music CD and we sang along to some of the songs on that for practice as we didn't have any musical instruments. Also, it helped us to get in tune (a little!). Today we sang in no particular order: Edelweiss (very much a beginners' song), My Favourite Things, The Sound of Music, Silent Night, Jerusalem, Morning has Broken and the Beatles' melancholic Yesterday. I have written out an advertisement to go in the next volunteer newsletter for a singing coach, someone with perhaps some experience of teaching people to sing in harmony! I went to the volunteer centre after the singing group to hand in the ad. The volunteer centre manager says he already has someone in mind who may be suitable.

Murder-on-Sea

2011-12-15T18:42:00.010Z

There has been a murder in Clacton-on-Sea, the town where I live. Nothing unusual about that; there have been a number of them over the years since I have been here. What appears to be different about this one is that it involved a gang, or possibly two rival gangs, whereas most of the murders that have taken place in the town in the past have been one-on-one. This murder took place on Tuesday night in Wellesley Road, a part of Clacton I know very well and often cycle down. I used to work there up till about March 2009. I did sleep-ins in a house there and had to keep the windows of my sleep-in room firmly closed even in warm weather because of the noise from constant traffic. Not only that, I often heard shouting and drunkenness over the road, very close to where the murder took place, outside an off-licence, and it is not unusual for anti-social behaviour. It is not a road I would want to live down and in my opinion it is one of the worst roads in Clacton for traffic and trouble. I used to feel uncomfortable cycling down there in the dark on my way to work and although I sometimes cycle there in the daytime now, I try to avoid it when I can. I know someone who lives quite near there.

There have been a number of serious incidents including the death of a boy several years ago, in a motor accident and now this, a fatal stabbing of a 21-year old man. 10 people have been questioned by police and when I went into town today the road was still closed off. Gangs, which are proliferating in this country, are such cowards and seem to be untouchable by the police because people in some areas are naturally too scared to be witnesses to a murder. I am not entirely surprised that a violent death occurred in that road.

http://www.clactonandfrintongazette.co.uk/news/localnews/9420196.Murder_victim_was_about_to_become_a_dad/

Dreamin' of a frugal Christmas...

2011-12-14T19:28:00.004Z

I intend to have a frugal Christmas this year, more frugal than usual that is. Those who know how tight with money I am will probably say how much more frugal can the tight git get? But in the past I have gone on last minute spends in order to try to get some bargains. This year I shan't be doing that. I shall be sticking to fairly ordinary food, probably just one bottle of wine and making the most of food that is offered at events and there are quite a few this year. I have already been to two of them and there are more coming up. There will be no decorations, no presents and no expensive food bought by me.

Santa will not be coming down my chimney and if he did he would get a shock as it hasn't been cleared of soot for years! The truth is that my family don't bother much with presents and as with the last three Christmases it will be an unhappy time to be got over as soon as possible and back to normality, whatever that is. I have, however, treated myself to a couple of presents lately. No, I haven't wrapped them up and posted them to myself like Mr Bean did once. I sent up for them from Amazon so they were already wrapped - in cardboard! One of them was a book on singing, Singing for Dummies. The other was a CD of the music from one of my favourite films, The Sound of Music.

Christmas is not about over-indulgence, or at least, it wasn't meant to be. Instead I shall be spending Christmas in other ways. I shall attend a couple of carol services, maybe join a group singing carols at a local pub like I did last year, go for a nice walk on Boxing Day weather permitting, and watch some films on tv or DVD, all things that don't cost much if any money. Last year I still had a job. This year I don't, so economies have to be made.

Winter harvest

2011-12-14T19:15:00.003Z

As we had a sunny day today, I thought I would use the opportunity to harvest some late vegetables from the garden. I still had jerusalem artichokes, oca and brussels sprouts left to harvest. I dug up some of the artichokes and got quite a lot of tubers from just two plants. There are still some plants left and probably still some tubers left in the ground from the plants I dug up today so they will no doubt grow again next year. I dug up the one remaining oca plant and got quite a few tubers from it, rather larger than the ones I mistakenly dug up in the autumn. They looked like fat maggots then. Now they look like even larger fat maggots! But for all their unappetising looks, they taste pretty good, a very slight lemony taste. But some had been gotten at by pests. I still have some more to eat and will have them over the next few days. But I probably shan't bother growing them again next year unless some tubers left in the ground grow into plants. And lastly, I picked some brussels sprouts from my single sprout plant. Having well netted it earlier in the year, it was well protected from the usual suspects, and has done quite well. I left some on the plant for another time (maybe with a vegetarian Christmas dinner!).

Dementia Cafe

2011-12-14T18:50:00.009Z

Went to a dementia group this morning. It is called a Dementia Cafe and is put on by the local Alzheimers Society for people with dementia and their carers. It is part social group and part self-help group with tea, coffee and biscuits and because it is nearly Christmas, mince pies and cake. I went along on my own as a carer, mainly to speak with one of the facilitators to ask for help and information. It was good to get some concerns off my chest and they are going to get in touch with some agencies on my behalf. I went to this group earlier this year but didn't go again because things appeared to get better but now they are getting worse again and increasingly I can't manage on my own as I have been until recently.

Later I phoned the DWP to request a form (or should I say, a book) with which to claim Attendance Allowance, on behalf of my mother, because once I have claimed that, I can get Carers' Allowance for myself. The Alzheimers Society can help me fill that in when it comes, which I hope will be before Christmas. I also received a phone call from social services as a result of my contacting them recently, and a time has been booked for a telephone appointment next week in which an assessment form will be filled in over the phone. So things have started moving now. A couple of days ago I received a carer's pack from social services all about the various forms of dementia, the sort of help available, what benefits one can claim and guidance for carers and how to look after their own health and wellbeing.

www.alzheimers.org.uk

Last Foodcycle of the year

2011-12-12T17:37:00.004Z

We had our last Foodcycle session of the year today. Our next one is on 9th January 2012. Loads of bananas donated today and apples, potatoes, onions, bread, etc. We had a vegetable curry for the main meal and a choice of apple or banana cake for dessert. We had some more people in today. Quite a lot of food for us volunteers to take home. And plenty of vegetable waste for our local smallholder to add to his compost heap or worm bin! Too many volunteers in today and there wasn't enough for us all to do. I helped prepare some of the vegetables, did some washing up, got the tables and chairs ready for the meal and helped them away afterwards. I shall miss this work during the Christmas holiday.

Return to church Sunday

2011-12-11T17:57:00.009Z

Return to Church Sunday was quite a while ago, in September, I think, and I wasn't ready to return then. But this morning, I finally went, my first Sunday service in five months. I went to the church in the nearby village, which is the main church for this parish, the other one being the one across the road from me. It felt like coming home and a few people hugged me during the sharing of the Peace.

With so little joy or communication in my family (my mother is now in the late stages of dementia and my brother is in a deep depression for most of the time which has certain similarities with dementia) the people I know in the church and time bank are my substitute family. I feel I can offload my troubles with some people in the church or the time bank which I can't do at home because there is no-one there who is in a position to do so.

As I am the main carer in my family it is a relief to get out as much as possible to meet other people, and do things. Without this I think I would probably go mad. Caring for my mother, and having to get up in the night, and getting little practical help from my brother is taking its toll on my health and if I am not in good health I shan't be any good to anyone. So I find comfort in the church which I couldn't get elsewhere.

Time Bank Workshop in London

2011-12-10T11:32:00.009Z

I went to a time banking workshop in London yesterday, put on by Turning Point as part of their Community Leadership Network. I travelled to London with three people from our time bank and we had all had our tickets paid for. The last time I went to one of their events in London was in March before our time bank was founded. Indeed, it was that conference that made me want to set up a time bank in our area. But yesterday's event was specifically about time banks: how the movement started, what they are, how to set one up, how they work and the benefits to individuals and communities. There was a video of an interview with Edgar Cahn, who founded time banks in the United States in the 1990s, but called time dollars over there. There were several speakers, including one from Nexus Time Bank in Bolton, Greater Manchester, which was set up with the support of Turning Point. Unfortunately, a speaker from Paxton Green Time Bank in London was unable to come. We heard about the incredible time bank initiative in Earls Court, London, in which a primary care trust are involved and which is about to open at a health centre which has patient-centred treatment. I think more and more primary care trust centres are now recognising the importance of community engagement as necessary for health and wholeness. Let's hope we see more such initiatives in this country. About 50 people attended the event and we were broke up into groups of about seven or eight on tables, which were used for group sessions. One session consisted of thinking of what advantages and barriers there are to joining a time bank. Some of the advantages we come up with on my table were:

Building community links
Building people's confidence and self-esteem
Developing friendships and overcoming isolation and loneliness
Greater community engagement
Exchanging skills
No money changes hands
Being a member of a time bank gives permission to ask for help when needed
Being a member of a time bank gives permission to offer help to someone who needs it and may be too proud to accept it in other circumstances
One can get jobs done that need doing which one may not be able to do oneself or on one's own

Barriers included:

Suspicion
The belief that one has no skills to offer
Some people may find having to supply references and being interviewed offputting
Some people may not have time if they are working full time
Lack of confidence
Ill health including mental health
Lack of transport or too difficult to get to where events are taking place
The belief that time banking will affect one's benefits if unemployed

Some of these such as mental health issues could actually be helped through participation in a time bank. Transport can be a problem but in a time bank there may be others who can offer lifts in exchange for time credits. Time banking can actually free up time.

There was a buffet-style lunch half-way through the event, which was held in the afternoon, and at the end there was time for questions and answers.

The event closed officially at 4pm but some people stayed to do some networking. But I left at 4 to catch the next train back to Clacton from Liverpool Street. When there are no delays, when there are seats available and the trains are clean, train travel can be quite pleasant and relaxing. Fortunately, yesterday was one of those days. There were no delays due to the wrong kind of snow, the wrong kind of leaves on the line, the wrong kind of wind, copper cable theft or rocks being thrown from bridges.

http://www.turning-point.co.uk/Pages/home.aspx
http://www.pgtimebank.org/

http://www.nexuslinks.org/

http://www.timebanking.org/

A free lunch!

2011-12-07T16:56:00.004Z

There IS such a thing as a free lunch and I had one today! In fact, I have had several lately. A group of us were treated to a free lunch at a pub on the seafront in recognition of our work as Health Champions over the past year. It was a very crowded pub, unexpected on a weekday, and we had to wait a while for our meals to be served. I had the vegetarian option, a lasagne, along with vegetables. I could have had a dessert too but felt too full up after the main course, so gave it a miss. A pity, as the desserts my fellow Health Champions had looked really yummy. I also had a cider. Riding into the wind on my way back half the way was hard work but hopefully burned quite a few calories!

Extraordinary times

2011-12-06T11:47:00.006Z

An ordinary life in extraordinary times is the tagline of this blog. When I started my first blog called The Digger in November 2007, the current crisis had barely begun. When 18 months later, I started this blog, the crisis was well under way. Now we are entering a new phase when it is not just banks that are going under but entire countries. Where this will lead is too early to say, but it is a crisis not seen since the 1930s and I don't think life will ever be the same again.

We do live in extraordinary times, but how extraordinary may not become fully apparent for some years. But it is not just the economic crisis, although that is serious enough. This is something much deeper than that. Climate change is a reality, despite what the deniers may say. Our reserves of oil are finite, and will soon reach a peak if not already. How we manage in the future without oil and with a radically changed climate depends on how we react now. How do we manage a peaceful transition to a different way of life that does not depend on oil and constant economic growth?

How can we change ourselves? I think our 'ordinary' lives have to become 'extraordinary' to cope with the enormous changes in the world. This means growing more of our food and where we don't grow our own to grow more of it locally rather than thousands of miles away. It means redesigning our working lives so that people don't have to commute to work every day because in the future this won't be a viable option. It means making our transport systems more sustainable. We managed without cars and lorries for thousands of years. It means redesigning where we live, our houses and our towns and cities. It means getting our energy in a different way, using renewables instead of fossil fuels which are going to run out eventually anyway, so we will have no choice. Making the most of the sun, the wind, the waves, the tide, geothermal power, and wood. It means a different political structure, so that people govern themselves and more locally, perhaps going back to the medieval concept of the self-governing commune. It means a different economic structure, one based on 'small is beautiful' to use Schumacher's much hackneyed but nevertheless wise phrase and not on giant global corporations and global political systems.

I think without these changes, which we should begin now, and to some extent have begun in small ways, in the form of transition towns, eco-villages, organic farms, farmers' markets, the home-grown energy movement, etc, without these, we are, as Private Fraser always said in Dad's Army, all doomed!

A storm in a petrol tank

2011-12-06T11:12:00.004Z

I am no fan of Jeremy Clarkson or some of the company he keeps (he is, apparently, a friend of David Cameron). I think he is a laddish petrolhead, who at his age should know better than speeding around in petrol-guzzling cars and being a negative role model for other petrolheads who should also know better.

But (and after saying this, it was inevitable there would be a but!), I think the fuss over his comments about striking public sector workers being taken out and shot, was a storm in a teacup (or maybe that should be a petrol tank). It was quite obvious that he was joking. We seem to have lost our sense of irony in this country. We don't do irony any more, it would seem. There are lots of things I think he should be criticised for, such as his lack of green awareness. He is certainly no friend of Greens, or of cyclists, or of animal rights supporters. He has described cyclists before as Lycra Fascists. Well, not all of us wear lycra. I certainly don't. It is not because I don't like lycra as such. I think Lycra shorts are rather sexy! But I don't like the fact that they are made by a corporation that is involved in genetic engineering, so I avoid it nowadays. And I don't like being called a Fascist. This word should be reserved for the likes of Nick Griffin and his cronies. But I digress, dear reader. As I was saying, he is no friend of the Green movement, he is a climate change denier, a peak oil denier and as such no friend of mine. But I just think his remarks have caused a storm in a petrol tank far beyond what is justified. I also think, that whatever his views of the strike, he should have the right to free speech.

What he said about suicides jumping in front of trains WAS insensitive. But suicide by jumping in front of a train IS selfish. Have suicides thought of the impact of their actions on the train driver, who is probably psychologically scarred for life? Suicide by train is suicide by proxy. It is getting someone else to do the killing of oneself, but unintentionally on the part of the driver.

In the late 1990s an uncle of mine committed suicide by hanging. His wife came home one day to find his legs dangling from the loft trapdoor. This too was a very selfish act, because it impacted on his wife. She never quite got over it. Jumping in front of a train, suicide by hanging and drowning oneself in the bath are probably the three most traumatic ways of committing suicide for the person who witnesses it or is left behind. Don't get me wrong. I do understand why people might want to kill themselves. I have felt suicidal on more than one occasion, and I once took an overdose, which I immediately regretted. But I don't think I could seriously contemplate suicide now. Not only because it is a waste of a life, but also because the effect it has on those left behind who have to pick up the pieces. So in my opinion suicide is very selfish. So although what Clarkson said about trains being late because of suicides was grossly insensitive, he was right to say that it is a selfish act.

Those who promote suicide on the Internet are evil and... well, they should be taken out and shot!

Networking event

2011-12-05T20:07:00.006Z

Went to a networking event today for trustees of charities. There were two talks with PowerPoint presentations about using social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to promote one's organisation and attract funding. However, our time bank is not really a charity, so I am not entirely sure that social networking sites would be the best way of promoting it. I still think leafletting, word of mouth, and letters to the paper are the best way. Slow, maybe, but I think people who join through that method are more likely to be genuinely interested for more than five minutes, whereas although Facebook and Twitter potentially have enormous power for change, as can be shown in the events of the Arab Spring, there is a lot of superficiality about some of these networking sites.

After the talks and presentations, there was the all-important food. This consisted of scones with jam and cream. I had two; naughty but nice! Then there was the chance to network with other people in the room. As I had things on my mind because of problems at home, which I won't go into here, my energy levels were low and I didn't feel very up to talking to people and very nearly didn't go today because of it. I have had a crap weekend. And because I had this event to attend I didn't go to Foodcycle this morning.

An Englishman's shed is his castle

2011-12-02T19:14:00.008Z

Academics at Leeds Metropolitan University have come up with some research results that reveal what I have long suspected: that sheds are good for guys, blokes, chaps, old gits or whatever us chaps like to call ourselves. Doing jobs in the shed gives men a sense of achievement and helps their self-esteem. It is also a place where men can find some peace and contentment. Many years ago, when I used to live in London, we had a neighbour, who used his shed as a retreat from 'the wife' who nagged him a bit. He clearly enjoyed that room of his own at the bottom of the garden well away from the nagging, where he could go for a rollup, read the paper, make a cup of tea and just potter around. Sadly, the shed didn't save him from an early grave.

There is something about a shed, especially one that is away from the house, that is therapeutic. One can sit there, boil a kettle for tea if one has electricity, meditate, watch the birds from a window, look at the greenery on the outside and just potter around. But one should not take one's mobile down the shed. This would spoil it. The whole idea is to get away from the modern world of instant communications and enjoy the sounds of silence.

I have two sheds. Well, one is a garage but no longer used as a garage as we don't have a car since my dad died. It is now used as a workshop-cum-storage space. It is where I keep my carpentry tools and a few gardening tools, old paint tins, paintbrushes, some fishing tackle, machine tools, my dad's old engineering tools, bits of wood and my bicycles. This is more functional as a space than a traditional garden shed, and is attached to the house and one can hear the cars speed past.

The garden shed, on the other hand, is down the bottom of the garden. From it I can hear the hens clucking from the garden over the back. If I stay in the shed quietly for long enough, I can watch the birds feeding outside from the window. I can enjoy the greenery just outside. I can feel king of my own little castle, and the garden my estate. If I shelter in there from a sudden shower, I can hear the raindrops falling on the roof just above me and yet remain dry. I have most of my gardening tools around me, with pots on sagging shelves, ancient cobwebs in the corners. It's organised chaos! It hasn't been painted on the outside or the inside for years and so has almost blended into the surroundings, almost as part of an organic whole. Despite its age, its peeling paint and the cobwebs inside, it is much loved, maybe not by my neighbours, but by me.

So I can understand the need for men to potter around in the shed, and I can see why it would be good for men's health. But there is no reason why women can't also feel the same about a shed if it is their own space. And the same would go for an allotment shed, too.

An Englishman's shed is his castle!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2067937/Why-humble-garden-shed-help-men-live-longer.html

Apocalypse postponed

2011-12-02T18:50:00.005Z

Damn and blast, the apocalypse has been postponed, perhaps indefinitely. It seems that the 21 December 2012 won't be the end of the world after all, and there was I thinking I could live out the rest of my days on the dole. I am disappointed! The end of the world won't be televised in some surreal reality show, so that we can watch it on the box as it goes up in flames all around us. Instead, we shall have to make do with a gradual death of the earth by humans' stupidity and greed and that won't be nearly as exciting. Following research by anthropologists specialising in ancient Mexican civilisations, it seems the Mayan prophesy was not a prophesy of the end of the world after all, and that the end is not nigh.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/02/us-maya-prediction-odd-idUSTRE7B117020111202

Winter warmer

2011-12-01T18:55:00.005Z

Yesterday, I made a delicious meal using my last butternut squash from the allotment. I got two squashes from the allotment. One I used to make a soup last week, which wasn't a great success as it was too thick. This one I roasted. But it was a fairly small one so needed something else to make up the bulk for two people, so I added potatoes. In fact, I combined two recipes. The problem was, these two ingredients require two different temperatures. To roast a butternut squash needs a number 4 iin the oven, and roast potatoes needs a number 7. So I set the oven temperature at number 7.

I call this Roast Butternut Squash and Potatoes and the recipe is as follows:

1 butternut squash
A few small potatoes
Some cloves of garlic
Some sprigs of rosemary
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Peel the squash, cut it into large chunks and de-seed it. Put some olive oil into a roasting tin and coat the chunks with the oil.
Scrub the potatoes if they need it and boil whole for a few minutes with salt to get rid of the toxins in the skin. This also softens the potatoes a little. Cut them in half or quarters if bigger. Put these in the roasting tin and cover with oil.
Put some cloves of garlic in the tin but leave their skins on.
Place four or five sprigs of freshly-picked rosemary around the roasting tin and coat with a little olive oil.
Use milled salt and pepper over the ingredients and sprinkle a little lemon juice over if desired.
Preheat the oven at number 7 (220 degrees centigrade) and cook for 45 minutes, taking the tin out every 15 minutes or so to move the ingredients around so they don't get stuck.

The chunky squash is delicious although it may be a little burnt at the edges, but I think that just adds to the flavour. The flesh of the garlic can be squeezed out of the skins. You can vary the recipe and the quantity depending on the number of people you are cooking for.

People Fund It

2011-11-29T18:38:00.004Z

Over the last couple of days I have heard about a new scheme to raise funds for alternative projects, projects that most conventional banks wouldn't touch, let alone fund. It's called People Fund It, and here is the link:

http://www.peoplefund.it/

Unfortunately, we live in a system where if you want to start something up, like a city farm, a time bank, a food bank, energy-saving projects, a bicycle academy which teaches bicycle-making skills, and an alternative take-away, you need money to fund it. We in Tendring Time Bank know only too well how difficult it is to raise funds for our activities, especially in these hard times when there are so many spending cuts and the conventional banks are not lending even to conventional businesses. But if we want to set up projects and alternative businesses to see us through the years ahead and provide an alternative economy, we shall have to fund these things ourselves through our own initiatives, bottom up rather than top down. It sounds like People Fund It is one such organisation.

2011-11-28T18:06:00.005Z

I have not heard from my penfriend on Death Row lately. Being where he is, in a Texas prison, on Death Row, where he has been for some years, it's a bit worrying. This has happened before, not hearing from him for several months and then out of the blue, I receive a letter from him. But the last time I heard from him, it seemed he had run out of options, his latest appeal having failed. So I have written to him. If I don't hear from him in the new year, I shall contact my penfriend co-ordinator to see if she can find out anything. My penfriend and I have been writing to each other, on and off, for over two years. A lot of people who spend many years on Death Row, are later found to be innocent. For some it comes before they are executed, for others it comes too late.

"Them without the capital, get the punishment"

The last words of a prisoner sentenced to the electric chair, 1979

http://www.humanwrites.org/

The Ena Sharples look!

2011-11-28T14:17:00.007Z

Helped out at the Grub Club today for a few hours. There were less of us today and although today was the first day we have been open to the public, they weren't exactly queuing to get in and have some free grub. Chef is away for six weeks in Egypt, so perhaps he will see the revolution at close hand, and his assistant is doing the cooking for the next few weeks.

All those working in the kitchen were given hairnets to wear today, yes, including the guys, even the baldies like myself (well, more or less)! It brought to mind Ena Sharples, a character from Coronation Street in the 1960s and '70s, who always wore a hairnet. It was a part of her character. After a while I almost forgot I was wearing it. A couple of girls from Foodcycle were with us today, and took some photos of us all. I think I look rather fetching in my hairnet, so I hope it appears on their website.

Today, we had roast potatoes with sauteed vegetables for the main course and apple sponge cake for dessert. There was plenty of uncooked food left over so some of us took some home with us: mushrooms, potatoes, onions, bananas, and some tinned food as well. If the poor of Clacton don't want the food I have no such qualms about taking some if it is left over. Better that than waste it!

Fortunately, I remembered to take off my Ena Sharples before leaving today or I would probably got some whistles or honks from passing motorists!

A scam in the making!

2011-11-25T19:15:00.006Z

It probably doesn't happen too often, but I found myself in agreement with Sir Alan Sugar today! I have to say I don't think I would want to be hired (or fired) by him. It would probably be a bit like working for Gordon Ramsay! But what he said on the News today about the proposed Government's scheme to pay employers money for taking on unemployed young people was spot on. He said, in so many words, that the scheme is wide open to abuse by employers. They would take on unemployed young people for, say, six months, just to get the money from the Government, and then fire them at the end of the period and then hire more in order to get more money. He also said that it would be better to give the money to the employee, rather than the employer. Now, why didn't the Government didn't think of that? It's not rocket science! The Government's scheme is a scam in the making!

The Big Society? Yeah, right!

2011-11-25T18:57:00.006Z

Our local authority, Tendring District Council, which is Tory-controlled, in their infinite wisdom, are to scrap a rent discount scheme which has, until now, helped local voluntary groups and clubs to have a home for their activities. Organisations like a community hall and the Scouts would be forced to pay the full market rent for the premises they rent. For small clubs and groups this would make a difference between staying open and closing. Some will close because they wouldn't be able to afford to pay the higher rents.

The Big Society? Yeah, right!

Not rocket science!

2011-11-25T18:45:00.006Z

Attended the second and final part of the Trustee Essentials course this morning. I handed in my portfolio of homework and it was given a quick look through and it seems I have done enough to satisfy the assessment criteria so it will now go to our tutor and then on to an internal moderator. If I pass, I shall get a certificate, probably in March next year, in which I may be invited to a presentation event. I didn't need to stay for the whole two hours today as I had done all I needed to do at home, so I came away shortly afterwards. I think I have done enough to pass. It's not exactly rocket science!

Feeding the 5000 (and the pigs!)

2011-11-25T13:09:00.007Z

I was interested to read these blogs (see links below) about the Feeding of the 5000 last Friday. Friends of the Earth had a corner of Trafalgar Square given over to pigs. They were highlighting the campaign to feed our food waste to pigs and other farm animals.

I am not sure when it stopped, but when I was a kid at school, any left over food, and school dinners being what they were, there was a lot, were put in a large bowl and sent to a local farm to feed the pigs. Even though I don't eat pork myself, wouldn't that be a better use of wasted food than putting it in landfill which is the likely end for uneaten school dinners now (or uneaten meals at home for that matter!)?

http://blog.foodcycle.org.uk/blog/2011/11/22/a-feast-of-biblical-proportions/

http://www.foe.co.uk/news/feeding_the_5000_33392.html

I also signed an online petition calling on the Government to use waste food in a positive way so that we can stop importing so much animal feed when we could be more self-reliant in animal feed if we gave farm animals our waste instead. Go to this link:

http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/biodiversity/press_for_change/feeding5000_action_33307.html

The Prodigal Son-ish!

2011-11-24T19:06:00.004Z

Went to a church service this morning. I am not ready to start going to a Sunday service quite yet, but this service at our parish church in the nearby village is not too intimidating for someone who is returning after five months in the wilderness. Mind you, I felt a bit like the Prodigal Son! What I like about this service and fellowship on a Thursday every other week is it is run by laypersons rather than ministers. It was okay. We sang some hymns, had some prayers, a Bible reading from John's Gospel and a talk, and of course, the inevitable notices. Will probably go again next time in two weeks.

Back to church?

2011-11-21T16:54:00.005Z

I am gradually coming round to attending church again. I feel better about churchianity than I did before, even my old church. I daresay I am not the only one to have some misgivings about some aspects of church doctrine. It is a bit like joining a political party in some ways, there will always be some things one disagrees with on the party line or with other members, but one joins because there is broad agreement about the essentials. It is now just a question of which church I join, my old one or another one. The Methodist Church where we have our Grub Club would be ideal in one way, but is not as near me as my old one which is just over the road from me (and therefore I would not go if it was raining), or the one in the village, which is about a mile, both in the same parish. Maybe I shall have a talk to our local minister about some of my concerns.

Please sir, I want some more!

2011-11-21T16:32:00.006Z

Went to the Grub Club today to help out preparing meals, though not for the 5000! We didn't exactly have the multitudes appearing at our doors. And anyway, we are still training really, getting into practice for when we start to invite the public, so today it was just volunteers and some guests to test the grub. We had lots of potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuces, tomatoes, onions, carrots, apples, pears, grapes, bananas and a pineapple.

From the ingredients available including some that we had to buy, we made a soup (well, more like a broth really) made from the carrots and the offcuts of the brocs and caulis. We made a salad from the lettuces and toms, with olive oil added as a dressing. We had sauteed potatoes, and broccoli and cauliflower in cheese sauce, and a choice of fruit salad or pineapple sponge cake.

I scrubbed and sliced potatoes, scrubbed and sliced carrots, sliced the tomatoes, did a bit of washing-up, and got the dining room ready. All three courses were lovely, and I made a pig of myself, when like Oliver Twist, I asked for more (sauteed potatoes, that is, not gruel!) I later wished I hadn't because the second helping was very generous and I was too full and barely had enough space for dessert, which wasn't healthy fruit salad, but the sponge cake!

From now on, I shall be going weekly now the community allotment has finished for the winter. Before I started this work I didn't know how long I would survive in the pressure-cooker environment of a kitchen, but so far, I have enjoyed it, but then we don't have Gordon Ramsay as our boss!

Boris helps feed the 5000!

2011-11-21T16:20:00.003Z

Apparently, the Feed the 5000 event in Trafalgar Square last Friday went really well. Had I lived in London I would have been tempted to go there myself. Boris Johnson served the first meal while being photographed. I have a soft spot for Boris, and unlike many other politicians, it isn't the compost heap! He may be a Tory, but he isn't like most other Tory politicians who hold high office and doesn't seem to mind being seen as eccentric. I would go as far to say he is one of our national treasures! But enough about Boris. Here is the link to a report in The Guardian about the event:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/18/waste-food-feeds-5000-trafalgar?newsfeed=true

Waste tip, allotment and garden

2011-11-18T17:57:00.006Z

A friend from the time bank took me and most importantly, my garden waste, to the council waste tip this morning, for the last time this year. I had about eight bags to get rid of and when I knew he was coming, I went and pruned back my buddleia and lilac bushes and put the prunings with the rest of the garden waste. We also took some old car tyres, as I don't need any more for the garden, and an old metal wheelbarrow, which we threw, unceremoniously, into the metal skip. It isn't quite as old as me, but not far off it by the look of it! It belonged to my dad when he was alive and he had it for many years, and just like me, creaked a bit when being wheeled and almost falling apart at the joins (not like me, yet!).

On our way back I was dropped off near the allotment and I did about an hour's work there, digging up the last of the vegetables, except for the artichokes. These were a radish of some kind, Chinese radish, so I was told by one of our fellow plotholders. They looked a good size, and I harvested them all, although I had grown them for the leaves which I cook as a green. I dug over the soil and did some weeding, and levelled off the soil as much as I could.

Later, my friend from the time bank came over again and brought me his wheelbarrow which he promised me a few weeks ago, to replace the rusty one. He also brought me over four bags of horse manure, which was fresh, very fresh going by the pong! Also, today, I swept some leaves up in my front garden, a job which I enjoy this time of year. These went in my leaf composter.

Actively seeking Work!

2011-11-17T12:24:00.005Z

Went to an interview with my personal advisor at the dole office this morning. I have to attend these every now and again, as I gather all dolites have to. Back in early October, I heard David Cameron say that all jobseekers would be required to spend at least five hours a day (yes, five hours a DAY, not a week!) doing jobseeking activities. At the time I dismissed this as party conference hype to please the hardliners in his party who want to 'get tough' on the unemployed. But I didn't realise until today that it has already been implemented as a policy. It has to be stated on our Jobseekers' Agreement. It's ridiculous. There just aren't enough jobs to look for to justify five hours a day. The Tory Government want to make it as unpleasant as possible to be on the dole in the hope that many will sign themselves off, but many of us are without a job through no fault of our own, because of redundancy or in the case of school-leavers, can't get a job because they have no experience and can't get the experience without a job, the usual Catch-22 situation.

For us oldies, many of us feel as though we are on the scrapheap at our age, probably never to have a paid job again, as though we have one foot in the grave. If the worst comes to the worst, I shall sign myself off, but I hope it won't come to that. No doubt, some of the Jobcentre staff themselves think these new rules are ridiculous and over the top. The lady who interviewed me this morning seems nice and was almost apologetic about it. One good thing did come out of the interview today, and that is I was told that when I have been unemployed for six months (which will be in early January) I shall be entitled to a travel pass which allows one to travel for half price. I suppose that is to encourage people to travel to interviews, but it will also be useful for other events.

After my interview, I went to a care home to pick up an application form for a job.

Rearranging the deckchairs

2011-11-14T18:49:00.004Z

Good riddance to Silvio Berlusconi, the former Prime Minister of Italy. He is so deluded that he thinks people will vote for him again one day. But then again, such is the absurdity of this world as it is now, he probably WILL be elected again one day. People have short memories when it comes to politics, it seems.

But forcing Berlusconi to resign is a bit like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. It won't make one iota of difference to the economy in Italy any more than forcing Papandreas to quit will make any difference to the Greek economy. The euro was doomed to end in failure from the start. I am just surprised it lasted so long. It is impossible to have a common currency for so many diverse countries. With other countries in the Eurozone collapsing like ninepins, there will soon be no ship coming to rescue the survivors of the Titanic and the Captain will probably jump into a lifeboat rather than go down with it.

Feeding the 5000

2011-11-14T18:20:00.006Z

I was recently told in a conversation that a charity plans to set up a foodbank in every town in Britain. It is evidently needed now with the economy going from bad to worse, with unemployment going up, food prices going up, incomes for the poor going down or not rising in line with inflation, and the savage cuts in public services while the bankers continue to enjoy the privileges to which they have become accustomed. The charity that is hoping to do this is called the Trussell Trust and they are a Christian charity which also sends food parcels to Bulgaria, where there are also many poor people going hungry. Anyone can be affected by food poverty. All it takes is loss of a job, a death in the family, a cut in income, or any number of other events.

I also heard about a big food event in London next Friday called Feeding the 5000, in which up to 5000 people will be served with food that would otherwise be thrown away. It is supported by, amongst others, Foodcycle, Friends of the Earth, the Bishop of London and the Mayor of London Boris Johnson. The food won't be miraculously produced from a few fishes and loaves like Jesus did for the 5000, but to feed so many people sounds pretty miraculous! It takes place at Trafalgar Square. This is just the sort of thing that Christians should be supporting in these hard times. Indeed perhaps this current economic crisis is just what is required to bring out the best in churches and communities. There is a pledge for people to sign to reduce their food wastage and to demand that businesses, such as supermarkets, do the same, which I have signed although I try not to waste any already.

See these links:

http://www.trusselltrust.org/

http://www.feeding5k.org/

Going wild in Essex!

2011-11-13T12:00:00.005Z

Went to a talk and slide show yesterday evening at our Eco-Group, given by a warden at the Essex Wildlife Trust, which run a large number of reserves in the county and some visitor centres. There were slides of the work done by the Trust, including coppicing, hedgelaying, erecting gates, and litterpicking, as well as the wildlife to be found in the reserves such as crested newts, adders, herons, little egrets, oyster-catchers, dormice and woodmice. My nearest nature reserve is Great Holland Pits, which I used to go to quite a lot but haven't been to for a couple of years. It's about three miles from where I live. It was once a quarry from the time of the First World War to about the mid-1960s, and was then bought for a nominal sum and turned into a nature reserve, in which several decades have allowed trees to mature and wildlife to establish themselves. It was an interesting talk. It is unlikely I shall join the EWT because of the cost of membership but I can help out now and again as a volunteer.

http://www.essexwt.org.uk/

The Methodist Church: a new home?

2011-11-11T20:37:00.005Z

I have been doing some research on the Methodist Church in the UK and it seems they are much more open-minded on issues that matter to me in relation to Christianity, such as homosexuality, Darwin's theory of evolution and climate change than the church I used to attend. So perhaps the local Methodist church might be a new home for me.

http://www.methodist.org.uk/

The Time Bank Two!

2011-11-11T18:39:00.008Z

Held our first time bank singing group today. There were only two of us actually singing and we had an audience of one, but hey, everything has to start somewhere. We sang five songs altogether, including Amazing Grace and Jerusalem, and did some breathing and posture exercises beforehand to warm up. There will be another group next Friday. We are the Time Bank Two (for now)!

T-shirt weather in November!

2011-11-10T15:41:00.007Z

I made the most of the mild, and for a time, sunny weather, today, by doing some work in the garden and on the allotment. Almost mid-November, and it was mild enough to go out in a T-shirt!

As November is the month for moving and planting dormant fruit bushes, I dug up a gooseberry bush and a raspberry cane in my garden this morning as they had done very poorly where they were. When I went to the allotment I took both plants in a bag (luckily the gooseberry is a thornless variety) and planted the gooseberry in a spot I had prepared earlier, as they used to say in Blue Peter. In this case, it was weeks earlier. I knew months ago when the gooseberry did badly that I was going to do this so I dug a hole, put some manure and compost in it, and covered it up again, marking it with a stick. So today, I dug the hole again and planted the gooseberry in the hole. I also planted the raspberry on my allotment but I hadn't previously done a Blue Peter, so I just plonked some manure in a hole and hoped for the best. It can't do any worse than it did in my garden. I picked some leeks while I was there and there are only about three left now. One of those I picked today was going rotten. I can't say they have been a roaring success. Next year, must do better, as a school teacher might say.

Also today, I dug up the first of my jerusalem artichokes, which don't look bad (see photo below), and one of the oca plants. This was the first year I have grown oca, originally grown in South America, and like artichokes a tuber. But I think I dug them up too soon. I should have left them a few more weeks because they are too small to be of much use. I will use them but only with something else because on their own they don't amount to much as can be seen from the photo below. Tubers don't form until the days and nights are of equal length and that happened about seven weeks ago, so I thought it would now be late enough. So I shall give the others longer to grow bigger. I probably shan't bother with them again next year. It was just an experiment. From the photo, one of the oca tubers looks like a large maggot. They don't look terribly appetising, but they are said to have a lemony taste and I think they are related to sorrel.

I moved two other fruit plants today. One is a redcurrant bush. I wanted to move it to make space for a pear tree which I plan to put there which is currently in a container, but is doing poorly in there. So having moved the redcurrant, I dug in some manure and compost and covered it up again and will attempt to plant the pear there early next year while it is still dormant. I also moved a passion fruit plant from a container where it hadn't done very well to a spot in the soil which I had prepared earlier. If it doesn't do any better there I shall probably get rid of it. As for the redcurrant, I very nearly got rid of it last year as I hardly ever use the fruits. I don't like them much and they don't have much use apart from jelly, which I can't be bothered with. But they do look rather nice when the fruits are ripe, and I have moved it closer to the house so I can see it from the window. I shall treat it as an ornamental.

I had a bonfire on Guy Fawkes night. No fireworks (I wouldn't waste my money on something that is going to go up in smoke; mind you, it isn't that long ago that I was a smoker, but at least cigarettes don't scare animals!). Today I sifted the ash, which was a two-stage process as there were lots of small metal staples in the ash and I wanted to get rid of these. So I first sifted the ash using a standard garden sieve, and then I put the ashes through an old kitchen sieve to get rid of the staples. Ash is used to put around fruit bushes in late winter or early spring.

Jerusalem artichokes

Oca tubers

The Time Bank Singers

2011-11-09T20:43:00.004Z

One of the things I am trying to do within our time bank is to set up a singing group. There are a handful of us at present brave enough to do so(!), and we are going to have our first session at someone's place on Friday. I have been downloading some song lyrics from the web and will print them out when I am ready, and also downloading singing tips and exercises from the BBC which we can use to prepare us. Ever since I stopped going to a singing group earlier this year, which I felt was poorly run, I have wanted to help run a singing group within the time bank. So far, I have downloaded some 1960s pop, some hymns, film songs, and some Vera Lynn wartime songs. There is evidence that singing can make people feel happy. That is something that we all need now! Initially we are calling ourselves the Time Bank Singers, but we may later find a more catchy name for us, and hopefully do some gigs at homes for the elderly and people with learning disabilities. But before we do all that, we have to get some practice in, hopefully get someone in who can play a musical instrument and be able to get ourselves in tune!

Some more thoughts on churches

2011-11-09T12:39:00.004Z

Despite what I have written about churches lately, in which I haven't been very complimentary about them, I feel I have generalised too much so perhaps it is time to set the record straight. I don't have much experience of other churches so how can I know what other churches are like. I only know what my former church is like and maybe I was being unfair and prejudiced because it was the church I had left, and that had coloured my attitude towards all churches. I am sure that many churches do do a lot of good work. But I still feel that some could open their doors more to other events. The churches in this country together have huge resources which could be better spent than they currently are, especially at a time when a lot of people are suffering as a result of the spending cuts, rising unemployment, debt and food poverty Why aren't more used during the daytime and weekdays? Why don't churches get together more with non-Christian organisations to make their localities better places.

An example of where this IS happening is a Methodist church in our town which, as I wrote the other day in this blog, is allowing the use of its kitchen, dining room and equipment to be used for free once a week for our local Foodcycle project. Couldn't more churches do that? It would give them a higher profile and make them more relevant and show people that they are doing something practical about poverty in their area. If churches are to evangelise they have to be seen to be doing things to help people where they are and not where they would like them to be. Alpha Courses are all very well, and I did one myself in 2009, but on their own, I don't think they are going to attract the people who perhaps most need to hear the Gospel.

Seeing the Trinity Methodist Church open its doors to Foodcycle has made me think that maybe it could be a church I might feel more comfortable in. So perhaps one day soon, I shall give it a try.

Of Teeth and Trees!

2011-11-09T12:12:00.008Z

Went to the dentist this morning. Didn't have to pay as I am on Jobseekers' Allowance. Thank God for the NHS. We might moan about it but what would people like me and others on a low or moderate income do without it? I hate going to the dentist, though, although it is better than it used to be. I had all the work I needed in this visit.

I went for a walk this morning, part of which took in a small wood near my home and I took these photographs:

That trial

2011-11-08T19:53:00.004Z

I hope I haven't got any Michael Jackson fans on this blog, because what I am about to say won't go down too well with them. I have said this already on Twitter and I shall say it here, but in more words as Twitter is so limited. Only one person was ultimately responsible for Michael Jackson's death and that was Michael Jackson. He abused his body for years with various drugs and other treatments and now his medical doctor is being scapegoated by Jackson's fans. They were more like a lynch mob, what I saw of them on the tv news. In my opinion the most that Conrad Murray was guilty of was professional misconduct, for which he would have been struck off the medical register, which would surely have been punishment enough, considering his income as a doctor. But manslaughter? Ask yourself this: if it had been an unknown person, would Murray have been put on trial? Of course not! He was put on trial because Jackson was a celebrity and he could not hope to get a fair trial in those circumstances.

Invitation

2011-11-08T19:21:00.004Z

I and two others have been invited to a time banking workshop in London next month, fares paid, so I shall be going, as it will give me an opportunity to meet other time bankers and find out how their ones work and raise funds.

The Grub Club is here!

2011-11-07T18:09:00.008Z

Clacton's Grub Club has arrived after many months of planning and training. It started last week but I wasn't there so I couldn't comment but I attended today as a volunteer and can attest to the quality of cooking. Grub Club is the name we decided to call it, and it is part of the Foodcycle network, which now has a number of schemes up and down the country, a sign of the times, no doubt. This is not a soup kitchen, it is much more than that. For a start it is held indoors, and is during the daytime, using food that the local supermarkets and shops don't want. It is not food that is out of date, as that would be illegal but food that is near its best-before date or that shops consider is not presentable enough to be sold to the public. Some foods have to be paid for to ensure we get the ingredients we need to make meals, basics such as flour, sugar, vegetable oil. And as time goes on it will no doubt be more organised. For the first few weeks it will be more a training event, a dummy run with most of the diners us volunteers and a few guests.

The chef is good-tempered (Gordon Ramsay he ain't, thank Gord!) and besides, swearing is not allowed in the kitchen. Were it not the case, some of us would probably leave never to return. With the food we had it was decided to make an onion and potato soup for a starter, roast vegetables, a bean casserole to go with it, and a choice of desserts. We had a sack of spuds and onions and umpteen ripe bananas from a local greengrocer. One of my first jobs along with some others was to scrub a lot of potatoes and then cut them in half. Someone else had the unenviable job of peeling onions (who needs a Gordon Ramsay type bellowing at you when you have got onions to make you cry?). Some of these spuds and onions went in to the roast, and some went in the soup. Meanwhile someone else peeled and diced the carrots and cut up a butternut squash into large chunks.

For the desserts, one of us made a banana crumble, and two of us made a banana cake, like a sponge, using sugar, margarine, free-range eggs and flour. I made one of these, under the close supervision of Chef. I have never made a banana cake before and this turned out quite well, notwithstanding the fact that it stuck a bit to the baking tin, and that was the fault of the tin as its non-stickness had worn away somewhat. In doing this, first the sugar had to be beaten into the margarine so all traces of it had disappeared. Then four eggs, thoroughly whisked, were added to the mixture and mixed slowly with a wooden spoon round and round until the mixture was smooth and light. Then the flour was added and this too was mixed in the same way and somehow folded over itself. I could have eaten the mixture raw, so yummy did it look, but I was under the watchful eye of Chef! I sliced the bananas and mixed them in with the cake mixture. I then greased the baking tin and a thin coating of flour was added to make it more non-stick, the mixture was added and it then went in the oven. Both cakes were a little burnt when they came out of the oven but were still very light and tasty, as a sponge should be. Apart from the crumble and the sponge, there was a healthy alternative, a fruit salad, which was predominantly a pineapple which had been donated. Chef showed us how to cut a pineapple properly.

After this, we were standing around for a while waiting for the food to cook. Meanwhile, some of the other volunteers were getting the dining room ready, laying the tables. The onion soup, which was like a broth, was nice. The roast vegetables were delicious, especially the squash, and I could have done with a bit more, but I didn't want to make a pig of myself. And then came the dessert, and my choice was the crumble, which was also good. I have never had a banana crumble before. I enjoyed the preparing of the food and the eating of it. It was very much a team effort, and at the end, other volunteers did the washing and drying up and putting stuff away.

Today, and the next couple of sessions are to get us ready for catering to the public, who will be people suffering from food poverty. Yes, dear reader, in 21st century Britain there are people suffering from lack of decent food because of rising food prices, low incomes and poor education. While others buy too much food and waste it (see below).

Uncooked waste was put in a bag for composting, and non-food recyclables were put in recycling bins at the back of the kitchen. There were still many bananas left at the end so I took some home with me as well as some potatoes. I am not living in food poverty (yet!) but the way things are going with the economy, who knows what the future will be like? I could have taken home some of the cake I made, but I forgot to ask before I left. My next stint at Foodcycle is in two weeks time, as I can't do it every week at present, but I am looking forward to the next one. I have to admit to feeling a bit apprehensive before starting, but it was much better than I had expected.

A big thank you to Trinity Methodist Church for allowing us to use their kitchen, dining room and equipment for free.

And talking of food waste, it has been estimated that households alone throw away food to the value of about £12 billion a year, yes, you read that correctly, £12 billion a year. This is without the food thrown away by the supermarkets and restaurants. When I was a kid we didn't waste food on this scale; we couldn't afford to. Left-over school dinners went to the pigs on nearby farms. Left-over food at home was saved until the next day and made into something else, like bubble & squeak! Giving our leftovers to pigs is not allowed now, of course. Maybe there is a good reason for that, I don't know. But the point is that despite a recession and rising food prices, people are still wasting food for no other reason than that it is nearing the use-by or best-before date, or they have bought more than they need to just because they get a special offer. A bargain is not a bargain if one is spending money on something that is going to be wasted. During the Second World War people were urged to Dig for Victory and not to waste food and people had never been healthier. Now we have obesity on a grand scale and food going to waste in landfill. I don't suppose most of those people throwing out their surplus vegetables and fruit compost it. At least that way it wouldn't be entirely wasted. And apart from the smell, what is wrong with bubble & squeak!

Some food for thought:

4 million people in the UK are affected by food poverty. This is defined as the inability to have a balanced diet because of low income, lack of knowledge or lack of access.
25% of most food waste can be reclaimed for cooking.
It is estimated that malnutrition costs the NHS around £13 billion a year.

http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

http://www.foodcycle.org.uk

Food Hygiene course completed

2011-11-05T12:38:00.002Z

I have finished the on-line food hygiene course that I have been doing on and off for the past few weeks in preparation for the voluntary work at Foodcycle.

A free lunch!

2011-11-04T19:49:00.011Z

I went to a one-day course today for trustees of charities, held at the Voluntary Services centre. It was free and is an accredited course, so there is some homework involved, which needs to be submitted by the end of the month.

This course dealt with issues such as legal structures, governance of the charity and documents such as a Constitution or Articles of Association, which are required by law, the different types of charitable status, what is required of the trustees in their specific roles (ie. Secretary, Chair and Treasurer) as well as their collective roles, legal requirements for documents, who can be barred from standing as a trustee (ie. undischarged bankrupts, age restrictions, unspent criminal convictions), what is a legal requirement and what is just good practice, the need to keep documents for a certain amount of time after they have expired, and lots of other facts.

I didn't know, for example, that public liability certificates issued by insurance companies have to be kept for at least 40 years after they have expired, and that accounting records have to be kept for six or seven years, depending on the status of the organisation. The reason why public liability insurance must be kept for that time is in case of a retrospective claim made in the case of an illness or accident the consequences of which may not become apparent for many years. Of course, I and all the other trustees of the time bank will be long dead in 40 years time (I hope I am; I don't want to live to 94!), but it does mean that our certificates have to be kept for many years filed away, and if a charity is wound up, the documents would still have to be kept until the 40 years is up, probably by a solicitor.

Just as important as the course itself was the lunchbreak, not just for the food but as an opportunity for networking. I talked to a couple of people about the time bank and one of them showed interest in it, and I gave him a leaflet at the end. And during discussions in the course, other people who are trustees talked about their own experiences of running a charity. I also talked to someone who helps to run a bushcraft charity which I became briefly involved in several years ago but I thought was no longer around, called Greenpath Ventures, which I first found out about when I was volunteering for a mental health charity in 2007.

I found the various legal requirements a bit daunting, but as I am not working alone as a trustee, I am not unduly concerned. Besides, at present we are a small organisation and some of the issues that were brought up today don't yet affect us, but may in time. Had I known when I started out that there were so many responsibilities in helping to run a time bank I might have thought twice about it, but having now been involved in it for six months, I am very glad I did, and have certainly gone beyond my comfort zone.

http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/

http://www.greenpathventures.co.uk/index.html

Time Bank public meeting

2011-11-03T18:47:00.004Z

Tendring Time Bank had another public meeting today at a local church hall. Several people came along as a result of the letter I sent to the local paper, and of those, three joined us there and then. Our meeting was also listed in the What's On page.

You've been framed!

2011-11-02T20:02:00.006Z

No, not the rubbishy television series of peoples' stage-managed videos, but the rejection of Julian Assange's appeal to stop extradition to Sweden to face charges there. This is democracy's version of assassination: get someone framed when you don't like what they say or when they give away information you would rather the public not know about.

http://www.swedenversusassange.com/

Muck-raking Part II

2011-11-02T19:29:00.005Z

I went to the allotment this morning. I fetched some manure from the heap but it has gone down a lot since I was last there. I put some more on the soil and spread it. I also dug a trench and put some manure in the trench and covered it up again. This will be for the french beans next year. I still have some leeks left but one of the beds is now almost clear of them, so I dug the soil over and put some of the manure there, too.

Better late than never!

2011-11-02T18:40:00.008Z

Greece loses its marbles, ran a clever Sun headline today. Well, yes, it's true that Greece did indeed lose the Elgin Marbles (to Britain), but that was 210 years ago. The headline was referring to the Greek Prime Minister's decision to hold a referendum on the EU bail-out of Greece. Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy are said to be furious. What? Democracy? That will never do! Who do these bolshie Greeks think they are?

A bit late, admittedly. Bolting horses and stable doors come to mind. But whatever the real reasons behind George Papandreou's decision to call a referendum (and one suspects it is more to do with saving his own skin, but is nevertheless a huge gamble on his part if it is), at least they are having a referendum. It should have had a referendum BEFORE the country joined up to the euro and ditched their own currency, the drachma. But then, if it had, and the people had voted against joining the euro, the EU would no doubt have demanded another referendum in order to get the result the EU leaders wanted, such is the way of EU-style 'democracy'. This is what happened when those bolshie Irish said no the first time to the Lisbon Treaty in June 2008 and then were ordered to have another referendum 15 months later when they gave the 'correct' result.

But whatever the reason for doing so, it is right to call a referendum. After all, it is the Greek people who will be made to suffer years of austerity measures imposed by the terms of the latest bail-out. The EU leaders will continue to enjoy all the privileges to which they have become accustomed: grand buildings, chauffeur-driven cars, fine wines and the best food. Not for them cuts in their salaries, pensions or perks. Not for them the dole queue or house repossessions. No, it will be business as usual. So I welcome the referendum; anything that rocks the boat and puts a spanner in the works of the EU empire-builders!

Let Greece default. It's going to happen anyway, whatever bail-out measures the EU come up with, or the Greek people ultimately agree to in the referendum. Let Greece withdraw from the Euro, go back to the drachma and go back to running their own affairs. At least Papandreou has condescended to the people having a referendum, which is more than could be said for the British Government recently.

Bums on pews!

2011-10-31T18:26:00.004Z

Does the Church really want to convert people to the Christian faith or does it simply want more bums on pews? This is a question I have been asking myself recently. I very nearly returned to church a few weeks ago but I couldn't quite bring myself to do it, and in retrospect, I am glad I didn't because I still have many qualms about church doctrine (religious correctness?) and church politics. In my opinion, many churches seem to be too inward-looking, more concerned with correct doctrine than winning people for Christ, and seemingly unconcerned at the enormous changes and upheavals going on in the outside world.

The world is changing, people are getting into debt, losing their jobs, struggling to pay their bills, countries are going broke, global capitalism is out of control, the climate is changing, the world's oil is going to peak soon if indeed it hasn't already, and the world population has just reached 7 billion, and what does the Church do? It prays and debates on the rights or wrongs of having women bishops and gay clergy. But prayer is of little value if there is no action. Churches have enormous potential to help people, and to bring about change, and to educate people about climate change and the effect it will have on the poorest people in the world, but a great opportunity is being wasted. I am sure there are many churches which are doing just that, but equally it seems to me there are many that are doing none of these things. Churches could be involved in time banks or LETS schemes, credit unions, debt counselling and networking. But my own experience of church tells me that there is little or no interest in these initiatives. This is why I don't feel I can return to church.

Is it any wonder that so few people go to church? And is it any wonder that a significant number of people who have been to church either don't go again, or go for a while then drop out, like yours truly? It is not that people are any less spiritual than they used to be. On the contrary, I think there is a great hunger for a more spiritual life. It is just that the Church seems incapable of providing it. People rightly feel there is more spirituality outside the walls of a church. I still consider myself a Christian but feel I am better off on the outside. I don't want to be just a number, another bum on a pew!

Muck-raking!

2011-10-31T18:06:00.004Z

Went to the allotment today - twice. The first time was to pick some leeks. While I was there I noticed that we had had a delivery of manure at last. I couldn't risk this all going before I had a chance to have my share, but I had clean clothes on. So I returned later to do it. I made about ten trips to and from the manure heap and my plot with the wheelbarrow, each one full up. The manure steamed as I dug into it. It must have been delivered after I went there yesterday as there was none then. I filled up my compost enclosure first which was already three quarters full. I then put some manure in my composting bin. And I put several heaps on the soil for spreading later. I know one is not supposed to do that but I had no choice as there was no well-rotted manure I could use. I shall probably dig some more trenches soon and dig some in for the french beans and squashes next year. It looked and felt as though it was going to rain so I didn't stay as long as I had hoped. I hope to get some more in on Wednesday.

Earlier on, in my garden, I had given my lawn the last cut of the year and thoroughly cleaned the mower and oiled it. I put the grass cuttings in my new compost enclosure, which more or less covered the contents. I also emptied two black bin bags of rotting weeds. Until a few months ago I had bags and bags of weeds which were piled up at the side of the house, at various stages of decomposition. But these look unsightly, which is why I made another compost enclosure, to put the weeds in and allow them all the time they need to break down into compost. The bags I emptied today were the last ones and I shouldn't need to do this any more. A few days ago I got a piece of old carpet from the loft and cut two pieces out of it to go on top of the compost to keep it warm.

An autumn Sunday morning

2011-10-30T19:09:00.006Z

I didn't get any extra sleep as a result of the clocks going back. My body clock woke me at about 5.30 by its internal time but it said 6.30 on the clock beside my bed, so I got up early. I don't know why we still have the clocks go back and forward; I went out for a pleasant early morning walk observing the autumn colours.

I then went to the allotment to do a bit of work on my plot. Not much to do now, especially as there is still no manure available on the site so can't do any muck spreading, a job I would normally do at this time of year. I did get some done a few weeks ago before it all disappeared, scraped almost clean from the enclosure by the gate.

Anyway, this morning I sowed my broad bean seeds. I had just enough left for the holes I made for them, which I did in zig-zag fashion. I also noticed that some of my garlics have germinated. I harvested some leeks. I have done quite a few now and still have quite a few left, but not all of them have done well. Soon it will be time to start harvesting the jerusalem artichokes and then the oca tubers, if they have come to anything.

Apart from the artichokes, oca and leeks, I still have some other plants left on the plot: purple sprouting broccoli, which won't produce any sprouts until next spring; some leaf vegetables, mainly reddish stalks and leaves, probably a beet, although I don't know for sure as they came in a packet of mixed salad leaves; and sorrel, which is a perennial leafy herb. Everything else is gone now. So I am now looking forward to next year.

I went to the allotment this morning, after a pleasant early morning walk looking at the autumn colours.

Yesterday, I managed to get past some overgrown plants at the bottom of my garden (they are going to be culled next year!) to get to some leaf mould which has been in an open leaf composter for the past year. It is in a difficult position so I have now moved it to a better place where I can easily get to without having to scratch myself with vicious thorns and treading on rotting apples and pears and God knows what else on the almost totally obscured path. I put the partially composted leaves on the compost heap in my new compost enclosure, and this morning collected some seaweed from the beach which I also put in, having first washed it to get rid of the salt. Hopefully, next autumn, I shall have some rich compost to use on the garden as a result of this extra facility.

On an autumn Sunday morning I would rather be working in the garden and the allotment than attending church!

What would Jesus do?

2011-10-28T20:29:00.007+01:00

On the outside of one of the tents camped outside St Paul's Cathedral it says: What would Jesus do? I would like to follow this by a few (mainly rhetorical) questions of my own. Indeed, a good part of today's blog is made up of questions.

What would the modern equivalent of the Pharisees be, those outwardly religious people of Jesus' time? If Jesus came to England in our own time, as a man, who would be the ones who would (metaphorically at least) crucify him? What is the equivalent today of the Roman Empire and who might be the contemporary Pontius Pilate?

What would Jesus think of the movement founded in his name? Would he applaud the principled resignation of St Paul's Cathedral Canon Giles Fraser because he didn't want to take legal action against the anti-capitalist protestors? What would Jesus think of that behemoth we call globalisation?

I am not sure that Jesus would uncritically support the anti-capitalist protestors camped outside St Paul's. I suspect he would probably try to get them to see that there is some hypocrisy in their stand. Few of us can be completely free of the influence of globalisation? Where are their clothes made, for example? Where are their tents made? Where are their mobile phones made? The chances are that many of the things they are wearing, sleeping in and using to keep in contact with their families, friends, supporters and each other are made by companies using cheap labour in China and India and elsewhere. It is so difficult nowadays to do otherwise such is the widespread nature of global capitalism. All of us who use computers, mobile phones and wear clothes, unless they are ethically sourced, are guilty of that. But I think Jesus, being the very direct (sometimes uncomfortably so) but loving person he was, would want to point this out to the protestors. At the same time I think he would prefer their company to that of the people they are protesting against, or for that matter the Church hierarchy!

I'm afraid that much of the modern-day church would not pass muster by Jesus, the globalisation of greed even less so. I don't think there is anything wrong in making moderate profits as long as one's business is ethical and one's employees are treated decently, but modern capitalism has gone far beyond what Marx could have foreseen. The Church should be a beacon of light in a dark world, but sometimes I get the feeling it is part of the problem rather than the solution, with its tendency to look inwards rather than outwards, the radicalism of Jesus put to one side in favour of what the Church sees as orthodoxy.

But I may be wrong. I may be talking a lot of rubbish! Now, I wonder what Jesus would say?

Quote of the day
"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil..."
1 Timothy 6:10

Compost enclosure completed!

2011-10-24T19:30:00.006+01:00

I spent more time on my pallet compost enclosure today. I finished it although it is not as strong as I had anticipated but it will have to do. Now it is in place, it should be okay as long as I don't move it too much. It is likely to stay in the same place for the next few years and when it gets full it will probably be more stable than it is when empty. I used the square blocks of wood from between the layers of the pallet to fit the side panels together. I fixed the gate of the enclosure to the sides by some old belts, two as hinges and one to tie it to the side at the opening end. I have experimented with it and it seems to work okay. The height of the panels didn't match exactly but it looks okay as long as one doesn't look too closely. It will be used mainly for weeds and used up plants but also seaweed, comfrey, some manure and other composting material to ensure a good balance, but it is mainly a place to put my weeds and plants which have been used up, which until now have been put in buckets until they are dead and then transferred to bags where they allowed to rot down over a period of a year or so, or taken to the dump. But having lots of bags looks unsightly, so I think an enclosure will look much better. I shall cover the contents with a piece of old carpet to keep it warm. Although finished, I may need to fill the gaps in the gate of the enclosure when I get time, or I may buy some chicken wire to staple to it (easier to do!).

Also while I was at it, I tidied up the space at the back of my shed as there was an old fence panel and a large trellis. The trellis isn't much good now but I have kept it simply because I have not been able to get rid of it, ditto the fence panel. I managed to ram the fence panel in the narrow space between the side of the shed and the fence between our garden and next door, so it is now more or less out of sight and there it will stay. The trellis I cut into three pieces to make it more manageable and easier to store. I have a lot of large concrete pieces which I came across in the soil a few years ago, left by the builders in the 1960s when this bungalow was built. Again I have not been able to get rid of this, but I have managed to hide it to some extent by placing the trellis work in front of it. I also made use of one of the other pallets which I cut in half some time ago but have not used until now. It is now a treadboard at the back of the shed.

One of the pallets in the process of having the gaps filled between existing planks.

The completed enclosure seen without the gate and already some composting material inside.

The compost enclosure with gate showing old belts as hinges!

A busy Sunday

2011-10-23T19:47:00.005+01:00

After a day of almost complete inactivity yesterday, in which I was bone idle, today, a Sunday, was far from being a day of rest. After a bracing walk along the sea-front this morning, I came home and carried on with the work I started on Friday, constructing a compost enclosure from wooden pallets. Some of the planks of wood broke as I attempted to prise them off (if there is an easier way to do this, I would like to know!). Pallet wood is quite soft and without treatment (and I don't want to use any chemicals) I don't know how long it will last out in all weathers. I continued to fill in the gaps between planks and had to use some waste wood from elsewhere, which was harder to affix with nails so I had to drill holes and screw them to the pallet.

Last year I bought a cordless drill which I thought would be useful for outdoor work, but it is almost useless as there is no chuck key so one can't tighten the chuck on the drill piece so inevitably it comes loose. So I used my dad's old electric drill, which though more than 25 years old, is still in perfect working order, and I used a reel extension so I could do the work in the garden.

I still haven't finished the job, but I am probably more than halfway through the project now. I still have a few more gaps to fill and then I have to put the pallets together. I started with two larger than usual pallets which I cut in half. If it wasn't for the laborious job of getting the planks off other parts of the pallets in order to fill the gaps I would have finished by now. Inevitably, jobs always take longer than one expects.

Also today, I emptied the other enclosure of manure, which I spread on part of one of the vegetable plots, emptied the incinerator of ash following a burn-up I had last Sunday, and finely sifted it as there were a lot of wood staples mixed in with the ashes, and put it with the ashes for use on the fruit bushes next year. I also swept the shed floor, which was very messy as I had put the incinerator in there the day after the fire.

Re-skilling Society

2011-10-21T19:08:00.008+01:00

I read an article in the latest Permaculture Magazine about the need to reskill people as many manual skills have been lost over the past 50 years or so. Having these skills will be vital in the future when we can no longer throw away things like we do now instead of repairing them and we can no longer rely on huge lorries bringing consumer goods to our stores. So reskilling is very much a Transitional Town Movement idea. I fully support this.

People of my dad's generation had many skills. My dad was pretty good at carpentry, decorating, plumbing, basic mechanics, and building, as well as gardening. He was also an engineer by trade. But when I was younger I showed very little interest in learning most of these skills. I wish now I had because these are some of the skills which will get us through the hard times that inevitably lie ahead, not just the recession, although that is bad enough, but the changes that will come about through climate change and the growing scarcity, and therefore higher price, of oil.

Sadly, many adult education colleges no longer offer these skills. Plumbing and building are offered as apprenticeships and as vocational courses, but there seems to be very few courses at evening class type colleges for these skills. The same goes for skills like sewing, knitting, crochet, and clothes-making (and before anyone accuses me of sexism, I see no reason why any of these skills should be aimed at just men or just women; why shouldn't women do building, or men do sewing?). If we are to prepare for the uncertain times ahead, then adult education colleges should be offering these skills instead of the endless computer courses which seem to predominate now. In the absence of adult education colleges teaching useful skills, maybe this is something that time banks can do where they exist. Also, there are a number of special courses advertised in Permaculture Magazine if one happens to live in the right part of the country (ie. not Essex) in skills such as drystone walling, coppicing, beekeeping, thatching and building with natural materials.

It seems that everyone who leaves school with some A Levels now wants to go to university, and this is fine for some but not everyone is suited to academic study and many will be left with debts that will take years to pay off. It seems to me that academic qualifications are promoted at the expense of manual skills. I have to own up here and say that I used to think like this when I was studying for my degree. But times change and so have I. If I had my time over again I would probably train to do horticulture or carpentry rather than what I did, which was history and English Literature.

To those who are sceptical about this I would ask this question: If you were stranded on the proverbial desert island who would you rather be stranded with; a builder or someone who can grow food? Or a historian or sociologist? Or someone who writes blogs for that matter!

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/

DIY Compost Enclosure

2011-10-21T18:32:00.007+01:00

I was recently given some wooden pallets by one of my neighbours and today I started making use of one of them. I had considered making some raised beds out of the planks but decided to make a compost enclosure from them which was my original intention, so made a start on that project. This was no easy task as being in two layers of planks (although the underside has less planks than the topside), I had to use a hammer and cold chisel to prise the planks apart, and being quite soft wood it damages easily. Perhaps next time I shall use a screwdriver for this. To make a compost enclosure it really needs to be a single layer of wood and there needs to be less gaps in between planks.

My first job was to take the underside pieces of wood off and extract the nails where possible and when this was not possible to make them safe. I managed to extract quite a few and later recycled the straight ones. Once I had a single layer of planks I then started to fill in some of the gaps between the planks. Not to do so might mean composting material falling out of the enclosure through the gaps, unless I put some chicken wire over it which I don't really want to do and I don't have any, anyway. For this I used the planks I had taken off the underside layer and nailed them on with some of the nails I had saved, plus some nails from my tool box. I also had some spare pieces of wood of the right thickness to use, but which had to be sawn to size. I didn't have enough planks to fill all the gaps so I shall have to do that another time. I then cut the pallet roughly in half as it would have been too tall otherwise. These two pieces will form the front and back, and the front will probably open like a door to make access easier.

I have a place at the very bottom of the garden earmarked for this to go, but it may mean part of it being on concrete or a buddleia bush having to be dug up to make way for it. There are still two more pieces to be done and they will come from the other pallet I was given by my neighbour. I hope to have this completed and in place before the winter starts. I have used wooden pallets before for other things such as a makeshift fence between ours and our neighbour's garden on the other side (the ones we don't get on with!) and they are still holding firm. It helps that I have some tyres full of soil in front of them with plants in.

Also today I dug over more of my garden, but I have very little manure left, so shall have to bury some kitchen waste in some trenches to improve the soil for next summer. I have done this before and it seems to have done the trick. But I must get some manure soon for next autumn.

The Man with the golden gun

2011-10-20T18:54:00.006+01:00

No, I'm not talking about the James Bond film of that name, but Colonel Gaddafi, who has just met his end in, appropriately, a drain. A coward, like other dictators before him, rather than the martyr he imagined himself to be, he had tried to evade capture apparently, and was shot dead by his pursuers. Good riddance! One of the soldiers who had found him was holding up a golden gun, which had belonged to the former dictator, the so-called hero of the revolution which had brought him to power in 1969.

Now, perhaps, other nasty dictators in the Middle East and other parts of Africa will be wondering if they will one day end up like the Colonel. If there is anything worse than a Fascist dictator, it is a so-called liberator or socialist like Gaddafi who ends up with sumptuous palaces, billions of dollars stashed away in bank accounts around the world, kills their opponents, and calls for others to martyr themselves while he himself flees and hides away in a er...drain.

"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Lord Acton

Fox-Hunting

2011-10-14T20:03:00.006+01:00

I am not a supporter of blood sports, but in the case of Dr Liam Fox, it was right that he was hounded out of the Government. If I had taken a friend to work with me in my last job just because he was a good friend, who had no business to be there, had had no CRB clearance and who may have caused a conflict of interest, and who may have influenced me in the way I did my job, my employer would have taken a dim view of it. So why should it be any different in government circles? Indeed, given the nature of his work, and the department he headed, he should have known better. In my Twitter entry a few days ago I said something along the lines of "If the Prime Minister has said Liam Fox has my full confidence, then it can't be long before he will be spending more time with his family." The Prime Minister's full confidence, like pride, comes before a fall. And it did.

So now, with the PM's expression of full confidence, can we expect Oliver Letwin to soon be spending more time with his family? Being a fanatical recycler, I was disgusted that he threw papers in a park bin when they should have been put in his recycling collection! Tut, tut...

Advantages of a time bank

2011-10-14T19:37:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I was given a secondhand breadmaking machine by a friend in the time bank. Today, I was offered a secondhand wheelbarrow, by another friend in the time bank. My old wheelbarrow is well past its wheel-by date and should be confined to that graveyard for old wheelbarrows known as the recycling centre. It is too ugly to be used as a plant container in my garden and there ain't room for two barrows in my garden. Mine is a one-barrow garden! If I get this other barrow soon, the antique one will have to go. As for the breadmaker, I haven't tried it out yet. All it cost me is the price of a bus fare and what seemed like an age waiting for the next bus (such is the crap service in this area) as I couldn't bring it home on my bike. I shall try it out at the weekend making a loaf. But one can also make cakes and even jams, at least according to the manual. I was going to buy a new one recently but being given this secondhand one has saved me buying one. I just don't have time to make bread from scratch in the traditional way, but do want to have home-made bread as it is so much better than shop-bought bread.

Today I was taken to the recycling depot to get rid of a load of bags of garden waste, which have built up over the past few weeks. There will be more before the winter starts. This favour was done as part of our time bank. Without the time bank and someone in the time bank who has a car and a trailer, I don't know where I would be. At one time I used to take my garden waste to the depot on my tiny bicycle trailer, but it holds so few bags and it is quite a long journey so it wasn't something I liked doing. It used to take weeks of going every other Sunday (a Sunday, because it is the quietest day of the week early in the morning, and every other Sunday because at the time I had a job and worked every other Saturday night). And this year there is more garden waste than usual as I have been getting rid of some large plants I no longer want but which can't be easily composted.

Wriggly wrigglers!

2011-10-13T18:20:00.011+01:00

Went to the Eco-Group last night at which we had a speaker talking about worms, or more precisely wormeries. Dubbed the Worm Lady, she is a self-taught expert on worm composting. It seems there is nothing she doesn't know about worms and worm composting. The Worm Lady brought along some examples of worm compost containers, a sample of finished worm compost and worm juice, the liquid residue produced as a by-product of worm composting.

The worms that are to be found in compost heaps are known as brandlings, tiger worms or red wrigglers, but their Latin name is Eisenia foetida, a different species from earthworms, something I knew already. What I didn't know is how long these chaps can live. They can live for about 10 years if not eaten by the birds, frogs or hedgehogs. It seems that the odds are stacked against them with formidable predators like these, but in theory at least they are long-lived. They are also prolific breeders, laying eggs with a number of tiny, hair-like wormlets in each one. By using worm compost in the garden, the soil is so improved that it also encourages greater earthworm population and activity in the deeper soil. It also encourages wildlife in the garden as with the aforementioned hedgehogs, frogs and toads, and birds.

It takes just a few weeks for kitchen waste and other organic waste to be turned into lovely black crumbly compost, unlike ordinary compost heaps which can take six months or a year to break down and even then may have not fully composted. The material in worm compost bins has to be kept very damp unlike conventional compost heaps where moisture is kept to a minimum. Also it must not overheat so grass cuttings shouldn't be used. Ideally there should be newspaper at the top and this too will break down into compost.

Worm bins should not be fed too much material at any one time as it can rot before the worms have a chance to process it and that can do more harm than good, so it is best to have several worm bins if one has a lot of waste, or to use other types of composting bins. Basically worm compost is worm poo and has an earthy smell rather like a forest after rain, really quite pleasant. Material suitable for composting includes kitchen waste, but leeks and onions are best avoided (worms don't like them as they are too acidic; the same goes for citrus peel), leaves (preferably after being shredded by a mower), wood shavings, sawdust, cardboard, newspaper, and, if done separately in its own bin, even dog poo (yes, really!). I was quite surprised at this as I always thought this should be avoided, but these little chaps seem to love it! We were shown partially composted dog poo and it didn't smell too unpleasant. However, personally, if I had a dog, I wouldn't want to use their poo for their compost, although it is certainly a good solution for a problem. It is just that I am a bit squeamish. And anyway, the problem doesn't arise as I don't have a dog. But I would certainly have no qualms about using rabbit or guinea pig poo, which can also be used if I had these pets. Indeed, it is advised to cut the poo into manageable pieces and to mix it with rabbit or guinea pig manure.

Some people keep wormeries in their kitchen but this was not advised in last night's talk as it can get too warm for the worms. A garage or shed is better. In winter, if the worm bins are outside, they should be wrapped in fleece and kept together if one has more than bin as this helps to keep each bin warm as frost can kill as surely as too much heat. Worm activity does generate a certain amount of warmth. The Worm Lady sells bins and worm eggs for £10, which seems very reasonable considering one can pay about £50 or more for proper worm bins in garden centres and mail order catalogues. I am a bit squeamish about worms, and I don't like handling the blighters, but I am tempted to buy one myself as I am rather impatient at the time taken to compost kitchen waste in the conventional way in a dalek. A very informative and entertaining talk about a subject which I didn't know much about.

Worms at work!

Thinking aloud about the garden

2011-10-11T19:31:00.003+01:00

Have been thinking a lot about how I might re-shape my garden in the future. Now I have an allotment of my own and work on a community allotment which I am likely to be doing for the next couple of years, I am growing less vegetables in my garden. The soil has never been much good for growing much in the way of veggies except potatoes, onion sets and beans. So I am now tending to concentrate on fruit. But that leaves quite a bit of space. So I am now considering making a pond where one of the beds is now. I had in the past considered part of the lawn for a pond but the soil would be so hard to dig. But a plant bed is relatively easy to dig down and I can then use the good soil for a raised bed. This is a project for next year. Also, and I have been saying and thinking this for a long time, I would like to have some hens and maybe some quails, for their eggs. If I am not going to be growing much in the way of vegetables in the garden in future, I shall have more space for a hen coop and it will mean that I won't have to put up a lot of protection for the plants.

I have also had an idea for the time bank: taking on an allotment for the time bank, so that our members can grow their own vegetables and if they want barter with others for other foods. I shall put this to the next meeting of the time bank and if we are in agreement I shall put our name down at one or two of the allotment sites, preferably a site that allows livestock.

Life on the edge!

2011-10-11T19:00:00.006+01:00

Been doing some work in the garden over the past couple of days making the most of the dry but cooler weather to get my garden dug and weeded before the winter sets in. One of my beds is almost full of wild marigolds, which self-seed all too easily, and although useful as beneficial insect attractants and beautiful to look at, they tend to take over if allowed to. I spent quite a while yesterday and today digging them up before they all go to seed. Many of them already have and so next spring I shall have to pick some of them out when they germinate before they start taking over again. I dug the soil over and got rid of as many weed roots as I could, especially those long white roots of the bindweed.

Several years ago I thought it would be a good idea to put wooden edging around some of the beds, especially those bordering the lawn. It seemed a good idea at the time, as I thought it might prevent grass from encroaching on the beds. At the time I bought quite a few rolls of short edging logs from Morrisons and hammered them into the edges of the beds. But four or five years later it doesn't seem like such a good idea because it doesn't stop the grass and weeds from encroaching on the beds but just makes it harder when they do, to dig them up and to mow the edges without risking damaging the mower blades. So as I get around to digging the plots and digging the edges to more clearly define where lawn ends and the beds start, I am pulling up the log edging, or the remains of them, as they are rotting in places. As they are joined by wire, this is fairly easy to do with gloves on. These will be burned later on in the incenerator to provide wood ash for the fruit bushes, although they will have to be finely sifted as there are staples in the edging.

2011-10-10T20:29:00.004+01:00

I have recently started doing an online food hygiene course in preparation for the Foodcycle voluntary work, which starts on 31st October.

Tweet, tweet!

2011-10-10T19:51:00.003+01:00

I have started using Twitter. Although I joined some time ago, I have only just started using it. So click on the Twitter symbol (the bird) on the sidebar.

Casting the first stone

2011-10-05T18:42:00.010+01:00

When a mob brought a woman accused of adultery before Jesus to ask what should be done about her, fully expecting he would condemn her under the Mosaic Law, he said to them: Those who are without sin, let him cast the first stone at her (John 8:7). Both Jesus and every member of that mob knew that they were not without sin and this had the effect of dispersing the mob and allowing the woman to go free.

Fast forward about 2000 years and stoning is still carried out in some countries. Most people who think of stoning as a form of execution, if they think of it at all, probably think of it as a punishment that is confined to Biblical times. Not so. Countries including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, some of the Emirate states, Pakistan and Iran still have it on the statute books for adultery, and it is still used.

In Iran, stoning has been on the statute books since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The Iranian penal code is very precise about how it is done. The stones used must not be too small as they would not cause death, nor too large as then death would come too quickly. No, they have to be just of the right size so that death does not come too soon. That would never do, would it. Death must be slow and painful, with maximum suffering, torture in other words.

Women are disproportionately more likely to be stoned than men, not because women are more likely to commit adultery than men but because a man's testimony is worth that of two women and a woman's testimony alone is not accepted, women are less likely to speak the official language of the court, which is Persian, and the literacy rate for women is lower than that of men, so may sign false confessions without knowing what it is they are signing. Men can get a divorce freely in Iran, but women have a very limited right to divorce. So the penal code is very much weighted against women and very much biased in favour of men.

The judge (a man, of course) who is responsible for carrying out the death sentence is the one to cast the first stone (no sense of his own sin there then!). A stoning can take anything between 20 minutes and two hours. The victim is dressed in a shroud before the stoning begins and buried up to the waste in a ditch. Once the stoning starts, the shroud quickly becomes stained with blood. The body is buried soon afterwards, once it is pronounced dead.

These facts are included in a letter I received from Amnesty International today and are also to be seen on their website. AI are asking people to send a letter to the religious leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, to ask that stoning be removed from Iran's penal code immediately in line with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a signatory. I have signed the letter that came with the info I received today.

As if stoning wasn't enough, Iran also carries out executions of homosexuals and Christians, usually by hanging. So even if this penal code on stoning is reviewed, this doesn't mean that executions won't continue in other parts of the legal code in Iran.

Go to:

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=12112&ArticleID=3930

A quicky!

2011-10-04T20:09:00.006+01:00

Just a quicky, more of a tweet really. While Amanda Knox stands to make millions from newspaper, book and movie deals as a result of her prison experience in Italy, the family of Meredith Kercher, who was murdered by someone who may still be out there, will probably get nothing. They have been largely forgotten in all of this.

An idea whose time has come!

2011-10-04T19:21:00.007+01:00

Food poverty is not the only type of poverty now common in Britain (see previous post). There is another type of poverty, in fact, several types, but linked. There is poverty of community life, in which people don't look out for their neighbours (and here I am talking about neighbours in both the usual sense of the term, of people living nearby, and the Biblical sense, of society generally). This is a phenomenon that has been on the increase over several decades. Then there is the poverty of spirit, which is caused by lack of social opportunities and friendships. This hurts people with mental health problems and learning disabilities in particular, but also increasingly poor families who lack the opportunities of good jobs or even mediocre jobs now.

This is where a time bank can help. A time bank can bring people together to help each other out,a community or network of people with skills which go unrewarded and unnoticed by mainstream society because there is no money in it. It is a place where friendships can be made and people can feel valued again, or for some, for the first time. You won't hear anything about time banks in the tabloids, because they are only really interested in negative news and celebrity gossip, but if you look closer at your community you may find it has a time bank or if it doesn't, you could try getting together with others to start one, which is what a group of us did in my area, Tendring, in Essex. It can be frustrating, hard work, unsung work, but ultimately rewarding when you see lives turned around simply by feeling useful and valued instead of useless and surplus to requirements.

Our own time bank is now beginning to grow. In the past there would have been no need for time banks as people would have been more willing to help their neighbours, but now, in a society which has for too long valued greed and individualism, time banks may be the only realistic way of bringing people together and making them feel valued and useful. Our time bank's slogan is: Strengthening our community by encouraging acts of mutual kindness. As I pointed out today to someone who is new to the time bank concept, being a member of a time bank gives permission to people who need help with something to ask someone in the time bank, and also gives permission to someone who wants to help others to do so without their offer arousing unfounded suspicions of ulterior motives. Everyone who joins our time bank has to provide references and in some cases, will need to provide a CRB check.

Time banking is an idea whose time has come. We can have the 'spirit of the Blitz' without the Blitz!

Never had it so good (if you're a banker)!

2011-10-04T19:03:00.006+01:00

There has been a sharp increase in the number of families that need food handouts. With the recession biting and hitting the poorest families disproportionately, incomes not keeping up with inflation and unemployment on the up and up, more and more people are having to go to centres like Fareshares to get a decent meal to keep body and soul together. And this is not some third world country, or Britain in the 1930s, but the UK in 2011. While politicians eat sumptuously and drink fine wines in Manchester, and the bankers have never had it so good, there are tens of thousands on the breadline up and down this green and pleasant land. Never mind, we are all in this together!

Hence the need for organisations like Fareshares and Foodcycle (see links).

http://www.foodcycle.org.uk/

http://www.fareshare.org.uk/wordpress/?page_id=1771

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/01/families-queue-for-food-handouts

Jeremy's joy!

2011-10-01T19:26:00.005+01:00

Jeremy Clarkson might think it is a good idea, but I don't. I am talking about the proposal to increase the maximum speed limit on English motorways. As it is many drivers ignore the speed limit of 70 mph and do 80 or more. If the speed limit increases, I can imagine those same drivers thinking they can now do 90 or more. I think we should keep the present speed limit at 70 and allow a little bit more as we do now. To increase the limit would give petrolheads like the aforementioned Mr Clarkson and the boy racers a licence to speed even more. 70 mph is fast enough. It is estimated that it will result in more accidents, and it will also use more fuel. Hopefully it will be quietly forgotten after the Conservative Party conference is over, which seems to be why it was mooted in the first place. The argument that it will mean less hold-ups on the motorways doesn't wash. It isn't lack of speed on the motorways that causes hold-ups but the seemingly endless road works and accidents, and there is likely to be more of the latter if this goes ahead.

My bad back!

2011-10-01T19:10:00.006+01:00

I have been doing some work on my allotment over the last few days, and today and yesterday I dug out the compost in my composting bin (which was a water butt in its previous incarnation) and spread some of it on the soil and put some of it with the manure in the adjacent enclosure, to further break it down. With all the manure, partially rotted compost, comfrey leaves, dead plants, seaweed, shredded paper and other stuff, by this time next year there should be some very good compost to spread on the soil, better than this year's, and more of it, too. The composting bin is now empty so I can start filling it with more compostable stuff again.

I did some time bank work today, a gardening job for an elderly man. It was my first one and probably not the ideal day on which to do it being so warm. There were two of us and we spent nearly two hours digging and weeding and levelling the soil off afterwards. Now I have an aching back, so tomorrow, being a Sunday, I shall resteth!

Doing Drugs

2011-09-30T21:09:00.006+01:00

I went to a drugs awareness course this morning as part of my health champion voluntary work. I don't work with people with drug problems, but thought it might be useful to know more about it. We tend to think of drug usage for recreational purposes as being relatively recent, by which I mean not the late 20th century but the 19 century when laudanum was in common usage as a painkiller and a recreational drug, or a drug which started as a painkiller but to which the user quickly became addicted. But in fact drugs of one kind or another have been around for at least 7000 years, the earliest depiction of drugs being around 5000 years BC. There have been numerous efforts by governments throughout the ages to stamp out drugs, including the death penalty for smoking in the 16th century! It didn't work then and the so-called War on Drugs of our own age hasn't worked either.

We looked at the difference between addiction and dependency, legal versus illegal, legal classifications of drugs into Class A, B and C, why people take drugs, and the various types of drugs, their street names, the effects and risks, and the paraphernalia associated with each drug, such as spoons, pipes, foil and syringes. Drugs covered included the illegal ones such as Cocaine, Heroin and Ecstasy and the legal ones such as alcohol, tobacco, solvents and the new generation of drugs known as 'legal highs'. Our facilitator does health work in Romania and told us of the problem of young people being addicted to solvents in that country, which is a far bigger problem than it is in the UK. It is because of boredom and a feeling of no hope.

I am more anti-drugs now than I used to be (comes with age, I suppose!). I have smoked cannabis and unlike Bill Clinton I inhaled! But cannabis is the only illegal drug I have used, and apart from that I have smoked and drunk alcohol (and had an alcohol problem when I was a teenager). Now, I drink only occasionally, don't smoke now, and haven't used cannabis for over 20 years. My only drugs apart from the odd glass of beer or whisky are chocolate and small doses of caffeine! I was once in favour of legalising cannabis but am more sceptical now because the cannabis that we used to smoke in those far off days of my 'wild' youth was relatively mild and less of a problem than alcohol. Now, the type of cannabis usually used is a much more dangerous kind, known as 'skunk', and the mild form, much favoured by hippies and others 20 or more years ago, is out of favour among drug-users. So although I think the War on Drugs is a complete failure and I don't think people who possess drugs for their own use should go to prison, I am anti-drugs. The approach should be based on the clinical rather than the criminal model. After all, prisons are rife with drugs; it is the last place that people with a drug problem should be in.

I found the two-and-a-half hour course useful and interesting and for those of us who were unused to the drugs scene, which I gather was most of us in the class, we got to see what the drugs looked like and the paraphernalia that goes with them, safely sealed in display cases, of course!

Self-Employment course

2011-09-24T18:39:00.004+01:00

I attended a half day course today on self-employment, run by Business Link. The Government, in its infinite wisdom, supposedly the party of business, is closing down Business Link in November, so there may not be many more courses like this for people who are considering self-employment. Never mind that many, if not most, employers, will not employ a 50-something over-the-hill oldie like myself even though it is more than 12 years before I can retire and the only way someone like myself may ever work again is by being self-employed.

Anyway, today's course, which was free and held in a seafront hotel, was called Starting a Business - Is it for me? We looked at the motivations for starting a business, such as being one's own boss, the possibility of being work from home, and doing something that one believes in (for example, one woman there was Peruvian, and wanted to import fairly-traded Peruvian fabrics into the UK). Doing something one believes is often something that goes by the wayside in the world of employment because it is a struggle just to get a job, never mind an ethical job. But as was pointed out, and which we all knew anyway, starting a business is hard work and often needs start-up capital, market research, the aforesaid motivation, skills and knowledge, and customers. Working from home can be ideal and saves travelling time and fares or motoring costs but requires self-discipline not to be distracted by children or the usual distractions of being at home, such as television.

Other aspects of starting a business which were covered included sources of finance, business plans, legal structure (ie: whether to be a sole trader, in partnership with one other, or a limited company), tips for generating ideas, taxation and National Insurance, VAT, naming one's business, insurance, legal aspects such as health and safety law and intellectual property, and where to go from here. It was a useful starting point but feel no closer to being self-employed because of my own lack of self-motivation. One thing that holds me back in the area that I have considered working in is not being able to drive, so I would have to have at least one partner who can drive. I am hoping to use the time bank as a springboard to self-employment.

Back to church?

2011-09-22T19:18:00.005+01:00

I am slowly coming round to the idea of attending a church again. I am not sure which church yet and don't know when, but it may well be the church I used to go to or its sister church in the nearby village. Now that I am not working I could make it to the earlier services they have on Sundays, whereas when I used to work I would have found it difficult to make it on the mornings I finished work. A number of things have brought me round to church again, but the most important one is contact with people from the church. I have had several contacts lately and have begun to feel less negative about the church. It was not so much about Christianity itself but church doctrine, and I won't pretend I don't still have difficulties with that, but I feel I can live with that to some degree. But a Christian friend of mine, who attends another church likened going to church to exercise, which I suppose it is, only one is not exercising one's body but one's spiritual muscles! Anyway, if I do, I shall have to take it slowly at first, and maybe just attend a midweek meeting and/or a house group.

Time is a healer and after three months of not going to church, I feel more reconciled to the idea of church life than I did a few weeks ago, and miss quite a lot of things about it, not least the singing and fellowship.

Next Sunday is Back to Church Sunday, for people who have left the church at some point and would like to return. I am not sure if I am quite ready to return to church this Sunday just because it has been designated Back to Church Sunday, but at some point soon, it is likely I shall return to the fold like the lost sheep!

Got the T-shirt!

2011-09-22T18:59:00.008+01:00

I attended a training day today in preparation for the voluntary work I shall be doing with Foodcycle soon. I arrived late as I had to attend an interview at the dole office first (yawn!), but I only missed about half an hour. The training session included things like team-building, fundraising, nutrition, what motivates people to do voluntary work, and why people volunteer with Foodcycle (to help people who suffer from food poverty, to stop so much food from stores going to waste, to raise awareness of healthy food, and improve the community, etc). We had group exercises and role play.

Voluntary roles at our hub (as these Foodcycle projects are called) will include volunteer co-ordinator, chefs, fundraisers, food sourcers (ie: people who get the food from the stores and shops which will be used to cook with, community outreach co-ordinators, and ordinary volunteers. I chose to be an ordinary volunteer for the time being as I didn't want to take on too much responsibility. Also, I shall probably do every other week rather than every week. We voted to have our hub on a Monday. At present there are only two days at the church where we are working from when we can have all the hours we need, and out of those two days Monday received the most votes, and that will be best for me, too. At the end we each received a Foodcycle T-shirt which we can wear when working in the hub and as outreach volunteers (see below).

There will be further training in food hygiene and weekly meetings and quite a lot of support. There will be a meeting next week and we shall probably start some time in October.

Got the T-shirt

http://www.foodcycle.org.uk/

Garden thugs!

2011-09-19T12:11:00.007+01:00

I have been working on my garden over the past few days, getting rid of some mint plants that had come to dominate one plot. I do like mint with potatoes, but one can have too much of a good thing as far as the plant is concerned. Mint is what might be described as a thug, a useful plant and certainly not a weed, but nevertheless it takes over if allowed to. I have tried various places for the mint over the past few years and I now have the perfect place for it, a strip of soil beside the shed where it is in the shade and confined by the path on one side and the shed on the other, so will be restricted in its space from expanding too much. There has been mint growing there for the past couple of years and has done well. The other place where I had it growing it was becoming too big for its boots, so it had to go. I dug up most of it leaving only some which was difficult to get to as it might have meant damaging another plant to dig it up. Having got rid of it, I now have quite a lot of space to grow something else there, and I have also got rid of a lot of weeds at the same time. I have spread some well-rotted manure and compost over the plot and I shall decide at at later date what I am going to put there. I have also expanded the plot slightly by digging out a bit more of the lawn.

Digging the dirt

2011-09-16T18:58:00.004+01:00

Went to the allotment this morning. I have been working on part of the plot over the last couple of days, clearing out as much weed roots as possible and especially bindweed. This part of the plot is almost empty of crops now, having dug out all the potatoes and most of the other crops. I dug it over thoroughly and spread some manure over some of it.

I have a thick paper sack in my garage with a goodly supply of potatoes for the coming weeks.

Celebration...yeahhhh!

2011-09-15T20:28:00.004+01:00

I celebrated my DWP 'windfall' today with a couple of drinks at a pub. It is not often I go to the pub, the last time being just before Christmas, but I just wanted to let my hair down, what I have of it, after the weeks of fretting about my JSA. I went with a friend from the time bank, sat outside in the garden of the Robin Hood pub, and talked about our mutual hatred of the bankers, those Robin Hoods in reverse, who take from the less well off to pay themselves.

Throw-Away People

2011-09-14T18:47:00.006+01:00

Recently I wrote about the book, No More Throw-Away People, by Edgar Cahn, and today I had a conversation with someone about our society. It was in the context of Christianity, as we are both Christians, even though neither of us any longer attend church. We got on to the subject of unemployment and our society's attitude towards people who have no value as far as the economy is concerned. I called them Throw-Away People after Cahn's book. There are millions of Throw-Away people in the UK alone. There are now two and a half million people in this country who are on that scrapheap known as the dole because they are not wanted by employers. These are just the official statistics. There are many more who are unemployed and unemployable through no fault of their own, although some may not be claiming any benefits or claiming benefits other than Jobseekers' Allowance. In many cases people are better off on benefits than they are working, because pay is so low, so one can hardly blame people for staying on benefits.

We agreed that many people, like myself and her, were like square pegs in a round hole. We don't fit in which is probably why we both left church. I have always felt on the margins of society and so has she. I said I hate that phrase that the unemployed are always being urged to do when looking for jobs: sell yourself. It is as if one is an object, not a person. I have nothing against competition in sports but hate competition when it comes to jobs and the economy. Instead of competing it would be better if we all co-operated with one another and shared the world's resources.

This throw-away mentality applies not just to unemployed people, but also to some extent to the elderly who are often relegated to old folks' homes, and who often feel as though they have nothing to offer now they have become old. But time banking has shown that elderly people can feel valued again and have much to offer. Also, the Transition Town Movement gets elderly people involved by asking for their stories because people of a certain age remember how things used to be before the rampant consumerism we have now and when food was grown more locally and people helped each other out more. But I suppose it is not surprising that people are thrown away when we have finite resources that are disposed of as though there will always be plenty more where they came from. The rampant consumerism that we have now encourages that attitude and is not helped by the idea that we can buy ourselves out of recession.

I feel more valued and wanted in the various alternative things I have joined such as the time bank, the community allotment and the local eco-group. I said during our conversation that I was more interested in practical Christianity, things that one can do that make the world a better place in the here and now. Things like action against poverty, debt counselling, promoting the integrity of creation, helping people feel better about themselves, improving the community, and yes, time banking. These, and more, are things that Christians could be involved in if they are not already. Faith is nothing without good works.

Incidentally, I have now received about 10 weeks backdated benefit, so am relieved at that, as I was nearly on the point recently of signing off. I am a bit worse off on the dole than I was working, but not much worse off when one considers there is no tax or national insurance to pay, free dental treatment and probably lower council tax bills, as well as various concessions such as cheaper courses.

Over the rainbow

2011-09-11T20:51:00.005+01:00

Saw a beautiful rainbow yesterday evening. Rainbows are rare enough, but a rainbow which is clearly defined and long-lasting is even rarer. It lasted at least 15 minutes and possibly longer, because it may have been there before I looked out. I took some photos, but they can't begin to do justice to the rainbow as I saw it. It seems to me that most people don't even bother to look at phenomena like rainbows now. They have become so divorced from nature, that they take no interest in these beautiful things. Here are a couple of photographs:

Memories of 9/11

2011-09-11T19:55:00.004+01:00

It has been said that people who were around at the time remember what they were doing when they heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated. This may have become a bit of a cliche, but I think it has some truth in it. I was six years old at the time in November 1963 when JFK was assassinated in Dallas and vaguely remember how I heard the news. Although only six and therefore not politically aware, and did not know who Kennedy was, I had this notion that he was 'important'. It was, I suppose, a defining moment in my early childhood. Something that happened the next day was also a defining moment for me and many others. The first ever episode of Doctor Who!

Fast forward 38 years and on Tuesday 11 September 2001, something else happened that was to become a defining moment. I was 44 years old at the time. I had recently started a new job at a care home but was having a day off as I had a bad back. I was watching Crossroads, the soap that had recently returned to our tv screens after ending in 1988. I watched all the main soaps in those days and was watching this when there was a commercial break, only the commercials didn't come on. Instead there was a newsflash. A plane had crashed into one of the World Trade towers in New York. It looked at the time like an accident, a plane that had gone out of control. The picture on the screen looked surreal, as if it wasn't really happening, both real and unreal at the same time. Then a few minutes later a second plane crashed into the second of the twin towers. There then seemed no doubt that this was a terrorist attack. There then followed an attack on the Pentagon in Washington and a fourth plane was headed towards the White House, but was foiled by passengers on board. Everyone on board the four planes died, and many were killed in the towers, and the rest is, of course, history. Crossroads didn't return that day and the news went on for hours. We couldn't get enough of it and I began to feel like a voyeur, and yet felt compelled to carry on watching it for hours, to see if anything else would happen.

In no time at all, the finger was pointing at Osama bin Laden as the man ultimately responsible. Whether he was indeed responsible, we shall probably never know. There are various conspiracy theories going around but we shall probably never know for sure if there is any truth in these either. But within weeks the US and UK had gone to war with Afghanistan, on the pretext that the Taliban government were shielding bin Laden and other al-Qaeda terrorists. The war is still going on. Within 19 months we went to war in Iraq. Initially, I supported the war in Afghanistan but became increasingly sceptical as time wore on. But I was opposed to the war in Iraq from the word go. In the weeks and months after what became 9/11, there were various scares about chemical and biological attacks, and the US and the UK were on constant high alert, there were anthrax scares and there was a sense of pananoia.

Whoever was responsible for 9/11, whether it was bin Laden or an inside job as the conspiracy theorists believe, the fact was that thousands were killed and we are still living with that legacy ten years on. If it was bin Laden who ordered the hijackings, then those who carried them out must have been brainwashed. If people can be brainwashed into believing their supposed enemies are evil and/or subhuman, then it is easy to carry out atrocities without any conscience, because they believe that what they are doing is for the good. In this case, they probably really believed that they were doing God's work. How else can one explain suicide bombings and hijackings? The Nazis, or at least those who carried out orders, probably thought they were doing good by killing Jews, homosexuals, and communists, because of the lies they had been fed.

At the time of 9/11 I thought World War 3 was going to break out. It didn't, but we did have two wars and we are still living with the legacy of those conflicts. The world has become even more unstable than it was before 9/11 and part of that is down to the response of the US and Britain to what happened that terrible day. Yes, terrorism is a terrible thing but so were two wars that resulted in many thousands being killed on both sides, many more than were killed in the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

Nowadays, I don't watch any of the soaps but now, when I think of 9/11, I always think of Crossroads. Silly, I know, but it is indelibly associated in my memory with the events of that day 10 years ago.