Quite a relaxing day... and pretty too, as it was still snowing and I spent most of the day inside, dealing with assorted phone calls and paperwork. Gill went into town and got the final cheque for Harris Builders to pay for the solar panels, defunct chimney removal and new barge boards. I got a phone call from the Yorkshire Post to canvass my opinion as to whether I thought that the recession had been good for the environment, or something like that. The article will be published between Christmas and the New Year, and they've asked a handful of people, not just me.
So, a relatively quiet day, until just after 2.30 when our eldest came back, early as it's the last day of term, so he agreed to walk down to Lord Deramore's with me to pick up his little brother. I took the sledge as it was still very snowy and icy, and we had some fun. In the playground a couple of people greeted me as I haven't been down to school recently, and so I explained that I was very upset that the school wasn't taking it's obligations seriously with regards to being a 'beacon of sustainability in the community', and he agreed. He has connections with the school and someone he knows has heard some of the things that have been said about me, and he thinks this is scandalous and very wrong. Although it's not nice to know that people in the school have been bad-mouthing me for my eco-approach to life, it is reassuring to know there's some people out there who agree that this school's attitude is disgraceful. I just hope that soon they will decide that sustainability is worth imparting to the children, although it is just about too late in some ways. What they should be teaching is adaptation to a more chaotic and difficult world, with fuel shortages, high food prices, social unrest and an influx of displaced people angry that our high carbon lifestyles have left them with nowhere to live. I am feeling pessimistic at the moment as the Copenhagen talks look like a complete fudge and flop. In fact I'm angry that the World's leaders have done such a bad job, and they won't be looked kindly upon in the future. Not many of then will be regarded as 'responsible ancestors'.
Anyway, all three of us came home, some of it with one of the boys on the sledge, so that both got a go... and when we came to the bit of pavement heading down to our house, I requested to have a go... and it was ace, being pulled along by them!
Some of the evening wasn't as fun and easy, not sure how it deteriorated, but it did and I was left feeling quite low.
I did do some last-minute grocery shopping for Gill at 9pm and had a good long wind-down playing facebook Scrabble til the early hours.
Showing posts with label Lord Deramore's Primary School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lord Deramore's Primary School. Show all posts
Up at a civilised time... 8.30am. I had breakfast and did emails and waited in for a chap from Harris builders who said they were coming round at 10am to collect the contract for our solar hot water system. Gill went out to go to Priory St for something, and I waited... and waited... wanting to go out into the garden and do more hedge. At 10.50 I rang the company and left a message saying I wasn't happy with being told I'd be visited at 10am and was waiting in... and I am too busy to be messed around. I got an apologetic message back saying the chap had been held up in Harrogate (so why didn't he ring me?) and would be here at 1pm.
I went into the garden and dug up more hedge. Just before 1pm I came in for lunch and awaited the builder. He actually came at 1.45. I suppose I'll have to get used to 'builder time'. The York Press had already arrived and I was delighted to see that they had published an article about the Charity Fancy Dress Ball, including David's photo.
I had a bit of time in the garden but towards 3pm I got my bike ready to go and get our youngest, as Gill had had a 'ladies who lunch' meeting in town and was only just getting the bus back home (she rang me to check I was collecting him) I arrived a bit early, despite collecting my first two sacks of autumn leaves on Windmill Lane. I had an extra plastic sack so when I got to school I couldn't help but check the playground bins. The school is STILL not recycling the huge volumes of fruit the children throw away. In just 5 minutes I filled a plastic sack with half-eaten apples, banana skins, raisin packets, paper towels. I weighed it with my spring balance when I got home... 17 and a half kilos. I also retrieved 12 uneaten apples, two uneaten bananas, one unopened orange, one uneaten peach and a bag of grapes, uneaten. These were all thrown away and NOT RECYCLED. I will wash these and eat them myself. I also checked the big bins and these were full of mixed waste including plenty of recyclable material such as metal cans and cardboard and paper. The dedicated paper bin was overflowing but had some non-paper items in it. This means it will probably be rejected and will go to landfill.
Shame on you Lord Deramore's School. I started trying to get you to compost your fruit for schools waste in 2001. And 8 years later, you have removed the bins you grudgingly let me install, have lost several parts of my bins, making them useless, and are now putting about 8Kg/day easily biodegradable fruit waste into landfill. Shameful. I am SO ANGRY.
I am also very angry with the City of York Council for letting this crap situation continue. I let them know I don't know how long ago, and was promised that there would be some changes and that Lord Deramores School would be dragged in to the 21st Century and be taught how to behave in an appropriate manner when you are a school teaching children who will have to cope with catastrophic climate change caused precisely by the kind of ignorance and lack of care that the school is demonstrating. I am FURIOUS. I even spent many hours helping to start and then volunteering with Green Thumbs, primarily to facilitate a composting area or project... and now Green Thumbs isn't happening and the children aren't learning about gardening. I think they should give the money back to the Co-op who would re-allocate it to a worthy project.
What more can I do? I want to embarrass them into action. I want them prosecuted. I need to tell them and the world what I think of their attitude. Schools exist to prepare the next generation to get by in the world. They teach various skills. They should set a good example. This school is showing the children that they just don't care. This is quite plainly wrong.
I cycled home with my load of leaves to make into leafmould, sack of compostable fruit stuff and the bag of nice fruit which I'll have over the next few days with my muesli.
I then spent another two hours getting hedge out, cutting off the tops and shredding the thinner twigs for composting, cutting up the larger sticks for drying and recycling into heat, and putting the roots (35 today) into a plastic sack so another Freecycler can have them and plant a new hedge. I came in at 6pm and had a nice plate of Bulgar wheat with roast veg, watercress, carrot-sticks, baked beans and a cheese straw. Not bad!
At half 6 I headed off to the Millennium Bridge, as Councillor Andy D'Agorne had invited me to see the new lighting possibilities there. When the bridge was built, it did have some good lighting but then vandals discovered they could easily destroy the lights, and also, repairs and replacements meant the bridge had to be closed. So, the Council have teamed up with Philips Lighting, and this evening were looking at a variety of lighting solutions. To cut running costs and reduce the frequency of replacing them, the bridge will have LED (light emitting diode) technology. This will allow very dynamic colour changes, for special occasions, or white light for normal use. When Philips re-did the lighting on a bridge in, I think, Newcastle, the cost of lighting the structure dropped from several tens of thousands of pounds a year to just £4k, if I remember the quote correctly. There were some interesting conversations about renewable electricity and some of the lighting choices. The reduction in overall energy use is the greenest thing about the project.
I had to leave at 7.20 as I was due at a York in Transition meeting at The Stables.
This was a good meeting, with a visitor from Spofforth and a small bunch of the committed Transitioneers. It was a relaxed but productive meeting, one which leaves me with a few jobs to do... including working on the supporters leaflet. I had a chat with Di afterwards, and agreed to visit her in a couple of weeks to plan a first meeting of the Huntington and New Earswick Transition Initiative. I decided not to go to the pub afterwards as I was tired.
Home soon after 10pm. Despite tiredness, stayed up til 2am writing and watching the last episode of Electric Dreams on BBC4.
I went into the garden and dug up more hedge. Just before 1pm I came in for lunch and awaited the builder. He actually came at 1.45. I suppose I'll have to get used to 'builder time'. The York Press had already arrived and I was delighted to see that they had published an article about the Charity Fancy Dress Ball, including David's photo.
I had a bit of time in the garden but towards 3pm I got my bike ready to go and get our youngest, as Gill had had a 'ladies who lunch' meeting in town and was only just getting the bus back home (she rang me to check I was collecting him) I arrived a bit early, despite collecting my first two sacks of autumn leaves on Windmill Lane. I had an extra plastic sack so when I got to school I couldn't help but check the playground bins. The school is STILL not recycling the huge volumes of fruit the children throw away. In just 5 minutes I filled a plastic sack with half-eaten apples, banana skins, raisin packets, paper towels. I weighed it with my spring balance when I got home... 17 and a half kilos. I also retrieved 12 uneaten apples, two uneaten bananas, one unopened orange, one uneaten peach and a bag of grapes, uneaten. These were all thrown away and NOT RECYCLED. I will wash these and eat them myself. I also checked the big bins and these were full of mixed waste including plenty of recyclable material such as metal cans and cardboard and paper. The dedicated paper bin was overflowing but had some non-paper items in it. This means it will probably be rejected and will go to landfill.
Shame on you Lord Deramore's School. I started trying to get you to compost your fruit for schools waste in 2001. And 8 years later, you have removed the bins you grudgingly let me install, have lost several parts of my bins, making them useless, and are now putting about 8Kg/day easily biodegradable fruit waste into landfill. Shameful. I am SO ANGRY.
I am also very angry with the City of York Council for letting this crap situation continue. I let them know I don't know how long ago, and was promised that there would be some changes and that Lord Deramores School would be dragged in to the 21st Century and be taught how to behave in an appropriate manner when you are a school teaching children who will have to cope with catastrophic climate change caused precisely by the kind of ignorance and lack of care that the school is demonstrating. I am FURIOUS. I even spent many hours helping to start and then volunteering with Green Thumbs, primarily to facilitate a composting area or project... and now Green Thumbs isn't happening and the children aren't learning about gardening. I think they should give the money back to the Co-op who would re-allocate it to a worthy project.
What more can I do? I want to embarrass them into action. I want them prosecuted. I need to tell them and the world what I think of their attitude. Schools exist to prepare the next generation to get by in the world. They teach various skills. They should set a good example. This school is showing the children that they just don't care. This is quite plainly wrong.
I cycled home with my load of leaves to make into leafmould, sack of compostable fruit stuff and the bag of nice fruit which I'll have over the next few days with my muesli.
I then spent another two hours getting hedge out, cutting off the tops and shredding the thinner twigs for composting, cutting up the larger sticks for drying and recycling into heat, and putting the roots (35 today) into a plastic sack so another Freecycler can have them and plant a new hedge. I came in at 6pm and had a nice plate of Bulgar wheat with roast veg, watercress, carrot-sticks, baked beans and a cheese straw. Not bad!
At half 6 I headed off to the Millennium Bridge, as Councillor Andy D'Agorne had invited me to see the new lighting possibilities there. When the bridge was built, it did have some good lighting but then vandals discovered they could easily destroy the lights, and also, repairs and replacements meant the bridge had to be closed. So, the Council have teamed up with Philips Lighting, and this evening were looking at a variety of lighting solutions. To cut running costs and reduce the frequency of replacing them, the bridge will have LED (light emitting diode) technology. This will allow very dynamic colour changes, for special occasions, or white light for normal use. When Philips re-did the lighting on a bridge in, I think, Newcastle, the cost of lighting the structure dropped from several tens of thousands of pounds a year to just £4k, if I remember the quote correctly. There were some interesting conversations about renewable electricity and some of the lighting choices. The reduction in overall energy use is the greenest thing about the project.
I had to leave at 7.20 as I was due at a York in Transition meeting at The Stables.
This was a good meeting, with a visitor from Spofforth and a small bunch of the committed Transitioneers. It was a relaxed but productive meeting, one which leaves me with a few jobs to do... including working on the supporters leaflet. I had a chat with Di afterwards, and agreed to visit her in a couple of weeks to plan a first meeting of the Huntington and New Earswick Transition Initiative. I decided not to go to the pub afterwards as I was tired.
Home soon after 10pm. Despite tiredness, stayed up til 2am writing and watching the last episode of Electric Dreams on BBC4.
I woke and was aware that our eldest did go to school but our youngest had a cough and sniff and was very tired, so he stayed at home. I used the good weather to do some tidying up in the garden... a wheelbarrow full of compostables from the greengrocers which needed to be roughly chopped up and loaded onto the latest pallet-heap, also some shredding, hedge material from last week, and some sacks that Gladys from Thief Lane has saved for me, including Berberis which is prickly.
I got a message form Lynn saying that she'd like to ask Freshways for a raffle prize for the LETS Healthy Living Event. I agreed to meet her outside the shop just after 11 to give the letter to Raj; he wasn't at work today but one of his employees said they'd give it to him or his brother. I then went on to Country Fresh with another letter and poster, and Richard said no problem to providing us with a prize. What a generous guy! I'll collect it next Wednesday.
On this leg of the journey I met a chap called Paddy who is an estate worker, who's role it is to do various jobs around the small bungalows between Lawrence St and Heslington Road, and he was cutting up some elder branches with secateurs and putting the bits in a bin bag. I stopped and said hello and asked if I could have the cut stuff, and he was only too happy. I had the cut branches and the sack of chopped up stuff... which was heading for 'the bin'. We had quite a long chat and I gave him my card and invited him to contact me if he was in a similar situation again. I also said I might be able to help him find a solution to this bad situation.
I came home and shredded this material... took about two minutes. It all filled just one small sack when shredded and made a layer on one of the current heaps.
I had a go at deleting loads of emails over lunch and found one from the chap in charge of waste and recycling in York, Geoff Derham. He had taken charge of the sorry situation with Lord Deramore's School's approach to my composting attempts. I sent him an email asking if anything had happened... had there been a meeting? Were the school going to improve their 'eco-credentials'? What had happened to my compost bin the alleged Health and Safety advisor had ordered to be removed? I got a fairly swift reply. There had been a meeting. The school was going to undertake some process of greening, but this would take time. My compost bins will be returned to me by lorry in the next couple of days. I have received no thanks or any communication from the school regarding the years of waste-reduction work and composting, nor the work I put in with Green Thumbs. I do feel hurt and angry, yet I also see this situation as having a potentially positive outcome as this school might, just might develop ways of being a 'shining example of sustainability within the community' which has always been my aim. Just a pity it should happen with them virtually excluding me.
I picked our first two courgettes and we had these for tea, with nutloaf croquettes, potatoes and corn on the cob. I had to rush out to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel, meeting at the Tang Hall Community Centre, where I was due to hand over the Clerk's role to Vicky... something I'm sure she'll do a much better job of than me. We did go through several applications though, and I got away shortly before 7.30 and headed down to Green Drinks.
This is an idea which started in 1989 in London, where like-minded environmentally conscious people meet up for a drink and a chat. Simple really. This was York's first.. upstairs at the Yorkshire Terrier on Stonegate, made reasonably accessible with a stairlift, but along narrow corridors. It was well attended and I was pleased to meet Susanne, an archaeology support worker, and Pam, a newbie to York but Green Party member, plus various friends including Dave and Andy, Lynn, Rich and Ivana, Bryony, Katie, Jennie, and others. Had some good chats.
I left fairly early... before 10 anyway as I was tired.
I got a message form Lynn saying that she'd like to ask Freshways for a raffle prize for the LETS Healthy Living Event. I agreed to meet her outside the shop just after 11 to give the letter to Raj; he wasn't at work today but one of his employees said they'd give it to him or his brother. I then went on to Country Fresh with another letter and poster, and Richard said no problem to providing us with a prize. What a generous guy! I'll collect it next Wednesday.
On this leg of the journey I met a chap called Paddy who is an estate worker, who's role it is to do various jobs around the small bungalows between Lawrence St and Heslington Road, and he was cutting up some elder branches with secateurs and putting the bits in a bin bag. I stopped and said hello and asked if I could have the cut stuff, and he was only too happy. I had the cut branches and the sack of chopped up stuff... which was heading for 'the bin'. We had quite a long chat and I gave him my card and invited him to contact me if he was in a similar situation again. I also said I might be able to help him find a solution to this bad situation.
I came home and shredded this material... took about two minutes. It all filled just one small sack when shredded and made a layer on one of the current heaps.
I had a go at deleting loads of emails over lunch and found one from the chap in charge of waste and recycling in York, Geoff Derham. He had taken charge of the sorry situation with Lord Deramore's School's approach to my composting attempts. I sent him an email asking if anything had happened... had there been a meeting? Were the school going to improve their 'eco-credentials'? What had happened to my compost bin the alleged Health and Safety advisor had ordered to be removed? I got a fairly swift reply. There had been a meeting. The school was going to undertake some process of greening, but this would take time. My compost bins will be returned to me by lorry in the next couple of days. I have received no thanks or any communication from the school regarding the years of waste-reduction work and composting, nor the work I put in with Green Thumbs. I do feel hurt and angry, yet I also see this situation as having a potentially positive outcome as this school might, just might develop ways of being a 'shining example of sustainability within the community' which has always been my aim. Just a pity it should happen with them virtually excluding me.
I picked our first two courgettes and we had these for tea, with nutloaf croquettes, potatoes and corn on the cob. I had to rush out to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel, meeting at the Tang Hall Community Centre, where I was due to hand over the Clerk's role to Vicky... something I'm sure she'll do a much better job of than me. We did go through several applications though, and I got away shortly before 7.30 and headed down to Green Drinks.
This is an idea which started in 1989 in London, where like-minded environmentally conscious people meet up for a drink and a chat. Simple really. This was York's first.. upstairs at the Yorkshire Terrier on Stonegate, made reasonably accessible with a stairlift, but along narrow corridors. It was well attended and I was pleased to meet Susanne, an archaeology support worker, and Pam, a newbie to York but Green Party member, plus various friends including Dave and Andy, Lynn, Rich and Ivana, Bryony, Katie, Jennie, and others. Had some good chats.
I left fairly early... before 10 anyway as I was tired.
a busy day... will update this on Wednesday to report on Carbon Detox and several other events.
It was indeed a busy day, although it had a slightly later start than I expected... Gill walked to school with our youngest before I got up.... nice! She then went on into town by bus and from there up to the other school to deliver something and from there to visit Ashley for lunch... so I had the morning to myself and I did a variety of jobs around the house.
At 1pm I was booked into a seminar at the Biology Department of the University of York, entitled 'How Can We Communicate Climate Change Better?'with George Marshall, who is performing his stand-up comedy 'Carbon Detox' tonight at the Theatre Royal. George has a fascinating and honourable 'history', including being one of the founders of Rising Tide and working for Greenpeace and the Rainforest Foundation, as well as the governments of Papua New Guinea and Germany! Then he joined Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN) which amongst other things trains people in how to communicate about climate change, helping them with public speaking, interesting ways of getting complicated information over and the like.
So this seminar was packed, and I got a lot out of it, despite it being a one-day training packed into about an hour! We first looked at various messages used by advertising agencies to try to achieve change, and rated them as good or bad. Then looked at various parts of the process, including the message, the messenger, the medium, the audience and the action,all of which have to be considered when trying to get a message across. He showed us several adverts including Don't Mess With Texas and viral videos like Greg Craven (for instance....) and we discussed why they work and why others don't. One of the key factors is 'peer to peer' information... one of the reasons York Rotters has been successful.... people listen to their friends, family and workmates more than to experts or Governments.
That finished shortly before I had to go to school to pick up our youngest, so I went straight from there to school, feeling quite elated and happy. I had taken a load of paper plates from the seminar (there was some nosh available) to put as a carbon-rich layer in the compost bin I manage at school....but when I arrived, the bin I am currently filling had been moved and the contents disposed of, I know not where. I found the empty bin round the back of the school so I went to speak to the school secretary about what had happened. She told me that a Health and Safety person had said that composting wasn't allowed in schools, and had ordered it to be removed. I was furious, but remained polite as the messenger in this case should not be shot (just the H+S idiot). On the way home I was furiously composing a letter in my head to fire off to a number of people, but I couldn't do it immediately as I'd invited Richard around for 4pm so I had a nice chat and a cuppa with him instead.
Soon after he went, to close the shop, I had some tea and then cycled off to the Theatre Royal, stopping by at a friend's who'd asked me to pop in, as she needed to talk to me, and indeed she did have some very sad news to share, very upsetting. What a rollercoaster of a day.... already!
My role at the Theatre was to stand behind a table and sell books... George's Carbon Detox book, and Rob Hopkins' 'Transition Handbook' which is a must for Transitioneers. Gill was due to follow me down there by bus once our lovely babysitter Simon had arrived. She actually arrived about 10 minutes into the show, as the bus was late or something.
So, the long-awaited Carbon Detox stand-up-comedy show. Well, although I'm no a fan of this kind of thing, it was good.... it certainly helped me get my head around the subject just a little more. He has some great analogies and interesting ways of looking at the subject. He suggests that climate change is a bit like a rollercoaster that we're all on... some of us know it and are getting prepared, many others will suddenly wake up at the beginning of the ride and it may very well be scary. I liked his way of describing the average Brit's carbon footprint, using our friend Candy who volunteered, and asking her to take quite big strides across the stage.... two for heating, two and a half for food, various smaller steps for assorted car journeys, 6 strides for a flight to America etc etc, and then taking one and a half steps back for getting renewable electricity, three inches back for unplugging phone chargers and switching off standby buttons, quarter of an inch back for using re-usable bags... a great way to communicate the different impacts of our various behaviours and choices. Nice one George!
I had a cider in the interval, and got a beer for Gill and our friend Sarah, who is moving to Bristol at the weekend. We will miss her, as she is one of the lovliest people we know.
At the end of the show I raced out to get our book sales table ready for the inevitable rush, and George signed copies of his book (and at least one copy of Rob's book, hahaha!) I had a good chat with Verna about the nonsense which has happened at school, and chatted with another of my favourite people, Sam, who had two of her daughters with her.
Right at the end of the evening, George was in a tizzy as he'd lost his bike lock key.... I do hope he managed to find it!
I cycled home, getting in just before 11pm, and then managed to get my thoughts down in a polite email which I sent to the school, the lovely people at Green Thumbs Gang, several city Councillors, the sustainability officer, Verna who is on the board of governors, and others. The school HAS to get itself into the 21st Century and take on board what the Government has said they must do, which is to be a 'Beacon of Excellence in the centre of their community' re Sustainable Development... it's called ESD. (excellent links here) I didn't finish on the computer til nearly 4am.
It was indeed a busy day, although it had a slightly later start than I expected... Gill walked to school with our youngest before I got up.... nice! She then went on into town by bus and from there up to the other school to deliver something and from there to visit Ashley for lunch... so I had the morning to myself and I did a variety of jobs around the house.
At 1pm I was booked into a seminar at the Biology Department of the University of York, entitled 'How Can We Communicate Climate Change Better?'with George Marshall, who is performing his stand-up comedy 'Carbon Detox' tonight at the Theatre Royal. George has a fascinating and honourable 'history', including being one of the founders of Rising Tide and working for Greenpeace and the Rainforest Foundation, as well as the governments of Papua New Guinea and Germany! Then he joined Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN) which amongst other things trains people in how to communicate about climate change, helping them with public speaking, interesting ways of getting complicated information over and the like.
So this seminar was packed, and I got a lot out of it, despite it being a one-day training packed into about an hour! We first looked at various messages used by advertising agencies to try to achieve change, and rated them as good or bad. Then looked at various parts of the process, including the message, the messenger, the medium, the audience and the action,all of which have to be considered when trying to get a message across. He showed us several adverts including Don't Mess With Texas and viral videos like Greg Craven (for instance....) and we discussed why they work and why others don't. One of the key factors is 'peer to peer' information... one of the reasons York Rotters has been successful.... people listen to their friends, family and workmates more than to experts or Governments.
That finished shortly before I had to go to school to pick up our youngest, so I went straight from there to school, feeling quite elated and happy. I had taken a load of paper plates from the seminar (there was some nosh available) to put as a carbon-rich layer in the compost bin I manage at school....but when I arrived, the bin I am currently filling had been moved and the contents disposed of, I know not where. I found the empty bin round the back of the school so I went to speak to the school secretary about what had happened. She told me that a Health and Safety person had said that composting wasn't allowed in schools, and had ordered it to be removed. I was furious, but remained polite as the messenger in this case should not be shot (just the H+S idiot). On the way home I was furiously composing a letter in my head to fire off to a number of people, but I couldn't do it immediately as I'd invited Richard around for 4pm so I had a nice chat and a cuppa with him instead.
Soon after he went, to close the shop, I had some tea and then cycled off to the Theatre Royal, stopping by at a friend's who'd asked me to pop in, as she needed to talk to me, and indeed she did have some very sad news to share, very upsetting. What a rollercoaster of a day.... already!
My role at the Theatre was to stand behind a table and sell books... George's Carbon Detox book, and Rob Hopkins' 'Transition Handbook' which is a must for Transitioneers. Gill was due to follow me down there by bus once our lovely babysitter Simon had arrived. She actually arrived about 10 minutes into the show, as the bus was late or something.
So, the long-awaited Carbon Detox stand-up-comedy show. Well, although I'm no a fan of this kind of thing, it was good.... it certainly helped me get my head around the subject just a little more. He has some great analogies and interesting ways of looking at the subject. He suggests that climate change is a bit like a rollercoaster that we're all on... some of us know it and are getting prepared, many others will suddenly wake up at the beginning of the ride and it may very well be scary. I liked his way of describing the average Brit's carbon footprint, using our friend Candy who volunteered, and asking her to take quite big strides across the stage.... two for heating, two and a half for food, various smaller steps for assorted car journeys, 6 strides for a flight to America etc etc, and then taking one and a half steps back for getting renewable electricity, three inches back for unplugging phone chargers and switching off standby buttons, quarter of an inch back for using re-usable bags... a great way to communicate the different impacts of our various behaviours and choices. Nice one George!
I had a cider in the interval, and got a beer for Gill and our friend Sarah, who is moving to Bristol at the weekend. We will miss her, as she is one of the lovliest people we know.
At the end of the show I raced out to get our book sales table ready for the inevitable rush, and George signed copies of his book (and at least one copy of Rob's book, hahaha!) I had a good chat with Verna about the nonsense which has happened at school, and chatted with another of my favourite people, Sam, who had two of her daughters with her.
Right at the end of the evening, George was in a tizzy as he'd lost his bike lock key.... I do hope he managed to find it!
I cycled home, getting in just before 11pm, and then managed to get my thoughts down in a polite email which I sent to the school, the lovely people at Green Thumbs Gang, several city Councillors, the sustainability officer, Verna who is on the board of governors, and others. The school HAS to get itself into the 21st Century and take on board what the Government has said they must do, which is to be a 'Beacon of Excellence in the centre of their community' re Sustainable Development... it's called ESD. (excellent links here) I didn't finish on the computer til nearly 4am.
