The centre of our stay in Cornwall was the delightful fishing village of Port Isaac. Here we rented a little cottage from the National Trust for our stay. The Birdcage - centre of picture The Birdcage was really like no other cottage that I've been in before. It is split over three floors and the main body of the house is though to be over 200 years old. On the ground floor you open the door straight in to the kitchen. Off to the side is an extension containing the bathroom. A very steep set of stairs takes you from the kitchen up into the lounge and a further set of steep stairs goes from ... read more
The Big Green Bus
I'm thrilled to see that the work of one of my favourite charities, The Big Green Idea, has made it on to YouTube. If you've not heard of the charity of the Big Green Bus before then please take a look at these videos. ... read more
Silence is golden…
Apologies for the blogging silence. As Liz has pointed out in the comments I left on a bit of a cliff hanger sitting in the dark following a power cut one evening. That threw all my plans to pot and hence I wasn't able to tell you about our planned long weekend away.Mr C and I have just returned from a wonderful break in Port Isaac, Cornwall, where we've been celebrating our first wedding anniversary. It was a truly perfect trip with the most amazing weather for March. There is so much to tell you about, including cliff top walks, National Trust properties ... read more
Sitting in the dark
I was planning a nice long blog post tonight, complete with photos. The powers that be are working against me though as Mr C and I are currently sat here in a candle lit room listening to a battery powered radio. When we arrived back home after meeting up with my parents we found a substantial part of St Albans in darkness due to a power cut. Talking to a local friend, who still has power, it seems that there was a strange blip to their supply just over an hour ago (8.15pm) and we guess that is related to this. The electricity company reckons we should be back on by 11.30pm but that ruins my ... read more
Spend or save?
It seems that being thrifty is a fashionable thing at the moment. The newspapers and television seem to be telling us more and more about how people are "making do" with what they have rather than buying new. Last year there were articles in the news about sewing machine sales going up due to people wanting to be more green. Now, as unemployment rises, people are instead using their sewing machines to repair what clothes they already own and make it last longer. When I first started this blog, I wrote of being keen to learn some of the skills that my ... read more
Pictures, not words
Looking back over the last few week's worth of posts I notice that they all seem to be a bit heavy on the words. In contrast here are a couple of things in my flat that are currently making me smile whenever I look at them. ... read more
Gran’s ginger biscuits
One of the strongest memories from childhood is being given home made ginger biscuits whenever we went to visit my Gran. There was always a supply in the biscuit barrel in her sideboard and my sister and I loved them. Gran's now in her nineties and arthritis in her hands prevents her from baking as much as she would like. Whenever I smell anything with ginger in I am taken back to sitting in her back room and munching a biscuit with a glass of squash. Tomorrow is the WWA AGM and I offered to sort out refreshments. Biscuits was the obvious thing to make and it seemed a while since I'd ... read more
Britain by train
This week I seem to have been sending most of my time on trains, or in meetings. Out of the five working days this week I have only been in London for one, and am again elsewhere tomorrow. I often have meetings away from my main office, but not normally so many in a week. Being constantly on the go is very tiring in itself and hence I decided to travel everywhere by train this week, rather than driving as I often do (mainly as to save time admittedly). As well as the obvious carbon benefit over driving I do find that there are many other advantages and disadvantages compared to just ... read more
Remember that there’s more to life…
... than the day job. I've had a difficult couple of days at work and it can be all too easy to let this sort of thing get me down. This time I"m trying to fight back though and rise above everything that's going on. The weather here in the UK seems to have turned in the last 24 hours. As I left my office (far too late) this evening the wind blew my umbrella inside out and broke one of the struts. Back in St Albans walking home from the station I had no option but to brave the elements. It felt fantastic though. It was still reasonably warm, but with a fresh edge to the ... read more
Man Alive – Dave Hill
When returning some other books to the book sharing shelf at work I picked up a copy of Dave Hill's Man Alive, mainly being attracted by the cover design. I thought it may be a bit like some of the John O'Farrell books that I've enjoyed before. Not quite though.Derek Hawker does something to do with designing shopping centres. He seems to be having a mid-life crisis. His wife, Denise, has gone to China for a year to visit pandas and teach English. Son Matthew is in Australia and keeps trying to psycho-analysis his Dad over e-mail. Daughter Charlotte is a student ... read more