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Save £500 a year in energy costs?

imageAfter a few days away, playing with the family on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors, the return to riding the bike to work took consideration. It was 2°c, ‘twas raining and the sky was grey… I took the car to work. #nobrainer? The following day I needed to pop to the theatre after work, so I took the car. Why not?

The commute in the car was nice. After 4 years of riding a bike to work I caught myself driving with more of a bike-rider’s mind and view. I found myself using the mirrors much more, I found myself assessing the road and obstacles more readily. Surprisingly, I found myself not getting frustrated while I sat there in the multiple queues. However, it might not take long for sedentary routine habits to come back. I am wary of the automatic pull of mechanised drive and the boxed in separation of the driver is not a healthy state to be in. Do you remember that ‘auto-pilot’ part of the drive in? Do you remember breathing as you drive?

imageYes, I had a comfy seat, I had sparkly yet shallow entertainment on tap, I just had to sit there soak it up.  But, I was missing my daily exercise, I was missing the endorphins, I was missing fresh air, I was missing the experience of really breathing! I was missing the interaction with the people I pass daily. And it was costing me £2 a day in fuel.

The specific fuel costs have dropped considerably over the last few years but still 7.7miles costs about = £1.08 that’s  £10.80 a week. that’s £500 a year. I am lucky, I guess, as my work’s in a undesirable city location I don’t need to pay for parking. I’m chained to a desk so I spend nothing from Monday to Friday. No impulsive chocolate bars or bottles of sugar.

I have to admit the pull of the car is strong but after two days in the car, today I took the bike again. Fresh air, endorphins, exercise, passing friends “Morning! Where’ve you been? Are you ok?”, real breathing…  and saving at least £500 a year?

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There’s books in them there hills!

CotswoldsJPRWhile walking with the folks in the Cotswolds this weekend I was reminded of people’s need to read, and the fact that communities use a ‘third place‘ whether as a water-cooler moment or a refuge away from home…  “escape with a good book!”

LavertonBookExchange
Laverton Book Exchange

As have many others, the village of Laverton, Gloucestershire, now seems to have its own “Book Exchange” I understand they have lost the once cherished GCC mobile library provision and the idea of using their old K6 phone box as a ‘book exchange’ has been realised. (kiosk number six – designed to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V)

“Despite the growth in digital technologies, there is still a clear need and demand within communities for modern, safe, non-judgmental, flexible spaces, where citizens of all ages can mine the knowledge of the world for free, supported by the help and knowledge of the library workforce,”

So said a report from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport last year.

Just another observation – People use libraries!

“A good book dies every time we switch on bad TV…”

The Bookmark People have been supporting libraries for more than 15 years with bespoke Promotional Library Bookmarks that spread the news in their unique inimitable way.

With digital advertising becoming the norm, returning to tactile touchy-feely print can set u apart!

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40 days in a wilderness…

40days2“It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under…”

Ok so we might be far from GMM’s jungle but ‘our’ world can still seem wild… And the wilderness can often be as empty, shallow, and scorching as a desert…

40 days in a desert or wilderness…
What might you do?
I guess coming out of a British winter and into spring can be a tad like coming back from the edge of a wilderness and back to so-called civilisation. New starts, spring, light, warmth, chocolate, holiday… February and the festival of cleansing. The promise of longer days…
What do we choose as we latch onto life’s footholds?
What parts of culture snare us and sucker our energies?
What ambitions do we expect and what desires might absorb us?

40days1The invitation & promise of glittering treasures, powerful position, reward and self-fulfilment is ever-present.
We have a choice, but habit can become a powerful deception. Sometimes we choose not to choose.
The wilderness, a wild untamed place; our world is essentially a wild untamed place, our cultural behaviours are often wilder than mother nature’s harmonies might recommend.

40days3Perhaps taking out in our wilderness and re-evaluating some of our habits or treasures might be worthwhile.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…

Where your treasures are, that’s where the essence of you springs from…

40 days in a desert or wilderness…
What might we do, next?

LentSMC
These are the things people gave up for Lent 2014 according to Twitter.

 

 

Lent invites us to stop, let go, open up and face our chaos…

“…and then the angels came and attended to him”

 

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Toffee-crisp

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my black dog

She, or he, has dropped their toffee-crisp.

It lay on the ground as I passed by, it was still there when I returned.

Somehow on their trip to school it was lost, dropped, it fell from the security of a warm loving hand. Perhaps lovingly packed, it held promise of mid-day sustenance, smiles, security, glossy colour and a sugary boost.

As we make our way through our day, habits help us; help us stay sane.

Keeping chemicals in balance, emotion in check, perhaps we all need our toffee-crisps or such like. Soft opiates that keep anxieties, loss, loneliness, fear and anger in their personal private places.

This specific routine-tonic is now lost, being trampled by passers-by in the wet grime of a city street.

Will she find it missing when she hopes for it ?

Will he find it lacking when he needs it ?

Sometimes we lose it…

 

As I passed by again today, it was no longer there.

Let’s hope you have what you need today.

 

a black dogI’ve recently tried again to reduce my reliance on SSRIs, specifically Citalopram. Alas, it seems for now I still need my corrective fix.  Why affecting my neurons reuptake of serotonin should influence my character such, I do not know, but in 2010 I was diagnosed with depression. Along with exercise, NLP and a lot of attention to perspective and outlook etc, SSRIs seem to be essential to keeping me balanced.

Perhaps like a shortsighted person needs glasses, my neurons need assistance.

After 5 years I have again tried to go without this prescribed aid.  I recently tapered it off from one tab a day to one every other day, and then one every third day… but alas ‘the world’ returns. I work the other morning to tweet “When u wake with weights of the world shredding holes in your brain, fear, worry, empty, fullness, lack, middle-aged, middle-class selfishness” and another to “Joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy utter joy…”

Without the SSRIs my thought patterns and emotions range from extreme vibrant beautiful joy to killing ripping dejection. The thing is, I would rather have the spectrum of life where corners are illuminated and wonders are glimpsed than the narrow numbing limited perspective of the medicated view. But with the broader illumination comes an awareness of lacking and the missing failure of nothing in particular.

I have never really enjoyed the plastic quick fix of toffee-crisp-like tonics but I think we all need them.

But… lent approaches… what will we do…

…without?

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Riding a bike…

Bike0215Just a post about the bike – again. It really is a true blessing…

OK, as you know the bike takes a pounding from bad road surface and infrastructure, and used daily it picks up loads of grime what wears away at the chain cogs if not cleaned regularly. It IS NOT cleaned regularly enough – I have a life to live. And so after two and half years the chain-set & cassette are very worn! I have been hobbling along for a few months until the jumping chain became unbearable. TL£ required.

The cost of a full-service and replacement chain-set is nothing compared to the running costs of a car and it’s a pleasure to spend money on something that you appreciate daily; if you ride for long enough, you begin to feel the bike, it becomes part of you!

Carl and the lads at Thurmo City Cycles have done a great job again. Today’s commute was utter joy! The bike’s solid as a rock!  The addition of a riser lifting the handle bars 2 inches is fantastic.  I think it’s yet another stage in the move to a chilled out ride. I am not a cyclist with ambitions of speed and record breaking PBs. I simple use a bike to get from A to B.

I took the car…

While the parts came and the bike was in repair I took the car into work! Oh yes I did!  On the Friday it too 1 hour and 30 minutes to travel the 7.5 miles into Leicester. On Monday it took 1 hour to travel the same distance out of Leicester.  It was simply laughably ridiculous! The rush hour traffic in Leicester City is just sad.  My commute on my bike always takes between 30 and 40 minutes, this usually depends on wind conditions.

Riding a bike:

  • You will save money.
  • You will get fitter and be healthier.
  • Over time you will start to see the world differently.

 

 

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And when the angels leave…

Then the angel departed…
Before Christmas I was asked to read a short reading at the local church as part of their annual Carol Service. Not something I have done often recently, unlike my earlier days when reading in church was commonplace. I was initially quite underwhelmed by the fantastical reading I was given; from Luke 1:26-38 ‘The Birth of Jesus Foretold’ “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent…‘Do not be afraid, …you have found favour with God. …the power of the Most High will overshadow you… For nothing will be impossible with God… ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed.”

The hills are alive…
As a treat this Christmas we took the kids to see ‘The Sound of Music’ at Leicester Curve. A remarkable show! It’s a refreshing re-presentation of something we all think we know well. But I recommend that you review presumptions and supposed familiarity.
For me the unexpected resonance came in the pull between religious peace and worldly distress, and indeed religious distress and worldly peace.
Coincidentally the backdrop to several abbey related scenes was a powerful ~20 foot square representation of the fantastical Annunciation, by Botticelli. On the painting’s original frame is’s written in Latin “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.” Coincidentally from the reading above.

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Hope in a story…
During holidays (once holy) we might encounter so many other tales and stories of truth winning over doubt, hope overcoming loss, the innocence of a child’s view washing worry and prejudice aside. I’ve just sat teary eyed through The Railway Children, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and we’ve still got Watership Down, E.T. and Babe still to watch.
In our annunciative occasions above, both Mary and Maria are given situations in which they find glorious beauty amongst tiresome disease.

But after the show…
If you’re privileged as we are to have ‘time off’ over Christmas; If you’re privileged as we are to have the warmth of a Christmassy sunday sofa, snuggled children, cold meats, cheese and a sneaky dandelion n burdock; we come out of a dark month of advent, a time of pregnant anticipation and we’re dazzled by lights, reflections, impressions, illusions, projections, melody and chorus. The nourishment we find at this time of year is swamped in salty riches and cloying delicacies that might cause indegestion and even dis-ease. The obligatory celebrations that accompany the turn of the year are yet to come…

But as Maria, Mary and Caracticus Potts came to realise, when the angel departs, one has to see things as they really are, after all one “has to learn to put those dreams to some practical use, not just sit around and think about them all the time.”?

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An impromptu Silent Night…

An impromptu Silent Night… Happy Christmas everyone…

J, E, A and P.

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Christmas Fudge

2014-12-17 18.17.54OK the only thing Christmassy about it is that it’s being made near Christmas time.

This year we’ve forgone the Mini Meat Pies, although I heartily recommend them, see here. But we have had a quick play in the kitchen and some Christmas Fudge is on the menu…

Cut to the chase man! Here’s the recipe:

  • 250g soft butter
  • One tin (397g) condensed milk! Yum – no licking!
  • 175ml milk
  • 2 tablespoons syrup
  • glacé cherries (chopped in half)
  • 800g  sugar
  • 2-4 vanilla pods. (My sister gave me mine for my bday in Nov.) Ta sis.

Line a 30cm tin with foil and lightly grease. (Prepare a glass of ice cold water)

Stick all of the above except the vanilla into a solid saucepan and bring to the boil.

Now, it’s vitally important that you keep an eye on it and stir it constantly. If the bottom get’s to hot it will stick and burn!

Boil  the mixture for 15-20 minutes, stirring all the time until it’s gone a light golden colour.
You can test it by dropping some into the ice cold water and it should turn solid but remain soft in the middle.
You’ll know when it turns – keep an eye on it cos it’ll happen all at once.
Depending on the pan’s size and how aggressively you boil it – it could take 10mins or could take 20mins. #patience

It will be very hot so no kids, dogs or mobile phones around to distract you!

When it’s ‘turned’, carefully take the pan off the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Using an electric whisk, whisk for a few minutes, the fudge will thicken – don’t over do it*.

Mix in the halved cherries, and pour or push (*depending on the consistency) the mixture into the tin.

Cool it in the fridge for a few hours then cut into squares using a sharp knife.

Cool further in the fridge.

Enjoy!     Mheeeery Chrimble!

 

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Advent-ure

Advent: “Reaching out to grasp eternal things” (Alfred Delp)

Like when you come in from a frosty day and the warmth of the room causes tingles and a buzzing glow to your skin, the vibrancy of life can be incandescent, the warmth of true simple joy can be fervent and intoxicating;

…from the fragrant zest of an orange to the dark dearth in evening shadows, from the faces of children to the silence of a stranger, from the energy released in simple live music to the wisdom imbued in beautiful writing…

P1100952X

Yeaaaa! I have recently been in a position to remove the blanket that I’ve had for the the last three years and i’ve returned my brain’s chemistry to it’s ‘natural’ {?} state.  It’s a balancing act but after experiencing an extensive period of mood-altering drugs I think they have served their purpose (for now).

I have first noticed that I am again emotionally up & down like a yo-yo in a lift – this is good as long as you can find ways to manage it.  I have also been dreaming like a trooper, like I used to do #greatfun.  While taking citalopram I very rarely remember dreaming – very rarely did I struggle to sleep.  Yes, it seems that in my daily happenings I am noticing enhanced interest in stuff, as I say emotionally up & down, and probably creatively up and down.  Having worked on developing ways of seeing things differently and of managing stuff differently, I’d rather be up (and yes down) than stuck on ‘floor three’ forever (I think).  That said, I would recommend following trusted professionals’ advice if they suggest a stint of medication is wise, it was wise and essential for me.

TheWarmthOfTheSun

The ammunition, enlightenment, wisdom, tools and insights that I’ve found from numerous sources over the last few years has been invaluable and I am eternally thankful for those near and far that have helped.

Some simple advice from Brian:

Four simple steps, slowly
1. Stop. Bring yourself to a halt. A proper one. Be still. {this might take a considered while…}
2. Relax. Notice if you’ve any physical tension, and let your body relax.
3. Breathe a little more slowly and deeply.
4. Smile. This is a good and important {amazing}  thing you’re doing…

Reach out to grasp {glimpse} eternal things…

If you don’t get it first time {I didn’t}, try again another time.

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The advent of festooning chiaroscuro…

Advent2014Have you ever seen festooning bees? Nature?

Advent approaches, the advent of a time of expectation…
A season of warmth and cold, light and dark… (in Britain anyway)
A season of emotion and sharing…

Three words resonate in my brain:

Chiaroscuro; the use of contrast between light and dark…

Festooning; remarkable natural collaboration between bees when building, creating…

Oxytocin; a remarkable neurochemical which among other things helps motivate us to put others first… (or love?)

 MeadowViewNov2014

The recognition that neurochemicals play a big part in our lives has helped me over the last few years. After diagnosis with clinical depression four years ago, a mix of cognitive behavioural practice, physical activity, and disciplined psychological grounding (as well as numerous other ideas) have helped me stay sane-ish. On top of this, for 4 years my serotonin levels have been balanced by the drug Citalopram. After serious consideration, I am now going through the process of stopped taking this SSRI… as Mr H. says “some of us need a coat when the climate changes”.

Will you festoon this winter? Studies have shown that physical activity, emotive interaction, physical expression etc all help balancing neurochemicals. Yes it’s a scientific fact that chemicals control our lives, but, to a certain extent, we can help control our chemicals, by good old fashioned ‘natural’ ways.

I am well aware that philosophically the ‘natural way’ is debatable, but it can’t be denied that the natural act of breathing is the difference between life and death.

I have found that; breathing, being, striping our pretence and plastic fabrications back to the essence of being alive has helped me immensely.

Stop. Breath. Walk, exercise, talk, sing, see chiaroscuro… 

“Wake up“, as the the teacher said, “get up and walk”…

Advent approaches, the advent of a time of expectation…
A season of warmth and cold, light and dark…
A season of emotion and sharing…

Have you ever seen festooning bees?