Recent Comments

1. Get Rid of Your Car - OK, ambitious, but... - 05 Dec 2007

   To be car-less, one must live near good public transport. Such areas are often great, as many people walk around or take buses. This can lead to better local shops, more community etc. Perhaps less crime. So you get rewarded for being good. ;-)

   Its less stress to know with no car you can still get to work, food shops etc. If you lose your job and another comes up in another town, you could catch a train to work if, as a kind of insurance policy, you live near a station.

   Insurance + road tax + MOT + breakdown cover costs £600/year before driving a mile. That’s 10 weekend car rentals. But in fact, with cheap advance train tickets, I’ve not rented a car yet!

   Many of us go car-less for the sake of other people, but even looking at it from a selfish angle, there can be benefits in a car-free mentality.

2. DIY vegetables! - 05 Dec 2007

   Everyone should plant an apple tree at home! ;-) You can get baby ones if short of space. Pick a disease resistant variety so organic and no work. Leave nettles growing near to keep off the pests. Free food for barely any work! Apart from delicious apples, it frees up money to give to charity, or, spare apples to give to people who need food, or sell for charity…

   Come to think of it, why doesn’t the council just plant apple trees all over the place? Thats one way to feed the homeless!

3. Shop Small (Buy local, Switch from the Supermarket) - 05 Dec 2007

   I avoid shopping at Tesc-Satan-Co, As-Beelzebub-Da or Sains-Nearly-As-Evil-Burys as much as possible.

4. Offset your Airmiles - 05 Dec 2007

   I heard a comment on “Today in Parliament” that carbon offsetting was the modern day equivalent of “indulgences” (the practice a few centuries ago of people giving money to the church in order to somehow buy less time in purgatory). This sounds uncomfortably close to the truth. Whatever you pay does not really undo the original crime.