By dmg on 2/27/2008 5:11 PM

Last night I watched a really interesting programme on traffic.  It was about organising a traffic free day in Marlow.  Although the programme showed the uphill struggle it was to get people out of their cars - it also showed what can be done when we all put our minds to it. 

Now  although I do my bit for recycling and try to consider the environment - I can not say I am born again about it.  

Like most people I get frustrated about the amount of traffic on the road - but to be honest I don't generally do anything on a day to day basis to change my ingrained habits.

But this programme really made me think.  It took 9 minutes for someone to drive and park in the centre of Marlow - few seconds more to walk the same distance - and just four minutes to bike it. 

The lady whose task it was to empower the town of Marlow to take action was a source of inspir ... Read More »

By dmg on 2/25/2008 9:21 PM

As I sit here in the cold....I have no heating now. The British Gas saga may turn into a dedicated blog all of its own at this rate.  I will probably have a moan about that tomorrow - if as I suspect the heating has now broken down......

I  wonder where the last week has gone. My plan with this blog is to try and write three times a week. Not a great committment. Well I missed that target badly last week.

The thing is I would't mind if I had been   somewhere or done something special - but really the honest truth is that it simply came down to bad time management and lack of discipline.  Not lack of discipline -sitting around watching TV (I wish), or out having lunch with friends - or out walking with hubbie and family. Which I guess I did a little of..

No it was lack of discipline of being unable to tear my self from one task to move into a different frame of mind to do another. 

Read More »

By dmg on 2/18/2008 9:43 PM

I have just finished watching BBC’s Panorama television programme on the subject of bottled water. 

Everything the programme said was true.  In the seventies no one bought or even had really cottoned on to the idea of buying bottled water.  Now it is flown in from all over the world.  Extracted from volcanic rock, clouds, streams not just in the Alps but as far away as Fiji and New Zealand and  flown all the way here. 

Three quarters of the plastic bottles never end up being recycled and end up in landfill sites.  Some of the plastic bottles are burned to create energy which could power thousands of cars of the road.  (I can not remember the numbers exactly I was not paying close enough attention.)

Anyway, I am sure you get the picture.   Yet I can remember not so many months ago hearing that the advice a friend was bein ... Read More »

By dmg on 2/14/2008 1:10 PM

Yesterday was one of those days.  It did not start out like that. It was beautiful sunny February day and I was happily opening my mail, with not a care in the world. 

 
Amongst the mail was a gas utility bill.  Nothing much to worry about there, so I thought. We pay by direct debit. 

How wrong could I be. 

 I opened it and quickly scanned the standard letter.  My eyes honed in on the revised standing order payment.Read More »

By dmg on 2/11/2008 8:02 PM

There is a lot in the news at the moment about the Archbishop of Canterbury 

Having stumbled into a rather large muddy hole he is now trying to avoid sinking deeper still into the mud.  The phrase two ears, two eyes and one mouth comes to mind. 

How many times in life do we wish we had managed to keep our mouths shut and saying nothing?

As a Mum, this is something, I have learnt to my cost on more that one occasion.

 There are times when I have challenged one of my kids about their behaviour or attitude and what should start of as a minor skirmish develops into something much more significant.  I have learnt to my cost that sometimes it is best to keep your mouth shut and choose a more appropriate time to tackle the issue.

Saturday was a case in point.  I collected my daughter from her local job.  We had ... Read More »

By dmg on 2/7/2008 11:31 AM

In an age of twenty four media coverage I do wonder where our priorities lie.

Only this morning one of the news headlines on the BBC was  Brtany Spears being discharged from hospital along with film footage of this mind blowing event.

Britany Spears needs to be given some space to sort her life out – and the media frenzy around her certainly can not be helping.

It 's ironic  the lack of media coverage on more serious issues or issues closer to our own lives.

This was I guess, in part highlighted by a big fund raising dinner I attended in aid of the Colonels Fund recently. 

In case you don’t know The Colonel's Fund Grenadier Guards, has been created to supplement existing Regimental charitable funds, to help injured soldiers and bereaved families.

The dinner started with a presentation.  A presentation which showed ... Read More »

By dmg on 2/6/2008 9:40 PM

Last week I was shopping in Waitrose and I am embarrassed to say I was hovering in the Ready Meals section.  This is a section of the supermarket I try very hard to avoid if at all possible   I generally buy all my meat from the  butcher and  feel quite smug that I am on first name terms with him.

But time was not on my side and I was going away for the weekend.  My eldest son (in his twenties) had agreed to come and do doggy day care. 

I felt the least I could do was to ensure that thee was enough grub in the house for him to eat. His own cooking skills are not up to much. It has taken him a year to perfect making mashed potatoes.

So there I was in the supermarket feeling a tad guilty that I was buying something with meat in it not from the butcher. Then the picture of Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and chickens floated into my mind. 

Did ... Read More »