A Yen for cutting emissions!

I loved this little snippet that I caught on the news the other day – a real Make it and Mend it approach to cutting carbon emissions. In their vast wisdom, the Japanese have come up with a way of cutting carbon emissions without spending a Yen. 

Apparently the Japanese government is telling the people to go to bed an hour earlier and get up and hour earlier, and this will dramatically reduce their emissions. This claim is based on the fact that a staggering 20% of their energy output is consumed in the final hour before they go to bed when people potter around making their last cup of tea, brushing their teeth and catching that final TV programme.

This sounds like a brilliantly simple solution, however surely there is a basic flaw in this thinking? Surely somebody must have thought about the possibility that by moving your bedtime forward will just bring that 20% surge forward by an hour – people are still going to be making cups of tea, and still brushing their teeth etc.

Unless they have an extra hour asleep, this just isn’t going to work…or am I missing something here? 

Hilary 

Make and Mend your new iPhone4?

We're all for spreading the art of making and mending, but it's a bit much to shell out  £500-£600 for a state of the art iPhone4 and then find it only works if you follow Mr Jobs's advice to "hold it the right way".

According to Apple you can avoid the problem by avoiding "gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases".

As these "many available cases" cost upwards of £25 that's a bit rich after already forking out so much, so  people are resorting to nail varnish or duct tape to get round the problem !

I'm a big Apple fan (I have a Mac, an iPhone and an iPad) but I feel we're all cutting Apple so much slack these days. I had a Genius appointment booked for today to get the casing of my MacBook replaced (design fault that leads to the casing cracking at the front). As I have another unavoidable engagement this afternoon I called the White City store to rearrange the appointment. I was advised by the recorded message that my call was number 9 in the queue. After waiting 5 minutes I was still number 9 so hung up. I tried again 3 more times and each time I was and remained number 9 in the queue. Maybe Apple have figured out that 9 is the magic number that makes people automatically hang up? As they have no traceable email for White City  I've just had to be a no-show. Not very good for them - and whilst frustrating for me I suppose I can always book another appointment as you can do that online even though you can't cancel it.

And the iPhone4 has other problems - yellow spots on the screen, upside down volume buttons and jammed cameras, that are I fear the worst for Apple long term - pissing off your customers this way is never a good idea even if you do make highly desirable products. And when those highly desirable products have to be held together with a dab of vermillion nail polish or a bit of gaffer tape, the magic soon wears a bit thin!

What make and mend methods have you employed to get your Apple gadgets working?

Thrifty idea - get your car to make money for you!

 I recently came across a new website, WhipCar which you can use to rent out other people's cars by the hour, day or week - or even better rent out your own to other people. This is a really nice way to get the most of out of a vehicle and a low cost way of using a car without owning one. If like me, you have to have a car but actually use it only occasionally, you can make a bit of money on the side by letting it out.
Here's how it works.
Car owners. You register your car on the website, you can upload a photo, describe the car's condition, list the mileage etc. You then get a suggested rental price but you can raise or lower this to whatever figure you want. You can also enter dates when your car is available. If someone wants to rent your car you get a text and an email and you can say yes or no.
Renters. You browse the site for suitable cars in your neighbourhood or any location where you want to pick a car up. You find one you fancy and make a booking.
All the insurance is covered by WhipCar once the booking is made. They take a cut of your rental fee and pay you the balance. Once you've registered your car, they send you a little pack to help you publicise your car's availability locally.
It's a cracking idea: a good way to keep car ownership down and to help car owners get the most out of their cars.
I signed up my Mini and within 2 days got a booking - sadly I had to turn it down as it happened to be the one weekend I was actually going away in it - I'm hoping I'll get another booking soon.
Clare F

Don’t get your knicker elastic in a twist, but…

I'm sorry guys and gals, but I'm ranting again!  I know, I know…when aren’t I?  But this time I'm really fired up.  We've just heard that John Lewis are no longer selling ribbon by the metre, but only by the full roll.  Having had a quick look at their website it seems to be that the average roll is 3 metres. 

3 metres?  Come on! when was the last time that you wanted 3 metres of ribbon?  The average person probably will buy ½ a metre at a time…so what happens to the rest?  Think of the wastage.  I thought John Lewis prided themselves on their green credentials, but I'm afraid there's nothing green about this move.  It's purely down to them boosting their bottom line over environmental issues!  We expected more from John Lewis.

Come on all you Make and Menders – join us and demand your half-metre of ribbon rights. We used to have fantastic fabrics and haberdashery shops in London, but they're rapidly disappearing.  Don’t let the big companies price us out of Making and Mending.

Tell us what you think!

Thanks to our Twitter friend giornalista1 (Andrea Dean) for this info! If you're looking for us we'll be tied to the lamp-post outside John Lewis with the finest ribbons!

Hilary

Memories of childhood

We've just run a competition with The Secret Seed Society who promote growing vegetables and cooking for young children. We asked you to tell us about your early memories of growing and cooking. Here are some of the responses.

Grandparents are often the people who get little ones started. Sarah told us

"My earliest childhood memories of gardening were of my school summer holidays spent in Lancashire with my green-fingered grandparents. They rented a beautiful allotment from a local farmer and grew every traditional vegetable going. I would help my Grandmother pick peas and would pop open the pods and eat the the jade green beads raw. I remember thinking that they were the best tasting peas in the whole world."

Elena also learnt from her grandparents:

"My first childhood memory of growing things was digging up potatos in my grandmother's garden, and eating peas from the pod. I'm now doing the same for my daughter!"

But sometimes Dads are involved too. I remember my late father getting me started with a packet of Clarkia seeds and my own little strip at the bottom of the garden. Seeing them grow and then enjoying all the flowers made me feel really proud and with a huge sense of achievement. 

Likewise Elizabeth:

"My earliest memory of growing veggies is of myself and my twin brother helping our dad on his allotment. I remember helping to dig up potatoes, dad would put the fork into the ground and turn it over and me and my brother would scrabble around hunting out the spuds in the earth. I remember he had a funny little skinny shed on his plot which looked like a sentry box you see outside Buckingham palace! It was crammed full of tools and plant pots, and we'd huddle inside when it rained. Happy days"

Mustard and cress is a popular first seed for tinies to try. Karen remembers:

"My best memory of growing seeds as a child was decorating egg shells with faces and growing cress in them. I remember being amazed at being able to see the growth in seedlings from day to day and it kept me interested and the best bit was being able to eat them too."

As for cooking, again grandparents and jam tarts are often the catalysts to a cookery passion. My Mum made them regularly and let me help by spooning in the jam and then making my own freeform shapes with the pastry off-cuts. Here's Heather:

"My earliest memory of cooking is with my nan. We didn't make anything amazing, just jam tarts, but it was still ever so much fun! She is the reason why I love cooking now."

The Secret Seed Society is a great way to encourage kids to get into cooking and gardening. They produce storybook and seed packs. Each pack costs £5.50 but Make it and Mend it members get a 10% discount - just enter Cook it as the discount code at the checkout. >> Buy here

Right now they're running a competition for grownups to win a dinner for two by coming up with some interesting celebrity seed characters - Tina Turnip and Parsley Bussell among them. >> You can enter here

>> For some tips on encouraging children to cook and develop a sense for flavours 

>> Find out more about Secret Seed Society

How much power do your home appliances use?

I just found this really interesting page from GE (General Electric). You can find out how much electricity your home appliances are guzzling and even check out the annual costs (in US dollars). If you are from the US it's even more useful as you can compare costs by state.
>> GE Home Appliance Energy Use

For us Europeans it's still very helpful from a comparative point of view. The annual cost of using a hairdryer is more than curling irons or a vacuum cleaner. As I expected the tumble dryer is way up there in terms of electricity consumption and annual running costs. What did surprise me though was how costly fridges and freezers are, behind only furnaces (boilers?), water heaters and the deadliest of all - air conditioners. Other high consumers are plasma TVs, ovens and dishwashers

By clicking the menu the little appliance visuals rearrange themselves so you can check wattage, gas use, cost per year and kilowatt yield. I was also very surprised at the cost differential by state - a staggering annual cost difference of almost $2500 if you used all the appliances and live in New York ($4134) rather than Washington state ($1720). Go have a play!
Related links:
>>  Blog Action Day - Hang your Washing out!

>> Save energy - starting in the kitchen

Free gardening event at Wisley

I popped into the RHS garden centre at Wisley, Surrey on Saturday and noticed a flier for a free Royal Horticultural Society event on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th June. 

Adrian Bloom who is an author, plantsman and  many times gold medal winner at Chelsea will be giving talks and signing copies of his new book, Bloom's Best Perennials and Grasses at 1.30 pm and 3 pm on both days. The talk is Take 12 Plants - the key to a successful garden. Worth combining with a browse round the garden centre - or even better a whole day at Wisley Gardens.

While I was browsing for plants, I overheard a husband and wife conversation which amused me. Husband spotted a plant and declared passionately "I love these. Let's get one!"

She replied, very testily, "How many times do I have to tell you that's not right for the theme."

He shrugged his shoulders, looked very peeved and said "I don't understand the bloody theme anyway."

"I've told you it's Seaside garden and that plant is English Country Garden. How many more times..?"

I wouldn't be bothering to save up for the Silver wedding  present! 

It  made me feel a bit sad for the way so many TV gardening programmes have made many people think it's all about rules and sticking to a rigid design. For me one of the beauties of gardening is the way the garden evolves in its own way over time. And it's always a shame when real passion for a plant gets subjugated to the desire to conform to a pre-ordained plan (assuming of course the soil and conditions are right for it).

Clare F

Not a scrap of common sense!

We all hate it when somebody says I told you so, so I won’t say it, but rest assured I am doing my silent I told you so dance.  Why, because the car scrappage scheme has got to be one of the worst thought-through UK government initiatives for a long time.


Months ago we mentioned our concerns about the financial and sustainable credentials of this scheme and it seems we were right.  These pictures which appeared in the Daily Mail show this former airfield in Thurleigh, Bedfordshire, one of a number of 'holding areas' packed with vehicles sold through £400million scrappage scheme.
Who in their right mind thought this would be good for the individual, the country or the environment?

Not only have unscrupulous dealers taken advantage of the situation putting up car prices to cover their losses or make even more profit, but we now also have the motorised equivalent of the European butter mountain!

It seems we now have over £28 million worth of perfectly serviceable cars lying around going to waste, merely waiting to be crushed.

Surely it would have been more effective to have given us the cash to have our elderly cars serviced and made more road worthy rather than being coerced into buying a new car that we didn’t really need, plus having to get a loan to pay for it.
>> Read the original piece Would you scrap it or save it?

Hilary B

Get off your butt and get cleaning!

It's that time of year and while we may feel less than thrilled about the prospect of doing it, the after-effects of Spring cleaning are worth the effort. Not only do you have a shiny new home, but it also dramatically lifts the spirits. The big problem is getting started. We asked our friends on Facebook for their top tips and got some great ideas from them.

Rock 'n roll your way through it! Music seems to have the desired effect in getting lots of you going. And it's not surprising. There's loads of evidence from gym workouts  that people push themselves harder and achieve more when there's a throbbing beat to drive them forward. Everyone has their favourite musical recipes from Erasure to Bollywood, from country to techno - but there seems to be a common consensus that it has to be VERY LOUD!

Clock on and off. Some great tips here about setting some time parameters:

• Set yourself a manageable time chunk - like 30 minutes and challenge yourself to see how much you can get done in that time. This has the added benefit of encouraging yourself to do it more often - as you see how much you can accomplish in a short and relatively painless period of time.
• Set the timer and do 15 minutes a room - like the tip above - but even more frenetic and with the benefit of adding some variety.
• If you have kids, set them to work in the commercial breaks of their favourite TV programme - or they don't get to watch the rest. This lovely Macchiavellian tip was from Karen Grevatt - and seems a fantastic way of getting the kids to take all their junk upstairs, empty rubbish, tidy toys away etc. 

Use the power of shame! Inviting guests is a sure-fire way of encouraging yourself to get the place cleaned up. The imminent arrival of friends is a great incentive to get the mop and bucket out.

However you do it you're bound to feel better afterwards. Do you have any other motivational top tips? Leave a comment below.

For loads of advice on cleaning - including making your own natural cleaning products >> on our website

>> For some insights into the history of Spring cleaning

Thanks to Desiree, Sarah, Jules, Wendy, Sharon, Cherise, Jenny, Adele, Kathy, Jane, Skinny, Karen and Kate for your input.

The caffeinated car

As part of a BBC science programme, Bang Goes the Theory, a car powered only by roasted coffee granules is being driven from London to Manchester. The idea is to show how fuels other than petrol and diesel can power vehicles. The car, a converted 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco bought for £400, has been nicknamed the Car-puccino.
The coffee is heated to 700 degrees C in a charcoal fire and breaks down into carbon monoxide and hydrogen gases which are fed into pipes on the roof and cooled down and put through a couple of filters housed in the boot, then the clean gas is fed through to the bonnet to power the engine. the Carpuccino will do up to 60 mph.



But before you rush round to your local KwikFit, at a kilo of ground coffee just to do 3 miles, this is not going to save you any dosh at the pumps! Getting up to Manchester will require about 70 kilos of coffee - so even with a cheap brand it'll set the licence payer back around a cool £1000 (sorry can't resist) - and if you're picky about your brand of espresso it could cost around 50 times the cost of good old gasoline.

If you want to save the planet, stick to drinking the stuff - or go for the chip fat solution >>read our piece on chip fat powered cars

In praise of old gadgets

Do you ever think back fondly to an electrical gadget you used to have in the pre-tech age and wish you hadn't sent it to the dump? There was a period when there were electrical gadgets for all kinds of things and our parents had a houseful - then as we got all post-modern and sophisticated we started turning our collective noses up and consigning them to oblivion (or more accurately to landfill).

I was thinking about this as I had my shower this morning: a very laborious process involving the application of plastic carrier bags and bits of elastic to cover the cast on my fractured wrist. A particular challenge is washing my feet - particularly as since falling I'm very unsteady on them. I fondly remember the electric foot bath someone gave me for Christmas but which took up loads of space, then gathered dust in the back of a cupboard till one of my regular clutter-clearing days brought its death sentence. How I wish I had it now.

Another classic, now long gone, is the electric carving knife which my Dad wielded proudly every Sunday lunchtime to make short work of the roast. My MIAMI colleague Clare O'Brien has actually still got one - bequeathed to her by a family friend. It makes a hell of a racket but it cuts meat beautifully and quickly and beats everyone hanging around with cooling plates while someone curses and cuts themselves - or my usual routine of importuning some poor guest to do the honours. No one ever does it willingly - but what man can resist the opportunity to recreate their Texas Chainsaw fantasies on a joint of beef. I had a trawl through the Lakeland catalogue but alas this official rescuer of defunct kitchen tools seems to have eschewed the charms of the electric carver. Doubtless there is now an 'Elf and Safety diktat preventing their sale for fear that child crack gangs will be carving up each other and posting it on Youtube.

As to the once ubiquitous hostess trolley, it was clearly aesthetics rather than function that brought about its demise - and is also causing its rumoured revival - don't tell me all those Retro fashionistas are buying it because they're throwing large dinner parties. My parents swore by theirs - and with five children, it was another stalwart of Sunday lunchtime. Not the most practical use of precious space though - and boy was it ugly. I just came across a website called Hostess Trolley World so someone still loves them!

We never had a teas-made in our house - but my Uncle and Aunt had one - but then they also had beige plastic clip-on trays attached to their armchairs to hold their cups of tea - so a brew was clearly an urgent imperative in their house.

My pressure cooker was one of my favourite pieces of kitchen equipment - but it used to terrify my then flatmates so I stopped using it. I don't know when that found its way to the charity shop? It wasn't to make way for a slow cooker - they passed me by the first time round - although my Mum had one. They are very much back in vogue - but as I work from home anyway I haven't yet seen the point of yet another large piece of kit to find a home for in an already overcrowded kitchen.

What gadgets do you love or wish you could still get your hands on?
Clare F

Cash for caulis!

If you live in London and want to grow your own veg, you'll be interested to hear about the £75,000 that's on offer for community groups interested in growing their own food in under-used areas of the capital. This dosh comes from the Capital Growth scheme, managed by the London Food Link and supported by the Mayor of London.

Groups can submit an application onlline at www.capitalgrowth.org/apply. Grants between £200 and £1500 are up for grabs to help you turn a neglected plot of land into a veg plot. If you find a concrete plot they'll let you cultivate on it using cotainers or growbags. As well as the money, there's advice and training etc to support your group's efforts.

The cash injection follows an earlier one of £75k last December. It was snapped up to create 95 growing spaces by housing estates, schools,universities and others. Commenting on the success of the scheme the Mayor said

 “Creating lush patches of fruit and veg is catching on, judging by Londoners’ enthusiastic response to Capital Growth. We’ve already helped to create dozens of new growing spaces at schools, housing estates, at homeless schemes and at three of the city’s universities. The scheme is helping to make the urban environment more pleasant and cared for, as well as providing a cheap, fun way to grow grub.”. 

Boris, in conjunction with London in Bloom has also created a competition to encourage primary schools to create food gardens. There are 3 categories 'Bugs and Slugs', 'Collect and Create', and 'Climate Cool'. The top schools in each category wins a visit from a celebrity gardener, £500 cash prizes, plants and wormeries.

Related links:

>> Incredible Edible Todmorden - a whole town goes for sustainability

>> Grow your own veg - you can do it! - top tips for beginners

>> A great software tool for planning your veg garden - we LOVE this!

>> Dig for Victory - see the wartime video - still full of good advice

>> London Food Link

>> Allotments Regeneration Initiative