Life's a beach

Sometimes your city surprises you. Maybe not in a big way, but hopefully, in a delightful wonderful way. I was coming from a meeting in Soho last week when I stumbled on the perfect antidote to the unpredictable summer we've had in London. A beach scene in the heart of the Capital. Usually you have to wait for low tide....

There wasn't any water to go with the sand when I was there, but I presume it didn't take long...

How about this for a commute?

Let’s start by saying that I’m not a morning person. At all.

This morning, I got myself up at 5am to meet a friend that I’d not seen for a good few years (come to think of it, it may have been more than 10 years). We were at school together and I can say, without hesitation, that our main connection in the five years of boarding school was a shared love of athletics. That’s what I’ve come to call ‘Track and Field’ these days: Simon was a 110m hurdler and I was a sprinter that used to think a mile was a long way to run. We’ve been back in touch for a while, but meeting up hadn’t quite happened yet, so I think it was fitting that we actually got to meet up again over something sporting.

At 6am this morning, Simon and his friends, Tim and Matt, got on their bikes at Marble Arch to cycle to Edinburgh (450 miles) before running the Edinburgh Marathon (26.2 miles). Strictly speaking, they started their challenge last night with a swim in the Serpentine Lido, but the bike and run was the original idea. In these days of Ironmans and Ultramans, I suppose many wouldn’t think that this was such a hard challenge – but I was impressed for several reasons.

How often do people come up with an idea in the pub and then never do anything about it? These guys came up with the hair-brained plan and are actually doing it. Simon and his friends have a great adventure ahead of them and are doing it to benefit Cancer Research. You see, Simon's mum was diagnosed with brain cancer, and tragically passed recently. This has only steeled Simon to make sure they went ahead. I really admire them for having a good go at this. I tagged along to see them out of London (well, for the first few miles anyway) and wish them the best of luck on their journey.

So, if you need an excuse to donate to Cancer Research, follow this link and make their efforts worthwhile:
http://www.justgiving.com/edinburghmadness

What a difference a day makes

I've been living in London again for a little over a week now. The flat may still be a building site, but I've scored a great rental off a friend's parents. This weekend was great - all of a sudden the weather has brightened up and it feels like summertime. This, of course, means that Londoners strip off and get sunburnt at the first possible opportunity. Just like the guys outside the Tube station with umbrellas on rainy days, we should have guys with sun cream at the entrance to any patch of public grass on sunny days.

Anyway, yesterday marked an important day back in London for me - just because it was the first warm sunny day and I went for a run when I got home. It was the first summer evening run in London. And it was great. Loads of runners were out to enjoy the evening. There's no real point to this blog post, other than - it's great to be in London. Running along the river on a sunny evening is just glorious.

But since you're bothering to read this post, I'll share a secret with you - I found a wonderful little park on the river overlooking Putney (not quite sure how I missed it before - especially as a friend of mine got married right next to it - I blame it on having grown up in North London). You can follow the Thames Path along the river or just stroll around the gardens. I love finding new places in the city.



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What a difference a day makes
Twenty-four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain

Carbonated Water

April comes and goes with the usual stories of spaghetti trees, flying penguins and Google Romance (dating is a search problem), but this year there had to be something related to the environment (you'd have thought). This one tickled my tastbuds

How do I get rid of all this stuff?

We're embarking on a complete refurbishment of the flat we bought.  First of all, you might think that a refurbishment is not the right thing to do in the first place - one of the lowest impact things to do would be to simply leave the flat as it is.  After all, the last people lived there perfectly happily.  Well, to be honest, I can't say we thought about that one for too long.  It's only really in retrospect that I've considered this.  However, I don't think we're doing the wrong thing.  You see, homes need to be upgraded periodically - hopefully not too frequently, but often enough to make sure that the places we live in are in good shape.  Also, as we've learnt more about energy efficiency, it makes sense to upgrade our homes - realising though, that some of the benefits may take a while to pay off.  In other words, we all need to maintain our homes, for ourselves and for those that may live there in the future.

With that in mind, we set out to get a few things right from the start - we wanted to replace the old (and slightly strangely but very ineffciently arranged) heating and hot water system with something more efficient; we wanted to use low impact materials for our floors and walls; and we wanted to put in as much energy efficient lighting as possible.  All that was a great plan to begin with, but we soon found ourselves with another problem.  Even though the flat seemed completely empty, as soon as we started taking the flat apart, we realised we were sitting on top of a huge amount of really useful stuff.

OK - what I mean by stuff is:

• an oven
• a fridge
• a gas hob
• 2 different sets of wood floors
• a carpet that was under the wood floor
• underlay that was under the carpet
• massive mirrored sliding doors
• 2 wooden cabinets
• 2 bathroom suites
• a bunch of old radiators
• 5 radiator covers
• a mirror
• 2 shower doors

So my goal became - How do I get rid of all this stuff?

At least, how do I get rid of it all without sending it to a landfill - or in our case, to our eco-friendly waste company that recycles as much as 80% of the waste they collect.  Keep tuned in to find out what happens.

Small steps in the Big City

A little while ago, I decided to start making some changes in my life. There's a bunch of reasons why - some of them you might understand, some probably don't make any sense at all. Essentially, I just wanted to reduce the impact of my life on the environment. To me, that means this planet, but also this country (the UK) and this city (London).  In terms of timing, it made a lot of sense - after I left my last job, I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do and why. I was also buying a new flat with my girlfriend.

So this blog is really about what I've done to make changes in my life - and what hasn't changed.  I'm not an environmental advocate, but just a guy wanting to align his lifestyle with his beliefs and principles.  And I wanted to take action now.  Forget about the theories and the arguments, I just wanted to make the changes that mattered to me, and make them quickly.