Back in August 2008 I wrote about supermarkets and carrier bags. So, a few years on, how have things changed? Sadly there's been no real improvement ( Read more... )

When I moved to Croydon, I needed to get a bin for my kitchen, and I chose a Brabantia twin bin. The key concept here is that the metal bin is divided into two sections (with separate plastic bins and liners): a 23L section for normal waste, and a 10L section for compostable waste, e.g. potato peelings and banana skins. I'm enough of a hippy that ( Read more... )

Last summer I spent a few days travelling around Europe. Basically, I took the Eurostar from London to Paris, then another train from Paris to Frankfurt for a wedding. Afterwards, I came back to Paris, then went down to Disneyland. Finally, I came back through Paris again, and took the Eurostar back to London. I knew about the wedding several ( Read more... )

I've had my Brompton bike for a few years, and in that time I've tried out several of the luggage options that are available. Here are my thoughts, which may be useful to other Bromptoneers.

( Many photos! )

There's been a trend recently for shops to reduce the number of carrier bags that they give out. I think that's a good idea, and I normally carry a few empty bags in my rucksack so that I can reuse them. However, looking at the big supermarket chains, some seem to have a better grasp on the logistics than others ( Read more... )

Looking at the BBC website, I see that the rules are about to change (tomorrow) regarding organ donation. From my point of view, the most significant change is that relatives will no longer be able to override the wishes of the deceased person, e.g. if I register as a donor then my next of kin can't turn around to the doctors after I'm dead and say ( Read more... )

I've just been down to the local recycling centre, which went surprisingly well.

As regular readers may recall, I tried something similar a year ago, but that wasn't very successful. Basically, there's no curbside recycling where I live, so I go to the nearest paper/bottlebank every so often (15 minutes walk each way). They don't take cardboard ( Read more... )

Hmm, well, that didn't go quite according to plan. After consulting the council website, nou and I walked over to the Factory Lane recycling centre with a pile of cardboard boxes. When we arrived, the security guard wouldn't let us in, because we were on foot, and it's only for cars. We told him that we didn't have a car, but he shrugged, and couldn't ( Read more... )

Christmas went pretty well here. I'm gradually getting more ambitious with my dinner - a few years ago I used to just grab a random item out of the freezer, whereas yesterday I had three different real vegetables (potatoes, sprouts, carrots), as well as the Quorn roast (which I assume was derived from some kind of vegetable/fungus/slime at some ( Read more... )

Having done my latest batch of upgrades, I've now got various pieces of hardware/software that I no longer need. These are all free to a good home, so let me know if you want any of them...

( List )