I sort of own a shop called the little co-op in Bristol

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 14/02/09 at 02:02:05 pm

Over the last few weeks I have taken over the running of a shop. I say I and really I mean we as there is a group of around 10 like minded good people also on board. So where is it I hear you shout, well it is 156 Church road, Bristol, BS5 9HX. It is all quite exciting and there is a real buzz about the place and although I love working on selfsufficientish and writing articles it is good to be involved doing something that you can touch and visibly see people enjoying. Especially at this time of year when the allotment is not doing much and we are not conducting our forages.

If you live in Bristol or are thinking of visiting then do pop in for a natter and a selection of teas and coffees and cakes or even CD’s, DVD’s and videos. We also have a good selection of books starting at 10p. We are open from Monday to Saturday 10am-5ish pm.

The aim of the place is not like most businesses we aim simply to be an asset to the community. Next week we will be selling wholefoods too. We are also open to suggestions about running the shop in the evening and have our first poetry night on 25th February at 7.30pm – 9.30pm all welcome as long as you buy one cup of tea!

I know that I have not blogged for a while and when I do it is a big advert for our new shop, but well as I said I am very excited. It also fits in with the buy nothing new 2009 considering that all the stock we sell is second hand! Well apart from the drinks.

I have to say once a again a massive thank you to everyone who donated. Your donations have been put to good use and you all helped us secure our shop.

Google Guilt and How Nothing New Year is going

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 14/01/09 at 10:01:37 pm

Google Guilt

My most thoughtful girlfriend forwarded me an article on Monday as she often does when she should be working. I don’t always read them as I don’t always have time, and in some ways I wish I hadn’t had time to look at this last one as I think it will have a profound effect on the way I work. The article was entitled “The Carbon Cost of Google“, apparently Harvard Academic Dr Wissner-Gross has calculated that just two searches on Google use the same electricity as boiling a kettle or 14g. This figure has been disputed by Google who claim that one search uses just 0.2g of carbon.

For a while I thought that I believed Google’s figure of 0.2g, I mean why shouldn’t I they have come up with the answers time and time again for me. Little did I know that I just wanted to believe and my subconscious brain was as ever, one step ahead already weaning me off Google.

Whilst researching an article I found myself instead of going for the immediate option of Google which is always so easy, I instead turned around to my bookshelf and took down a book. Don’t get me wrong I do often refer to books as I generally know where to find what I need to very quickly and they are more reliable as a source than the internet. I do however, rely on Google too much. In fact I have been known to use it just to spell a word; Googling the wrongly spelt word and finding the way to spell it, instead of picking up my (very good) dictionary. I also Googling a weight or measure to find it’s metric or imperial equivalent instead of just learning it or turning to one of my many cookbooks.

So this return to books seems like a direct result on what I can only describe as Google guilt a phenomenon that I am sure we could be hearing a lot more of over the year.  I do feel better for having breaks away from my computer and it has been great to engage with some of my old books again. Perhaps Google guilt is not a bad phenomenon (I used a dictionary to spell that)!

How the Nothing New Year is going

I wish I could report on how easy the nothing new year is going. It has been tougher than I thought, already! On a  night out with an old friend (ironically known as two hats) I managed to loose my two hats. With the temperature here in Bristol apparently dropping lower than the temperature of Iceland this was not a great time to have no hat. So over the past fortnight I have been searching charity shops far and wide to no avail. Happily just the other day I found one hat and paid 25p for it, what a result.

As for other things, well it is my girlfriends birthday on Friday I have still not got her anything. I am not really sure what I can get and not being able to buy anything new certainly restricts what she will get. Well that’s for another blog. For now I am happy just to have a warm head.

GOOGLE WAS NOT USED IN THE WRITING OF THIS BLOG.

Happy nothing new year

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 01/01/09 at 12:01:34 pm

Last year, that is way back in 2008, I did my best not buy anything new unless it was really necessary. This year I intend to do one better and buy nothing new at all, seems I am not alone and many of the people on the selfsufficientish forum are doing the same.

I seriously do think that we have manufactured enough not to warrant making anything more for quite a while longer, think of how much damage is done by making a load of old tat that we don’t need, vast swathes of China no longer see daylight due to our apparent need for dancing fish or the third new mobile phone in a year.

It might sound like I want to do without stuff and perhaps whip myself with birch twigs but that misses the point. I think it will actually make me happier not to be bothered with a load of stuff I don’t need at all, besides I prefer second hand stuff.

As I said last year I started this, it was a bit of a half arsed effort to honest and I still bought (new) loads of books, hard drive, memory card, bike trailer, jeans, shirt, power lead, demi johns, potato peeler and well I think that was it. Not loads as I am certainly not much of a shopper, but all stuff that I thought I needed at the time. Did I really?? I did want a digital camera so I bought a second hand one, I wanted a new desk that came second hand but that was about it.

So I am perhaps way more prepared than someone like Paris Hilton, Posh Spice or Gary Coleman would be. Still I can already think of things that I want like a cider press, more demijohns and what about presents for other people?

There are going to have to be exceptions as I won’t be able to do without food. Yes I do produce a lot of my own food and for that matter I will still need to buy seeds, of course I will still have to buy some food. Especially at the moment as I had a poor harvest last year.  So this starts the exceptions..

• Seeds
• Food and drink
• Cycle parts (although I will do my best to get second hand stuff)
• My own book (but no others)
• Medicine and dentistry (If I need a new tooth I am not doing without
• Anything the landlord decides needs doing on the house (Will try and source second hand stuff whenever I can and give him it)

It might sound like I am cheating as I am not going the whole hog and giving up money like Mark Boyle. I wish him all the luck in the world with this one, don’t get me wrong; in fact Mark is a good friend of mine. It’s just this one is not for me, I live in an urban house with my girlfriend and I think it would put too much of a strain on our relationship if I was to give up money and moreover, I like being able to nip down the pub now and then or to tuck into some really nice food.   You can see Marks progress on his blog if you do want to read about a no money idea.

I am sure that now the recession has us well and truly within it’s grasp there will be many people not buying much new for 2009, alas not for the same reasons. Whatever happens I wish you all a very happy nothing new year and I hope that you all get what you really need this year.

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