Why I am not going to Copenhagen

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 18/12/09 at 12:12:51 pm

I keep being asked why I am not over in Copenhagen, so I thought I would take some time to anwser.  The main reason is that I don’t really think that using all of that carbon to travel there, just to protest outside a building, would make a difference. If I thought it would I would have been there in a flash.

A few years ago I emailed 100’s of Mp’s and wrote letters to various Supermarkets campaing for a plastax here in the UK. Ok, that did not happen but what has happened is that many Supermarkets are now at least making moves towards reducing their use. Was this down to me alone? Well, no of course not – although at one point when you googled “Tesco Carrier bag”, the top search linked back to this site showing a letter full of greenwash from Tesco along with my irate reply. So, every little helps. The point that I am trying to make is that, whilst I think there is a place for direct action, I also think that if many people took a bit more intelligent direct action real differences could be made.

Back to Cop 15,  the saying, “closing the stable door after the horse has bolted”, jumps to mind. I can’t imagine that they will do anything that will make a real difference such as taxing airline fuel, agreeing to stop using coal (Americas next big fuel) or even something small such as banning carrier bags!

Instead what will result will be some wishy washy agreements that won’t make any difference and really won’t mean anything. If Mp’s can’t be trusted with their own expense claims how can we trust them with something that effects other people? Even if they do they will not be in force until 2020 by which point it will be too late.

Rant ends

P.S. This seems to be the only way to save the UK music scene from banality.

Please consider the environment before…..

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 10/07/09 at 02:07:58 pm

I have been pondering for the last few months the signature at the bottom of my emails (and life has not even been that slow). I have come to the conclusion that, “please consider the environment before printing off this email” at the bottom of every email is now so commonplace that it is likely to have made as much of an impact as it is going to.  Also, does it make that much sense, do people sit down consider the environment then print it off anyway?

Well I have decided that to try and have a bit more of an impact I will write a series of please consider the environment before… these include

please consider the environment before BOOKING YOUR HOLIDAY

please consider the environment before BUYING A MASSIVE TELIVISION

please consider the environment before DRIVING TO A SUPERMARKET

please consider the environment before BUYING CHEAP IMPORTED GOODS

Who knows what difference it will make, I imagine most people will not even notice and even if they do the only reaction will be “oh that’s different” or “bloody environmentalist”. Ah well, makes me feel like I have considered the environment.

UKIP have asked me to be a green advisor

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 01/04/09 at 11:04:58 am

“Fact is often stranger than fiction”, just a bit of cliche I thought well that was until this morning when I recieved a call.

“Hello, can I speak to Andy Hamilton?” Said a young and rather well spoken voice.

“Yep”. I replied, rather bluntly as I thought it another 8am sales call.
“I have Marta Andreasen on the other line I will just put you through”.
What is this I thought, who on earth is Marta Andreasen.
“Hello Andy, may I call you Andy”.

Ok I won’t transcribe the whole conversation as it could get a little tedious. Apparently, I have caused a bit of a buzz in Westminster after my recent appearance on the West edition of the politics show.
It seems that UKIP want to be “Zietgiest instead of stuffy”, they are looking to appeal to the older allotment grower and the younger well allotment grower. UKIP belive that we are the future.

They are suggesting that I become a kind of high profile sustainability advisor. I shouldn’t really be talking about this on here as I have been advised to keep it low profile but so I have left out some of the more private parts of the conversation.

I told them I would get back to them tomorrow. I mean I could make a real difference if I was an advisor to UKIP, it’s just that I am a card carrying member of the Green Party. The cash will come in handy though.

Perhaps I should just sleep on it.

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.

The talk went well now I’m ready for Christmas

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 24/12/08 at 01:12:21 pm

Well I gave a talk to the Lesbian, Gay and Transgender Pagan Society of Birmingham the night before last, it was the first talk that I had given on my own so I was more than a little aprehensive. Dave is normally standing next to me and we work well as a team, if one of us dries up the other steps in.  I met up with the main organiser known as “sleepy owl” a regular of the selfsufficientish web forum who showed me around Birmingham as I was six hours early.

Anyway, the talk went very well and the group were very friendly. Part of the talk mentions energy saving and the group seemed to find the part when I spoke about running a cooker hob more efficiently most entertaining. I do say that you need a flat bottom (pan) and make sure you don’t have a crusty ring.

So another good acheviement to finish off the year, next time I have to speak alone to a group of people I at least know I can do it.

Now feels that I can relax and really enjoy Christmas. Have a really good one anyone that reads this! Now, I have to work out if 12 noon is a little too early to nip down the local and start the festivities.

Public speaking preperations

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 17/12/08 at 04:12:41 pm

I agreed to give a talk months ago in Birmingham to a LGBT pagan group in Birmingham. I was starting to wish I never as this sort of thing always puts me in a strange sort of mood for the week preceding it. Thankfully after a long chat with the organiser I feel pretty good about it, well ok about it anyhow.

I have a love hate relationship with public speaking, I hate it before hand and always want to run off and not do it. I get very, very nervous which in turn makes me a little short tempered at times, even during the talk at times. It is most odd. Afterwards I am walking on air for a couple of days, so it does seem worth it in the end. Especially after a good talk. (We did give one very bad talk, and I won’t mention it here needless to say I still shudder about it now)

The thing with this one is that it will be the first that I have done by myself. This makes the preparation slightly different that usual. What usually happens is that Dave and I will argue about who’s house we practice in. When we finally decide we go through the talk together, taking the subjects that we both know the best to talk about. This means that Dave has become more of an expert than I have in certain areas and visa versa and that when either of us flounder the other helps them out. So what happens when I flounder here, well I guess I have to muddle through. It is both an exhillarating and terrifying thought.

I was very glad to have Dave sitting next to me when we spoke on Radio 4’s today program and on BBC Breakfast earlier in the year as I was white with fright.  That was certainaly the single most terrifying moment of my life. Since then I have spoken on live radio a few times. The last time I got an hour long slot on local station BCFM. On a side note I notice that Ed Stourton has been sacked from the Today program, I met him when we went on there and I can’t say that I feel sorry for him. He did not even look up when we entered the room, let alone say hello in short I thought he was a self centred twat.  John Humphies did and he even came out of the studio to say good bye, the other bloke their did at least nod his head too. I wonder if the fickle media world is not entriely that fickle, I hear rumours that the nice people tend to stay.

Well I am putting off preparing the talk just to write this so I had better get on and bloody well write it instead of adding to the already flooded pool of showbiz gossip.

Oh and the talk well if you are interested it is happening on the 22nd of December from 8pm at the Wellington Hotel Bristol Street Birmingham. It cost nothing, I promise to try and be interesting and it won’t be like the talk I try not mention – the mistake I made with that one was thinking I could talk off the top of my head. I learnt the hard way, you can’t.

Brewing 100 pints of Yarrow Beer, free Economy and new desk

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 19/11/08 at 03:11:24 pm

Brewing 100 pints of Yarrow Beer for the Free Economy

Last week I turned up to a meeting in a pub regarding the free economy. More on that later. The free economy lot are throwing a party offering free food and drink to anyone that turns up at the end of the month to celebrate the founders experiment of living without spending money for a year and of course buy nothing day. The party is to be held in just over a week on buy nothing day (29th November) and I agreed to supply some home brew. Having never brewed anything over 40 pints before this was indeed to be a challenge. The ingredients were no problem being just Yarrow, Malt Extract, Sugar, Water and Yeast - I wrote up the recipe and a brief introduction just here.

The interesting thing I found out about Yarrow is that it contains Thujone an ingredient also found in Absinthe. So I am going to assume that Yarrow ale/beer could be slightly psychedelic. Well as I am brewing 100 pints of it for over 100 people I am doubtful that it will really matter as I can’t see anyone having enough of it to have any effect.

Yarrow has been used by humans for the last 60 000 years and apart from being used to brew a psychedelic beer it has had many other medicinal uses including treating toothache, kidney disorders, toothache, piles and to stem the flow of blood. In fact soldiers throughout the ages have gone into battle with a pocket full of yarrow for this very reason. Indeed, in some circles it has been called the warriors herb. I love it as it grows everywhere and I tend to take an infusion of the stuff when I am feeling a bit run down, it seems to help.

Making the beer itself was a bit tricky to say the least, I got my 100 litre (22 gallon) water butt (see below) and filled it with steralizing solution and warm water. This involved getting the hose out or I could have been there for hours; as I had no tap attachment I had to tape the hose to the tap and flooded the kitchen a little as it kept firing off. I then rinsed it out with colder water and had much the same experience.

Now knee high in water I added the malt and sugar to the brew bin which I then moved to a warmer room – The dining room. My girlfriend seems to be grinning and bearing it as my home brew collection starts to take over, I have not told her that I intend on having something brewing constantly now for ever more. She does make the odd comment that makes me think she might disapprove such as, “if that f*****ng thing bubbles one more time”, or “I can’t come into the kitchen I am going to heave”.

Boiling the yarrow did smell a little and it had to be done in two large pans that I have for home brewing, one 7 litre and one 4.  Picking the yarrow was easier than I thought as I found a spot with loads of it, I would suggest doing the same if you are to make this as you when there are only a couple of plants in one area they are best left totally alone to give them the best chance for survival; you need about 1 pannier bag or roughly one carrier bag full so you will need a lot. I later found that trying to measure out almost 2 kilograms of yarrow is not the easiest in a small kitchen with tiny scales. So to add to the water there are now bits of yarrow, grass and clover all over the kitchen.

Anyway, if you want to recreate this then here are the ingredients and the full recipe is over here.

Ingredients

• 3.4kg organic Barley malt extract (10 jars)
• 2.7 kg Brewing Sugar
• 1.75 kg Fresh Yarrow leaves
• 56 litres of water
• 1 cup of good ale yeast
• a small jar of honey (for priming)

You may ask what on earth is going on in that picture, the thing on the far right is my water butt  wrapped with a fleecy sleeping bag to keep the brew to a regular temperature without having to have the heating on all night. It is being propped up by a few bricks so that when it comes to draining out the brew into its beer barrel the job will be slightly easier. No need for siphoning tubes with this set up. I am slightly concerned that if the bricks get cold they will radiate coldness and cause the brew to cool down this is why the local paper has been pushed under as an after thought.

Free Economy

….Which according to it’s founder Mark Boyle, “It’s about making the transition from a money-based communityless society to a community-based moneyless society”. You might have heard about Mark in the past as he was the bloke who gave up everything he owned and decided to walk to India.

Dave and I have got involved with them on and off over the last few months, mostly offering free forages. What happens in short is rather like freecycle but with your skills instead. People list what they can do anyting from house building to scrabble playing. You sign up, putting in your address and it tells you who is nearby so if you need a head massage, want to borrow a drill or need help with your dahlias then it is worth a look.

New Desk

On Saturday we popped into the Bristol branch of Emmaus a big warehouse type shop full of second hand furniture. Everything there is donated and all the procedes go to help desitute people in need of a home, work and support. It is one of my favorite shops as I love second hand furniture. I saw a massive desk and immediately wanted it, my old one although it has served me well is just too small, once I have a couple of books on it, it is filled.

So I excepted delivery of my Edwardian second hand desk yesterday. Great I thought it is perfect so big that I could sleep on it. Then I awoke in the middle of Sunday night; the day before delivery. I realised that it was so big that it would not fit in the house. I measured up the staircase and the front door and indeed I felt sure it would not fit.

So all credit to the three blokes from Emmaus who worked out that by taking it around the back, through the french doors then, taking apart the bannister we could fit it in.  It was odd but I think there was a real sense of winning in the face of adversity when we eventually go it in.

Part one of the Cycle Adventure and this weekends home brew

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 10/11/08 at 02:11:29 pm

Part One of the 677 mile journey Bristol to Swindon October 20th 2008

I got up early in the morning and walked Emma part way into work so that I could say my goodbyes to her and drop my bike off at a bike shop in Clifton (posh bit of Bristol). It was a very sunny day and rather warm too despite the forecast of rain in the morning clearning for the afternoon.

I was informed at the bike shop that it would be ready by 5pm, I asked if it could be ready sooner as

previously disscussed and proudly announced that I would be cycling to Aberdeenshire that day. Instead of sharing my excitment as I thought they would I got a small lecture about leaving things to the last moment. Which had only happened as this bike shop would not take my bike the week before. I bit my tounge and left them to it and was informed that my bike would be ready by 1.30pm and not a moment sooner.

When I picked it up I got another lecture and was told that I needed to know some basic cycle mechanics as my bike was more likely to fail after a service (I wondered why I bothered) and I would have to bring it back to that shop should this happen. “but I am cycling to Aberdeenshire this afternoon”.

“You should leave tomorrow”. – I did not like the owner one bit, it was more than just this attitude towards me the owner of the shop was just a conceited ass, he did not seem to have much respect for his workers either. In hindsight I should have gone to the Kebele cooperative just up the road from me. Next time I will, that bloke is never getting a penny of my cash again. I won’t be petty and mention the name of the shop as others might have a better experience. But there are not many bike shops opposite the BRI and close to the Christmas steps on the edge of Clifton.

I left the shop grumbling to myself for a second, then the task ahead hit me. I was to cycle to Scotland, I grinned to myself and forgot the pettiness of some people (including myself). a little feeling inside my chest reminded my that this was to be exciting, hard work and potentially dangerous. Fantastic!

As soon as I got on my bike the heavens opened, so much for the forecast. I took the Bristol – Bath Cycle path turning off onto route 17 the Avon Link. I knew I had to come off this path at some point, unfortunately the map holder that I had on the front of my bike that I assumed was waterproof was not. In fact worse than not being waterproof it seemed to collect water turning the map I was using into a soggy mess of papier mache.

I cycled around some of the villages between Bristol and Swindon for the next couple of hours looking for signs to Swindon and a bus shelter to read my maps, the rain was far too heavy to do this any other way. But, just like buses, there is never a bus shelter around when you need one. By the time I eventually found a shelter my map was way beyond any use other than an emergency water supply or a modern art sculpture. Luckily I had picked up a very crude cycle map from Sustrains (who were very helpful incidently), it basically stated that I had to get to Marlmsbury and then stick to a B road straight for Swindon.

Night was beginning to fall, my soggy socks reminded me that my shoes were not water proof  and I was shivering but at least now I knew where I was going.  I had invested in some puncture proof tyres before leaving they were twice the price of normal tyres but I thought worth it. I noticed my back tyre kept deflating, I kept pumping it back up and due to the prospect of taking off the back wheel in all that rain I was deluding myself that it was not a slow puncture and the valve was just playing up.  After nearly swerving into an artic due to my flat tyre I decided that I could delude myself no longer and had to fix a puncture. I stood by the side of this busy B road and proceeded to take off my back wheel. My hands were numb with cold, it was hammering with rain and night had not just fallen by was refusing to get up; this simple repair was to be harder than changing them in the living room as I was used to.

The camber of the road had caused some puddles to form and it seemed that every BMW driver thought it hilarious to splash me. After about the 7th time I thought to myself I can get no colder or wetter than this and it became pretty funny after that with each splash. In hindsight I am guessing that I was laughing to stop myself crying.

So now aching, cold, hungry and tired I arrived at my first stop for the trip Lower Shaw Farm, Matt Holland met me on the path on the way there and it was so great to see a friendly face. It was 8.20pm so everyone had already eaten but some of the shepherds pie was left for me and some pasta. I had three portions, a scone and one the nicest tasting cups of tea known to man. Granted a cup of warm urine could have tasted good at that time, well a cup of Dave’s tea anyway which is not always distinguishable from warm urine.

Rather Zombie like I sat up for a bit before retiring for bed and a thoroughly deserved nights sleep.

Part two – I wish I had learnt some basic bike repairs will follow very soon (today or tomorrow depending on how long I spend up the allotment).

Home Brew Beer (From this Weekend)

Just before I left on my cycle ride I brewed some beer using the hops I have grown on my allotment the recipe I used can be found here. We invited our friends John and Garth over to sample some and they loved it so much we finished off a batch between us that evening. I was feeling somewhat happy about this until Garth drank a bottle of Cherry Lambrini that had been given to me by a neighbour with equally the same relish that he gave the beer. I wondered if it was just the alcohol content that was getting the thumbs up.

In the beers defence Dave and his new girlfriend also liked the beer and I know that they are not Cherry Lambrini drinkers, so I do hope I have grown a good brew. The trick I think is using just the best ingredients, I used youngs brewers sugar, fresh home grown organic hops and an organic malted barley. I would have liked to use spring water too and in fact might for the next brew as I plan a trip to Bath fairly soon and I know of a spring over there.

Cycling to another country gives you time to ponder

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 31/10/08 at 10:10:51 am

The day before yesterday my bike trundled over the Scotland – England boarder.  It was a great feeling seeing the flags of St Andrew in the distance then slowly crossing the boarder. It was one of those moments that you uncontrolably grin from ear to ear, I automatically looked around for someone to share this moment with and thought better of nipping over the A1 and waking up one of the truck drivers to tell him, I decided that he might not be as excited as I was.

Today I am writing this from John Headstrong’s computer, the fella that re-designed selfsufficientish and set up this blog for me. Seems odd having worked with this bloke for the last 6 months and never having met him. There is something about the folk that this website seem to attract (the ones that stick around), they are all very easy to get on with and are just genuinely good folk. 

I was in Hadington and Edinburgh yesterday and decided to break my self imposed not buy anything new rule. So I am sitting here in what is now called a thermal base layer, formerly known as long johns ready for the next bit of the trip onward to St Andrews.  I don’t think I will be playing golf though. Not sure where I will stay yet, I guess it all depends on at one point it gets too dark and I get too knackered to carry on and where there is somewhere to stay. Might not even end up being St Andrews but it does have to be on the road to Aberdeen!

I think I can start to be philsophical about this trip now, it does feel like it is something that has shifted some of my outlook and solidified some of my previous ideals. Seeing what chemical works, fertalizer factories, landfill sites, power stations and oil refineries look like and what they do to the surrounding areas can only further my thoughts for a more natural lifestyle. With each button left on stand by, each plastic wrapper put in the bin, each unecessary car journey or each spade full of chemical fertilizer we are all causing a part of our country (wherever that might be) to become glittering eyesore or an area that just feels unhealthy, my lungs felt like I had smoked a packet of marlboro in some places just because of the smoke filled air.

Anyway small rant over and time for a new one, the other thing that really jumps out is how much money is in the South and how little is in much of the North of England*.  Essentially how much money runs around our capital and how the mining communities that have litterally helped fuel the economy and have been squeezed dry of their natural resources (human and mineral) and left to rot. (I guess that must mean its dry rot). * I know some of it is prosperous but I am concentrating on some of the places I have seen.

This recession is being called a middle class one, there is no longer a manufacturing base and it is jobs in banking, estate agency and other high powered ‘city’ jobs are being lost instead. Basically the people who are the money illusionaries, the ones who make us believe that that we need it are loosing their jobs. Don’t feel too sorry for them though as they have earnt in bonuses in the last year as much money as many of us have earnt and I mean ever.

There is a point I am trying to make here about the massive North South divide and this recession, perhaps it will be a great leveler. Hopefully when the dust settles in 4 or 5 years time (yes I believe it will last that long) and we see what legacy it leaves the country, it will be postive. There will be have to be a more sustainable and cleaner way of producing power, over consumersm will have to decrease, we will have to realise that we can no longer rely on our greatest god of the West (oil) and we can’t have a country that has one smaller infanelty more prosperous one inside it within the M25 existing in it’s own little bubble, sucking the life and money out of the rest of the country.  

Ok, last little rant Holiday homes and out of town shopping. These two things are also massive players in the distruction of communities around our country. There are villages with whole streets being deserted during the winter, imagine 20 house and only one family living there. This is what happens when you rent out a holiday home, it means no village pub as there is not enough people to sustain it all year round and the post office is no longer needed either. The out of town shopping centres also mean that the other local shops have gone, unable to compete. This might all be old news to many but until you have seen comunity after community left as shadows of their former selves then you might not feel too gulity of shopping where “every little hurts”.  But you are helping to fuel this when you shop, it could not be too long before none of us have a choice.

Well, I am in a ranting mood this morning, strangley I am in a pretty good mood ready for the next leg of the cycle tour.

Bristol to near Alnwick by bike

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 28/10/08 at 12:10:23 pm

Well here I am sitting on the computer at Helen and Chris’ house, a couple of ishers! Due to some misscomunication they are the first on my trip. Well, if you don’t include my Mum.

It’s been an interesting journey so far to say the least, some highs and lows as I expected.

So first with a synopsis of the highs, there is nothing like seeing signposts for where you want to stay after a days cycling, or habing pheasants flying over your hear, stoats jumping through the hedge rows, the first glimps of the East coast, a warm house after a day in the cold or just meeting people after hours even days without really talking to people face to face, save to give a food order or ask for directions. Or coming downhill after going up.

The lows, well to be expected really, cycling uphill, getting soaked to the skin and still being miles from the destination, not being able to see the “cycle path” which at times has been nothing more than a badger track, getting a bottle thrown at me, bed and breakfasts with no breakfast, five punctures, my gears not working properly, cycling past chemical works then oil refineries then a landfill site one after another and five punctures.

But in all it has been a really good experience so far and testament not to how much stamina I have but to how pig headed I can be when I have a strong idea in my head.What has kept me going in a lot of places is the thoughts of seeing the people on the way.

Well I will do a more comprehensive run down as I have written a bit of journal (if I can find it).

Thanks for the good luck messages and to some of the Scotland ishers, hope to see you soon!

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