It’s easy to pay lipservice to “eco-living” but here’s something which should make it easier to shop “sustainably”. “eat the seasons” is a site which simply tells you what food is in season now – so you can find the most cost-effective purchases and likely, the food which has fewest food miles.
Today we went blackberry picking again – another great haul to be added to the freezer for winter crumbles.
Bonus link: recipes for more hedgerow delights. Rosehip syrup anyone?

So for those of you who care about these things, I upgraded to Movable Type 4 today.
Despite stumbling across a couple of fairly major installation issues, I resolved them within a couple of hours and am now up to date and getting to know my way around the new interface. It’s quite satisfying to have fixed the problems.

Now of course the old blog template design needs a good update – to keep up with the sexy new “web 2.0″ styley things going on. Have to get my thinking cap on . Onwards and upwards, progress etc etc.

They brought out the new Canon 40D digital SLR. Am now very excited, as I’ve been waiting to upgrade…

Mmmm. Better photos. Bigger lenses. etc etc

So we went to the V 2007 Festival in Chelmsford.
For two days, normal life was suspended. The regular decency of weeing in a toilet, replaced by green plastic urinals or plain old bushes, the concept of putting litter in bins replaced with throwing it on the floor to be later collected by a spotty teenager in a high-vis vest.
By the end of Sunday it was like walking on the top of a giant landfill site, gently muddied and wetted by the drizzling rain, sweet smelling the mixture of crushed grass, fried noodles, chicken tikka and cardboard. Somehow a sad and derelict symptom of a lot of people enjoying themselves in a thoroughly unsustainable way.
And all this just the backdrop to a play filled with 80,000 actors from all over the country, by no means the “beautiful people”, united in a desire to see and hear great bands. And in truth the music was good. Slightly spoiled by occasionally poor sound quality (maybe just the wind) but largely spectacular, theatrical displays of musical talent.

My favourites?
Gabrielle and Rodriguez – a fabulous duo of drumming, guitar-wielding Mexicans.
Pink – great fun, white blonde hair
SnowPatrol – my personal favourite and superb as always
Mika – great fun and we got close into the mosh pit for a fun time
The Guillemots
Ross Copperman – great band who had a small crowd, including us, whilst everyone else watched Kasabian.
It was a thoroughly engaging spectacle – in all senses and good music. A good escape from real life.
Thanks to E and R for their hospitality – ensuring none of us had to actually camp in the rain!

Disgarded offices

We moved office today.
The last four years of my life I’ve worked in Acton. In some ways it has been great – relaxed, out of London, easy to get to (cycling) and a high-ceiling’ed spacious place. But it has also had it’s downsides: no one likes coming to Acton, American’s are annoyed by it’s distance from town, we’ve been burgled twice and the local sewage works is pretty stinky in mid summer. Also, it’s not air conditioned so the heat can be stifling.
Today we left it all behind. We’re moving to new, professional, cool offices in Hammersmith and our life in the “third world” is over.
It was a positive experience but not one without some sad memories – leaving an era behind. The new stuff ahead is exciting.
God the picture makes it look really bad!
I remember now all the things which happened there:
Dogs who ate your sandwiches out of the bins
Arguments between founders, slamming doors
Late nights with pizzas while we made something work
Stress of managing people
False alarms at the weekend when the burglar alarm went off
The time the whole place flooded
Interviews with numerous candidates
My dad building two kitchens
Having the place redecorated over a weekend
My first day there -feeling like the world was my oyster
Being promoted to CTO
Being given a good bonus
Arriving early 7am after a bike crash.
Good times.

Question is… is it a real photo?

Ruffles on a subject which rings true for me too:

About three years ago I started going regularly to the gym. This was in response to a realisation that I was on a weight-gain trajectory that would make me very fat in middle age. Alongside this, I realised that I should stop eating shite like fast food and sweets.
I recently resolved to jump back on the dentistry bandwagon having fallen off it some years ago. I went on Wednesday and it turns out I’ve got away with it, they need a bloody good clean, but against all odds I have a healthy gob.
Once I’ve been scraped to death by the hygienist, I’ll be onto my eyesight. I have pretty good eyesight, but when I’m tired and it’s dark, I know that I’m not focussing as well as I used to.
I should also go to the doctor to see if he can do anything about the stress related ulcers and psoriasis I’ve been getting.
There was a time when I could eat shit, do no exercise, work and play all night without any adverse effect. Its crept up on me, but its dawned on me that I’m spending more and more time doing things just to hold myself together. I was 35 on Thursday and Mother Nature has decided that I’m more valuable as soil nutrient. She’s basically trying kill me.