Flashback One: Environment Doomed

As I didn't provide any updates while I was in America, I'm now going to do it belatedly in the form of flashbacks. This is an awesome new gimmick of mine.

A lot of us here have been seeing the green agenda pushed more and more. I think it's a good point - recycling what you can, walking short journeys, using public transport, turning off electrical appliances to save energy and what have you. I've been quite an advocate myself, in a quiet non-preaching way.

However, after my recent trip to the States, I have come to a realisation - what is the point? You travel down the freeway in Orange County - that most challenging of terrain, after all - and every other vehicle, no exaggeration, is either a truck or an SUV. A 'small' car is the average four-door saloon. I hate to think what they'd think of a mini, smart car or equivalent, it'd be a shock.

The end result of this is that I'm wondering what the point is. No matter what effort we make, people wasting their time in SUVs and trucks when they have no reason to be will dwarf the impact of those few people making the effort.

It's tragic, but true.

I Doff My Cap ...

... to one specific letter-writer to thelondonpaper, one of the train freebies. The comment was superb, and went along the lines of the following:

"After reading the articles on the same page on TFL getting fares from ghost oyster journeys and Tescos paying pittance for chickens, I was wondering. Money for nothing and chicks for free? Mark Knopfler would be proud."

Superb.

Shocking

Believe it or not, today marks six months to the day since I started work.

I have no idea if this seems a lot longer than it actually is, or a lot shorter. I think a bit of both, as usual - it feels like only yesterday I started work, but equally feels like I've been there for a long time and it's become so routine. So don't believe what they tell you kids, working isn't as hard as it's made out to be. And if it is, you get paid anyway so it balances out.

I finish this short post with two fingers at all those who doubted my ability to get up at 6am for six whole months.

Marching Onwards

I'm fairly sure this is not the first time I have started a March-commencing blog with a similar pun. Apologies if it's old. It is.

I somewhat promised a bit of an update on things today, so I'll try and oblige and let you know how I was getting on with my Feb resolutions. If you remember, these were small and simple things I could change to just set myself some goals.

So, how have I done?

1. Walking each weekend. Miserable failure. I've just not had the motivation. Need to work on this one a bit I think! I am walking to the station tomorrow to go into work. So perhaps that'll be a start.

2. Not snacking, eating properly. This has been a success. I've made myself a lunch every day, and it's far better than the inevitable snacking. So I'm happy there. I've also cut down on the extra 'unnecessary' snacking as best as possible.

3. Attempt at learning to drive is still on the grid awaiting the starter's orders. My dead phone has hindered my here as all the relevant numbers were stored on it.

4. Making more of weekends. Getting there a bit, although to be honest I've been trying to clear the decks every weekend to make sure that I have more time to do stuff during the week if I want to. The effects are gradually starting to show - paperwork, ironing, tidying the room, throwing out old stuff are hardly something to show for the weekend, but at least they're helping me get things straight.

5. Trying to do more socially. A bit of this, has been okay. Have done some things but not that much to be frank. Again, the aforementioned phone problem has been a hinderance here. I'm going to try and work on that this month.

Overall, one goal achieved, one worked on, and one failed. Two that were non-starters. Relatively decent progress. I'm going to continue these aims through March and we'll see how the next progress report ends up!

Progress Update

So, I set myself some goals for February. So far I think I'm not completely underperforming, and am doing okay in some of them.

The nice thing about lots of small goals is that it's always easy to achieve some of them, so you have positive reinforcement and avoid the complete disenchantment and demotivation of not achieving some grand goal. Baby steps and all that malarky.

I'll provide a full update on the 1st March.

Teetotal Fridays

I made a brief allusion to this via Facebook on Saturday. The fact being, that I myself - as you all know - do not drink. This naturally means that when going out after work on a Friday, I'll generally have a coke instead of an alcoholic beverage.

What this usually results in is me having 3-4 glasses of coke (which I'm trying to narrow down on from pints to a bottle to aid in this) over the course of an evening. This in turn generally results in me coming home, having had lots of caffiene, fully awake. This is actually really annoying in the long term.

I end up staying up late on a Friday, getting up late on a Saturday, as a result staying up late on a Saturday and getting up late on Sunday. Most of my weekend disappears because of these bizarrely shifted hours and I never get much accomplished, especially in the mornings when I'm still sleeping!

End conclusion is that teetotalism is as bad for your Saturday mornings as drinking is.

The World We Live In

I got a huge chuckle this morning when reading in the Metro the reaction to the Archbishop of Canterbury's bumblings about Sharia law. I don't have a copy with me, alas, but it was along the lines of this.

"Bishops have reported masses of e-mails from confused clergy asking just what they do about it".

Wait a second. E-mails from confused clergy? I don't know why, but there's something about this that you cannot square with religion. What sort of religious organisation communicates by e-mail? They should send it by letter. Perhaps courier. Pigeon at a stretch. Not by freaking e-mail. Even telephoning shouldn't be happening, unless it's one of those old-style telephones that weigh 30 tonnes and have five different pieces you have to hold together to speak.

I mean, seriously - e-mail?

February Resolutions?

As far as resolutions go, February is not a traditional time. But January was shattering for me, and I was busy first with Chrissi here, then with work, so didn't have time to actually get down to some good old resolving.

Anyway, I'm here now, and that's what matters. As mentioned on my most recent blog, I have a few goals for myself this year. I'm going to set some remarkably low key ones for February, but this is also with the realisation that I might actually meet them.

I'll post them up here as an extra motivational tool, listed in no particular order:

1. Do more exercise. Walk at least five miles one day each weekend.


2. Snack less. Make myself a lunch each day and eat it, and don't buy anything extra to eat with it.


3. Make an attempt at learning to drive again.


4. Make sure I can finish each weekend by having something that I've done and can say I've achieved come Monday morning.


5. Make more of a social effort. Attempt to at least do something once a week outside the usual.

As I said, not spectacular, but achievable. Smart targets and all that jazz, you know.