Cycling to school (May09)
Photo was taken in 2007 – not on the way to school… It’s brilliant. I’ve started cycling to my son’s school in the morning – and back. Rollo and Monty got me going. They decided that they wanted to run to school along the lanes. I was rather surprised to see how far they got […]
Snow crash (Feb09)
I would have abandoned the idea of school if I hadn’t run out of oil. I’ve been lasting a year on one tank – and I lasted a bit too long. Of course it ran out over the weekend before the snow hit. Actually the house wasn’t that much colder than normal. During the day […]
Bee in my bonnet about fuel efficiency (Jan09)
Green expert Julia Hailes tries out an ‘environmentally friendly’ BMW. How does the new BMW perform as a green family car? I’ve got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the fuel efficiency of cars. I can’t understand why they’re not a whole lot better than they are. Article originally written for Telegraph online.
Good riddance to US car companies (Nov08)
I sat next to a chap from Citicorp Bank for Sunday lunch at a pub last weekend. His company was apparently waiting to hear about the $20 billion cash injection from the US government. But he was more struck by the news about America’s car giants and their approach to getting a government bail out. […]
Biogas potential (Oct08)
A couple of weeks ago I went to visit one of the few emerging biogas plants in the country. At Biogen (www.biogen.co.uk), near Bedford, they take in 30,000 tonnes of food waste and put it in large anaerobic digestors (ADs). Actually, they have to remove the packaging first, but the principle is pretty simple. The […]
Yeovil to Naples by train (Aug08)
Up to Waterloo and across to St Pancras, we caught the Eurostar to Paris. But most exciting was the sleeper from Paris to Rome. Just my eldest son, Connor and I – we had a cabin to ourselves. And in old-fashioned style had our evening meal in the dining car. The waiter came round with […]
Car Troubles – Ford Ka Troubles (Aug08)
I’ve had a couple of prangs in my car recently. First, someone in a four-wheel drive reversed into me. They were trying to turn around because a lorry was blocking the road and they didn’t notice me nestled behind in my Audi A3. There wasn’t a lot of damage but the really boring thing was […]
Food ethics, tomatoes and feeding the world (May08)
I’ve been to a lot of food ethics events recently – being a member of the Food Ethics Council (FEC) is keeping me busy! I’ve chaired three of their Business Forum meetings – on food miles, meat consumption and ethical labelling; attended a working group meeting on the conflict between limiting air-freight food and fair […]
Flying is not much fun (Apr08)
I wonder if the chaos at Terminal 5 may actually be doing us all a favour. For two reasons. The first is that it reinforces the fact that flying is not much fun. It means lots of waiting, ghastly airports and lost bags – or fear of losing them. The second reason is that it seems […]
Are motorbikes better than cars? (Jan08)
My sons were more impressed with these bikes than I was! Are motorbikes better than cars? I’ve recently had email correspondence with someone who is convinced they are. Clearly a biking enthusiast he says that: small motorcycles use far less petrol than cars, don’t stand in traffic jams using up fuel getting nowhere and don’t […]
Gay Times – Peter Tatchell (Sep07)
One of three interviews I did for the Gay Times – Peter Tatchell. See also Paul O-Grady and Kristin Digby With piles of paper balanced precariously almost to the ceiling (it reminded me of Dr Seuss’s Cat in the Hat), Peter’s flat is not only his home but his campaign headquarters too. Animal rights, human rights, […]
A McDonald’s experience (Apr07)
I thought I’d do a bit of comparison on fuel efficiency between the UK and the US. Went to Heathrow in an 8-seater vehicle – it was on its way to collect a large group. But at 36mpg even that was less thirsty than the flashy black Lincoln that collected me from Chicago’s O’Hare airport […]