Coffee in the Square

The String Bag

OK!  So I’ll admit it. This string bag is symptomatic of my latest consumerist tendency – the purchasing of green bags.  In the last few months I’ve been given or purchased a whole series of green bags, ranging from some very fine and robust canvas bags in Waitrose; logo’ed cotton bags from conferences or purchased in thrift shops; bags for life given or purchased from supermarkets and now the green bag to end all other green bags … the string bag!

However this is not just any string bag.  Its made from strong fairtrade cotton, eco dyes, and manufactured by  (hopefully) happy workers in what are termed airy units in India.  But if this were not enough to save the planet the company that sells them in the UK is committed to saving the turtle.  The turtle is the beast that outlived the dinosaurs but, as the marketing puts it, might not outlive us because of the danger of feeding off plastic bags discarded around our seashores.

Though no proportion of the relatively modest sum that I paid for the bag will go towards some wildlife charity or other the idea is that the more string bags we have the less plastic bags get discarded.  Though the company has been audited by WWF for its ethical and environmental credentials.

The difference between a string bag and other types of eco bag (all the others are much cheaper) is that a string bag cannot carry advertising. They also look very pretty hanging on hooks – as the Turtle Bag website shows.  I’ll keep you posted as to their practicalities, lifespan and fashion kudos.

To find out more go to www.turtlebags.co.uk .

Southsea Afternoon

The English South coast is slowly starting to wake up from about 50 years snooze in a deckchair.

Mike and I went to Southsea yesterday and strolled in the un-seasonal August Bank Holiday sun.  Its about ten minutes walk from Portsmouth

and Southsea rail station.

The highlight is the East Beach which local people seem to decry as decrepit, but  we found it delightful.. They have left the beach un-weeded, so plants like sea cabbage and thrift are flourishing.  Half way along – just opposite the military museum there is a lovely take away café – they have a real coffee machine in the back of a trailer and do home made bread and butter pudding as well as delicious looking filled rolls.  To complete your seaside meal a local ice cream company park nearby.

The really cool thing is the beach deckchairs that you can sit on to drink your coffee.  Each one has a container in the arm to support the coffee cup!  Those fold out chairs are really comfortable – the high back can also be used as a wind break if it gets a bit nippy.

If you pop into the tourist office you can pick up a map which shows the whole seaside from Portsmouth Harbour right to the ferry to Hayling Island (which runs from the very far end of Southsea front.)  (It’s a cycle route – but in fact its quite difficult to hire a bike around here!)

There is a very good leaflet to be had on the works of Thomas Ellis Owen, 1805-1862 who did a series of Nash type terraces and cottages just near to the Southsea town centre.  It’s a short walk – all concentrated into a few streets and obviously the posh part of town to live.  Kent Road used to overlook the common and the sea – but sadly its all been built-up now.  Before you get to the bombed out part of Portsmouth – which have now been built up with tower blocks and council flats – you walk through a delightful cottagey Victorian area.  The pubs all look amazing – festooned with tiles and decoration and all amazingly still open and active.  Some have turned themselves into brassieres and look quite smart.

 

But don’t get too excited – Southsea is an expensive place to live – we saw no bargains in the estate agents’ windows!  And these agents are obviously good at marketing.  The architectural leaflet is sponsored by estate agents DM Nesbit and Co!

 

www.portsmouth.gov.uk/living/714.html

First Catch Your Bus!

We’ve been looking for Eco-busses to go with our eco town for several months now.  You would think that it would be quite easy to buy or hire a bus but when you ring the manufacturers you get a rather luke-warm response.  Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions?

Anyway finally we have found an operator and a company who seem interested.  Yesterday we went to Dennis busses in Guildford with Countryliner and were treated to a tour around the works and the gen on all their busses.

We are looking at a very new model which uses 25% less diesel than normal models, the rest of the power being produced by electricity generated from brake power.  Andy Boulton, Dennis’s sales manager is a real enthusiast and let slip that he owned quite a number of busses himself!

We fell in love with some of their classic range, especially a beautiful little 22 seater from the 20’s complete with moquette upholstery and etched glass lights. 

We also heard about  Plymouth Park and Ride, which has the most luxurious busses – the Enviro 400’s (not as green as the ones we are considering) but it’s the interior that interested us.  Leather upholstery and in seat audio!  This definitely means I’ll be off the

Plymouth some time soon to check them out.  By all accounts the service, which runs every 7 minutes from  6.30am to  8.30pm has been a phenomenal success.

What’s interesting about both the classic bus and the Plymouth bus is that someone had spent time thinking about the interior.  A lot of work goes into the exterior – modern busses have to have a smile!  And the operators are of course interested in the engine and the drive.  Pru Leith once told me that when you design a restaurant it’s the table arrangement, the plate and what’s on it that is the most important to diners.  I suspect that for bus passengers it’s the seat (and possibly the view) that is most important – yet how often have you sat on an uncomfortable seat – with a view of a blank plasticy wall in front of you. And how often have you had to suffer the inconvenience of looking inwards or backwards – both uncomfortable especially on windey roads? 

Of course the reason that bus interiors are so clunkey these days is that they have lowered the floor in order to get disabled access.  The lovely little 22 seater from the 20’s had a completely flat floor – but of course you had to climb up two or three steps to get into it.

 

Thanks to Brian Georg's Flickr site for these images.

 

 

Recycle, Renew, Reuse

TURNING THE TABLES

Well folks this is my latest DIY task.  Faced with a need for a small table in my new office I asked Facilities Management only to discover that they had no storage and had recently thrown out a load of old furniture.  I can appreciate the problem - furniture is bulky to store.  So what should I do to get a small table in my office around which a few chairs could be placed for impromptu meetings?  I'd like to make my new office at East Hampshire District Council comfortable and welcoming for people. I believe that impromptu meetings are good for business and the soul!

While I was pondering the dilemma I discovered a set of THREE nesting tables in my local Oxfam branch for £3.99.  So on Friday , my day off, I nabbed the tables and then hot-footed it to the DIY store where I bought a pot of matt eggshell in a fetching Welsh Stone colour (off white to you and me) and this picture shows my three tables in the process of transformation.

Now apart from the fact that the paint and brush cost more than the tables I still reckon that I have a bargain.  I spotted a very similar table in one of the trendy furniture shops here for £45.00 - and that was in the sales!  I've got three for half the price.  Yes I have had to paint them myself.  But the first coat took about an hour this evening.  I could not believe how quickly they were painted and I'm sure I only need one more coat to finish them off nicely.

When complete one will go into the office while I shall use the other two in my still rather sparsely furnished Petersfield flat!

Taking the last bus home

 

In the hedonistic 80’s Mike and I used to enjoy going to the cinema especially for the ad which showed a cool couple of blokes hopping from a golden shoreline into a fast white leather upholstered speedboat.  The tag line was “Taking the last bus home – if you’r drinking Bacardi”

I was reminded of this ad as I sat on the 5.22 Countryliner from Penns Place in Petersfield where I now work which extraordinarily is the last bus home!  There is no bus service to the Council offices or the adjacent leisure centre, or the adjacent housing neighbourhood after 17.22!   If I miss it I have to walk. It’s only about a 35 minute walk and quite a pleasant route – but that’s not really the point.  In fact the bus driver reminded me the other day that I had had the honour of having been his first passenger in the morning – at 7.38 and his last in the evening – and I didn’t think I had really worked a very long day.

What I find strange is the scarcity of people on that bus.  I’m often the only one.  In a recent survey that Hampshire County Council did they discovered that perception of the quality and frequency of busses was markedly different depending upon whether people actually used the busses or not. If they did not use the busses they had a much lower opinion of them.

I can’t say that my bus has any style but it is always on time and I enjoy the social aspect of the journey.  I have got to nodding acquaintance with several passengers including a very nice disabled guy who is always helped on and off the bus by the driver.   In fact this morning I knew all of the four other passengers!

One of the strongest arguments for getting people out of their cars and taking public transport is that it forces people to engage with their neighbours.  On the bus you might be sitting next to anyone – and of course if you travel by public transport regularly you soon learn that most of your fellow beings are really quite nice people.

So if the survey is correct and the experience is far better than the perception then we have to find ways of getting people to take the bus once or twice in the hope that it will help them to change their mind about busses.

Here’s a wacky example from Kobe in Japan, where Ikea dressed up the local trams as a publicity stunt when their new store opened. Now how come the Swedes always seem to come up with the answers?

Living among the trees

Meet Wolfgang Engelhardt, the proud new owner of this beautiful tree house in his back garden in Dusseldorf Germany.

I spotted this article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine as I sat in a cafe in St Christopher's Place at the weekend.

It got me thinking about why we find trees such a delightful thing and why when we talk about things Eco we automatically think of trees.  Well yes they are renewable - and make good fuels and houses - but perhaps there is something else.  In the article on faz.net http://www.faz.net/s/Rub8E0FC0CD826A4ACA80504FD9153A70F2/Doc~E4031FF2D2EDF407DA3AA7652705FB10D~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html

Wolfgang says that he can think in his tree house.  Its designed by a talented design designer Andreas Venning whose company - from their website - seem to specialise in tree houses.   http://www.baumraum.de/  

House for Sale in Mojacar

This 2/3 bedroomed village apartment boasts a 600 sq ft sheltered terrace with marvellous views.

Mirror, mirrow on the wall which will be the biggest city of them all?

Price Waterhouse Cooper (or PwC as they now catchily call themselves) have just issued a fascinating analysis if the relative GDP of 150 major cities around the world and taken an educated stab at their relative success in 2020. Largest city economics in the world in 2005 and 2020 They have combined statistics for GDP with those for per capita income in order to arrive at a (relatively) equally valued output.  Using these statistics the number one ranking goes to Tokyo and according to the report London will be creeping up from number 6 to become the fourth largest capital in the world.  Tipped for the highest growth in real GDP are the great cities of China, that is Shanghai and Beijing, followed closely by Mumbai and the big Latin American cities.  Other far eastern climbers will include Seoul and Manila.

The study recognises the limitations of such an overview in particular by the slightly arbitrary way that the boundaries of such cities are drawn.  For example Greater London as defined by the GLA area would leave out a vast swath of commuter towns which rely completely on the London effect.  For example we could consider that Reading, Slough, Guildford, Luton and Basildon are all really the outer reaches of London.   

Of course what would also be interesting would be to compare the relative populations and the footprints of these cities.  London has very specific plans for physical and population growth, but its plans for economic growth are only inferred in The London Plan by an increase in employment.

I have a hunch that the Chinese cities with their mega growth plans may be underestimated in the stats and that existing major cities like London may be over estimated.  These figures were of course compiled by Englishmen!

This makes me mad!

I have decided to include a selection of outrages, rather like Architectural review used to do.  And for my first victim I have chosen HSBC bank for their cranky new interiors.
Why does a bank need to look like a disco?  Spangly lights and low levels, a dance floor and carpeted areas.  When you enter all you see is an array of machines that remind me of the soulless slot machines of Vegas. The human tellers are tucked inconspicuously around the corner. I know what they were thinking. Get rid of expensive staff and get the feel of the street - a most overused world in interior design.  The only place for a streetscene is in Disney Land or in a REAL STREET!  Interestingly when I went in and sneaked this photo all the people at the machines were bank staff, trying to make the machines work. Please send me your outrages and I will give them blogspace.

This is what HSBC's 2006 annual report says "HSBC Bank plc aligns its strategy closely to the HSBC Group’s strategic vision to be the world’s
leading financial services company, where leading means the HSBC brand is preferred to others. In working towards delivery of the vision, the bank has developed strategic initiatives for each of its customer groups. The bank’s priorities are to improve the customer experience, (continuing to develop the FSA principles of ‘Treating Customers Fairly’), to invest in developing HSBC’s brand and
encourage all staff to live HSBC’s brand values in their day-to-day activities, and to improve staff
engagement. The bank also focuses on investing in delivery platforms and technology, improving the customer experience, enhancing work practices and taking advantage of HSBC’s global reach."

Road Charging

As insomnia gripped the other night I had the good fortune to catch a very good discussion about road charging on the World Service. World Business Review It took as a starting point that the British government is laying the groundwork for what could be the boldest traffic management scheme ever undertaken. They stated the fact that opposition to road pricing is fierce in Britain as elsewhere, angry motorists seeing themselves as defenseless targets of a government plot to extract a new tax, while making them pay for their own surveillance. There has been a great surge of opposition on the government's website.  However I don't think this translates as opposition.  Its just fear of the new.  Most people I know who live in Central London welcome the congestion zone, and those who live outside welcome the improvement in buses.  if its modal shift we are after - then its clear that the congestion charge is successful.  Bus travel in London has increased by 37% in the last five years and London is the only world city where car transport has not increased; the decrease in the congestion zone being balanced by an increase outside the zone.

It is clear that traffic congestion is s global issue for congestion is a waste of time, money and energy as well as a completely unnecessary contributor to global warming.

In the programme leading international road transport academic, Professor Stephen Glaister of Imperial College, London, and the London transport authority; former British Transport Minister and candidate for mayor of London, Steven Norris; high tech transport expert Jason Barnes, editor of ITS International; and newspaper columnist, traveller and former member of parliament, Matthew Parris discuss the outlook for road pricing.

While I don't agree with what everybody said, I felt this was a sane discussion between people who understood the problem and had spent a considerable amount of time considering the solutions.  Stephen Glasiter has also very kindly offered a link to his own pamphlet National Road Pricing: Is it fair and practical? and if you want to sign the governments petition to support road charging then go to http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Road-Charging/