Beautiful sunny morning but bit nippy as I sit here in the office complete with vest and fleecy hoody. No the hoody isn’t an attempt to hold onto some idea that I retain any hint of youthful style, the vest extinguishes all hope of any street cred, it is just thick and cosy and super effective at retaining the vast amount of heat radiating from the head area (lots of hot air). All hope of youthfulness disappeared this week when we went to see Judie Tzuke in concert who was brilliant, but the audience was 100% old gits of a certain age (mine) who could remember the one and only big hit (Stay with me ‘till Dawn) 30+ years ago. I’m sure I don’t look that old really but everyone else was definitely showing signs of wear & tear with a corresponding dated ‘style’. Sod it, just reread the first part of this, I give up.


Busy social week with another concert last night with an intimate evening with Ben Waters a sensational boogie woogie pianist. A sell out but with only 95 seats to see a great talent, it’s amazing the class out there you can see at a local little venue, must get out there more. Ben was telling us of his recent work with gigs across Europe, sessions with most of the Rolling Stones, Jools Holland, Ray Davis (Kinks) and others I can’t remember. I must admit to being slightly distracted towards the end of the first set when there was nearly a nasty accident. Having downed a quick pint before the start I popped off to the facilities but bumped into Ben and his mum on the way and got chatting. Suddenly Ben was due on so I had missed my chance. Things got a bit uncomfortable as time passed and to add extra tension near the end Ben asked for a request for the last tune. Two got called out and he said he would do both, neither were short either! I was right in the middle of the seating and would have had to shuffle across right in front of Ben to get out, I thought I was going to pass out! Had an ice cream at half time rather than a drink!

Dramatic and heart-warming news about the rescued miners in Chile, what a great result. Mining has always been dangerous and when safety is cut to produce raw materials cheaply, things are bound to go wrong sometimes. Just a note to think about is that 2,600 miners died in China last year. Let’s hope the Chileans do as they say and get their safety act together, I just hope it doesn’t mean they kill the industry because someone else cuts corners to do it cheaper. Sometimes the global economic system we work in can be tricky to live with and don’t get me onto bankers (yes, I do understand just how hard they must work!).

Eco news

Ecologist is booked to do our official environmental programme/scheme for the wind turbine site. Once that is done we can get final clearance from the planners to get started, we just need to secure finance and order everything then we are off.

A friend of mine is a military strategist and looks into planning what the expected military requirements are likely to be in the future so that procurement plans are as effective and relevant as possible. Bit scary. It was interesting to hear how the eco stuff is now affecting their sector so much. The predicted scenario is based on the simple basis that demand for raw materials and energy is accelerating, populations expanding and supply of the stuff is running out or getting much harder to extract. They are now wondering what will happen when things start to get in short supply and recognising the importance and urgency in doing something about securing the future by reducing consumption and securing supplies. There is also a realisation that this will take a major change in culture to make this happen. That’s you and me.

Electric consumption on nursery down by 23.37% for 2010 up to the end of September. Water consumption down 15.6%.

Have a good week.