Richmond Venturer

My next grand adventure will commence on Friday the 30th as I undergo a day's training to become a volunteer crew member of the boat Richmond Venturer. She is the main ingredient of The River Thames Boat Project and I'm increadibly excited about the whole prospect. Here's a shocking fact: I have spent just over a year now living next to the Thames and I still haven't made it onto the river!

This hopes to address the imbalance and dreadful state of affairs and it really is volunteer work in a direction that I want to be exploring. A recent trip to the London Aquarium left me feeling like the lapsed marine biologist that I am and added to the growing conviction that I want to do something about it. The Richmond Ventura takes school groups and other groups on board for trips and river education and is fully accessible to people with disabilities, so on the whole it sounds tremendously appealing.

I am going to have to practice my starboard from my port and start calling the kitchen the 'galley' and the toilets the 'heads' and all things nautical with weird names.

I wonder if "Ahoy matey!" and "Aye, aye Captain" are acceptable phrases on board...

Visits abroad

I'm licking the last remaining sugary goo off my fingers from a fragment of Brighton Rock that HM1 brought back with her yesterday from, well, Brighton. It's been ages since I had any, and it quite nicely rounds off a lovely weekend.

I trained it over to "Swampea" (as the predictive text on my phone calls the place) on Friday for a few days of catching up with friends and enjoying a joint 30th birthday party in a field. I went to the their joint 25th birthday party which makes me feel like I've been in the UK a really long time now... I had tasty Indonesian food on Friday and thoroughly enjoyed the warm sunny Saturday that I spent wandering around Mumbles and then onto Murton on the Gower.

I managed a visit to the Red Cafe to see them in action (ie overrun with toddlers!) and to fit in a years worth of news into an hour with one of the managers. A couple of weeks ago my flip flops came apart as I was cycling. This was a tragic event, if not entirely unexpected, as these were my favourite shoes and I had worn them almost exclusively for the past three summers. It can be very hard to replace items that command such respect but while in Mumbles I had a wave of genius: why not go to the same shop I bought the first pair from and get another... I am now the owner of another pair of flip flops and in the process of introducing my feet to them and I have high hopes of them lasting the next three years!

The party took place in glorious sunlight, with a lovely bbq, great massive tipii with a sound system and decks, a fire, lots of lovely people - and no bloomin' planes flying over my head! I felt completely relaxed and like I was on holiday plus I had a good dance. In fact I stayed up till the last song and saw the dawn come in. The music was a crazy mixture of childrens songs early in the evening, a live folk band, and whatever music the dj's fancied playing into the night. It was lovely to have so many families with children in the early afternoon/evening and see them all running around - about the same height as the grass - and pretending to be like the pigs on the land.

London really does have a sad lack of tipiis in fields and big open fires to gather around.

On Sunday I got the grand tour of two allotments of my University friends and I think I might have a grave case of "allotment envy". Although it did show up how very little I do know about gardening in general. I hope something will grow out the back in my titchy, tiny patch...

Roller coasters are definately not my thing

HM1 organised a youth trip to Thorpe Park today and we had a minibus full of people. I was roped into going along to the theme park as a "responsible adult" (he hee), which I don't object to per se. It's all them roller coasters that I'm not so keen on! In fact I hate most of them. Which does tend to make things a little tricky. I volunteered to go with the group that doesn't want to do the scary rides - but they still chose a whole bunch of rides that terrify me. I think I must've missed the bit in the youth worker training that taught one how to do roller coasters (along with the skill of playing pool - another excrutiatingly important youth worker skill that I never quite mastered...)

Another co-worker today made a passing comment about willingly facing up to one's mortality in these extreme moments. Okay, I can see where he's coming from just about. But I'm still struggling with the "why"... Now teacups, on the other hand, those I do like, but I'd be hard-pressed to find much morality in them! Youth worker or no, I still don't like roller coasters.

Our new patch

As part of my rather domestic day (including making some kiwi bread) I spent a couple of hours clearing ivy off a patch of the border in the garden. This grand patch of a garden is mostly grass and looked after by some gardeners, but as they don't do anything with the borders I'm reclaiming it for a vegetable patch!

Not that I know anything about growing vegetables but this should be a good time to start. It'll be small and close to the house and if it all goes horribly wrong then I can always let the ivy grow back:) I am extremely grateful for some offers to dig the patch and I also managed to borrow my neighbour's tools for the time being so that's good too. We don't know what we're doing but HM2 and I are particularly keen to give it a go and see what happens. Should be fun! And lots, and lots of digging.

The End of Suburbia

I have just watched the documentary "The End of Suburbia". I thought I had seen this before as I was very aware of it when it came out in 2004, but I hadn't actually. It discusses the declining energy supplies in North America and what effect that might have. I believe this is doing the rounds and one of the oft-mentioned films when groups are looking at issues of declining oil and natural gas supplies and the concept of peak oil.

I can't say any of it was particularly new to me as I do have the advantage in moving in such circles where issues of these sorts are talked about and taken seriously. But I can see how it might be an effective wake-up call of sorts. Personally I was slightly less inspired.

I'm still committed to the concept of peak oil - but I think despite of this documentary rather than because of it. I, and others around me, are looking into the Transition Town model and reading Rob Hopkin's Transition Town Handbook. There are at least 30 copies spread out in the borough due to the work of the REN coordinator who is very enthusiastic about this idea. It looks at the twin problems of peak oil and climate change, and then proposes action in the form of encouraging local resilience and powering down our dependency on a substance about to get increasingly expensive. This is a massively inspiring take at community design done by a community and not forced on them. It is definately something I want to be a part of!

My main gripe with "The End of Suburbia" is that the only people interviewed are white men aged around 50. Fair enough, they've got something to say. But what about the rest of us who are going to be equally effected? Don't we get a chance to dream and vision a different future too?

This is the time for grassroots networking and getting the idea of Richmond becoming a Transition Town/Borough off the ground. The time to get groups grappling with the idea of what we would like to see happen - and then try to do it.

Squatters on the move...

A different take on the daily London (tube) blight: 'The Metro'.

Egg Watch

Last Saturday I was at the Wetlands Centre and we've got some Indian Runner Duck egg's in an incubation chamber. Some of them were starting to hatch while I was there which was a little distracting in the process of running the weekend activities for children. I had to keep popping upstairs to see how the four ducklings were doing and coo over them... I learnt so much about eggs and the hatching process on Saturday. I've never seen anything being hatched before (being a city-girl most my life) and I found it so remarkable standing there watching them. I can't believe they can fit a duckling into an egg!!

The weather was freaky - hail followed by bright sunshine followed by rain followed by sunshine stc - but we still managed to orchestrate an egg race that involved families building a chariot to pull their egg along in. It was technically a children's activity, but the parents got involved straight away and seemed to enjoy themselves too.

The ducklings should be outside in a little run by next Saturday (which is when I'm next in) and the Ed team has got joint responsibility over them so we'll get to feed them and clean the pen. Can't wait!

A Quiet Day

Today, as a household, we went for a quiet day to Worth Abbey. This is the place "made famous" by BBC2's show 'The Monastery' in 2005. I haven't seen any of that show myself but it was an interesting place to visit regardless. The picture shows a view of the Abbey from the Quiet Garden. And it is in a beautiful area of West Sussex among the trees and the hills whichwere striking if only for their not-Londonesque quality (I may have been in London for too long...)

The day started off with Father Stevens ( a former abbot of the place and resident since 1961) leading a Lectio Divina for our group and then we spent the rest of the day in quiet - absolutely divine! Life has been particularly full-on at the moment with very little space so I really appreciated today. And I think that's true for all three of us, and it was generally quite a fun thing to do as a household. The Quiet Gardens are particularly lovely and I had a gorgeous walk following the stream down through the forest in a glorious peace and did not see another human until I emerged again. My soul was too happy to care about all the mud I was walking through...

Not really knowing what to bring along to a monastery for a quiet day my bag was rather full but actually I found that what I really wanted was to walk around doing nothing else. Suddenly a week long silent retreat makes a lot more sense to me now as a concept as i could have easily carried on and only felt like I had started at the end of the day... Maybe next time? :)

Sunflowers and snow

The weather really has been all over the place. From flip flops on Friday to snowmen on Sunday and then back into a sunny spell! It was quite something seeing 'our' Narnia lamp post and the magnolia tree behind it covered in snow. There was lots of talk about seedlings and how they would cope with the snow and general pitying of the flowers... I'm pleased I know so many people who are growing their own food. It vicariously feel like I'm doing my bit too even if all I've got growing at the moment in a pepper plant, some kitchen herbs, and a sunflower!

Our friend down the road has declared a sunflower growing war with us... He planted his sunflower the same time HM1 and I did and the whole thing has degenerated into a competition. Actually, to be fair, it did start off in-house with HM1 placing a Buddha statue next to her plant and hers is doing better than mine...:) This must be a well known principle as when I went to a garden centre the other day there were several Buddha statues scattered around amongst the plants! However it has now gone wider and is Sandover House vs York House.

It kind of reminds me of my friends' wedding. They wanted lots of sunflowers at their wedding and asked several of their friends to grow some, so during the run up to the wedding where ever you went people had lots of sunflowers everywhere! It was lovely!

It's Marathon time of the year again

HM2 is running the London Marathon this year. He did it last year too, which obviously wasn't enough to put him off doing it ever again. I've been admiring him and his running regime. He's gone out in windy and cold and rainy weather, run round Richmond Park TWICE etc. HM1 and I agree that it's challenging enough running to catch the bus so we are very impressed with him indeed.

The day of the Marathon is coming up soon, April 13th, and I just hope it's not going to snow or anything horrible like that! HM2 has managed to raise a lot of money for Christian Aid on both years and that is an excellent reason for doing the run - although it is still well beyond me. :)

Endless Airport Expansion

This morning saw the first flights arrive and take-off from Terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport - the latest addition to that particular monstrosity. I went over to have a look this morning and I might just happened to have put on my bright red "Stop Airport Expansion" t-shirt as I got dressed. And I might of felt like taking my coat off at 11 am when loads of other people around me did too (who had also happened to have put on an identical t-shirt to mine). The sea of red in the Arrivals Hall looked quite impressive. The assorted police, BAA staff, and media seemed to think so too!

Most everything is illegal according to Heathrow bylaws, including singing, but at least wearing a t-shirt is still allowed and thus a flashmob (NOT a demonstration) was formed. I bumped into a few local people I knew there and I just generally enjoyed the whole experience. It's been a while since I've been involved in such a direct action and they can be such fun and it is heartening to see other people taking action and believing in the good cause. Despite the massive police presence there was a calmness about the whole event which was lovely.

The arrivals area of T5 is rather boring and the departure area is far nicer and lighter. However there were problems with the baggage while we were there and the tube was 20 minutes late leaving from T5 towards central London. Once it did come, it was fun going back with all these people in the tube wearing red t-shirts. A nice sense of solidarity. Until the next time folks!

My Easter Weekend

Since Friday morning it has been:

Food - Church - food - Church - food - sleep - food - walk - food - Church - food - (3 hours sleep) - Church - food - food - (walk) - food - Church - food - sleep.

No wonder next Sunday is called low Sunday and no one goes to Church! We're all knackered...

Almost the end of Lent

It's almost the end of Lent and the end of our Lenten experiment. When we started it felt like we'd never get this far but there are only a few more days to go until a double dose of Easter Vigils to truly end in style. Very similarly to last year we'll be going to an Easter vigil on Saturday evening followed by wine and chocolate at the Rector's house and then the hardy among us will get up for the dawn service too:) HM2 has already adamently said he's not getting up for that one, but he is happy to organise our champagne breakfast for slightly later...

As a household we have agreed that it's slightly against the point of what we've been doing if we've all got a long shopping list written down for Tuesday, although I have a sneaking suspicion we've already got a small mental list going! I've heard talk of new sofas and fireplaces, and I've been meditating on bicycle helmets... On the whole I think we've all survived pretty well and, more than that, managed to use this time to change a few habits and spend time reflecting. It might even be difficult to go back to having to monitor all my own money use. Towards the end this has just become more naturalised and it has felt perfectly normal and reasonable to go to a common pot for some money. I think I'm also going to miss my pocket money! At first it did take me back to being a small child but I have valued the money just to look after myself in a small but fun way and have a bit of money earmarked for myself that doesn't get swallowed by worthy causes (as good and necessary as they are).

Tonight a friend of ours who sings in the London Concert Choir is performing Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at the Barbican so Botanist and I are heading over. It's been ages since I've been to London, and I have only ever been to the cinema at the Barbican so I'm looking forward to it. It has been ages since I've been to a classical concert and part of me is slightly nervous that it'll be "too difficult" or whatever classical music is supposed to be, but I do hope not! I guess I can always pretend that I'm bettering myself.

A chance to ask questions

Today I found somebody who qualified as a drama teacher and he knows a dance teacher who is starting to do some work with the Special Educational Needs department at a local school that I could get in touch with. I am so happy!! Any ideas and thoughts and anything really is welcome at the moment as I try to make sense of the Something To Say project in my head. If everything goes alright I guess I'll have lots of opportunities to ask interesting people who do interesting things all about what they do - which is actually quite an exciting prospect!

The things I say "yes" to...

...are numerous and sometimes rather odd.

Like, for instance, agreeing to lead a dance and drama group for people with learning disabilities.

Not entirely sure how that happened! But it did. And I've led my very first session of the drama group this afternoon. I know nothing about drama so the whole thing was rather stressful and I am rather euphoric now that it all seemed to go well (nobody's dead at any rate!). The group is called "Something to Say" and today was it's first meeting with me as the person facilitating the experience. The group as such has been going for over a year with a slightly different membership although it felt a bit like starting from scratch as there was only one volunteer who had actually been part of the group before. The rest of us were newbies. I decided playing a fair amount of games was a good idea - and thankfully that is something I can do after all this youth worker training I've done. And in all fairness I even enjoyed myself - although I'm still recovering from the shock of having done it. (And trying not to think about next week's dance group...)

We are concentrating on the theme of relationships so when I opened the floor up I got given the idea of East Enders. In some ways I guess that is a pretty good idea as what are soaps if nothing but full of relationship drama. I can already see the potential areas to explore. However, I'm also hoping there is a good Wikipedia entry on the said EE as I really haven't a clue of what goes on in it!:)

There's an elephant in the way...

This is amazing!

Curry Night

HM1 is taking a group of young people, about 15, to India this August and so we had a curry night last night as a fundraiser. A church hall was booked, tickets sold, lots of curry made, and 80 people showed up for good food and a chance to get to know each other. It was a really successful fundraiser too as the group managed to raise over £1,000! Not bad for some curry... I think it was a valuable event too as people got a chance to see the young people who are actually going and so they aren't a vague concept anymore but living breathing people off to India for a fortnight. They will be going to a charity in Puna called Deep Griha where HM1 spent six months teaching English so she does know the charity quite well.

We've had some other pretty innovative fundraising ideas including distributing (full) Pringles tubes to people and asking them to eat the Pringles and then bring back the tube with money in it! That worked too:) And in a couple of months time there is going to be a Grand Auction and I am wracking my brains to figure out something to offer for it. Somehow I don't think I can quite compete with the offer to stay in someone's holiday home in the south of France for a week, but I haven't quite given up on producing something.

We've got a random assortment of leftovers in our fridge now although there really isn't as much curry left over as I feared there might be. And I also have a lovely henna tattoo on my left hand which was a pleasant surprise this morning (I had fogotten about it completely when I went to sleep). I used to do a lot more playing around with henna at the Red Cafe youth club in Swansea so it was kind of fun to decorate my friend's hand. I had a very obliging guest stay this weekend (she's on her monthly course in London although she lives back in Swansea) who, bless her, kindly agreed to be dragged along to a fundraising dinner and pay for her food.

Anyway, it feels like the concentration on India has gone up a notch. I'm trying not to get too jealous!

A heavenly night

Last night I cycled through Crane Park Nature Reserve and it was utterly beautiful. The still winter-bare trees were silhouetted against the fading dark blue sky, dusk was hovering down low, there was no one else around, and I was cycling along listening to strains of Miles Davies wafting in my ears courtesy of the iPod... Last time I cycled through it in the evening there was a bright full moon lighting my way and a fox darted across the path. I'm beginning to get very fond of the place.

I also felt like a proper grownup cyclist in my flourescent yellow jacket! Goodness knows what it'll feel like when I actually get a helmet...

D'oh!

Yesterday as I was making paper with some children I managed to put my right foot in a bucket of water.

I was absorbed in the intricate details of explaining how to squidge water out of the paper pulp when I noticed a funny sensation in my foot and looked down to see my foot (and shoe!) soaking up loads of water. As a professional I merely shrugged inwardly, pulled my foot out and carried on making paper. Afterwards we all laughed, of course, as that really is a rather stupid thing to do! And to manage to get my foot wet without noticing I was doing it - that's quite something.

My shoe is still very wet.

Moore at Kew Gardens

Yesterday afternoon after a house Sunday lunch we ambled over to Kew Gardens in the glorious sunshine and ambled right through the Lion Gate as Botanist waved us past the attendants with his staff card. It's an exhilirating feeling going into somewhere as expensive as Kew without having to pay a thing!

There is an exhibition of Henry Moore's sculptures dotted around the Gardens at the moment and you can go around taking in as many of them as you wish while still looking at the trees and plants everywhere. I really enjoy the interaction of walking up the the sculptures and walking around them and seeing them from all angles, and also how they did work in the settings they were placed in. Some worked brilliantly, but there was a particular sculpture that I disliked in "real life" as it felt all angles and slightly aggressive. But when I saw a picture of the same sculpture in a different location with far more space around it it looked as if it were dancing and I took to it immediately. Actually, I didn't even realise it was the same sculpture until HM1 pointed it out to me.

Several of Moore's sculptures explored the space and tension between related but not touching parts of a whole. Some of them were almost like a rubik's cube or other such puzzle in the way the separate parts joined together, and the gaps managed to frame the Gardens in a wholly different way too as you peered through the circles and curves of the scultpures. Several of the sculptures looked so climbable and inviting to climb I had to restrain myself! And having looked after a young person a few weeks ago at Kew who was sorely tempted to do exactly that, I know it can't be just me... Sadly, there were plenty of signs telling me I really ought not to climb them! But I do find that quite an interesting response in me. I imagine it extends from exploring the sculptures and following the lines and curves round the bends with my eyes, but them being so enticing that my tactile senses wanted to get involved too:)

The afternoon light was perfect for enjoying outdoor art, and it also worked brilliantly in the palm tree house. One of my favourite colours is the green light that you get as sunlight shines through plant leaves, and there was plenty of that going on yesterday. All in all, it was a lovely afternoon.