Perspective – Rubbish, it depends on how you look at it

The topic for this week’s Illustration Friday is perspective.  I was struck at all sorts of levels by a programme involving Kevin McCloud for Chanel 4 called ‘slumming it‘.  In this programme he visited families living in the Dharavi, Mumbai who were invovled in the picking of litter from the dumps and the sorting of waste for recycling. One particular comment struck me, something along the lines of ‘no one in the UK would expect to do this’.  I can not begin to go into the rights or wrongs of the situation for the 13.6 million people in Mumbai; I have not been there and have no direct knowledge of their circumstances.

However, I do know that litter, rubbish, detritus call it what you will affects us all. Today, I collected the rubbish from our half mile of lane, 16 people live here; the rubbish weighed about a stone and filled one large carrier bag. Multiplied up to 13.6 million that would be the equivalent of  about 9,000 tonnes.  I don’t assume the people in the lane left the rubbish there.  I think most of it was tossed from passing cars.  I sorted it for recycling, further down the line someone will pick through it and pass it on to the next stage.  I trust, though I can’t be sure, that it is eventually recycled.

I will continue to do what I can to reduce, reuse, recycle and clean up my piece of countryside.  I also wish Radio Suffolk’s Mark Murphy all the best with his ‘Don’t be a tosser campaign’.  I will continue to support WaterAid as one of the charities which works with the people of  Dharavi.

The image above is created using the photo of my bag of rubbish from the litter pick and images of the rubbish from Mumbai with a water colour over-wash to bleach it out.  The pylons form part of the view in the lane here, there are not many more powerful symbols of conspicuous consumerism than the electricity we are fortunate enough to have pumped to our homes 24 hours a day.  Without this I could not blog, tweet and live the life I currently enjoy.

I just wish I could make sense of it all.

J2O Quiz the Tangled Threads – Film Quiz

This is the second post on the new style J2O pub quiz.  As well as the Mangled Mugs in the previous post they are doing something called Tangled Threads.  The plots and key players of three films mixed together; you just have to see if you can untangle them.

I have converted the clips into a single ‘video’ so just click below and pause as you get to the end of each section; to give yourself time to scratch your head or argue with yourself about the answers.

Marmite XO will be released into the wild on Monday

Sadly, due to the computer failure here we never did have a Marmite picnic at Framlingham Castle, which was the original plan.  However, in the spirit of the thing, here is my Marmite XO video.  Of course if you would still like to join me drop me an e-mail and one sunny spring weekend we will picnic.  In the meantime which of the soft toys would you have been?

Marmite XO goes on sale on Monday.  I am pleased to be one of the Marmarati, many thanks to all those who voted for me.

J2O and a new style of Pub Quiz

A lady called Pippa contacted me from a company who are working with J2O, the fruity juice drink people; creating a new kind of pub quiz.  I’ll admit the flattery worked (nice words about the blog and bribery with free drinks and a quiz book).  She has sent me some samples of the quiz to share.  Earlier today I posted my effort at picture merging for the local quiz.  Above and below are the J2O high-tech versions that they call mangled mugs.  So what to you think?  Low-tech or High-tech?  Can you solve them?

I’ll post J2O’s ‘Tangled Threads’ in a future blog.

Quick Picture Quiz – a taste of things to come

A quick picture quiz for you; from one of the quizzes that were set when the PC was out of action.  I may load some of the questions over the coming weeks.  There will also be some news of a quiz format being tested by the people who make J2O but more of that later.

In the meantime I trashed a Sunday magazine, who are these people?  Picture quiz PDF download

Shell V – Bzz and Potholes

Not the pothole that caused the problem

It is unfortunate that during the whole of the Shell V Bzz campaign I have only had my PC for a few days.  However, I am not sure that this can be the only reason I haven’t talked about it much.  The thing is; yes I like my car and yes I drive, indeed in the recent bad weather I have driven more often than normal.  However, I don’t really talk ‘car’.  To me it is a box of tricks on wheels; I take seats out, put things in and go places. I even drive long distances, but rarely on motorways and most of my day to day driving is in potholed lanes.

The potholes have caused problems in the last week.  I drove into one and the tyre just burst, you could hear the air rush out. I reported it to Suffolk County Council.  Then O/H had exactly the same thing happen, so I phoned back with a grid reference.  Guess what – – – – They’ve repaired it.

Back to the Shell V fuel, did it make a difference?  The £20.00 for vouchers, certainly did.  To be fair I would say the ride was smoother, the car was bowling along quite nicely, especially on longer, smoother journeys.  There were no starting problems, even in the coldest of weathers.  On balance I will continue to use the ‘V’ fuel, when I am near enough to a Shell station to fill up.

For those with Spotify – here is some music to go with the post.

Propagate – Illustration Friday

June wished she had fitted a proper gate instead of a Taranaki

This week’s Illustration Friday topic is ‘propagate’.  I have written before about the Taranaki Gate, the marvel of New Zealand farming consists of barbed wire and is reputed to wrap itself around you as soon as you look at it.  I think this young farmer in New Zealand might wish she had fitted a proper gate.

Adrift – Illustration Friday

Another delayed post.  This time Illustration Friday on 12th February was ‘Adrift’.  I was thinking about the heart, shot by cupid in the ‘focused’ post and then imagined it had landed with a splash of snow into a drift.  The fact that there was a lonesome pine nearby, just seems to make it even more forlorn.

Focus on being fit for fifty – #f450

Three weeks ago, when I still had a functioning computer, I was posting about my aim to be fit for fifty; which in twitter land I had given the hashtag #f450.  The focus was a 28 day detox with the rules no wheat, meat, fish, dairy, coffee, tea or alcohol.  This is my post to let you know how things went.

Good news, although the aim was not all about weight loss, I lost 12 lbs.  In the four weeks I also did 93 miles under my own steam either swimming, cycling or walking.  If we hadn’t had so much snow I would have cycled further.  I probably lost something in the order of 60 miles due to driving to work when I would normally cycle.

The headaches subsided quite early on so they weren’t too intolerable and I did allow myself to lapse for my sister’s 40th, so the cider and some wild meats did feature for two days.

The swimming is coming along, I try to swim three times a week and am still struggling with crawl but it is certainly better than at the beginning.

Best find on the food front was gourmet puy lentils in a sachet, no soaking and for a minute in a chilli non carne you can trick yourself into believing meat is involved.

My fiftieth birthday came and went and catching up with friends who haven’t seen me for a while they all commented on how well I am looking (well they are very nice friends!).

The subject for Illustration Friday during on 29th January was ‘focused’, so near to Valentine’s day my thoughts were on cupid, focused on someone’s heart with his unpredictable bow and arrow.

Mud, Mud, glorious mud

The first of a series of ‘missing posts’ as I have been without a computer for three weeks.  The theme on the fifth of February over at Illustration Friday was ‘muddy’.  If you have Spotify play this track whilst looking at the picture.