Earth Sundays

Sunday 17th February 2013

Well, it's all over. Our first Earth Sunday happened yesterday and was if nothing else an interesting experiment.

I woke up to a cold apartment, and had no tea or coffee, just some cereal and fruit. We'd left the fridge on, but had nothing else operating since the previous night - no heating or lights. I actually forgot a couple of times and had to be reminded by my wife after switching on the bathroom light by mistake.

I left on my bike to ride out to my English lesson in Blackburn 4.5 miles away.
A few flakes of snow were falling but I didn't mind too much. I left 90 minutes early just in case there were any problems, but it turned out the ride only took 45 minutes so I had a bit of time to kill in the snow (now coming down quite heavily). After asking at a convenience store where I could get a coffee, I headed up to the Mill centre. But it being Sunday the cafe was closed. The woman in the Scotmid there said they had a coffee machine in Ladbrokes, so if I went in there and pretended like I was going to spend some money and then maybe I could get a free coffee. This I did, but after getting a bit of a look from the staff I thought I better at least put a couple of quid into the slot machines. So I sat down and ended up spending 16 pounds, which makes that one of the most expensive coffees ever. But I do now have a Ladbrokes loyalty card...

The lesson went well, and allowed me to get back most of what I'd lost at Ladbrokes.

After that I cycled home again and my bum was killing me already.

But that was a 100% carbon neutral, free and healthy 9 miles and 90 minutes of exercise.

When I got home it turned out that my wife and kid, who had joined me on this foolish mission, were freezing in the flat. I ate my lunch and we played board games for a few hours, making me feel like we were back in the 80's. A feeling of hope enveloped me. But at around 4:30pm we couldn't take any more of the cold and lack of DVD stimulus so we all ended up having an afternoon nap.

Sleeping is a very economical activity.

But I woke up at around 6:30pm in the dark not knowing where I was or what had happened. I plugged a standing lamp into my trusty solar-charged battery/invertor system (Behold! Light!) and was able to read my book (Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett, rather appropriate) quite satisfyingly.

But by the time my wife and son were able to be pulled grudgingly from their beds into the cold, dark, cave-like flat it was 8pm, my poor wife complaining in Japanese that it was like an endurance competition - presumably like the ones that Australian Clive James used to present where guys had to eat noodles soaked in beer and not go to the toilet. I just laughed good-naturedly, but was beginning to detect things may not be working out.

By the time we arrived at the Saltire bar/restaurant it was 8:45pm and they'd stopped serving food.

My heart sank, as there didn't seem to be anywhere else within walking distance that served food. I walked out with my cold hungry wife and son feeling like a failure.

We went to the gas station for a cup of tea, but all their food (unhealthy anyway) 'may contain nuts' - no good for our son.

But the hot tea was delicious. We spent some time in there anyway, warming up, feeling like we'd been evicted, or were refugees, washed up on the shores of Livingston with no money, wondering what to do next.

After 40 minutes feeling lost and beaten, I realised I'd seen the lights on in Grand Central - a fast food takeway restaurant near Livingston North. I thought maybe we could scrape the batter off some fish and at least give our son something hot to eat, but it turned out they did a lot more than fast food. We ordered a chicken and corn omelet with salad for our son, a baked potato with tuna and cheese for my wife, and a large donner kebab for myself.

Walking home we were all in better spirits.

Back in the flat (not so cold anymore compared to the bitter windy darkness of outside) We tucked into our feast, leaving a small mountain of paper and polystyrene from the wrappings - obviously another eco-minus.

After about an hour of eating, the battery invertor started to bleep disconcertingly. 'Low Battery' it said. But by then it was 11pm.

'Darn it' I thought, disconnected it, and switched on a light.

The Ladbrokes thing, and the mountain of waste from the fast food place, and my family being too cold were the three big negatives to the whole operation, but the bike ride, the board games, the non-use of car fuel, heating gas, electricity etc, the use of the solar charged battery for a few hours of light, the extra family time and the nap seemed to be the seven big positives.

If I can find a way to keep my family fed and warm and kick my new gambling addiction we may be onto a winner...

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Sunday 24th February

Well, we tried it again yesterday, using what we'd learnt from last week. I knew that the gambling, the garbage and the lack of food and heat were the main drawbacks, so I made sure to avoid them.

I bought a coffee in the gas station in the morning at Livingston before heading out on my bike to my English lesson - that helped a lot. Also, it was a beautiful sunny day rather than snow and wind, which also boosted my spirits quite considerably.

I stretched my legs and took several breaks to admire the view over Almond Valley, and not taking the wrong turn I took last week helped too.

I arrived early again for the lesson, but this time just sat in a park and did the jumbo sudoku in the paper while eating an early picnic lunch. The people of Blackburn were surprisingly friendly. Susan Boyle did not appear and give me her autograph.

After the lesson I headed back to Livingston. My wife and son had walked to the Centre and I was going to meet them for dinner, but since my office was on the way I confess I did pop in there to return an email related to work and write a few amusing comments on Facebook.

By the time I got to the centre my ass was killing me and my legs felt weak, but on the whole I didn't feel as bad as last week. I treated myself to a cup of tea and marmalade pie in Auld's in the centre, where even the grumpy nature of the old battle-axes behind the counter did not ruin my mood.

I met my wife and son in the toy section of the enormous Asda, where i treated my self to a gel bike seat cover and saddle pack for my bike and another cup of tea, and then we all went to Chiquito's for dinner. (£30)

After dinner we figured our son would fall asleep soon, so we just all walked back home together with him in the push chair.

When we got home he was already asleep, so I plonked him on the bed and plugged the light into the battery and inverter wondering how long we'd have. The battery had almost been used up last week so I'd had to charge it from scratch, but there'd been quite a few sunny days so I hoped for two hours at least. Unfortunately it started beeping after an hour, at around 9:30pm.

But my wife and I continued chatting even in the dark for about another 30 minutes before going to bed.

We woke up in the morning with our son in-between us. Neither of us remembers it but he must have woken up in the middle of the night and come through and climbed in with us.

So that was that. No gambling, no mountain of garbage, no boredom, cold or hunger on the part of the family. An early night for everyone (much better to sleep when it's dark, rather than in the afternoon when it's still light). We shared the heat and light in the mall and restaurant with the other customers, so that was all on anyway, whether we'd been there or not. You could argue the food (bean chilli) being cooked in the kitchen used the earth's resources, as well as our own money, but I think if they're making it in bulk anyway it's probably more efficient than us doing it. No heating used. in our apartment and no lights.

Compared to last week it went much better, and the days getting longer and warmer isn't hurting either :) I think we can sustain it. In fact I have a feeling that switching things off now and again actually deepens and enriches human relationships.

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Sunday 3rd March 2013

Well, today was kind of half an Earth Sunday for me - I rode by bike out to my English Lesson and back to the office, where I did a little work, before cycling back home. I tried to use the battery which had charged up for the past two weeks on the solar charger, so I thought it would last for two hours at least, but it started complaining almost instantly. I gave my wife and son the day off because we were all tired and cold as usual. I made it from home to Blackburn by bike ( 4 miles) in only 22mins 10 seconds. That's about an average of 12 miles per hour. I feel it's getting faster and easier, and it's making me see that cycling to and from work is the best option to do each day, and much easier now I'm getting used to the run to and from my Sunday English lesson. So I hardly took the car out at all this week.

Anyway, that's 6 and a half earth Sundays we've done so far. Anyone out there feel like helping us reach our target of 100? All you have to do is not use any gas, electricity, or fuel, that wouldn't be used anyway, except for things like the fridge, and for emergencies. No lights, no heating, no cooker, no car, no internet. By spending time with your family out and about, it's not so difficult, and using solar powered lights for the evening and getting an early night helps things along too.

If you do it, it's +1. If you encourage someone else to do it too, it adds more :)

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Sunday 10th March 2013

Today was Mother's Day, so it was a little difficult to go ahead with Earth Sunday as I'd hoped, if I ever wanted my mum to speak to me again … Actually, getting the train over to EK and back would have helped a lot, but it would have been more expensive, taken longer and been more of a hassle. But possible…

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Sunday 17th March 2013

Fail.