Monday, March 26, 2007

26 March 07 - still looking for biodegradable bags

I am still on the lookout for biodegradable plastic bags to put the used cat litter in. To put the used cat litter in, when I have finished the daily emptying of the cat litter, that is. For the cats are old, and are now on special diets, the sort that are labelled 'Perscription Only', have unfriendly names like 'KD' and 'ES' and come in large bags costing around £33.00 for a month or two's supply.

The cats, being fussy - dare I say neurotic? - little animals, like to see their bowls refreshed on a daily basis, and it was only recently I realised I could fool them into thinking I had done this, whereas I hadn't, by taking the bowl away and returning with exactly the same bowl and a big welcoming smile on my face, as if to say "here you are Puss, I've got you a new bowl of food", and just to be sure actually saying "here you are Puss, I've got you a new bowl of food".

Since then I have discovered there is more than one way to fool a cat, to coin a phrase. Removing the bowl and shuffling the contents around seems to work just as well. Sometimes this maneuver can even be performed right in front of the poor creature's eyes.

The question is, am I being cruel to the cats?

Anyway, I still need somewhere to put the used cat litter (which is itself made from biodegradable wood) so that it can return to the Earth it came from, as one day we all will.

Any ideas?

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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

21 Mar 07 - How I kicked the Coke habit

It's been a while since my life slowed down enough to blog again. Today's the birthday of someone special - can you guess who?

I took the advice of Galli Galli Sim Sim and a couple of weeks ago finally got round to kicking the Coke habit - both diet and sugary. All my cravings were psychological, it turned out. I could indeed change if I really wanted to. Fortunately I was provided with a delicious alternative of fresh, cool pineapple juice, and I converted to that instead.

I sleep better at night knowing I am not contributing any more than I have to to Monsanto's profits.

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Thursday, March 08, 2007

8 Feb 07: Dishwasher - it wasn't the timer

What a relief! It wasn't the timer at all that was causing the dishes to be covered in specks of something that looked like dried muesli. A quick trip to the Bosch website and I found a video explaining how I might start to take the dishwasher apart and address the problem at source.

'The problem' turned out to be a blockage in one of the water jets the dishwasher so relies on to get the dishes clean and sparkling. And we'd been concentrating on the filter all along! What fools we were!

I could tell by the confidence with which Bosch were telling me this that it had a good a chance of succeeding, and they were right. Five minutes of home maintenance and the dishwasher is as good as new.

So, it wasn't the timer after all. Once I get round to it I will certainly put the dishwasher back onto the night timer, in the safe knowledge that our crockery, cutlery and so on will come out as sparkling as if we had set the machine on during the daytime.

I can't wait!!

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

9 Feb 07: One more for the moby foby mountain

Today approximately 1.5 million mobile phones were thrown out, recycled (maybe) or otherwise disposed of. That's a statistic entirely made up by me, but it will do fine to make a point.

Everyone seems to have a mobile phone. I have one, and even a spare one somewhere in case it breaks down. Beloved has one, the kids have at least one each. I think there's another in the shed for emergencies.

The irony is, if I ever tried to use one of the spare mobies, it probably wouldn't work. Either the power would have run down, or it would just blink incomprehendingly at me in that way modern consumables have, or talk gibberish in black courier, or fail me in some other way.

Every year the networks encourage us to chuck away our current mobile and sign up to the latest, all-singing-and-dancing model. The minute I walk into the shop, or get the call (on my mobile) I instinctively sense these guys are not interested in discussing the litter mountain or the evils of built-in obsolescence. Their job is to get us to buy, buy, buy, and that involves getting us to want, want, want, and talking about things like the planet and our grandchildren simply puts them off their stride.

When I have used up my perfectly-alright mobile phone it will presumably find its way to somewhere in the developing world - China I imagine. So in that respect I can feel good about being involved in recycling. But what is all this really teaching our children? That there's an unlimited supply of whatever it is these things are made of (silicon I guess), and if you don't have the latest of whatever it is it does, you're just not cool. Last one in the water's a cissy, damn the consequences.

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