A day of many parts

So, yesterday we went into London. The plan was simple - we would head in, locate Oxfam Originals near Oxford Circus (or indeed Circuuussss), find clothes for myself and Kathryn, find an ethical shoe store for me, and find bras for us all! (Bras for EVERYONE!).

Yeah, it didn't quite work out like that.

We were, I'll grant, a little slow off the mark. Getting into London about 1, and because I'd opted for 'drive to Turnham Green and tube it from there' (saving us 10 quid less a couple of pence in petrol) we landed up in Chiswick. Chiswick is very nice, and we visited a few shops (including a very nice antique shop) and also bought lunch (at Crepe Parisienne, a really excellent crepe store with quirky but excellent customer service (the guy with the french accent, presumed to be french, is very friendly)) before making our way to Oxford Circus.

I have some vague recollection of hearing that Oxfam Originals having closed or moved, now I come to think about it. But I can't find any evidence of it, except that despite being listed in phonebooks and websites all over the internet, it ain't there. Ganton street is devoid of Oxfam Originals stores. This is annoying. However, we found some vintage places off Carnaby street and checked them out; interesting but nothing suitable...

And some git stood on my foot and managed to kick me on his way past and didn't even apologise.

Anyhow, moving on swiftly.

So, we decided to engage another tourist favourite, Camden Market. I'd (after much searching) found that the only Ethical shoe place in the whole entirety of London was Jinga Shoes. (Or something similar). Unit 4a, Camden Stables Market. We made our way there.

Small is an understatement. They carry two ranges of very nice runners, and that's it. I really tried. I'd looked up ethical brands (No Sweat, Ikon) and tried to find suppliers (everyone seems to think that buying shoes online is a great plan. Given that I tried on 3 pairs in one shop before deciding what size I wanted that would take a week on the internet shoe plan.

Anyhow, I gave in and bought Converse. I hate buying brand stuff which is expensive for brand's sake and not because it's ethical. The No Sweat one-star clones are virtually no more expensive. Gah. But since I'm a 7 in the Converse and a (Children's) 6 in the Lonsdales I had before (couldn't even find them this time), and am going to have to go and get runners which also won't be ethical (since I need to break them in for my run which you all want to sponsor me for, and thus need them soon) I'm feeling the guilt a little.

It is seriously not-on that London does not manage one ethical shoe store. Although I did have a realisation of the problems faced by ethical shops.

As Kathryn stood with a large selection of clothes and carefully considered her way down to 4 items, on the basis that she really should not buy things that she's already got something similar/equivalent to (a very valid, non-wasteful viewpoint. One which we're both believers in*) - I realised that these poor Ethical shops do suffer. Because most people of the same bent as us don't like consumer society we tend to wear clothes until they're well past their sell-by-date, and similarly don't tend to buy a great deal that's frivolous pointless crap... well, they have to work harder to stay afloat.

We were hoping to make it to Fresh and Wild but it was after 7 by the time we got to Kensington on our route back, so we skipped it and went straight for dinner. It's something I want to get back and visit; I've been meaning to do it for a while but it's inside the congestion charging zone, so it either means getting the tube in and getting stuff, and carrying it back; or getting the train/tube in (more painful) or going at the weekend (painful, and we'd have to pay for parking). So I suspect it'll remain a 'when we get a chance'. It's nice to go to these places just to see the range and variety - and because we live in Slough which has the crappiest range of whole-foods places, it's easier to go to a supermarket somewhere else than to do lots of small shops. But I *like* shopping at small stores :-/

Anyhow, after the pause for the aforementioned frivolity we headed home, pausing only to consume a very good meal at the Lara Restaurant (also in Turnham Green). It's a 'Mediterranean' restaurant and the food was delicious and very reasonably priced (especially for London). Finally we piled back in the car and headed home.

It was a very odd day. Some bits were really delightful, and some bits were incredibly frustrating. Anyhow, it's time for a pancake brunch, so I must depart dear reader ;)




* Although I did buy a totally frivolous item yesterday - one which I have no need for, just think it would look cool.

Balls to Nikki

So Nikki and her evil little helper book Electric Dreams have poked my brain in a fundamentally very annoying way.

When I was a kid I pointed out to my dad the clearly verifiable ridiculousness of cars. Cars are frankly, dumb. I love them, at least classics; I love their looks, I love their convenience (at least in theory), I love the beauty of some of the engineering, but they are at a most basic level dumb.

If cars didn't exist and someone said:

"Hey, let's all move ourselves around in individual 28 foot square tin boxes"

You'd look at them, and to misquote Feynmann, you'd say:

"I think that's a bit nutty."

...ideally complete with the New York accent.

But we're sold on them, and despite much ponderence on the problem as a child (seriously, this is the kind of thing I thought about for fun) I couldn't really see a solution which kept the concept on which we've been sold while making it even 10 times more sensible.

Making cars much smaller is a good plan, and I'm a devout believer in the small vehicle, the 340 being an exception because I'm more intrigued by the engineering than the car. And the only way to get that piece of engineering at a price we can afford is the Volvo. Anyhow.

So, the car is kind of a given. Our society is built around it and we all seem to believe that we're entitled to move around rapidly and whenever we damn want, so pretty much all solutions are going to feature the car in some way, shape or form. But petrol engines, with the exception of Wankel engines, really are just taking-the-biscuit kind of ridiculous. And this from someone who really rather likes them. I mean, I love the A-Series engine, it's a masterpiece of engine design, and it sounds lovely, at least in it's smaller incarnations. The larger ones (like the 1.3 gracing Rebecca's engine bay) have a kind of rough industrial thrashy musicallity at speed which I rather enjoy. But it's dumb.

You want to see how dumb it is?

Go and run a hundred meters. Okay? Tiring, eh - at least if you sprinted it.
Now, let's do a petrol equivalent.
Go and run back and forth 2 meters 50 times (or 25 times depending on how you're counting it).

Now how're you feeling, eh?

You've run the same distance but you've wasted *loads* of energy by stopping and turning around every 2 meters, and that's what your petrol engine'd car does. Every flipping cycle. It's patently dumb.

I grant it's an exceptionally clever idea. It converts a linear, 'splodey motion into a circular one. Which can make the big tin box go forward. But it's dumb all the same.

Which is why I want my EV. I can't have my EV because I don't have the money, but when Rebecca's 1300cc fast-road-cam equipped Ital derived engine finally passes from this Earth I plan to make her into a shiny, shiny EV.

And this is Nikki's fault*.

On the plus side, despite what the government say, none of my cars contribute substantially toward global warming. Yes, they burn petrol and, because of my commute, a fair amount, but they're all moderately efficient and have far less impact than the one transatlantic holiday we'd like to take this year. And since we try and buy a minimal amount of crap from *insert name of country currently producing useless cheap tat for consumers* then we're only putting out food-shipping-miles and much less tat-shipping miles, so that's all good.

While my green credentials remain tarnished (by having a car at all) they're about as green as they could be with the current job and our finances. I feel less bad.

But cars, they're dumb.

* It's not only Nikki's fault, mind. My dad pointed out to me the idiocy of this system of propelling a vehicle long ago, but I lost that in being fascinated by the engineering. I should have realised, the solution isn't beautiful and therefore it's not the right one.