Thursday 30th March - And It All Started So Well....

Ah, the 5th March - seems like such a long time ago. After some poor showings on my front during January and February, I really thought I'd get back to blogging in March.

But I did'nt.

Not to worry - onwards and upwards, as they say. April is just around the corner and maybe a change in my habits might get me back here more often.

The last few weeks have been spent mostly making something out of nothing - i.e. getting a very small business idea up and running and whilst it is not making me a millionaire just yet, it has really inspired me to be a bit more entrpreneurial.

I'm all excited about headinf off to Edinbuirgh tonight and staying there for the weekend. Hoing to catch up with a couple of good friends of mine, one of which has just had a baby, so it should be a lot of fun. Jewel and I will no doubt do the tourist thing on Friday and Saturday so it should keep her entertained as well.

And I got a new lens for my camera today (I really shouldn't have, but got carried away in the shop) so will try to make full use of it over the next couple of days.

So roll on tonight and roll on April. Fingers crossed and I might be a little more prlific in my writing then.

Sunday 5th March - 2 Weeks Later

The folks get back from Tunisia tonight so at about 23.00 I'll go back to being a 28 yeard old living at home withhis parents and his girlfriend. The last 2 weeks were a welcome break from that, but it's time to face reality again.

I'd planned to do so much over the last 2 weeks and I got pretty much all of it done and a little bit extra, so why is it I feel like I've done nothing? Seriously - I can't think of a single thing that I had planned that I didn't do, but it still feels like I haven't got enough time before this little piece of freedom disappears for a while.

Although it could have something to do with the darn powercut this afternoon.

I had it all set out - exactly hwta I wa sgoing to do. The fire was roaring, the computer was just about to get fired up and there it was - gone. 3 hours later and, depite getting another unplanned task done, I'm only just getting round to doing this Blog thing, which was the whole 'Sunday afternoon' plan. Ah well, at least it's done now.

Anyway. through the week Jewel managed to hit the grand old age of 26. I found out that the old language centre I was teaching at in Shanghai looks like it is finally gettinig it's act together. Good news for all you ex-students of mine. And, rather scarily, I appear to have signed myself up for a dose of humiliation on Sunday morning as I wipe the dust of my old golf sticks and make a reutrn the golf course. WARNING: anyone planning a quite walk in Woking at this time be sur eto wear protective clothing. Hitting a golf ball straight is not a speciallity of mine.

And for all of you not used to some of the stranger English traditions, Tuesday was 'Pancake Day'. And Guilford High Street was host to the soemwhat traditional pancake race.

Kids competition involved races between kids from the local schools. Here are a few of them on the start line:

And again in action, mid-race:

And most of the adults were in fancy dress:

Entertainment in Guildford. It's just non-stop

Wednesday 1st March - Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No - it's EthicalMan!!!

Not as catchy as Superman, but could he be more of a superhero and save more lives? Well, this one probably won't, but he might be setting a good example. Might be.

I was watching the BBC's Newsnight a couple of weeks ago and saw the first in what I hope will be a number of installments of Ethical Man. The idea is that a newbie reporter on the show has been asked to transform his (and his famliy's) life to be living ethically. They basically want to know what he has to do to live 'ethically' and if that is actually possible in 2006.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

He started off by talking to a number of 'experts' on what he needed to do to change his life. He got an 'ethical audit'. Most of it seemed to be about saving energy and CO2 emissions.

He talked about one woman who refused to buy foreign fresh fruit and vegetables which had been flown into the country. Why? Because of the CO2 cost of the flight. And this is where ethical man started to get into trouble.

He said, the woman is being ethical because she is contributing to cutting CO2 emissions (in her own little way). Then he questioned whether her actions were 'ethical' as they were not supporting the poor farmers of 3rd world countries who were producing the fresh fruit and veg.

Then he mentioned that vegans were writing in to say that joining their ranks was the biggest ethical move he could make.

And there began the latest discussion on ethics - a whole lifetime's worth of arguments on its own.

I've always tried to live according to my morals. Buying goods which have been produced in way which I think is ethical. I gave up eating meat for these reasons.

But I found it thoroughlly interesting and it got me to re-evalutaing what I do and why I do it. Brought back to the fore some of the dust gathering morals I had formed a few years back.

Can Ethical Man help you?