A little while ago I started digitising our families photo archive. I don’t have a particularly snazzy scanner and my computer was bought back when I was still at university, so it takes a while to do and I only do a handful at once (usually when Neil is watching something on TV that I have no interest in (today it was the tennis)).

It’s a really interesting process, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it: from restoring the photos where I can, removing scratches and dirt, to finding out who the people in the photos are and where and when they were taken, and then putting them onto a map.

Some of the really interesting things have been of my Grandfather, and following his time in the army and seeing where and when he was based on the postcards that he sent back to my Nan. He was in the army from before WWII started, the earliest I’ve found so far is June 1935, the latest 1941. During this time I’ve got postcards from Malta, Cairo and Palestine.

Yesterday I went to a dinner hosted by FoodCycle. It was not your usual PR dinner: it was staged in the corner of an empty office, the furniture, plates, cutlery were all a random collection of things from charity shops, the cups were Royal Wedding left-overs and most importantly the food was all made up of things that would otherwise have been thrown away.

Each year, the UK food retail industry sends 1.6 million tonnes of food to the landfill. An estimated 25% of this food can be collected to make quality meals. At the same time, there are 4 million people affected by food poverty in the UK.

What we were treated to last night was cheese and (home made) chutney for starters, vegetarian fajitas with all the trimmings for the main and a banana/strawberry/cinnamon cake. And it was all great, and thoroughly tasty and there was no reason why this stuff should be going to waste.

What FoodCycle do on a day to day basis is empower people to start their own projects, where surplus food and idle kitchen spaces can be brought together to provide good meals for people affected by food poverty. By doing this waste to landfill is reduced, people who might not get a nutritious meal get one and a community can come together to help itself.

I thought it was really inspirational what FoodCycle are doing, both from an environmental and a social perspective. And I think that is really important, if you look at just one and not the other, you risk setting yourself up for failure.

A link about the increasing % of mothers breastfeeding sent around by Erzsebel got me thinking: what is the CO₂ impact of breastfeeding vs formula. (Yes, I’m a geek. You didn’t realise that yet?)

So far my list of things to take into account includes the following, but if you have actually had kids, please let me know anything that I’ve missed. I’m going to start trying to put (estimated) numbers to some of these things.

Things to consider with formula:
Production and distribution of bottles,
Manufacture of formula,
Packaging of formula,
Distribution of formula,
Energy needed to sterilise bottles.
Energy needed to heat formula.

Things to consider with breastfeeding:
Possible increase in calorie intake.

Step one complete, shoes have been bought. Now, if it could dry off a little bit I might even go out for a “run” this evening.

I can’t run. The sum total of my running experience is: the 1500m race they forced me to take part on for school sports day (I didn’t come last, I came second from last. Hoorah!), and the 5km race for life I took part in a few years ago which I walked the majority of.

But I need to do something about my fitness, and once I’ve bought the shoes, running is free. A friend and I are also planning on doing some dance lessons, but that’s very structured and relies on us being available on certain days of the week, whereas running you can do pretty much anywhere and anywhen.

Twitter is providing fantastic amounts of advice and support so far, and work colleagues are also coming on board with encouragement, and I haven’t even done anything yet. Tomorrow G at work has promised to accompany me to buy shoes. This is a good thing, as I have a pathological hatred of sports shops and I suspect I’ll need someone to make sure I don’t chicken out of going in.

My aim is to get up to running 5km, once I’ve done that, I might decide to go for additional targets, but that’s a big enough ask for me at the moment.

The reason I’m telling everyone? I’m essentially setting up a form of social contract between me and all of you, which will hopefully give me enough inventive to keep going.

On Saturday I stomped into town to to take part in Slutwalk London.

There has been a lot of talk about the slutwalk movement being about reclaiming the word Slut, and that’s really not the point. What it is much more about is addressing the culture of victim blaming – if I get sexually assaulted it’s not my fault, it’s the fault of the person who assaulted me.

There are a huge number of flaws with the idea that by not dressing provocatively, you won’t be assaulted. I’m not a model like figure, but I have been assaulted on a packed tube train, wearing a suit. What should I have done differently to avoid that from happening? It was entirely his responsibility. It was not my fault. But that doesn’t stop it from being something that still effects me now, 4 years later. I was very fortunate in that it wasn’t something even more serious.

I also find the idea that it is always the woman’s fault for being provocative is really demeaning to the majority of men who don’t rape and assault people. Suggesting that all men are just animals that can’t help but pounce as soon as they see a little bit of flesh is disgusting and unfair to men. I was really glad to see quite a lot of men taking part in the Slutwalk too.

The last point that I want to make today, is the double and triple standards that are around, particularly in the media. Women are constantly bombarded with people telling us we should be thinner, sexier, better looking. We should apply make-up, lose weight, get boob jobs, wear glamorous and revealing clothes or we get labelled with being ugly fat cows. But if we do do all those things, then we’re sluts. And of course if a man has lots of sexual partners, he’s a stud. If a woman has even a few more than is considered ‘normal’, she’s a slut.

I think the estimate for how many took part in the London Slutwalk was about 3000 people, which was really good to see. Let’s hope that one day we won’t need events like this.

BBC news report: Yes means yes, and no means no

I love charity shops. There are a couple of main reasons why: it’s for charity (spending with a bit of a feel good factor), it’s cheap (good for the wallet), it’s environmentally friendly (reducing waste to landfill and decreasing the need to manufacture more stuff), and it’s often a bit more unique (older fashions not currently in the shops) (assuming there can be relative levels of uniqueness).

I asked for hints on twitter on how to make the charity shopping experience even better and got some cracking advice:

@Helen_R: Look at everything with a creative eye – you may not like what it is now, but think what it could become. Also, if you think it’s not worth what they’re asking for something, it probably isn’t.

@Woollythinker: When trying on, mentally add a zero to the price. Or you may end up buying “cos it’s a bargain” and then never wearing it.

@jimsyjampots If it smells, it will probably always smell. If it’s too big but you love it, take it in/wear with a belt because it’s worth it.

@erzsebel: Go somewhere posh. As a student in Leeds, Harrogate wad always rich pickings.

To these I would add:

Be wary of the shadow shopper. Sometimes when doing a large number of charity shops in a go, your movements can become synchronised with another person doing the same route. This mostly becomes a problem if they are obviously looking for the same thing as you, but can sometimes be dealt with by changing your route slightly (eg by leapfrogging the next shop and coming back to it later).

Don’t disregard the children’s section. Some gems can get put on the wrong shelves.

Try things on. Most charity shops have changing rooms, and you don’t want to take something home that doesn’t flatter.

And one last thing that I’ve just thought of: take lots of reusable bags with you, as with all shopping trips you can come home with an awful lot of plastic bags if you’re not careful.

I’m sure there are loads more tips out there, feel free to share them below.

With the majority of my bras being either completely the wrong size, or having recently gone ‘ping’, I made a beeline for a lingerie shop at lunchtime on payday.

I was planning on just grabbing something vaguely suitable and heading back to work, but being unable to find anything close to my size on the shelves decided that maybe it was worth having a fitting so I could then order something from their website.

The last time I had a bra fitting I must have been about 14 or 15, and it was the Marks & Spencer’s in Lakeside. This time there were no tape measures in sight, with the sizes being chosen by eye and fit instead. I was extremely pleased to find my recommended back size coming down from my usual (42/44) to a recommended 36/38 with a significant cup size increase instead.

The fitting has given me a real spring in my step for a number of reasons:

The bra fits better! Much more comfortable, and N commented this morning that it makes them look bigger (in a good way, rather than a droopy way)
Understanding I have a smaller back size than I thought has opened up a more larger range of bra styles for me that I used to think weren’t available in my size.
Being told I have a smaller back size gave me a little confidence boost, made me feel a bit less dejected about my weight, and is making me feel more positive about doing something to reduce it.
I look more awesome now.

My top tip therefore is to go get a proper fitting, try on different styles to see what works for you, and feel a little bit happy about wearing something pretty under your clothes.

My next step now is to slim my bottom half down enough that I can buy a whole range of knickers from whomadeyourpants? Looking into dancing classes, and a friend is trying to convince me to take up running (definitely the cheaper option).

N suggested that I come home a different route last night, as the road from the station was closed due to an accident. When I got back later that evening, the road was still closed and a policeman asked me to go straight home, and keep out of the way.

It turns out that our local newsagent was hit by a car as he crossed the street outside our house, and had to be airlifted to hospital. I heard as i left work that he died in hospital last night; from the amount of blood I saw on the road this morning, this was unfortunately not a surprise.

Mr Patel was a really well liked man, extremely friendly and helpful to everyone. He’s going to be missed by the community. There’s already a collection of flowers and cards outside his shop.

news shopper article

And finally, please drive carefully. You might be ok, but the person you hit probably wont be as lucky.

I think one of the reasons I post a lot less now then I used to is that I have had an internal argument going on with myself as to what kind of blog this actually is: what do I actually want to write about?

But I have (belatedly) decided that that is rubbish really. Why does it have to be of a type? It doesn’t have to be a book blog, or a foodie blog, or a knitting blog, it could *shocked gasp* actually just be a blog.

Yes, it has taken me far too long to work this out. I’m a bit slow sometimes. Don’t mind me.