Well I have had a year off but it is now time to start up again. A lot has happened during the last year. I was elected as a community councillor to Blaenhonddan Community Council in Neath Port Talbot in May 2008 and ever since I have been trying to bring sense to local politics which has been a tremendous battle. I started a craft group in January last year as I felt an urgent need to create, to create anything in a world gone mad. I started creating and took a few people with me who are now artisans in their trade, dog coats with welsh dragons embroidered on them, blankets for small boys beds with the sun, moon, stars and planets crocheted on to them with pride. Scarves for the homeless. We could do it so we did it. And what a year it has been. Credit crunch, tumbling stock markets, bankrupt banks and Peter Mandlesson joins a Labour Government after being made a lord. Whatever next ? What has it done to me and my bin ? First off , my excuse is, I had to move. Being no longer fleet of foot I managed to get a flat which is far better for me in my dotage. Living in a flat is difficult when one has amassed tons of stuff in a house. I squeezed in what I could and nearly one year down the line am still evacuating belongings out the door. Thank goodness for the local chapel who are raising funds to renovate the vestry and do car boot sales and coffee evenings where they sell on unwanted goods. Believe it or not I have not yet finished ejecting the treasures of sixty brief years.
Now down to the important bit. How is my recycling going. Well I slipped up. I must tell the truth and here it is. I moved, I did not have time to go shopping properly, completely in the market. The council wore me out and I took time out and used my bin again. I am proud of the fact I have everyone in the flats where I live now recycling lots of their waste. I now buy glass, paper and tins when I have to. I still will not buy plastic bottles. I still cook everything from basic foodstuff but I admit I have erred. But I will err no longer. I still use toiletries which come in paper, I still do not use washing up liquid. My fairy soap suffices very well. I still totally enjoy my food and my son comes home less and less as his university work intensifies. So why am I back. I am back for a specific purpose. I am back because I have been thinking, and acting, on certain principles which have come out of radio shows I have been on; specifically one where we looked at how Wales did so well last year and punched above it's weight with Catherine Jenkins, Only Men Aloud, Gavin & Stacey, the Olympics and the Paralympics. I had a realisation while debating this issue:- Entrepreneurship. The people who make money using other peoples skills. We are in a recession, which could ( if it has not already) slip into depression. The world has gone mad. As you will know if you have read any of this blog previously, I have an issue with self sufficiency. I have an issue with the massive consumption of fossil fuels, especially oil and gas. I lived a life without these commodities once and know it is possible to do so again. I have major issues with consumption, waste and now entrepreneurship because of commercialism. For the last 6 months I have been training myself not to think of anything commercially. This is a tall order I know but I am getting there. The worth of whatever I create is now to me worth what it is to me and not what I can get on e bay for it. I refuse to make anything to sell on. I only make what I need, if I can. I have to buy a new bed for my son as I had fungus spores in his bedroom which hopefully are now gone but the bed has to go. I cannot make a bed so I have to buy one. But I am capable of making all the bed coverings for this bed. I have a chest full of material. By the time the bed comes I will have made all the bedding. I made elephants in wool and stuffed them with pure fleece last Christmas. I am adding a photograph. I was asked constantly, please make one for me I will pay you for it, you could get £25 each or more on e bay for those. The elephants were made specifically for little people. I do not want to spend my life on the treadmill making elephants until my arms drop off to supply a market where e bay creams off some money, paypal creams off a little more and they get rich while I get tired and have to go spend my hard earned money on expensive food and bedding as I do not have time to make my own. Enough I said, elephants for little people when it is a birthday or christmas, bedding for the new bed because it is needed and out comes the wardrobe to be revamped for this summer. The ladies in the craft group are making fantastic progress revamping their wardrobes, I am now joining them. So my aim is not to allow entrepreneurship into my life, to allow only need and self sufficiency in as much as I am able to help support myself and mine. I am back. I hope I can drum up some interest for people to stop thinking in terms of money and think in terms of aiding and abetting oneself instead of helping others and being too tired to help themselves. Oh well it is worth a try and what happens when they start charging for the weight of your bin? l I for one will be paying nothing. How about you ?
