Things useful for bringing up children without a car

A bus route

Living in town is helpful, but above all, living on a bus route is helpful, because children can learn to use buses quite easily, and if it stops nearby you can go door to door to a lot of places that can't easily be reached by car.

Annie used to go to her violin lessons on the other side of Oxford from an early age by herself. It seems as if it was from the age of about 6 or 7 (but I wonder if this was really so? She'll probably correct me if I'm wrong). See her onto the bus at one end, and she would arrive safely at the other, with her quarter-size violin, where her teacher's house was a short walk from the bus stop just beyond the railway bridge.

Both the children sampled the use of the bus to go to School at the age of 11. This involved changing buses in town. Older children would help the younger children to manage the journey and to change buses safely in town. Several local families were making this journey regularly from East Oxford to North Oxford, to a variety of schools in the same part of town, and the children all got to know each other and to look out for each other at both ends.

The main problem with it was the amount of time it took to do the journey by bus, because of changing buses, so they had to leave before 8 in the morning, even though the journey was only about three miles. Our girls took to cycling instead as soon as that seemed safe, because cycling took about half as long. But still, it was useful to have the bus as an option, particularly when the cello had to go to School too.

And then we used to use the bus to go to the railway station whenever we had a substantial amount of luggage, such that cycling was not an option. Many a happy holiday began with a number 4 bus to the railway station, and most holidays ended the same way.

None of this would have been easier with a car. Actually just about all of it would have been a complete nightmare if you'd tried to do it by car. So, for a happy life, a good bus service, not less than every ten minutes and preferably direct to the railway station is an absolute must. I think in old age, a regular bus service to the hospital is probably more important still, but old age is not the topic of this post right now.

What does it mean to be green?

Not being able to spread the butter on your bread till at least April.

The hunt for the best bacon in Cambridge

In the old days the best place to buy bacon was the old grocer's shop on Prospect Row. What was his name? Mr Cook? Anyway, he used to serve excellent firm dry bacon which he sliced for you on the spot, and also wonderful ham. That was, I think, the last real grocer's shop in Cambridge and it closed down about three or four years ago.
Now, the question is, where can you get bacon? Not the sort that boils in grey sludge, but real bacon that fries in the pan?
This post is to announce a competition. Please sample the bacon at your local butcher and any other outlets you know of, and let's have them graded out of 10. Ten stars for the best and one star for the worst.
Rumour has it that Duchy Originals bacon is good. I'm not sure if you can get it in Cambridge. But let's rate the local non-supermarket ones too. I bought some streaky bacon from Andrews, the butchers on Burleigh Street today. It looks a little tired but not too wet. I'll report back.

English apples

It's nice to know that consumers have woken up to the wonders of English apples, helped at last by the supermarkets. See this news report from the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/7185786.stm

Life in the fast lane

This entertaining video gives a glimpse of how we get about in Cambridge. You will see that bicycles are much faster than cars and other motorised transport....

Nuclear Power?

No

No no

No no no


This government doesn't seem to understand what the word "necessary" means. Nothing, no kind of hypothetical necessity whatever, could ever make it "necessary" to add new nuclear power stations. Rather, it seems clear that it is absolutely necessary that we should not do so.

And how conceivably could the cost of decommissioning be added in to the costs born by the companies? Those costs are incalculable. It must be a logical impossibility to undertake to pay them.

Ecologically-sound Christmas presents

Another good one I got was a bottle of Ecover washing up liquid.
This is a really useful present, good for me and good for the environment.