Bringing us back to earth with a bump

...or thankfully not in the literal sense, as was anticipated could be the case for planes flying over UK and European airspace in the last few days.

No doubt the ash crisis has been an enormous inconvenience for a huge number of people, hundreds of thousands of which are still stranded in places they no longer wish to be.
I know a few still struggling to get back to Blighty but the resolve shown by many more in working their way closer to home has been admirable to say the least (plus expensive in a lot of cases).

Now I do not wish to poke the embers further but in some ways, I don't think this volcano erruption in Iceland has necessarily been a bad thing (aside from people's financial losses); no one has died from it, and it has quite simply, put us back in our places and made us realise it is not us who are in charge in this world.

What have we realised? Well, it is much nicer having quieter skies and hearing the birds again for starters, and do we generally need to undertake the amount of trips we do take? Even with the advances in online conferencing, there are thousands of business trips being made daily, and at a random guess, I would imagine a good 50% could be done via telecon facilities etc.
There will be disruptions to businesses awaiting goods from overseas, from food commodities to pharmaceuticals so getting goods to our our shelves may very well see a knock on effect soon.

It has shown us quite simply how much we depend on and are used to the availability of air travel.

Maybe now we ought to re-assess what we really need without relying on air travel.
Do we need all these food imports, could we not simply grow our own and eat in accordance with the seasons? Use sites like Sparegound or Landshare and take charge of your food production, it actually feels pretty good to do that!
Could we not generally save on travel costs and car share where possible, I know a lot of people have already offered such services via twitter and other social media during this 'crisis' .
Look to buy local or UK produced products whenever possible.
Holiday in the UK! Get some money pumping back into the UK economy, we have a fantastic and beautiful country and we all ought to appreciate it a bit more. Dust down that tent and get some fresh air in the lungs!
Enough people have shown that UK 'plucky resolve' this last few days, ..we are not a bad bunch at all.

p.s. as to how some newspapers can somehow lay blame onto Gordon Brown for this is laughable. Journalism at its very worst.


http://www.spareground.co.uk/

Happy New Year from Spareground

Wow! Where did December go?!? Had hoped to get a blog post squeezed in before Christmas but alas time was not on my side.
It was a very busy month for me, lots of exciting things happened family wise and Spareground took a bit of a back seat ride but still,…we’re back on track now.
A lot of money making websites have been encouraging people to look after their money better and make more of it as their New Year’s Resolution and we have had a good few mentions which is always nice. (Thank you lovemoney !)
Of course, we fully support it too, renting out your parking space, your driveway, your storage such as an unused shed or barn, your land or even renting out your house or room is always a good way to make some extra money. Over the last year, we have seen some pretty innovative listings on the site too which we really love. Some of our favourites are a log cabin in London, band rehearsal space in Lincs and a room for piano lessons or supper clubs in Newport!

We are also keen for people to think about using the website to raise money for charities, and other fund raising projects. There is no reason why if you are a school or sports club or other organisation that you can’t use Spareground for fund raising purposes. It would be lovely to see it happen!

What we also need to get across too, you don’t have to charge! I know! Free?! ? Well, if you list a garden for veg growing purposes, accept a trade of garden goods for use of the land.
In Hilary Benn’s Defra report Food 2030 the proposal is put forward to get a ‘land bank’ for people to list and search for spare land. This is nice but it already exists within Spareground, Landshare and locally based garden share schemes up and down the country. Is there really need to regurgitate what is already there and peddle it as a Government initiative. Use Spareground!

Onto other things, October 2010 sees the arrival of the golf Ryder Cup in Newport and this is a great opportunity for the people in this area to rent their space and make some money. Visitors to the area will be keen for any Ryder Cup accommodation and parking offers available so now is the time to start thinking about it.

Right, I am wondering if Cambridge is going to miss this impending snow dump, so far we seem to have been missed entirely. Good job I stocked up on the tins of Spam this morning!

www.spareground.co.uk