When items break, they are not repaired but rather recycled or they end up landfills. - My toys

When my toys broke, they were either taken away from me or they left at the bottom of the toy box, waiting for some type of resurrection which never occur. I wish that:
A) someone would have tried to repair them
B) someone would have shown me how to repaired them
C) someone would have looked after me when my toy world crumbled.
D) someone would have looked after them when their compatriots failed to function
E) Someone would  have collaborated with me to create a better world
F) I was more confident at such young age to repair my world

What would you have wished for? Add your options in the comments box

Everything wrong with Environmentalism - Bitesizevegan did it - Is it the start of a vegan journey?

I browsed my Facebook Feed. Mo posted the following video 'Everything wrong with environmentalism in 11 minutes'.

.

I watched the whole 11 minutes. I asked myself why animal agriculture and its impacts on the environment is not further talked about in environmental campaigning. Later that day, I went to a peer to peer support group on reducing our carbon footprint supported by Footpaths. The session focused on home energy, the food session is to come later. I'll reserve my conclusions by then and maybe also talk about methane and other dangerous gases. I am still not clear on my position on 'what is wrong with environmentalism?' The video keeps playing in my mind.

I am a meat-eater. I reduced my meat intake in the past but I have been slacking recently as families and some peers are not really supportive on the vegan/vegetarian lifestyles. I do like the taste of meat, I cannot lie.

In the evening, I watched the video a second time with my partner, I read a few vegan stories (glowingfridge, huffpost, joyfulvegan). They mentioned the documentary 'Vegucated' which affected them so much that they embrace a vegan lifestyle.

I watched it the following morning. It worked. I am disgust by animal agriculture practices. I order a vegan kit from PETA, signed up to a number of online communities. Is it the beginning of something? I am not sure. I learnt today that there is animal products in cigarettes from bitesize vegan. Smoking dead animals' ashes (WTF).

...

Marie's Making Moment

Published on Footpaths Leicester

The Green Festival of Making and Mending is 5 weeks away and last week I finally had my making moment.

Zina and I have been working relentlessly in the organisation of the festival and its pre-festival events to enthuse people to make and mend in an ingeneous, creative and more environmentally friendly way. The experience has taught me many skills, from communication to project management. I kept unfortunately my spirit away from engaging with the craft of making and mending.

Footpaths Challenge - Changing direction

For this week letter, I have decided to change my direction quite profoundly and share with you all some of my feelings about change for sustainability.

I am doing currently my Ph.D around Design for Sustainable Behaviour. It is already agreed that products, services and systems strive to influence people's behaviour. But to do it consciously is another matter. Design for sustainable behaviour attempts to change people behaviour as they are interacting with product. The designer become the person responsible in this endeavour. There are a number of ethical issues surrounding such topic which is completely understandable. Giving control to technology to change our behaviour is quite dramatic, yet it is what is happening on the daily basis. We battle our way against technologies in our life.

Home Energy - Footpaths challenge - Getting to know your home - Checking for draughts

It has been now more than two years that I am living in my home. I cannot claim I know my house very well in order to do all the energy saving changes. Thanks to Footpaths manual, there is a checklist to help in getting to know a home. It encouraged me to do some searches.

A number of energy saving changes were done before we got in the house

• the 300mm of loft insulation
• cavity walls filled
• double glazed windows
• the hot water tanks and pipes were lagged

We came in the house with good habits such as ensuring that the appliances and gadgets are not on standby and assets - all our lights are energy savings light bulbs. Nevertheless, there are still few things that are ought to be looked into more closely:

• draught strips around windows and doors
• heating controls programmed
• thermostatic valves on radiators

Let start with ensuring that the house is draught-free!

With my beautiful little hand, I went all around the house checking if there were any drafts. I found one.
Under my front door. I now understand why the corridor is always very cold. So what options do I have to fix this little issue from the least expensive to more expensive options
- Do Nothing
- Make with reclaimed material a door draught excluder (see pic)
- Change the door sweeps
- Change the front door
Easy busy!

I have to choose one of those options. I might start with a door draught excluder!

What about you?
Did you check for any drafts in your house?
What did you do about it?

Home Energy, Footpaths Challenge - Monitoring Energy Consumption

According to the Energy Saving Trust you could find that your energy usage drops by between five and 15% in the first year of using an energy monitor, which could be a saving of £25 to £75 on a £500 bill.

I am following the homework of the Footpaths book as promised in previous post (here). I set myself to read my meters every week to monitor my energy consumption.

It is tedious. 

I tried twice to make it an habit. I fell miserably.

Reading is not really the issue but accessing the meter might be the issue. I better put my shoes elsewhere and learn to squat. 

I recognise that for changing you have to recognise first your pattern of behaviour. The truth of the matter is that I do not know exactly how bad we behave in our household.

Badly, most probably. 

Example - I spent most of the day in my warm gown with a hat on. The heaters  were off. Then family came back home in the evening. I went to the kitchen to cook. I came out of the kitchen, got into the living room. The temperature was exotic. The gas heater in the living room was blasting away as family do not really like wearing jumpers but prefer a good heat for time to time.

I am recognising that it is actually wearing off my motivation slightly, hence the lack of squatting. I think it is good to acknowledge that to move forward. After I take off my shoes every monday evening, I will check the meters. I will call a family meeting when I've got some facts on our bbbbeeeehhhaaavvviour!

I hope I will keep it up. Wish me Luck.

Home Energy, Footpaths Challenge

I have taken upon the challenge to write every week over 5 weeks a small article on my journey in reducing my carbon footprint. Footpaths, a community carbon reduction initiative in Leicester called for challengers and I responded to the call.

As I looked upon my computer screen, I wondered what I possibly could write about.

I completed the Footpaths 8 week session last year. Since then, I got myself a bicycle, I am travelling to work back and forth on it, offered one to my partner for Christmas, produced a lot more vegetarian meals but yet have to convince meat eaters at home, controlled a lot better my finances and got out of debt, open a bank account with an ethical bank, engage myself in reducing clutter and started to buy food from an
organic cooperative.

There are still things that I need to do. There always things that need to be done. Sometimes, I just do not want to look upon this particular list of things to do.

My main hurdle is Home Energy. We all know home are at the centre of our lives. We also know that they are responsible for over a quarter of the UK's Co2 emissions. I have not yet been really good with monitoring energy use, have yet to change my energy suppliers, ensure that all my lightings are energy saving bulbs and have some thermostatic valves on my radiators.

With this in mind, my next step is to go over Footpaths activities on Home energy, work out how much I use and develop a plan. Wish me luck!

Home Energy - Footpaths Challenge - Checking for Draughts

With my beautiful little hand, I went all around the house checking if there were any drafts. I found one.
Under my front door. I now understand why the corridor is always very cold. So what options do I have to fix this little issue from the least expensive to more expensive options
- Do Nothing
- Make with reclaimed material sa door draught excluder (see pic)
- Change the door sweeps
- Change the front door
Easy busy!

I have to choose one of those options. I might start with the door draught excluder!

What about you?
Did you check for any drafts in your house?
What did you do about it?

Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival 2015, Chris Purchase and my obsessive kettle

I have been sending emails to an incredible number of UK comedians to promote the Green Festival of Making and Mending at the Dave's Leicester Comedy's Festival 2015. I must say that most comedians I know are Gad El Maleh, Jamel Debouzze and other French International comedians such as Russell Brand. So it feel good to extend my horizon.

After about 40 emails sent, I received my first answer from Chris Purchase, check me out! 

How snuffed I was. I did it! congratulating myself excitedly. My hands in the hair, scratching the surface of my brain, I have linguistic persuasive email power (Yes you do in a Stallone Voice). It took me a while to reply as I chose to procrastinate writing this blog post instead. What could I respond to him after asking him if he would make one or two positive jokes on making and mending at his show on the 21st of February 2015 (more info and to book), promoting in turn our endeavour.

See, he replied (rewrote for the purpose of this post):  'Why not? I make and upcycle too' (with the voice)

What!!! a maker! (I am dreaming said the groupie inside myself). Indeed yes, from this point onwards, I was lost in the midst of self-contemplation. All I wanted to reply was: 

'I am very curious to know what you are able to do with your hands. 

You see, I have not yet master my kinaesthetic powers and I am deeply obsessed with those who do. This is why I am organising the Green Festival of Making and Mending in Leicester on the 31st October 2015. 

Like a material girl failing to learn a new skill such as making a burger and a bag from Louis Vuitton, I shop makers like a cougar who lost her youth, like a falling star who lost her fans. Give me a bit of your magic for a moment. I need my hands to reappear from nothingness just to get the chance to make, repair and upcycle my broken kettle.'

Well, it is not exactly what I replied. But I am quite happy with the sudden splurge of creativity. My dad will be so proud.

Festive Season with Transition Leicester - Wishing Leicester's cyclists A 'Wheelie' good Xmas

One of Transition Leicester's vision for Leicester in 2030 is to have the necessary infrastructures to encourage people to leave their cars and use other means of transports.  

 In this beautiful festive season, a small action to meet this vision was to thank the existing cyclists for riding their bicycle amongst the roaring cars and humming pedestrians. 

Random acts of kindness can be simple as making some tags with some recycled christmas cards, paper cards, repurposed wool' strings and a bit of writing inspirations and some smiling volunteers. 

 30 bicycles were tagged.Good things! 

Have a 'Wheelie' good Christmas and Ride Happily within the New Year.

Drop some comments

Random discussion about broken stuff

Random Interview with individuals

I was talking with the friend of my dad and he was telling me that his toaster broke down and he looked at some other ones to replace it but it got him so upset that he decided to repair it by himself

my brother have an xbox which give him trouble to read blu ray. he explained to me that he was becasue he bought one of the first one which tend to have some issue for customers to find out and report in order to make the next version a lot better. he said that he has a warranty to send it back but for the moment he does with it because it is a little bit of an hassle to send it back

Site I fix it

Ilivier spoke to me about some high quality sounding system which have been thought to be able to upgrade themselves overtime when new digital configuration are being designed

there is a 5 year warranty on all product

Various groups

I spent a night with Sarah friends who were very much attached to aesthetic stuff on one stide , material needs, the pleasure given by eating good food, alcohol. the discussion were mainly on ideas to improve the surrounding environment.

i asked myself

are they really those who will have some difficulty to change and start repairing stuff. maybe not, there are actually a lot more able to use their hands that someone like me an intellectual

Green Festival of Making and Mending

Send us pictures of your broken stuff that wish to be repaired.

Restart Party in leicester

Dissassembly Workshop - Educating the Users

Toshiba hold workshops wherein children take apart household appliances and personal computers. Our purpose is to let children experience how interesting and mysterious science is, and feel the fun of manufacturing.

As volunteer Toshiba Group employees who take part as the "Disassembly Doctors" give guidance in how to use tools and how the product mechanisms work, the children proceed to disassemble products that are no longer usable for shop displays or other such purposes. The children start out being assigned problems by the Doctors so that they can be aware of the operation of the parts as they proceed with the disassembly. After they have taken the products apart, they separate out the materials by plastic, metal, and so on, to also learn about recycling.

These workshops were held a total of 26 times from 2005 to the end of FY2012.

The employee volunteers have also started a Disassembly Workshop Promotion Working Group that has been discussing improvements to the program and explanatory methods that the children will find easier to understand.

Let's Try Disassembling a Vacuum Cleaner

You Can CycleChic

It is now four months that I am cycling to anywhere I am bound to go to.

Apart from the savings accrued from not owning a car, I also avoid the heartache of waiting for the bus. Finally, I have great pleasure in eating sweet pies and cakes knowing that they are the fuel powering the relationship between my legs and the sleek vehicle. 

To get a bike, there are numerous schemes available (Wheel To Work). There are also bikes on offer on Gumtree, Freecycle and Freegle. Finally, there are most probably in your friends’, family’ and/or own’ shed, a bicycle awaiting to be used. I personally borrowed a bike from my local voluntary group, so it is worth asking around. If you are not confident in cycling on the road, all I can advise is to find out online if there are some free cycling trainings for adults in your area and learn more about all the gorgeous off-road cycle paths.

Regarding style, ladies, on your gorgeous bike, you do not have to put some safety nets on your style just because you are riding, so check the following:
- cycechic
- put a penny in yo' pants

How does Transition Leicester engage with communities?

I recently participated in  a focus group for a master dissertation. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the strategies implemented by Transition groups to encourage the spread of low carbon communities.

One of the question asked was how does Transition Leicester engage with communities?

The truth of the matter is that Transition do not engage with communities.

Transition engage with individuals who want to use our platform to express their vision for the future as well as their own identities. Communities only emerge out from individuals desires' for cohesion and belonging. It is within frame of reference or gathering of voices that connecions are created.

As Seth Godin put it, we are not crowdsourcing energy, we are bobsourcing.

Keeping up with the team energy

The freedom in being your own free agent is thrilling.
The togetherness of a team is wonderful with a positive flow which direct what and where we are going next.

The steering group I am part of, Transition Leicester was bound to structure at some point in time. It depleted our energy. We were doing things because we had to do them rather than doing them because we wanted to. It affected the groups: some left, some did not feel they had the capacity to support others and favoured their own projects.

We had lost some degree of flexibility.

After an open discussion, sharing our feelings on the situation, we recognised that we needed something semi-structured, less formal, in flow with ourselves and what was happening around us.

We are still meeting once month but we have a formal meeting every three.
Other times, we treat our gatherings as social where other people, from outside the team, can join in to find out what we do, how they can contribute and how we can support them.

Interestingly, this format sparked opportunities for new ventures: social enterprise, events, festivals, connections with others voluntary groups. The team does not condition anymore the free agent inside of his members. When we get together it is only an opportunity to share our successes and find out how we can support each others.  It is all love

Finding a partner in the making

I love working on projects. I love working with others.

When I started to be a volunteer coordinator for Positive Money in Leicester, I wanted to find a partner to create some events on the theme of money. This person had to be reliable, trustworthy and hard working. 

I did not find the person through the various meetings and events which I organised or participated in. The individuals I have met were not there to collaborate in the way I wanted. They were looking to gain other social benefits.

Eventually, one person revealed herself to be the right partner whilst I was volunteering to support her own scheme: Footpaths, a carbon footprint reduction community-based programme. I run some sessions with her as a co-facilitator. Through our preparation meetings, I shared my vision for Positive Money in Leicester and our two worlds merged.

Since then, we are partners. Others got inspired and joined us to develop a taster and full day workshop on Money. After the taster workshop, a reading group emerged. After the full-day workshop, other volunteering organisations got interested in having the money workshop run for them. We are now in the process of editing the workshop to share facilitation notes to every participants of footpaths. They will be able to run sessions on the theme of money with their group members.

As I will be stepping down from Positive Money as a volunteer co-ordinator to focus fully on freeskilling, repairing and making, my partner in crime and I are already thinking of organising a festival which is rather exciting.

A partner is more likely to be found in the making and sharing. You have to be willing to give in order to receive something back. You have to be focus on what you are trying to achieve but also flexible in the way you are going to get there. Someone along the way will join you, ensure to be open to opportunities when this person comes along.

What's on this weekend in Leicester?

If you are looking for some alternative events to join, this is what is happening in Leicester

Footpaths : Green Open Homes and Living on the 14th and 15th of June.
9 houses in Leicester are opening their homes for visit. For  those interested in learning more about energy efficient measures, renewables and more, give it a go. Click on the link above to find out more

LessBig - Building an Earth Oven at Saffron acres on Saturday 14th from 10.30am to 5pm - Click on the link for more information

Positive Money - Ian Tennant talks about how to stop banks are ruining the show at Leicester secular society on Sunday 15th at 6.30 start. For more info on the event > click here

Et Voila

Shall we have a Repair party?

In the summer edition of Transition Free Press, I read an article written by Charlotte Du Cann about the Restart Project.

Hence I will be looking into the particular issue of getting electrical goods back for re-manufacturing from next year onward, I found the initiative absolutely fascinating. Watching Jane Gunter talking about her initiative in TedX talk in Brixton (click here for a video) inspired me as such initiative redefine our direct interactions with people around us and our relationship with our stuff!

Now, I want to start repair parties in the Leicestershire but for this I need some volunteers with energy and skills to share.

So here is my call:

For handy, ingenious individuals in Leicester and its surrounding area, shall we have a REPAIR PARTY?

If you want to volunteer, put comments in the box below and/or send me a direct message on twitter @mlgisfree 

Riverside Festival - aftermath

It was the second year I was participating in the Riverside Festival as a volunteer under Transition Leicester tent. It was a different but very satisfying experience compared to last year.

The festival appeared to have grown in size. There were wonderful display of collective efforts both musical and colourful! 

Some Pictures