Not long into my trip to Japan, I gave up trying to slip quietly and unnoticed into a public place, because I knew the staff would not permit it. No sooner would I cross the threshold of a restaurant, for example, than a chorus of greetings arose, to be carried on into the deepest depths… Continue reading
Catch the taste of sustainable fish in a top London hotel
There are many good things to say about the fish restaurant Catch, at Hyatt’s new Andaz Liverpool Street hotel. You could list the presentation, the service, the quality of cooking and the ambience, all of them important reasons for choosing to dine there. And yet these are things you could say about many other places in… Continue reading →
Searching (in vain) for wind turbines in Energy Minister’s “green and pleasant land”.
Energy minister John Hayes’ “enough is enough” remarks about onshore wind farms, where he spoke of a countryside “peppered” with turbines, may have been spun by the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph this morning, and by implication by the BBC, which seems to be simply repeating what it read in the newspapers. Most busy listeners,… Continue reading →
Our first solar year – report. Money made and CO2 saved.
12 months ago today two engineers drove away from our house after fitting 13 solar panels to our roof, and connecting the system to the National Grid. Their parting words were: “You’re now generating your own power”. True, although only up to a point. That many panels goes nowhere near providing the energy to run… Continue reading →
Cinema’s double-take on disaster – or is it just entertainment?
Two of the most compelling films in our cinemas at the moment are set against the backdrop of disasters – one that never happened exactly 50 years ago, and a hypothetical one about which we can’t be too sure. The first, Rosa and Ginger, tells the story of two British teenagers at the time of… Continue reading →
IKEA has the last laugh. What’s the funny Swedish name for energy self-sufficiency?
Isn’t there something about the IKEA brand that we British don’t take entirely seriously? We are full of respect for John Lewis, and Fortnum and Masons and Harrods, but when we picture this jaunty Swedish furniture and household goods company I think many of us can’t resist a smile. At those funny (apparently) made up… Continue reading →