Truth be told, flying’s really not my bag any more.  In the last decade I’ve taken 2 flights, but this one was a whopping great 11 hours.  I’ll also be poking around in Nissan’s CSR protocols too and will report back on their ethical stance and plans for the future.

So why am I here?

To play with the Nissan Leaf, their ground-breaking zero-emissions electric car. They describe it as ‘no golf cart’ – apparently it’ll perform like a V6 with speeds of up to 90mph (minus the smoggy damage of course) – I certainly hope it lives up to the hype and expectation that’s been created around this eco-demon on wheels.

But what I really want to know is how does it perform on a functional and practical level as a family vehicle with the demands of 3 children, it is a 5-door dazzler after all and will the price tag be able to be met by the pockets of everyday folks, or will this end up being an unachievable dream for most and with a single charge yielding an average 100 mile road trip, what are the forward plans for a reliable infrastructure of reduced-time charging stations throughout the UK?

These, and other burning issues will be debated once I’ve caught up on my kip.

If you’ve got any questions you’d like the top Nissan execs to answer, drop me a comment in below.

Nite all,

TSx

Keep up to speed with what’s happening, where, with whom, why and so on….

Time for bed said Zebedee..(still wrapped in the duvet)…

TS x

Evening all;  am freshly back home from my Transition Town meeting and it was a joy to welcome a new member to the fold.

Tonight, we finalised our constitution, planned our AGM, organised a provisional date for a community lunch in which we’ll invite 2 members from each of the local village groups (from Pilates to Photographers) to explain how we’re more commonly bonded than they might think and we rounded it by off counting up the coffers we made at our recent Halloween Soup Kitchen.

Why is my Transition Town meeting being mentioned here?

Well, our tiny group could fit around a corner table in a greasy spoon cafe, yet we’ve managed to achieve a few good green things in our community during the year we’ve been congregating in our local sports and social club on the second Tuesday of every month.

This might sound like we’ve had a roller-coaster of a positive meeting – and we did on the whole – but we also spent a considerable amount of time cogitating the negative and talking about how we’re still failing to convey the message of our group’s objectives to a wider audience; essentially, we’re trying to prepare our community for the effects we’ll all face as oil becomes scarcer, more expensive and eventually runs out.

But I’m not a girl to ponder on the negative – life’s too bloomin’ short for a start – I think we need to ditch the guilt for what we are not doing and feel great about what we are doing to effect positive, lasting change.

Some brilliant eco-concepts are driven by fear, not excitement.  I think we’ll produce a better net result if we are fuelled by the latter.

To that end, I’m incredibly excited about teasing out the really simple living tips from my lovely downshifters and sharing them with you!

The power of positive action is immeasurable.  It’s so pebble in the pond and you’ll never know how far your good actions have spread.

If you adopt a simple change in your everyday life and then start to feel the positive effects of doing so, you’re far more likely to want to share that with a friend…it’s a bit like passing on a great recipe for brownies…the compulsion to share is irresistible.

Anyway, it’s 11.10pm and the fire has burned down to her embers…I’m off to bed in my Snoopy pj’s…a real bed with a proper mattress, sheets and a snug duvet…but not for much longer…soon I’ll be stretching out in Shrek under a chilly winter sky…

I can’t wait!

Night all.

Fret not, there’s plotting and planning taking place, even while I sleep….and the list of amazing Great British Downshifters I’ll be featuring in the book…..is growing….

Could it be you?

Or should I say, would you like it to be you?

Drop me a line with your random thoughts.

To that end, I thought it about time I picked up a pen and got to it really, before the creative juices reduced to a  carbon clump stuck on the side of the roasting tin that is my eclectic brain (the cooking metaphor is an important clue to some of my favourite content in the book by the way…).