Urban greens on your plate

During my travels I met people who had never visited London but somehow had the impression it was like Bladerunner. Concrete and glass everywhere but not a shred of greenery or wildlife. Unless, of course, they mentioned the disfigured pigeons of Trafalgar Square.

Yet I pass areas of greenery, trees, bushes, parks and gardens everyday as I wander around the city. It’s all there, just that given the frantic pace London lives at many people don’t have the time to stop and think about how in a city where real estate and space is a premium we still have local parks and gardens.

And where there is soil and sunshine, there’s a potential for growing food. My impression is that Joe public sees self-sufficiency as the preserve of landowners, that somehow you need a farm to feed yourself. Or a television series, in the vein of River Cottage. Urbanites with allotments are regarded as playing at growing food. The question is whether you truly can create The Good Life not just in a suburban semi but in the inner city?

Who would have thought that a 1970s BBC sitcom was actually a revolutionary blueprint? Tom and Barbara were ahead of their time and now watching episodes of this television series how familiar are Tom's rants against chemicals in food and waste? Yet 20 years ago his views were used to portray him as an eccentric character from which to set up comical sequences.

Now thanks to organisations such as Guerrilla Gardeners and Transition Towns, city dwellers are slowly realising that herbs, edible plants and fruit and vegetables can be grown right on their own doorstep. Albeit not in quantities that would feed the masses should a zombie apocalypse break out, but enough to supplement your grocery shop.

Without even picking up a trowel you can find food in the city, as Transition Town Pimlico aimed to demonstrate with Wild Food Walks through the most urban of landscapes, the Churchill Gardens Estate in Westminster.

On Saturday I hosted one of these walks through the estate, built between 1946 and 1962 to a design by the architects Powell and Moya, replacing Victorian terraced houses damaged during the Blitz. The blocks of flats are home to some 3,000 residents, however there are still examples of the Victorian village.

St Gabriels' Parish Hall is a fantastic building and growing just outside its windows are Dog Rose bushes. This bush produces red berries that can be dried, sieved and then used as a tea or a supplement. During WW2 it was a high source of Vitamin C for a rationed nation.

Of course, I didn't know any of this until Rakesh, who runs the Transition Town Pimlico branch, took me on a guided walk of the estate. I then joined him and local residents for another walk and when I felt confident of passing on my knowledge I invited members of the Couchsurfing community to join me on a sunny Saturday.

Growing on the estate are Lime Trees, which you can actually cultivate as a bush and from that you can harvest the leaves for tea. There are Magnolia trees, the flowers of which can be used as a spice and a condiment.

Should the zombie apocalypse kick off and chewing gum supplies run low, residents have a sweet gum tree to tap sap from in order to keep having minty sweet breath!

If anyone is interested in taking a walk around the estate and seeing it's generous areas of greenery and foliage then feel free to contact me and I'll organise another tour. For Londoners, it's a great way to stop and think about how we can use and enjoy the city's green space.

Counting blessings

Who would be a young person in today's Britain? According to a rash of news reports it's a pretty miserable place to be, especially if you have just graduated with a degree that's only useful as a coaster upon which to rest several mugs of tea while watching daytime television.
The thing is, it's never a good time to be young. No matter what the current economic or political situation is being young is generally a bit crap.
I'm not talking about teenage years here, that's a given how appalling they are for the majority of humans, but your early 20s. I don't know anyone who had a particularly great time of it simply because this is when most Westerners take their first steps into adulthood. And then you realise, being an adult sucks. It means responsibility, in the UK chasing after home ownership and desperately trying to negotiate the world of work when secretly we all know it's just a glorified version of the playground.
It is a rare 20 something who has the wisdom that allows them to swim in the corporate sea and not drown their insecurities in alcohol and unsuitable relationships. George Bernard Shaw was spot on when he said "Youth is wasted on the young".
This is, in fact, a bloody brilliant time to be young. Capitalism is undergoing a re-think and revolution is taking place across the world. Time to start thinking laterally, forget trying to jump on the milkround and cement yourself into a starter flat mortgage. If you have a parental home to go to then do so, thank your parents for providing you with a place of shelter, and then take whatever work you can get. Use that money to start out on your own or to buy a plane ticket to another country where being English and smart will take you further than spending 14 hours a day in an office on a graduate training scheme.
Here's something your careers adviser fails to tell you - corporate life is frustrating. You may be the quickest of thinkers but in my experience any energy will soon be sapped by the office politics and the wall of management who are so busy trying to feather their own agenda they are blind to the actual needs of the company. News International is busy dying on its arse because of egos not dodgy reporting. It will never recover because it has no collective self-awareness.
That's the corporate life that graduates are lamenting not having a shot at! Now is the time to follow the Irish. The young of Ireland have responded to the economic crisis in the same way their ancestors did, they have packed their bags and set off in search of a future. When I was in Australia there were so many young Irish that I'm surprised Ryan Air has not started direct flights from Dublin to Sydney. I understand the argument that encouraging a brain drain is not the most productive way to kick-start a country but better they are out making their way through the world than taking up space in a dole line.
If you are blessed with an enterprising mind, strong work ethic and good health then give thanks and get going. How I wish this had all been explained to me when I graduated. I plunged into a career when I could well have done with a few years of working around the world to help grow my self-confidence that would have served me well once I entered the newspaper game.
Today is International Women's Day and while there is far more work to do in order for British women to say that life is totally sweet on the equality front, we do have many blessings to count. At a time when women are fighting to even have the opportunity to learn how to read, how fortunate are we to have an education system that supports female minds?
I never expected my degree to give me everything I desired, I was always aware that it was a platform from which to jump into my working life and once there it was up to me to shape it. Although I did so in a haphazard fashion - I've managed to carve out many memorable experiences.
So to British youth (who are, of course, all following this blog) I say embrace the changes, look for adventure and do not worry if it goes wrong, sometimes that can lead to going right.

Girls Out Loud

Despite the title of this blog, it would appear that my recent posts have all had the major theme of feminism. So why not add another one in there and make it a hat-trick?
The idea for this post came about while I was thinking about re-training and seriously considering my abilities as a potential electrician.
I call it the trade option, not in a standing on the corner of Vauxhall Station wearing a 'Hello Sailor' sign way, but as in giving up the white collar for a pair of overalls and a skill that allows you to suck in large quantities of air before saying the infamous mantra "That's gonna cost you".
While I enjoy a certain amount of freedom working freelance, this comes with the insecurities of not knowing where the next paycheck will come from and there are days when I feel like I'm working very hard for very little reward. Not that it's all about the cash, but if I could get a few days pay re-wiring a house alongside a feature commission that may help calm my nerves when no one replies to my pitches!  Like my friend Huey, who is a plumber/published contemporary poet.
It is at moments of doubt about the direction I've taken that I could do with a little pep talk and guidance. To have a mentor who has walked my path and understands the pitfalls and can help with advice when I'm not sure of myself. I'm fortunate to know a couple of great people who can do that for me but this is not the situation for everyone.
We all, at times, lose our way. A friend once said how difficult it is to see your own path and that the benefit of someone's wisdom is immeasurable. That is why projects such as Girls Out Loud are so important. I met with founders Jane Kenyon and Claire Young in Manchester a couple of weeks ago. Jane is a business coach and Claire, who was on The Apprentice, appears to have at least 20 different roles but mainly works within the education sector.
Between them they are attempting to raise the self-esteem of young girls who are exposed to a daily dose of 'not good enough'. It is how capitalism continues to cling on, through a mix of poisonous messages that tell people they are only worth what they can afford to buy brewed in a school system that only pays attention to the extremes, either the very bright or the cannon fodder. If you happen to be drifting in the limbo of average as a teenager then forget it, the only lifeline is divine intervention or a mentoring project. I'm convinced this is why the UK drinks so much, to dull the voice that whispers 'if only'.
I am painfully too aware of this albatross of 'not good enough' having suffered from it for many years. The consequences have been schemes abandoned half-way through, application forms half-written and then discarded and ideas floated but never executed. Always, always within a certain amount of time I will convince myself that it is not worth pursuing as it will never come to anything. This morning I attempted to finish an application form for the BBC only to find that the vacancy had expired. I had procrastinated over a few of the questions, unsure of what to put as not feeling confident of my abilities. I remembered the advice of a friend, essentially just do it and big yourself up as everyone else does and most of them are useless. I know several of such types, who with very little talent or capability manage to secure fantastic opportunities for themselves. I put this down to their total focus, lack of self-criticism and the fact that while I'm stood debating my worth they are just bloody getting on with it. With this in mind, I'd like to introduce this blog post: The Cult of Done.
Having given up booze proper, I have been searching for more constructive ways to quieten the 'if only' voice. If today's expired application can teach me anything, it's that the only way to stop regret is to swallow the doubts and get on with it. As another friend says "You have to be in it to win it".

Should bullying be a feminist issue?

So this is where I hold my hand up and confess that I have been watching Celebrity Big Brother. I know among certain circles this is akin to me saying I like Bernard Matthew's turkey burgers but it's January, I don't drink booze and something has got to get me through this weather. Also, Michael Masden is in it.

However, it has been the behaviour of the women in the house that has fascinated me rather than seeing how Masden reacts to a room full of needy Z-listers.

In my previous post I wrote how women hold other women back and if you want to see examples of the techniques they use, call up CBB on Channel 5's catch-up site. Emotional manipulation, comments that on the surface appear helpful but have a sub-text to them and grudges. My lord, do women like a good grudge that they can pick at and hold against someone to assuage their own insecurities and promote feelings of power. 

I'm not sure if Channel 5 were aware of the significance of the scheduling, but it was fitting that following CBB was a programme featuring Jodie Marsh that looked at the problem of bullying. Bullying has a devastating impact on both genders but the experiences Jodie and other girls spoke of resonated with me. As a 12 year-old geek Smiths fan in a sink estate secondary school I was an obvious target. Yet again, the fact that I was thin in a sea of puppy fat marked me out for verbal and occasional physical abuse by girls high on jealousy and the adrenaline that comes from making another person fear you.

Now, I do not want to be accused of helping the misogynist cause. As I said before, we are all well aware of the inequality that still exists. And there are many, many examples of women helping their sisters to combat this inequality and to create support networks that foster self-esteem. I do not want to take away from that great work and indeed, in the coming months; I will hopefully be involved with a project that helps support vulnerable young women.

Yet, I really do think we need women to look at their own behaviour towards other women and question how productive it is in the greater context of promoting the female cause.

I ask if bullying should be a feminist issue and for me, yes it should be. Bullying among females weakens our position in society, how can we ask men to treat us with respect when we don't hand out that treatment to each other?

Here are a couple of recent examples of where I have over-heard women being nasty to other females. On a Saturday night at London Bridge tube station two teenage girls wearing tight-fitting but not overly revealing outfits were taking pictures of one another obviously all excited at their big London night out. Two young girls in jeans walked past and muttered in their direction "stupid sluts". Nice.

I walked past a mother and her toddler daughter, who was obviously in distress. The mother snapped at her "Well, if you had got up off your lazy arse to go the toilet you would not be in this mess." This was not your stereotypical chav mother that the Daily Mail likes to make out is the only type who are cruel to their offspring. Here was a well spoken, middle-class mother being a complete bitch to her child. The lack of understanding and coldness towards a little thing that had had an accident that all children are prone to was shocking.

This casual bitchiness is toxic and with the development of social media it has a new channel through which to poison the confidence and peace of mind of people on the receiving end.

This is why I set up the Ditch The Bitch Facebook page. If women can check their own behaviour and be more conscious of showing their sisters support and kindness and being less judgmental than hopefully we can be better role models for both young women and men.

www.facebook.com/pages/Ditch-the-Bitch/259167354153296

Ditch the bitch

I’m losing my patience with feminism. I find it all too middle-class and too bloody self-righteous. In the words of Morrissey, “It says nothing to me about my life”.

The main reason I find current feminist thought frustrating is that it refuses to acknowledge that women are just as much a part of the problem as men.

|We all know the issues that the male establishment present for the cause of women. That has long been debated and discussed.

But let’s put men to one side and concentrate on how women sabotage themselves and others.

I will leave it to Chris Rock to sum up the issue.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaOUnwfD1dQ 

I don’t think women will ever move forward at the pace we should while we refuse to talk about how we control and hold back our own gender.

Women don’t want to talk about this because it is seen as being disloyal and breaking ranks with the sisterhood. While I have many, many wonderful and supportive women in my life I have also experienced the other side, bitchiness, jealousy, emotional manipulation and outright nastiness.

From former friends who have projected their own insecurities onto me resulting in vicious emails and conversations to casual remarks from strangers. The woman at the bar who said in a voice dripping with disgust, “I bet you never eat” in reference to my slight frame, a gift of genetics and gastric flu.

This female hatred of other women is evident in the magazines that line the shelves of newsagents. Read GQ or Esquire, the content on every page is praise for male achievement. In my experience, even when men loathe one other they will still back each other up. I cannot say the same for women. Again, this is my own experience and so others may disagree, but when a woman takes a dislike to another then it’s open season for being a bitch. 

Yes, I'm aware that friends can be annoying and behave in mental ways (I'm guilty of this as is everyone at some point) but we are so quick to jump on any imperfection in our girlfriends. The slightest grievance is picked at and moaned about and no one ever tackles the problem. Instead, this shit passive aggressive attitude comes out and we sulk or ignore one another. In the meantime, we're losing out on so much support. And we turn on one another so willingly through our own fears and insecurities. Let's face it, women love it when others fail because it makes them feel better about themselves.

Take a flick through any one of the trashy celebrity magazines and it’s pumped full of toxic stories where women are verbally beaten up because they pile on a few pounds or look a bit stressed.

Want to know why women are not ruling the world? Simple, too many are too busy gossiping and worrying about the size of their and other girl's arses.

Last week at two different events I was reminded of how women create rods for their own and other women’s backs. The first was at a RSA talk called Women in Work: Having it all or doing it all?

The talk was by the Financial Times columnist Mrs Moneypenny on her new book Career Advice for Ambitious Women. First of all I have to say I admire this woman, I don’t agree with everything she says, but you gotta give love to someone who has carved out such a successful career, raised a family and can fly a plane. She is of the no nonsense stock and is honest in saying that it’s not possible to have it all and the road for a career-focused woman is not going to be easy.

What disappointed me was that she kept making reference to her size, which incidentally is on the Mad Men curvaceous side rather than having to be craned out of a window to hospital.

At least four or five times she mentioned her body mass index of 37 and then turned to the talk’s host to congratulate her for looking slender, pointing out at least twice that this woman had had five children.

Here is a high-profile columnist, author, television presenter and business guru who felt the need to keep mentioning her weight when really, who bloody cares? Clearly she does, and cares a lot. Honey, you have achieved so much, give yourself a break and roll around in sticky buns to your heart’s content.

On the evening I did my first stand-up gig of 2012 at Up The Creek in Greenwich. On the same night was a delightful comic called Grainne Maguire. She is so comfortable on stage but more importantly her material is not about diets, dating or getting smashed.

It’s clever and thought provoking, especially her stuff about female pop stars preaching that it’s fine to fuck other women over. Yes Pussy Cat Dolls, I’m looking at you.

Women hating on other women has got to stop if we are ever to achieve true equality. It has nothing to do with looks, size, shoes, men or childcare and everything to do with giving each other a break and a hand when needed.

Heaven sent

A couple of nights ago I received a text message from an angel. It was a revelation to me that heaven had access to mobile technology, but when you see a Buddhist monk clutching a shiny Samsung in the middle of a Laos’ village one should not be surprised that the ethereal are also connected.

It was one of those chain messages that request you to forward it to ten of your closest friends or else. For a start, I don’t have ten close friends and the few that I have I would not risk losing by sending them annoying chain messages.

I was particularly taken with the statement that if I believed in Karma then I would take part in this chain, as presumably if I didn’t Karma was going to come round my ends and give my fortunes a pasting.

Clearly this is why the UK is in a recession, all those bankers neglected to forward chain messages from angelic forces that then got a bit grumpy and sent our economy down the toilet.

I find Karma a difficult concept to embrace, even though I am studying Buddhism and increasingly being drawn to the religion.

The simple explanation is of a natural law where you get back what you put out. However, as my mate Antoine said, “If that was the case then Idi Amin would have been jailed for his horrendous regime rather than living his days out in Saudi Arabia.”

Or, as I say, if Karma exists then Jedwood should surely be coming in for a freak time warp accident that sends them to a different dimension.

If there is one organization that should benefit under the Karma concept then it’s Transition Towns.

And it would appear that all the good work this collection of groups has put into local communities is being recognized by various grant givers to help fund the grassroots work taking place around the UK.

I dare say to many out there me banging on about how great this organization is smacks of “Ooo have you heard of this ace new band, The Beatles?” but I have only recently become acquainted with them and so you will have to excuse my schoolgirl crush.

I met with one of the Pimlico members, Riccardo, for the meeting of the London Groups at Royal Festival Hall to discuss what the capital’s Transition Towns needed in terms of resources. 

It appeared that many of the people there representing different areas felt that there was a need for some form of portal or person to take an overall view of the work taking place so that when it comes to skill sharing and training there’s less overlap.

The people involved are so dynamic and in a city where so many complain of the lack of community, here are groups making an effort to connect with their neighbours. For anyone who is tired of the usual coffee and shopping Saturdays then it’s a great way to take up new activities.

For example, Riccardo is an enthusiast of home bread making and brought the most delicious artisan loaf with him to the meeting. He is more than happy to help people to learn the art of bread making, baking it in an oven as opposed to an appliance that gets used twice and then gathers dust.

If you want to get him round to show you how to bake bread properly email him on bakingyourown@gmail.com.

There are so many inspiring projects taking place and a far more interesting way to improve your fortunes than forwarding chain messages.

Fear

Yesterday I was hanging out at my friend Bridget's vintage clothing store What the Butler Wore and became engaged in conversation with her friend Richard on the subject of fear. Bridget always says the shop is more like a community centre with the different types that stop by to chat over a cup of tea. Bridget mentioned I was a journalist and so Richard wanted my opinion on how the way the media spreads fear among people. I had to agree that reading newspapers is a health hazard these days, we are all going to hell in a handcart according to the nationals and given the choppy waters we are swimming in that's not a particularly helpful prediction.
But we also agreed that change is coming, that it has been coming for a long time and now we are at a particularly sticky point of the process. Do you grit your teeth and get through it or do you run away?
Since I returned from South East Asia I've been in a more or less constant battle with myself as to which direction to take. My friend Liz thinks I'm like Marion the cat out of the BBC 3 series Mongrels. "I will stay in the UK and find my direction/I will leave the UK and find my direction".
It can get pretty exhausting at times and yesterday morning after a bad night's sleep I was all for booking a flight to New York and running off to my family there. However, just chatting through the subject of fear with Bridget and Richard helped to pull me back to the reality that you can be anywhere in the world but you are still you and so I have to tackle that fear that's within me.
Richard was kind enough to say that I was the sort of person that's needed right now, someone trying to make a difference and to create positive projects for people to get involved with. "You have the right mind, stay here and be one of the people who lead the change."
Not sure how I will do that, but it's reassuring that some people think I am capable of that. So today, although I still feel fearful, I am going to be working on spreading the word about the Confidence Through Comedy workshop we have planned for the end of this month. Because if there is one antidote to fear, it's a jolly good laugh.