Going green is easy….except when it comes to eating flies

When I first moved to London I was pretty sure that all my greenness would fly out of the window and I’d rely on public transport, stop recycling and shave on a daily basis. This was the case for a while and I didn’t cycle anywhere for fear of being mugged, run over stabbed or shot. But this time last year was the turning point and I decided to fetch my bicycle from a friend’s garden in Colchester and take it into London. I arrived at Liverpool Street and had no idea how to get to the flat - I literally relied on bus routes and maps provided in parks to get me home. In short the 35 minute cycle route that I now know well took two hours. At home came the compost bin in the garden and the kitchen box for recyclable goods. Then I bought low wattage eco light bulbs, grew tomato plants and a beard. For my 25th birthday work colleagues bought me a bike helmet as they too feared that I would get run over/shot/stabbed/raped and thrown in a river etc. Today I can confidently say that I am the greenest I have ever been. I rarely eat meat, I share a lot of my meals with flatmates and I have a beard. I haven’t started drinking my own recycled urine yet but you get the picture. On a dry windless day I can cut through London on my bicycle like a hot knife through plasticine. From my flat to Covent garden takes 25 minutes. I can sincerely say (and do tell everyone I meet) that cycling is safe in London. In fact this has been proven by research in Holland and Belgium – cycling in cities is usually safer as cars are more aware of the bicycles whereas in small villages (where people tend not to cycle) more accidents occur. So next week will be one year cycling in London. It will also be one year of the compost bin. Yesterday me and a flatmate decided to rotate the bin as this is apparently supposed to speed up the process of rotting old fruit n veg. To be honest we didn’t have a clue when we first got the damn thing and so we certainly didn’t have a clue on how to rotate it. The compost bin stinks and there are flies. Slinkiness and flies. It all goes in your mouth – flies and all. And it stinks. Basically you shovel the top ‘soil’ and place it on the top of the fresh peelings/egg shells/tea-bags. The middle collapses and the composting continues. Hopefully by the end of summer the house will have enough soil to create a garden for winter vegetables. It doesn’t take much effort and it really is about hearts and minds rather than hard work. This is just my beginning but until they invent cheap and efficient electric cars (or the car like in back to the future that runs on banana skins) I wont be changing.