Procrasti-Nation

If you live in the UK you will have heard and probably know a little about climate change by now. It concerns me how I talk to people about the issue and it is possible to know the scientific evidence of what is happening and yet compartmentalise the problem and switch back to the everyday routine without doing anything.

In My Back Yard

I enjoy being outside in the countryside. I like to walk, swim in rivers and lakes but my main interest is mountain biking. Mountain biking took me out into the wilds, and gave me a way to move around, and unwittingly take in and immerse myself in the environment. I get a huge amount of enjoyment from breathing in fresh air and flying silently along a forest trail.

I developed a connection with nature when I was very young, having been brought up in a small village and spending time on the farm of my uncle. My appreciation of nature had a firm foundation which has developed through my life. Getting out into nature, enjoying and appreciating it eventually develops respect and awareness.

Practicing What You Preach

Last night I went to teach my English speaking lesson at the 'Georgian-Scottish-House' in Tbilisi. Recently I have had another gear-change with regards to my thinking on how I can do my bit to help reduce the now widely accepted human-induced climate change that is happening.

A main aim of Ride Earth is to observe and document the effects of climate change and to promote bicycle use. My time in Tbilisi is allowing me to realign how I approach achieving these things. I have been researching climate change on the internet and did a search for climate change documentaries.

Small is Beautiful

These are some quotes from E.F. Schumacher's series of books, Small is Beautiful:

"The most striking about modern industry is that it requires so much and accomplishes so little. Modern industry seems to be inefficient to a degree that surpasses one's ordinary powers of imagination. Its inefficiency therefore remains unnoticed."

"Ever bigger machines, entailing ever bigger concentrations of economic power and exerting ever greater violence against the environment, do not represent progress: they are a denial of wisdom. Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful."

"The way in which we experience and interpret the world obviously depends very much indeed on the kind of ideas that fill our minds. If they are mainly small, weak, superficial, and incoherent, life will appear insipid, uninteresting, petty, and chaotic. It is difficult to bear the resultant feeling of emptiness, and the vacuum of our minds may only too easily be filled by some big, fantastic notion – political or otherwise – which suddenly seems to illumine everything and to give meaning and purpose to our existence. It needs no emphasis that herein lies one of the great dangers of our time."

More here...

Space and Time

I'm in Tbilisi and hopefully this blog will fill in what has been happening with me. As you may know I arrived in Yerevan for the first time, by bicycle, on the 24th January. I met up with Tom in the city after we had cycled alone from near the Georgian border. Fanny came out to visit me in Yerevan and we stayed with friends, Max and Irene. We had wonderful times which passed too quickly. Whilst bargaining for sweet and spicy paprika at the market, Fanny and I met a very interesting American Armenian called Manoog.

It turned out he is a very interesting person who is very active in the community in Yerevan. We met and exchanged stories and he took us to see some excellent jazz music in the 'Stop Club'. He helped organise an event at a local NGO, where Tom and I made a presentation and showed our film footage from Turkey, Georgia and Armenia.

We were still waiting for our sleeping bags to be released from customs so I decided to hitch-hike back to Tbilisi. This was partly an exercise in hitch-hiking and partly to spend more time with friends in charming Tbilisi.

Marshrutka Experience

The driver's wearing a leather jacket, thick material. I think "that's too hot inside this cramped vehicle - it must be for the look". The driver looks like a gangster out of a Guy Ritchie film. Somehow I convinced myself to put my trust in this gold-teeth-laden man with gold ring and bracelet to match. He's wearing his savings.

Across his weathered typically Armenian face adorn a pair of dirty gold tinted sunglasses so I can't quite see the colour of his eyes in the rear view mirror. I'm sitting in the centre of a wide seat behind the driver. My legs are squashed against the faux-leather covering of the Ford Transit seating. I'm really trying not to think about how perfect my tradjectory would be through the windscreen if we crashed.

Why did we get so wet?

Last summer when we set off from England on our bicycles we had dreams of long wonderful summer days and leaving our waterproofs at home, replaced by an extra pannier of suncream. However, in practice we were reaching for the ponchos more than expected and precipitation was an often occurence. The rain fell in France, we got soaked in Switzerland, and really rather damp in Romania. When the sun came out it never lasted for as long as we hoped. It felt that whenever we starting turning the pedals again, raindrops starting appearing on the tarmac. This article on The Times website, provides some further insight on the phenomena that was last "summer's" weather and also the Church of England's stance.