Saving The Planet

Diary of An Elderly English Woman:Day Two

“Apothecary”. What an evocative word! I was  mulling over  it awaiting my flu jab in the pharmacy in Ledbury yesterday. 

Imagine a wizened fellow of indeterminate age, distilling belladonna for the beautiful ladies, and extracting mercury for the gentlemen with the pox that had succumbed to more than their charms. I picture Merlin, only crazy, as a consequence of the mercury fumes. 

I came close to flirting with the handsome Nigerian pharmacist:: Twenty-third of October, 1950,” I purred as he inquired of my birthdate to fill in (out) the obligatory form.

“Yes! I know!I don’t look a day over thirty!” 

This was so ridiculous we both laughed. 

I enjoy making people laugh. 

In, jabbed, out. Walk up the hill to the Sue Ryder Shop ( Thrift Store) for an item I’d spotted on the way down.

“I’ll take this off your hands, “ I said, handing over a gaudy insulated picnic tote, on wheels,  to the volunteer womanning the till.

“£3 please,” she replies, handing over one of those second-generation cash machines that require a pin. Deja-vu kicked in with a moment of panic, but fortunately, this time, I remembered. 

I am now the triumphant owner of a vital piece of kit that is an essential tool in my new regime. 

Confused? I’ll explain. I am Doing My Bit ( as my grandparents would say during the Second World War) to Save the Planet. I am Walking To The Shops. 

This is no great sacrifice, per se, as the Co-op is less than half a mile away, but my Noble Purpose on arrival, is to collect a pre-ordered bag full of discounted food that had reached its use-by and was headed for the bin. It’s now headed for my newly acquired picnic tote on wheels for the drag up the Hartpury Rd and supper. 

Him Indoors and I are hooked. You don’t know what’s IN the bag until you open it, so every day it’s like winning the lottery! OK, so you might not, as a rule,  buy a plant-based Cornish Pasty, but it tasted good, as did the apple pie, and the parsnips, so no complaints. 

I got my steps in, fed us both for £3.39p AND according to the App, saved 1.7kg of CO2 :more if you count the walk. 

Win-win-win.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/too-good-to-go-end-food-waste/id1060683933

No Room At The Inn

UPDATE: Funding was withdrawn from this centre some time ago. The building is now integrated into an expensive facility for rich old people. The homeless are back on the streets.

Looks empty doesn't it? The New Pilot Inn closed some time ago. I used to frequent it, and I still do, though these days in it's new incarnation as a refuge centre for the homeless and street people. They call it 'The Vaughn Centre ' now, and it does good work as the centre for the BRILLIANT Homeless Healthcare Team and GEAR, the Homeless charity that offers facilities for aforementioned fellow-citizens down on their luck.

My mum and dad used to play darts here. In my (very) late teens, I used to accompany them on match days, and marvel at how my father could hit the bullseye and calculate any combination of the number 301 in seconds. Mum, not so good at either, but a worthy member of the team anyway. I was never good enough to play in the team, but could occasionally hit the board ...

Two weeks ago, I learned from my friend Tony Hipkins, who majors in holding Gloucestershire County Council to account for its provision for vulnerable people, emailed to say that GEAR had no funding to open the Vaughn Centre at Christmas this year. I shall find out why, in due course, to see if a fuss needs to be made about it, but in the meantime there is some cash to raise. £200, in fact.

Abigail and I went to church this morning. Not together, because she goes with with her mum and dad. When I arrived she was crying becauss she'd lobbed her pet dinosaur across the aisle and hit somebody. When mummy had requested she desist from such behaviour, Abigail took offence and started to howl. She's my granddaughter, and I love her to bits, but I know mummy is right, so Abs just has to get over it without sympathy from grandma.

Father Aidan gave me permission to make an appeal for a second collection for GEAR and Christmas, and I was preoccupied throughout Mass as I wondered what I was going to say: the "Feed The World" angle having already been taken.

Abigail returns from Little Church with an activity book all about Advent. "Look grandma!" She announces, loudly, because that's her volume setting, "There 's no room in the inn!"

A light goes on in my brain.

"I'm not sure of what I'm going to say, because this is so close to my heart, (and here I tear up) but Abigail has just reminded me of when I was a teenager and used to go with my mum and dad to play darts at The New Pilot Inn in Gloucester, which is now a refuge for the homeless, and which can't open at Christmas this year because it has no money. Honestly, if the church can't open the inn door to the lonely and the lost at Christmas, we might just as well pack up and go home... " 

Not sure how I ended up, but the result was a collection that raised far more than £200

That's Christmas sorted, now let's see what can be done for the new year ...