#SmallSteps week 7 and why pay twice for water?

If you're new to this theme, I am blogging a series of Monday posts about SmallSteps lifestyle changes I think might help our disUnited Kingdom communities to get through the post-Brexit turmoil ahead. You can read the first post here. Let's at least keep our towns and communities afloat and vibrant whatever the politicians decide for the country as a whole.

I've decided to keep a track of my attempts to practice what I preach! My five SmallSteps are:

1) to CheckTheLabel and BuyBritish whenever possible
2) to ShopLocal and spend at least £5 each week in independent local shops
3) to eat healthily and walk or cycle short distances
4) not to use self-service checkouts or Pay At Pump
5) to reduce food waste completely

So how did I do this week?

We bought a huge BuyBritish beanbag chair from Dunelm. It's brown faux leather with a soft suedy-corduroy upper and looks smart amid our moving in chaos - more about that tomorrow! Foodwise, we chose BuyBritish Wookey Hole Cheddar which is fantastically strong so great for grating into sauces, and a Free Range chicken which did initially seem expensive at over £7 but will do for three meals so works out pretty economically.

Muffins cafe, East Hoathly 

My ShopLocal spend this week is about £40, a fiver of which we spent at Drowers, the good hardware shop in St Marychurch, on nails and fixings to hang pictures and on a set of small caster cups. The remaining £35 was actually spent back in Sussex at a lovely little cafe-boutique called Muffins. It's in East Hoathly, near the home of friends who kindly put up with us put us up for a couple of days. Thanks Andy & Barbara! Muffins do good lunches - I thoroughly enjoyed my Deep Fried Brie with a huge green salad - and the cakes looked delicious too although I didn't have any room left to try one.

We have been making sure to go walking for at least 45 minutes everyday except for yesterday when Dave had his first tennis session in Torquay and I went for my first jog in months. Retrieving the bathroom scales from storage is a wonderful fitness incentive!


On a sort of fitness note, this week I want to talk about water, particularly the buying of millions of small bottles of mineral water which we spend a fortune on in Britain every year even though we already pay to have perfectly good water straight from our taps! I've happily bought into the 'wisdom' that I must carry a bottle of water when exercising and walking, but I don't like the idea of buying and discarding a plastic bottle every day or of supporting mega corporations who are effectively making water a luxury commodity instead of a basic right. This video from Story Of Stuff helped to make up my mind:

I was delighted to see a special filtered water tap on the kitchen sink in our new flat although a glance at the works underneath revealed that the filter system might not have been cleaned out in while! I have also rediscovered my old runners' water bottle so I am all set up to never buy bottled water again. If you don't have a long lasting bottle already, shops like Go Outdoors and All Outdoor have wide selections at good prices although I don't know where the products come from. Alternatively, you can BuyBritish and support our struggling steel industry by getting a Glogg bottle from Sheffield. Prices start at £8.50 for an elegant 500ml stainless steel bottle so it won't break the bank! Glogg also produce stainless steel pint cups - as seen at Glastonbury - which are ideal for festivals and picnics. Check out the full range in their video below:

SmallSteps will be taking a two week break, returning in September when I will be looking at where my electricity and gas come from. In the meantime, feel welcome to shout out your favourite / your own BuyBritish and ShopLocal businesses in the Comments. Make sure to say in which town they are so other nearby folks will know to look out for them!

Finally I have made a blog badge from my SmallSteps logo image. If you would like to join in this Monday (or any day) blog theme, feel welcome to display the badge and let me know about your post so we can link up.

SmallSteps @ Stephanie Jane

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A festival weekend - Arlington Gets Cajun & Wealden Food Festival

Strum n Bass (n Bash)
at Arlington Goes Cajun 

We're trying to make the most of the small festival opportunities open to us during our stay in Sussex - that's the festivals which are small, not the opportunities! You might already have read about our trips to Broadstock in Crowhurst and to Eastbourne Feastival? This weekend just gone we stayed local to our current Hailsham campsite but still managed to take in Arlington Gets Cajun on the Saturday evening and Wealden Food and Wine Festival on Sunday afternoon.

Arlington Gets Cajun is essentially a village affair which raises much needed funds for the MS Society, but Dave and I have supported the event several times now because Dave has been asked to play guitar as a guest with the Cajun Dawgs. You can see him on the right of the photo below, in the red t-shirt. The Dawgs were the last of four great musical acts this year preceded by blues singer Dave Beckett, duo Strum n Bass featuring Bash, and Rough Chowder. I think my highlight was probably Rough Chowder who played a fabulous set.

Three Dawgs plus Dave 

This year Arlington Gets Cajun included an art show in the village hall together with cake sales and pre-loved books, and a gazebo outside shaded the BBQ run in aid of local hospice Demelza. I bought a couple of gorgeous cards by artist Julia Hawker but I won't show them here because I know their future recipients read this blog! Of course I couldn't resist the books although I did only get two. I was disappointed with my BBQ vegeburger which, even with onions and cheese, was bland. However, the Arlington Gets Cajun event was another opportunity to wear a new-to-me vivid pink dress I bought for the Eversley wedding and that came from Hailsham's Demelza shop!

Justin and the Argonauts
at Wealden Food and Wine Festival 

After lots of dancing the night before, I wasn't sure I would have enough energy for the Wealden Food and Wine Festival. Fortunately it didn't require a lot of effort! We went to the inaugural event in 2014, but missed last year's which was apparently at a different venue and didn't have as much atmosphere. This year, the festival returned to English Heritage's Pevensey Castle which meant that English Heritage Members could get in free. The £2 entry fee for the rest of us was very reasonable though, especially as it included a choice of a reusable commemorative cup or cloth tote bag. The Park and Ride from Stone Cross Nursery was very convenient for us and expertly stewarded by 1st Hellingly Scouts who took the opportunity to fundraise for their upcoming jamboree! Other folks rode in on vintage bicycles as part of a Bexhill Classic Cycle Group organised ride.

We arrived in time to hear Pocketsize play beautifully (Pocketsize are also playing at Eastbourne's Underground Theatre tonight) and also thoroughly enjoyed discovering Justin And The Argonauts whom we hadn't heard before. Their music is great fun and I would love to see them play again. Also perfect sunny afternoon music was Helen Sharp And The Soulshine Band. We had seen Helen in an acoustic bluesy trio at Broadstock, now she was a disco diva with a very funky sound!

Vintage penny farthings
from Bexhill Classic Cycle Group 

Between sessions of enjoying the music we did, of course, get to try and buy the food and drink on offer too! Our luch was from Indian street food stall Simply Veg where we both chose vegan foods that we had never had before. I ate Bhel which is a kind of puffed rice salad and Dave had Patra which was made from Colocasia. Downsview Farmhouse ice cream made for a welcome cooling dessert and I am actually wishing I had more right now. It's stiflingly hot today! Greenway Fruit Farm was selling the most delicious cherries I think I have ever tasted and I tried a couple of sparkling wines from Bluebell Vineyard as I was hoping one might be good for a forthcoming gift. Stone Cross Windmill had a stall selling their own wholemeal flour which I've bought before and been impressed with. It's a good strong bread flour. Then we ended our day at Mini Mouthfuls where we chose four 100g sticks of fudge for the price of three. What's not to like about that?! Of our Chocolate Orange, Chocolate Ginger, Cherry Bakewell and Banoffee selection I think the Banoffee was my favourite.

Now I just have to hope that Torbay can put on similarly good events to get us through August and beyond!

A festival weekend - Feastival Sunday at Eastbourne

Decisions ... 

What a difference a day makes! I am so glad that Eastbourne's Feastival this weekend just gone wasn't drenched in the constant rain we had overnight and this morning. I wonder how much of a quagmire Princes Park is right now?

Considering this was only the second occurence of Feastival, the organisers put on a great display with dozens of stalls cooking up foods from all over the world to appeal to any palate. The website lists Spanish, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, French, American, Mexican, Italian, English, Eastern European, Greek, African, Portuguese and Turkish food on offer. We had to walk right around the field twice just to make up our minds what to have for lunch! Considering the current migration hysteria which has taken over Thursday's vote, it was great to see such a positive illustration of a benefit of immigration to Britain.

I chose a vegetarian Yakisoba noodles from Yoshi's

Decisions ... 

Catering which was a tasty and filling mix of fried Japanese ramen noodles with cabbage, carrots and other vegetables, topped with dried seaweed and a ginger and soy sauce. Dave chose beautifully slow cooked Hogget Verdi (lamb) from Forgotten Cuts Co. The meat was served with chips which soaked up the delicious juices, but did go cold a bit too quickly in that chilly seafront wind. For afters we shared a tub of Churros And Chocolate from Pepe's and sat back on the grass to enjoy the music in the sunshine. I did briefly wish we had festival chairs like we borrowed for Broadstock on Saturday, but the ground wasn't too bad.

On the downside, while the bands we heard were good, we

Decisions ... 

both thought that it would have been nice if some cultural diversity had been offered through the music too instead of the all white, all male line-up we saw. Perhaps it had been more varied on the Saturday?

Our soporific sunshine began to cloud over in the late afternoon and instead of digging more clothing layers out of the car (£3 for all day car parking) we decided to stay to the end of Frankie Says and then call it a day. We didn't manage to get away easily though because I spotted the Yummy Things Bakery stall had reduced the last of their chocolate brownie slices to a frankly unrefusable 50p each. We snapped up a Chilli And Lime and a Salted Caramel brownie slice to take away and both were very good.

Decisions ... 

A festival weekend - Broadstock Saturday at Crowhurst

Continuing our run of busy weekends, we are cramming two festivals into this one! Yesterday we were fortunate to have been invited to join our friends Steve and Frances at a fabulous little festival local to their village of Crowhurst, near Hastings in East Sussex. Broadstock Music Festival has been running for several years now, with a brief hiatus last year, and takes place in the beautiful grounds of Broadwood. Limited to just 300 adult tickets, it's a perfect size of music festival for me and its proceeds are reinvested back into the village. There is a camping field, children's activities including a very good face painter, one music stage and two food options - pizza or cupcakes!

Before I mention the music, I will say thank you to

The Pizza Laundry 

everyone who baked cakes and womanned the refreshments stall. I should have taken a photo of the selection early in the day because it was certainly an enticing display! I thought the pizzas were tasty too and was glad to see the van doing a steady trade. If you spot this Pizza Laundry van anywhere, do give them a try! They really do have a wood fired oven in there and I was impressed with our very thin crust red onion, pine nut, mozzarella and basil pizza. I did mean to find out why the Pizza Laundry name, but forgot to go back and read the sign. If anyone knows, please Comment!

The main event for me was, of course, the music and,

Sharpe And Larsson at Broadstock 

although we only stayed until about half past seven rather than until the death at ten, we got talented musicians and a well-thought through variety. I was pleased to finally meet and hear local guitarist Hratch. He and Dave played together in pre-me days and we both loved his set. Entirely new to us were bluesy trio Sharpe And Larsson and this was perfect laid-back music for a sunny festival afternoon! If you liked their sound as much as I did, further dates are on Helen Sharpe's Facebook page and they are playing at a jazz breakfast in Crowhurst sometime in October. I'm not sure if we will be back this way again then or not.

Brief mentions also to two other sets that particularly caught my ear: we only got to hear Son Of Kirk as a duo instead of their usual four piece, but I loved their sound and lyrics and we tracked them down online when we got home to experience the full sound with cello. Love cello! My other favourites were Tunbridge Wells-based Island Cassettes with their fun indie/worldbeat music which reminded me a little of Graceland-era Paul Simon.

Huge thanks to everyone who made this festival happen. I'll finish with a few YouTubes so you can hear the great music too!

Views From Bridges part two - walking Dartmoor from Lustleigh

For the second part of my Views From Bridges post pairing

The old Clam Bridge viewed from the new 

I am turning away from the superb National Theatre production and, instead, talking about actual bridges over which we crossed during our second Dartmoor walk of this season. We chose Number 18: Lustleigh And Becky Falls in our brilliant new Walk Dartmoor book. This walk takes in several pretty villages and hamlets as well as woodland paths and babbling brooks so it was a complete change of scene from our first walk last week.

Beginning by trying to find somewhere to park in the

Lustleigh sheep! 

gorgeous village of Lustleigh - we got lucky with a spot by the church - we were a little disappointed to see that the recommended tea rooms are closed down at the moment. Apparently the owners are retiring so the business is up for sale (and with the same estate agent, Bettesworths, as is selling a furniture shop we had wanted to visit in Newton Abbot). As it turned out, we weren't back in time to indulge in Afternoon Tea anyway! I liked these painted sheep by the church although I am not sure what the reason for their decoration was.

Setting off through a wonderful orchard which is now

Lustleigh May Queens' chair 

recreational space for the village, we passed by the May Queens' throne. The stone chair was designed by Doug Cooper and carved from local Blackingstone Quarry granite by Warren Pappas. It sits is atop a large boulder engraved with the names of all Lustleigh's May Queens from Vivienne Jenkin in 1968 to Abigail Carroll in 2015 and apparently a previous rock has names going back to 1905. The chair was still decorated with this year's May Day flowers, only slightly wilted, so I expect this year's queen, Talia Sullivan, will be immortalised there soon too.

The woodlands around this part of Dartmoor are beautiful,

Woodland near Lustleigh 

especially at this time of year when they are carpeted with bluebells. We saw both blue and white bluebells as we descended from Lustleigh and also pretty two-toned pink purslane flowers. This walk took in a variety of woodland areas with different trees dominating. Some were more open like the picture here, others very overgrown or, like Becky Falls Park, strewn with mossy boulders. The signposting is generally very good so we could often dispense with our book and Ordnance Survey map between waypoints. It was beautifully peaceful with just distant birdsong often the only sounds and we hardly saw any other walkers. We did step aside for two mad mountainbikers and Dave got a comment on his last-year-birthday-present t-shirt:

Our book had mentioned the authors 'gingerly crossing' the

The new bridge 

River Bovey at Clam Bridge and Dave had wondered whether this might be a bridge too far for my vertigo. The old bridge is pictured in the first photo at the top of this post and I think I would have been ok, if nervous. However that slender crossing is now closed and barricaded at each end for safety reasons. We learned that some locals aren't very happy about this even though there is now a new £35,000 bridge right alongside, because it doesn't have the historical significance (or adventure factor) of the original.

Once over the bridge, we continued on to the famous waterfall at Becky Falls. Our route followed a public footpath through the privately owned land and we did catch sight of the brook tumbling, but in order to get good views of the waterfall you need to buy a ticket to the park. Having been so impressed with High Force and Low Force last year we aren't sure yet if we will splash out on Becky Falls too.

Finally, steep climbs up from Hisley Bridge towards Hisley

itself gave us long views out over Lustleigh Cleave and Trendlebere Down. The bridge is an old stone packhorse bridge and has a lovely sense of timelessness to it.

We took quite a bit longer than our book suggested for this walk - 3 1/2 hours as opposed to their 2 1/2. We are putting this down to a combination of too much time spent pointing at things and taking photographs, and to being a tad out of condition for the uphill bits! It's an excellent walk though and we were very happy to have been guided along this route past sights that we probably wouldn't otherwise have found. We finished up with a spot of good luck too: we just got into the village shop as the church clock was striking six so were able to buy ourselves each a delicious and well-earned ice cream before they closed up for the day.

Museu d'Art Modern Tarragona and a Carnaval firework finale

We had lightly researched Tarragona's indoor attractions

Self portrait by Salvador Martorell 

prior to our visit expecting, at some point, to be driven undercover by the forecast winds and rain. As it turned out this preparation was almost completely unnecessary so we are still pretty much none the wiser about the city's Roman heritage. Dave's daughters, visiting from England, were keen make enjoying the sunshine a priority and we had already explored fabulous sites in Nimes and Arles late last year. However, we did overlook the ruined amphitheatre with its ocean backdrop and lots of solid Roman walls can be viewed simply by walking around the streets. The photograph below shows two column segments with Roman inscriptions and a Hebrew-inscribed tombstone, all of which had been embedded into a relatively modern wall of the Antiga Casa del Dega. In other places, historical ruins were separated from streets only by wire fencing so we could peer past feral cat gangs to admire towers and arches.

Roman inscriptions and a Hebrew tombstone 

One museum I definitely didn't want to miss though was

Maria, La Gitana by Julio Antonio 

the Museu d'Art Modern Tarragona (MAMT). Established in its present location in 1976, MAMT's collections include a large number of bronzes by sculptor Julio Antonio, a huge Miro tapestry and works by Lluis Saumells (a director at MAMT whose public work Thales we had viewed the day before). Several rooms were taken up with a temporary Rafael Bartolozzi exhibition with which, to be honest, I was rather underwhelmed! I loved the detail and expression in the Julio Antonio sculptures though. My favourite of his works, pictured here, is entitled Maria, La Gitana and was created in 1906. The Salvador Martorell self portrait pictured at the top of this post was great fun and I would like to find more of his work in the future.

Joan Miro tapestry at MAMT 

Joan Miro's tapestry was much larger than the example we saw in Montroig and this one was actually created during his lifetime. Miro had given a painting in the same design, in lieu of payment, to a young doctor who had treated his daughter after she was hit by a train in Montroig. That painting inspired Miro to embark on his then-new artistic direction commissioning the young artist Josep Royo to create tapestries of striking Miro designs.

Of the modern works at MAMT, I especially liked the

Homenatge a Julio Antonio
by Francesc Angles 

relaxed style of Homenatge a Julio Antonio by Francesc Angles, created in 1995. Angles is another artist whose public work we had already seen outdoors in Tarragona - he sculpted Als Castellers.

If you visit MAMT too, be sure to pay attention to the building's interior as well as to the artworks. There are some beautifully decorated niches and ceilings, classically white painted, but with interesting details.

After this afternoon of serious culture, our evening was completely different. The last event of Carnaval was a firework display with a difference in the Plaza del Rey. This enclosed square was a fabulous venue for the well-choreographed madness! People dressed up as devils and demons skipped around with whirling fireworks held over their heads - scattering sparks everywhere which an eerie banshee wailing sound. Troops of drummers beat out primeval rhythms and four large costumes of mythical beasts - a bull, a griffin and two dragons - were each worn by a man who made them dance. The creatures were also loaded with fireworks that sprayed or spun sparks high into the air. Once the procession of these demons and creatures had entered the square, their fireworks were repeated reloaded so they could take turns being centre stage. I noticed that the drummer troops were each associated with a beast. They would start up their rhythm, then speed up when all the beast's fireworks were alight and firing, and slow down again once all the fireworks had burnt out. I guess this was a signal to the man within the costume that he could safely return to his 'team' for reloading. It was all an incredible spectacle!

We LOVE Tarragona Carnaval!

It's been a fabulous day today! We spent most of the day

Tarragona Carnaval 2016 

walking the city and I will blog about its wonderful street art and sculpture tomorrow. However tonight has been all about the Carnival parade. Sunday evening has the Best of the Best parade which consisted of tractor-drawn decorated floats blasting out deafeningly loud Spanish and Cuban music, with a few amazingly costumed dancers on each float. Then following each float were dozens more dancers performing choreographed routines as they slowly progressed through the streets. The rhythms were infectious and I was soon wishing I was dressed up and dancing along with them.

My phone wasn't really up to the job, but here's a selection of its photographs to give you a flavour of the celebrations.

I found someone has already uploaded videos of tonight's parade to YouTube. There's several, each showing a different group, so I will just include this one and you can click through to watch more if you want!

Endeavour Press virtual Historical Fiction Festival

I am excited to already be signed up for a Historical Fiction

Festival with a difference! Organised by Endeavour Press who are exclusively a digital book publishers, this virtual Festival will take place online thereby allowing me to get involved regardless of whereabouts in Europe I will actually be at the time. What a brilliant idea!

The dates for your diary are the 18th to the 22nd April 2016 and tickets are already 'on sale' (they're free!) via the Festival's own website. Over thirty authors have signed up so there will be lots of variety across the historical genre.

Best of all, as well author interviews, live Q and A sessions and writing tips, Endeavour Press will be running competitions and giving away free books.

FREE BOOKS!!

Stay updated by following @Hist_Fest on Twitter
and go get your ticket today!


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A windy weekend in Westham

We're back down south again now having had just as good a journey back from Norfolk as

Optimistic ducks at Fairfields Farm campsite 

going up. Fortunately the traffic was fairly light everywhere except around the M25 but even there we kept moving at a good pace. I did forget to get into a middle lane for the Dartford bridge crossing so ended up on the far left, able to see exactly how high up we were, and not loving it at all. Gripping the steering wheel, looking only straight ahead and underbreath mantra chanting got us over safely. At least the bridge is considerably shorter than the road to Sopalmo.

Our current campsite for this week is Fairfields Farm, a nice green space with open pitches and a good little shop. We continued our Buy Local spree with some of their Pork, Apple and Cider burgers which went nicely with more of our Norfolk cabbage last night. On the (presumably) non-edible side, there is a flock of about a dozen ducks here that route march around all the pitches each morning, peering in doorways in the hope of sharing breakfasts! We have also seen a few pied wagtails and the obligatory seagull. Otherwise, not much in the way of wildlife worth observing - unless I include the slender guy on the next door pitch who was sunbathing naked for most of Saturday afternoon. He and his partner packed up and left this morning though so the remaining scenery is that much the poorer!

Dave and I went for a stroll that became a walk early yesterday evening. We avoided the cycle race earlier in the day as our friend Marta visited, (Hi Marta!). Walking through the Pevensey Castle grounds was interesting as the space looked so much smaller without all the Food and Wine Festival stalls of a couple of weekends ago. While I remember to mention it, we tried the Kush Cuisine spice blends I bought there. Chicken marinated in the Bajan Fish Spice for a few hours has a lovely rich flavour and isn't too chili hot for Dave. However, our hour-and-a-half wandering was seriously put to shame by the fantastic achievement of Dave's daughter, Carrie. She walked 30 miles in eleven hours along the Thames Path yesterday, all to raise money for The Eve Appeal. Well done Caz! If anyone else wants to make a donation to this important charity, her team's JustGiving page is here.

We're going to stay here until Wednesday when our boat sails to St Malo. The house sale is now completely completed and the final transfers all went far more smoothly than the previous few months - thank goodness. So we are now essentially rootless for a while which is an interesting thought to muse over. I'm still actually getting used to the idea but having the whole of driveable Europe open to us is tremendously exciting!

Going for a vintage bus ride, discovering exotic foods and getting to see Bailey again

It has certainly been a weird few weeks. We are STILL waiting for our conveyancer to

Vintage bus Park and Ride to
Pevensey Food and Wine Fair 

exchange contracts - it was going to be last Tuesday, but nothing had happened by Friday so we're not moving out tomorrow after all. Maybe next Monday ... ? It is so frustrating! If you are planning to move house into or away from the Polegate area, do use Archer And Partners estate agents - they have been friendly and helpful. Unfortunately I cannot offer anything like such a strong recommendation for Hobson and Latham conveyancers.

We have done pretty well catching up with people before leaving though, some deliberately and some by lucky coincidence. A lovely evening was spent with Linda at Hailsham's Chapter 12 wine bar on Wednesday. We only meant to have a drink or two after work, but much nattering later, we'd missed dinner and were still in situ. Fortunately they serve delicious tiffin slices!

Friday night was spent in Eastbourne for a farewell dinner with the Procurement Team, my current temp contract. We went to Toreros on Terminus Road for an appropriately Spanish themed tapas meal. I was touched that they all went to such effort!

Yesterday, we treated ourselves to an afternoon out at the inaugural Pevensey Food and Wine Festival. Using the Park and Ride got us two journeys on the above pictured vintage bus. Now I know there are many buses considerably older, but this is just the sort that was trundling around Nevill Estate in Lewes where I grew up so it brought back memories to ride it again. The Festival was pretty busy and we spent an hour or so chatting with the Cajun Dawgs who were the opening band. I enjoyed going round the varied food stalls and bought a walnut sourdough loaf from Judges Bakery of Hastings, and an excellent Jamaican Goat pie from Brambletigh. Kush Cuisine had a stall there too and I've got a couple of jars of interesting looking spice blends to take away with us - Bajan Fish Spice and Cocoa Spice Rub. The only stall that was obviously missing was one selling decent coffees and teas. There were multiple wineries and breweries but, as is so often the case, no luxury non-alcoholic beverages. Maybe next year?

Today we've been packing more boxes. There are 21 already and we thought we had gotten rid of most our stuff. Not so minimalist after all then! We cleared some space by taking a few boxes of bits to Bailey and checked that everything seemed ok for us to move in. Fingers crossed for next weekend.

I've been given a beetroot!

Which isn't something I get to say every day! Big thanks to Maisie-at-work for the gift from

her allotment. I'm looking forward to the eating of it in my salad lunches next week.

For anyone else who’s counting as well, I’m down to just ten working days to go already! I am a tiny bit torn as I’m enjoying Procurement and my colleagues seem to appreciate me. I got a lovely email earlier in the week from Alison-upstairs which really made my day: “Thanks so much for all your help Stephanie. I shall miss you when you go.” Alison is working on the Pevensey Food and Wine Festival and the Coast and Country Walking Festival, both of which look fun btw and we’re planning to be at the Food and Wine one on the Saturday. The Cajun Dawgs are playing around lunchtime!

Alison’s comment reminded me of one of the themes in Cmdr Chris Hadfield’s autobiography, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth. You might remember I listened to this on Audible a few months ago. He spoke of aiming to “be a zero” in any team situation; the options being to be a minus-one (causing more work than you do), to be a zero (neutral), or to be a plus-one (always positively contributing to the team). Obviously actually being a plus-one is the ideal, but Chris gives great examples of when his over-enthusiastically striving for this led to generally being a PITA to colleagues! Now he believes that aiming for zeroship is the most effective way to work and his explanation is inspiring. The best impressions can often be made without rocking the boat. Hopefully my colleagues will remember me as a zero too!