Dreaming of Freedom

Finally, after over a year of avoiding hairdressers and all things related, I braved the fear of having my locks tampered with and went to Al Couture and all my fears melted away in the hands of such professionals. I admit I usually only go to hairdressers who charge a little and cut off a lot, so it was a bit of a shock to be watered with cappuccinos, detangled, trimmed, blow-dried and curled until I didn’t recognise myself. I had to spend the walk home admiring myself in shiny surfaces and hoping I bump into people I knew so they wouldn’t recognise me.

Anyone out there nervous and in need of a haircut should definitely head to Benet Street in Cambridge and deliver yourself into the hands of Al and his team.

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The Clipper Stad Amsterdam is leaving port soon and departing on a journey that follows the path of the Beagle to the Galapagos Islands. Find out more here.

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Friday was the last night of the town bumps and so I braved the rain to go out and cycle up and down the towpath supporting the race. It really is the best kind of fun. Mum and me cycled down the Baits Bite Lock assessing which team we thought was the best and then when the four minute gun went off we’d position ourselves alongside them and wait for the one minute gun and then the start. There is the sound of splashing oars, cheering supporters and the crunch of gravel underneath bicycle tyres as you speed up the path. The speed and the excitement are thrilling. It’s the best night out I’ve had for ages!

On Saturday the sun came out so we cycle down the towpath to Milton, on to Landbeach and then to Waterbeach in search of Emmaus a community for homeless people. They have a large shop there selling all sorts of recycled things and furniture. They even have new pine furniture they make there. If you’ve got stuff you’d like to donate to them you can drop it off or ask for it to be picked up. We just happened to be there for the Solidarity Sale for Emmaus International so everything was half price and we had great fun bargain hunting.
We cycled back picking plums and munching them. There are lots of plum and apple trees and apples seem to be very early this year. We’re already enjoyed plums and custard several times as well as blackberry and apple crumble this year and we now have a freezer stuffed full of plums that should last us a good few weeks.

I then popped along to the Stop The War picnic on Lammas Land near the play area before calling it a day and having an early night.

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Yesterday morning I sat on the balcony in the glorious sunshine munching English muffins and butter and watching the myriad of rowers battle their way up and downstream. To compete the illusion of a life of idleness I donned a massive straw hat and sipped a cool drink. This is the life. When I finally torn myself away from the balcony I went to see an exhibition by Katy Bailey at The Pumping Station on Cheddars Lane. There were some artists exhibiting as well as some photos up. It was great nipping between bits of old machines to squint at the pictures.
I then cycled into town over Midsummer Common to get to Parkers Piece so I could help out on the Cycling Campaign stall. Wandering around I also met the Humanist Society and have resolved to go along to some of their events and find out what they’re like. To finish the day off I met up with Andy and sat on the wall outside King’s College chatting about life, politics and other such great matters!

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I went to see the fireworks last night on Parker’s Piece. It wasn’t a massive display but it was nice. Afterwards Andy and I wandered the cute little streets of Cambridge which were surprisingly busy. After a much needed lie in today I went into the center to the Sedgwick Museum to see Pif-Paf perform their short play Under The Floorboards which was all about important 19th century figures in Geology and what they discovered that contributed to our understanding of geology and the formation of the earth. They ended the play by telling us we were entering an era of human made geology which left a million questions buzzing in all our heads.

Andy and I spent the rest of the day buying him a bike on the ‘bike to work scheme’. It sounds like a great idea - people are encouraged to ride bikes to work and the money to buy your bike is taken out of your wages and you benefit by not paying tax or national insurance on it. The downside is that your employer gets to decide where you can get your bike and Halfords isn’t a great choice. Most of the customers in the bike department were clutching their bike to work vouchers with a sort of manic desperation. I was left undecided as to whether they really did need a tax break on their bikes or they just wanted it because it seemed like a really good higher purchase scheme. Perhaps the air of desperation was due to being in Halfords which is possibly the worst place to buy a bike from. I am convinced that the lack of choice of where you buy your bike from is a major drawback of this scheme. Halfords has an expensive and unimpressive range of bikes, it was chronically understaffed and the staff seemed to have a total lack of passion about bikes. Give me a little bike shop any day, where people know what they are talking about and can offer you real and valuable advice.

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I have been back in England now for over a week and I am still feeling a little out of my element. I caught up with Andy at the Maypole on Friday night and now have no illusions that it’s much cheaper to drink alcohol in England.

Yesterday I went into the centre and visited useful and exciting places such as the tourist information. The tourist info is a bit run down and depressing here and doesn’t not even supply tourists with free maps of the city - it’s probably easier to check them out online and print out a map of the city yourself.

I was fully intending to go and see if Cambridge Cycling Campaign had their stall outside the Guildhall yesterday but the morning slipped past me before I had a moment to grab it - so that’s a little job for next Saturday.

Of all of the heartwarming things this week my favourite is that Waitrose let you use bike trailers for free. I am definitely going to try it out and see if it’s as good as it sounds.

And all my internet search led my to a great environmental blog based in Cambridge.

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We started the weekend with a trip round Gothenburg with the Critical Mass. There is now a new video of the ride up. Although there was only eleven of us, we remain optimistic that more will join each ride. The next ride is on 26 June 2009, meeting at Gustaf Adolfs Torg at 18.00.

The weather was amazingly hot over the weekend and Monday. On Sunday I wandered round Slottskogen failing to find Karin and her music quiz possy but managing to get a bit of sun. On Monday it was back to work but in between I have mainly found reasons to sit in Star Cups drinking beverages. On Monday I managed to convince K to hang out there with me and yesterday Cheri and I spent a pleasant hour or so there people watching and sipping English Breakfast tea.

Today after a few pleasant hours with Cheri in the centre of Gothenburg, I went for a very pleasant walk with Karin and Ted and paid a visit to the shop near the habour which sells lost property found on the trains. We spent the evening chatting and munching popcorn which was very satisfying.

The bookclub now has a blog all set up and ready to go - so now you can all read the books and comment on them even if you can’t come to one of our meetings.

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The Greenpeace ship, The Rainbow Warrior, is in town. They are here to prevent deep sea trawling as it damages the fragile ocean floor and marine life there. GT have an article up entitled A Celebrity In Town. A few pictures have been posted up of the ship arriving and being docked here at the habour.

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I was in Cambridge over the weekend and got to see some of the celebrations for the 800 year anniversary of the university. On Saturday night there was a wonderful light show projected on to the Senate House with illustrations by Quentin Blake. On Sunday morning Tim and I wandered to the Fitzwilliam to see the The Chatto Quartet playing Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev’s Piano Quartet in E major in the Gallery there. It was amazing listening to such lovely music surrounded by fabulous art.

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While the ‘first credit crunch riots’ in Greece, and ‘mobs causing violent scenes in Italy, Spain, Russia, Denmark and Turkey’ dotted web news this week - life in Sweden continues to be peaceful. The recession seems to be hitting hard at the poorest members of society - so perhaps we will see more of this upheaval in the next year. Let’s hope that something constructive and new comes out of it - perhaps an economic system focused holistically on creating a pleasant world rather than one based on idea that everything is a commodity and continual profit can be made. I’m pretty sure if we reconstructed the ‘way we do business’ we could make real inroads in stopping climate change, creating something more akin to an equal society, as well as actually working to fulfill human needs rather than creating more of them. Ahh… dreaming of a better world.

It was gratifying to find out that the founder of Lush financially supports climate change protesters. Although sad that he himself didn’t just get out there and do something himself rather than allowing other people to build up criminal records for themselves. Perhaps he could look into investing some of that money into more viable forms of transport…

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