Homemade bread

A few weekends back my son and I made almond bear claws. We got the idea from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. We didn't have brioche dough or the frangipane that the recipe had requested for but the result was hmmmm. We loved the sugary coating on top and biting into the almonds.

The magician

Here's my son as the magician for the Halloween party at school today. He looks so much older now! Used my old black skirt (see below)

Linking up to http://threadingmyway.blogspot.com.au

Farms at Kranji

Popped over there with a friend a couple of weeks back. We went to a goat farm and a dragon fruit farm. The fruit farm was the best. We were rather worried about the goats' living conditions.

More details on how to get there: www.kranjicountryside.com/

Waste issues from a century ago

Yep, that's right, all the way from when most of us were not even born yet. The articles were featured in The Mercury (Hobart), Australia, and shows that the 3Rs were put into use then. I did notice that the word "recycle" wasn't used. Maybe it wasn't in their vocabulary back then :-)

You may be interested in another related post on noise complaints in the 1930s!

This is courtesy of http://www.resourcesnotwaste.org/


REFUSE DISPOSAL IN BERLIN
The Mercury (Hobart) - Wednesday 20 November 1907

"Also, as regards the dry refuse, new methods have been adopted, in this case by the Charlottenburg district [of the German capital, Berlin), which forms an independent municipality.

This new system is based upon dividi! ng the refuse into three classes, which has to be carried out by the in- habitants. The refuse is placed in three different receptacles, the first containing ashes, etc., the second kitchen offal, and the third all the rest, such as paper, rags metal, glass, wood, etc.


The receptacles in the yard are emptied three times a week, and carried away in carts,. which are so constructed that they do not cause any unpleasantness through dust, etc.
Refuse No. 1 is used for "filling-up purposes. The other two classes are sent by train to a"factory outside the town, where No. 3 refuse, by elevators, is carried up to the top of the factory; there powerful ventilators remove the dust whilst a number of women sort it as it passes along the tables, which shake the stuff forward; paper, rags, glass, metals, etc., are sorted out, the rest going direct to the boiler-house in order to be used for fuel. The paper etc, goes to various factories, and represents a considerab! le value; the price for a wagon-load of 10 tons of paper is £10; of old, tin boxes, £20; of rags from £60 to £120 per cart-load.

The food residue is turned into pigs' food at the factory, where it is first boiled for several hours, and after- wards mixed with bran, corn, etc. When ready it is pumped direct to the pig-sheds, which can accommodate 12,000 pigs, and which are very practically managed. The pig-feeding arrangement, however, seems to give some trouble, so an alteration may be necessary in the connection.

The arrangement is being worked by a private company, which receives an annual contribution from the corporation of one shilling and four pence per individual."

　
THE EXTRAVAGANT DUSTBIN - WHAT IS DONE AT BIRMINGHAM.
The Mercury (Hobart) - Tuesday 17 July 1917
Birmingham is methodically fighting a campaign against waste. A Refuse Disposal Department of the City Corporation has been set up, and has issued posters headed "Economy in Waste" appealing to the citizens to help the scheme; one panel of the poster sets forth:

WHAT THE CORPORATION ARE DOING.
By-products produced from house refuse reduce the city expenditure. Tin cans, etc., are stripped of their coating of tin, then pressed into billets to be melted and used again. The tin also recovered is very valuable. Waste paper is sorted, bundled, and sent to paper-makers to be remade into clean new paper, saving hundreds of tons of paper to the country in a year.
Manure for your gardens is made from the refuse of the meat and fish markets. Grease from waste meat is used for candle-making; also for lubricating purposes. Pig food and poultry, food is made from waste meat and butcher's refuse. Clinker, i.e. the remains of the refuse after cremation in the destructors, is used for making roads, garden paths, concrete, ! mortar, sewage, filter beds, etc. Concrete paving flags are also made from clinker.



The other half of the poster shows WHAT THE PUBLIC CAN DO.
Reduce the quantity of refuse to be removed by not putting the following into the dustbin :
Garden Refuse -Bury it in your garden, or, better still, burn it; the ashes are a valuable manure. In either case your garden will benefit.
Potato and fruit parings, and other vegetable waste, if clean, can be used for soups; are also valuable food for pigs and poultry, either your own or your neighbours. If not thus used, should be burnt on the kitchen fire,



Waste paper should be tied with string, and placed on the top of the dust-bin; or, if you have a large quantity, a post-card will bring a bag to your house and ensure collection. May also be taken to our depots (for prices see handbills). Cinders should be riddled from ashes, and used again on the fire. Slops, liquid refuse, and tea leaves must never be put in the dust-bin.
Housewives are reminded that by following the rules indicated they can help themselves, their city, and their country. It is added that the domestic refuse collected in the City of Birmingham exceeds 700 tons a day.



If every household reduced the refuse thrown into their dust-bin by one pound a day (only 7 pounds. a week), the reduction throughout the city would exceed 30,000 tons a year. This would make possible a saving of over £13,000 a year.


I found another version of this article (see below) which appeared much earlier in May 1907 in the British Medical Journal.

They make a comparison between the French and British housewives. According to this, the French housewife will make a "nourishing and agreeable vegetable soup from what her British sister throws away"! Well, obviously the French knew a thing or two about not wasting food!

Operation Noah's ARK Campaign

Here are Christians who are committed to the cause of stopping Climate Change. There are those who believe that the climate change is God's will and no one can do anything about it, while others think that we shld stop being self-centred and save God's creation.

I remember my earlier posting (a year ago!) that the Bible does teach us to respect nature and the animals. Somehow, we tend to have an anthropocentric view of things, but aren't Christians supposed to live life like Jesus - non-self centred and non-exploitive?

Reverse Vending Machine

Reverse vending machines have been imported into Singapore to boost recycling efforts. You put your recycleable waste and you get rewards in return. I'm not sure what sort of rewards, but I suppose the easiest would be cash. I remember drinking hot Vitasoy Soya milk in a glass bottle from 7-11 and depositing it at the 7-11 for 50HKcents, but now you would have to hunt for these vending machines. They sure would need to have a large network of them, but I suppose they would complement the existing recycling bins, only these won't be ransacked by the little old ladies. They are rather pricey though, ranging from between S$30,000 and S$60,000, but they've been around Europe for more than 3 decades so it must be worthwhile.

After thought - I was just thinking that the elderly who rummage thru the bins for recycleables are recycling too and they get cash in return. So, by having these machines, are we taking away their livelihood?

Electric Vehicles

Hong Kong has launched its first electric vehicle. Well, first HK-made one, anyway. MyCar is a collaboration between EuAuto Technology, a company funded by the Innovation and Technology Commission and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The car costs HK$90,000 (roughly SG$17,000). It costs HK$10 (~US$1.5; ~ SG$2) to fully charge and run 100km. Compare this with about HK$2.20 for a normal petrol seven-seater to run for about one kilometre .

In Singapore, the government is plugging SG$ 20 mil into an electric vehicle trial with EVs from Renault-Nissan (see pic from Renault-Nissan). Hopefully, EVs will take off commercially both here and in Hong Kong. I'm not sure how much an EV will cost in Singapore. I hope they will have lower COEs/road tax than normal cars., and maybe lower Electronic Road Pricing? Wishful thinking I guess :-p

Top photo: The Hong Kong Standard

A Day at Home

Was supposed to go to a friend's wedding tonight but was sick last night and need to rest at home. I spent the day getting my son's magician cape ready for Friday's trick or treating with the school. I used my old black skirt and my hubby's tie from our wedding. :-p

My son was very happy with the outcome and wanted to make everything disappear and reappear while he was violently waving his wand (twig he got from the park). I was getting very irritated and told him that I would make him disappear if he didn't stop shouting "disappear and reappear". That's when I realised he thought all this disappearing and reappearing was true cos he ended up crying and screaming "no, mummy, no!". Well, I need to talk to him about that.

Wanted to take a pic but the battery died down on the "after" take. Have to wait until tomorrow to post it! Good night.....

DIY paper from junk mail

If SingPost can't stop the junkmail getting into our letter boxes, we can try making our own paper out of them. But it would be nice if they could stop getting the junkmail thru though. I'm sick of getting all those flyers from housing agents! Ugh!

But personally, I think I would cut them up into square post it note size pieces and stick them together using duct tape. Picture later!

Solar Energy to Light Up Town Island (伙頭墳洲)

A solar project by China Light and Power (CLP) to the Operation Dawn drug treatment and rehabilitation center on Town Island in HK. It will supply electricity to existing facilities, such as the chapel, kitchen, garden and new hostels and visitors center. It is scheduled for completion by 2011.

It will replace the current use of 3 diesel generators. Definitely more environmentally friendly to use solar ! Can't imagine how anyone could stand the sound of the generators, and they're not reliable either.

Via: HK Standard

Inspiration

My son has suddenly decided that he doesn't want to be bat cat for Halloween anymore. He now wants to be a magician. That's fine by me, as I told him that his costume will be made from my worn out black skirt. But I was looking forward to making bat wings using clothes hangers (I wil put up a tute soon).

Originally he really wanted to be Spider man (what's with guys and Spidey?) and he even dragged me into me to my wardrobe to show me that I had a red top and so I could make it. Nope, I'm not willing to reconstruct my red top just yet :o)

I'm looking forward to my next project. I found some inspiration from Pamela Garrison . Don't you think the garlands are good way of using up all that scrap material? I think they would be good for decorating the house for Christmas, or even as an embellishment to jazz up clothes.

I also like her idea of decorating a laptop cover. My boring black one needs a makeover now!

Books and newspapers

This is a book-side-strap table using books. I guess you would have to use books that you don't want and will never ever read again as you have to glue the books together. Originally, I thought it would be good cos you can take the books out and then put them back in your "bookshelf"/table, but then that would be a bit messy, wouldn't it?

This actually reminds me of the Sunday Papers stool from Stovell Design in the UK. They've even got a tutorial on this one!

Cutting down food waste

I wonder how many times we have been enticed by the shops with the "buy one get one free" sticker on the product! I'm guilty of it. Sometimes the product is nearing its expiry date, or maybe one will be eaten while the other ends up forgotten in the kitchen cupboard or fridge. Come to think of it, how many of us have fallen for the buy 9 get 1 free chocolates or sweets at Changi Airport?! I think they should stop those :-)

In the UK, Tescos have launched a "Buy one now, get one free LATER" campaign (I've put the "later" in caps). This means you will get a voucher instead. Apparently the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, recently said that the buy one get one free deals were resulting in thousands of tonnes of food being thrown away. They actually threatened to introduce legislation to reduce waste if stores failed to act.

Other stores, such as Sainsbury's, are offering direct discounts on one item instead, while Asda no longer offer them.

According to the Times:

— 25 per cent of customers buy products on a promotional offer

— Critics claim stores often bully manufacturers into providing the “get-one-free” item for nothing, so are doubly rewarded with free produce and shoppers’ goodwill

— Stores are also said to encourage people to waste food by buying items they don’t need

— Brand owners have claimed the deals devalue their brands by making them look cheap

I think we can safely say that NTUC, Shop N Save and Cold Storage are all guilty of the "get one free" deals; aka buy 2 for $xxx.

ACRES Cruelty-Free pocket shopping guide

ACRES emailed me a copy of their ACRES Cruelty-Free pocket shopping guide!

Have you got yours yet? I think you can email them and ask for one!

World Toilet Day 19 Nov 2009

We might not think much of our bathrooms. In fact, I think we take them for granted when we take a shower or flush the toilet. It's time to think about improving sanitation access!

According to the World Toilet Organisation,

1. 2.5 billion people worldwide are without access to proper sanitation, which risks their health, strips their dignity, and kills 1.8 million people (e.g. diarrhoea) , mostly children, a year. (Note, according to UNICEF, Sanitation coverage is lowest in South Asia and in sub-Saharan Africa, where two-thirds of people do not have access to improved sanitation.)

2. the world's wealthiest people still have toilet problems - from unhygienic public toilets to sewage disposal that destroys our waterways.





In fact, the world is not on track to meeting the Millenium Development Goals for Sanitation:

I think the issue of water and land pollution is serious if people do not have access to proper proper sanitation.




Find a World Toilet Day event in your city >> http://worldtoiletday.com/events.html

PAth!

Do you know what Social Innovation is all about? It's about companies that are driven to help the under priviledged help themselves, but it's not just Corporate Social Responsibility. Organisations such as the big petroleum companies may have CSR but their main business still lies in oil (read, environmental damage), while others may have lost their focus (I'm thinking Body Shop and Burts Bees). For these businesses, balancing the books not the main concern, it's helping others.

Social Innovation has been around for some time in micro-credit (e.g. Grameen in Bangladesh), helping youth out of drug abuse and even in the environment.

In Singapore, I don't think we have got to the environment stage in terms of social innovation, but we are making headway. We have the World Toilet Organisation which focuses on improving toilets and sanitation worldwide.

Social Innovation Park has set up PAth (Pop and Talent Hub), which is a social enterprise talent development platform. PaTH champions social entrepreneurship via the arts by developing creative PaTH talents from traditionally marginalized groups. According to their website, it allows gives them opportunities to develop their talents to create a sustainable business ventures.

I met Teddy Thotz . They sell teddies and blankets made by the elderly poor in Singapore and part (they didn't say how much tho) of the proceeds would go to help them. The man said they don't put pressure on the ladies to produce the items. Unfortunately, because of costs, they are not able to source for organic or sustainable fabrics for the goods. They also said that there's no source in Singapore for seconds fabric or reuseable materials.

I also met Audrey at the Girl's Kaksh. She sells clothes designed by herself but made by the elderly (altho it doesn't say on her website)

The ecocidal moment

Just read this article!

No divide, please.

Copenhagen is just around the corner, and there's still no agreement on how it's going to be financed. I can't believe that the countries are still in disagreement about who is going to pay for what. They sound like a family bickering over inheritance! It will cost $100 billion a year by 2020 to fund the agreement! Some economists say that it would even cost closer to a trillion.

The UN IPCC reports indicate that the developing countries are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. They also lack of technology, funds and policy frameworks to face the challenge, unlike the developed countries. This is deja vu. With other environmental issues (see below), the developed nations have the money and the know how to tackle them, but for some developing nations just spending the equivalent amount could wipe out any hard earned economic gains. It's time to help each other out, or else some will be left behind!

a) A 2008 UNEP report highlighted that cities are getting darker, as a result of atmospheric brown clouds arising from the burning of fossil fuels and biomass. Hot spots include Bangkok, Beijing, Dhaka, Karachi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Seoul, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

b) The World Bank estimates that in developing countries, it is common for towns to spend 20-50 percent of their available budget on solid waste management. In low-income countries, collection alone drains up 80-90 percent of municipal solid waste management budget. This is something that developed nations take for granted and is probably not something we think about when we pay the bills. In fact, some people in developing nations still do open burning possibly because the infrastructure for waste collection and disposal is not ready yet. I think this would apply to water / sewage treatment too.

Climate change advert in the UK

A recent study by the Department of Energy and Climate Change in the UK shows that:

a) over half the people questioned don't believe climate change will affect them and only 1 in 5 (18 per cent) respondents think that climate change will take effect during their children's lifetime.

b) a big motivator for people to take action on climate change is the knowledge that it will impact on the next generation - 74% said they would make changes to their lifestyle now if they knew climate change was going to affect their children.

In response, the government has come up with the an advert....

Bottom up - tute

Had some friends ask about lengthening the trousers at the bottom instead of the top :-)

Here's a goot tute I saw on Eco Child's play....

Pic from Eco Child's play

Cardboard Box Oven Tute

This reminds me of what I had posted earlier on a Japanese lady constructing her own scrap cardboard oven for her child. Martha Stewart has a tute for her own version :-) This one uses scrap cardboard, old CDs, plastic clothes hangers and bottle caps.

Sigg bottles & BPA issue

SIGG's Response to the BPA Issue

Dated: October 1, 2009

Back in April 2008, the popular blog Tree Hugger ran a story, “Are SIGG Aluminum Bottles BPA Free?” The story ended with: “Conclusion: We are not sure if the lining of SIGG bottles is made with BPA or not, but we like the results of the testing, which is what really matters.” The testing of course showed that SIGG bottles did not leach any chemicals, which we too thought, “is what really matters.” Based on the mail we received this past month, some people disagreed.At the same time, we learned that some people in North America purchased SIGG bottles - not just because they were Swiss-made, beautifully designed and free from leaching - but because they thought SIGGs contained no BPA. We learned that we could have done a better job of more clearly communicating about our liners. We are very sorry for any confusion. To ensure that our North American customers remain completely satisfied with SIGG, we have offered those concerned with our old liner an opportunity to swap their old SIGGs for new SIGGs with the new EcoCare liner. This voluntary exchange program began in August and will run for nearly 3 months expiring on Oct 31, 2009.

For more details please see: http://mysigg.com/bulletin/exchange_program.html Additionally, we are instituting new processes with our suppliers and at our factory to ensure that all future communications and product claims are crystal clear and completely backed by facts. We will be sharing more information with you on our website in the coming months.SIGG Switzerland has earned a reputation for quality products and service – and we do not take that for granted. We plan to work very hard to earn back the trust that people have had in the SIGG brand name for over 100 years.

From SIGG

Michelle Obama and her veggies :-)

Via Eco-childs play

12/10/09 Update - See Mrs. Obama and the garden on Sesame Street!

A Gift

Last Thursday was Children's Day and each kid at my son's school received a gift from the teacher. I thought the gift was meaningful as they weren't store bought, and they were made from cloth and rice. They remind me of the toys we used to play with before the intro of computers and electronics. Kids need more toys that involve interaction and imagination, not to mention w/o the toxics....

Bottom up!

New trousers from .....

..... his old pair!

I don't think the bottom up approach of extending trousers needs any intro so I didn't put any tute up. I took the material from the new shorts (pic 2) and added it to his old pair of trousers (pic 1).

Top down

Remember the pair of trousers are made for my son in March this year? Well, he's outgrown them! He's growing taller by the minute!

I've decided to give them a new look. The traditional way of extending the trousers are at the legs but I've decided to give the top down approach a try considering that his little bits were getting a little uncomfortable :-)

Step 1. I took the top of my stretchy old shorts (including the elastic) which I had previously used for his panda costume. Sew the stretchy material into a tube with the same circumference as the trousers.

Step 2: Turn the trousers inside out, and pull the stretchy material over the trousers (see below) so that the trousers sit nicely inside. Note the stretchy material is not turned inside out, and the elastic band/neat part is at the bottom. I hope I'm making sense!

Step 3: Arrange nicely. I put the not so nice edge to line up with the top of the trousers. Pin together.

Step 4: Sew sew sew! I used a seam allowance of about 2 cm. Use thread which matches the colour of the trousers. In this case I used black

Step 5: After sewing all the way round, flip the stretchy material back up and you should end up with something like this.

Step 6: Turn the trousers right side out. I made these into shorts as my son was complaining that they were a bit too hot :-)

I used the bottom bits for the bottom up approach! :-) Will post later

Bags made from ???

Can you guess what these are made from?

4 Oct 09 update - Patina Japan makes these bags from old fire hoses, and sews together with a polyester yarn. Well, fire hoses are highly resistant to fire and water, so these will definitely be durable and maybe, last a lifetime?

Some of the hoses were made more than 30 years ago, and are considered valuable because of their aging texture and the scars of noble battles to save lives and fight fires. Some of the straps of the bags are from old seat belts.

The price of the bags is 12,000 yen (about US$124) or more, and part of the proceeds will be used for environmental conservation efforts.