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a wee update on my activism and escapism

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I kept my fantastic journey across Europe to Bulgaria and back off social media, I I no longer fly for environmental reasons, if I was doing this journey by bus trains or boats as I have in the past then I would have enjoyed sharing the fun with others on Instagram, but I took a car leaving myself wide open to right wing criticism of hypocrisy, I don’t have the energy to battle that negativity right now! It was a fantastic adventure; I apologise to future generations for the diesel I wasted BUT; be assured the policy makers and transport system designers are responsible for this wastefulness my carbon footprint is tiny in comparison to theirs I made sure I got back from this fun trans-European road trip to veliko Turnovo in Bulgaria -from home and back again, in time to be a Marshall for the first time in my life! after more than 35 years of taking part in running events, I am actively giving something back to the running community, scurry events had asked polmont Communit
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my athletics Centre

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Grangemouth Stadium Grangemouth has an international-standard sports stadium and sports centre. This Stadium was built in 1966 (the year I was born) for the citizens of Grangemouth, it was partly funded by BP. (British petroleum) which was then a nationalised industry, the vast majority of the people in Scotland and England were Socialists or at least trade unionists, this was nearly 60 years ago! so many things have changed since then, when I was born and the stadium was opened Grangemouth was considered one of the most prosperous towns in Europe, even though there was no North Sea oil then! The oil for the refinery and petrochemical industry in those days, relied upon imported oil from America and the middle east shipped into the large industrial docks of Grangemouth, forth ports were then one of the busiest in Europe, there was not only the refinery and the massive ICI complex, there was also lots of local iron foundries and coal mines, these industries all required a large amou
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a week in the life of me at the mo

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Current updates of CAT activities or a week in the life of someone navigating the community asset transfer system Monday morning I returned from a weekend away in Warrington by train, I had very little time to do anything except, - prepare for a talk I was doing to students at Glasgow uni, it was about the just transition movement and climate change, I’ve talked about this plenty other times at other events, but this one - I had prepared some slides for the lecture theatres projector, I wanted time to go over these before getting up to speak, all the text messages then came in about the PCH being mothballed regardless our work, Ma Heid wiz pickled! No time or brain space to go over what I had planned – I had to wing it, The organiser of the lecture said I was awesome and; - she said it with joy in her face (she meant it) , I could then get back to texting about the PCH and agree to meet up Tuesday morning, which clashed with the start of the funders fayre, needs must everyone needs
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A just transition for Santa - sustainable Christmas's

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Sustainable Christmas Spoiler alert “”” Santa’s not real! Yes, I was saddened when my big sister told me that, but she felt I deserved to know the truth! If he’s not real then who or what is he? What is the truth? and why do we find it acceptable to deceive and tell children lies, surely; this is setting a bad example to the next generation, or are we in general a bunch of deceitful liars indoctrinating the next generation into also being greedy consumerist liars? Firstly, where did he come from? 2nd spoiler alert it wasn’t the north pole!( lets not discuss global ice loss polar bears and pole disinformation here) There’s a massive difference between father Christmas and Santa Claus – especially! in England (not Scotland as historically Christmas as we now know it, was never celebrated in Scotland) Father Christmas in England was based on - an English a pre Christianity Pagan who was robe`d in a green hooded cloak, wearing a wreath of Holly or mistletoe who would go around, li
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my home and community combined heat and power

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Home energy security As an individual, I have gone to great lengths to transition my diet, my lifestyle, my consumerist habits, my waste, and my personal transport, all down to a globally sustainable carbon footprint, these were all good lifestyle transitions towards - how the world needs to be! I did not do this overnight, none of those systems would have coped by a swift change, it was all what is called a just and fair transition for me, that transition as an individual is nearly complete, it has taken me around 8 years to transition - my diet, my finances, my consumerist habits and my personal transport The final part of my transition is my homes combined heat and power system, at present I have no energy security, I am reliant upon international corporations to heat and power my home, this is unsustainable! especially as the government deliberately and intentionally drive the cost of heating my home and powering my home into unrealistic territory! I will end up in debt o
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land by sea Montrose film fest

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Climate focused film festival I booked up Scotland’s first climate focused film festival at Montrose as soon as I heard about it, the announcements of what films were going to be on etc. took a long time to become available to book, so; I was a bit disorganized as the weekend approached, in the end I booked a £25 all day Saturday and Sunday ticket this turned out to be a fantastic bargain, Montrose is situated on the main East Coast Line to Aberdeen - it’s well served by trains I got the train at midday and arrived with plenty time on the Friday afternoon before any of the films started, I had opted not to buy a ticket for the opening night film not because I didn’t like the sound of the film – (it was called the Golden thread) it was a launch night reception with canapes stuff that I can’t really be bothered (I’m not a posh type) with, this wasn’t cheap which is fine if you like canapes, I went for a run when I arrived, running out towards the old fire training g
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posting leaflets for my community center

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Delivering leaflets for community council I had volunteered to deliver leaflets around my local communities houses, raising awareness of the meeting we have planned to save our local community centre, I have had many happy experiences in and around this community centre, I couldn’t believe it was going to be closed if we did not take it over, this is done with what is called a community asset transfer initiative, I pledged to do all I could, to help make sure we did not lose this excellent community asset to some - private investor who; could basically flatten it and turn it into private housing for sale or let. The Community Council printed off 2000 leaflets for posting through local doors, I made this a personal mission to do as many as I could! I also hoped I would get an opportunity to explain to some of the people I was delivering the leaflets to, just exactly what was happening and how we could come together as a community and help this asset grow not be destroyed.
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