Easter is with us once again – a time of new life and a reminder of the world-changing events that happened a couple of millennia ago. As well as it meaning the end of the plastic fast for us (no, we haven’t gone on a binge yet and yes, we will blog about the final pile), it also meant reflecting on the story of the Passion. So how did we mark it?

On Good Friday we joined with several churches around Lambeth to sing “Amazing Grace” at Waterloo station. The idea was that the drumming and singing would come from nowhere, people would bring a bag of food for the new Waterloo Foodbank and then we would disperse back into the crowd following the singing. It kind of worked, and it was great to sing out about grace (the idea of receiving something that you really don’t deserve…in this case forgiveness for all the times we fall short in life) but there wasn’t much dispersal afterwards and I’m not sure people necessarily got the idea of what a flashmob is…but oh well!

The official video can be found here: oasischurchwaterloo.org/popupchurch.

Following this, we headed to Trafalgar Square where a good friend was one of the actors in The Passion which had performances at 12 and 15:15. We’d underestimated how popular it would be and how large the crowds would be, so didn’t have the best vantage point, but we managed! The play was very moving, with some great acting which brought the whole story to life.

…and then onto today. The resurrection. A service at church filled with chocolate puns, but also the message that Jesus died to take the punishment for our wrongdoings away. I got to play the part of an angel at the tomb, asking the women why they searched for the living amongst the dead…and I even got a mini chocolate egg for my acting!

So Easter is over for another year, but the message remains at the heart of who we are.

We posted a few weeks ago that we had given up buying things in plastic for Lent…or at least that we were trying to. We’ve been saving any plastic packaging that we have used over the time, as it’s virtually impossible to not buy anything in plastic. Also, the aim is more to raise our awareness of how much plastic we get through, than trying to cut it out completely. Here is the pile as of today:

You’ll note that it’s considerably bigger than the pile that we had when we first blogged. So what have been our biggest “failures”?

• Cheese – you’ll note that cheese packets make up a large proportion of the pile. However, we’re also buying Boirsin (wrapped in foil and cardboard) and brie (wrapped in paper)
• Cleaning stuff – our washing up liquid ran out, as did hair conditioner…we had no options but to buy replacements which come in plastic
• Treats – we fancied a takeaway and went for pizza because that comes in cardboard…but the dips don’t! Also when we went to a recent gig (Kill It Kid at the Roundhouse – awesome!) our drinks were served in plastic pint glasses. We’ve also really struggled with chocolate biscuits – in the end we went for club biscuits as they have paper wrappers, but sadly the multipack packaging is plastic
• Fruit and veg – in general we’re doing ok with this, with the main plastic usage being the stickers that come on individual items (such as dudhis), but we did cave when, for the second week in a row, there were no paper bags to put mushrooms in at Sainsburys. At work I’ve been re-using a little plastic pot at the salad bar for several weeks, but it finally got too many cracks in, so I’ve had to get a new one, and the old one has joined the pile

So those are the places where we’ve been unable to avoid plastic usage completely, but there have been changes to lifestyle. We’re now making our own bread the whole time; whilst the packet mix stuff comes entirely in paper, we have yet to get it to rise properly in our breadmaker, so we’re sticking to putting together the recipes ourselves. Coffee is being rationed as any replacement will have to come in some form of plastic, so we’re getting through more tea. We’ve been constantly on UHT milk now for several weeks, and we’ve had very little meat at all (I really miss sausages and mash!). Our herb and spice collection is also looking a little depleted as we can’t replace the jars once empty, due to the plastic lids. Pasta, rice and cous cous sadly only come in plastic (aside from Sainsburys basics lasagne sheets!), so this has possibly been our most radical shift in diet – we now rely more on potatoes as the source of carbs in our meals.

Overall we’re quite glad that we’ve only got 2 weeks to go, but I think that the awareness of our reliance on plastic will remain far beyond Easter.

We’ve just bought a Chinook!

It’s amazing what extra expenses and hassles there are that come with it though…not quite the walk in the park that we were hoping for. For a start the tax is quite expensive, but luckily due to its age we won’t have to worry about it in a couple of years.

If only the cost were the sole thing to cause issues when it came to insurance! It turns out that very few insurers are willing to provide cover for something of that size and age, especially if it’s to be used internationally. Finally we receive a quote from Safeguard which, although quite dear, seemed quite good in that it also included breakdown cover, even outside of the UK. With few other options we went for it…only to read the small print and find out that because the Chinook is over 20 years old, the breakdown cover wasn’t actually included, as the underwriters (the AA) wouldn’t provide cover. A quick call to the AA revealed that they were very happy to cover us and the clause was something added by Safeguard.

So off we went in search of someone who would provide breakdown cover for us, at which point our plans for the trip around Europe in the Chinook were forced to change. You see it turns out that whilst insurance companies may be happy for you to be in Europe for a year, breakdown providers aren’t quite singing from the same hymn sheet. The AA and the RAC are willing to provide cover for periods of 90 days at a time…not quite the 365 days that our trip may take. Britannia go one step better with trips of 180 days at a time. It looks like we’ll have to compromise and have two trips rather than one! We’re not complaining though – we get to break up our trip and see our families for a bonus time in the middle! Good times.

But back to the woes of the purchase of a mode of transport such as the Chinook…! As it was a private sale, we set up a pre-arranged bank transfer during the week to move the money across from our account to the seller’s account yesterday (the date of purchase). In the days of internet banking, you’d think it would be a stress-free affair to move money from one account to another. When we checked our account yesterday morning, the money had left – good news. To cut a long story (involving 4 phone calls to our bank and the seller calling their bank a similar number of times) short (although not cutting a long sentence short by adding in brackets!), the money still hasn’t made it to the seller’s account and our bank “cannot explain where the money is”. We are very blessed in that the seller trusts us and we’re praying that the money is in their account on Monday.

At approximately 4:30pm on 9 March 2013 we became the proud owners of our Chinook…and here she is:

Oh, did we forget to say that she’s a Talbot Express Autotrail Chinook motorhome? Sorry about that. The photo at the top of the page is just a holiday snap from a couple of years ago in the lake district. And the name of our Chinook? “Bertha the Beast”.

Could you live without buying anything in plastic for a week? How about a fortnight? A month? The whole of Lent? Well, we’ve decided to take on the challenge, as we’ve realised that although we are able to recycle the vast majority of our waste, plastic makes up the biggest proportion of the stuff we’re unable to recycle.

So, where do we start? Well, the picture above shows where we’ve “failed” in the first couple of weeks. Technically we only started last Monday as we were on holiday until then. Our first challenge was stocking up a totally empty fridge at 6pm on a Monday! With no chance to go to a farmer’s market or grocer, Sainsbury’s was the only real option. Here are the challenges we faced:

• Vegetables – we were mostly able to get “loose” veg, but it meant we missed out on a lot of Sainsbury’s basics stuff. We had to compromise with the loose peppers, aubergines and satsumas that all had barcoded plastic stickers on them and we were disappointed to find that the only cabbage available without any plastic was a plain white cabbage
• Meat – it’s not that surprising that we were unable to find any fresh meat without plastic wrapping, so we decided to forgo meat completely as part of this shop (and we didn’t fancy Spam really) – instead we stocked up with plenty of tins of pulses and a couple of tuna to be our meat substitutes
• Cheese – we crumbled. We do like our cheese. To buy cheese with no plastic would have required spending twice as much, so we decided to make an exception – once we’ve eaten the cheese, the wrapper will duly be added to the pile shown above
• Milk – would you believe it – the only milk we could find in a tetrapak carton (yes, we know it contains polyethylene in small quantities…but at least it’s recyclable) without any trace of a plastic spout was UHT. Guess what type of milk we’re on for the next few weeks!
• Bread – none of the bread or pitta in the supermarket came in a paper bag, so for this week we’ve used up what we have in the freezer and from now on we’ll be making our own bread (or going to a baker’s where they sell it in paper bags)
• Carrier bags – this is such a schoolboy/schoolgirl error of which we’re very embarrassed and ashamed. Normally when we go shopping we take rucksacks to carry our stuff in and we collect Nectar points for bag re-use. Having just come back from holiday we kind of forgot, so we’ll hang our heads slightly, but at least we will re-use the ones that we were given on Monday

Since that shopping trip last Monday, we’ve bought a greetings card which had a clear plastic film (unnecessarily we think) and when we bought chips (and a pickled egg…for the first and last time!) from the chippy around the corner, they gave it to us in a plastic bag. Aside from that, we’re “clean”.

We’ll continue to update this blog with details of our plastic usage over the course of Lent, along with any challenges we’ve faced and good tips that we pick up for avoiding plastic usage! To be honest though, it can only get harder from now – to start with we can use up stuff we’ve got in the cupboards, but once we run out it’s going to start making a bigger impact on our lives.

This is happening! We’ve been cultivating the idea of a road trip in Europe as our honeymoon for a long time now, and the planning is starting in earnest (ooh, possible name for our motorhome if it had a slightly different spelling…?). For several months we’ve been scouring the “interwebz”, keeping an eye on what we should be looking for when purchasing a motorhome and along the way putting together a list of useful links (incidentally europebycamper.com is at the top of the list). We’ve also had invaluable help from a good friend who knows about these things!

Some of the key points about buying a motorhome that came out of our research were:

• We need a fixed bed – we’ll be living in this van, and we don’t want the hassle of making up a bed every night. A coachbuilt MH (see, we’re using the lingo already!) looks like the best option for this.
• It needs to have a MAM (maximum authorised weight) of less than 3.5 tonnes – both of us have a category B driving licence
• Our budget for a van is around £6000 – this was set through a combination of advice from the Europe by Camper buyer’s guide, but also by having a look around online at what was out there, and what we would be able get for different budgets
• Left hand or right hand drive should have no bearing – we’ll explain why in more detail below

There are a few other things that are on our list, such as a reversing camera, LED lighting (uses less battery), carbon monoxide detectors (essential with gas in a small space), bike rack (we intend to cycle to get around towns and cities) and an awning, but all of those are things that we can fit ourselves. Mechanical soundness goes without saying as essential (although we just said it…so obviously it doesn’t!).

All that is great in theory though, and you can spend hours looking at pictures on a computer screen, but nothing beats getting up close and personal with a real live van. Well, some things beat it, but not in the context of searching for a future home! So yesterday, accompanied by our motorhome expert, we had a mini road trip around West Sussex and Hampshire looking at a few contenders. We were really surprised at the variation in quality of the vans we saw within our budget – some were in great nick for their age (all were from the late 80s or early 90s) and others were…well…let’s say I wouldn’t want to spend a night in them! Whilst we were looking at size, comfort, bodywork and potential quality of living, our trusted friend was looking at engine, chassis and other mechanicals. Of the 6 we saw, 1 stood out, which we’ll hopefully head back to for a second date…we mean viewing at some point to look in a little more detail!

So, the LHD and RHD (left hand drive and right hand drive) debate…! When we started our search, we were adamant that we would only look at LHDs for safety and visibility reasons. I (Steve) have experience of driving several LHD vehicles on the right hand side of the road, so thought it would be best to stick with what we know already. Having then spoken with a couple of friends who have motorhomes which they’ve driven on the continent, it became clear that actually it’s less of a safety issue, and more like a minor inconvenience to have a RHD. If you’re in a LHD on the “wrong” side of the road, that’s two things that are “odd”, which in an emergency situation might not add up to a happy ending. If you’re in a RHD on the “wrong” side of the road, your visibility at junctions will obviously be an issue, but then we both drive, so we can just act like rally drivers…in terms of having a co-driver, rather than speed!

In any case, yesterday’s viewings were useful and we’re not going to jump into anything quickly or blindly.

So, first came the wedding and the union of Kiri and Steve. Now comes Pig and Porter and the union of srphotos.co.uk (no longer associated with us) and Lightbulb Head. You can read the details in blog posts at either site, but basically we’ve just completed our first web design project together (www.pigandporter.co.uk) and have decided that we’re going to merge our businesses under the banner of Lightbulb Head and close down srphotos.co.uk. Watch the Lightbulb Head space in 2013!

As a follow-on to Three Little Pigs, we present you with Three Fat Pigs.

Once upon a time, as all good stories begin, there were three pigs. One was big, the other was middle sized and the third was smaller as is often the way with pigs.

Now, in all good stories there are two people who fall in love. The love-struck couple in our story are called Kiri and Steve.

Oh! How Kiri and Steve loved each other and they both also loved pigs. Such was their love for each other that they became betrothed and they planned and planned and PLANNED their wedding day. Menus were discussed and it was decided that the starring role would be given to a pig. And so it was that the first two porkers were chosen and named. Both of them belonged to Farmer Brian who was as big as a mountain but as gentle as a warm summer breeze.

Kiri visited Farmer Brian’s farm and liked the biggest pig best. She named him ‘Punky the Wedding pig’ but he was know to his friends as ‘Wedding’. The middle-sized one was named by Farmer Brian who decided to call him ‘Spare’. Then there was a third pig, who doesn’t enter our story just yet. He was a bit of a loner and definitely wasn’t a local. All that was known of him was that he came from ‘the South’ and he was a pig of few words. For the purposes of this tale we will call him ‘the pig with no name’.

All went well for several months. Farmer Brian took good care of his animals and gave them plenty to eat and a lovely field to play in. Meanwhile, Kiri and Steve continued to plan and PLAN their special day. But, as you know, in all good pig tales, there is a moment of angst, a moment so concerning that the reader is left to ponder the fate of a pig, or the lovers, or even the menu for the special day. And so it was with was with this story. That moment arrived just a few days before the ‘great day’ and this is the point where our story goes pear-shaped, or was it pig shaped?

The Tuesday morning, on which our valiant pigs met their end, dawned bright and clear. It seemed as though it would be a lovely day. Our betrothed twosome licked their lips in anticipation of all the sausages and roasted hog that they would soon be offering to their guests. But, alas, by Thursday morning it was clear that something was amiss. Farmer Brian received news of the portliness of his two pampered porkers. “Whoa!” cried Brian, “those are big boys! I don’t think either will fit on the spit” – and he was right! The Hog Roaster laughed out loud at the news of the weigh-in. Even Spare was 20kg over the mark.

With just 48 hours to go before the big day there was no pig for the spit! It was decided that our lovely couple should remain oblivious to all of this but someone was needed who could save the day. Farmer Brian had no more pigs to offer, so Richard, who loved the happy couple very much, set about finding a new pig, He hunted high and low and eventually located our third, nameless, porker who was, until that point, ‘as-happy-as-a-pig-in-clover’ somewhere south of here. With the help of a few kind locals, No Name was quickly ‘dispatched’ and Farmer Brian, who was as kind as he was large, delivered him just in time for The Roaster to roast him.

However, there was a final twist to this tale [as there often is with a pig’s tail]. When No Name, who was also quite a big boy, arrived, he was complete – and therefore even he was too heavy for the spit. Our hero again sprang into action. Fetching his trusty [or was it rusty] saw from the shed he shouted “off with his head” and the deed was done. So our story had a happy ending even if our pigs didn’t. No Name was enjoyed by all and the happy couple were none-the-wiser but definitely much-the-happier.

But what of our other two piggies?

Well, ‘Spare’ provided all the sausages for the BBQ with plenty left over for another day. These were ceremoniously paraded across the orchard in their very own carriage escorted by two fair maidens called Tina and Christine. They were then cooked to perfection by the mighty duo known as Richard and Rob. Wedding’, on the other hand, who weighed in at over 100kg was taken to
farmer Jo’s butcher who turned him into a freezer full of pork for the Retreat Centre. All who saw him were amazed at his colossal size and he soon became know far-and-wide as ‘Monster Pig’.

The moral of this story, then, is clear…
Never count on your porkers before they are weighed and always make sure you have a hero on hand to save the day if your pig turns out to be a monster!

Author: Richard Hann

So…it’s the moment that you’ve all been waiting for…the photo booth pictures are available from KISTfest! This was a great part of our wedding day and we’ve had a good laugh seeing the fun people had. Many thanks to Phillip + Matt Orme for sorting it all out.

Due to the…ummm…interestingness of some of the photos, we have decided to keep them private to just our guests, so if you were a wedding guest, feel free to log in and view our wedding photos.

Here’s a photo from our minimoon!

It is assumed that every bride and groom hope for a dream wedding. Not us. Some might say that I’m a dreamer…but I’m not the only one! After the dreams we’ve had about our wedding over the last few months, you can understand why we’re praying for something a little more normal (but not too normal obviously!).

Let us give you a little insight into our minds as we sleep, and how our wedding would pan out should our dreams come true.

We start with the banns of marriage. In some strange mix-up, the person reading the banns of marriage decided to do some kind of online resolution of our names (I guess a bit like a DNS lookup) and somehow came up with business names. So instead of “I announce the banns of marriage between Stephen…” etc, it was “I announce the banns of marriage between Qantas Airlines…”. Why Qantas Airlines? Who knows?

Next we think about the dress code. Well we’ve said it before and we’d like to stress again that it’s a case of wear what you’re comfortable in. In one of the two dress-code related dreams, Kiri was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and in the other one she was totally naked, but didn’t feel weird about it. I hasten to add that these were both Kiri’s dreams, not mine!

Moving onto the marriage service, we hope the dream of getting it wrong and having to do it over and over again won’t come true, otherwise there wouldn’t be time for the activities, which in wedding dreamland consist of:

• Steve collecting firewood
• Archery (we wish)
• Competition to make a spaghetti bridge that can hold a person’s weight…out of cooked spaghetti

This brings us nicely onto the evening time, when dusk falls and things get a little dark. Never fear though, for we have beacons to light the orchard. Full blown bonfires at the end of tall poles. Lovely! It’s a surprise then with all this heat and light that in another dream everyone decided to follow the newlywed couple (us) to our honeymoon venue. We won’t be happy if that happens!

And then finally, the day after and possibly my favourite dream of all – everyone wakes up to find someone’s legs sticking out from the side of the marquee, and we find out that someone has fallen asleep under the floor of the marquee. I won’t say who it is!

So…that’s why we don’t really want a dream wedding!