‘Eco home’ at the Geffrye museum

The Geffrye museum is  London’s ‘museum of the interior’ and features mocked up living rooms from houses picked from different eras over the last 400 years.  Right now they also have a really well thought out exhibition on Eco homes running in the basement.  It’s not huge, but it has been cleverly designed by eco designer Oliver Heath, and showcases all kinds of household gadgets and furniture which are pioneering ways to save electricity, gas and water around the home.  There is also a plethora of information about recycled materials and products which will come in handy whether you are re-carpeting a room or buying a new rubber mat for the bathroom.

I was particularly intrigued by the section on toilets.  Little did I realise that you can flush a toilet just by pouring water into the bowl.  The water already in the bowl then flows into the ’siphon tube’, and the resulting suction drains it all away into the sewer.  Brilliant.  Consequently, as one of the beautifully printed exhibition boards told me, you can collect the water from your shower during the time it takes to heat up in the morning and use it to flush your toilet.  All seems a bit organised to me, but I’ll give it a whirl.

They also have this amazing integrated toilet and sink, which drains the ‘grey water’ from washing your hands, brushing your teeth etc… directly into the cistern, so that every time you flush you’re already recycling the water.  This is truly inspired, and also very useful if your bathroom is absolutely tiny, as ours is.

The free Eco Home exhibition runs until 7th Feb 2010, Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday and Bank Holiday Mons 12noon – 5pm.  Talks, workshops and debates are also running on the theme of Eco homes throughout.

Tube wars

Being now 19 weeks into this pregnancy thing I find myself unable to stand up on the tube for very long without feeling dizzy.  The problem is, I don’t look very pregnant yet and being a fairly unassertive sort of person, and the tube being quite a ‘don’t look me in the eye, I might implode’ sort of place, I tend to just grab a seat when I can rather than asking people to move.  So far this has not caused me any great hardship, and I am mentally preparing myself for more assertiveness, which will no doubt kick in at the point where I won’t even have to ask.

However an interesting philosophical question arose in my head the other day.  If, after I find a seat, another pregnant woman asks me to give up my seat, then what do I do?  Ask her how many weeks she is, and if it’s less than 19, let the bitch stand?

More recently it occurred to me that this question is probably academic in any case, because pregnant women are more likely to ask the bloke with the skateboard to stand up for them than another woman who might be in the same condition.

Having thusly put the whole scenario out of my mind, I was completely bamboozled today when I was roused from my book by a bloke asking if he could have my seat.  I was confused by this, not because I couldn’t understand why he’d want one – he was carrying a toddler – but because there was an empty seat further along the carriage and I was sitting next to a young, healthy looking teenager who actually had a skateboard.  No word of a lie.

I sat, dumb for a few seconds trying to work out the politest way to say, ‘I’m actually pregnant, why don’t you take the empty seat which is 2 yards away, or ask Bart Simpson here if he would mind standing for a bit?’ but sadly failed to string the sentence together, and ended up apologetically gesturing in the direction of the empty seat and murmuring something about there ‘being one over there.’  He trudged off looking a little miffed to say the least.

Great guilt then ensued when I realised that he didn’t just want a seat, but my seat, because it would enable him to be next to his wife, who was in charge of the buggy (a buggy with a suitcase in it, bizarrely – I can only assume that the suitcase was heavier than the toddler.)

Anyway, the guilt was mainly due to my having failed to explain myself, rather than my apparent rudeness.  Had I understood the situation more quickly, I could have moved, he could have sat next to his wife and blissful harmony would have ensued.  Sadly, my confusion just made me look like some kind of feminist über-bint.  Oh well, every cloud…

Night time

It’s 5.07am, and I’m sitting, bleary-eyed at my desk, preparing to start another day at work.

Little Wilb is still sleeping, or so I gather from the current lack of activity in that general area.

Actually, tangible activity is a fairly recent development anyway, so it’s possible I’ve been imagining it, but it’s nice to think that even if I’m mad enough to get out of bed in the middle of the night, LW can make his/her own mind up on the matter.

It seems the little one is already making much more sensible lifestyle choices than Mum.

One-er!

Him Indoors and I went on a lovely autumnal walk last week-end in Ashurst wood and found a couple of conkers.  We resisted the urge to drill holes in them for a whole three hours, but eventually it was that or watch Strictly Come Dancing (such is the incredible range of available activities in our house) so for the sake of the ongoing sanity of all concerned, conker wars it had to be.

And so it is that I proudly present my triumphant one-er!  And for the record, the remains of Him Indoors’ vanquished none-er.  He is still recovering, and if conkers is to follow the tradition of chess, risk and other competitive games, we will never play again.

Sadly I don’t know many seven year olds, so the chances of bumping my nut up to a seriously intimidating six-er status or beyond are slim, particularly as most schools have probably banned conker wars by now due to nut allergies.

Very excitingly though I notice that it is the World Conker Championships this week-end, up in Oundle.  If we just lived a little closer, I would definitely make the trip.  As it is though I suspect the one-er will remain on the mantelpiece for a few months to go wrinkly before being guiltily binned just before Christmas.

Chocolate cake

A basic recipe for a simple but very tasty chocolate cake, with chocolate butter cream icing, and chocolate chunks on the top.  Yum.

What could be better as the winter nights draw in but a cup of tea and a slice of cake?

serves 12

The cake:
150g / 6oz unsalted butter
150g / 6oz caster sugar
150g / 6oz self-raising flour, sieved
3 eggs
1 rounded tbsp cocoa, blended with 2 tbsps boiling water.

The icing:
200g / 8oz icing sugar
100g / 4oz unsalted butter
1 tsp cocoa
2 tbsp boiling water
chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas 3.  Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs a little at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.  Add flour and cocoa and continue to mix (at low speed if using electric beaters.)

Turn into a greased 20cm/8inch tin and bake for 40 minutes.  Allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes and then cool completely on a rack.  Slice in half to get the two halves of your cake.

Next make the icing.  Beat the butter and icing sugar together, adding the cocoa and boiling water as needed to create light, fluffy icing.  When the cake is completely cool, spread the icing over the two cake layers and sandwich together, decorating with chocolate chunks.

With thanks to Nigella Lawson for the Malteser cakes recipe, from which this is adapted.