BRIGHT IDEAS ON A DULL DAY
So yesterday was Earth Day. After rousing the old Friday tradition of sipping handles of my favourite drop at my favourite bar (yes, local beer (well, from up the coast anyhow), and from the tap), Earth Day greeted me with a particularly un-earthy feeling behind the eyes.

In effect I lied. My incapacitated state meant that I didn't visit any of the local attractions listed in the Earth Day entry below. I did manage a stroll to town through Tanera Park (aka the dog-mine-slalom) and take a peek at what was happening at the Community Gardens. So not a wholly un-earthy day. What I also did was make some more ground on no.8 below - "sharpen up"...

Energy efficiency, and light bulb choice in particular. I got home to find a bulb had blown. As usual my flatmates' fear of heights (I assume) prevented her from replacing it. An ecobulb has been sitting on my desk since picking it up at the recent climate change conference. So steady the head, deep breath, up on the chair, and what do you know? It only takes one ShoppingFix advocate to install an energy efficient light bulb.

By my count we now have five in at our place. Which translates roughly to $500 in future savings relative to the horribly inefficient incandescent bulb. I'm loathe to promote one brand over another (unless of course I share the ensuing commercial benefit) so for the sake of accuracy, the trusty folk at the Consumer Institute conclude that the Phillips number is nearly as good as ecobulb.

Having done my bit for the moment, I couldn't help but wonder what specific energy efficiency measures our prominent politicians had taken. I'd like to know that an example is being set locally. A few weeks back an energy efficient bulb was fitted at the most famous front door in Britain. Downing St is steadily becoming more energy efficient. What about our leaders' haunts?