Go Laurie

So I've been meaning to mention for a while now that Laurie David is our hero du jour. She's done a massive amount to get global warming on the national agenda (did you know she was instrumental in getting the must-see An Inconvenient Truth made? Of course you did!) spurred on by Bush wonning a 2nd term. I will know we've started to achieve success when my hubby is channelling Larry David in this speech about her (as opposed to just channelling his Curb Your Enthusiasm character all the time).

Acutally in this speech Larry touches on a topic I've been wondering (and feeling slightly guilty) about ever since my friend Lucy, who used to live in eco-friendly California, told me a little mantra she learned there: 'if it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down' (ick). This would be another great reader poll opp: would you consider not flushing the loo if it was only number one to save the environment? I can't quite bring myself to do it, though it wouldn't really matter out here in the country. So instead I tried to take the alternate approach today of putting a blown-up plastic bag in the cistern so that you use much less water each time you flush (I have read you could also use a common or garden brick but didn't have any to hand). But I didn't quite manage it because - and I know this sounds really ridiculous - I have this irrational fear of pipes, plumbing, urinals (especially urinals), anything like that (for example I get pretty freaked out if I'm on my own in a public toilet, especially if it's a really old one like you'd get in an old British hospital or like the loos in Bromley cinema where they have the overhead cistern - aargh, getting the shivers just thinking about it....) ANYWAY so I couldn't put the bag in the loo because I got too freaked out. I know it's pathetic. But I will ask the hubby to do it tomorrow instead. And maybe if you readers are less crap than me, you could do it too, unless you have one of those snazzy modern loos where you can do the half flush if you like, elegantly negating the need for the bag or brick.

But Dot and I did manage to join Laurie's Stop Global Warming virtual march which you can do too here. It only has half a million signatories which seems a bit crap considering the population of the US just passed 300 million (was hoping Dot might be the 300 millionth American but she missed it by a few weeks) so go join up! We hope to meet Laurie some day - after all, gotta think big.