Earth Hour

Okay, one more unstructured post before we return to the regular format, mainly due to the dog surviving to bark another day and be generally insane. This is good news. Definitely good news. That and the few days I've spent in a primary school have left me feeling rather creative and positive, and remembering some of the more unusual activities from the past.

In our student house in Nottingham, the housemates and myself established a short-lived tradition of short story reading events on erratically scheduled Sunday evenings, as well as the one-off legendary Earth Hour candlelit dinner. Earth Hour is an annual event where people, buildings and businesses are encouraged to switch off unnecessary lights and electrical items for an hour in the night (8:30 PM to 9:30 PM in UK), all in the spirit of promoting preserving the planet. I really adored Earth Hour, it was great, and right now I'm planning another Earth Hour dinner for 2015.

The environmental message of Earth Hour is an important one, but the event itself is fun without the (potent) ideological backdrop. No money changes hand, even though the event is organised by the World Wildlife Fund, and its influence is purely a symbolic and fun one. Breaking out the candles and unplugging the computers, televisions and radios is always fun! Candlelight isn't just for romantic dinners, but can be used for everything.

Go, Earth Hour!

It is such a relief to be able to relax about things now. Originally the title for this blog was going to 'Reprieves, Greek dance and endless rehearsals' but then the long neglected post on Earth Hour popped out of the list, and refused to go away. All the Greek dance sequences in the Christmas concert rehearsals have softened me to the point that an easy post is the best of all possibilities, as have the budgetary dents of the accumulated Christmas shopping bouts. Earth Hour will cancel out the madness of Christmas shopping. Everyone, we need to turn off from time to time.

O.