Another title, another exclamation mark. I remember when the golden rules of essay writing were handed down to me by my old Senior Master at School, with explicit instruction to use only one exclamation mark per essay. Just one, and no more. It's sound advice, and I try not to use too many even on here (because let's face it, most of my blog posts are like short essays in length anyway).
When I was at University, I joined a society called 'Student Switch Off'. Mainly for the free t-shirt, tote bag and promises of Ben & Jerry's Ice cream, but still, I joined. The point of this society was to persuade more students to think about energy usage, usually through the medium of competitions, both personal and in halls of residence. I think there was a weekly challenge of taking a picture of yourself doing something to save energy (switching unused plug sockets off, putting lids on pans, wearing extra layers in the cold &c), and a termly challenge of which residential block of halls used the least water and electric, with the residents winning cinema tickets, Ice cream, and other student-friendly goodies. For whatever reason, my hall (Britten House) never won the termly challenge, so no free Ice cream or cinema tickets for me. Boo. The weekly goals were always well-represented by the usual fancy-dress (and cross-dress) lovers, complete with wacky poses/visible underwear (although the latter due to the typical relaxed student 'dress code' rather than any deliberate titillation). I'm still pretty reticent to pose for photos at the best of times, and I just ended up doing the things for the challenge anyway and not being photographed. Just... No Pictures. Please. Taking pictures of me will only crack your camera lenses.
I also saw a girl over first and second year who is a card carrying member of the National Green Party. I don't know if that counts. Does it? Answers to the usual address. She even came to Derby (a rare honour), and joined me on an insane bike ride from my house to the home of The Drum in Belper, through Duffield and up real hills (you know, as opposed to the not-hills geography so characteristic of East Anglia).
I moved out of halls eventually (whether that was such a good idea well you decide for yourself), into a house and home in the Golden Triangle. In the interests of nostalgia, I will walk past the foot of Bury street and look wistfully up, before continuing to the nearest Public house in whichever direction I am walking (there is lots of choice, thankfully). Of course, renting this accommodation privately rather than through the University brought its own set of challenges, not just limited to actually attending the timetabled lectures. Paying your own rent and bills out of just a student loan can be a damn sight more than difficult than you think. I've always paid my own phone bill, which may not seem like a thing really but when compared with how limited my income was (and indeed, still is), makes a lot of difference. The Scholarship money paid to my by the Church of the Parish of St. Peter Mancroft in Norwich certainly saved my skin that year, no matter how unhappy I may have been. The small matter of the winter heating bill really taught me a lesson in looking after your outgoings though. Things like forgetting to switch the oven off or leaving the lights on all night may seem... forgettable and possibly amusing, I dunno, but it all adds up. Living in the Scholary now, where the utilities are taken care of, it's not even a problem, which explains why the heating gets left on a lot. Well, one of the reasons anyway. I'm sure that if we had to foot our own bills things would be a lot different. As much as I hate living in the cold, I really can't stand it when the house gets hot either. Hot as hell, Master. I somehow seem to have... a more consistent body temperature, it seems. Even though I'm still as skinny as hell, I don't get cold so much.
Paying my share of the bills really changed the way that I think about living in a house. Rather than just whacking the heating up, closing windows and doors at night to conserve heat, switching lights and plug sockets off when they're not needed. Elementary things, that might just help save me money when I live on my own. It is difficult to apply this so strictly to The Scholary, because I share it with anything up to four other people at the same time. Keeping the heating on over night tends to make me feel ill rather than keep me warm though. I can't govern how the others behave, and how they manage their own energy usage in the house, which isn't necessarily a bad thing - I'm definitely not saying that if I were in... control that there would be any benefit. The only thing that's really universally agreed on as bad is leaving the oven on, which on balance is a pretty good precedent.
As far as recycling's concerned, I'm pretty well behaved, I guess. The Cathedral has 3 different bins that we and the Restaurant use regularly - the waste bin, a cardboard and paper bin, and crates for glass recycling. The main strength, I suppose, of these facilities is their ease of access: it's only over the road. It isn't really that much fuss to separate the different types of rubbish if and when I or the other Scholars clear the kitchen out from the piles of detritus that often collect after a little while. There used to be recycling bins in the carpark at the end of the street, but the Council since took them away, quite unhelpfully. The ease of recycling the outgoings of the Scholary are facilitated by the facilities being so easily accessible. Were they not, everything would probably just go in the bin for landfill.
As we can see, my drive to go green and be responsible for rubbish and energy use is hardly a moral mission by any respect, just a way to save money mainly! Not being wasteful has twin benefits though, environmental and financial, and it's no great shame that there are positive ethical connotations as well. It's no problem to me to live my life this way though! Perhaps that isn't a hugely inspirational statement, but when you become responsible for your own bills, things change. I may not be paying for mine right now, but still think in pretty much the same way, so hopefully if/when (delete as applicable) I move out, I won't quite be all out at sea.
That's all. For now.
No comments:
Post a Comment