A shorter working week

For many people in employment, today is the start of a three-day working week. There's been endless discussion in the media about how the extra public holiday makes it possible to take an 11 day break with only three day's leave. As I don't currently have a job, I can't get too excited about the extra day's holiday and I've been more interested in the limited discussion there has been about the idea of a shorter working week on a permanent basis.

There was an interesting article in the Guardian about this last week. In the 1950s, it was assumed that technological advances would reduce working hours and everyone would have a three-day week-end on a regular basis. Of course, what has happened instead is that for many people technology, in the form of mobile communications, has extended the number of working hours. The author argues that this isn't a very effective way to work and that too much employment in the 21st century is about activity rather than productivity.

The Guardian article also includes a short history of shorter working, in which the most recent development is a report by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) called 21 hours. This makes the case for a much shorter working week becoming the norm, arguing that this could help solve a range of problems from unemployment to a lack of time to live sustainably. Whilst many people are unable to get paid work, others work too many hours and compensate for this by an over-reliance on energy intensive consumer goods and services. So as well as reducing inequalities, a shorter working week would also have environmental benefits.

Even the report's authors acknowledge that achieving this will not be simple and that there is much work still to be done. They finish by setting out ideas for addressing the transitional problems that would arise and ensuring the necessary conditions are created. These include ways of incentivising employers, compensating lost earnings, sharing unpaid time more equally between women and men, and changing the climate of opinion.

The report makes interesting reading and the issue is something the current government should be in favour of - after all, the plans for a Big Society will only work, if people have more time to devote to their local communities. I first came across 21 hours when it was published a couple of months ago and it reinforced my own feeling that ideally I would like to work fewer hours in the future which is why I am currently seeking part-time or freelance opportunities. 

Free Cycle Training

I first enquired about the free cycle training that Lewisham offers some time ago but it is only since I've had more time available that I actually got round to booking a lesson. Any one who lives, works or studies in the borough is eligible for a free 2 hour lesson and you can choose when and where in the borough to have it.

Before we started the lesson, the instructor gave my bicycle a quick inspection to make sure it was roadworthy and told me what I needed to check on a regular basis. My bicycle passed the test but I learnt that I probably need a new back tyre and that I ought to be doing slightly more than a quick pinch of the tyres each time I get my bike out. We also had a short chat about my cycling experience and what I wanted to get out of the lesson to make sure it could be tailored to my needs.

Then we were off.  The first part of the lesson was on quiet residential roads. The instructor rode behind me and directed me through various left and right turns so she could check how I positioned myself on the road (too close to parked cars), whether I signalled clearly (usually) and how often I checked behind me (not quite often enough).

After a quick discussion about what I needed to do differently in terms of my road positioning, we focused on the types of situation I'd identified concerns about. I particularly wanted to gain greater confidence in turning right at large multi-lane roundabouts and we spent most of the second part of the lesson practicing this.

I'm a relatively experienced cyclist and you would probably get the most out of a lesson like this if you were new to cycling in London or hadn't cycled much recently and wanted something to give you more confidence. However, I still felt I learnt some useful tips, particularly about positioning myself more centrally in the lane when waiting to turn at junctions and about keeping a good distance away from parked cars.

Most other boroughs offer something similar. Details of some of them are here or look on the cycling or road safety sections of your borough's website.

Postcards from the Future

Another exhibition of photos but this time instead of depicting the streets of London over the last century and a half, these pictures illustrate what the capital might look like at some unspecified time in the future when climate change has had a significant impact on every aspect of London life.

The pictures were created by Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones who are described as 'future-illustrators with a deep interest in the environment' and the sight of familiar landmarks in very unfamiliar situations is very striking. The picture above is from the artists' blog and shows one of the photos in the exhibition. This one imagines a time when London is, by necessity, self-sufficient in food and Parliament Square has been transformed into rice paddies. The roads appear to be free of traffic and the fields are being ploughed by water-buffalo. It's not clear whether MPs are still sitting in the House of Commons and passing this every day on their way in!

There are several pictures depicting various forms of electricity generation in the capital. Whilst some, such as tidal power stations around the Thames Barrier, and even a wind farm on the Mall (the turbines fit in quite well between the flagpoles) don't look too out of place, I can't imagine the nuclear power station in Kew Gardens going down too well!

Other images show the impact of extreme changes of climate in other countries as refugees from equatorial lands move north when their homelands become uninhabitable. In one The Gherkin has been converted in to high rise housing and is rapidly becoming a slum. In others shanty towns surround Buckingham Palace and cover Trafalgar Square.

The exhibition is thought-provoking and certainly worth seeing for the striking images whatever your views on climate change. However, I felt slightly more explanation might have been helpful in some cases. It wasn't clear to me whether the pictures were all supposed to illustrate different aspects of the same scenario or to show alternative possible outcomes. So, for example, was the picture of flooded London what followed when the frozen Thames pictured elsewhere melted or are these completely separate scenarios. In another example, the explanation for one of the pictures relating to refugees says the global econony has collapsed as a result of devastation in many countries but the text for another picture which shows camels replacing horses on Horse Guards Parade as a result of increasing temperatures suggests that tourism remains important to the London economy.

For a small exhibition - there are around a dozen images in total - this certainly left me with a lot to think about. You can view the images on their blog but I would recommend visiting the exhibition if you can as the full-size versions are much more impressive. It's on in the Olivier Theatre Exhibition Area on Level 1 at the National Theatre until 30 May.

Cutting back to encourage growth*

* This is not a political message! All will be clear when you read the first bullet point below.

Among the people waiting outside Croydon Crown Court some weekday mornings, is one group who don't look as though they are dressed for a day in court. A battered white minibus with the letters BTCV on the side appears, this group makes their way towards it and the reason for their work boots and scruffy clothes becomes a little more apparent. BTCV stands for the British Trust for Conservation Voluteers (although I think the organisation is only ever known as BTCV these days). It is a charity which organises conservation volunteering throughout the UK and around the world, including at several locations across London and I've voluteered with the Croydon group a few times over the last few weeks and really enjoyed it. 

The activities I've contributed to so far include:

• Cutting back holly and other vegetation to allow the natural heathland to flourish at Addington Hills;
• Planting a wildflower meadow in a park; and
• Building horse barriers in Happy Valley.

It's fantastic to be out in the fresh air and keeping physically active whilst also feeling that you are contributing something (however big or small) to maintaining London's green spaces. There are other BTCV projects closer to where I live but I choose this one as I've been out walking around Croydon a few times at week-ends and it's good to be able to support areas I know and enjoy. Most of the sites we've been to also offer a sense of getting out of the city whilst still being easy accessible, especially with the minibus pick-up from near East Croydon station.

BTCV Croydon organise different activities every Wednesday and Thursday. There's a full programme on the BTCV website as well as details of the other BTCV opportunities around London. There are also other conservation volunteering activities in many boroughs, for example, Lewisham has a useful blog which sets out how to get involved in various projects locally and the Association of Croydon Conservation Societies (ACCS) lists other opportunities available in the Croydon area. I came across ACCS when searching google images for a picture to illustrate this piece. I've chosen the picture above which they'd posted as I felt it perfectly captured the extensive greenspace on the edge of a densely built up area which is so typical of Croydon.

Handmade Tales: Women and Domestic Crafts

When I discovered The Women's Library currently had an exhibition on about crafts, I knew I had to visit. As the daughter of a woman who never sits down without taking up some form of needlework, I've always been keen on being creative myself although so far I've only really mastered knitting.

Unfortunately, I was slightly disappointed by this exhibition. This was partly my own fault as I had expected there to be more handmade objects on display, when in fact the emphasis was on books, magazines and other printed items which is understandable really given it was in a library.

A more fundamental problem, though, was I felt that they had used too broad a definition of women's 'domestic crafts'. The exhibition encompassed everything from patchwork, crochet and dress-making (the types of craft I had expected to see) to activities which many might consider chores rather than crafts such as cooking and some which are not necessarily undertaken primarily by women such as gardening and DIY.

The problem with having such a broad definition is that inevitably nothing could be covered in very much depth and it also made any omissions even more glaring. As someone had pointed out on the comments board, there was nothing on macramé - that 70s craft I remember from my childhood but which doesn't seem to have made a comeback recently in the way so many other crafts have. Which brings me to the final reason I was a little disappointed - there was not really any mention of the huge 21st century resurgence in the popularity of crafts such as knitting, crochet and dressmaking as evidenced by groups such as Stitch London and workshop venues such as The Make Lounge.

Having said all that, there was much that I enjoyed in the exhibition. There were a few pieces of beautiful handmade clothing on display including a Pearly Queen dress (1925) with every pearl sewn on by hand and a beautiful patchwork silk coat (1948) which a mother had made for her daughter as a dressing gown but which was so lovely she wore it as an evening coat. Contemporary artifacts on display included a pair of hand knitted slippers and a sampler someone had embroidered to photograph for use as the birth announcement for her daughter. There were also a small selection of old sewing machines and a range of other craft tools of all types from a garden fork to a Pyrex rolling pin.

Overall, I would say this is worth visiting if you're in the area and you're interested in crafts but you'll have to catch it soon as it finishes on 20 April. If you're keen to see handmade objects after that then the V&A is probably your best bet. I do plan to keep an eye on what's on at the Women's Library though as they run some interesting sounding events, many of which are free, including an Alternative Jack the Ripper Walk.

London Street Photography

I first tried to see this free exhibition at the Museum of London about a month ago with a friend but it was so crowded that we abandoned the idea and went to the pub instead. When I returned on a weekday afternoon recently, the exhibition was less crowded but still busy and it's easy to see why it's so popular. It includes over 200 images of everyday life in the capital's streets from the 1860s to the present day and as well as exploring the changing character of London, it shows how street photography has evolved in line with developments in technology and changes in society. For example:

• In the very earliest photo, taken near Bank in the 1860, the streets appear very quiet at first glance but this is only because the technology at that time was not capable of recording movement so most of the people and vehicles appear only as a faint blur.
• More candid shots were only possible from the 1890s when handheld cameras became available.
• By the 1920s newspapers were able to publish photos leading to the rise of press photography and the popularity of mass circulation magazines such as Picture Post in the 1930s.
• The 1950s to 1970s were the heyday of street photograph. People used the street alot more than they do nowadays and as redevelopment was planned in many parts of London there was a desire to capture these areas before they changed forever.
• The arrival of digital technology has obviously brought further changes (one of the most recent pictures is a photoshopped image, raising the question of what counts as a photo) but there are other important impacts on contemporary street photography, in particular the introduction of anti terrorism legislation and the increase in privately-owned shopping malls.

In addition to the photos, there are a few film clips, including an interesting one of street markets in Southwark in the 1930s (in which all but the very youngest are wearing hats!), a slide show of contemporary street photography (including some excellent ones taken by amateurs in response to a competition in the Metro) and a short film of photographers talking about their work - the cameras they use, why they take photographs and what they think the future is for street photography.  

I timed my visit to coincide with a talk by Mike Seaborne, the curator of the exhibtion, from which I gleaned many of the facts above. I found both the talk and the exhibition fascinating and spent so much time looking at the photographs that I will have to go back again to look at the rest of the museum. Unfortunately, Mike's talk was a one-off but the museum run a regular series of Meet the Expert events on other aspects of their work and the exhibition runs until 4 September 2011.

Welcome to More Time

1 April 2011 marks the start of a new stage in my life when, for a while at least, I am likely to have alot more time on my hands. I am one of the many public sector workers made redundant recently. When weighing up the pros and cons of volunteering for redundancy and thinking about what I would do next with my life, I knew it would not be easy to get another job straightaway in the current economic climate and I put alot of thought into deciding what I would do in the meantime. I want to make good use of my time but as I do not have alot of spare cash I am keen to find interesting things to do in London which are free or very low-cost. Given there are likely to be lots of other people in a similar situation at the moment, I thought it would be good to share information on the activities I find as well as a few reflections on this new stage in my life. Creating a blog will also allow me to learn new skills (my only previous experience of blogging is as a reader) and to improve existing ones - I would like writing to form some part of my future career.