Nový Mlýn - green tech south bohemia

Business wise:  Bog progress  -  an entrant in the Blender artist forum competition to build a 3d model of the concept has been in touch asking sensible questions.  I look forward to seeing the work. Good visuals will mean that there is something more concrete to put on publicity information about the product.  The most important step is obviously to get the working model of the product running. As I’ve had a severely reduced income since the summer, I have been unable to invest finances or time into the project, which has been incredibly frustrating. And you have to be full of confidence to go ask Bob Geldoff or Prince Charles to be your business angels!

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Finally, I’ve completed my hat pattern for a baker boy hat! The design for this hat was inspired by the floppy velvet caps that were fashionable when I was a teenager. Katy, Catherine & I all made & wore them with pride (along with various other amended & tie dyed items of clothing).

This version is far more contemporary. After making a fair few stripey beanies - (I’d altered the pattern to make visor beanies) I wanted something a little more feminine.

Deciding to do some hat observation, just after Christmas I sat in Pizza Express in London & watched people walk past. The resulting pattern combines bits of a few different patterns (newsboy cap peak etc) via trial and error (ie many dissapointments - you can never tell that the hat you’re knitting will make you look like you’re wearing a giant star fish until you’ve actually sewn it up and put it on your head). I made the final tweaks to the design this saturday - while at my grandfathers 80th birthday party, and managed to finish a hat for my mum just before we stepped out of the car in St Ives in Cornwall on Sunday morning.

 It really is great to see people wearing something that you’ve made… and not under duress!

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I made it to Green Drinks just about on time yesterday.  My plan was to nip home after work, send out the Onya bags, change & go into town.  As it was, my pedalite was hanging by a thread from my bike & I needed some emergency repairs. Luckily one of the cycling guys at the hospital happened to pop in to ask how the cycling was going & offered to have a look at it for me.  Though it was touch and go… I was eventually able to get home on it. Late.

Once home, the computer stopped working for long enough for me to miss the post at the end of the road. By the time I finally got it working I had to take the Onya bags into town where there’s a later collection. Least it was done.

Finally I made it to Green Drinks. I’d not sent out any additional publicity about the event since the email before Christmas. Tony from Alchemy turned up.  At least it was nice hanging out at Hotel Du Vin - though there was a big Deliotte thing going on so it was really crowded, and Mike was appauled at the prices (£5 for glass of wine £3 for 1/2 a beer).  Mike & I discussed setting up a Green Drinks in Tabor.  There’s nothing going in the Czech Republic yet - not even Prague.  It would be a nice way of networking with like minded individuals in Tabor.

Need to remember to buy an new thingumy for the bike today.

One good thing about being ill while visiting our house in the Czech Republic (with no running water, inside toilet & a wood burning stove for fuel), was that we both spend several days tucked up in bed (under FOUR quilts!!!) reading the New Scientist (as well as some dippy chick lit such as Olivia Joules).  As a result I’ve come across some interesting leads:

There was an item about the difficulty experienced by African schemes wanting to join Carbon Trading initiatives. The point was made that Africa was likely to be first and hardest hit by climate change, and communities could benefit from schemes to plant native forest, rather than mangetout to be flown in to Sainsburys. Therefore I’ve found a carbon neutralising scheme which has an operation in Africa to use to compensate for our flights to the Czech Republic. I’ve also added this as a link to bogblog. It just makes so much sense to plant trees in Africa. I hope they get the carbon trading thing with the EU sorted. Read the rest of this entry »

Mike found a fantastic hotel deal on lastminute.com, so now we’re in Prague. In bed, in a nice hotel with a good wireless internet connection.

We arrived 3 hours ago. We’ve been out for dinner, had a look round the tourist route (Old town square, Charles Bridge, Joe’s bar - the law is that you have to go there for your first glass of Czech beer.). Then back to the hotel to sort out the Ebay shop.

Things are so different from when I lived here (over 10 years ago) … like the Internet is available here so there’s a real opportunity for us to be able to work from here. Read the rest of this entry »