The weather was so nice this weekend that Dad and I decided to go out for the day on Sunday to Lyme Park.

Before lunch we went for a walk outside of the Lyme Park boundary. We found a nice walk over the hill and then down a valley in the woods, eventually we had to climb out of the valley and came upon a cliff where I went to pose on the edge and was surprised to see a young lady sat on the cliff edge enjoying the peace.

When we got back to Lyme Park we went to the cafe for lunch after which I went walking on my own, Dad sat by the lake.

My chosen route was up to the Cage and then across to the Lantern. On my way down the hill back towards the lake I came accross a deer Park where I saw the Lyme Park deer.

Shortly after arriving back at Dad’s location I had an ice cream served from an electric ice cream van, then we headed home home for a Chinese take-away to round off the day.

Over thirty years ago, when I was in my teens, I accompanied my Mother, Kathleen Smith to meetings of the Huddersfield Friends of the Earth. We became members and my Mother became the Secretary to the Group. In those days the Huddersfield Friends of the Earth was mostly made up of students from the Huddersfield Polytechnic.

Admittedly I wasn’t as committed to the Group as my Mother, for example we went to London to lobby our Members of Parliament to cease nuclear expansion and I went for a sight seeing walk.

On the other hand I find it ironic that the issues that we were concerned with back then as a small minority of eccentrics are now being considered by the majority as if they are new issues brought about by global warming.

Even the idea of global warming isn’t that new.

So, what has inspired me to take a new interest in these matters? The answer is TED Talks.

I recently came across the TED Talks web-site when I was investigating the possibilities of using the internet as a teaching tool. I found a link to a TED talk on education by Sir Ken Robinson, who I had never heard of before, however his talk was very interesting and amusing.

Finding the TED Talks web-site by chance led me to partake of many other TED Talks. All were very interesting and informative and entertaining. There was even a talk by one of my favourite comedians, Rory Bremner.

TED Talks remind me of the situation in The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams where the Super Computer Deep Thought has given the answer to life, the universe and everything as the number forty-two but the question will need to be explained by a future computer thus giving work to Stand-up Philosophers for centuries while the new computer is under construction.

The TED Talks Stand-up Philosophers that inspired me the most were Bertrand Piccard, Shai Agassi, Amory Lovins, Sylvia Earle and William Kamkwabma. Most of the talks are inspiring but these stood out particularly for me.

Bertrand Piccard the round the world baloonist has a new project, to fly round the world in a solar powered aircraft.

This was something he was told could not be done, he decided to do it anyway.

His aircraft is going to need solar panels capable of powering the aircraft’s flight during the day and also capable of charging the batteries with enough power to keep the aircraft aloft and flying through the night.

Hopefully this project will lead to improvements in solar panel and battery technology that will benefit everyone in their homes and at work.

The Solar Impulse project may appear frivolous at first glance, however the vision is that the world can be powered by renewable energy sources if we wish it and make it happen.

I’d like to see affordable renewable energy sources become widely available for average home owners so that they can become independant of the electricity generating companies who will be able to make their profits from powering electric vehicles instead.

I think such a scheme would be beneficial in less developed countries where there is no electricity generating company to supply the general population.

On 7 April at 10:30 a.m. the Solar Impulse took off for the first time from Payerne air field.

Shai Agassi gave a brilliant talk about electric cars and the Better Place organisation.

I believe that replacing petrol fueled cars with electric cars will be one of the most important changes that we can make in the next twenty years.

The Better Place organisation aims to install the electricity infrastructure as the foundation for the projects already started in Denmark, Australia and Israel.

The electricity generating companies need to see that there will be enormous profits to be made by moving away from providing electricity to residential and industrial buildings.

In the future we will have electricity Barons rather than oil Barons.

Electricity for residential and industrial buildings will in the future be provided solely by renewable sources, wind turbines, solar panels and batteries.

At the moment this technology is too expensive and does not produce enough electricity for most residential situations, this needs to change and will when the manufacturers realise the enormous potential for profit.

Appliances need to use less, we have low energy lightbulbs, we need low energy microwave ovens, televisions, personal computers, kettles, coffee percolators.

Amory B Lovins has a plan to end oil dependency forever.

He and his colleagues have written a free book entitled Winning The Oil Endgame for all to read.

Winning the Oil Endgame

The inspiring thing about this talk for me was that he made the plan seem so practical, easy and obvious.

For example he states that It’s cheaper to save fuel than to buy fuel. This is especially true of oil. In fact this is what actually happened during the so called Oil Crisis of the 1970s.

In other words the idea that climate protection is costly is not true, it’s actually profitable.

He also makes a very interesting comparison with the situation that ended the whale oil industry that came to an end as the result of profit making capitalists exploiting the American oil fields.

Sylvia Earle gave a very passionate and inspiring talk on her One Wish To Change The World, and no it wasn’t her sexy voice, or her cute self conscious laugh that won me over.

She said that the Earth is our life support system and that we should get to know it and how it works thoroughly.

First we need to recognise that there are problems and then in knowing comes caring and with caring hope that we can do something about the problems.

The frightening thing is however that more than half the Earth’s oxygen is produced by the oceans: “Health for the oceans is health for us”.

We must clean up all the Earth’s water, oceans, seas, lakes and rivers. We need them to be healthy so that we are healthy.

Industry needs to see that it is more profitable to sell it’s waste products to other industries rather than dump it in the water supply.

Much of the problems are due to the actions of individuals disposing of their waste carelessly, this then ends up in the oceans.

William Kamkwabma was perhaps the most inspiring of all.

During a famine Kamkwabwa had to give up school as the family could no longer afford the fees. He decided to educate himself.

Using the local Library he taught himself to read English and studied the books on physics. He also studied books on electrical engineering including text books on wind technology that could generate electricity and pump water.

He built wind turbines and pumps from scrap and was soon a local celebrity.

He was very nervous telling his story.

The global catastrophe that we’re actually experiencing now can be averted.

It was a grey and damp evening for a trip to Dewsbury by train. Somehow it seemed the right weather to be going to see a play about the holocaust.

As I had done the new web-site for Jayson Bartlett which had also publicised his new play he had given me a couple of VIP tickets to see the play and attend the reception beforehand. The reception was a quiet affair, I expected Jayson and maybe someone from the Council to make a speech, but there were no speeches. Afterwards we went to our front row seats on the balcony.

The play started quite shockingly with people arriving at a concentration camp filing through the audience being shouted at and jostled and pushed by NAZI soldiers. It set the scene of oppression quite vividly.

The lights then came up on half of the stage and we saw a scene in the present day where journalists set up an interview with a holocaust survivor, “Krystina Ruben”.

Once the interview was underway the remainder of the stage lit up intermittently to portray the characters memories while the lights dimmed on the present day scene.

By the end of the play we learned that reporter “Philip Carter” played by Daniel Van Garrett was researching the holocaust and had set up the interviews with holocaust survivor “Krystina Ruben” played by Rebecca Foster in order to come to terms with his own family’s involvement in the holocaust.

The huge cast all performed their roles believably, with passion and commitment; the transformation from the rehearsals I had seen was amazing.

Eleven year old Phoebe Tissiman’s lengthy monologue of statistical information and of what it was like for a child going into the ghetto and the death camp was delivered flawlessly setting the tone of the flashbacks as events seen through the eyes of a child.

Alexandra Glinska’s haunting voice left hardly a dry eye in the house.

Michael Siegel was outstanding, giving convincing performances of two very different characters; “Ruben’s” father in the flashbacks and in the second act as “Muller” a former death camp guard included in the present day interview.

We’ve all seen the caricature NAZI villain and perhaps grown accustomed to seeing him swaggering and arrogant and not taking him seriously. We’ve seen him defeated and humiliated in all sorts of comedy and drama, but this play shows him as a real human being and how he came to be and how he rose to power.

In one scene a NAZI SS soldier catches a little boy who had got through the wall of the ghetto to trade for fresh food and shoots him on the spot, this was a shocking scene and the audience reacted to it with a sharp intake of breath. For me this scene was all the more shocking because of the lack of consequences; no public outcry, no investigation, no press condemnation, no decent whatsoever.

The Interview was written by Jayson Bartlett after five years of research, therefore the scenes that illustrate how the NAZI movement was able to build on the existing hatred and fear to legitimise social exclusion, internment and mass murder are genuine. “Hitler did not invent anti-semitism, he just gave it legislation”.

In the present day the character “Muller” saw himself as a criminal and a coward, he could not apologise for his part in the horrible things that had been done as they were too horrible. This must never happen again, but it is happening and it should be recognised and opposed.

Afterwards we went to the pub where I recorded Jayson announcing the next production of The Interview to take place in Leeds.

On the day we went by train to Hull setting off in the morning so that we could have a look round Hull. We had a look around the new shopping centre near the railway station and the not so new shopping centre by the river. We also had a bit of a walk by the river and on the sea front.

After lunch at Wetherspoons we met up with the Lincs Quest members, had a group photo taken by the shark statue and then toured The Deep.

The first part of the tour is a climb up many flights of stairs to the top of the building, (there is a lift for the more sensible). Once at the top you gradually make your way down the building passing various exhibits, tanks and shows.

One of the first tanks you approach is a huge “lava-lamp” filled with jelly fish, I found this quite distasteful as even jelly-fish that have no nervous system or internal organs are living things.

We saw many colourful tropical fish and corals before reaching a cinema area, some of the party stopped to watch a 3D movie while I looked round an exhibit called “The Twilight Zone” that covered marine life living in the deepest and darkest depths.

The highlight was the main big tank where sharks, rays and other big fish could be seen from the tunnel an underwater lift and the scenic stairway, we did all three.

To round off the day we all went to The Sail Makers for a pub meal.

Posters were distributed, I took three which I put up on Friday.

Afterwards some of us went to The Crackenedge pub for a drink.

I found myself sat between Simon Glenn and Graham Hidderley-Burgess, they had a discussion about value relating to a packet of crisps, Graham had a purely financial view and Simon professed a more philosophical view.

The venue was the Adelphi, Leeds, so we decided to eat in Leeds so as to be certain of being on time and went to the Little Tokyo, Japanese restaurant. The meal was excellent, I had a mixed fry Bento Box set meal whch leterally was served in a compartmented box.

Arriving at the bar of the Adelphi I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a Real Ale venue, Dave had his usual dark ale and I had a scrumpy cider.

The “headline” act was Steve Harris who we are told had only gone and bagged the coveted ‘North-West Comedian of the Year’ Award Just three months after first taking to the stage. He was quite good and deservedly the headline act of the three.

The first support act was Joe Lycett who we are told has just gone and charmed his way into a nomination for for BEST NEWCOMER at the annual Chortle Awards! He is very young and I suspect he will go far if he sticks at it and is willing to learn from his mistakes.

The second support act was Gordon Smith, another young comedian though not as original as the first act but still quite funny.

I arrived at Dewsbury railway station and walked across town and then round the Town Hall to try to find the entrance through the plastic covering that engulfed the building due to renovation works. A quick phone call to Bryanie got me inside where the rehearsal was in full swing. By this time I was quite damp due to the miserable weather but this was soon forgotten as I became enthralled by the scenes being enacted on the stage.

The atmosphere was very friendly, a number of the cast introduced themselves and when the rehearsal was over a group of us went to a pub to round off the evening, I caught the last train back to Huddersfield.

Last week I visited Jayson Bartlett in his home to provide training on the web-site and discuss Jayson’s web-site plans. The most interesting ideas that resulted from the meeting resulted in the two following “trailers” for the play.

Video – The Interview – The story of the holocaust.

Video – The Interview – Early reheasal.

Today I updated the cast and crew list on the web-site, The Interview cast.

As usual I went by train setting off in the afternoon, the trains were remarkably busy, I had to stand up between Huddersfield and Leeds and between Leeds and Birmingham all the seats were occupied meaning I had to share a seat. The train from Birmingham to Walsall was also full but I did get to sit down for part of the journey.

After a one mile walk across town I arrived at the County Hotel and booked in where after putting my bags in the room I spent the time in the bar meeting others as they arrived. We also collated the documentation for the Activities Workshop, this reminded me of the time I worked for ISCO5 and got the contract to collate Civil Service mailings.

After a while we decided to walk into Walsall for a meal and after a couple of restaurants were rejected we settled down for an Indian meal that was very good, as was the company.

After the meal it was back to the hotel for the usual drinking session, this lasted until about 2 o clock, Sandra moaned that people were going to bed too early.

After breakfast I attended the pre-AGM NEC meeting but had to leave for the in-camera section, this was strange as being National Chairman and Area Chairman before that I’d been included in these for the previous five or six years. Equally strange was sitting in the delegates section of the conference.

At lunch time our Area Chairman congratulated me on my selection for Vice-President, he let the cat out of the bag prematurely so that when the election came up and I was asked to leave the room for the vote I already knew I was one of the chosen. When we came back (Sandra and Gerry were re-selected also) someone said we didn’t have to make a speech and then I was pushed in front of the microphone. I’m glad I was as it wouldn’t have been right not to at least say thank-you for the honour.

After the conference finished some of us went into town for a drink and a chat, mainly to discuss the trophies that we were to award later.

Back at the venue we rushed to get changed for the dinner-dance. Corinnal had it all planned out and we had been told in no uncertain terms that we shouldn’t be late, and we weren’t.

During the dessert the Awards Ceremony started, I was surprised to be awatded a National Chairmans Merit Award especially since I had produced the certificates and bought the medals.

Best of all was that Lince Quest won this year’s Best Group Award, Lis collected it and gave a very emotional speech dedicating the award to her friend who had recently died.

The highlight of the evening’s entertainment was provided by comedian Craig Harper who spent the evening drinking and chatting with members well into the wee hours.

On Sunday the Activities Workshop took place, we had a fairly good turn out especially from some of the younger members who were very enthusiastic.