Everything evolves.

When I started this blog (91 posts ago!!!) the main topic was our foray into car-less living, all be it almost car-less living.
Well we have certainly learnt a lot in the last ten months!
The main thing being that no, we can't live without a car, not in a permanent capacity.

A lot of things have changed since August 2009.

For one thing Kim now has work. Having gone self-employed he finds himself having to ditch the bike more and more in favour of the car as his work takes him further afield. For example we have to take a clients horse to be x-rayed on Friday. The vets don't have a mobile x-ray and so he will have to box the mare ten miles down the road and back.
Another blow was that one of his clients is now very ill and he has taken over a lot more work that he was originally going to do and they insisted he have the use of one of their cars so he can be up to their yard quickly in all weathers and also take over jobs such as collecting feed from the feed merchants.

Winter 2009 also conspired against our eager plans. The worst winter in thirty years hit Aberdeenshire and for the best part of four months it was impossible to cycle anywhere, with sporadically gritted and ploughed roads and grocery deliveries often not arriving or refusing to come down our lane, we were forced to drive into town to collect our shopping.

Then, after getting ourselves geared up to do nearly all our shopping within cycling distance, the local veggie cabin closed, meaning it was no long financially viable to do more than a fraction of our shopping locally.

All in all, despite our best efforts we now acknowledge that our rural location makes it incredibly hard (because nothing is IMPOSSIBLE!) to be 100% car-less.
With bad weather, no reliable and regular public transport, young children and animals (who always seem to need the vet when you are least able to get them there!) the whole thing was getting more than a little stressful!

Are we giving up?

Hell no!

Just being realistic.

I can still cycle to the little town and Kim still cycles to work when he is able, we still try and get the kids on the bikes to visit local areas. 

After a recent trip to the city of Edinburgh (FANTASTIC by the way!) I suddenly realised just how infrastructure poor we are here.
In a large town or city the majority of things you need are THERE, within walking distance or at a push easily reached by bus or train.  
I've been using the Tuesday bus into town for a while, but the two hours you get before having to catch the bus back home are woefully inadequate, you can do your shopping OR you can do jobs in town, but not both, so you spend the best part of £6 travelling and the whole morning away from home and will probably have to go back into town in a car as well at some stage in the week.

I don't feel we have failed so much as I feel let down by a country that takes relish in closing small local shops and businesses, cutting public transport and making life so hard for those not in te city to live car-less that you end up with country people migrating to the towns and richer town people taking over the country and villages.

So we have a newer outlook.
A do-what-we-can outlook that tries not too feel too bad when a car is a necessary evil.
Go through the options first and use the car last, but don't beat yourself up for having to use it outlook.

I think we can live with it.

HOWEVER......

This puts us in somewhat of a quandary.
How can we continue to call this blog "The (Almost) Car-Less Family" when we are now more the "Definitely Car Owning Family"?

So I feel a re-jig coming on.

A new name to go with the evolution of the blog.
I'm thinking about it at the moment and when I have half a dozen options we'll put it on a poll!!!

Feel free to throw any suggestions in there!      

Winter reflections on life and all that jazz.

Well the snow is going.
For the while at least.
In a usual year we have a bit of snow late November/ early December and then a large fall around February time, so it will be interesting to see what happens between now and Spring.

Although to be fair today was almost spring like.
Enough snow has melted to be able to do some work on the veggie garden, and I spent an hour forking over and adding much to the bed that the garlic is going in (late but..well). When the sun came out I actually had to take my fleece off!
Be moaning about heatstroke soon ;)

Anyway, today we took the kids out to the Bennachie Centre on the other side of the mountain.
Now to be honest we have all gone a little stir crazy the last month, what with being snowed in and all, and as the weather had broken and the temp was up we decided to go for it.
The child grill, I mean DOG grill of course..essential bit of kit ;)

Am I the only one who's kids moan and whinge about going for a walk but when you make them they have the best time?

They love this place because of the free visitor centre, a huge open plan modern wooden cabin with lots of tree and animal related information, interactive touchscreens, webcam hides the works.



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The walk as always was great, and the higher up the mountain we got the more snow was still about!
We stuck to one of the lower trails as it was late in the afternoon by the time we got there but the kids went free running through the woods at the side of the trail, jumping over ditches and logs and generally running off 4 weeks of house arrest





We talked about our car-less plans while out.
Obviously we had driven for this trip, the ice still thick in places, the daylight fading, the kids...well, being kids.
The plan had been to try and live car-less over the winter with a long term view of going completely car-less had we got on ok.
I think on reflection this is an un-realistic plan.
Don't get me wrong, our commitment to cycling and public transport remain, but the factors that rally against us, the isolated location, the lack of affordable public transport, the yucky winter weather (and lack of infrastructure for clearing roads etc) all conspire against winter car-less-ness.

There are also the kids to take into account.
If it was just me and Kim many things would be simpler. For example we have a wedding to go to in the spring. For two adults it would be easy and cheap to bus down south. With the kids though? For one thing it is a horrible HORRIBLE journey (14 hrs, late night wait in Glasgow bus station, no security and lots of drunks. toilet too unspeakable to think of ..and that's is it all goes well!), but the big issue is not our lack of "adventurous spirit" but pure finances. Seriously, it is cheaper for us to hire a car for a WEEK than it is to take 5 people on a bus.
There is something fundamentally wrong with that I think.
This same problem crops up locally as well.
Two train tickets to Aberdeen is do-able, five is beyond our means.

Bottom line is we can't keep the kids cooped up all winter only going from home to school and back again.

Our revised plan is this.
Our commitment to cycling spring through Autumn (and on suitable winter days also) is still strong. There are lots of places available in the locality to visit and we plan to do the lot this year.
The landrover stays. In the depths of winter when snow and ice are on the ground and daylight appears around 9.30 am and goes away just after lunch, we need a life line to the "outside world".
We already spent more time on bikes since we started than in the landrover so we still have credit as it were.
A once a week trip to a nice walk with some chips for dinner on the way home are surely not too much for kids to ask?

So its all good.
Our plans evolve and bend and change as needed.
After all, who wants to be so pure that your kids grow up to be raging consumers and petrol heads because they never got to do anything when they where growing up.
If it was just me and Kim we could hibernate for the winter, watch DVD's listen to the radio, chat, read.
But we have to remember that we share our house with three other people, lively curious, insatiable children who will not rest for winter and are not easily fobbed off with another game of snap.

Roll on spring :)

Which ethic should I follow today?

The trouble with making the choice to be compassionate about more than one thing, whether it be animals, the environment, children in sweat shops etc, is that some days you find it almost impossible not to run up against one while trying to do the other.
For example today we drove to town for two reasons, 1.The bus is more expensive (really!) and 2.We had a lot of things to do (and carry)and would have missed the bus.
So we immediately run up against problem number 1. We wanted to hit the charity shops but knew what we wanted would be too bulky to get on the bus. So is charity shop the way or should we have stayed home, spent MORE money and brought it new?? But why buy new when there is a cheaper 2nd hand one??

Breath!

The next thing is the goods I brought.
I was after two things in particular cushions and puppy stuff.
Well I fell at many hurdles there.
One of the cushions I brought was not only silk but filled with duck feathers!! A double anti-vegan whammy!
Then I found the perfect tiny collar for my new puppy...but in leather.

I could have course have brought both of these items in ethical materials, even eco-friendly materials, but they would have been new...manufactured for ME, using up carbon and resources and ....Lots of other stuff!!

So I think I have to draw a line.

You can drive yourself NUTS trying to be a super hero for everyone.
I think that buying from charity shops absolves me from a few nasties. I am in effect buying someone elses "rubbish" Things they no longer want and they COULD (and many people DO!) have thrown these items in a landfill rather than gift them to a charity shop.

Now don't get me wrong.
I wouldn't go and buy a leather jacket or fur coat because it is someones rubbish, I would feel very uncomfortable doing that, but a wee collar for my pup? (99p!!! Never been used!!) or a cushion for my soon to be built sofa? (75p!!!)no. Im not going to feel torn over these.

The charity shop is a win win.
I get to buy items I need (also brought some Xmas pressies for people today!)at prices I can afford. I not only make a donation to charity BUT I also keep unwanted goods out of landfills.
Also, in the case of books, movies, CD's etc I often take them back a few weeks later, so the charity shop gets to sell them again.

You need to pick your battles for how you live.
I would love to buy all our clothes and shoes from ethical, fairtrade shops but honestly can't.
At least by buying clothes from Charity shops I am re-using something someone didn;t want AND I am NOT buying first hand cheap made-in-a-sweatshop clothing.

Pick your battles, draw your lines, live your life.

The benefits circle of hell.

As most of you know we are on benefits, the dole, welfare to our friends over the pond.
I would like, at this point, the reiterate that we do NOT feel bad about this. Kim worked very hard his whole working life and has paid over 35 years of income tax and national insurance so I don't think anyone could accuse him of not "contributing" to the economy.

Its amazing to think it has been a whole YEAR now since he was made redundant and in that year he has been invited to maybe a dozen interviews, had countless letters saying thanks but no thanks and has sent our even more CV's than he can remember. So really no one could accuse him of not TRYING to get a job.

Well it was his 12 month assessment the other week.
The job centre called him in to try and find out why he wasn't working yet, so armed with all the paperwork he had accumulated over the year he set off on the long trek to Aberdeen.

Now, we never expect to be treated like long lost friends at the job centre. Yes we realise that a good amount of their time is taken up with people who have never worked (and probably never will and don't care) but who always seem to have enough money for fags and booze and (openly) drugs, and who do it all in designer street wear.
But you should be able to expect a little civility right?

So the interview opened.
The unsmiling clerk, spends 10 minutes checking up on the computer exactly what Kim has been applying for.
Ok...
"We need you to cast your net a little wider Mr Basford."
"Ok."
"You need to stop setting your sights to high."

stop.

"Setting his sights too high!?"
So applying for work in a warehouse and being a school caretaker is "setting his sights too high?"

Not one of Kim's applications have been for CEO of Texaco or Arch Bishop of Canterbury (can supply own dress).

Ok.

"You also need to be prepared to commute further. You need to apply for more jobs in Aberdeen."
"I don't have a car, so I am limited by public transport."
*Shocked look*
"What do you mean you don't have a car?"
"Well we have a 30 year old petrol land rover but I can't commute in it. My Car blew up and I couldn't afford to fix it or buy a new one."
*Looks at Kim like he blew the car up on purpose*
"Right, public transport..."

Now Aberdeen is 30 miles away. By train and bus you are looking at a minimum of £60 a week in travel. Fine if your on £25'000 per anum, not so hot if your on say £15'000. It becomes a serious chunk of your income.
Kim explained this, he also pointed out that if he took a minimum wage job he would still have to pay full council tax which would mean that as a family we would not be a little worse off but significantly worse off.

"*sniff*, we don't take that into account Mr Basford. You need to be looking at a maximum of 1 and 1/2 hours commuting each way."
"But that would take me as far as Inverness!(80 miles, @ £135 a week..nearly half a low wage. Very ecological.)
"Yes it would."
"I think your being unreasonable. I can't commute that far."
"Well Mr Basford, you should have thought about that before moving to the country."

WHOA!

Is this what it comes down to?
Is he suggesting we sell our house and move into the city?
Does he not take into account that for 8 of the 9 years we have lived here Kim has been in gainful employment?

Wait a sec..how about we tell all the CITY people to move BACK to the city where THEIR jobs are so that their spouses can get low paid "pin money"jobs (ie , jobs they don't NEED, but do because they are bored)THERE and free up jobs in rural areas for ..oh..I dunno..PEOPLE WHO LIVE RURALLY!

I have lived in the country for over 17 years, Kim his whole life! We did not move to our house to "downsize" (ie sell 2 bed flat in city and buy 6 bed country pile) We moved here because despite us both (seperatly) trying to live urban, we both hated it so much we moved back to the country.

We are arriving in a time when only the wealthy are deemed "worthy" to live in the country, because moving to the country is what you do when you have "made it."

Would you uproot your kids from a good school, leave all your friends behind and sell all your animals, forget growing any food of your own, and live in a shitty council flat because you MIGHT get a minimum wage job stacking shelves?

I refuse to bow to that. While we have our house (paid for, so no mortgage) and our veggie garden we have a fighting chance of making our lives better. If we moved to the city we would be a million times worse off.

Our plan is to get off this moral draining merry-go-round, better to be worse off and self employed doing a bit here and there,than to be worse off and living in a crap part of a crap city in a crap job.
Its a scary thought.
Being on benefits is like being a slave.
Yes you get fed and a roof over your head, but they can whip it our from under your feet when ever they feel like it.
They can threaten you into taking the worst possible job by dangling the little money your entitled too under your nose.

Shall we finish the interview?

"You need to get more proactive Mr Basford."
"Yes."
"We think you should spend two days a week going door to door with your CV's iN inverurie."
"I can't afford the train to do that! It would be nearly £25 a week!"
"We don't take that into account Mr Basford."
"So, do have any training available for me?"
"No Mr Basford."
"But I thought you where meant to offer me training?"

"No. You can find some yourself, but you will have to declare it and it may effect your benefits if you work over so many hours."

Ok.

Fuck 'em.

Even a guy in a cardboard box has more freedom than that.

Think of us.

Can't give up the car? Green your outlook anyway :D

Regular readers will know that although we here at the (almost) car-less family, strive for a life without the car,we also accept that in some instances people (us included) are not fully able to give their car up completely.

For example, we live in a rural area with inconsistent and highly variable public transport. We have children and animals and also like to use Freegle (ex freecycle) a lot.
Do we beat ourselves up about occasional car use?
Hell no!
We're only human, and we have lives to lead, but we do try to stick to a few golden rules that I thought I'd share with you today....

• Do you REALLY need to take the car out today?Learn to analyse your proposed trip out in the car. Is it really necessary? Can you wait until a day you can use public transport? Can you even do without making the trip at all? The majority of car trips in the UK are UNDER 5 miles!! Easy cycling distance, moderate walking distance.
• Plan ahead.It sounds so simple doesn't it. But think about how many times a week you run out of bread, cat food, loo roll etc. Work out how much you need of something for a week and then buy one extra.
• Use your car trip in an industrial way.So you really REALLY need to go out in the car, ok, its life or death right? Well make sure you have other things to do while your out. Before you go out make sure you have all the shopping you need. Is there some DIYing you were going to do? Maybe this is the time to nip to the hardware store to pick up those washers or screws or whatevers. Fill the back of your car with the re-cycling you haven't got round to taking out yet. Better yet, ask a neighbour if they need anything while you are out. That way you are potentially saving TWO car trips, and maybe next time they will ask YOU if you need anything from town.
• Make your own rules and stick to them.We never..I mean NEVER drive to the local shop. It is 3 miles away. I can cycle to the shop and back within 40 minutes. The only time the car goes near the shop is if we are on the way back from somewhere further afield. If the weather is too bad for me to think about cycling there, I can't have needed the item that badly can I.
• Re-priorities "emergencies"We tend to treat running out of olives or icing sugar as a family disaster in this current car loving society. So you didn't plan ahead? You will next time right? But in the meantime, change your dinner plan and have pasta WITHOUT olives, leave the icing off the cupcakes. Learn to adapt, learn to be flexible, learn what is really important and stop worrying about the small stuff.
• Explore other avenues of transport.You need to get some where. If you can't walk you can see if its practical to cycle. If not check out the public transport in your area. If that's no good see if you can get a lift with a friend going in the right direction (com'mon, EVERYONE is in their cars, you must know SOMEONE who is driving your way that day?). If all else fails take your car and re-read point no. 3.
• DON'T PANIC!! There are ways around everything if you use a little thought. Try and make appointments around your public transport timetables. Get as much delivered as possible. Talk to your friends and neighbours, try and organise lift shares.
• Don't beat yourself up because you can't afford the new "eco" cars. Its better for an old car to only be driven twice a week than to use an "eco" car so indiscriminately that wheels never stop turning.

Try to look at the thing as a whole.

Use your car as little as possible and its better than using it without thought or care. Before you know it you will have turned around and realised that the car you "couldn't live without" hasn't left your drive for a week.

Good luck and have fun!

Public transport and other things that SHOULD make car-less easier....but don't.

I get angry at the lack of reliable public transport.
Yesterday I had a Dr's appointment and caught the ONLY bus into the little town, but because I had planned on walking home I only brought a one way.

Trouble was it then rained like stink and I couldn't be sure the bus would come back through town. No one else had got on or off when I did and if that happens the driver often misses the town out on the way back!
My Dr's appointment had left me a little sorry for myself and I *shame* called Kim to come get me in the Landrover.
Do I call that falling off the wagon?? Or falling off the Bike ? ;)


The point is I wouldn't have cycled in that day and had to rely on the bus, but the bus can not be relied upon.

Is this the main reason people feel they HAVE to own a car??

A couple of years ago Kim tried taking public transport into work. He would catch the commuter bus at 7am and it would take him into town to catch the train. Trouble was on more than on occasion the bus would be late, or in some cases not turn up at all.
This would mean he would miss his train and have to run home and drive into work. Of course though he had paid for a season ticket, but at the end of this period he worked out that using public transport (AND his own when public transport failed him) had cost him significantly MORE than if he had just driven.

So what is the incentive????

How can governments ask you to drive less but give you no alternative??

Lets face it not everyone is able to grab two wheels. What about the elderly, the heavily pregnant, the ill, the injured?

Any government serious about fighting climate change should be pushing for more reliable public transport for everyone.
When there are only 2 buses out of my village (one 5 days a week to train station, leave 7am, home 6.30 pm. One bus to BIG town once a week, only 2 hrs allowed for visit before coming home again)what incentive is there for the villagers to give up their cars?

Parents want to take their children to activities after school or at the weekend. People work in the week and are unable to use the bus into the big town. Other people have different working start and finish times and so are unable to use the commuter bus and train.

What we need are incentives. A tax break? Low fares? A cash incentive after so many journeys maybe? Lay on the transport and make it attractive.

Three or four buses a day into town would cover a lot of people, incentives to buy season tickets would mean buses would not be in danger of running at a loss.
Where can we take it from here?

What ever happened to town and country?

The shift in the way people think has been disastrous for the environment on local level.
People are convinced that if they recycle and compost they are doing more than enough to make a difference but they are so wrong.
In the days before every home had a car (let alone 2 or 3!)people lived near their place of work.
So if you worked in the city you lived in the city, if you worked ona farm you lived in the country...easy peasy.
But then some of the richer city dwellers decided it would be nice to live in the country and "commute" in his nice shiny car.

In the past the very rich of course had kept a city and a country home, catching the train at the weekend to visit the wife and kids. But in the days when the rich had household help I should imagine the onset of WWII trying to keep two houses running was significantly more expensive than running a car to work everyday.

Where the Rich lead the middle class will follow, and soon the city and town workers started flocking to the country for a "better life".

Now no-one can deny that back then life in the city was hard, but then it was also hard in the country.


It seems to be the norm with most people now...leave home, get a job and a flat, get married, get a house, hae kids and MOVE TO THE COUNTRY!
The trouble is though that all the city and town dwellers wanted to bring their urban life with them.
They continued to commute to work by car (in fact so many did that the UK has lost most of its train and bus routes as so few people used them), and in doing so rejected using the facilities in the villages in favour of shopping in the town on the way home, so the rural post offices and shops died out one by one until what we are left with a a series of ghost villages.

My village has doubled in size through new builds in the last 3 years and is set to get even bigger by 2012.
But it seems the more new houses go up the less facilities outr village has.
The shop closed 4 years ago, leaving a huge gap in the community, the pub has no more patrons, although there are twice as many people living in the village now, and is struggling to stay open.
Every morning the occupants of these new houses get into their cars and drive away to work between 15 and 40 miles away from here.

All you need is a tumble weed hopping down the street.

Every evening they come home and sit in their new houses. They don't walk in the countryside or visit the country pub or take bike rides around the lane....they sit in their houses and watch TV.

And living in the country is better than the town because????

Why do I live in the country?

I have had the fortune to have lived in all ways, city, town, suburbs and rurally. I am a country girl at heart, I love to grow our own food and walk on the mountain, we have the horses and need to live here to keep them.
I loved living in the town when I did. I loved being close to facilities and never having to worry about having a car, I could walk or bus or cycle where ever I wanted.

I sometimes feel people move to the country because they feel its "what you do".
By moving indiscriminately though they turn the country into a suburb miles away from anywhere.

Towns now, for the most part, are green places now. They are no longer the factory chimney spewing, grim places they where 50 years ago.
What can be done to encourage people to stay close to their place of work again?
How can you change the mindset that you've "made it" if you live in the country, even though you are moving to what is essentially a tiny house ona new estate which is only in the "country" because it is miles from town and shops.


I have no objection to people moving into the country, after all I am an incomer myself...the objection is the urbanising of villages.

The home school debate, or how to dig yourself deeper into the weird family hole.

The topic of home schooling has been one that has come up a lot over the last 7 years or so.
It started when we met up with an old friend of husbands and his wife and children. It transpired that they homeschooled and a nicer pair of articulate and confident children I had never met.
Eldest was two at the time and I remember giving it some serious consideration, but then I had #2 and #3 son in quick succession and the thought went on the back boiler for a while.
I had always dug my heels in about sending the boys to nursery, something that parents routinely do from 2 and a half in Scotland (from 3 it is government funded). I always said no way. Our nearest nursery was too far away (even though we had a car then I don't drive anyway), there was no public transport and I had no desire to put my 3 year old son in a taxi with a stranger to go to a nursery where I would probably never even meet his carers.
People made noises about how good it would be to socialize him, how he would be "ready for school" and possibly behind if he didn't go.
I pointed out that no single doctor or lawyer practicing today was made to go to full time nursery and they did just fine.
As it happened when eldest started school I was taken aside by his teacher and told that it was so nice to have a child start school who wasn't already jaded by the "system", a child who approached learning like an adventure.
And for the record he is a million times more gregarious than me or his father ;)

Anyway....

I digress.

Home schooling popped up again when he started to have trouble at school. He has just (yesterday in fact) been diagnosed with Dyslexia and Audio memory problems, something we and his teachers have known for a while but until now has not been "formally recognised" by the powers that be.
Sometimes I would think about the amount of wasted time he has in school and then the extra work he has to do after school and think "what is the point? I could do this with him in half the time." But what stops me is that it is a genuinely GREAT school. Its small (22 pupils split in to two classes) the teachers are enthusiastic and approachable, nothing like the teachers I had as a child. And he loves going, he loves being with his friends and working.
I know that if he was in a larger school his problems would not have been picked up for a long time, he is clever at hiding and diverting when he is struggling with something.

So I had decided that primary school should be attended.
However I was having thoughts about secondary school.

Only 2 years away and he goes from a school of 22 to a school of 784 pupils. I admit ti having some worries about how he will get on there, if he will get the kind of support that he gets now.
So maybe I will homeschool them for secondary school, but it raises other issues.
On a budget and without a regular car can I grantee he (and eventually his brothers) will get to do things. Will they get to clubs or activities and meet other kids. Even if we have the car can we afford to do that.
Again, living in a town or city this would be fine, there are buses and museums and libraries and youth clubs all within walking or cycling distance. In truth though most things like that up here are in the nearest large town 15 miles away.

Its a consideration.

Luckily in a meeting with the support teacher and the assessor yesterday I learnt a lot about the new software the secondary school has for kids who need additional support, the allowances with things like spell check and calculators so they can do exams.

More research is needed I think.

Should have not have kids and brought a new puppy instead ;)

Ah..the peace of country living...erm...?

Many people may wonder "Why oh why...!" ( as these things invariably start) "Why does this family need a car? They live in the country! There should be winding lanes and village shops and thick green hedges and lashings of ginger beer DAMMIT!"
Well this did exist.....around about the same time as Eynid Blyton 1st editions where being printed.
Face it, in this day and age it is by FAR safer to be car-less in the town or a city than it is in the country.
IN the towns the cars all go at 30 miles and hour or less, the amenities are closer, there are even (sit down now!) BIKE LANES where cars are not allowed!
The country however is a very different beast.
The trouble is that most villages have ceased to be quaint dwelling places for the farm workers and millers and shop owners, they are now almost exclusively populated by commuters.
The whole point of being a commuter is to ...Commute to your place of work...quickly.
They long to live in the country but they bring the worst of the towns with them.
Although there is a (blatantly ignored) 30 mile and hour limit through the village itself, outside the village it is the national speed limit of 60 miles an hour, which, on these long stretches of road, are often exceeded, even around blind bends.
This has always been the reason we have kept a car before, the shear fear factor of being splattered across the road, not to mention with children cycling with you.
Husband bought a bike a few weeks ago and has now though found most of the safer routes to the next town, so we feel a little more confident.
There is a daily bus that takes you to the town (3 miles away) but it leaves at 7.30 am and returns at 6pm, so not handy for a trip to the local cost cutter.
There is, however a a weekly bus that takes you all the way to the BIG town (15 miles away) which (once the kids are back at school) we can use to do the things we can't do online, and believe me, we will make great use of Mr Tescos internet shopping.
Most things can be delivered to your door nowadays and surely still remains a more eco-friendly way of shopping against having to drive into town every few days.
Alas the village shop here is no more, but this is no bad thing, when its raining and you fancy some chocolate, the thought of a long weary bike ride suddenly makes those cravings VANISH!
Hmm, I could lose some weight yet!