Common Sense Utilities

Utilities in France are enormously expensive - and the French are enormously reluctant to spend money that could otherwise be socked away, or used for something essential. Like food.

The methods French people use to avoid paying huge utility bills might seem a bit OTT to us, but I think we could learn something from their cut-it-down or cut-it-out and pay-as-you-go philosophy.

We have a friend who has a small business. She lives in a newly refurbished rented house, does alternations, makes garments sometimes, makes toys, bags, belts and ties out of scrap fabric all the time. Her house is equipped with a new shower and bath, a new washing machine, and a new central heating system.

She doesn't use any of it - and she doesn't have a land line telephone - but that doesn't mean that she doesn't stay warm, doesn't bathe, doesn't wash her clothes, and never speaks to anyone.

• Heating is paraffin, which is cheap, pay as you go, and doesn't smell. The house is always warm.
• €32 buys her a power-shower 7 days a week for three months at the local leisure centre - and she can swim as well when the hours suit her. Cheaper than using water and electricity at home, and fitness is a bonus.
• 'Smalls' are washed by hand. Bigger things go to the Launderette once a fortnight - cost €2. A lot cheaper than using water and electricity at home.
• Telephone is a pay as you go mobile. Why support France Telecom?

The downside is that she needs to dust the shower.

OK - it's pay-as-you-go gone nuts, and it wouldn't suit everybody - but it's a regime that works for a lot of people, so it's worth thinking about how you might turn it around to suit yourself.

We haven't adopted the whole regime - but we haven't turned on the central heating this winter either. Even taking into account the cost of buying and using alternative sources of heating, our electricity bills have been reduced by €600 over the last two months alone - and the house is warm and so are we, and we don't miss central heating.

It really is worth a thought.

Emily

Riots - We All Need To Agree On A New Vocabulary

Like everyone else everywhere, I've been watching what's been going on in Britain over the last few days - and in fact is still going on now, in Manchester City Centre.

The thing that has really struck me hasn't been the destruction or the fires or the theft, or the sight of violent hooded and masked people (some of them children!) throwing stones and bottles; it has been the innocent people who felt somehow obliged to apologise for it all - most of whom would have referred to themselves as 'black'.

I've always been very much opposed to the idea of referring to human beings as 'black' or 'white' because it seems to me to be not only racist, but ridiculous.

I have a black cat who is really and truly absolutely black - but I have never seen a person of that colour, and I don't expect that I ever will. Albinoism runs in my family - but whilst I have seen many things that are truly white, I have never seen a person of that colour, and I don't expect I will ever see one of those either.

The fact is that all people are - in that absolutely horrible American phrase - 'people of colour', because if they were not, they wouldn't be people at all. Indeed, the only real difference between all people anywhere is that whilst most of them have an internal moral lodestone, some of them do not.

At the moment, we are seeing people wreaking havoc in Britain who have no internal moral lodestone, no sense of community, and no sense of consequence.

It's important that we don't use the terms 'black' or 'white' to think of or to describe those people because those words are not only inaccurate and inadequate, they divide people in an arbitrary, and dangerously erroneous way.

I think we can all - people of colour as we all are - agree that the words 'dumb', 'immature', 'inconsiderate' and 'greedy' can at least begin to describe the people who wreck buildings and businesses and destroy other peoples lives, and use our social networks to undermine our society.

Emily - http://www.metlissbarfield.com

Stress & Spring and Hair & Nails

All the pharmacies here are suddenly displaying shelves and shelves of expensive pills and potions designed to stop your hair falling out and your nails splitting irreparably in unfortunate places.

And that's quite smart of them, because everyone loses more hair than usual in Spring, and right about now is when it begins to be obvious that quite a bit of ones' crowning glory seems to have gone missing.

There's nothing wrong with the potions; some hair products are better than others, and the difference in price between name-brand products that specifically target a problem and generic products that don't isn't very great.

You should think very carefully before you shell out for the pills, though.

All the pills (no matter which brand) contain the same basic ingredients - and actually they are the correct ingredients. The problem is that they don't contain nearly large enough dosages of hair building vitamins to make any impact - even if used over the long term, which is, of course, exactly what the manufacturer advises.

If you're really having a problem with 'fall out' - particularly if you've been under stress - get a recipe from the internet (try looking at Natural News and use the suggested vitamins and foodstuffs. It's cheaper in the long run, and at least you know exactly what you are getting for your money.

Emily - http://www.therapypartnership.com