I know I have written about this before, but its starting to really piss me off! Everywhere I look along the hedgerows, trees and roadsides there is plastic and rubbish! Does no one give a shit anymore? It really does look scruffy and something needs to be done.

Why don’t we get all the prisoners out in a chain gang instead of them sitting around in their new multi million pound prison with tv’s in the rooms and internet access and get them picking up all the shit if no one cares anymore? Better than a load of school kids or boy scouts doing at the weekend which is normally the case!

There are more and more reports coming our around the world about the problems with plastic waste and some drastic action needs to be taken by governments and industry. Its all to easy to target the consumer and get us to change our ways which I agree we need to do, but it needs big action and big change! Sadly I think greed and laziness will win again!

Shame, the Isle of Man is a beautiful place!

I was helping a friend out at the BBC Good Food Show a the Birmingham NEC. We were part of the Isle of Man Pure Produce stand which was situated on area T130. Thing was it was the best stand in the show and I am not being biased! Reason being was two things. 1.The Isle of Man has the best produce going! 2. We had Dave Myers and Si King (The Hairy Bikers) on the stand all weekend cooking up some fantastic recipes! For those of you who don’t know much about the Hairy bikers, basically they are lifelong food lovers who also love touring the globe on their motorbikes. They met whilst working on a film set I believe and since then they have moved around country to country cooking up local dishes and sampling the culture. The duo went down a storm at the show and the Isle of Man stand was by far the busiest at the entire event. There were several cooking demonstrations using the fantastic award winning produce from the Isle of Man including the Manx Cheddar Cheeses, Isle of Man meat including lamb and beef, Isle of Man Ice cream from Jimbo’s and the highlight being the Manx Pad Thai dish that Dave himself created using the finest King & Queen Scallops from Island Seafare.

The Isle of Man is the perfect landscape to produce such good produce, with its rolling hills, raggered coast and clear water, producing some of the best meat, fish, seafood and dairy you could possibly wish for!

I went to Tesco this evening to grab a few bits and pieces that I needed. It wasn’t a weekly big shop, just one of those top up shops you need for fresh stuff like milk and vegetables.I don’t like supermarkets at the best of times but hey our choice is limited these days especially on the Isle of Man due to the sheer power and influence they have over farmers and suppliers. I do where possible try and buy from local butchers and suppliers, but without making excuses it isnt always possible!After rushing around the store I filled my trolley (you always do) and headed for the checkout where the very pleasant check out girl asked if I had a club card, scanned my items and totalled up the bill. As this was an uncalled for shop I wasnt organised and so had to use the plastic bags that are always supplied at the end of the checkout.What really wound me up was the fact that when some bananas I purchased (wrapped in plastic I might add) didn’t have a barcode on them, the supervisor headed off to find the price and during this time the checkout girl said, and I quote, ‘ you do realise you can get double your points if you brought in your own plastic bags and didnt use the ones provided.I said, ‘yes I realise that’ fuming inside! Not at the checkout out girl, just at the people who run Tesco!I am sorry Tesco, but do not fuckin patronise me and make out that its me that ruining the planet and not you! Your the twats that wrap everything up in packaging totally unnecessarily and then fly it all over the fucking planet before it lands back in the store two miles from where it originated! How Tesco have the cheek to tell me its double points for recycled plastic bags is beyond words! Dont tell me to try and change my habits when you should be changing yours.So pull your finger out and do something with meaning and not some shitty double points promotion to try and makes us as consumers feel guilty about the environment!And dont give that bullshit about ‘every little helps!’ Do something major!

I am currently on holiday in Lanzarote at the moment, hence the reason I have not been posting recently. After being here for a week now I have learnt so much about the island which, before I came, I percieved to be nothing really special,sun sea etc.. I was wrong.

Lanzarote is one of the Canary Islands, but is very different to the others and in my mind is a model of how tourism has been very carefully, planned and intergrated into the lives of the local people of the island, and this model should be used by many other new up and coming tourist destinations. The reason for this is largely down to a single man, an artist, Cesar Manrique.

Cesar Manrique was a local artist who combined conservation of the natural world with the resources that the modern world offers. He spoke out against the large hotel chains who wanted to build high rise hotels and spoil the landscape all for profit (mainland Spain ring any bells!), hence why many of the buildings are all one or two storey and there are no advertising billboards! He worked with local govenments and argued for preserving the great islands beauty (largely volcanic, but at the same time enriching the tourist experience. Check out Timanfaya National Park – a must see.

Sadly Cesar Manrique died in a car crash in 1992 but his influence is for all to see, design, conservation, sustainability, and long may it remain. Well done to Lanzarote, you are doing so much right!