Selfsufficientish
Selfsufficientish
The flu and the phone
Written by Andy Hamilton Tuesday, 20 April 2010
This morning I was reminded of the fact that I have been with my girlfriend Emma for 7 and a half years. Quite an acheivement really and I am happy to report that things could not be better between us. Recently our relationship has been tested somewhat as I have had a rather serious bout of the flu. I mention the 7.5 years we have been together as I have had flu at least 10 times in that time and each time Emma has told me that I did not have the flu. I now believe her as this left me feeling completely useless, unable to do much without having to have a sleep afterwards. Emma has had to become a 1950's housewife, making me vats of chicken soup , cleaning the house whilst I sit in front of the telly and generally making me feel a little guilty as I do fell a little to blame for the continuation of my illness.
So, as more of a warning for anyone reading this I would suggest that a few things made this worse (including the NHS). Firstly having thought I was feeling better after the initial two weeks I tried to catch up on everything, I conducted my foraging walks, I sat in front of this computer and wrote all the articles I am paid to do, I went out and drank alcohol, lots of alcohol and I exercised in any spare moments as I plan on cycling from Land end to John O'groats and I need to get fit. In short I did not rest, I stressed my mind and body, filled myself with toxins and pushed my body when it was still harbouring the flu virus. And so, right at the end of my last foraging walk just as I thought I was totally rid of this flu my body just went NO and shut down. I arrived home and slept for 16 hours.
That was 10 days ago and just now I think I am starting to feel a little better again. During these 10 days I decided that I will only do what is good for me. Most importantly, I have tried to keep away from any stress. I have drank yarrow, elderflower and peppermint tea. Using up my foraged supplies! I have had a series of hot baths, kept away from processed food (something I do anyway) and have eaten plenty of soup. I have also done something I find difficult, rested. Indeed, I have had almost a month of sitting in on a sofa watching Coach homes under the bargain swap! Putting on Radio 4 instead of the telly, I am sure has made me feel much better!
I have also contacted the NHS but, like many men, I don't like to bother the NHS, let alone go to my GP; but at this point this flu had gone on now for over 3 weeks and so I knew that I should at least rule out anything more serious. So, last week I decided to contact NHS Direct. Unfortunatley, even simple phone conversations were taking it out of me and I needed to sleep after just talking for a few moments, so I asked Emma to call. They refused to talk to her and I was passed the phone. Details were taken, questions asked and I was told that I needed to be called back. The thought stressed me somewhat, but this is what I needed to do. A "medical professional", called back. She thought I might have gladular fever and that I need to contact the out of hours team at my local doctors in order to get an appointment. They were still open but I needed to wait until they were shut. So more stress, worrying about this new illness.
Out of hours does not put you through to your own doctor, but a call center that takes your number for someone else at your doctors to call you back. I was called back by another, "medical professional" who told me that I should wait until the next mornig and call my doctor. Next morning, still thinking I might have something more serious that the flu, I called my doctor. The receptionist told me I would be called back. So by the 6th phone call I eventually go to talk to a Doctor, she told me to come in and see her. I did so, only to be told that as I first expected, I had the flu. The whole experience led me to understand that the NHS as it stands now, can make someone feel worse! Indeed, I worked for the NHS for a few years and knew how streched they can be.
I also remember when I was about 10 years old, back in 1984 and my cousin needed an out of hours doctor due to a very painful hernia. The Doctor showed up in no time and my cousin was carried off to hospital,. 26 years later I wonder how many calls would have to made with the new streamlined NHS? Well I guess with all of the phone operators at least people are being kept in work is that the reason it is so difficult to actually see someone through the NHS?
Anyway, fingers crossed I am on the mend as I have big stack of green party leaflets to give out.
The outdoors is calling
Written by Andy Hamilton Friday, 05 March 2010
I don't cope well in the winter, those long dark nights, rock hard ground halting the opportunity for any decent foraging or gardening and cold rooms in the house halting the fermentation of anything I brew. Then as if from nowhere you start to notice that your curtains are being closed later and later. new plants are popping up all over the place, frogs are jumping in and out of the pond and bird song begins in earnest. Indeed spring is here again, my favorite time of the year so full of promise.
The celts would have called this the end of the year, their year starting on April 1st. Despite these next few weeks being known as the hungry gap it most certainly is not in the wild food calender. I will expect to see much around. In fact I have had my first wild food meal of wild oyster mushrooms on a bed of wild mustard leaves last weekend. The dandelion leaves are at their best right now, cleavers (goosegrass or sticky willy) are too and a whole host more of ediable leaves are starting to show their faces.
The spring also means seedlings need to be planted, ground prepared and general tiding up on the allotment. It is the time when you bump into people on the street who are proud as punch to tell you how much they have growing, which simply reminds you that you have an ever increasing list of things to do.
It might sound like I am complaining about this work, but its not really work and I am in fact getting very excited. I sometimes wish we could have a perpetual spring, but without the winter I doubt I would enjoy it so much.
It's very easy being Green - The Selfsufficientish Life
Written by Andy Hamilton Friday, 19 February 2010
About 6 years ago myself and my twin brother Dave started a website called Selfsufficientish.com. We both had alltoments and the idea of the site was to share our experiences with anyone who would listen. It seemed obvious to us that a move towards self sufficency would have the least amount of impact and be far more sustainable than a "normal" life. We could never hope to be self sufficient we decided, as we could not afford the land and try as we might council tax and other bills have to be paid with money. As we were both students this was in short supply! We also did not want to give up the trappings of every day life, espeically the pub!
"... we could be self sufficientish", Dave retorted one afternoon as we were thinking of what to call our website. We both agreed that this name would be perfect and within a few hours I had bought the domain name and started putting up some very crude webpages. The site focused on articles about growing food in flats, getting allotments and tips for people who live in rented accomodation. We felt that this was important as we knew that there were other people out there like us.
We carried on posting up articles about what we were doing and within a few months we started to get emails from all over the world, people loved the idea that they could learn skills and lead a much greener lifestyle. The website soon started to recieve a few thousand visits every day, many of them sharing their plans, tips and ideas on our web forum.
Various national press were interested in our ideas of self sufficiency for everyone and we even started doing the odd interview. It was fairly surreal at first. I was unemployed and not claiming any benefits (As I couldn't) and was therefore penniless. So I wrote to a few agents. We signed up with one of them and ended up writing a book called "The Selfsufficientish Bible". It was full of everything that we had been doing over the last few years, gardening tips, home brewing and foraging to name but a few. It had always been a dream to be published author and the whole time from when we signed up with our publisher has been pretty magical (and hard work at times). I know make my living from writing, teaching people about wild food and teaching home brewing. Whilst still working on my allotment and leading as green a life as possible. I still don't own any land, still live in a rented house and if I am honest I am still pretty skint more often than not. However, I live a very happy life and hope to share some of the things that make it so with you on this blog over the coming months.
Andy Hamilton
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