Teddy bears' picnic

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood whatever the weather. This post is from Nicola

It’s all part of the excellent Little Hadham parish plan that we are turning up by the Millennium Wood in Bury Green for a teddy bears’ picnic – a free event for those with bears. The last time we were here it was for a polo match that only locals were invited to watch (held at Easter).

Lola and Nell are excited by the idea of a teddy party and ensure that my sister Eliza’s two bears get a makeover from Granny Fiona’s bit bag, and looking much smarter than they have for some time a sandy creature (Eliza/Hagrid) and a brown straw stuffed creature are soon in smart enough outfits to go down to the woods in.

Lola is in charge of Eliza’s old bear and is lucky enough to find it is the biggest – a bit impractical as we have to walk home with him later – but she also wins a beautifully designed teddy plate commemorating the occasion.

Nell is happy too because she’s picked for the magic show (note to Mums, dress your kids in red it’s a sure fire way to get them invited on to the stage, though white and every other colour works too…) and then wins a giant paper fiver that the cunning magician, Mr Ted, says her mum will swap for a real five pound note.

Even though I don't live here, I've lived in this area long enough while growing up to know enough people to really enjoy joining in. I absolutely love events like this - where there's a chance to get to know people, and zero pressure to contribute lots of money (unlike PTAs say). The organisers also have a brilliant recycling system - four dustbins labelled paper, cans, plastics and bottles - placed in the centre of action. Anyone could copy this idea, and I certainly will at the next event I find myself embroiled in.

Besides all the other pleasures - a family friendly event, old friends, prizes, veggie burgers on the BBQ and a fun trail to get you walking around the handsome wood (with wishing tree, lollipop tree etc) there was an ancient red London double decker bus (159) owned by a local man used to get visitors to and from the party via the village hall. Another brilliant idea, and free.

Bag ladies

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood whatever the weather. This post is from Nicola

At the Yorkshire Sculpture Park http://www.ysp.co.uk/ I bought sewing kits for the girls – a very clever concept which gave us about two hours of embroidered pleasures and, until they are lost, I hope months of swanning around with a very cute horse handbag for Lola and Nell.

The kit wasn’t cheap at #13.95 but I think it would make a brilliant present, made or unmade, for anyone creative but in a creation rut. See the selection at http://www.sparrowkids.co.uk/.

Foot sore

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood whatever the weather. This post is from Pete

As they say in bad war films: “For you, ze walk is over!” In the best tradition of West Ham signings immediately getting injured, Pete May has succumbed to a pre-season triple whammy of foot ailments. My right foot is swollen, poisoned and maroon around the ankle. The doctor says I am suffering from cellulitus, athlete’s foot and a bruised and sprained ankle. Six weeks in sweaty Zamberlan boots has proved more than my plates of meat can handle.

Cellulitus is an infection of the foot that might have been caused by the athlete’s foot fungus infecting a mosquito bite or a rubbed spot from a dodgy sandal. It’s all been made worse by tripping over a hidden concrete step at Wooler youth hostel while wearing a heavy backpack, straining and bruising my ankle.

So now it’s a two week course of antibiotics and anti-fungal cream for my toes, wearing iffy Clark’s sandals with my foot propped on a stool, lying low in Hexham waiting for the big one - or at least a walk on Hadrian’s Wall - as I listen to the Hold Steady (our hosts are hipper than me). Nicola says it’s all down to my poor personal hygiene (surely washing once a year is enough?); I say our itinerary allayed to youth hostel mattresses would have had the SAS on antibiotics by now. Travel is inherently dangerous; both the girls have had tonsillitis, while Nicola is suffering from a persistent “productive cough” ever since our four days loitering within tents by a flooded Ullswater.

And how does anyone in the Scottish Borders ever get treated? On Saturday and Sunday there were no doctors in Greenlaw, Coldstream or Duns, while on Monday the entire Scottish NHS declared a public holiday and closed all its surgeries. Even the pharmacy was closed. The only appointment for Tuesday was at 2.30 and while we were waiting in Duns we noted that the café was closed because the owner had been taken to hospital and the pub was shut due to flooding. Forget Nashville; all the ingredients for a perfect country song can be found trying to find treatment for a septic ankle in Greenlaw.

Tanking up on petrol

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood. This post is from Nicola

We are over a third of a way into our tour of Britain and have so far bought just three tanks of petrol. I think we may buy three more. (I am not counting the fuel used by the trains or buses we are taking)

So how much will six tanks of lead-free petrol add to our year's or lifetime's carbon footprint? That's a question I need to think about - it's definitely more than we normally use in a year, but it is significantly less than the average family's use.

And here's another one for us to wonder about: what is the right way to offset these extra carbon emissions?

Bargain shopping

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood. This post is from Nicola (pic of Robbie Burns in Aberdeen with inspired seagull head gear)

Can't help but boast about our most recent shopping adventure in Aberdeen - the granite city. It's the first time for ages that we have been to a place with a good selection of secondhand shops: Oxfam, Cancer Research, Sue Ryder, etc, etc - although the city is bursting with the usual clone-town chains too. It's a very different story 15 miles away in Stonehaven where we couldn't find any secondhand shops at all (though full marks to this town for having lots of independents and for making it easy to avoid supermarkets with its butcher, fishmonger, award-winning deli, and fairtrade Christian cafe full of homemade cakes). It also has an Olympic sized lido full of heated sea water... which you have to try if you are ever in the north east of Scotland (as we've recently learnt there are two north easts in Britain).

In Aberdeen we ended up making all our purchases at just one secondhand shop (something to do with hearts) run by an Irish woman. Here we found a raincoat to replace Nell's waterproof (which we've left accidentally in the Lake District); a jumper for me (I've been so cold up north that I've got a lung infection); another book for Lola, and Pete's annual holiday Ben Sherman shirt purchase. The grand total was #9. Result!

We'd planned to swap our unwanted items at charity shops as we travelled around but as a family with a clutter habit this has proved hard, so some things (eg, books) have had to be posted home to try and keep our luggage manageable.

Trying to limit the kids from their collecting is impossible. In their pockets they now carry around found objects including a fishing float, irn-bru plastic bottle top and bead necklace (Lola) and rusty screw, mini toothpaste tube and piece of string (Nell). I have a feeling that these are the items that they've invested with "tabu" powers - the ones that they will see in the months and years ahead and think, ah, they're my travel talismans, long after the "new" book is read and the new raincoat grown out of (or lost).

Time off in loo

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood. This post is from Pete, off-message but heartfelt he says (pic of an outdoor poo-er)

“There are loo seats I’ll remember all my life…” as the Beatles might have put it. Arriving in Glasgow on the sleeper at 7am, unable to use the loo while the train was in the station because of the anti-social consequences, it was a huge relief to find a clean, presentable Gents available for just 20p on the concourse. A contented traveller needs a decent loo. From my pre-climate awareness days there are many horrific lav stories; a drop loo in the Solomons where coconut crabs lay ready to nip your privates; the pungent pong of stale urine overflowing in a Bangkok bus station; Greek loos that didn’t take paper; continental squatting models; and more latterly tiger worms lurking beneath the sawdust in a green’s compost loo and the blue hell of the chemical toilet in the Dalmally bothy.

And now, for an anally retentive man, came the ultimate challenge; camping for four days at an Ullswater boat house without running water or loo facilities of any kind. Thus bowel movements involved unspeakable activities with trowels and paper burying the evidence among the trees, bracken, thistles, nettles and flies. Often amid a deluge. Soon we became expert at restraining nature and holding on until the café at the perhaps aptly-named Pooley Bridge (outside loo with cold water and a mirror) or the National Trust toilets at Aira Force (smelly but effective). What bliss to now be in Aberdeen with a fully functioning flush toilet. Thomas Crapper, inventor of the original water closet, you are a much-neglected genius.

Best things to do

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood. This post is from Lola and Nell (nb, the adults are pretty pleased that the best things in life are free!)

After one month we think the best things to do in Britain are...
Lola:
1) Borrowing a pony to go for a ride - or visiting a place like the Heavy Horse centre near Cockermouth, in the Lake District
2) Watching the salmon jump and see my uncle try to catch a salmon... (Scotland)
3) Stroking a friends' dog (anywhere)
4) Climbing big hills - especially going up as fast as you can
5) Playing in a stream (anywhere)
6) Canoeing with Mummy and Nell. It was like boat club, but better views (Ullswater)

Nell:
1) Carlisle Castle even though I didn't get to see the collection of guns (Carlisle)
2) Walk a friend's dog (anywhere)
3) Look out for new animals in the fields. We've seen bison and ostriches (in different fields!) 4) Dipping nets in rock pools or streams (east or west coast)

Best places to go

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood. This post is from Lola and Nell after one month...

Lola: Number 1 Yorkshire because we were staying with friends who have four children, a giant house, lots of books, two dogs to take for walks and ponies to ride. And I got taken to the blacksmith which was good because the farrier made the shoes really hot and then pressed them on the horse's feet, but it didn't look as though it hurt them at all.

Nell: Number 1 housesitting near Aberdeen Here's been good because we've been doing lovely things - there's the toys of three children and one's got a doll's house. They have a dog called Fleur. I love her because she licks my hand and I went for a walk with her and she was quite like Mummy because she kept on stopping and chatting (eg, with the mums waiting for the school bus). There's lots of wildlife. We saw a brown bird with a long beak (curlew) which did a display for us.

House sitting near Aberdeen

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood. This post is from Nicola (pic taken while all of us - except the dog - were watching Live Earth on 7.7.7 http://www.liveearth.org/)

We now have 10 days caring for a Basset hound pensioner, Fleur. She sleeps in until midday, and appears to be delightful unless you are a postie or try to share her sofa.

House sitting is brilliant - made all the more so by memories of our wet camping week. We have beds! Hot water on demand! Kids' toys and an internet connection... Both Lola and Nell have commented on how easy it is to take these things for granted, though they sensibly learnt the lesson in just four days sleeping under canvas. Our new home (near Aberdeen) is particularly enviable - an enormous wood and stone converted kitchen with a grass roof to keep it cosy and dry in all this rain; energy efficient lightbulbs and appliances; raspberries in the kitchen garden; plus recycling systems in place.

There's also a stream where the kids can try to scoop out minnows and bikes for exploring the neighbourhood.

The catch is that this idyllic rurual spot - down a grass drive - is also under threat of a bypass (the Aberdeen western periphery route or AWPR) that no one locally believes is needed or wanted. A recent list of people against the road was signed by more than 2,500.

The 46km road is due to wreck several rural communities, destroy around 20 homes and will see Aberdeen's International School having to be knocked down. And it'll cost a staggering amount, #395 million! You can find out more at http://www.road-sense.org/documents/PressRelease_15-Nov-2006.pdf

Perhaps the cost of this plan is the real reason why the new First Minister [since July] Alex Salmond, has been saving up his two salaries (as an MP and SMP)?

TOP TIP: You can find out how to housesit all over the world using formal sites on the web, but so far we've only tried it in Britain.

Our main success has been with relations who want someone living in to reduce the chance of burglary or families who need their pets looked after (in one memorable case we also got left with an 11 year old as his passport was out of date so he couldnt' go on holiday with the rest of his family!).

About five months before we wanted to go travelling I sent a letter to loads of old friends (my Christmas card list which I rarely get round to using) asking if anyone was willing to let us stay in their homes. Most replied! There's usually more house sitting opportunities than house swapping (more of that later), presumably because you don't both have to work to the exact same dates.