Short bus is ready to have you on board

I went to see the film 'Shortbus' on Sunday night at the Curzon Soho. I had seen previews for it beforehand and it looked good. The premise is that sexually-confused and frustrated New Yorkers become inter-related by this sex club called, you've guessed it, Shortbus. After watching it, me and my other half had a talk about it, as we do for most things. A few prominent issues cropped up: How the individuals in it seemed to be defined by their sexuality, and how this ruled their lives, and the issue of honesty. These so-called 'cool' New Yorkers were all deeply confused about sex and their feelings about it. They felt the need to go to a sex club to solve them. Their jobs were sex-related, their friends were other sexually confused individuals, and their lives were almost consumed by SEX.

Now, I'm not a prude, on the contrary, but come on... how many people's lives are consumed by sex. Me sat here writing this blog - not really that sexual (albeit the subject is sex), making dinner, going to the bathroom, texting someone. You get my point. It did though have that 'we're in this together' kind of feeling. Laughter erupted in the cinema frequently and I secretly had a little tear at one stage.

A cardboard set of New York provided light relief from the sexual escapades. Naked gay guys did too!

Everything I think of has a green haze over it

A few weeks ago I suffered from a week-long stint of an infection of the stomach. Lovely. While recovering I made the consequent list in my head of all the foodstuff I had eaten the previous few days. Nothing seemed suspect apart from an egg sandwich. So from that day on I did not touch an egg... until yesterday (boiled eggs and toast are my weakness). While eating my egg I was reading a very interesting article in The Observer about where our eggs come from. Now, I had already been told that free-range is not what I think free-range is, and this article confirmed it. Chickens are co-habiting with 4,000 - 9,000 other chickens and the more dominant ones block the exits to fresh air, thus leaving the majority ultimately trapped = battery hens.

This made me think about other goods and services we buy and use. I like to think of myself as someone who is environmentally aware and active, but when I thought about the consequences of some of the things I do I concluded I was not. Flying, driving, boiling the kettle, shopping, eating out, listening to music... Everything has a negative consequence.

I would love to, one day, live a guilt-free life and have my own free-range chickens, pond with salmon and tuna swimming freely around, solar-panel ... the list is endless.

But I don't and won't for many years. So in the meantime I'm going to revert back to not eating eggs (and if you do you should look for the Soil Association stamp of approval which means chickens live in smaller groups and can truly gain access to the outside), walking and using public transport as much as possible, not over-boiling the kettle, turning heating down, unplugging phone chargers, not buying internationally-grown produce, not buying my salmon for Xmas day from M&S, and thinking about my actions.

If we all think a bit more, we can help to make a difference.