Oh God. Oh Good. Writing this column while the polls are open in the US Presidential election is a bit of a hostage to fortune: hopefully by the time you read this the result will be clear one way or the other, and you’ll know which of these sentences is the right response!
Instead, let’s focus on good things closer to home, which have come in different shapes and forms this week.
On Friday night, I travelled to Bristol to see Arooj Aftab, the Pakistani-American singer who was playing at Bristol Beacon.
On the way back, the motorway route we took going there was closed for overnight repairs. Pretty soon we lost the diversion signs and ended up going down narrower and narrower Wiltshire lanes.
That seemed like bad luck, and a neverending detour back to Salisbury … but then we flashed past a village sign. Welcome to Tiddleywink.
I assumed I’d been seeing things but yes, there really is a Wiltshire hamlet delightfully called Tiddleywink, named after the rhyming slang for drink, because of a cottage there that used to offer beer to passing cattle drovers.
Who knew? Good things come to those who are detoured.
Too Good To Go, meanwhile, is an app that a friend put me on to, and which I’ve been trying this week. The aim of the app is simple: to sell food from cafes, shops and restaurants that would otherwise have been thrown away.
The statistics on food waste are staggering: worldwide, 40 per cent of the food produced is thrown away, with this waste accounting for 10 per cent of human-produced greenhouse gases.
Through the app, you buy and collect a surprise bag of food for a few pounds.
The £3.19 parcel from a café in London near where I was working produced a croissant, a croque monsieur and a large chicken salad.
Pret in Salisbury gave me two cookies and a couple of pain au raisins for £4.
And the Harvester at Old Sarum offered up half a rotisserie chicken with salad for £4.79.
In the process, the app told me, I’d avoided 29 kwh of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of just under 2000 phone charges, and a load of very tasty food otherwise going in the bin.
From good things and too good to good news, with the announcement at the city council meeting on Monday night that £50,000 had been found to help secure the future of Broken Bridges, the nature-rich land and picturesque footpath and that runs between Lower Bemerton and Harnham.
It’s a walk I know well and fantastic it will be preserved for future generations.
As incoming American presidents should note, leadership should be about building bridges, rather than walls.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel