Recently in Life Category

The first of our little musical get-togethers at St. Luke's went so well that we're planning to make them a regular fixture under the name "Ambridge Acoustic Revue."

The next one will be on August 30th and if all goes according to plan will feature Julie Lee, Lobelia Sabo and Aaron Roche. And of course it will once again be ably hosted by Iain Archer.

For those of you who are planning to attend Greenbelt you can think of it as a little afterglow from the festival, and for those who aren't... well, we suspect it'll be a highly enjoyable evening of music.

If you're so inclined you can let us know you plan to attend on facebook or last.fm.

Last year among many other activities we managed to:

• sell a house
• travel round the world
• move from the USA (Grand Rapids, MI) to the UK (London)

As a follow-up this year, we're in the process of:

• moving out of our rented flat
• heading to the US for a couple of weeks
• buying a house
• having a baby

Today was the big day when the removal firm came and moved us out of our rented flat. All our belongings are going into storage until such a time as we can move into the house we're buying. So for the next couple of weeks while in the US, and for at least a week after that we're going to be experiencing that safe, middle class form of homelessness known as "crashing with friends." And very grateful we are too.

I knew when I emailed the editor of Matthew's House Project with a fairly strongly worded response to one of their recent articles that there was a good chance I'd be asked to write something as a follow-up. And that's exactly what happened. So a piece I wrote on identity and immigration is now available for reading over there.

I may well have mentioned this here before, but living in the US I was frequently surprised by the number of people who, when hearing I was from europe confided in me their desire for the US to have good public transport. I wasn't just surprised because as a Brit I'd been trained to think of our public transport system as very poor (it looks a lot better to me now than it used to), but also because I kept wondering how something so many people wanted could still seem so far off.

There's a lot of ways to approach that question that I'm not going to go into here; deep discussions to be had about the nature of contemporary political discourse. But that recurring conversation kept coming back to me as I read Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth?.

Though the book's various authors touch on dark themes, and the potential for environmental and/or economic collapse is very real, it maintained the sense that those steps we can take to be more conscientious might also take us closer to the planet we would like to live in. In that, it reminds me quite a bit of Generous (on which more, later).

The book has its weaknesses. For the most part it's a volume for people who have access to the resources to make significant changes (whether simple or radical) in their lives, and a safety net to fall back on. But for those of us who are in that boat, it's a good and helpful read.

Whilst attending the ecampaigning forum I frequently had to dash off and find a quiet corner to make final tweaks to a site that was about to launch. Thankfully the wifi coverage at the conference was pretty good.

Late last night we pushed the button and that project—a total redesign of the Greenbelt website—was launched. We've been working on it for several months, and I'm very pleased with the result. You can see a few words Paul wrote about it on the site.

Taking a couple of days out of the hectic schedule which has kept me from updating anything around here for a while, I spent Thursday and Friday in Oxford for the 2008 ecampaigning forum. It was a great event, and a good time reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. I live blogged several sessions and written up some notes over in the other place, but wanted to post a pointer here because it's likely to be of interest to those who might normally avoid the tech overload on that blog.

Normally being in the office on a Saturday would seem a bad thing, but this weekend there is still enough novelty for it to be a little fun. This week, you see, Matt and I moved into an office space we're going to be sharing in Hoxton. There's still a lot of unpacking, arranging and decorating to be done, but so far it feels good to have a space outside the home for working. Pictures will come with time.

There's space here for one or two more people, and our hope is to find one person to share it on a full-time basis and keep one desk free for occasional visitors. So whether you need a space in east London to get a bit of work done, need a more permanent office space, or just feel like dropping by, get in touch.

(For a full-time person rent would be around £170 per month including bills and wifi. You'll need to provide your own furniture.)

Over the past few months, Kari and I have joined the church at St. Luke's, West Holloway. The church building has just been renovated (and looks great) and now we're starting to host a new series of events under the banner of "Breathing Space."

Yesterday, Martin and I got the website ready for public viewing. There's more to come (particularly on the visual design front), but if you're likely to be able to get to North London over the next few months take a look and see if there's anything you'd like to join us for.