Funny thing about writing a blog…I didn’t write on Friday because it was so quiet, and then today I’ve only now got round to writing because it’s finally quietened down. It’s a real case of finding the fine line between having something to say AND the time to write about it!
Today has been so busy because we had two Commissioners in town (one being the President) and a group of journalism students who are off to Brussels. One of the team was out all day with Hubner, one managing the President’s press programme, and one was off sick all morning. So I was left holding the fort, faxing the press articles to Brussels, getting things ready for the students and answering the phones. Still, it all worked out in the end and was less stressful than I thought it was going to be. The students are on the train, the president has left the building and I have no idea how Hubner is doing but I hope she had fun!
I like a day when we have a really tangible action-oriented story. Today we can announce plans are going ahead to phase out old-style “incandescent” light-bulbs (a phrase which just makes me think of lots of really annoyed lightbulbs on our shop shelves…) by 2012, to replace them with more energy-efficient bulbs. It is estimated that this will save 15 million tons of Co2 a year. 15 million tons!! If something so simple can save so much, it does make you think about where else you can make differences in your life. If we all turn appliances off, instead of leaving them on standby, unplug chargers when we’ve used them and switch off lights when we’re not in the room, we can make a huge difference. I guess it’s that Camusian thing of focusing on how individuals can make a difference, rather than abdicating responsibility and expecting others to fix it for us. And you can save money too, something my Scottish heritage always sees as a good thing!