My two weeks at BFOE

Chris asked me to write a Blog about my two weeks here at BFOE.
In the weeks coming upto my work experience I was a little apprehensive about the whole thing, worrying whether people would be friendly towards me, and whether I would fit in.
On Monday morning I was welcomed by Tamsin who I had met a while before then. Throughout the day I noticed how relaxed the enviroment was to work in and felt a little more comfortable.
Everyone here is so passionate about their work and it is really inspiring. If I've had any queries or wasnt sure about something, or even wanted to know about something, then I would ask someone who would explain exactly what it was I wanted to know, without hesitation or being distracted. I've found that the people here are all so friendly and make time to talk me through jobs they want me to do, or even things they're doing themselves.
Throughout my two weeks I've done four different painting jobs. I hope it's brightened the place up a little!
I found the whole idea of coming out for two weeks on my own, without my friends a rather daunting thought. After spending all of mytime here at BFOE I have become more relaxed and a lot less nervous. If the atmosphere here is the same in any working enviroment then I would gladly leave school now to be at work!
The people here are literally the nicest, friendliest group of people I think I've ever met. I honestly mean that too! Everyone here has accepted me and tried to make me feel welcome. Even the customers are extremely friendly.
I will miss it here and thats all I have to say except thank you to everyone for having me and looking after me!

Plastic and the Albatross

Last week there was another depressing wildlife programme about the destruction of the once paradise islands of Hawaii. The most worrying thing however was what was floating in the seas around the islands. It was found that thousands of young albatrosses were dying because a large part of their diet was plastic. There was a display laid out on a beach of the plastic objects found in the stomachs of dead baby albatrosses - i cant remmber all of them but there were 50+ plastic lighters, hundreds of plastic utensils, plastic toys and all sorts of flotsam of our disposable culture. there is a very real chance that plastic alone could cause the extinction of that particular species.
Meanwhile in the playing field next to my house, every weekend i pick up the left overs from the football games and teen drinking binges. i clean a small area behind one football net and often collect 50+ bottles 20+ cans and a variety of less recyclable detritis. Its not as if there aren't solutions like bins...(duuurr!) but surely making all drink containers returnable is the answer - because even if the serial litterers cant be arsed, there is an army of small kids and sad old gits like me who could make a small fortune collecting and returning bottles and tins; and they go straight back to the maufacturer via the retailer (if you can go straight back somewhere via somewhere else that is..!)
Anyway whatever gets your goat dont just get angry, get active!

nigel baker