‘Praycations’ for staycationers

The Church of England has launched a new web service for people taking a Staycation - holidaying from home instead of going away - during the recession. Staycations offer the opportunity to discover everything a local area has to offer, with cathedrals and local churches often at its centre, says a new Church of England website section at www.cofe.anglican.org/staycations. On the website pages, staycationers can plan their ‘praycation’ by browsing a wide selection of holiday-at-home suggestions, and 10 websites are recommended so visitors can find their local church and cathedral to make the most of their staycation. Over the next month the webpages at will be developed with further ideas and suggestions.

Summer reading from IVP

The IVP annual summer sale is now in full swing, with many titles available for as little as half price! Sale prices are available at participating Christian bookshops or via the IVP website at www.ivpbooks.com/sales. You can also download a copy of the sale brochure here.

New rituals for the British summer

The BBC website on emerging trends that say much about Britain in the 21st Century: new rituals for the British summer.

Ten wild corners of Britain & Ireland

Want to get far away from the madding crowds over the Bank Holiday? Here's advice on ten favourite "wilderness spots" in Britain and Ireland from the Wanderlust website. "A few special places on these busy islands where it’s still possible to feel as if you're the only person in the world".

20 best travel books of all time

The credit crunch means many people are scaling down summer holiday plans - or not going away at all. However, armchair travel is free - at least, if you borrow your books from the public library. Earlier this month, on World Book Day, the Telegraph published a list of twenty of the most inspiring travel books of all time: the 20 best travel books of all time.

Travel games

A number of Infusion members enjoy board games, and travel. Nomad Travel have brought together these two passions in the Backpacker Travel Game and the Travelproof Bandana Gameboard.

Sandcastle engineering

If you are heading to the coast this summer you may be interested in the science of building sandcastles - there are several links here, including one to amazing sand sculptures from around the world.

[Image from FreeFoto.com]

Welcome to England. Fancy a cuppa?

Somewhat belatedly I have discovered a news item from last month in which a British MP is calling for a traditional tea trolley to be introduced at British airports. Acting on a suggestion by the managing director of Waitrose, MP Michael Fabricant has tabled a Early Day Motion in the House of Commons which states: "That this House supports a proposal initiated, funded and operated by Waitrose, to trial the introduction of tea trolleys with biscuits into arrival halls at UK international airports to provide a warm welcome to weary returning UK nationals and visitors from overseas queuing up for passport inspection."

Discussing this in an article in the Times, "Welcome to England, ducks. Fancy a cuppa?", the columnist describes the "psychological maelstrom" of modern air travel and asks "who would not be instantly soothed and cheered by the sight of a gleaming, steaming tea urn in the arrivals hall?"

How green is your holiday?

Thinking about your summer holiday is a good antidote to the grey days of January. The Telegraph reports on which tour operators, airlines and cruise lines are doing the most for the environment in How green is your travel company? The report focuses on five factors that signal whether these companies are really committed to creating positive change: carbon reduction, carbon offsetting, conservation schemes, responsible tourism (RT) policy, and sourcing of local produce, services and employment. The article also suggests some eco-friendly travel ideas.

Of course, the Youth Hostel Association ("travel company" of choice for a number of Infusion folk) has a strong commitment to going green, and is increasing the number of environmentally sustainable flagship sites (known as eco-hostels or Green Beacons) it provides. However it is the Scottish Youth Hostels Association that claims to have the most eco-friendly accommodation in the UK at Loch Ossian Youth Hostel.

Holiday reading (5)

An earlier blog highlighted the books MPs are reading on holiday and I've now spotted that the Archbishop of York is sending every MP in the country some summer reading. Dr John Sentamu is sending MPs the 100-Minute Bible and the book Do Nothing to Change Your Life. The latter is "a guide to slowing down" written by the Bishop of Reading, Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell, and was published earlier this year. The book urges its readers to create pauses in daily life to benefit their own, and society's, health and well-being - it argues this fresh perspective of relishing every moment with a greater attentiveness will improve our relationship with God.

Do Nothing to Change Your Life is a passionate plea for the nation to ditch endless 'to do' lists, constant streams of emails, and an increasingly 24/7 culture. The book was published following news that an international study had shown that the pace of life in our cities has increased by 10 per cent in the last decade. Dr Sentamu says that he wants "to encourage our nation's elected representatives to slow down during their holiday and in that place of quiet and stillness to enter into the presence of God".

Holiday reading (4)

Following earlier posts on summer reading, we can now see which books MPs will be reading during their summer recess. The article summarises this by saying that "that the Tories are swotting up on Gordon Brown - while Labour politicians are questioning the existence of God".

Holiday reading (3)

Here's another perspective on our summer reading: reading to the glory of God. This doesn't just mean only reading "Christian" books, as this article On Reading from Desiring God ministries discusses. The author says that reading "can help us to know God and ourselves, gain vicarious experience, increase our perception and imagination, train our minds to think critically and logically, and teach us self-discipline". The article finishes with some suggested further reading.

Holiday reading (2)

In the first post in this series I discussed different approaches to acquiring books for holiday reading. If you like the deliberate approach to book selection (as opposed to the accidental approach), here are some suggestions if you have read all the books by a favourite author and are hungry for more.

• Who Else Writes Like...? A readers' guide to fiction is an established reference book designed to help anyone who enjoys reading fiction to expand the number of writers they read. It answers the dilemma facing those who have exhausted the output from a particular author: "What shall I read next?" Your local public library should have a copy.


• The literature-map website is an interesting idea. Its a visual search tool for authors - the closer two writers are on the "map", the more likely someone will like both of them. Just type in a name to find an author on the map.


• Another approach is provided by whichbook, a website that helps readers find books by genre, setting, plot etc. Instead of starting from the overwhelming choice of books available, whichbook starts from the reader and provides an intuitive way to find books to match their mood. The intention is to enable each individual to build the elements of that elusive 'good read' we are all looking for but don't quite know how to define.

Holiday reading (1)

How do you choose what books to read on holiday? Do you save up books you have purchased or received as gifts over the past year so you can feast on them on holiday? Do you pick up books in charity shops so you can leave them behind and lighten the load in your suitcase when you return home? Maybe you rely on your hotel or youth hostel having a "library" (sometimes just a shelf) where you can borrow and/or deposit books.

My summer reading tends to contain all three of the above elements. This summer my serendipitous reading included a couple of books I picked up from just such a holidaymaker's library. One was Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater - an autobiographical sketch of his childhood. While I found the writing funny, poignant and disturbing, I enjoyed the way a number of his food memories resonated with me (i.e. the days when lemonade lorries visited weekly and the great Angel Delight vs Instant Whip debate).

End of Term

Today is the last day of term for Leicester teachers (and pupils). While the rest of us try not to be too envious of the length of your summer break, we do recognise the importance of your vocation and the need for rest and recreation after what may have been a stressful year. I noticed that the ACT website has some prayers and meditations that were written with education in mind. These are worth checking out by all of us - I especially liked the meditation entitled The Best Teacher (Revised for the 21st Century).

A virtual postcard

When Phil posted on offsetting carbon emissions, I commented that, even if we flew to our holiday destination, at least we were staying in a car-free village. This is no hardship when you can slow down and gaze at the spectacular mountain panorama without fear of getting run over (though you do need to dodge the electric cars and the village goats).

We've enjoyed worshipping at St Peter's Church; the ICS Find a Church facility helped us track it down last year. There is even an informal mid-week Mountain Praise service. Some of the mountains have plaques with Bible verses on them - usually in German but here's one in English.

Offset your Holiday Carbon and Support Developing Countries

Summer is a time when we use less energy for heating and lighting but more for travel as we go on holiday, and increasingly perhaps more for cooling. Whilst avoiding and reducing the associated carbon emissions in various ways is the best approach, the unavoidable emissions can be cancelled out quickly by investing in zero carbon energy systems. Where such systems are implemented in developing countries there is a double benefit.

A range of companies and organisations now offer offset schemes. The most effective only invest in zero carbon energy systems, not tree planting. The Pure Clean Planet Trust is one of these. It is also attractive because it is a charity, and caps the proportion of offsetting donations it receives which it uses for its own costs. It therefore contrasts with commercial companies whose aim might be to maximise profits.

Pure is just beginning to invest in projects, and the first one is a large local power station in India using unused parts of crops such as coconuts and sugar cane. It supplies almost zero carbon electricity for about 10,000 people in 47 villages.

Average CO2 emissions for cars in the UK in 2006 were 274 grams per mile. A holiday involving say 1,000 miles in total would therefore emit 274 kg of carbon dioxide – probably a bit more if the car was fully loaded. The typical cost of offsetting this mileage is around £5 or less.

More information on Pure can be found at http://www.puretrust.org.uk/. There may be similar carbon offset organisations to Pure.

Language learning from the BBC

My father is a bit of a silver surfer, and he recently asked me if I could find some free German lessons for him on the Web, so I directed him to the BBC Languages website. I then investigated the website a bit more fully myself and discovered that it offers a wide selection of languages and different learning options including audio and visual files, games, and crib sheets you can print off and take with you. If you're heading out of the UK this summer, the website is well worth checking out if your language skills are like those of most British people!