Our newly-green blogger is planning some creative ways to reduce his household's carbon footprint - he's going to confiscate his wife's car keys. It begs the question: just how environmentally friendly is marriage counselling?
My approach has, I accept, been slightly less scientific than that of the others. Don't get me wrong however. Dave's edicts have obviously been key coordinates in my life over the last few weeks. For instance, I have become a regular at the local Homebase. Indeed, I now am so often seen in the electrical department that the people who work their smile sympathetically at me as I rummage through the energy efficient light-bulbs. They probably think I am suffering from some sort of green compulsive disorder.
The key to climbing the mountain, I have decided, is Mrs Helps. I have already had to turn to Dave for counselling on one of a number of serious issues that have stirred the matrimonial waters between us since your original visit. I am not holding you and Dave personally responsible for the collapse of my relatively recent marriage but ....... watch this space! By the way, the problem I had to refer to Dave (just the tip of what has now become a serious iceberg) was Mrs Helps apprehending me swapping our existing light-bulbs for low energy ones and berating me for wasting energy by getting rid of them before they had been used up. Fortunately, Dave sorted that one out without my having to continue to sabotage my existing bulbs during the middle of the night.
I am now considering a much more radical and I believe far-sighted measure that would ensure that my undoubted weight loss (tonnes!) continues. As Dave said, initially it is important to identify the relatively pain free steps that you can take and then to embark upon the more difficult ones later. With this in mind, it seems to me that we have really got to hit the travel problem hard. So what I am going to do is to confiscate Mrs Helps' car keys and cancel all her international holiday arrangements forthwith. I am going to tell her that it is for the good of the planet but I am not sure that that will cut much ice. I may need further counselling in the near future!
One nice thing is the presents and expressions of goodwill I have received since the piece was published. For instance, a roll of draught-proofing tape I received, nicely wrapped, from my friends at Berkeley Consulting!
Anyway, I am afraid I am running out of energy fast (ha-ha) and I will keep you posted.
