On the way to Making Another World Real:  Latin America Today on 26 Jan, as I got on the tram money fell out of my trousers, one of 2 pairs of very nice green corduroys bought in Valencia back in 2003.  I cursed politely, noting that I’d mended the pocket several times.  “Carolyn said “you’d better replace the pocket rather than mending it”.  But the woman who noticed the money said, “or just get some new trousers”.
I protested that there are years of life in them next, and this is true.

I used the story in my workshop on Andean notions of “right living” (or “living well” – the translation from the Andean languages, via the Spanish “vivir bien” or “buen vivir” is problematic), as an illustration of the ideology of consumption rather than stewardship of resources.  The workshop was fun, rather than the traditional left event of speaker followed by grandstanding questions, I got people in groups of 2 and 3 to read texts from South America, summarise, identify questions and resopnances.  This gives much more engagement with the material and a deeper and broader conversation.  You can read the material here.

Today was a fixing day.  replacing fence panels after rot and wind damage, darning a pair of socks and … beginning the job of replacing that pocket.  I eventually unpicked it all to replace with a new piece of cloth.  Complicated fixing arrangement.  When I then looked at the pieces I realised I’d removed the wrong pocket.    Maybe I should stick to woodwork.  Title for a feature film maybe:  “The Wrong Trouser Pocket”.

I haven’t posted here for a bit by the way.  But a recent bit of polemic on economic growth and aviation can be found here.  let me point it out first:  there is indeed a contradiction between my adovcacy of caps on aviation and my recent travels.