Wow, having enjoyed some scrambled eggs in Cafe Rouge in Loughton this morning we have moved into London to get some culture.

Wow, we started at the Tate Modern that was immense with great exhibits (exclude the bricks - all 120 of them) we had a great time. Lunch on the South Bank with Pizza, Salad and fun, a quick trip to Hamleys and then back on the Central line for a hot and packed trip back to Loughton.

Rachel and Ron are off (we should have been there too but DJ was struggling) for Dinner in Canary Wharf while I am left at home uploading these photos of the day.

Time for bed now - see you on Saturday

OK, so we arrived a little late (thanks easyjet!) to London for a short break. We are staying at Rachel’s in Loughton, Essex, set in Epping Forest its a great base since it is still on the Central line. So we plan to jump on the tube today and start to explore London .

We have been doing well on focusing our SEO work on getting Saddleback Cottage further up the ranks.

We are now on page 1 of google for “nethybridge” and “nethy bridge” but part of my world domination plan is to increase the interest to accommodation searchers looking at the major local accommodation hub in Aviemore.

I have done this by adding “near Aviemore” to the title and adding some specific content relating to Aviemore in the site. Cottage holiday near Aviemore.

The plan is to move up from non existent to somewhere on searches for Aviemore accommodation.

Lets see what happens over the coming months.

The SEO work has been a great success and the booking costs for this year’s holiday makers haven’t been too expensive even though it has been focused on PPC for most of this year.

Its back to school today, I remember never sleeping well the night before going back to school but Freyja and DJ seem OK about it!

DJ has a new calculator and has been following me around since 7am asking me sums so he can calculate them.. He is totally amazed when I get some of them right!

So that’s the summer holidays over for another year and its just time to look forward to September and October breaks.

We went to Cromarty this week to join in on Ecoventures - dolphin watching, it was really cool. We saw:

Harbour Pourpoise
Bottle noise dolphins
Seals
and lots of birds

It was a really good day out and the guys at Ecoventures really were good at talking us through the ecosystem around the Moray Firth.

Well Done!

It’s day 1 of our holiday at Nethybridge this year. We are here for 2 weeks and we thought that it was going to be a scorcher this year - not so far!

We have really enjoyed cutting the grass, cleaning the house and generally lazing around. There was a mammoth Monopoly game today which Freyja and Claire won and enjoyed repossesing all out our houses, property and cards. It has been rainy but not too bad.

It’s great to relax a little here and enjoy time not doing much. We have cooked and eaten a huge amount so far so we will have to try the Go Lower diet box when we get back from holiday.

The carbon diet has been suspended while on holiday - although we only drove 250 miles to get here and didn’t get on a plane so i think our carbon footprint won’t show up in comparison with most people that I know that have flown off a couple of hours minimum for some relaxation.

As a “carbon diet champion”, I have thrown out a pile of high carbon habits that I had stored in my cupboard this weekend. This is no different from any other diet I have been on, it will be tough to manage the conflict between consumer freedom and restriction. On a typical diet, you feel that you are losing something, but I think on my carbon diet I will just change my habits rather than removing carbon completely (as if we could!). So it’s a balanced low carbon diet not an extreme crash carbon diet!

So first small steps taken this week:

1. Took the train. In fact I got the train for only £10 from Aviemore to Edinburgh, I had Wi-Fi all the way (all the way would be defined as intermittently!). Did work and enjoyed the relaxation of travelling by train.

2. Bus - I live in Morningside, it is so well served by buses it’s embarassing to not take them to work. I work in Leith so I can get a bus outside my house and within 30 minutes (in rush hour) be at my office, quicker than taking the car.

3. Turned the tap off - I know its a bit corny but my daughter Freyja has been looking at the impact of environmental change at school (she is only 9) and she has given me a lecture about leaving the tap running - I have changed this habit this week and stuck with it!

So Day 3 and 3 changes - small steps I know but what have you done?

Oh and if you want a regular diet - we launched our Go Lower diet today check out the new website at www.golower.co.uk

There is a lot in the news today about reductions in Scotland our carbon footprint and our impact on climate change.

The issue is we can do our bit but it will not save the world from climate change. If Russia, China, US and India do not get on the road to control emissions then our efforts will not make much difference. Of course, we must lead the way and show that we are a developed country that can be used as an example for others to follow.

So why not start monitoring our carbon footprint, that’s my plan from 1st July 2007. Not only is the company I work for going on a big push to convince consumers that they should diet with us, but I am going on a carbon diet from 1st July!

Keep up with my progress here.

It was an eventful trip to Amsterdam this weekend.

Noel after the night before

OK, its been a year and a bit since Noel had his 40th Birthday in Las Vegas (how cool was that). So we are now heading to Amsterdam for Ian P’s 40th. It is going to be a tough weekend of drinking and partying. So will report back if I have the will left to write a few lines.

Happy Birthday Ian!