So I headed to this wonderful slow food market today. I've been before but not been able to afford anything other than to stare longingly at a lot of it. Today, however, was different. Because it's all local food, to help encourage British producers, the ration system is different - there's still restrictions but everything's moved down one notch - meaning locally produced meat is less restricted than the crappy stuff in the supermarket, even though it's so much more yummy!

There was only one ration card machine at the market - the way it worked was that everyone had to put their card in before they entered the market. The person at the entrance would swipe the card and give you vouchers for how many ration credits you had left. You could then wander round the market and get what you wanted, handing any left over vouchers back when you left to be put back on your card. A security guard watched the whole thing - not an uncommon sight these days but only a slight dampener on what was a lovely market.



When we got to the featuring many great locally grown and predominately organic produce like this vegetable stall:



and this bread stall:



as well as some fantastic meat, fish and produce like cheese, chutney and even spices! Mum bought us organic pies for lunch with one of our treat rations - I had one with chicken and chorizo in a spicy tomato sauce and I don't think I understand the word 'pie' could be such an amazing thing until I tasted it! We also picked up lots of vegetables for the week, bread and a little meat - it's still expensive but when the rations only allow you to buy three meat items a week suddenly it's easier to spend a little more on each one. I guess those health mags that said we should cut down on our meat eating are getting their desire!

You know another thing that's great about this new ration system? The market stalls were all cleared up, out of produce by the end of the day when we went past again. when everyone's allowed a certain amount, maybe there'll be less food wasted 'in case' people want to buy it. Maybe empty shelves will become a good thing rather than a bad one - a sign that the right amoutn of food was available and eaten, rather than a failure of the Just In Time Mentality my teachers taught us in geography.



the market was popular and as news of the new ration-system in place grows I expect more people will be coming here - especially as due to it being local food the new food mile taxes don't apply.

Once we got home mum sat me down and said;

"Mia, you've got to think about what A levels you'll be taking."

I was a little stunned by this. I'd kind of assumed the schools weren't around because of the crisis, or that mum would want me helping around the house. She shook her head.

"You're going to study," she said firmly, "and you're going to do something useful. College starts on monday. You better have a look on their website and decide what you want to do."

So now I have 4 days to choose my subjects! Eek! Still, although I know it's work I'm secretly quite glad - I didn't want my life to be a housewife or without education. It feels good to know that even after the crisis, I may be able to learn enough to make a major difference, somehow.


Oh yeah! On my way home I saw this on the window of an unnamed holiday shop:



The text says:

'Say NO to holiday tax

Gordon Brown is increasing the price of your holiday. Come inside and sign our petition against Holiday Tax now.'

*sigh* Some people just don't know what's good for them, do they? There's been similar uproar from some quarters about the new rationing system. And you know the funny thing? It's always from the small minority profiting from the way it was before. The minority of rich companies and individuals who don't want equality. Well, they can all go to hell.

-Mia



[author's note - week 17. The food market in the picture is held every Wednesday in Bristol's Corn Street, attracting a lot of growers and producers from the surrounding area. In addition to the weekly one, there's a larger market in the same place on the first Sunday of the month - this is the official 'Slow Food' one - and another on Whiteladies Road the first Friday of the month. The poster in the holiday shop is also real, just going to show just how blind some people are about the greater good.

A quick aside to say that due to the author's third year Phyics exams occurring four time over the next two weeks, posts to this journal may unfortunately be more sporadic or shorter than they have been. I'm going to try and post every day still but there may be some interruptions. Just thought I better say something in case anyone got worried about Mia's silence! Also, many thanks for some of the lovely comments and links by other diarists. It's nice to know you're enjoying what I'm doing in this blog. Shoutouts to lucy_1965 whose comments inspired this post and Deliberately for running an excellent slow food blog and was kind enough to post a comment to this blog - hope you like this entry too!

Also, a little appeal unrelated to WWO. In 2003 and 2004 I was privileged enough to attend the fantastic Alpha workshop in Pittsburgh, PA. It runs every July providing superb teaching for young writers of science fiction, horror and fantasy. I would not be the writer I am today without their help and the scholarships I received to travel over to the USA to study. This year they are struggling to provide enough funds for similar scholarships for promising young writers (14-19 year olds, mostly from the USA but also in the past from the UK, Korea and New Zealand.).This is a very different topic to WWO, I know but if anyone is interested in helping you can do so at this link. Thanks.]

after weeks of silence, a ring from dad. and an announcement that he's thinking of leaving the country.

"Hey Mia," he said as I answered.

"Dad!"

"Just thought I'd check in and see how you all were after this bloody fascist attack on our liberties," he said, cheerfully.

"What?"

"These ID cards," he said. "Me and Emma have half a mind to send them back. We were thinking about selling up and going to New Zealand. Brown's not going to force this on me."

It won't happen, of course. With the money he'd get from selling the farm he'd barely get anything when he got to New Zealand. This is just dad's usual rebellion against the status quo. As much as I love him he's got a near-suicidal bent for defying what people tell him what to do. This reaction to the ID and ration cards is no different.

we've had some similar incidents to English Village about the migrant workers - a lot of the eastern european people who had been taking a lot of the marginal part time and bulk work - work that I always tried to apply on my summer's out of school - have lost their jobs and are frequent sights on the streets. Large numbers being rounded up and put on trains to help them back to Poland, etc. I don't mind them leaving - it might even mean I can work! - but the sight of them all being marched off to Temple Meads station is a little too 'Children of Men' for me...

#

So we went to the shops and used our ration cards for the first time. it was a bit of a shock to see all these lines of people queueing (like it has been for weeks) but with plenty of stock still on the shelves. A number of security officers watched the line for trouble and there was more than a few complaints at the till when the staff asked people to put things back.

One lady got very irate. She had a load of ready meals - which count as luxury items under the new system because they have so many ingredients to keep track of - and a bawling kid in her buggy.

"I just don't have time for anything else," she shouted, pushing the ready meals back into the cashier's hands. "I need these foods!"

A burly security guard that hadn't been working there before and looked like a boxer came over and took a deep long look at her.

"Ma'am," he said slowly and deeply, "I'm going to have to ask you to pick something else."

"But how am I going to feed my family?" She looked terrified. "I can't cook!"

There were a couple of chuckles from the queue that this was all the fuss was about. The security guard shrugged and led her back into the grocery aisle.

"Well," he said to her, winking to me as he came past, "I suggest you learn."

The shopping itself was pretty dull. All the stuff that we can have a lot of - potatoes, flour, milk, british style vegetables, rice and pasta, a few other things, they're in one aisle. In another is the restricted stuff like meat, eggs, fish, sauces, more exotic fruit and veg. Then towards the back, like the naughty kid at school, is all the stuff we used to rely on: ice cream, ready meals, frozen meat, crisps, chocolate... a lot of people are getting really annoyed that that stuff is the most restricted of all. A couple of kids had to be pulled screaming away from the snacks aisles by their parents.

The front rack by the tills was full of free recipe books, which we were encouraged to pick up and pick out ingredients for our shop.

We went round and mum let us have one restricted item. I know it's not very guilty treat material but I picked an avocado. I'm going to miss eating them.

When it came to the till, mum gave over our three cards, which the cashier swiped like they were just normal credit cards. We came under our allowance, so mum paid and we could leave, our first post-ration shop successful!

"that was so cheap," mum said, disbelieveing. "I paid three times that last week. I guess this government price freezing is actually working, huh? Now, who fancies casserole tonight?"

We groaned but inwardly I was quite looking forward to learning how to cook with mum.


#

Another strange event this week, that made me really happy: a lot of the cd shops closed down. Why does that make me happy? well, the reason they did it.

The government's new rationing laws come down heavily on non-essential physical products like cds. However, online downloads are completely unaffected. Within a week of the rationing beginning, all the record comapnies had stopped selling cds and the price of an itunes download had halved. A load of bands started their own websites selling their own mp3s - they can make much more money that way even though some bands are only charging 30p per song. I used a little bit of my pocket money to go and buy 4 albums for a tenner! i tell you what, if nothing else, this crisis has killed the ridiculous prices of media. right now I'm listening to my ultra-cheap, ultra amazing Hold Steady album knowing that not only did it cost less for me to buy it, they got 100% of the 30p rather than 2% of the 80p we used to pay. Go post oil music!

[author note: week 16

I had a very interesting anonymous comment about my belief in yesterday's post that the UK would suffer less in case of civil unrest because of our lack of guns. I'm very interested to see how other people see the issue. I've only seen one gun in my entire life, in the hands of a police officer. I think that although a few of our criminals have access to guns, it's better that no one has any guns and ammo because when things get desperate, guns in people's hands will cause more deaths than they will save. I'm very glad Mia's country isn't in the situation a lot of the US wwo-ers are. However, I think this is an interesting conversation and I would encourage anyone with an opinion on it to post a comment in yesterday's post.

I've been wanting to do that post on music for a couple of days now. I think it's inevitable even without an oil crash that music will go independent online - at the moment music companies and their middlemen are sucking a lot of money out that should go to artists - 50 years ago they were vital but with the internet cutting out so many of their roles I think as soon as a couple of major bands realise how much more money they could make selling their own mp3s on their own websites, we'll soon see a shift to a new world of music. That's my attempt at musicwithoutoil. It's not as down-to-earth as lead_tag's effort but i think that's how things would go. Any comments, do let me know! It's nice to get feedback on what I'm doing, even from those that don't agree with me!

Finally, a little plea along the same lines as wwo_baltpiker's post a few days ago: won't someone cover the US political landscape to all this? I follow a lot of daily kos's coverage of US politics and I think that by now, the Democrat congress and senate must be going crazy trying to get some accountability for the whole crisis! I don't feel as a Uk citizen it's my place to comment on the US side of the story but I feel this is an underdeveloped side of the wwo tale so far. Anyone up for it?]

After weeks of what feels like limbo, we started to see some positive change in bristol this week. Some of PM Brown's headline policies from his confirmation speech startled to trickle in.

After a long time without post coming through the door - even the spam has stopped - it was a surprise to hear the door ring. I went downstairs to answer it, expecting it to be a schoolfriend or something. The postman and a policeman stood there, a large wheeled container on the steps between them and an envelope in the postman's hand. They looked a bit perplexed to see a 16 year old girl open the door to Greg's house.

"Ummm...." the postman said. "Is Mr Grossman in?"

"Yeah," I said, stepping back to call up the stairs. "Greg! There's some people here to see you."

The Policeman stepped forward and put a hand on my shoulder.

"You don't live here, do you?" He said, looking down at the clipbord in hand. "We only show Mr Grossman here."

"We moved here from next door last week," I said with a shrug. "Me and my mum and my brother."

His eyebrows shot up.

"Well," he said with a smile, "I'm glad we caught you. This is a very important delivery. What's your names?"

"David, Mia and Alexandra Payton," I said promptly. The postman opened the container and sorted through a huge pile of hundreds of envelopes then pulled out one identical to the one for Greg.

"You better get them down here too."

As if on queue, Mum and Greg appeared behind me. They immediately shooed me back indoors, which made me a bit grumpy. These guys weren't exactly scary! Mum put her hands on her hips and eyed up the two men with her best haughty look.

"Yes?"

"Your new ration swipe cards," the postman said, handing Greg one envelope and mum three. The policeman stuck out one of those electronic touchpad things that UPS delivery men use and got my mum and Greg to sign for the packages. Then they started to leave.

"Wait!" Mum said. "How does this work? What do we do with them?"

The policeman rolled his eyes and continued pushing the cart to the next set of houses. The postman shrugged helplessly.

"sorry ma'am," he said, "we've got a thousand more houses to do today. All the info should be in your packs, or on the BBC."

Mum and Greg came back inside as the delivery skipped our old house and moved to the buildings beyond.

The packages were flung on the table and Greg went back to work. Mum was going to as well until I convinced her to open the envelopes.

Inside each envelope, along with a load of introductory papers and advice, were basically credit/ID cards, with our names and the pictures we'd sent in months ago when the initiative had first been setup.

"Bloody Labour," Greg said from the other room. "They've been trying to put these bloody ID cards on us for years. It'll turn into 1984 before too long, you mark my words."

"Without any electricity?" I said, picking up my new post-peak ID. "How will they power the CCTV cameras?"

Greg snorted as he usually did when someone caught out his rants and turned back to his computer. Mum smiled and ruffled my hair. Sometimes I wonder if the only reason she's with Greg is for his house and money. She's as annoyed by him as me sometimes.

so this means my post last week about lack of food isn't going to be as terrible as I thought. Possibly. The pack said that we're allowed basic carbs (bread, pasta, rice) and oil, normal vegetables and a few other things as much as we want (although if we appear to be stockpiling the card will record it and stop our purchase!), plus a certain number of 'restricted items' like coffee, chocolate, exotic fruit, meat and the like. The packet and the news channels seem very keen to stress that they worked this project out with a lot of important dieticians and chefs like Jamie Oliver to work out a ration system that should make us healthier eaters! It's still got people well pissed off though, as soon as she'd finished going through the pack mum ran off to complain about it over the phone with her friend Jo.

There's also a note to say that energy rationing will become even more organised under this system - they've basically taken the Craggers manifesto and made it into law!

Mum says we'll go shopping with our cards soon. I'm excited and a little bit scared to see how everyone's going to react to it all. The news keeps talking about how under Winston Churchill when we were fighting the Nazi's in World War II we as a nation rationed and survived. It's all very patriotic, they tell us. Home grown stuff like my rocket is not rationed so mum's pretty pleased at me for planting it! I'll let you know how the shopping goes. In the meantime I'm going to read up on what I'm allowed to buy with my new ration card!

[author note: week 14.

Many thanks to wwo_baltpiker for the reminder and information about British rationing in WWII, which became the inspiration for today's post.

I'm constantly fluctuating between two approaches when I'm writing Mia's story. I start thinking the crisis is going to be too severe and that UK society will break down, as is happening in a lot fo the US stories. Then I get some comment or link from someone, or read some news article or site about British organisation and local efforts and I change my mind and start thinking maybe we can make the Make the transition. I think Britain, as a much smaller country with cities far closer together than the US (Bath is only ten miles from Bristol, Newport 30, Cardiff 50, my hometown Swansea plus London, Exeter and Birmingham around 100 miles away and Manchester around 150. i can get on a train and be in five different cities in an hour or two.

Add that to the near total lack of guns, which I think is a major cause of social unrest (ie it makes social unrest far more likely to end in serious injuries and deaths) plus the lack of state-based government and the lack of... George Bush in power, makes me hopeful that the UK would survive this crisis for longer, if not necessarily forever. I'll have to see how severe the oil prices and world situation gets but at present I'm actually quite optimistic about some of the things I've found out about my country. As an author obviously the hyperbole situation of complete collapse makes for a more dynamic story but at the moment, I'm not seeing that as a likely scenario. If oil prices double, maybe.

In the meantime, here's a link to something we can do in the UK in the real world to help both peak oil and global warming: Liberal Democrat plans for green taxes. Meanwhile, the US government continues to behave idiotically about the whole thing.]

I've watched in horror at the reports coming in from the world via wwo the last few weeks. The US seems to be falling apart so fast, with all the shootings and riots and blackouts. It's been so much quieter in the UK that I assumed we were ok, that it wasn't as bad. I made a mistake.

Last week I mentioned how Bristol's power is guaranteed by the nuclear power station, for the next year anyway. That's still true and more and more wind turbines are being rushed into service across the severn river in the Welsh hills. Power is still iffy to supply as much as before, but it's not awful.

Over the last few days, however, it's becoming clear what our country's major threat in this crisis is: Food. There's nowhere near enough food on this island to feed everyone. The news keeps talking about how we're a lot more population dense than the US and there's going to have to be a massive rethink if we're to feed the 60 million people that call Great Britain their home.

We can still get food but the stuff being imported is getting more and more expensive. When it was just exotic fruit it wasn't so bad but things like rice and pasta is also mostly imported and more and more gaps are appearing in Tesco's stock. I worry that if the UK collapses, it will be because we ran out of food.

And though Iraq has been such an awful debacle, the oil there could be a great thing in the crisis, right? Wrong. Things like that make me glad that Brown has started removing troops.

Bigger news. due to the US standoff with Iran and the massive amounts of tension in the Gulf, Uncle Andy's not been able to get home again.

We moved out of our old house and into Greg's pretty quickly and mum cancelled our bills and stuff. Greg's house is about the same size as our old one so a lot of stuff is going to end up being freecycled. Mum looks a lot happier - I'm not sure if it's being openly with greg or the lifting of the stress all this money worry's been causing. The bad side is I have to bunk with David now and he's a moody 12 year old that wants to play video games all the time. What with Mum trying to force him to cut down on electricity, he's not happy.

The weird thing is, even though mum's all stressed about conservation and greg works in solar panels, he doesn't seem that bothered about the environment. He leaves everything on. His car is a big fat Saab. He's a tory for crying out loud! I miss my dad. He might be a waster but at least he's honest about it.

Still no word from wwo_mitchtrix. I hope he's ok. The journey from Milton Keynes to Anglesey is a long one and with the roads the way they are... Hope everything's alright.



[author note: wednesday, week 14]

I'm 16 today! I'm not sure that's anything to celebrate right now judging by all that's happening around the world - mostly in America. But it's me not being a child anymore. I've been feeling really awkward looking at all the stuff going on and knowing I can't do anything because i'm 'just a kid'. Well, I'm still young but I'm getting closer to the point that I can do something.

at least some good news is occurring in the world - Mum actually leapt up in delight when she saw that bit of news on the headlines. She had a schoolfriend from South Korea, I think.

I haven't heard anything from wwo_mitchtrix for a couple of days now. Last I heard he was leaving MK for Wales. The army, newly returned form Iraq, is being deployed to control the riots - there's been a lot in Milton Keynes, as well as Newcastle and Liverpool and a number of London districts. I hope he gets out safe. If you're reading this mitch, check in soon, k?

Greg's being alarmingly nice to me and David - he gave me a load more electronic gadgets from his company. I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to do with this ugly hat but the wind up radio will come in handy, I guess. I think it's coming to the point that he wants mum to announce they're dating, so he's getting a little creepily interested in what I'm up to - he's nice enough I guess but I'd just rather he went away. I have a dad already!

The exotic fruit are rapidly becoming memory for me at the supermarket. I went shopping whilst mum was working. There's massive gaps where the mangos, avocados, blueberries, all that used to be. Even the 'normal' vegetables are looking thin - a lot fo them came from Israel and stuff, I guess. The picketing of the lorry drivers at this week's diesel prices isn't helping - I tried to go shopping yesterday but the deliveries hadn't come. People are stocking up on whatever they can get their hands on, so if you go a while after a delivery a lot has gone.

David's in a mood - his football team might go into administration. A lot of the clubs have got a lot poorer, there's hardly been any transfers - I know cos David keeps winging about it! Apparently a lot of clubs aren't having away support for the coming season - they'll show the match on tv in their home stadium for fans that can't afford to travel. Sounds like a waste of time to me but David's excited about going to them and I'll probably have to accompany him...

Some good news on my birthday - Uncle Andy just phoned to say the hospital in Saudi he's been in the last few weeks following the tanker accident has let him go - he's flying back as soon as possible. It'll be so nice to have a man around that isn't Greg. Andy's got the warmth and genuine charm that Greg wishes he has. I don't know why mum's so keen on him. Greg and Mum both started telecommuting a lot recently - connecting to the office online rather than going into work. Mum says it saves her lots of money but it means I hardly have a minute where they aren't around being... all loveydovey. Maybe I'll ask Dad if I can come see him again.

A strange sight walking back from the supermarket: the little local train, usually only a half-empty two-carriage, has been replaced by a massive one 6 cars long, packed to the roof with commuters. I guess those prices are starting to hit more than I thought - it seems so normal here.





Bristol is the same - but quieter. There's no riots and little violence, only a slow decline into a poorer world.


[author note - week 12]

The first time I noticed something had changed was on a shopping trip.Mum doesn't have a car, so I didn't take much more than a brief glance at the oil prices. If someone asked me, I would have thought it was unlikely that Sainsburys would be the first sign of the apocalypse but there it was. A bare shelf where the bananas had been and a sign: out of stock.

I thought nothing of it. I didn’t like bananas much anyway. I crossed it off my mother’s list and took a pair of mangoes instead. I put the mangoes back when I saw the price tag. Mum would kill me if I spent six pounds on two fruit. A woman behind me in the queue stopped me taking plastic bags and gave me one of her cotton ones instead to pack my shopping in.

"They might start charging for the plastic ones soon love," she told me. "The oil, you know."

I nodded but didn't really get it. How come petrol prices mean I have to pay for my shopping bags? I thanked her for the cotton bag and headed home.

Walking back up Whiteladies Road there were distinctly fewer cars on the road than there had been a few weeks ago. The ageing double-decker buses creaking up the hill were packed and I actually hadto wait for the second one to come before I could cram myself into thestanding space for the journey home. The bus driver charged me £3 - itwas £2.20 a week ago.

My brother wanted to go see a film at the mall in Cribbs Causeway when I got back. I don't think I've seen mum look so worried since dad left. She took us into the kitchen and made us sit down.

"It's going to be a bit tricky for a while," she said. She looked at me more than David. He looked baffled and pouted when she said we couldn't go to the cinema. He stormed out. Mum looked at me with tired eyes.

"Mia," she said, telling that I was annoyed at this withdrawal of fun as well, "this is really important.Let your brother know that, ok?"

"But why?" I said. "It's just the cinema. we always go."

"We're running out of money," Mum said. "This oil crisis is only going to get worse pet. I need to make sure we have enough to eat later in the month. You understand, right?"

I didn't, not yet. It would be weeks before the new reality we found ourselves in would truly hit home.

[author's note: monday, week 6]