Ideal Home exhibition

My friend, Elizabeth, had free tickets to the Ideal Home Exhibition, so we went today.

Went to the "Natural House" from the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment. The charity is working for communities that are walkable places that are designed effectively to encourage social interaction and make people feel safe, encouraging local industry and jobs. http://www.princes-foundation.org/.

They are, for instance, creating a 1,000 home sustainable village on a brownfield site in Neath Port Talbot in Wales and helping to redevelop the centre of Port au Prince, Haiti.

Whilst queuing to enter the house I was reading on a display board about the "web of daily life", which is encouraging people to live locally (that's not just "live" as in home, but work, shops, hobbies).  How quickly would a major spike in oil prices disrupt your daily necessities?

I am not sure how far work is from home as the crow flies, but it is 8-9 miles cycling via towpaths for the middle bit of the journey, which I wouldn't want to do everyday! In London, as long as the tubes can run I'd be OK. I would miss evening classes at the City Lit, lots of exhibitions at central museums, second hand bookshops, some cinema (I do go locally but it doesn't always have the film I want to see), theatre and decent haberdashery stores (though John Lewis is not a patch on what it was!) if I had to stay local for most things.

I liked the Natural House. Because a lot of the stuff in it was second hand, it seemed much more normal and real than other show homes I have been in. There was an overmantle and a long shelf I particularly liked - I don't see nice things like that in my local junk shop!