Alec John Moore

My Live Below the Line pancake recipe: 1 egg, 150ml UHT milk or 50/50 UHT milk and water, 60gms wholemeal flour. They are really nice. That amount of batter doesn't make enough. Can I have some more, please?

Thanks, Twirly. I'm just about to make my breakfast of porridge with UHT milk and yogurt. Not much different from what I usually have except for the UHT milk. If you click on #BelowtheLine on Twitter you'll see some fascinating images of how people have decided to use their limited funds.

I'll be back in the office on Tuesday for the rest of the week. Choice is clearly limited within what you can buy for your ?5 and you have to make it last. So, a fifth of the porridge oats allowance each day for breakfast and so on for the broth mix and pasta. I don't have much salt in my food anyway so I may well have a few of the cheap stock cubes left over. They are mostly salt. I don't know what your eating habits are but I tend to graze (snack between meals) as well as my 3 meals a day. You can't do that on this regime. I reckon I'll get hungry between meals but I'll be using mint from the garden to make tea which should stave off the hunger pangs a bit.

Breakfast is porridge with yogurt and dinner is the same as lunch but perhaps with some tinned tuna added as a treat.

Hi Gidget That's more or less what I'm doing only on a day by day basis. Lunch was actually quite nice today. The pancakes turned out quite fluffy I suppose because there was more egg to flour and milk than is usual. I need to soak/cook the dried peas a bit longer. Alec

P.S. you can follow me on twitter @AlecLeggat if you are into that kind of thing. Alec

Hi Thanks for your responses. I've just had breakfast of porridge made with some of the UHT milk, topped with a few dollops of yogurt. It was surprisingly good. I should have made the porridge with water, intexas, so that I could keep some milk for the pancakes I will make later. Perhaps I'll use both water and milk for the porridge depending on how I can eke it out. I intend to use the eggs for the pancakes. To keep it simple, not much choice really, I'm preparing to make a broth mix stew (today's ration is soaking in a bowl of water at the moment) with the pasta and tinned toms too. I'll make as much as my ration allows and then divide it in two and have some for lunch and some for dinner. I like the idea of using the onions with the pastry. I could soften them in some oil and them sprinkle them on the pancakes before I flip them. I'm also thinking I could add a little yogurt to the broth/stew. I did try Sainsbury's basics, Fairtrade, tea bags last year when I did this but they were not even worth the 26p or whatever they cost. Today I took some mint from the garden for a refreshing mug of mint tea. You're supposed to work out how much it cost to produce what you take from the garden but I've had the mint plants for a couple of years and I don't know how to work out the depreciation on plants. I have to admit to having bent the Live Below the Line rules a bit by taking my allocations for flour, oil, onions and porridge oats from bigger packs. I think that is necessary though to be able to use basic ingredients. The main thing I'm sure I'll find is that it is very tedious and time consuming to be thinking about food and cooking it in this way. The constraints of the challenge mean that you can't do what a lot of us can and just get what you want pretty much when you want it. I hope I'll be able to have a fairly healthy diet with a fair amount of enjoyment in the consumption of my meals but it isn't what I would choose. I'll let you know how I get on.

I'm starting my Live Below the Line challenge tomorrow. Thanks, Susan from my book group for being my first donor: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/alecleggat Here's my shopping list for my larder for the next 5 days: Large pot basic yogurt 55p Basic own brand pasta 30p Broth mix (barley, lentils, split peas) 65 1 ltr UHT milk 49p 2 tins chopped tomatoes 62p 330gm porridge oats 35p veg stock cubes 10p 250gm wholemeal flour 22p 160ml vegetable oil 25p 5 fresh eggs from our own chickens 75p (based on the daily cost of their feed) 1 tin tuna flakes 49p 5 small onions 23p Can't wait. Alec

Hi About a year ago I spent 5 days spending ?1 a day on food. This was part of the Live Below the Line campaign to raise awareness of extreme poverty and the lives of the poorest people in the world. By taking the challenge I was attempting to raise my own consciousness of the issue and "bring to life the direct experiences of the 1.4 billion people currently living in extreme poverty" while also raising awareness more widely of the issue of food insecurity. It was an interesting challenge and I think I became just slightly more obsessive about food during those five days. This year I am taking the challenge again and hoping to raise some funds for my charity - Salvation Army International Development - to support subsistence farmers in places like Malawi increase production through training in sustainable agriculture techniques and the use of drought resistant crops, for instance. If you'd like to support me then follow this link: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/alecleggat Follow this thread if you'd like to know how I get on. One of the things I came across last year when looking at the issue is this set of photos showing what families in countries as diverse as Germany and Chad eat in a week. A fascinating comparison of conspicuous consumption on one hand and enforced frugality on the other. http://www.foodmatters.tv/articles-1/what-the-world-eats-shocking-photos Best wishes Alec

Hi I've noticed this comes up from time to time on EDF so thought you might be interested in this: "On June 21, 2011, non-profit organization Shoot Experience sent out six photographers to various parts of London to see the current state of photographers' rights." http://www.petapixel.com/2011/07/20/six-photographers-test-their-right-to-shoot-in-london/ Alec

You could try streetbank.com there are a few East Dulwich people on there. It does need more "members" before it can really work. It's not the only site out there but you don't have to use it exclusively. Alec

I'm getting the 6.45 am BA flight to Edinburgh on Friday. Terminal 5 is a bit further away using public transport so I'm getting Keen on Barry Road to take me for the sum of ?45.50. I can sit back and doze for 45 mins or so and not have to worry about catching buses and trains etc.

Hi Thought you might be interested in seeing a photo of some of the people who use bikes donated to Re-Cycle http://www.re-cycle.org/for Malawi to help in combatting child trafficking. Community volunteers raise awareness of the problem in their villages and help people (mostly families who allow their children to be trafficked and farmers who use boys to herd cattle all day)understand their responsibilities to children. Volunteers are also often involved in rescuing children from exploitative labour situations. You can donate your bike to Re-Cycle by dropping it off at Action Bikes: http://www.actionbikes.co.uk/bikes-for-africa.html Best wishes Alec

Hi, while not wanting to undermine the efforts of Monica and the EDSNUB Bikes for Schools project, I thought I'd point out that it is now possible to donate your old bike to ReCycle via Action Bikes: http://www.actionbikes.co.uk/donate-a-bike.html I help support a bike workshop in Malawi that benefits from shipments of bikes from ReCycle. I know how well our second hand bikes are received in Malawi - kids cycling to school and farmers taking their produce to the market to name but two. It's great to be able to donate bikes through London bike shops. Best wishes Alec

Good point PP, in our case they are out of sight but not out of mind.

I think I saw some in the pound shop on Rye Lane, the one that used to be an Ethel Austin shop.

As a result of reading similar threads on EDF I now make sure doors are properly locked and keys out of sight or upstairs with laptop, wallet etc. before I go to bed. I sometimes take the TV up too but that's really so the kids can't watch it before they go to school in the morning. It can be a real pain getting them off it and out of the door in the morning.

I'll take some off your hands if you'd like to bring them this evening. I'll see what I've got in the garden to exchange them with. See you later, Alec

rfoxxi, I dare say your daughter would have been very happy had she spent the last couple of years at Lyndhurst. I say that not just as a longstanding Lyndhurst parent with two children there and one who left a couple of years ago but as someone who believes a balanced view on this is important. One thing to bear in mind for prospective parents at Lyndhurst is that it has moved from 1.5 to 2 form entry and there will be a lot of building work at the school over the next couple of years. The school seems to have considered the consequences of the inevitable disruption very carefully and Southwark will be conducting a formal consultation with parents, children and other stakeholders. I have no regrets about my children being at Lyndhurst but I would also have been happy had we got our first born into DKH. Alec

Today I'm mostly thinking am I a lefty or a liberally. And then I'm thinking that hasn't been a useful set of categories for most people since before New Labour.

Saw a heron flying over Burgess Park this morning as I was cycling to work. I've seen the one in Peckham Rye park and the one at the pond by Pond Cottages in Dulwich but they were both perched. They look quite majestic in flight. Alec

My first attempt at growing chilli peppers this year. There's something slightly devilish about the way they ripen and the green shades through brown to red. Alec

Waiting to cross the road by Peckham square a while ago I was addressed as this geezer: http://www.peoplequiz.com/biographies-32155-Billy_Bragg.html I grunted and walked on. I've actually got a Scottish accent,see. I didn't want to disillusion the guy. Alec

Queenie23, Sorry if I came across as a bit snidey in my last post. Your comment about decent schools seemed, to me, to imply that they are all, equally available to everyone. As I'm sure you are aware, the process parents go through when considering the secodary school transfer dilemma is somewhat fraught. You are right that there are lots of decent schools in London and I have been impressed by most of the ones I visited. However, the choice is not sraightforward. Alec

Otta, some people come later to the fray for whatever reason. I'm quite enjoying it today. Alec