Buttons & Other Adventures: June 2020

For years I've been trying to improve my environmental awareness, and try to be as green as possible in the way I live.

I make all my own clothes, won't buy anything in single use plastic, try to buy my food as naked and locally as possible, and have switched to a renewable energy tariff at home. We've also stopped flying as much as we used to, preferring to take the Eurostar when we want to travel in Europe, as we live so near to Kings Cross!

So another big one on the list was my car. I'd had it for 15 years, so that was good in that it had lasted a long time!! However, it was becoming less fuel efficient in its old age, and so I have been thinking for a few years that Electric is the way forward.

We started browsing all the different models available, and looked at Hybrids too, at the start of the year, and then lockdown was the perfect opportunity to really seriously research them all, and decide what to go for.

I mostly just drive locally around London, maybe 30-40 miles each way for some longer trips, but mostly within 10 miles, so I knew an electric car would be perfect for this. My parents live 125miles away, and my boyfriends parents slightly further, but as they are all retired, they love to come and visit us more than we go and visit them!!

The main thing for me was boot space - for markets I shove a lot of stuff in my car, and some of the electric models are tiny!! At one showroom, I was looking in the boots of cars first, before looking inside, and the salesperson was very surprised when I rejected some instantly, without even looking inside!!

I also rejected hybrids pretty quickly, as they are not much better for the environment than some smaller engine petrol cars, and also there are 2 mechanisms to go wrong!

So the Nissan Leaf was perfect - great boot size, great reviews, and happily in budget!

The main thing to decide was which model to go for, as the range in the older ones goes from about 80-160 miles, with the price increasing with the higher mileage.

I've settled on a 66 reg one, which a range of around 110-130 miles. I've mostly been driving it around locally, and it is a dream to drive. In eco mode, when driving around London, it barely uses any charge, as every time you brake, it charges the battery! I was instantly in love!

I'd bought it from near Guildford, so had the experience of driving back on the M25 and M4 as a little taste of motorway, but hadn't fully tested it, or rapid charged it. However, I've just got back from a longer trip, which involved a rapid charge and it was great! Normally I hate driving on my own, as I get bored, but the Leaf is such a dream to drive, I was quite happy!

I'd already made accounts for Ecotricity (who run most of the chargers in UK service stations) and Zap Map (which shows where all charging points are, if they are in use, and if they are broken!) so was ready to go.

When entering the route into the Leaf satnav, it instantly told me that I probably wouldn't make my destination without a charge stop, so gave me a selection of possible stops, and asked me to select one to program in. Brilliant!

Ideally, if I had a passenger, I'd have got them to keep an eye on Zap map, to check if the charging points were being used, before I got there, but as I was on my own, I just went with my plan, but stopped with enough charge that I still could have reached the next service station, should these ones have been out of action.

I have to admit I was a little nervous. Various people had warned me against buying a fully electric car, insisting that I would regularly get stuck without charge, but it all went smoothly, I arrived to 2 working and empty chargers, connected to one, exactly as I should have, and 16 mins and £3.50 later, I was back up to 80% charge. Brilliant.

I also had a lovely chat with a couple who turned up to charge their car next to me while I was waiting, which according to them is entirely normal!

As is usual with review sites, most people only leave feedback when there is a problem, so it can seem daunting to look at Zap Map and see so many problems reported, so I made sure to leave feedback that everything had worked as expected!

I'm still very much a new owner, so will report back in a few months when I've explored more, but for now I am a very very happy customer!

As a person with zero medical skills, it was easy to feel a little helpless at the start of this crisis - especially when so many of our friends are medical or work in hospitals.

I quickly realised that I could help using my sewing skills to make masks and scrubs. Initially I raided our airing cupboard, re-purposing my boyfriends old navy duvet cover (that we never use, because mine are all nicer!!), which had a lovely large amount of fabric for my first set!