We’ve been away for a while and frankly we’re sorry. We’ve been busy. What with the running of a business (paying the bills, recording of paying bills, arguing with our landlord about fixing lights etc.) and finding ways to spread Wedge across the nation we’ve neglected our little blog.
But our silence on our blog hasn’t meant we’ve been silent in real life (our neighbours would vouch for us ‘too much bloody weird laughing coming from that basement!’ we’d think they’d say). We’ve been up to all kinds of exciting things.

Even though most of us Wedgers are Londoners we are always surprised by how many great things are going on in the capital, often for free. It is to be celebrated that events such as this week’s launch of another great East festival are hosted for us Londoners to enjoy. East Festival celebrates the cultural happenings of our East London with hundreds of events and special shows from 5th to 10th March. The very lovely festival organisers are also encouraging everyone to purchase a Wedge Card to help them get the best of East London (http://www.visitlondon.com/events/east/wedge-card) so we suggest you do.

Here is what we’ll be checking out offerings:

Do Something Different weekend at The Barbican – where Diana will be heading to the kids discos, for her son, naturally, not (just) herself http://www.visitlondon.com/events/detail/4306774

Anthony will be using his beloved bike to Cycle East, where venues such as The Arcola Theatre and St John-at-Hackney Church have joined together to provide a program of theatre and arts events for those wishing to explore different veneues and events with their bicycles. http://www.visitlondon.com/events/detail/4357591

Petro will be trying out the Vortex Tour East with free concerts in unexpected places... http://www.visitlondon.com/events/detail/4414798

And we know we won’t be able to tear Tess away from the food extravaganza of Circus Eat that includes a night of dining accompanied by performance and music by local artists. http://www.visitlondon.com/events/detail/4341348

And while you’re in the area use your Wedge Card! Some suggestions would be:
10% off food and drink at Strongroom, the live music venue with a bar and restaurant on Curtain Rd, EC2 http://www.wedgecard.co.uk/modules/merchant/index.php?op=show&id=420424

15% of your food bill Sun-Thurs at The Real Greek, Spitalfields: http://www.wedgecard.co.uk/modules/merchant/index.php?op=show&id=420688

10% off exceptional teas at Tea Smith, Lamb St E1 http://www.wedgecard.co.uk/modules/merchant/index.php?op=show&id=420185

Thanks all!

PS: We’ve had a few lovely pieces of press these last couple of months. We were written up in an American magazine called Ode: http://www.zinio.com/express3issue=334123976&o=int&prev=si&pg=seo&p=65

And Red Magazine profiled our founding Mama in January. Right on.

A meeting with Mr Cameron

Last week we were summoned to Parliament. We arrived slightly sweaty palmed - perhaps there had been some outstanding bill we'd forgotten about that had been 'taken higher' ? We were then pleasantly surprised to find out that Grant Schapps MP, Shadow Housing Minister, and his party had discovered the delights of Wedge Card and wanted to sign up all of their MP's en masse.

Fast forward a week and we've Wedged up 194 MP's and been visited by David Cameron himself. He talked to us and a couple of Wedge shops on Marchmont Street, asked the owners of their thoughts about the local shop situation and was a generally pleasant guy. He then took his thoughts and wrote a great piece about us for today's Evening Standard.

So we are delighted that Mr C has supported us so. And to make sure we're remaining truly apolitical we're sending out this message to Gordon and Nick: 'join us too!'

You never know when you'll need a friend

My visa card was declined last week as I was attempting to pay for some food for my dinner. Fortunately I was in a shop where I was known and I was allowed to walk away with the promise of payment the next day.

The moral of this story isn’t that it’s better to not spend everything at the beginning of the month and then live on credit at the end (though it isn’t, my mother would be appalled if she knew) or that buying smoked salmon for a mid-week supper is shockingly decadent (possibly it is and my mother would again be appalled if she knew) but that my local shop knew me and trusted me enough to return. This naturally made me feel all village-y and warm.

So although I don’t advise practising my financial bad-planning and testing this out in your local shop, I do advise you get to know your favourite local shopkeepers because disasters befall us all and it’s nice to know there is someone out there who can help us out the sticky stuff.

Local lives in New York

A new American short film about small shops and communities in New York has caught our eye. Twilight becomes Night cuts right to the heart of the matter. Shot by film-maker Virginie-Alvine Perrette, its message is: “Each time a neighbourhood shop closes its doors for the last time, something vital is lost forever….Local businesses are vanishing at an alarming rate, but trends are not destiny. Through individual commitment and community activism, a neighbourhood can save a neighbourhood store”.

(You can see a short excerpts on http://blogs.wsj.com/independentstreet/2008/02/20/want-to-save-the-corner-store-show-em-the-money/?mod=googlenews_wsj and on the film’s own website http://www.twilightbecomesnight.com/)

As anyone who has wandered through the back streets of NYC and any of its 480 neighbourhoods will attest to, the plethora of independent shops is quite extraordinary. The film has catalogued some of these, with wonderful quotes. “You have to live the life of the people” says one store owner. “People involved in the community feel an attachment to me and I feel an attachment to them”. They talk about the ecology of the block, forming friends and webs of meaning that makes life rich and possible. It’s not just about money, it’s about life. The film-maker even interviewed a neuro-scientist talking about the importance of community life to your emotional well-being – we all need to live in an area where we feel safe and secure. Could it be any more obvious? So you take a cheap flight to NY, taking advantage of the cheap dollar and shop for clothes on Fifth Avenue. But where will you find those vintage jeans, ‘60s records, the repairer of pens or Italian delicacies? In the ‘hood, of course.

Wedge businesses voted Top Eco Foodies!

It was great to see how many Wedge Card business owners were mentioned in Sunday's January edition of the Observer Food Monthly. The subject: the Top 40 Eco Foodies. Among the 40 are Wedge people Geeta Singh, owner of the Duke of Cambridge organic pub; Arthur Potts Dawson, owner of Acorn House (Alan Titchmarsh, a great favourite of mine anyway, loves to eat at Acorn House. "The wild-mushroom ravioli is fabulous", he says); Catherine Conway, of Unpackaged; Keith Abel and Elle Heeks of Abel & Cole, and Oliver Rowe, chef and owner of Konstam. Now go visiting or eating at these wonderful people's places.

Congratulations to all!

Local shops help build communities

James Lowman, the CE of the Association of Convenience stores, writes today in the Scotsman about the importance of local shops in encouraging a sence of community. He reveals some startling facts from the Princes Trust that "one in ten Britons admitted to failing to meet other people socially on a weekly basis and 15 per cent go a week without speaking to any of their neighbours."

We agree that local shops provide vital meeting points for communities . We need a sensible debate that leads to strong policies that protect a communities right to choose what shops exist within them.

Read his article in full here:
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/Local-shops-for-local-people.3715833.jp

Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth?

We were very interested to see a new book entitled 'Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth?' published last week. We were attracted by their blurb:

We tend to see climate change as an overwhelmingly daunting threat requiring impossible sacrifices. But it's time to rethink, say a range of notable experts brought together by nef and the Open University - who share a conviction that living well need not cost the earth.

With contributions from such clever people as our founding father John Bird, A C Grayling,
Oliver James, Rosie Boycott and Anita Roddick, we know it will make us think and more importantly inspire us to ACT!

Find out where you can buy it with your Wedge Card discount on our site:
http://www.wedgecard.co.uk/modules/merchant/index.php?name=books&op=namesearch