So over the years I keep having near death experiences! I am so lucky!

These are the ones I can remember,

​- I got ran over as a child by a car. The car went accoss my stomach
- Nearly drowned surfing as a child, Croyde north Devon
​- Bashed on the rocks surfing as an adult, again Croyde north Devon
- Nearly drowned surfing in Bali, Indonesia
- Nearly ran over by a bus
- I winded my self snowboarding. My lungs stopped working and I couldn't breathe
- Kamikaze taxi driver in Sri Lanka who drove on the wrong side of the road at night. He would pull back accross at the last second. I was in the passenger seat
- Multiple near crashes in cars. One time aqua plaining with so much water on the windshield we couldn't see a thing


What have I learnt?

Well, life is fragile so enjoy it while you can. Also I thought I was the big man always showing off and going for the biggest waves, but actually catching them counted for nothing really.

I made a video about one of the near death events that happened. Its called 'The Fragility Of life'.

Last night I went to a really funny, revealing and entertaining poetry night. The head line was the honest and talented Hollie McNish. Check out her work!

One of my friends has turned her back garden into a sanctuary for chickens. The ones I met (pictured) used to be battery/caged hens, and would have been sent to slaughter. But now they live out there lives having dust baths, roaming in houses and eating blueberries!

​These beautiful animals all have their own unique personalities, But in our indoctrinated and disconnected world most people don't think about it. They just treat them like commodities. They were very friendly and gentle beings, and I loved just chilling with them. On the day I learnt that there is a really cool group that is called the 'micro sanctuary movement'. More about what they do is here,

Website
http://www.microsanctuarymovement.org/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/microsanctuarymovement/about/?entry_point=page_nav_about_item&tab=page_info

One of the funny and smart things the chickens do is tap on the cat flap that is connected to the kitchen. This is a sign they would like a snack, and if its in the house blueberries please! :)

This is an awesome free and non-profit website. It is full of enlightening information and easy to understand videos!

A really informative and inspiring film.

The makers Environment Films have lots of other awesome work too!

Check it out here,
http://environmentfilms.org/EF/ENVIRONMENT_FILMS.html

People sometimes say that one person cannot make a difference in the world, and this is sometimes said about Vegans too. I disagree with this statement because of lots of  reasons, these link to the fact that our actions as humans have a knock on effect. Like say, if I went and took a piss through everyone of my neighbour's on my roads letterboxes, I would make over a hundred people confused and angry. Or if I spent that same amount of time and energy volunteering at an elderly peoples home, I probably wouldn't make anyone angry but more likely happy. Therefore as an individual you can make a difference. Is it a big enough 'difference' is another matter, I like to focus on changing what we can for the better, even though there are other big things happening too. (Hope that makes sense). The Above image by the Vegansidekick is a great example!

One way to put numbers to the 'difference' is to calculate how many meals we each eat Vegan. Above is World record holder and Vegan of 30 years Pat Reeves, here she is breaking a world record in 2015 in Telford.

So she has not eaten animal products in 3 meals a day for 365 days a year, which equals 1095 per year.

I then times the 1095 by 30 years. Which equals a staggering 32850 meals (that is a difference).

3 x 365 = 1095
30 x 1095 = 32850

I am personally in my 5th year of being Vegan, so will be at 5475 meals not consuming animal products in January 2017! If you want to do your own calculation just times the number of years you have been vegan by 1095.

(your number of years) x 1095 = your total

Have a great day!

Some times it can be hard to stay positive in this world, where there are so many animals being killed needlessly, and it can feel as people wont change their ways. But they can and do! I have met former farmers and former slaughterhouse workers who are now vegan speakers! That combined with all the positive and moving stories that are shared on the website - www.humanemyth.org.

One thing that is good to do is to educate ourselves, and one person who is great at teaching is Gary Yourofsky. Whether its through his famous talks, Youtube videos or through his resourceful website www.adaptt.org. One thing that jumped out at me recently from his site is the animal kill counter that appears when people open his site, its a stark wake up call that we need to do things to stop the animal holocaust. So with his work and the positive stories of humanemyth.org we can be hopeful and use our knowledge to educate others.

Here is an example of the kill counter!

Imaage above is of Gary Youro givings a ​http://www.gary-tv.com/garymain/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/gary-yourofsky.jpg