WTS Day XXVIII

Slept in a bit late this morning. Tomorrow will start on the Dorothea Brande schedule, such as it is. Today is the first day of July, so therefor the first day of Plastic-Free July. I won't be going Plastic Free, but am going to take the following actions:

-use my Thinx and purchase more of them.

-I already use bar soap rather than liquid hand soap, but will extend this to showering as well. I thought about switching to solid shampoo but this is hard water area. That is my excuse anyway. Although I suppose an experiment would do no harm. 

-I already use real butter rather than the gunk in the plastic tubs. This is a good example of how eco-switches almost always result in a better-quality experience. 

-cooking my own food and eschewing ready-meals in plastic containers.

-buying cheese in Iago's, where they wrap it in waxed paper. 

-bringing bags to the market to buy vegetables. Seeing if I can find a string bag. 

-eating more things like eggs, that are minimally packaged.

-not buying soft drinks multi-packs that are covered in plastic. This will incur a cost as it is cheaper to buy the multi-packs with the plastic. At least Diet Coke can now be bought in 24-pack cardboard boxes. 

-switching to powder for biological detergent.

-at some point during the month refilling my non-biological detergent bottles. I really need to do this only once a year and think I still have plenty of last year's to go. 

-giving up single-use small water bottles. I know giving up bottled water is the low-hanging fruit of using less plastic, but I got a letter from Irish Water telling me there is lead in the tap water. Things I can do include buying bigger bottles of water and using the filter in the gym. Of course, I could buy a filter. Or not take any notice of Irish Water and their scare-mongering. 

-stop buying synthetic clothes. 

-go to the Quay Co-op and see if there's anything there that could help.

-switch to non-plastic cotton buds. I don't use a whole load of these anyway, but sometimes nothing else will do to fix wonky eye-make-up. 

-bringing reusable containers to the fish counter. 

None of this is too hard during the summer,  when I have time to shop in the market and the inclination to cook. I have no excuses really during the winter either. Of course, not having a baby represents the greatest plastic-saving of all. Other people are using my quota of course. And it wouldn't stop me. It'd be better to have a baby and donate to organisations tackling over-population. I do think over-population is a thing. I think people who decide not to have children for this reason are being responsible, on the condition that it's a unanimous decision between a couple. I doubt it is. I mean, I think it's unreasonable to expect your partner of whichever sex to deny themselves offspring and parenthood for no other reason than altruistic environmentalism. 

All really posh people are environmentally-friendly because there are rewards from that way of living. What about flying? I have to laugh at the zero-wasters on Youtube who are flying here and there and packing their bamboo toothbrushes in their carry-on. LOL. 

WTS Day XXVI

One aspect of WTS I am struggling with is avoiding the sun. I came back from holidays determined to really avoid it this week, yet every day I have been out in it. Monday I went shopping, Tuesday I can't remember but there was something, Wednesday I walked over to some-one's house for lunch, yesterday I went out in the garden with my nephew. This is all less exposure than if I didn't think about it, but is still probably more than the average office-worker gets. I must become more disciplined where this is concerned. UV rays are at an all-time, crazy high. It was 29 degrees yesterday and set to go over 30 today. I feel guilty now about my four flights, with two more coming up in September. I know lots of people don't worry about flights, thinking the key to tackling global warming lies with governments. That is true, but in the age of Trump, we must all do what we can do. 

My own life is not eco-friendly in the slightest. I live alone, in a house I could have done more to insulate. I don't have solar panels, even though I love the idea of them.It is true that I retro-fitted an old house rather than building a new one. That is something. And it is much more energy-efficient than when I bought it. If back again I would insulate under the floor-boards and put in triple-glazed windows. I drive to work, in a B rated, diesel car. I am also guilty that I could have car-pooled twice as much as I did last year, but never got around to changing my supervision. It is quite probable that car-pooling will be out of the question next year and it definitely will the year after. But who knows after that. I could take the bus into town a lot more. Not that my driving into town is a huge source of CO2: it's only around a mile and a half. Maybe two miles. 

On the other hand I'm mostly vegetarian. I don't take a whole load of flights. I buy bar soap and butter not in tubs. I am delighted with Thinx: they are practical and have led to a real reduction in the amount of sanpro I am discarding. That is one small win. 

How is the Miracle Morning going? 

Silence: very well, doing this every morning, even when away.

Affirmations: was going well. My notebook still hasn't arrived and I think I'm going to have to start a new one. 

Visualisation: not doing this one. 

Exercise: a bit sporadic. Back in the gym again two days a week and most of the others doing a quick abs routine. Doing these in the morning does help, and sometimes I get into the shower amazed at how many things I've ticked off so early in the day. This actually saves on the willpower needed, while simultaneously fostering good habits and discipline. 

Reading: like silence, this is going really well. Every morning at home I set the alarm and read fiction for ten minutes. I don't bother with this while away because I'm good to read on trains and planes anyway. 

Scribing: This is what I have chosen to do for scribing. I am doing it every morning that I'm at home. When away I keep my paper diary. I wrote in the paper diary yesterday as well because I was afraid to discuss the big development here.

It is all a bit nuts, but it is helping. Helping what is the question. This sounds very self-helpy, but it's helping me live more intentionally and focus my attention. This in turn is making me less emotionally labile and better able to detach a bit from what certain other people think about me. 

WTS Day XXII

Already on to Day 22 of WTS. I think I'll do it for the whole summer and then possibly afterwards but will give up blogging about it at the end of August. The builders are back at the neighbours' house. It's the other side of my semi-detached, so when they drill (which they've been doing a lot this morning) I hear the noise and feel the vibration. This is even though I am in the one room of my house that does not share the party-wall, and I have my prescription ear-plugs in.
If I had to make a list of five life-changing products, what would they be?
1. Prescription ear-plugs
2. Blackout blind
3. Neostrata spf 50
4. Moleskine diary.
5 Disposable contact lenses.
There was a fight there for the fifth spot. It was nearly taken by Thinx underwear, which I am trying right this moment. I do actually love them, but they're more of a sustainability win than genuinely life-changing. I think I will purchase more of them. I started with two pairs, just to see, and they are eye-wateringly expensive, including having to pay the tax to the postman. I could have put the iPhone in there but that's after changing everyone's life, even if you own a different brand. And there are times when I'm not sure it has changed my life for the better. The disposable lenses are an eco-crime that I have trouble justifying. I manage though.
I'm in good form because I am just back from Spin and Abs, having not been at the gym since April. That was between going away and being sick and going away while sick. I chose spinning as my first class back because it's easy to differentiate for oneself. I kept well-back on the gears and was nowhere as fast as most of the other women, but I still felt like I had done proper exercise. Maybe I needed the break; it was feeling like a real chore to go there for a while. In other good news, the hotel found my notebook and are posting it down to me. I got the feeling they thought I was cheeky asking for such a scrap of nonsense to be sent in the post, but the alternative was to ask my brother/his wife to collect it. I paid the hotel enough money for them to put it in an envelope and stick a stamp on it. Am looking forward to getting it back, and it is good of them. They could easily - on seeing what it is - binned it and told me they hadn't been able to find it.
It's twelve o'clock. This is the real holidays now; hot weather, nothing to do. Well, I'm supposed to have writing to do. And I have a couple of things to get in town so might go in later. I am enjoying being able to stay inside out of the sun, in a perverse way. This room I am in is nice and cool, as it's west-facing and the sun has yet to come around this side. It will soon though, in around an hour or so. I feel the luxury now of having almost nothing to do and nowhere to go. There were a number of events that I wanted to go at the weekend that I missed; Cork Sceptics talk on Friday (in hotel), Crosstown Drift on Saturday (at Christening) and Fiction at the Friary yesterday(in bed with exhaustion). That's what happens. These things happen. Life happens and it is better to be out living it than filling up the time with going to things. The week stretches ahead of me. Now is when it will tell. Now is when I do work or do no work.