Hi there! Welcome into my weekly diary. In this diary I want to show you how I try to live an eco-postive life, I want to do more good than bad! The past week I had some good zero waste wins, I visited a Christmas Market and had a special vegan dinner! Want to read along? Here’s weekly diary #69.
Thursday
Today is a very, very exciting day! Today is the actual graduation day of my boyfriend! He passed his thesis assignment already back in August, but today is the official graduation. I am such a proud girlfriend today, and that feels amazing. I know he worked hard for it. It made me think of my graduation too, will I make it this year? I hope so. The graduation was at school, and afterwards we went out to dinner to celebrate it with his family. We went to VanSprang in Ermelo. I had never been there, but he had. It is an all you can eat concept, with small different dishes, you can choose one dish per round. When he made the reservation he already mentioned I eat vegan, so for me they made some things separate. They did not have any vegan options on the menu itself. It was quite fun, because I could not choose! Every round was a surprise for me and that made it so much fun. The dinner was delicious! I hope I have inspired them to put some vegan dishes on the menu. Today is really a milestone in life, and that feels so odd. Chapter closed, onto the next!
Friday
Today I went to a thrift shop with mom! I love thrift shopping! The things you find can be so special. I bought some things for Loose, since I stand on markets sometimes to promote Loose. A chalkboard for example! I also passed by a kit to grown your own cress. The coincidence! I was just recently reading in my book about gardening and it said that you can basically grow your own cress all year round. Now that is amazing, since it is very healthy and you can eat it with many different dishes! I kept it in mind, and now I found a special growing kit! It cost me 0,75 cents only.
Saturday
I worked all day, and afterwards I planned on going to a Christmas Market with friends in Münster. There is a train going directly from our city, so we took public transportation (the most sustainable option!). It was very cozy and fun! I did not have glühwein (which is very typical for Christmas markets), because I don’t like it, but I did brought my own cup in case I’d want something else. I did not use it, but it wouldn’t be necessary if I wanted to drink something because they had a trading system. You paid extra for your drink and then you’d get a reusable cup which you can hand in again when you’re done, and then you get your money back. Hello zero waste! Great initiative. I also brought my own lunchbox for something to eat. Unfortunately, they did not have many vegan options on the market itself. I did expect that, because people tend to eat a lot of meat around Christmas, it is a tradition really (which I hate). So, I went with some French fries. I asked them to put it into my own lunchbox and they did! The lady was very rude to me for it, but that almost never happens so I’ll take that for granted. They did put a plastic fork in which I could not foresee. But that’s okay, I tried. These people just did not really get the massage. I was happy for it anyway! When my feet were frozen and I wanted something else to eat, I went inside a regular store to eat something. It was called China Corner and it was delicious and completely vegan and zero waste, not even napkins were given! I was so happy with this dinner. It was a great day, with some good zero waste wins!
Sunday
It is a busy weekend, because I had a match of handball again today. It is the last one the year, so for now I’ll be free for a couple of weeks. We lost the game. After that I went to get some flowers for my grandma’s birthday. It was freezing so my dad told me the flowers had to be packed really well otherwise they would freeze. I asked the man working at the flower shop if he could pack it up a bit so the flowers would not freeze. I forgot to ask for paper instead of plastic, so I ended up with two layers of plastic trash around the flowers. Well, that’s a bummer. At least grandma seemed very happy with the flowers in the end. At night I had an order for Loose again and after that I wrote a blogpost for the coming day. This weekend was quite busy, so I am happy the coming week is the last one for school. At night, I watched the final game of the Dutch Handball ladies in the match for the bronze medal. They won! That’s a great way to finish this weekend.
Monday
I had a lot of plans today, but because it was raining the full day I cancelled a lot due to my mood. I was not in the mood to bike through the rain with 4 degrees Celsius. The things were not something I had to do today, so that’s okay. I did go to school for my thesis assignment, I had a meeting with my thesis mentor. It really went well and I am happy that I now know more again. At night I went to a condolence because someone close to our family had died due to cancer. These moments make you really appreciate your life, and the time you still have. I am healthy and happy, that is something I should never take for granted. At home it was time for a movie. Camp X-Ray, a movie I had wanted to see for 4 years. It was very good in my opinion, if you’re looking for some tips.
Tuesday
Today I finished reading the book ‘The Book of Joy’ by Desmond Tuti and the Dalai Lama. I am not thinking about writing a special blogpost about it, but I do think is good enough to mention it here! The book is very important in my opinion, everyone should read it. However, to me it felt like a revision of what I already knew, because I had already read other books of the Dalai Lama. In my opinion, if you read one, you’ve read them all. They all relate. That’s not a bad thing though. I would recommend this book to anyone, we need a bit more joy and compassion in the world. Also, the last training of handball of the year was today. So, now I am totally on my own when it comes to exercising. I have to keep doing it, because I want to stay healthy. But, it will be more of a struggle working out 5 times a week. I love handball, so those 3 times a week are already easily done. I do the other 2 times at the gym. That’s fine. But 5 times a week to the gym, I don’t know if I will do that. Maybe I will go swimming or whatever, we’ll see.
Wednesday
Today I was preparing some beautiful orders for Loose again and I’ve finally made progress! I have found some new products in paper in bulk! I used to buy them in plastic (not all), because I hadn’t found them in paper. Plastic is my starting point, it is better because I buy the products in bulk and then resell them in returnable jars. But, paper would be much better. And after I accomplished that, I want to see if I could make the whole chain zero waste. A big goal! For now, I am one step closer and it feels amazing! For dinner me and my dad ate homemade pizza. Did you know that that is an easy zero waste meal? Just make your own dough and put the topics you prefer! Tadaaa. Today I also got rid of a coat. It is not exactly my coat, but my mom’s, but I do lend it a lot. It was totally broken, the fabric started to let go and we didn’t think it can be fixed. I will put it in the recycling bin and hope they can make something else out of it.
Yours sincerely,
Romee
I think the thing with reusable mugs at German Christmas markets is just standard.
But recently they also introduced “bring your own cup for discounts on drinks” at Utrecht Central Station (maybe also at other stations?), which is nice!
I hope it’s standard, because I love the initiative! The bring your own cup is also so lovely, however, I don’t drink coffee, so I’ve never tried it myself at a station.