Hi there! Welcome back into my weekly diary. In these weekly diaries I want to show you how I try to live with an eco-positive impact. I try to do more good than bad. Impossible? Not in my opinion! The past week I worked at the Food Bank, rescued food and watched some powerful documentaries! Want to read along? Here’s weekly diary #68.
Thursday
I hate days I have to get up way too early. Today my alarm set at 5:45. It is just too early for me, and I don’t function as well as I normally do throughout the day. I am looking into a new alarm, Philips has one which makes you wake up more gradually. It has a light which slowly becomes brighter and has calming noises like those from birds. I have seen that there are many for sale online secondhand, so I think I am going to give that a try. Sometimes I just have to get up anyway, this could make it easier I hope. Because I wasn’t productive at all, I decided to watch ‘Genaaid’ again, the episode which I missed yesterday. It is a show about fast fashion. A few teenagers are selected and go to Myanmar to see how fast fashion is made and experience it themselves. It shows the true colors of the industry, and it is ugly. Talking about fashion, I am selling a pair of shoes, because I never wear them. I bought them new, back in the day when I still bought new things. Right now, they will be better off at someone else.
Friday
I slept till 10 am and that felt much better. I can easily sleep 12 hours a day. The past holidays have proven that if I don’t set an alarm I sleep for 14 hours a night. I think that is waaay too much, but I just love waking up naturally instead of by my alarm. Anyway, I worked the rest of the day at the Food Bank. I took home again a lot of food, which was not taken home by the clients. I think food waste is a sin, so I try to take and eat as much as I can. This week special items: sprouts! At night I had a party from a friend. I always take my reusable cup to parties, but the past few parties where I had been I hadn’t needed it. So, I doubted if I should take it. In the end I did take it with me and I needed it. There were disposable cups at the party and I ditched those. Cheers! To a zero-waste party from my part. Bringing your own cup to parties really can help prevent waste. It was a fun night.
Saturday
Work started again at 7 am but it did not bother me at all. I was awake immediately. Also, the weather was quite bad so after work I didn’t do anything anymore. Typical Saturday night: movies at home. Haha, it’s becoming a habit.
Sunday
I figured I hadn’t seen my grandparents in a while so I decided to go there before my handball match. Family time is very important to me, and I am trying to make more time free for that. We lost the handball game. Afterwards, me and my boyfriend went shopping in the city center. I saw that UnderProtection also has a selling point at Hudson’s Bay, so I went there to ask. Turns out, that is only online. It seemed too good to be true anyway, to have a fair and sustainable fashion brand in the streets in Enschede. We did some groceries for sushi. I looove vegan sushi, but I hate the waste it comes with. It is just not possible for me to eat sushi zero waste because I can’t find the nori blades without packaging. Maybe I should only eat sushi at restaurants from now on to prevent waste, it tastes better there anyway haha!
Monday
I went to the doctor today, because I had a little bump at my finger joint only to find out it is innocent and should go away by itself. Very good news! I have decided I am calling the doctor sooner now, also for small things. And so, this is innocent. I don’t care. I just want to know and if it’s anything else, I want to stop it soon. Afterwards, I went to the gym where I did a group class way too heavy and so afterwards I could not even walk properly and almost fell down the stairs. Well… I thought I’d be stronger haha! At home I watched back a show from yesterday again, called ‘Tegenlicht’. This time the episode was about fast fashion, the topic is really popular these days and that’s such a good thing. Hopefully things will change for the better! I did some chores at home and went to the library to read some magazines. I never buy magazines because I hate the waste. But, I do read them at the library because they already buy the magazines anyway and they are shared and saved for a long time. Reading at the library really calms me and that is so nice.
Tuesday
Today I watched another documentary, this one was a 2DOC: Verdacht. A documentary about racism among policeofficers in the Netherlands. Very shocking in my opinion, I really advice you to watch it. These documentaries are important I think, and I think it is good that I educate myself. I cooked a simple meal today, sprouts in the oven (which was a first try and turned out delicious!) and some potatoes. All food from the Food Bank which would otherwise be thrown away. Now that is a good meal! Yes, it’s past the date it says on the packaging (5 days to be honest), but I always ignore that. I use my senses, I smell, look and taste. Then I can decide if I can still eat it or not. This was all still fine (I’ve eaten things that were almost a year paste the date on the packaging).
Thursday
A productive day at school, but afterwards I felt kind of drained. The train was cancelled too, so my mindfulness exercises come in good in these situations. Stay calm and try to think of the good things about it. At night I watched another handball match from the Dutch ladies at the European Championship.
Yours sincerely,
Romee