Weekly diary #71: Happy New Year

Hi there! Welcome into my weekly diary in which I want to show how I try to live an eco-positive lifestyle. I want to make this beautiful planet a little bit more beautiful by my actions. This weekly diary is here to show you what that looks like in my daily life. The past week I had another Christmas dinner with friends, went shopping in Amsterdam and celebrated the new year! Want to read along? Here’s weekly diary #71.

Thursday

The day after! But not for me, I have another Christmas celebration to come. But first, me and my boyfriend went to the city centre. He had to buy something and after that we went for a hot chocolate. I had never had a vegan chocolate milk in Enschede just yet, because I hadn’t looked for it explicitly. But! Now I have. At Stoet, near the library in Enschede, they serve vegan hot chocolate. The café is amazing altogether, they have some good vegan food too. At night, I had another order for Loose! Once back home, I went to friends for some raclette with our group of friends. We have been friends for almost 9 years I think, so it’s very nice to spend an extra Christmas day with them. However, I’ve seen so much meat come across the table the past three days, I am a bit sad because of that. Christmas is a sad time for animals. Luckily, my whole Christmas was vegan.

Friday

Off to Amsterdam! Some friends of mine, me and my boyfriend went to Amsterdam. We had planned to go to a new vegan restaurant that is there. We decided to have lunch somewhere else, at Sumo, a sushi bar, and dinner at that new restaurant. However, we were so full of the sushi we didn’t go to the new vegan restaurant in the end, I just got some fries at the station, without plastic! It was a bit of a bummer, but a lesson for next time too. The sushi was delicious and all vegan on my part, but at Ginza in Enschede they have more vegan options. It was, besides a paper napkin, all zero waste. I want to start taking my napkins home since a while, to compost it. But, today I forgot again. I still have to get used to it I guess. Since we were in Amsterdam with the four of us, and we have different preferences, we divided the day between thrift shopping and new shopping. Something for me, something for them. I bought a new sweater, which I will show you soon! And I also fitted some MudJeans, a very sustainable brand of jeans. I need a new skinny jeans. I just can’t find skinny jeans thrifted, so I am going on the hunt for a new one, sustainable and fair trade of course. But, the MudJeans didn’t fit me today. 25 is too small, 26 too big, I hate it. So beside the sweater, I bought nothing when it comes to stuff. I did bought a plastic bottle. *insert doomed noice here*. Yes. I bought a plastic bottle. A single use one to be precise. I saw a Fanta flavor in a special candy shop with I hadn’t had in years (literally), but loved so much. They don’t sell it anywhere I know, so I just bought it in Amsterdam in a weak moment. But, now I am good for years again (and hopefully then, I can find it in glass).

Saturday

I worked from 7 till 12, lovely. Then I have a lot of time left for the rest of the day. I packed my bags to go to my boyfriend. I travel there by train (just like yesterday to Amsterdam). It’s the most sustainable way to travel, besides biking (but that’s a little too far for me). At night, we watched ‘Bird Box’. Quite a good thriller at Netflix.

Sunday

Off to Maastricht! This time by car, but with the four of us in one car. My boyfriend, some friends of him and me went to Maastricht to go skiing. There is an indoor hall there which we really wanted to go to. Before we went skiing, we had dinner at a burger restaurant, called De Burgerfabriek. I had a vegetarian burger, which I wasn’t sure of whether it was vegan. It was a burger with portobello, more veggies and ketchup, so I think so. With these restaurants, where they serve mostly meat and it is very busy (we were in a hurry too), I sometimes take the guess and just hope it is vegan. I had some fries and onion rings with it, which were definitely vegan. It wasn’t waste free at all, because it was served on paper, and the sauce was served in plastic. I always rate them on Tripadvisor so they can see what I find and hopefully they will change. The skiing was much fun! It was quite busy, but it is the holiday season. Maybe not the most sustainable activity due to the  electric power needed, but I think it is up to them to make sustainable choices since I can’t change that myself. I do support their business. After the skiing, we went into Maastricht to eat again. We walked in the rain and finally found one thing that was still open, a döner company. They had vegan options, so I was happy. I didn’t watch the waste, however. So I ended up with some aluminum foil and some paper. No plastic, fortunately. But, I could have done better. I could have asked for no aluminum foil, which I didn’t. Better luck next time.

Monday

Back to my boyfriends house for New years Eve! It is time to end this beautiful year, and to start a new one! I ate a lot of Oliebollen, a Dutch tradition, which is almost always vegan. Alos, I did not buy fireworks myself. I don’t support individuals using firework, people get hurt all the time, the violence rate goes up and the emergency aid is busy all night with all the accidents. It stinks and it is wasteful too. Besides the fact that you’re literally blowing up your money. But! I do like firework. I just think that there should be one big show in every city, which causes no accidents and is cleaned up properly. It is a sad night for all the animals too, who are scared to death the full day. Fortunately, we trained our dog for it so he is not scared. We celebrated New Years Eve with family and friends and we went to bed at 7 am! Now, that’s what I call a good party.

Tuesday

New Year, New me! No, I am just kidding. I have no major goals written down. I want to thrive every day, and resolutions don’t start on January first with me. But there is something amazing coming my way this year: Graduation! I am very excited and just hope everything goes well. For all the rest, I just hope to be the best version of myself every day. Today we spend some time with my boyfriends family. Another nice day with family and fun. It is very nice to start the year this way. At the end of the day, we were very tired. We watched some Homeland together (which is our new serie we love) and went to bed early.

Wednesday

We are both still free and so it is still a holiday for us. We slept till late, hmmm. I love sleeping in and waking up naturally, no alarm. We decided to bike a while in de Veluwe (a nature area in The Netherlands) and to go walking in de Oostvaardersplassen (same). It was lovely! I love being in the outdoors, in nature. We saw some beautiful animals too and enjoyed being out. A nice and quiet day to end our holiday together.

I hope you have the best year in 2019! 

Yours sincerely,
Romee