Hi there! Welcome into my weekly diary. In this diary I want to show you what it looks like to live an eco-positive lifestyle on a daily basis. I focus on veganism, zero waste, doing things for others and more! The past week I did some interviews, had some deliveries for my package free webshop and went out to dinner for my dads birthday. Want to read along?
Thursday
Today it’s time for my second interview for my thesis. It’s in Deventer with the owner of my thesis company. After that I went home quickly, because I also had some driving lessons that day. In this post I have explained why I am taking driving classes, even though it’s not the most sustainable thing to do. When I was done with the driving lessons I had two orders for Loose, and so I stepped on my bike and drove around Enschede to deliver those! When I got home I did some research for some new products as well. As I mentioned in my last weekly diary, handball training was called off and so I was free on a Thursday night, which does not happen very often.
Friday
Another day going to Deventer to my thesis company for a workshop. Some school classes came by to see learn more about waste and recycling, it was fun. My thesis company uses used coffee brew from shops to grown oyster mushrooms, so they’re making a new product out of waste, which is amazing! Once back home, I delivered another order for Loose at the pick-up point in Enschede. My uncle offered to be a pick-up point for deliveries, because I had gotten a lot of requests from people who wanted to pick their delivery up somewhere. Progress, this feels good! I worked at my part-time job for a few hours and at night I went to dinner with my grandparents, my dad and my boyfriend to celebrate my dad’s birthday. We went to an Argentinian restaurant, which my dad prefers. I don’t really like the kitchen since they serve mainly meat in absurd portions. Maybe with some frie and salad as a side dish. Before I go out to dinner I always call the restaurant to tell them I eat vegan and so they can prepare something else for me. I also did it this time but when I came there nobody really knew about it. That happens a lot. Anyway, they still managed to make a good vegan meal for me, with veggies and rice, especially the rice was delicious. I do have a hard time seeing all the people around me eat a lot of meat, but I always remember that I can’t change people, I can only give them my best example. I do also have more faith in the younger generation, because I feel like they actually realize that meat is a bad thing. Older people usually don’t get it, since they’ve been told all their lives that they need meat to stay alive. Anyhow, my boyfriend and me gifted my dad an experience! We are going to see seal tour at Terschelling this summer. I only like seeing animals when it’s in their natural habitat, which is the case with these tours. He loved the gift and I am also looking forward to it!
Saturday
I slept again for about 13 hours, oh my. My boyfriend and I had a talk about this recently. He thinks that the more you sleep, the better, I am not sure. I am planning on looking for a book for this subject, since I am curious to learn more about sleep. If you have any tips, let me know! I worked from 12 till 5 pm and afterwards I went to my boyfriend by train. They always cook vegan for me there, which is the sweetest thing. At night, some friends came by.
Sunday
We got up quite early to go for a walk in one of the forests nearby. This is so funny to me, since my weekend can be so different from the last one. Last week I partied till 5 am on a Saturday night, and now I am getting up early to go for a refreshing walk. It’s all about balance I guess. Anyway, we walked around a few places and I picked up some pieces of trash (positive impact!). That day my mother in law celebrated her birthday and so we had a lovely day with family. She had even baked a vegan apple pie! It is funny because non-vegans were eating the apple pie too, you just can’t taste the difference. Just leave out the eggs and replace the butter with a plant-based alternative, so easy! At night we order pizza at Dominos. Ordering take-out food is usually a no-go for me. But, since this was pizza (and so it comes in a cardboard box), I was okay with it and enjoyed a lovely vegan pizza. It’s so obvious veganism is getting more mainstream, the options are growing! My father in law even bought some vegan magnums, which are available in a lot of regular stores now.
Monday
The weekend is over and so back to thesis work. I realized my planning is a bit too tight, since I planned to do all 7 interviews in one week, but in real life this is taking me three weeks. It’s a bit scary, but I will be fine. Today I am travelling a lot! First, I went from my boyfriend in Harderwijk to Enschede for my driving lessons. Then I went from Enschede to Amsterdam for my third interview and after that I went back to Enschede. As I said, a lot! But, it’s only this week and after all the interviews I’ll be working from home or in the library a lot. At least I travel all by train, bike, or foot and so it’s very sustainable! The interview went great and I’m almost at half with all of them. I was home late, ate quick dinner and then it was time for bed already. Onto the next busy day!
Tuesday
Another interview day! I got up quite early and went to Zetten, where I had my fourth interview. It went very well and this lady had a six months old newborn, so sweet! The past two days I spent about 10 hours in the train and so when I got back in Enschede I decided to reward myself with some vegan ‘chicken’ sticks, I had a coupon for a discount. These are packed in a cardboard box so I’m okay with that waste, at least it’s plastic free and there is no package free alternative for this product. I also went to the library to hand my book back in, I’ve read Babe, you got this, but it was not a good book (but yes, I fully read it, I don’t know why). Disappointing, but onto the next! For dinner I cooked myself some Risotto, one of my favorite dished. Ahhh, it was so good! But, I did not take a picture of it because it wasn’t very pretty. It was just a simple Risotto with mushrooms. It’s very easily low waste and vegan.
Wednesday
Starting the day early, with some driving lessons. I feel like I am really making progress. After that I did some work for my thesis and I worked at my parttime job. After work, my dad cooked us a lovely dinner and then it was time for some more thesis work. Now that I am taking all these interviews, I have to type them out, which takes a lot of time. But, hard work pays off is what they say, so.
Yours sincerely,
Romee