This week I had several errands to run. Unfortunately, they were all in different parts of the city. I decided to save on emissions and time and do them all in one day.
I live in the southern suburbs so I began in Blackwood which is about fifteen minutes northeast of where I live. Three years and four months ago I got hearing aids. I can hear without them but I can hear better with them. They came with a three year warrantee. Wouldn't you know it, one has just stopped working. Grrr. So the first stop was to drop off said hearing aid.
I continued east down the hill to Burnside Village. The bogan alarm must not have been working because I managed to sneak in unseen. I wanted to check the kosher section of the Coles there for Eskal pickles. I know Coles is part of the duopoly and I feel dirty when I have to shop there - and not in a good way - but it is, to my knowledge, the only supermarket in Adelaide with a kosher section. Alas, no pickles.
Following that I skirted the city and headed west to Thebarton to Steve Salvis Fine Guitars to see if he could help fix my mum's old ukelele. Teenage Son learns trumpet and French Horn and is self-taught on guitar and piano. Evidently, that isn't enough because he's been eyeing the ukelele greedily for awhile. I could buy a new ukelele for less than it's going to cost me to get this one fixed but it's a very good one, it was my mum's and it's more in fitting with Footprints to get it repaired.
Finally, I headed home stopping at the local post office on the way to send a package. All up it took about two hours. I don't know how many kilometres I covered but I'm sure it was less than it would have been had I done them all on different days.
Cheers.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Thursday, July 26, 2012
The Central Market
This morning I thought that it was definitely time to go to the Central Market again. Shopping there means I can buy in bulk many of the things I buy prepackaged at the supermarket. Furthermore, most of those kinds of products are ones which are not monopolised by unethical companies so even if I don't know the company providing the product it's going to be okay. I can go into Grains and Goodies with bottles, jars and bags in hand and buy up big without guilt. I live about 20kms from the Market so shopping there raises issues of car emissions. It's a case of packaging versus petrol. It's not really guilt-free after all.
I live in a nice area. The people around me love it. I don't. It's not that their judgement is wrong and mine is right or anything. It's that I live in the 'burbs and essentially I'm an urbanite. For me it's a case of shopping at my bland and homogenised local shops week in and week out or branching out every so often - or more - and going to the market to be jostled by the crowd, shop alongside immigrants from all over the world, inhale the smell of the market and, if you've lived in Adelaide you know that smell, listen to the stallholders try to hawk their wares and experience sensory overload.
We arrived in Adelaide forty one years ago and my love affair with the market began on our first trip there. At first it was due to the warm cinnamon donuts and raspberry cordial my sister and I were bribed with to behave while my parents shopped.
During my high school years we lived on the outskirts of the city and I went to school for the first three years next door to the market. I was able during that time to provide myself with my beloved donuts and cordial. One year, for whatever reason, we had to have our Drama lessons in a big room next to the car-park above the market. I can still remember walking up the street and then being assailed by that familiar smell as we climbed the stairs.
Later I moved schools but worked at the market every Friday night after school. In the time I had to kill between finishing school and starting work I would wander around drinking in the sights and smells. No need to buy treats, I worked at a continental deli/coffee shop where I would eat hungarian salami sandwiches on rye bread, followed by a Baci chocolate.
During those years my mother and sister would get up early on a Saturday morning, shop at the market and be home before I even got up. They'd finish their shopping with breakfast at Lucias. Mama Lucia was serving cappuccinos to the Adelaide public before any of them could even spell or say it. It's still there and has taken over the former Athens deli next door.
When Husband and I set up house together we lived near the market and shopped there every Friday night. Adelaide was changing by then. The Mediterranean and Eastern Europeans stallholders were being added to by our ever-increasing Vietnamese population. Chinese supermarkets sprung up all over the market and eventually Chinatown was born.
Teenage Daughter had her first trip to the market at three weeks old. Our favourite stall-holders had taken possession of my expanding belly and couldn't wait to see her. When she was an only child, despite the distance to the market, I took her every week. We stopped going on Friday nights; the two of us went during the day without Husband. We ate lunch every week at Malacca Corner where she'd share my Hokkien Mee and Jasmine tea. When she'd finished she'd quietly go and tell the former owner and he'd give her a sweet. Anyone remember that lovely old man? I tried to take Teenage Son. We went a few times but never got into the same routine. He loves it, though, having been those few times.
I think it's probably six of one and half a dozen of another as to the ethics and eco-friendliness of shopping at the market. If it's not going to add to the problem then that's good enough for me.
Cheers.
I live in a nice area. The people around me love it. I don't. It's not that their judgement is wrong and mine is right or anything. It's that I live in the 'burbs and essentially I'm an urbanite. For me it's a case of shopping at my bland and homogenised local shops week in and week out or branching out every so often - or more - and going to the market to be jostled by the crowd, shop alongside immigrants from all over the world, inhale the smell of the market and, if you've lived in Adelaide you know that smell, listen to the stallholders try to hawk their wares and experience sensory overload.
We arrived in Adelaide forty one years ago and my love affair with the market began on our first trip there. At first it was due to the warm cinnamon donuts and raspberry cordial my sister and I were bribed with to behave while my parents shopped.
During my high school years we lived on the outskirts of the city and I went to school for the first three years next door to the market. I was able during that time to provide myself with my beloved donuts and cordial. One year, for whatever reason, we had to have our Drama lessons in a big room next to the car-park above the market. I can still remember walking up the street and then being assailed by that familiar smell as we climbed the stairs.
Later I moved schools but worked at the market every Friday night after school. In the time I had to kill between finishing school and starting work I would wander around drinking in the sights and smells. No need to buy treats, I worked at a continental deli/coffee shop where I would eat hungarian salami sandwiches on rye bread, followed by a Baci chocolate.
During those years my mother and sister would get up early on a Saturday morning, shop at the market and be home before I even got up. They'd finish their shopping with breakfast at Lucias. Mama Lucia was serving cappuccinos to the Adelaide public before any of them could even spell or say it. It's still there and has taken over the former Athens deli next door.
When Husband and I set up house together we lived near the market and shopped there every Friday night. Adelaide was changing by then. The Mediterranean and Eastern Europeans stallholders were being added to by our ever-increasing Vietnamese population. Chinese supermarkets sprung up all over the market and eventually Chinatown was born.
Teenage Daughter had her first trip to the market at three weeks old. Our favourite stall-holders had taken possession of my expanding belly and couldn't wait to see her. When she was an only child, despite the distance to the market, I took her every week. We stopped going on Friday nights; the two of us went during the day without Husband. We ate lunch every week at Malacca Corner where she'd share my Hokkien Mee and Jasmine tea. When she'd finished she'd quietly go and tell the former owner and he'd give her a sweet. Anyone remember that lovely old man? I tried to take Teenage Son. We went a few times but never got into the same routine. He loves it, though, having been those few times.
I think it's probably six of one and half a dozen of another as to the ethics and eco-friendliness of shopping at the market. If it's not going to add to the problem then that's good enough for me.
Cheers.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Doing the Family Shuffle
On Sunday Teenage Daughter had a music workshop in the city and Teenage Son had a party near the city. Both started at the same time and each was finishing at a similar time. Husband and I discussed the various ways we could deal with the situation. The two best solutions seemed to be either take both cars and each drop a child and pick the same child up, and meet in the city to kill time in between or take one car and do a little "doe-sy doe". We opted for the latter because of Footprints.
Here's how it panned out. Teenage Daughter drove into the city to get her driving hours up. Once there, she and I hopped out of the car and Husband and Teenage Son drove off. Teenage Daughter and I spent a pleasant fifteen minutes walking in the city before she headed off to her workshop. I bought a notebook, found a bench and sat down making notes for my novel while I waited for Husband to get back. When he got back he and I did some more walking and had a cup of tea. I drove to pick Teenage Son up from his party while Husband killed time in the State Library reading the paper. Teenage Son and I got back in to the city with time to spare. Once Teenage Daughter had finished she drove us all home.
I think it worked well. The only flaw for me was that I HAD to buy a notebook when I have so many at home. Never mind, it's in my handbag now for future flashes of inspiration.
Cheers.
Here's how it panned out. Teenage Daughter drove into the city to get her driving hours up. Once there, she and I hopped out of the car and Husband and Teenage Son drove off. Teenage Daughter and I spent a pleasant fifteen minutes walking in the city before she headed off to her workshop. I bought a notebook, found a bench and sat down making notes for my novel while I waited for Husband to get back. When he got back he and I did some more walking and had a cup of tea. I drove to pick Teenage Son up from his party while Husband killed time in the State Library reading the paper. Teenage Son and I got back in to the city with time to spare. Once Teenage Daughter had finished she drove us all home.
I think it worked well. The only flaw for me was that I HAD to buy a notebook when I have so many at home. Never mind, it's in my handbag now for future flashes of inspiration.
Cheers.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
One Small Bad Decision, One Big Impact ... Sort of
I do my grocery shopping most Fridays. I'd tell you it's less stressful to have a routine; Little Sister would tell you it's because I'm a control freak who can't handle change. The truth is probably somewhere in between ... or Little Sister is right. Shh! Don't tell her I told you that.
Last Friday I made a list and headed out to the supermarket. I had two 1kg tubs of yogurt on the list. I usually buy one for the week but we were having a curry over the weekend so needed extra. (We certainly did need extra - that was one hot curry!) Once I got to the supermarket, however, I decided to only buy one. I decided to see how full it was after the weekend and maybe buy one early this week when I had to run errands. That way, it would be fresher. It seemed like a good plan ...
For those of you who don't live in the same city as me, our supermarkets close at 5pm on Sundays. At 6pm Husband came in and told me the yogurt was pretty much empty. (He's the cook in the family.) I jumped in the car, drove to our local IGA and bought yogurt. However, in the process I made an unplanned car trip which added emissions to the environment. I could have walked but dinner was ready - this was a mercy dash. Once at the IGA I could only buy a 500g tub and an unethical brand. That meant I'd eventually have to buy another 500g tub this week. (I did that this morning when I was already out and about in the car doing the school run.)
My "good plan" resulted in unnecessary carbon emissions, buying from an unethical company and adding more packaging to waste/recycling. Life was easier when I could just jump in the car and buy whatever yogurt I wanted when I wanted whatever size I wanted! Am I disheartened and discouraged? No way! I'm just going to really think about last minute list changes.
Cheers.
Last Friday I made a list and headed out to the supermarket. I had two 1kg tubs of yogurt on the list. I usually buy one for the week but we were having a curry over the weekend so needed extra. (We certainly did need extra - that was one hot curry!) Once I got to the supermarket, however, I decided to only buy one. I decided to see how full it was after the weekend and maybe buy one early this week when I had to run errands. That way, it would be fresher. It seemed like a good plan ...
For those of you who don't live in the same city as me, our supermarkets close at 5pm on Sundays. At 6pm Husband came in and told me the yogurt was pretty much empty. (He's the cook in the family.) I jumped in the car, drove to our local IGA and bought yogurt. However, in the process I made an unplanned car trip which added emissions to the environment. I could have walked but dinner was ready - this was a mercy dash. Once at the IGA I could only buy a 500g tub and an unethical brand. That meant I'd eventually have to buy another 500g tub this week. (I did that this morning when I was already out and about in the car doing the school run.)
My "good plan" resulted in unnecessary carbon emissions, buying from an unethical company and adding more packaging to waste/recycling. Life was easier when I could just jump in the car and buy whatever yogurt I wanted when I wanted whatever size I wanted! Am I disheartened and discouraged? No way! I'm just going to really think about last minute list changes.
Cheers.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Following up on three previous blogs
A couple of days ago I wrote about Favourite Cousin's home in Preserving History. I've been in touch with Favourite Cousin subsequently who said that recycling was part of the plan, as was using found objects in new and different ways. (I've paraphrased her.)
Before that I wrote about plastic in Plastic Footprints. A friend of mine contacted me with the following comment:
I had an argument with a dentist about a plastic film (fissure seal) the dentist wanted to put over my daughters' teeth at the back. There was nothing wrong with the teeth - no cavities, no decay, but they had a naturally occurring groove shape in them. The idea was that by covering the groove with this plastic compound, food would not be able to lodge there and thus prevent cavities. My concern was that there were small amounts of bisphenol A (and B if I remember rightly) in the compound which I did not want in the bodies of my children. I do not want these chemicals leaching into their systems.
The dentists insisted that studies showed that the results of such preventative measures were so good that it was definitely a worthwhile procedure. Their studies showed that the amounts of the chemical were so minute and that after 20 minutes there was none of the chemical byproduct to be found in the saliva. My concern was that if there was some to be found in the initial 20 minutes where did it go then? Into my chidren's bodies!
The dentist totally missed my point that I didn't want ANY plastic byproducts in their systems, especially these ones, however minute the amount because the particular ones in the dental fissure seals are known endocrine disruptors.
These are the same compounds to be found in plastic tin liners. (Why does tinned food need to have a plastic liner in the tin anyway? Another reason to always buy fresh. I was brought up to learn that tinned food was a good substitute if fresh were unavailable - now I disagree.)
I think these may also be the same compounds which leach out of many plastic drink bottles.
Another friend, a food technologist, then posted a link to Food Standards Australia New Zealand. BPA information, which explains how and why it is that it is allowed to be used in food packaging and dentistry.
And finally, quite some time ago now I posted about my roofing company woes in It's Raining, It's Pouring. I called the company on June 20th and it's now a month later. In between Husband has made two reminder calls to them. No one has come yet. Husband told me yesterday that he'd heard on the radio that many big companies were monitoring the internet - social networking sites, in particular - for feedback about their companies. Some companies hire people just to do that. (I'd love that job. Facebooking all day and getting paid for it!) The idea is to see where they're doing badly and make the necessary improvements. So, I'm thinking of going public and naming the company and sharing my
experiences. Perhaps after that I could email them a link to my Facebook page!
Cheers.
Before that I wrote about plastic in Plastic Footprints. A friend of mine contacted me with the following comment:
I had an argument with a dentist about a plastic film (fissure seal) the dentist wanted to put over my daughters' teeth at the back. There was nothing wrong with the teeth - no cavities, no decay, but they had a naturally occurring groove shape in them. The idea was that by covering the groove with this plastic compound, food would not be able to lodge there and thus prevent cavities. My concern was that there were small amounts of bisphenol A (and B if I remember rightly) in the compound which I did not want in the bodies of my children. I do not want these chemicals leaching into their systems.
The dentists insisted that studies showed that the results of such preventative measures were so good that it was definitely a worthwhile procedure. Their studies showed that the amounts of the chemical were so minute and that after 20 minutes there was none of the chemical byproduct to be found in the saliva. My concern was that if there was some to be found in the initial 20 minutes where did it go then? Into my chidren's bodies!
The dentist totally missed my point that I didn't want ANY plastic byproducts in their systems, especially these ones, however minute the amount because the particular ones in the dental fissure seals are known endocrine disruptors.
These are the same compounds to be found in plastic tin liners. (Why does tinned food need to have a plastic liner in the tin anyway? Another reason to always buy fresh. I was brought up to learn that tinned food was a good substitute if fresh were unavailable - now I disagree.)
I think these may also be the same compounds which leach out of many plastic drink bottles.
Another friend, a food technologist, then posted a link to Food Standards Australia New Zealand. BPA information, which explains how and why it is that it is allowed to be used in food packaging and dentistry.
And finally, quite some time ago now I posted about my roofing company woes in It's Raining, It's Pouring. I called the company on June 20th and it's now a month later. In between Husband has made two reminder calls to them. No one has come yet. Husband told me yesterday that he'd heard on the radio that many big companies were monitoring the internet - social networking sites, in particular - for feedback about their companies. Some companies hire people just to do that. (I'd love that job. Facebooking all day and getting paid for it!) The idea is to see where they're doing badly and make the necessary improvements. So, I'm thinking of going public and naming the company and sharing my
experiences. Perhaps after that I could email them a link to my Facebook page!
Cheers.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Preserving History
A couple of weeks ago Favourite Cousin mentioned that an article had been written about her house. Since she's in the U.S. and I'm in Australia and there was no on-line version of the article available she sent it to me snail mail. (Surprisingly, people still use that.) It arrived today.
Favourite Cousin and her husband built their dream home seven years ago. During the years prior, however, they had been collecting pieces from various demolitions and refurbishments around the city in which they live. By the time they were ready to build their dream home they had a barn full of stuff to go into it. Some items had to be put in before some of the building could be finished.
Their items range from fun and quirky things such as a brass medallion that once sat in the sidewalk of a downtown street to things which have a personal meaning to one or the other of them. Favourite Cousin's husband even has Al Capone's clock! That came when he bought a lot of three clocks because one of them had a personal meaning for Favourite Cousin; he found out later who one of the other clocks had belonged to.
They've hunted items out at antique stores, estate sales, auctions and by word of mouth. It's been a long slow labour of love which captivated both of them and finally came to fruition many years later. They're happy to be preserving some of the history of their city, too.
What they've also done - which may not have been their intention - is to essentially use recycled items to build, furnish and decorate their home. A gazillion brownie points for that! They have their project and I have mine but there has been a point at which the two have intersected and this is it.
I'd love to see their home and hear the stories of everything in it. Maybe one day I will. In the meantime I'm thinking some secondhand glass jars might just be a viable plastic substitute. They may even have a story of their own to tell.
Cheers.
Favourite Cousin and her husband built their dream home seven years ago. During the years prior, however, they had been collecting pieces from various demolitions and refurbishments around the city in which they live. By the time they were ready to build their dream home they had a barn full of stuff to go into it. Some items had to be put in before some of the building could be finished.
Their items range from fun and quirky things such as a brass medallion that once sat in the sidewalk of a downtown street to things which have a personal meaning to one or the other of them. Favourite Cousin's husband even has Al Capone's clock! That came when he bought a lot of three clocks because one of them had a personal meaning for Favourite Cousin; he found out later who one of the other clocks had belonged to.
They've hunted items out at antique stores, estate sales, auctions and by word of mouth. It's been a long slow labour of love which captivated both of them and finally came to fruition many years later. They're happy to be preserving some of the history of their city, too.
What they've also done - which may not have been their intention - is to essentially use recycled items to build, furnish and decorate their home. A gazillion brownie points for that! They have their project and I have mine but there has been a point at which the two have intersected and this is it.
I'd love to see their home and hear the stories of everything in it. Maybe one day I will. In the meantime I'm thinking some secondhand glass jars might just be a viable plastic substitute. They may even have a story of their own to tell.
Cheers.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Plastic Footprints
Last night I returned to French classes after a three month break. One of my friends greeted me and then told me about a book he'd just read as if we were resuming a conversation we'd been having the day before. In a sense we were resuming a conversation because he knows about Footprints and often tells or sends me information he thinks I may be interested in. More often than not, he's right.
The book he read was about a woman's attempt to live a year without plastic. I jumped on Google as soon as I got home and came up with Plastic: A Toxic Love Story by Susan Freinkel. I also found a Melbourne woman, Gina Pendergast, who is trying to live a plastic free life. The link to her blog is here A Plastic Free Year. I'm not entirely sure which one my friend was talking about but both are interesting. My brain was fried after two hours of French so I only skimmed read bits of both but look forward to following both blogs.
A plastic free life is pertinent to Footprints. People seem to approach it for two different reasons or a mixture of the two. There seems to be growing evidence that plastic is dangerous to our heath. Furthermore, waste plastic is dangerous to the environment, particularly marine life. Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
We've taken a wider approach; we're attempting to reduce our waste, plastic being one of them. I'm aware of the health risks and have been trying to slowly move across to glass food storage containers. As I've mentioned before my choice at the supermarket would always be more packaging if it came from an ethical company. The ethics outlined in the Ethical Consumer Guide also take environmental record into consideration. I would rather buy something more heavily packaged if the company producing it was kinder to the environment. Heavy packaging invariably means plastic.
Plastic is everywhere! It isn't just in things we discard, it's in just about everything we buy/own. I honestly don't know how one would get around that and that is why I'm keen to follow these blogs. If I can cut down on it, I would like to.
I'm fortunate to live in a state where plastic bags are no longer used in grocery stores, unless one pays for them. That eliminates all those bags which left alone in a drawer breed! I have my fruit and veggies delivered and the company doesn't use many plastic bags. The ones they do use get reused here. I use them for fruit and veggies again, or to line small rubbish bins. I'm even slowly re-stuffing the dog's big pillow after the insert had to be thrown out; I'm using plastic bags for that.
Teenage Daughter is given meals twice each week from her work place. They always come home in plastic take away containers. I think it would contravene health regulations if she were to ask for them to be put in a used one brought from home or, even better, in a glass one from home. We reuse the containers. I'd prefer not to because I want to move away from plastic but they're just the right size to send meals to my frail, aged father-in-law in.
The problem is that the seed has now been sown in my head. I've spent a good deal of the morning as I ran errands thinking about all the ways I could further cut back on plastic purchase and usage. I'll keep you posted on those as I learn more from others' blogs.
Cheers.
The book he read was about a woman's attempt to live a year without plastic. I jumped on Google as soon as I got home and came up with Plastic: A Toxic Love Story by Susan Freinkel. I also found a Melbourne woman, Gina Pendergast, who is trying to live a plastic free life. The link to her blog is here A Plastic Free Year. I'm not entirely sure which one my friend was talking about but both are interesting. My brain was fried after two hours of French so I only skimmed read bits of both but look forward to following both blogs.
A plastic free life is pertinent to Footprints. People seem to approach it for two different reasons or a mixture of the two. There seems to be growing evidence that plastic is dangerous to our heath. Furthermore, waste plastic is dangerous to the environment, particularly marine life. Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
We've taken a wider approach; we're attempting to reduce our waste, plastic being one of them. I'm aware of the health risks and have been trying to slowly move across to glass food storage containers. As I've mentioned before my choice at the supermarket would always be more packaging if it came from an ethical company. The ethics outlined in the Ethical Consumer Guide also take environmental record into consideration. I would rather buy something more heavily packaged if the company producing it was kinder to the environment. Heavy packaging invariably means plastic.
Plastic is everywhere! It isn't just in things we discard, it's in just about everything we buy/own. I honestly don't know how one would get around that and that is why I'm keen to follow these blogs. If I can cut down on it, I would like to.
I'm fortunate to live in a state where plastic bags are no longer used in grocery stores, unless one pays for them. That eliminates all those bags which left alone in a drawer breed! I have my fruit and veggies delivered and the company doesn't use many plastic bags. The ones they do use get reused here. I use them for fruit and veggies again, or to line small rubbish bins. I'm even slowly re-stuffing the dog's big pillow after the insert had to be thrown out; I'm using plastic bags for that.
Teenage Daughter is given meals twice each week from her work place. They always come home in plastic take away containers. I think it would contravene health regulations if she were to ask for them to be put in a used one brought from home or, even better, in a glass one from home. We reuse the containers. I'd prefer not to because I want to move away from plastic but they're just the right size to send meals to my frail, aged father-in-law in.
The problem is that the seed has now been sown in my head. I've spent a good deal of the morning as I ran errands thinking about all the ways I could further cut back on plastic purchase and usage. I'll keep you posted on those as I learn more from others' blogs.
Cheers.
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