Bag it.

The world has not ended. There hasn't been any major disaster. I haven't seen people crying in despair. Despite what the media have foreseen, we're just fine. After a month with 5p plastic bag charge, everything is fine.

I must say I am a big fan of this charge, in fact I'd ban all plastic bags from the shops. At this point there is not a single plastic bag in the house. I have multiple reusable bags in various shapes and sizes, including my beloved cheese bag and life seems to go on quite well.

Plastic bags are convenient, but I think we've reached the point where convenience should stop being prioritised over what is truly good for us. Plastic bags are one of those things that you are really keen to take, but then you never want to use them again, so they get under your kitchen sink, the place of eternal damnation in the house, or, much worse, end up on the streets, blown away by the wind.

We need to start looking after our planet properly. Starting with all these plastic bags is a good move, maybe then we could take care of overproduction of waste in general. Do you know how much rubbish you produce? I am amazed by the amount of waste produced in my house, especially the waste that cannot be recycled. It is unnecessary really. But when you go to a supermarket everything is packed in some sort of plastic packaging, a large proportion of which is non-recyclable. This bothers me a lot. I wish we could go back to the times where there were no supermarkets, where people could easily buy local fruit and veg and place it in their own cotton bag or a basket. Without the plastic packaging and all this add-on stuff that is completely unnecessary.

I'm trying to be more aware of how my life influences the environment. Maybe if one person changes their behaviour it won't make much of a difference, but I believe that if each one of us changes something small, the impact can be great. Do not take the plastic bag from the shop. Buy in bulk to reduce the amount of packaging. Buy fair trade. Support local farmers. Whatever it might be, just do it. We need to start this change somewhere, don't we?

This is a very interesting talk on living a zero-waste life. It might seem to be going a little too far to actually reduce your waste to zero, but I think there's a lot to learn from this girl's experience.

Click, click, click!

I urge you to play this video while reading the post below, to get fully embraced by the topic.

 

I hand write my notes in lectures and seminars, simply because my attention drifts away if I type on my laptop. However, most of the people on the course use their electronic equipment for these purposes. The moment the lecturer opens his mouth, their fingers start a race across the keyboard. It sounds as if a swarm of bees entered the room. Apparently some people listen to typing sounds to relax*, but for me it has a completely opposite effect. It freaks me out. Especially that people type so much! What on earth do they type? I sat in the very same lecture, made a half-page of notes while others have been typing almost constantly for the entire hour! I know that some of this typing was very important facebook messages, but still. Do they type up the lecture verbatim? Am I missing something important, because I don't write until my hand wants to detach from the rest of my body? Or should I be happy what an efficient note-taker I am?

Laptops should be banned in lecture theatres and seminar rooms. The sound of typing is distracting, if nothing else. Sometimes, when I'm not sat at the front,  I can't even hear the lecturer properly because 100 odd people bang on their keyboards. Plus, seeing other people's screens with all the distracting stuff up there (amazon, twitter, facebook, news sites, ebay, reddit, you name it) is not helping to concentrate on what is going on in the lecture.

Instead, why don't we get back to a good old pen and paper? Low cost and, most importantly, quiet. (Good practice for exams as well, it's important to train your hand to write, without auto-correct.) Sometimes old-fashioned methods are better than the new ones. I believe this is so with note-taking. You simply don't pay as much attention to what you type as you do when you write. There's also apparently such a thing as muscle memory, so if you write something with your own hand, you'll retain it better. Apparently writing in blue ink also helps. I'm no memory scientist, but there is something in all of this. I do notice that I retain material better if it's hand-written. And, oh yes, we'll also avoid this terrible noise during lecture. I'd really appreciate that actually.

*This is actually a thing. When I was looking for a video to accompany this post, hundreds of entries came up on youtube. People actually do record themselves typing things up on different types of keyboards, you can find all sorts of videos from short 3-minute ones to some dragging for hours (I'm serious). I would never have believed anyone could consider typing sound as something relaxing, but people claim that it calms them down. Peculiarities of the human brain.

Madly in love. Dumped. Freedom, here I come. Repeat.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/17/why-do-i-keep-getting-dumped 

This article just hit the nail on the head. It's always happens to me: after roughly 6-8 months of a relationship, I get dumped (or occasionally dump myself), despite everything going well up until that point. Despite me being a dream girlfriend: baking cake, keeping fit, washing socks, organising trips and weekends away, tolerating crazy family of my second half, participating in random social events which I hate, but somehow feel obliged to join, cooking dinners, taking him to cultural events. It always happens around a 6-8 month cut-off date, except this one time when the misery sadly lasted the entire three years, although really should have been cut loose halfway through it at the very latest. I could potentially plan my life in these 6-8 month increments. And it is not particularly pleasant to live with.

Maybe I am a victim of today's age and my very own lifestyle. Quite frankly, I do lack stability to form a long-term relationship. Although I do love stability, I even wake up at the same time on every day of the week, regardless on the workload and whether it is a weekday or a weekend. But when opportunity arises, I'm likely to just go for it. I guess this is a benefit of having your family far away anyway: I never consider where to live in terms of closeness to them, because they are 1800 miles away anyway, so my only worry in this respect is how convenient it is to get to the airport. Next year I can end up on the coast or in the middle of Wales, who knows. Funny, after the TF ACs we were talking about where we want to work after graduation and one guy said he was really unhappy that TF takes so long to allocate your region and school. I was perplexed by this, since I am rather excited about the idea of moving to a new place and starting all over. But he wasn't. Because he had a girlfriend and they want to plan life together, which is rather difficult if you're not told where you'll be required to go. It just simply didn't occur to me that it could be an issue for a twenty-something person. And yet, for some, it is. Would I move to the other side of the world for someone I love? Yes, no questions asked. But I would expect the same in return.

My granny always says that the time as a single young lady is the best time of my life, after I commit myself to a married life, that's it. And she's probably right to a large extent. I don't have to be worried whether TF throws me onto the Isle of Wight, deep Cornwall or Yorkshire. Yet, looking at all the couples I know, it seems to easy for them to make it work, while I keep changing boyfriends as some ridiculous rate. I crave intimacy, it might be a part of my problem, because I just throw myself into deep waters of love without much thinking. At the same time: what on earth is wrong with me (when every single guy says that it's not me, it's him). I sort of resolve to just enjoy the moment or, as an alternative, bake and eat cake, but I'm still wondering where this line-up of failed relationships will end. Surely there must be my Prince Charming just round the corner. Right?

Chill miss.

I've been stressing out so much about these upcoming collections that it wasn't healthy at all.

 

Do they count towards anything?

 

No.

 

Would it help if I had a mental breakdown?

 

No.

 

Given the answers to the above two questions, I resolved not to worry about it too much. I've always had not so great collection results, but at the end of the day, it's finals that matter and I'm determined to get myself sorter by then. I will be. In the meantime I might have a serious talk with my tutors, but oh well. What's important now is that I remain positive and have enough energy to get me through this year.

Especially that there are so many exciting things coming up! Tomorrow tea and cake in the Chaplaincy, dinner with my Polish folks, Captain America visiting, Itchy Feet party (anyone wants to join btw?), G&D's treat soon... It actually looks like it might be an entertaining term.

So I'm chilling with my bowl of bolognese. Om nom nom nom