Refill station - Shopping without the packaging

I have wanted to do a podcast about this for ages! But a bit like the banana bread, I find it so awkward to know what to call it! It's a stall at the East Oxford Farmer's Market or is it Community Market?! Somewhere (I think on the un-updated website) it's called SESI but how do you say it and what does it stand for. Unhelpfully there are no signs at the stall. I tend to call it something along the lines of packaging-free or refill place.

After that rant about not knowing what it is, I'll now talk about how fantastic it is!! I have probably been 5 or 6 times now and beginning to feel like I know what I'm doing. I was very nervous the first few times and that's the sort of situation I feel quite uncomfortable with as I don't know the system and the etiquette. It got better when I was brave enough to ask for a list of what they have so I can study it at home in advance. John and I have also been through it marking the items we are likely to buy so I can just look through those each time to see if there is anything I need. Then we have also been collecting containers and keep those in a bag ready for the market. I go through those in the morning and make a list of what we want and which container it will go in.

It's a bit of a lifestyle change from being able to go to the shops and get something whenever we should fancy, to only being available on a Saturday morning from 10-1. Quite often we are not around on a Saturday morning but if we are I try to stop at the market on my way back from park run. And it's funny having to wait your turn at the stall. But I try to remind myself that that is a good old world thing like Blair's shop in Carmody, PEI! I try and mentally allow an hour for the shopping.

It's a nicely efficient set up. You pick a little yellow number and wait to be called and then they place your number on the hook so you and they know who is next. All the tubs of goods they offer are lined up along the back. On the table are the scales where we put our containers to be refilled. There are also the bottle pumps with liquids like washing detergents - some of which we have recently started to do ourselves. They write down each price on a scrappy notepad and so unless I read it upside down I have no idea what I'm spending on each thing! Another example of the weirdness of this lifestyle - price is no longer the consideration! And often we are now getting things in strange quantities so prices seem funny. Scarily I spent £10 on olive oil and £8 on an ice cream tub of dried mango last Saturday!

Also at the market are other stalls. Lots of nice looking lunch sort of things of various country origins. There's an amazingly big bread stall. Then outside there is a fruit and veg market that I'd like to get in the habit of using more. On Saturday it was mainly a veg market, possibly just winter thing? There is also an egg refill place that we have been using latterly. I was also excited to see the milk last weekend. Their cows hadn't been producing latterly apparently so they'd been away but are planning to be back now. I'm looking forward to getting my milk from there till we can live somewhere that we can have a milkman.

So once I've added my photos (don't seem able to from phone - such a pain the app is gone!) I think that completes this long awaited post. I'm not sure if it came across, but this is a new part of my life that I'm really excited about and enjoying and want to get their Oxford people to partake in!

I'll just finish with a funny little story. Last Saturday I was proud of getting up in time for park run and market despite not setting an alarm. I ran in the snow and then went a different way to the market at the primary school in hopes of finding somewhere to park without having to pay for the car park. Unsurprisingly it turned out to be permit holders everywhere on the other side but I parked a way up the hill and then walked down to the school feeling rather chilly now I'd cooled after the run and surprised how heavy empty containers can feel (I guess there were a few glass ones). Just as I finally made it to the school, I suddenly realised I had no money with me, at all. Not on me, not in the car... So I just had to turn around and walk back up the hill in the cold and drive home. At least there I showered, warmed up and breakfasted before heading back again. At least it's not a mistake I should be making again!

January's plastic

Here it is!  We tried to keep aside all the plastic we were going to throw away in January.  I was going to do it for a week, but then that didn't feel like it would be representative, so I decided to do it for a month.  But I think I must have got slack and started putting some plastic in the regular recycling bin as I feel sure it must have been more than this!

'The Book' (have I even really talked about what the book is?)  includes a list of questions for the Show Your Plastic Challenge.  I'll try answering some of them.

Q: Looking at my photo and list, what feelings arise for me?
A: Where's the rest? I can I live without this stuff.  How can I live without chocolate?  Why are cards and magazines in plastic?  What about when people (/school children) give us gifts in plastic?  I realise these are probably not classed as feelings!

Q: What items could I easily replace with plastic-free or less plastic alternatives?
A: I rather think the easy to replace things we have already done back in September. And then more we have looked into at the packaging refill market stall. So this is tricky!

Q: What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic-free alternative doesn't exist?
A: Ummm, not sure I can think of anything... Ready made sweet things. Heat in microwave rice etc.

Q: What items are essential and seem to have no plastic-free alternatives?
A: toothpaste. Paracetamol. Quorn. Cheese.

Q: What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption? 
 A: start making my own bread. Start smoothie-ing again. Milk from the market.

Q: What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
A: Chocolate chips for cooking. The chocolate bars are in paper.

Q: What other conclusions, if any, can I draw?
A: We are on the right track. It's very hard when you are given plastic things as gifts. Plastic is everywhere!!!

Let's see how this spurs me on to reduce plastic...

TES magazine package
Royal mail package
Spaghetti wrapper
Cold and flu tablet case
Chocolate chips bag x2
Tissue box plastic bit x2
Courgette package
Cling film
Cadbury dairy milk wrapper
Toothpaste tube
Pitta bread wrapper x2
Contact lens cases x 4
mouth wash bottle
Orange juice carton caps x3 (must be more!)
Grated cheese bags x2
Warburton's toastie pockets wrapper
Oatcake wrapper x2
Milk bottles x3
Microwave quinoa and rice packet
Satsuma bags x2
Quorn mince bag
M&S caramel crispy tub
Chocolate orange wrapper and holder
Chocolate biscuit casing
Individual Chocolate wrappers x16
Supermarket veg plastic bags x7 (lots more used for rubbish bags
Toiletries gift packaging
New pillow bag
Heat in the oven baguette wrappers
Shower spray bottle
Random packaging?
Mr Muscle two bottle costco packaging
Cereal bag
Greetings card bag
9 unidentified clear plastic bag wrappers

Baking - Banana Bread

It annoys me unnecessarily whether this should be called Banana Bread, Banana Cake or Banana Loaf.  I think it is most accurately cake, I like the thought of it in a loaf tin, but I like the alliteration of bread!

I've made this quite a few times, and it is the only cake that I actually like eating!

I keep googling different recipes so decided to try to record one on here.  I have failed to do this quite a few times so will do a rubbish post now and maybe one day return to it!

Here's the link to All Recipes' Easy Banana Cake and time to try and improve this post (14/4/17)

Ingredients
Serves: 10 

• 125g butter
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 190g self raising flour
• 60ml milk

Method
Prep:10min  ›  Cook:35min  ›  Ready in:45min 

1. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin. Melt butter, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan over a medium heat.
2. Remove from heat and add the mashed bananas, mix well.
3. Add the egg, mix well.
4. Stir in the flour and the milk.
5. Pour into the prepared tin, sprinkle with a tablespoon of demerara sugar to give a crunch topping if liked.
6. Bake at 170 C / Fan 150 C / Gas 3 for 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool and enjoy!

 I am beginning to realise that I really enjoy and prefer recipes like this that involve melting the butter and then adding everything else to the pan - no need to get out and wash up the mixing bowl!  This time, I realised just as I'd put it in the oven that I had forgotten to add the milk so out it came quickly and we will see how damaged it is!  It's a low temperature and not a long cook time.  I have feeling that I normally need to cook it for a lot longer.

Update So the bell went at the end of 35 minutes and I went to look in the oven expecting it not to look cooked, but I wasn't expecting it to look so flat... that's when I realised that I had used plain flour not self-raising flour!!  So much for being concerned for the late addition of milk!  Well, I still had 2 very ripe bananas so what else to do in the holidays, but to make another one.  It was good to practise it again when it was so fresh and all the utensils were washed on the drier.  Much quicker this time, but let's not be so cocky so soon this time.  We will see what comes out of the oven!

Main Street Electrical Parade

I've just had a super weekend with Mamma where it's felt like we've talked non-stop. One of the main topics of conversation was our upcoming trip to Disneyland Paris for Lizzie's 30th. (Btw, I really appreciate all the blog comments this year, Lizzie!!) I have just got the train home and am on the bus now and was trying to finish another blog entry while having my headphones in. Incidentally, I was very surprised that my seat on the Number 3 bus had a USB charging point!  I put my Disneyland play list on as I was still very much in the Disney mood.  After a few songs, on came 'Main Street Electrical Parade'.  I found myself smiling and bopping with joy to it and even starting to well up as I thought about it.  I'm sure when I first started to listen to it as a song round about 2000, I thought it quite a silly electric 70s song, but over the last year or so, it has really been increasing in my affection till I've reached today's surprise reaction.  I love that refrain (?) that they included in the new Paint the Night parade we saw in California last Spring.

Having just looked for a good youtube link to put in here, I must say I am in two minds about whether I'd actually enjoy watching it!  It does seem very long, with multiple floats per movie but I do like the little ball lights things that dart about.  I think it's mainly the nostalgia of it I'm enjoying at the moment.

The Main Street Electrical Parade has just returned to Disneyland Park in California for the first time in quite a few years.  I quite like the fact that it was sort of in California Adventure, but it wasn't because it couldn't be the 'Main Street' Electrical Parade so they had to have a different opening voice and lights on the first train.  Now it's fully back!

House of Colour

I'd love to do a post about this as I have been through quite a few emotions about it.  But time doesn't seem to be on my blogging side at the moment, so not sure when I'll get this post finished.

A few years ago, my Mum 'had her colours done'.  I didn't know much about it, only really as a joke in Bridget Jones' Diary!  But the more mum talked about it and the more I thought about it, the more I thought it sounded like a good thing and something I would benefit from.  You try different colour scarves to see which colours show your complexion off to the best light.  You are given a season and are to wear colours from that season's range.  Mum is a winter and I was keen to be one too as there are lots of blues in winter and most of my wardrobe seemed to be blue.  My main reasons for doing the session were to feel comfortable and confident in what I was wearing, and not have to feel stressed or awkward and just be able to go about my days without having to worry about how I looked.  Very kindly Mum bought me a voucher for the colour analaysis class as my birthday and Christmas present and especially kindly she bought one so that my sister in law could come too.

Last Saturday was the big day and we headed off to Witney for 9.20am ready to learn the truth...!  I was quite apprehensive about the whole thing and was very glad I had H. with me.  I can't really remember at all what I was nervous about now, but I know I was anxious!  The class was run in a lady's house who had a room transformed for her classes.  There were two other ladies in our group, a mother-in-law, daughter-in-law combo who turned out to be very nice and pleasant people to undergo the experience with. 

We had a little introduction about it including the science of it - I didn't really follow it or necessarily believe in it but oh well! We looked at the colour wheel which is divided into 144 colours, 36 in each season. Winter and Summer are blue based seasons and Spring and Autumn are yellow based seasons. She went through us one at a time and we sat in front of the mirror with everyone else watching us, rather surreal but we got used to it in the end. Lisa started by comparing a blue based and a yellow based colour scarf across our chests to find out which half we are in. We had to look at the face rather than the colour and see if the effect produced dark shadows on the face. Apparently it's easier to see on others more than on yourself and I did feel I sometimes started to notice a difference as colours were held up to H. Lisa was quite decisive that H. was an Autumn and then she went through the process again to decide whether she was Spring or Autumn. The next girl to have a go was a trickier one but ultimately came down as an Autumn. I was next and as Lisa held up the blue based colours, I was inwardly thinking 'yes, go on, like it' as I knew I really wanted to be Winter! It didn't always work though, and Lisa was a bit 'well, that Ines ok, but that ones not bad either'. In the end I was disappointed that she came down on the yellow based side. And then she went through deciding about Autumn or Spring and settled on Spring, which I was quite surprised about. But then as the last lady was done, I looked at the Spring colours more and over lunch I began to be quite excited by it. I had felt quite sure that Lizzie would have been a Spring and so I was quite surprised that that would be me. I did wish many a time during the day that it would be such fun to have Lizzie there with us. I started to quite like many of the Spring colours and I realised there were quite a few blues in there.Although Lisa did say I was Spring verging on Summer and Winter which was rather funny! I did feel that as I had been a bit tricky to determine, I could decide that actually it doesn't matter so much which colours I wear and I can get away with keeping the clothes I already have that I like! 


After lunch it was make up time. Lisa took each of us in turn and applied primer, then foundation, blusher and lipstick, eyeing us up first to decide which colours were right.  The phrase of this part was 'lipstick is your backbone'! Then she went through all 36 colours giving each a ranking (one tick was good, then two ticks, then one star and then finally 2 stars was the wowest of all) and also what percentage of our clothing could be in that colour (100%, 75%, 50%, 25%). I throughly enjoyed this bit in a slightly hysterical way which I was having to suppress as it was all quite serious which just made it funnier! Lisa was calling out the colour name, percentage and star rating and one of us was having to write it down. She went quite quickly so as not to lose her eye.

On my turn, Lisa went through several lipsticks before starting my make up and was putting different colour scarves on me. She said she wouldn't sleep well if she wasn't sure what I was. In the end she put the stripes on me, a sort of blanket with stripes of several colours from one season. And from those things, she categorically said I was a winter!!! It was quite funny that I was now what I had wanted to be but I was a little bit disappointed! I had really started to be excited about being a Spring! But Lisa was quite decisive and went to town with my lipsticks. I was quite horrified by the colours - so so vibrant! Lisa was giving each of us a 'walk the dog' colour, an everyday colour and a 'knock 'em dead' colour. I kept asking which my walk the dog one was because they all seemed shocking to me!

After everyone has found their **100 colours, we were given our colour wallets and goody bags and had the option of buying some make up. I bought one lipstick of the least vibrant colour.

That evening, I had a little time in Summertown and started a look in some clothes shops with my colour wallet. It really was quite daunting as I wasn't familiar with the location of the colours on the strips and I felt like I had to check every item of clothing in the shop - I wasn't just going for the colours I normally liked. I then find myself in the funny position of being excited that I'd found an item in a colour that matched the chart and being tempted to buy it, but then realised that actually it was a quite hideous style of clothing that I didn't like at all! I was really feeling I'd need to spend quite some time familiarising myself with my chart before attempting much further shopping. I did though, after much deliberation and to-ing and fro-ing buy a 'going-out' (?!?!?) top in what I hoped was close to ice blue.  I was just in the mood of feeling really keen to embrace the change and feel I was some way on the way to feeling stylish!  I then spent some time in a cafe reading the little winter notebook and the catalogue we had been given from cover to cover.

Back home we excitedly chatted through out experiences.  And then came the big wardrobe sort, which I was very excited about.  One of my main aims had been to be able to get rid of clothes without feeling guilty! H helped me greatly: it was not a task I would have looked forward to actually starting on my own.  It was a good exercise for familiarising myself with the colours on the Winter strips.  It also made me realise how hard I find it to tell if a colour is close enough to what's on the paper.  I also didn't find it helpful that Lisa said, we obviously aren't restricted to just the 36 colours on the chart but can go for the ones that are in between the two colours.  I found colours in different seasons so similar that it really didn't help me to decipher whether my garments were or were not winter.  Also, I realised just how many of my clothes are very faded from the wash!  The big revelation of the session was that the majority of my wardrobe was already Winter - which is what I had been thinking before the day, but I didn't expect it to his extent.  I probably half filled a black bag for the charity shop, but I did still keep several items that weren't the right colour but I like so that is indeed cheating!

 It was funny the following week really, as I thought more on my new approach to dressing.  Despite saying before hand, that my reason for doing it was to be able to feel confident in the clothes I was wearing, I guess I had then had a kind of the hope that I would suddenly be wearing a new radical outfit and feel super new and amazing in it!  So very irrationally in that sense I was disappointed that so many of my clothes ended up being my season.  It doesn't make any sense, as I hadn't wanted to have to buy new clothes, but now I was disappointed not to have the excuse to!  So I decided I would investigate the Kettlewell catalogue and I ended up buying a new dress from there in one of my **100 colours which I do really like and am now tempted to get more from there.  I also decided to be brave and start wearing my lipstick.  It got one comment the very first time I wore, but it has not been commented on since and I now feel ok wearing it and that maybe it's not quite as vibrant as I first thought so I might look into buying one of the 'knock 'em dead colours'! 

 Now a few weeks on I am feeling more settled in my self after the roller coaster emotions.  I can't quite remember which of my wardrobe clothes are the ones I kept because they are winter and which because I didn't want to get rid of them, but I am generally happy wearing them all.  And I know if I want to feel good about myself, I can pop some lipstick on and wear a kettlewell outfit.  The other reassuring thing about the whole experience, is that apparently Winters can go grey gracefully!  So that's one less thing to worry about!

Baking - latest

I've started my 2017 baking.

I baked for the school inset day at the start of January and although not much of my baking was eaten, at least it gave me an excuse to practise.  I did a banana cake and tried some rum and raisin muffins for the first time.

Tonight we had a bit of spare time and I wasn't cooking dinner as we had had a late lunch, so I decided to bake and try some cookies.  The first google hit was this Martha Stewart recipe so I started it.  I almost gave up before starting when it mentioned 'electric whisk'.  I carried on quite  halfheartedly, especially when it said 'light and airy' or when I added the baking soda to the butter mix rather than the flour!  But would you believe it, when the 9 minute timer went, they were brown on the edges and soft in the middle.  And the early indications are that they are rather soft, chewy and tasty!  Woop woop!

Resolutions

Happy New Year!

We had a fun time last night playing games with friends.

I quite like the thought of not making New Year's Resolutions and have been feeling proud of the list I made when we came back from travelling because I didn't make it at New Year - strange logic!  Well, I thought I would take a look at them now and see how I am getting on and whether I still want to persevere with them. I was talking with a friend yesterday about how she had set a goal of reading 50 books in the year and had made it and how she liked having a specific goal.  I might try that with some of these.  The italics below are the bits I wrote on return from travelling.

1 - Local - I would like to try and buy more things locally. I love the convenience of Amazon online (and am sure I will keep using it), but I want to feel I am supporting real people rather than just nameless and faceless businesses. Not sure how to make this have a specific goal, but I will keep it here as a reminder of a general principle.  Maybe I can look into some local craft shops and there is a pottery shop my mum mentioned.

2 - Community - in a similar way, I want to know more and have more of a connection of people in the community. I loved seeing that in small New Zealand communities and also up in Stornoway. Hopefully the new Rose Hill community centre may be a starting place for that. Goal - go to 4 community events this year - yikes!  I was pleased with the Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon Group event we went to.  Hopefully more like that.

3 - Packaging - I want to think more about what I buy and try to buy things with less packaging. In particular, John has become good at thinking about plastic. He bought the book 'plastic free life' in California when seeing an exhibit at Monterey Bay Aquarium about the amount of plastic sea animals ingest. We are planning to research local places where you can go refill washing up liquid bottles etc. If anyone knows of any places around Oxford or has any good tips then do share! We have made a good start on this one and are pleased with our refill centre we have found, which I still need to blog about.  And I have started reading the plastic free life book now so hopefully that will help.  I am also interested finally in doing the show your plastic challenge for a week.  Maybe that would be good to do again at the end of the year for a comparison.

4 - Baking - I really enjoyed having the time to learn to bake a bit in Uganda and want to try to make the time to do it now as well. I want to keep practising the same recipes until I can do them quicker without having to keep checking the recipe.  I feel I have done ok with this so far though I am definitely having to be deliberate about it.  Here's my goal then: 4 banana cakes, 4 giggle cakes, 4 lemon cakes, 4 cookie batches, 4 shortbread batches, 4 muffin batches and 4 other baking attempts.  That's 28 baking events so I'll need just over one every 2 weeks.  I will try record on here how I get on. 

5 - Cooking chapattis and popcorn - I also enjoyed learning to make these and don't want to forget! 

Bread - I would like to learn to make bread too. Pleased that both of these are happening.  I might start a tally in the kitchen of how often I do these this year.  I'll hope for 5 of each.

6 - Basic ingredients, less processed - again, something from my time in Uganda. I'll start small and see where it's worth it.  Again, I feel this is going ok, and then plastic free desire definitely ties in with this.  Not sure how to goal this one, which probably means I won't really do much about it.  Maybe I'll save the specifics for next year.  Although we were given a cheese-making set for Christmas so that will be my goal to achieve as that is definitely in the less processed category!

7- Phonetics - a random one that cropped up while in Denmark and so I popped it down as something I'd like to learn...one day!  Funnily enough had a conversation just before Christmas with a friend who is on a speech and language course about the phonetics she has to learn, so I know its possible!

8- Blogging - I've really enjoyed blogging this year. I'd like to keep it up with General musings on things that happen. This is will be an easy one to check on my goals.  Now what to set...  well, there ought to be 28 posts just on my baking!  Let's say 20 non-baking posts in 2017 and at least 4 general musings posts.  I don't feel this has come very easily since being back.

9- More minimalist - although I am really looking forward to having belongings around me again and I still like nice things, I'm hoping to slim down belongings a bit and have another sort out as we unpack. We did do a trip or two to the charity shop when unpacking but not hugely.  I hope to slim down my clothes when I have had my colours done later in the month.

10 - Fewer clothes - I don't remember jotting this one down before, but glad I did as I wouldn't have tried to do it! This year has definitely proven that I can survive without many outfits. Although particularly in South America, I missed not having anything vaguely nice for an evening, (my indication that we were going out was putting on a pair of dangly earrings!) I definitely don't need an overflowing wardrobe. Andy H, your wardrobe with just the pair of jeans in is my inspiration! Oops, don't think I can then class clothes in my previous listing - see above!

11 - Rare shopping centre visits - I don't feel the need to visit a shopping centre often anymore. No problem there.  Haven't felt the desire to go since being back.

12 - Keep reading - I really loved how much reading I did this year. I did read quite regularly before anyway, but just want to make sure I keep it up. I wonder how much I'll read my kindle at home and how much I will go back to paper books. I am happy that I am still reading, especially a lot over Christmas.  Though now I am startled by the 50 book challenge my (mother of 2!) friend set and achieved.  But I still don't feel I would like a target.  Maybe next year.

13 - Outdoors in the UK - thank you for your suggestions of your favourite places to be outdoors in the UK. I definitely want to make the effort to visit them all. Goal - to actually make a list of the places people mentioned!  I feel this may be wildly unlikely but I am going to try for 12 National Trust Visits!

14 - Make lists - I did find I enjoyed making lists this year (as this is evidence!!) and I liked feeling efficient that things were getting done and weren't being missed. I wonder how that will continue now we are back. I have started a list book of things to do since being back but don't think I am very good at keeping up with it.  I keep trying to move it to the kitchen work top so that it is more in my face.  Think I will need to be better at this.  My goal is to photograph my completed lists when I complete a page.  Maybe 3 pages in the year?

15 - Exercise more consistently. I would love to run three times a week as I tried to do in Uganda. I'm looking forward to returning to Rose Hill Runners and seeing if I can finally get under 30 minutes for a park run... Totally haven't done this very well since being back.  Think some goal orientation will help here.  Minimum 1 run a week of minimum 2Km.  Maybe I'll go back to 20 Parkruns.  No, I think I will do 30 Parkruns or Rose Hill Runs during the year.  Good luck!

16 - Knitting - I enjoyed knitting in Uganda and particularly when we were home in June. Hopefully I can keep that up. Anyone have any (easy) knitting projects they would like me to do! Fairly happy that I have been doing some of this.  Let's say 7 projects complete in 2017.

Phewwff!  That was a longer list than I was expecting, but I am pleased to have thought about it and hopefully I'll be able to review next year and see what I have achieved.  I worry it's rather long and I'll forget about things so I will try an abbreviated list here:

1. Run each week.
2. 30 Parkruns/Rose Hill Runs 
3. Visit 12 National Trust Places
4. Bake 28 times (see above for details!)
5. Knit 7 projects.
6. Go to 4 community events
7. Make a list of Outdoor Places to go
8. 20 Blog Posts including 4 General Musings
9. Photo show me your plastic challenge
10. Make Cheese
11. Make chapatis 5 times and popcorn 5 times

Write - that seems more manageable and hopefully I haven't missed any.  I have tried to put them in order from hardest to achieve to most likely to achieve.

Let's go 2017!