Tinkerblue

Drowning in Water Bottles

I have a fridge that dispenses water out of the door.  So why are we spending so much money on bottled water?  Especially when the bottles then have to be disposed of.  Yes, they get recycled but they still have to be dealt with.  And we own about 1/2 a dozen nalgene bottles of various shapes and sizes so why don't we use those?  We do now. 

We do still have a couple of flats of water.  One in the boot of my car, one in the garage and one at the hanger.  They are for emergencies, flooding, earthquake type emergencies, not "I'm thirsty."

Now I fill my water bottle several times a day.  Either from the fridge at home, or the tap at work. Yes, the tap! 

And today I am the proud new owner of a SIGG water bottle.  Remember this post?  Well I couldn't find either of those bottles, but I did find the next best thing.  Mickey Mouse.

And for those times when I stop into the coffee shop unplanned.  I keep a coffee mug in my car.  It get's cleaned and then goes back in the car. 

There's Method in My Madness

Continuing with Kelli's Green Week.

A while back I switched to using Method products.  They are a little more expensive than normal, but they also seem to be lasting longer than normal.  Or maybe I just haven't done much in the way of housework recently.  Please don't drop in for a surprise visit this week.

Method use formulas that contain only biodegradable ingredients, derived from natural ingredients - soy, coconut etc.  Their packaging is made from recyclable materials, and they don't test on animals.

I've also stopped using sheets and sheets of paper towel when I clean. I bought some cleaning cloths.  And rather than chuck out paper towel, I wash the cloths.  I colour coded them - grey is for stainless steel,  cream for the bathroom and dark red for everything else.  I love the smell of the pink grapefruit.

My empty paper towel holder.

Don't get me wrong, we are far from completely eco friendly.  We still use paper towel, we just don't have any right now, and we don't go through anywhere near as much as used to.

Another company that makes environmently friendly products is Seventh Generation.  There products don't seem to be available any where locally though, and Method is at my local supermarket, so Method it is.

Lush and Wiccy Magic Muscles

Kelli posted about doing your bit to help the environment.  She has declared this week, Green Week.  Share your ideas for treading a little lighter on mother earth. 

Here's one.

Lush.  They use minimal packaging and their product is awesome.

From their website....

A LUSH Life
We believe in making effective products out of fresh organic* fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics, without animal ingredients, and in writing the quantitative list on the outside.
We also believe in buying only from companies that test for safety without the involvement of animals and in testing our products on humans.
We believe in making our own fresh* products by hand, printing our own labels and making our own fragrances.
We believe in long candlelit baths, massage, filling the house with perfume and in the right to make mistakes, lose everything and start again.
We believe that our products should be good value, that we make a profit and that the customer is always right.
*We also believe words like "fresh" and "organic" have honest meaning beyond marketing.

I love this massage bar.  The name makes me laugh.  Wiccy Magic Muscles.  Great for showering after a run or the gym.   I bought a small tin, and when I need a new bar, I take the tin to the store and they just put it right in.  No packaging.

I also have a shampoo bar that I use when travelling.  Again I have a small tin, that I reuse again and again and again. No packaging to dispose of. 

Every little bit helps right?

Kelli created a flickr group too.

How are you contributing to a greener life?

Slip, Slop, Slap

With all the really hot, sunny weather we've been having recently  a lot of my co-workers have been comig into work looking like lobsters.  Very, very, very sunburnt.  I always say you have to wear sunscreen, ( I sound  like my mum!) and they always respond with, "oh it will turn to a tan tomorrow." 

Doesn't matter people.  Protect your skin. You can still tan while wearing sunscreen.  But wear it.  Don't get skin cancer! 

Anyway it's all reminded me of an ad campaign that I grew up watching.

"One of the most successful health campaigns in Australia’s history was launched in 1981, when a cheerful seagull in board shorts, t-shirt and hat tap-danced his way across our TV screens singing a jingle that you just couldn’t get out of your head."

Slip, Slop, Slap!
It sounds like a breeze when you say it like that
Slip, Slop, Slap!
In the sun we always say "Slip Slop Slap!"

Slip, Slop, Slap!
Slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat,
Slip, Slop, Slap!
You can stop skin cancer - say: "Slip, Slop, Slap!"

So Slip, Slop, Slap, PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!

It didn't work, but it's still really cool

I tried to take a photo when we went night flying.  It didn't turn out as it was supposed to.  But here it is.

The moon and the lights of the city.

Wine, Wine, Wine

Hubby and I are not wine connoseurs, we are not experts, but we do like a glass now and then.  Last trip home to Australia, friends of ours took us to the Hunter Valley for the day.  I had been before but it was hubby's first trip there.  We spent the day touring wineries and sampling many a wine, and the odd beer and a bit of cheese.  We had a really good day.

Dave, Michael and Anna -Jan 2006 - Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia.

BC has a growing wine industry.  We have never visited any of the wineries in BC. So this summer we decided we should.  Hubby and I were going to head up to the Okanagan, but plans change and we flew over to Vancouver Island.  We spent a day touring some mid Island wineries.

We thought we were travelling in style.

Hubby and Barb (his mum) in the convertible.

Until we were having lunch at Cherry Point Vineyard...

...and a fellow diner arrived in a helicopter and landed right in the vineyards!

We consoled ourselved by tasting several of their wines, buying a few and heading off to the next winery.

Wineries by the numbers:

• # of wineries visited - 3.   Cherry Point Vineyards, Glenterra, and Silverside Farm
• # of bottles of wine bought - 2.  A bottle of Cherry Point Pinot Gris, and a bottle of Silverside Farm Raspberry Dessert Wine.  (Barb bought some too, but I can't remember what.)
• # of icecreams - 2.  Made with raspberries grown at Silverside Farm
• # of wines tasted - ?.  Too many to remember.

I like dry white wines, and ports.  I don't like red wines, or really fruity white wines.

What do you drink?

Summer Reading

I like to read.  A lot.  I own hundreds of books.  I read two, three, sometimes four books a week.  I will read a book more than once.  My hubby thinks I'm mad. 

We have two billy bookshelves overflowing in the office.   I still have 4+shelves at home, in Australia full of books.  I have a box beside my bed of books to read.  And there are books all over the house.  There's at least one in my bag.  And there is always a book in the car, for when I end up waiting.

Some are recommended by friends.  Some I read a review in the paper or magazine.  Most I just found while browsing the bookstore.  I order online mostly - it's cheaper.  But nothing beats wandering the bookstore for hours, picking up books based on the front cover, reading the back cover.

I don't like the library.  You have to give the books back.  I don't like giving books back.

I forward some on to friends, if I think they'll like them.  I lend them out all the time.  Just make sure I get them back, or you'll no longer be on my friend list. 

And don't turn down the corner.  Use a bookmark!

Books I've just read:

• In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
• Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini
• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• Connections by Sheila Flanagan
• Little White Lies by Gemma Townley
• Left Bank by Kate Muir
• The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillippa Gregory
• In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Durant
• A Mighty Heart by Marianne Pearl
• Baby Proof by Emily Giffin
• When in Rome Penelope Green
• 100 Mile Diet by Alisa Smith and JB McKinnon
• Harry Potter and the Philosphers Stone
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

My current list:

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (I'm re-reading them all before book 7 comes out July 21st)
• Ya Yas in Bloom by Rebecca Wells
• Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith
• Time Among the Maya by Ronald Wright
• Fast Food Nation by Eric Scholosser (half way through this right now)
• The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherford
• Lonely Planet guide to East Coast of Australia - planning our next trip home.
• Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol

Books I want to read:

• Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini
• Race to Dakar by Charley Boorman
• Red, White and Drunk All Over by Natalie MacLean
• Duel in the Sun:Alberto Salazar, Dick Beardsley and America's Greatest Marathon by John Brant
• On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
• Justice Denied by JA Jance
• White Thorn and Sylvia by Bryce Courtenay
• Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
• The Inheritance of Loss by Kirin Desai

Some, but not all, of my favourite authors:

• Bryce Courtenay
• Bill Bryson
• JK Rowling
• Maeve Binchy
• Marion Keyes
• JA Jance
• Wendy Harmer
• Nora Grant Bruce
• LM Montgomery

What's on your list?

If I don't hear from you within a year....

I will erase you from my address book.  It used to get really full, of people who never responded to letters I sent.  So I started erasing people if they didn't reply after a year.  I still use a 'real' address book.  I write names and birthdays/anniversaries in pen, and addresses, phone #s and emails in pencil so they can be changed.  I list people under first names - incase they get married/divorced etc and change their name.  Well really I list them under first name, because often I can't remember the surname until I look it up.

I haven't updated my blogroll in a long time.  I was avoiding doing it.  There were so many to add.  But then Sarah at Paper and String had a much better idea.  She added a link to her blogline feeds.  What a clever idea.  I borrowed her idea.  In the right  hand tool bar, scroll down and you can click on the link to my blogline feeds.  Now you can see all 88 (and adding all the time) of them.  And I promise, I will only delete you, if you haven't posted on your own blog for a year.

Happy 4th of July

Happy Independence Day to my friends south of the Canadian border.

It seems July is the month for holidays.

• July 1st - Canada Day.  Canada became a nation on July 1st 1867.
• July 4th - US Independence Day. 
• July 5th - Venezuela's Independence Day
• July 9th - Argentina's Independence Day
• July 14th - Bastille Day, France
• July 21st - Belgium's Independence Day
• July 22nd - Liberation Day, Poland
• July 25th - Constitution Day, Puerto Rico
• July 28th - Peru's Independence Day

Who knew July was so popular?

Congratulations Bugalugs

Last night Buglugs (hubby) flew his final hour with an instructor.  Now he has his night rating.  Which means we can go flying at night.  Previously we had to land back at our airport 30 minutes after official sunset.  Now, as long as the ceiling and visibility** is good we can fly at night.    ** ceiling = clouds, they have to be at a certain height above sea level.  Visibility = the pilot has to be able to see so many miles.  (I don't know the exact figures, I just know the term CAVU = ceiling and visibility unlimited.  It means good flying!)  I'm sure hubby will correct me if I've got anything wrong.

It's spectacular,  flying over the city all lit up.  I couldn't get any decent photos, maybe next time.  He is soo excited.  Now we can fly over to Victoria for dinner, and don't have to rush to be back here by a certain time.  I like night flying.  I find it easier to spot other planes - they're all lit up like christmas trees, and it's not bumpy at all, cause the heat has gone.

Here's a couple of daytime shots.

This was taken the month after we bought the plane.  (You can't see it, but he looks really, really happy and excited).  We have since taken the floats off, and put it on wheels.  Hubby does not yet have his float rating.  Maybe next summer.

This is the plane on wheels.

Hubby has spent the last two days waxing and polishing it.  Ater 16 hours, he has one side done.  He still has the other side, and the wings to go.  It's time consuming, but it looks good!