Be the Change

I was going to have a blog-free today. Was going to give it a break for a day or so as I’ve really been bubbling over with stuff to write about, and maybe it was getting a little full on? A little overwhelming? A little like, why don’t I just shut the f up for a little while?

Well, that was about as successful as my pledge to wear black clothes, edgy silver jewellery and maintain a dead straight bob as part of our move to Melbourne. Ha.

Well, dear readers (all 5 of you!), I just couldn’t let this go past without posting about it. I joined up this morning whilst sitting in on one of those teleconferences which is just unrelated enough that your mind starts to drift off to your own special happy place, but you never know when someone will ask for your opinion on something and you couldn’t possibly stand the embarrassment of the token “I’m sorry, what exactly did you want my opinion on, I missed that bit?” Eeep. I usually end up putting the phone on mute to munch loudly on a carrot, then forget I’m on mute and wonder why no one is listening to me? Or get myself confused and think I’m on mute when I’m not and rather am actually subjecting the rest of the callers to my crunching and munching and the occasional humming along to whatever song is in my head?

But again, I digress. I need to take my own advice and zip it.

I signed up for 1 Million Women. It is a campaign in which 1 million women each pledge to cut 1 tonne of CO2 from their daily lives within 1 year of joining the campaign. Imagine that, 1 million women x 1 tonne each – that’s far too many zeroes to count!

It’s awesome – go there, right now! Do this with me! Let’s be fabulous together! Green is the new black, you know!

I had a couple of wins with things we are already doing at home. Like:
1. Having 100% green energy powering the apartment.
2. This funky power board that the husband-to-be hooked up which turns off at the wall the TV and the amp and the speakers and the computer and all the gadgets that are plugged into the TV simply by turning the TV off with the remote! How fabulously clever! I read somewhere the HUGE amounts of energy that a big TV draws when it’s in standby and this has just been a perfect solution.
3. Being super careful about wasting food. We used to have whole crispers of fruit and veg going to waste. Terrible! Since we moved to Melbourne and started spending that bit more to buy organic, local and fresh fruit and veggies, I have been so aware of eating it all. I can’t bear the thought of all that food (and money!) going to waste.

Here is what I am going to try and be better at, just some little things to start with:
1. Reducing the amount of plastic I bring into the house. If I have been lazy and not gone to the market, all the organic veggies from Safeway are wrapped in plastic. I guess that is because it’s impossible to tell them apart at the checkout, but buying a broccoli on a Styrofoam tray and wrapped in glad wrap makes me want to cry! I would rather buy non-organic in that case, but even plastic bags of salad leaves leave you in the same situation. Must not be so lazy! My other plastic addiction are those bottles of Japanese green tea from the fridge at 7-11. Y-U-M. The ones with no sugar, Pokka brand, you know the ones? Y-U-M. But I’ve gotta be careful about that, maybe I will start brewing green tea at home and keeping it in the fridge to bring with me when I go out?
2. I really want a worm farm. I really really do. I think that might need to wait for Spring though, lest they all freeze to death, poor loves? I was asking the gentle and gorgeous Cecilia about them at the Sustainable Living Festival earlier this year, and need to do a little more digging before welcoming some garbage guts worms to our home I think.
3. Being a refashionista. All these great tutorials about refashioning business shirts have made me so excited about the possibilities of being a fun and funky green gal.

I hope you will join me! Let’s be the change we want to see in the world!

(The beautiful image above is by this talented Brissie lass Harriet. Isn't she amazingly clever! I adore it!)