Your eclectically memorable Heyday Friday newsletter
There's tennis, a mystery t-shirt and two planet-saving products along with some reassuringly wise words in this week's newsletter.
My blog post this week is short and very bittersweet. It concerns this
and somewhere I visited on my recent trip to Croatia.
Click HERE to find how those two things are connected and why.
One of the things I didn’t write about in my blog about Croatia was the landfill site we drove past on the beautiful island of Hvar. It was the only not-remotely-beautiful thing we saw during our week touring the country, albeit as tucked away as it could be in a remote corner of the island.
It made me think, as I so often do, about the amount we consume and throw away and how much of it ends up in horrible, stinking landfills that aren’t just a blight on our landscapes but so damaging to our precious planet.
I share lots of
SMART SAVE TIPS OF THE WEEK
with you that hopefully help mitigate and avoid some of that damage, but the ones this week relate more specifically to the throwing away aspect of our waste. Which, since we use 38.5 million plastic bottles every single DAY, has to be worth paying attention to.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been trying out two refillable versions of products that I use daily.
The one on the right is a refillable natural toothpaste from a company called Life Supplies, which describes itself as’ The one-stop shop for refillable, plant-powered
bathroom supplies’. I’ve tried a couple of different natural toothpastes in the past and found them both too unpleasantly like brushing my teeth with bicarbonate of soda to persevere with. But this one has a light, creamy texture, a pleasantly mild minty taste and seems to be just as effective as my regular toothpaste.
And when the bottle is empty, I can simply order a refill which comes in recyclable, paper-based carton made with 98% less plastic than regular bathroom bottles.
You can find out more about Life Supplies and order from their website HERE
The bottle on the left is a refillable, green tea and bergamot scented foaming hand wash from neat. Another company whose mission is to make plant-based, refillable cleaning products - and hand washes - that are as effective as they are planet-gentle.
This one comes in a recycled aluminium bottle into which you measure 270ml of tap water and pour in the concentrated hand wash liquid
A quick shake and when you press the pump, it dispenses fresh-smelling, foamy hand soap. And when the dispenser is empty, you just get another bottle of the refill concentrate. Simples.
Find out more about neat. and order their products HERE
I’m enjoying using both these, and have ordered some refillable washing up liquid from another company that’s been recommended to me. So I’ll let you know how that goes!
I can’t pretend to be anything like as consistent as I feel I should in my attempts to cut down on the waste I produce. But when I’m beating myself up for not doing better, I remind myself of these
WORDS OF WISDOM
from Anne-Marie Bonneau, the author of The Zero-Waste Chef: Plant-Forward Recipes and Ways to Reduce Waste for a Sustainable Kitchen and Planet, and I put down my stick and give myself a much more gentle pat on the back for at least trying.
THIS WEEK I’VE BEEN…..WATCHING
First I must confess to never having watched Poldark, so I came to Fifteen-Love, which stars the same leading man, Aidan Turner, without the heart-rush of excitement of fans of that show.
Second, I freely admit to being less than blown away by the first of the six episodes and only kept going to, and through, episode two because too many people had recommended the series to me and I really wanted to persevere and see what the fuss was about.
Then, towards the end of that second episode something happened that made me go ‘O…H’ and ‘Oooooo NOW I get it.’ And for the rest of the remaining episodes I was gripped to what played out (pun entirely intended) between successful tennis coach Glenn Lapthorne (Aidan) and his former protege Justine Pearce who, five years after she is about to break into the big time after winning the French Open but catastrophically damages her wrist and has what seems to be a breakdown leading to her quitting the sport, accuses him of sexual assault.
Whilst Aidan is seductively watchable, it’s Ella Lily Hyland, in her first major screen role, who comprehensively steals this show as the, by turns, infuriating, distraught, determined, bewildered, vulnerable and volatile Justine, who catches the eye of charismatic Glenn when she is an impressionable young teenager. It’s a performance of compelling complexity and mesmerising intensity.
You don’t need to be a tennis fan, or, it turns out, a Poldark aficionado, to enjoy Fifteen-Love. You’ll find it satisfyingly head-swivelling without being either.
You can watch FIFTEEN-LOVE on Amazon Prime
And see the trailer HERE
We’re heading into a bank holiday weekend here in the UK, so it seemed the perfect time to share this oh-so-true
FRIDAY FUNNY
I hope the weekend weather, wherever you are, stays dry…. and predictable.
See you next time.