In which I get to feel like part of something big

Today, New Zealanders young and old protested for greater climate action. It was the third in 2019. The first two were organized by and for school students. I, and some other adults, turned up as support and to add to the numbers.

This one was open to everyone. So I arranged to have  the day off work, made a placard (above) and spent most of today surrounded by like minded folks.

I was so proud of our young people because without them 170,000 Kiwis would not have turned all over the country to have their say.

And just to make it all about me - I felt pretty damn staunch walking to the bus top with my placard, getting on the bus with it, bringing it into a fancy cafe for an early lunch with my friends, shouting and chanting with 39,999 other people, and walking around town with it afterwards, raising my eyebrows in recognition when spotting a fellow off duty protester.

What a day of triumph.

And now for makeup

For years I've been using the big name brands (Clinique, Revlon) to cover up the blotches that I am so prone to , thinking that surely no one is testing on animals any more.

But I was so wrong. Never mind the mica that is mined mostly in India by little kids.

So I have had to work back a bit in my search for low-waste skincare and go back to basics.

So the QV lotion gets to stay because they don't test on animals and their plastic bottles are recyclable. But I'm still looking for a body moisturiser and may have to accept plastic containers as that are recyclable - for now.

I've found a few brands of foundation to try. One is Oasis Beauty which covers all of the above products and fits the above criteria. Others I want to try are Napoleon, Inika and Jane Iredale.

So, quite a few options as long as you aren't trying to give up plastic!

There is a possibility that Ecostore will start offering moisturiser refills, but the two products of theirs I've tried so far do not do a good enough job on my skin.

It might be greener to eat out

Our family has always been high-protein, though while growing up at least I ate tons of stir-fried veges to go with  all that chicken, beef, lamb, pork and fish.

With the boy doing most of the evening meals these tend to be of the meat-and-two-or-three veg variety (but they are usually really tasty).

I am trying to move to a more plant-based diet but this would require me to do a whole lot more of the cooking and do a whole lot more careful meal planning so that the family gets all the nutrients we need.

I have done a few vegan meals here and there, for my lunches during the working week - and some of them have even turned out well, to my taste buds anyways.

But, you know that thing where you learn to cook new stuff and end up with tons of excess herbs, spices, sauces etc? yeah that's me.

Plus, when you buy little packets of stuff to avoid food waste you also end up buying lots of little bits of un-recyclable packaging.

So I'm moving away from that. During the week I'm eating out at one of the vegan eateries once a week, and having banana and peanut butter sandwiches the rest of the week!

On the "plus" side, because the boy was recently diagnosed with gout he is occasionally cooking vegetarian.