What I learned this week [29/04/16]

1. It was Earth Day on Friday and it almost passed me by. But then, quite late at night, I noticed a Guardian article about zero waste bloggers and it kept me clicking and linking for a good hour. The main blogger featured was Katherine Kellogg, a young woman living on her own and although she's in the States, there were things about her story that made me think I could take some of the waste reducing options. I also liked that the articles I read dealt with the idea that it can be interpreted as hypocrisy to do some of these things and then to carry on, for example, driving your car or consuming electricity. As most of can't go completely "off grid" or produce zero waste; it's good to have an awareness of lifestyle changes we can make.
Some things I have changed over the last few years are: using a mooncup and so fewer disposable sanitary products, using a re-usable coffee cup more, buying clothes more carefully and buying second-hand, not buying ready meals, buying loose vegetables where possible, or getting them from mum's allotment and avoiding fruit and veg that is pre-prepared or comes in loads of packaging. I don't eat meat for at least 5 days out of the week.
I struggle with: driving everywhere (I have to drive to work, but there are lots of times when I drive to somewhere I could have walked to), Tassimo coffee pods, takeaways, the lure of Primark, my love of a pre-packaged sandwich...
Things I'd like to try: get rid of make-up wipes, bamboo toothbrush and cutlery set, use cloths instead of paper towels and cleaning wipes.

2. I over-reflected on the non-existence of Humberside, mainly due to returning (for a variety of reasons) to my old primary and secondary school and the first school I worked at. Basically I was born in a place that doesn't exist... which sounds more exciting than it is. Side note: a thing I enjoy in local schools and libraries is looking for books and equipment that are old enough to be stamped with the Humberside County Council logo. Really old ones, of course, pre-date this.

3. After feeling frustrated with my derby plateau last week, this week went a lot better. On Saturday we skated outside for the first time this year, handing out flyers for Hull Fashion Week (I know right, next stop Paris!), Sunday we got really sweaty doing recoveries and paired pushing, on Monday I coached the new intake and on Tuesday we finally got to scrim! It's been a while as we don't have the usual number of refs but I was really looking forward to it and determined to make the best of every moment. I think I mostly did; in the second period we played against the A team and it was good practice trying to hold them back and co-ordinate our defence. On Thursday we went back to basics with 4 walls and braced walls. It felt slow, but suddenly I realised that I was bracing a wall and shouting instructions at the same time. I literally couldn't do this last month. I did it again a couple more times and so the goal now is to be able to do this during an actual jam. During all this time I worked on stopping and resetting as quickly as possible. This is part of a longer term goal that I am not sure how to measure at this point. Today I ache all over!

4. Started at my new school, don't want to say too much about it yet. What I learned is that a new commute just brings a different type of stress. It's different to my rural commute and quite enjoyable to go on dual carriageway roads for most of the way. However, people still take daft risks, and twice this week it was snowing or sleeting, and people were pulling onto the motorway/ A-road with no lights on! Today was really stressful, with an accident on the estate near school, snow, high winds on the bridge closing a lane, an accident somewhere on the way back into Hull and then total gridlock due to a really awful accident near by house. So the long weekend is most welcome, and I shall be dog sitting!