18 May 2003 17:07 [link]
ecover
I bought Ecover washing powder and fabric softener today. I've been meaning to for a while. I'm not very good at being environmentally friendly, but sometimes I do try.
I admit I noticed them because of their slogans ("We couldn't care more", and the poster of the chemical structure of their detergent with "Steal our formula. Please." written across it) but then marketing can be a force for Good, as well as Evil. I did notice this line on the box too, though:
Contains no optical brighteners. Optical brighteners bond irreversibly with skin.
I also realised that it might be cheaper than some of the main brands, on a per-wash basis. (Tesco only lists the price per 100g, rather than the price per wash, which is understandable given that the former is rather more concrete.)
We use the "bags for life" as well, where you cough up a small amount for a heavy-duty carrier bag, and then Tesco will replace it and recycle it when it wears out.
I hate to think of all the environmentally unfriendly things I must do each day, though.
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18 May 2003 16:53 [link]
shopping
I'm not a natural supermarket shopper. If they were empty of people I might find them tolerable, but fill them with shoppers and I just don't get on with them at all.
Sara knows this, and can see when it's starting to get to me. Sometimes I have to escape (although thus far I've resisted the urge to just run for the door).
Weekends - Saturdays particularly - are bad. Probably the worst. Gangs of shoppers, whole families, arguing, cajoling, fighting. People who inexplicably seem to think that parking their trolley in the middle of a crowded aisle is somehow helpful. Screaming children, sometimes in charge of trolleys.
I can feel the panic welling up inside me. I'm quite good at controlling it. Mental rants at stupid people help.
Relief when it's over, though.
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