HOW WE CAN ALL BE LIVING A MORE SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE.

Thursday 29 April 2021


* This is a collaborative post but all words and opinions are my own *

A lot of the time when we talk about being more eco-friendly and living a sustainable lifestyle, we always jump to the basics like recycling and using a reusable water bottle (if you still aren't, what are you waiting for?). A lot of the time it's small changes we can make that will help the environment, and it's just a case of forming good habits and sticking to them. Here are a couple you could implement into your life to do your part.

tea with gi environment

1. Every few months re-evaluate your wardrobe, then donate!


Who's guilty of buying something and 6 months later it's still hanging in your wardrobe untouched? *raises hand* I'm guilty of keeping things just because they hold 'sentimental value' or I think that I'm going to wear it one day. If you also find that you're a reckless buyer, ask yourself 'will I actually wear this' before purchasing anything. 

2. Buy a re-usable bag.


I'm the first to say there are many times where I'm in the supermarket and I've forgotten to bring mine with me. So unless I'm only carrying 2 apples I'm gonna have to buy one (but they are reusable!). I bought a cute one from ale-hop for a couple of euros and I use it most days to carry my food to work and other bits. 

3. Consider your packaging. 


We actually changed our coffee pod supplier at work because we found they were wasting too much plastic, each individual pod came wrapped in plastic packaging and it was unnecessary to be honest. On the flip side, if you own a little side hustle, consider using a bespoke packaging manufacturer to send your goodies out. 

4. Try and cook with what you have first.


The amount of food we waste is incredible, so a good habit to get into is cooking with the stuff you have in your fridge and pantry before you go and do another Asda shop. When I was in uni I'd try and be really healthy and buy loads of veg and then by the end of the week I'd have to throw half of it because it had gone bad - so that's another thing to watch out for. 

5. Be more digital.


40% of the world’s commercially cut timber is used for paper (look at me bringing in facts), and really a lot of the time we don't really need to take things back to old school paper and pen. I always find it such a waste when businesses print all these brochures and flyers when we know that we consume stuff better through the digital world. This Christmas, sending cards via Paperless Post might also be a good alternative. 

6. Make the most of public transport.


I mean I do this anyway because I still don't have my driving license, but even if I did I think it would be more hassle to take out my car, drive for 10 minutes, and have to find a parking space on my way home than to just take the free bus system that Gibraltar has. Or, if the sun is shining and the birds are singing, walk! (if it's less than half an hour away of course).

7. Eat a little less meat (and dairy).


I'm not vegan, although I did take part in Veganuary in January and I'm hoping to do the same in 2019. The Environmental Working Group found that red meat is responsible for 10 to 40 times as many greenhouse emissions as common vegetables and grains - so we could do with cutting it out of our diets for a day or two. If you need a little bit of inspiration I asked 15 vegans what their favourite recipes were

8. Participate in clean-ups.


Now and again my family take part in beach clean-ups and it makes for quite a rewarding day out. I'm not saying you have to go picking up everyones rubbish you see on the street because, gross - but giving something back to the community now and again is good. 

9. Become a shower person.


To be honest I've never been much of a bath person - I get bored easily and it's horrible getting out into the cold once the water has gone cold. I much prefer a sing in the shower with boiling water to wash away my sins. 


10. Turn off the bloody lights!!


That's all. 



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* This post was written in collaboration with UKE but all words and opinions are my own *


25 TIMES MEN HAVE HAD THE COMPLETE AUDACITY.

Wednesday 28 April 2021

 So I was having drinks with a friend and we started chatting about all the 'hilarious' things men we've dated in the past have done. To be honest I could probably write this whole post from my point of view, but I thought it would be a lot more interesting to ask this question to my readers and boy are some of these good! This was originally meant to be 20 stories, but I had pretty good feedback on this so here's 25 times men (well, boys) have had the complete audacity





1. "He ghosted me for two weeks, and then messaged me asking how I am followed by 'I wouldn't usually do this but can I borrow £60 until the end of the month." - Anon

2. "I was once seeing this guy who was also seeing this girl and when he drove me home after a date night he drove me to her house instead of mine..." - Anon, his name starts with a J, says enough.

3. "I was once seeing a guy and I was having my wisdom teeth taken out, and when I told him I can’t wait to eat properly again he said "you better not put on weight." - Anon

4. "Me and my bf at the time were heading out for drinks and bumped into his friend, and two girls who they'd both previously had a fling with a few years back. I decided to be mature about it and the 5 of us went to the bar together, it was two for one cocktails and the 4 of them ended up splitting and I had to get MY own drink whilst my ex split his with the girl he once dated!" - Anon

5. "Only lasted 20 seconds during a one night stand, didn't walk me home, goes to an afters and tells everyone that we had just slept together." - Anon

6. "Asked me to climb out his bedroom window to leave because his parents came home and he was grounded.... 😂" - Anon

7. "I was at the gym many moons ago, in the 'men's' weight lifting area. I was using the squat rack, facing the mirror (so my back was to the main floor). As I began to grip the bar and lift, this guy walked by, 'brushed' his hand against my bum and walked on. I almost dropped over 90kg of weights from the shock. The worst thing is a personal trainer saw it happen and said nothing. I complained to the company about this instance (and a handful of other, smaller ones), but nothing was done. I ultimately left the gym." - Nixie

8. "Told me I was “quite attractive for an ugly girl” 🙃" - Ashleigh

9. "Okay so a while ago I started seeing a guy I worked with, but we had to keep it a secret as he was my manager. Anyways, one night we closed up the restaurant and went home together and after a really lovely night together he even changed both our shifts so that we could spend more time in bed.

Later on we walked into work together and after about an hour he was already cosied up with another girl right in front of me whilst I mopped his floors. On top of that, I even had to serve them drinks!! At least he was nice enough to let me go home early because I was in so much pain from the UTI he had just given me!" - Anon

10. "It was my exes graduation the next day and I was up all night with the worst food poisoning ever...after about the 6th time that night I had to go throw up he turns to me in bed and says “can you stop making so much noise, it’s my big day tomorrow.- Anon

11. "My husband asked me to create an Instagram account for him, which I did. I then went on to follow him as no one else was following him, but he had blocked me!! 😂" - Mehr Israan

12. "When I still lived with my parents, I was chatting to a guy I knew, and our relationship was moving towards seeing each other in a romantic way. We had never been on a proper date, so he asked me out for dinner one evening.

I got ready - hair and make up, and put on a cute outfit. When he arrived to pick me up, he was wearing a dirty T-shirt and jersey tracksuit shorts. As I'd mentioned in passing that my parents were out for the evening, he decided that instead of going out for dinner, he would just eat at home and invite himself into my house for 20 minutes of extra curricular activities 'because he had to be somewhere else'.

I was livid. Told him to do one and ordered Chinese instead!" - Georgia 

13. "We had been seeing each other during the first lockdown for four months. Everything was going well, and things seemed like they were going in the right direction. I got invited to the same house party he was going to be at, and this would be the first test to see whether he was as interested in me as I thought he was. Red flags started appearing as soon as I walked in the door, he basically ignored me the whole night.

Ended up going to an afters with him, and this is where his true dickish behaviour showed. A girl we were both chatting to asked if we were dating... he turned around and very firmly said "No". In hindsight I should have upped and left, but I stuck by him only to get heartbroken days later when he admitted he didn't want anything serious. Moral of the story, men are trash and lockdown relationships ain't real 😂." - B

14. "A guy I dated always liked to tell me how I’d gained weight and should go to the gym (I’m 9stone)... even though he was overweight and went to slimming world with his mum?! Clearly taking his own insecurities out on me... " - Alice

15. "I got with this guy after a night out and after a few weeks of just messaging he says “we should see a movie this weekend.” For a split second I thought oohh he wants to take me on a date to the cinema. However, reality kicked in as it can be rare for a Gibraltarian guy to suggest a date. I decided to try my luck and play along so I replied with “ah what to the cinema?.” He replied with “no to your house” Too good to be true!" - Anon

16. "He had THE AUDACITY to invite me on a date, 'forgot' his wallet, so I had to pay for the entire meal. Then he ghosted me for a month. Then he had THE AUDACITY to text me at around 5am one morning to ask if I'd come over and help clean his house, because he'd had a house party, made a mess and his parents were due back. He didn't even invite me to the party!" - Rachel

17. "A friend of mine’s ex hubby sold all her belongings and house contents on eBay during divorce as she was having to stay at her parents home at the opp end of the country prior to buying another home. He had promised (since he was living in London with his girlfriend by this point) that the furniture and contents would remain put until she had her new house sorted, but alas, he even sold her then four year old’s belongings furniture and Disney toys that his grandparents had bought from the US. Not very nice, but she is in a far better place with far better people now" - Anon

18. "When I was like 16 there was this guy who I was friends with who sometimes used to walk me home on Friday's to make sure I got home safe which I thought was sweet. One week he was kinda drunk and when we got to my block he looked frustrated and said "I don't get you, I walk you home and I'm a good guy and I don't even get a kiss from you at least." - Anon

19. "I had been speaking to this guy from tinder for like 4 months, we arranged to finally go on a date and met up in London. He took me to McDonald's and after he asked what I wanted, he asked me to transfer him £5 for my meal lol." - Anon

20. "I had been sleeping with this guy and we were lying in bed one morning and says, 'I mean you're the prettiest girl I've slept with, but you are beautiful you know' and kissed me on the forehead. Backhanded compliment or what?!" - Anon

21. "A guy I was sleeping with for a month asked me if I could text him less as his girlfriend didn't like it. I had no idea he was in a relationship" - Anon

22. "This guy I met from a dating app, I had already told him I wasn't interested in that way so just wanted to hang out as friends. He was 2 hours late because he left his bag on the train from GC to Brisbane! Asks me to pay for his drinks because he has no money (I didn’t pay of course), tells me a story about why he doesn’t have money because he has a court hearing for drunk driving the next morning. Also proudly tells me he was drinking and driving in India as well and killed a horse by mistake... I blocked him everywhere because he’s crazy— I have 12 missed calls from 4 unknown numbers and 3 No caller IDs all HIM (figured it out later)" - Jinal

23. "My boyfriend at the time sent some gifts with me for his friend in India when i was going home. I never realised until that girl and I spoke on insta about how are we related to him. Apparently he was dating both of us plus another girl at that time and I couldn’t kick his ass because he was in Canada." - Simone

24. "I'd been seeing this guy for about 2 weeks and I was leaving the city to go travel the east coast for 10 days on my own. He said it would be cool to come with me if I wanted him to, so I thought f*ck it why not? I gave him my rough plans and told him it would roughly cost him $1000 (£500). He then turned to me and said, "oof I don't think I can afford that right now, could you pay for me and I'll pay you back?" Fair enough if he was my boyfriend but I had known this guy for TWO WEEKS." - Anon

25. "My boyfriend at the time told me I couldn't get mad at him for liking other girls bikini photos, because other boys liked my photos on insta…where's the logic in that?" - Anon

Last minute bonus submission!

26. "After moving to a new city and starting a new job, I was so happy to have finally met a nice group of friends. One in particular I got really close with and thought it had developed into something more. So after a while I decided to invite him over to watch a movie and have some wine. Then one thing led to another.. But just as we were lying there cuddling in my bed, he just drops the bombshell that he had had sex with one of our other new friends in that same bed, MY BED, the week before when I had had a house party 🤯" - Anon



DEALING WITH STRESS IN THE MODERN WORLD OF ALWAYS BEING 'BUSY'.

Tuesday 6 April 2021

 [This is a collaborative post but all words and opinions are my own]


Is it just me, or does everyone love to come across as being stressed and busy all the time? I feel like all these Netflix shows we've seen growing up have made us aspire to always have a coffee in hand and a full social calendar, but the truth of the matter is that it gets tiring.  I love doing social things and I don't think I can spend more than a day just sat on the sofa all day watching TV, but I also feel the strain it has on me when I'm jumping from thing to thing and not giving myself any time to just relax. With it being stress awareness month, I wanted to touch upon what effects stress actually has on us, and the best ways to deal with it. 


tea with gi stress


So why is being stressed a bad thing?

A lot of people (me included) actually thrive off being stressed. I remember I'd do by best work at uni when I gave myself a week to do an assignment, because I knew if I didn't stick to my deadlines then I wouldn't get it done, meaning there was less time for procrastination and I just had to focus. I also hate having 'little pockets of time' between activities, so I always try and plan things back to back. Which works for a while but then it just leaves you feeling burnt out, unmotivated and just plain tired. 

Aside from the toll it takes on your body, not managing your stress whether that's at work or in your personal life can lead to more psychological affects like anxiety and depression. It can also keep you up at night and you might make more irrational decisions when you're not thinking clearly.


So how should we deal with stress?

 If you do find that the stress in your life is taking a toll on your mental health then speaking to your doctor might be beneficial, but here are some other steps you could take to prevent and control it. 


Write out everything that needs to be done


If you know you've got a lot on your plate during the week, write down everything that's stressing you out and what the solution for each task is. It's also important to think realistically how long each task is going to take and usually, if you get the thing that scares you most out of the way first, you won't be left with that feeling of dread the whole week. Things are a lot more manageable when you see them on a list in front of you, and we all know how good it feels when you get to tick things off a list!

Prioritise 'you time'

Whether that means going to the gym, painting, writing or whatever hobby you enjoy. Make sure you make time for yourself to do the things that you enjoy. A lot of people struggle to find that 'work/life' balance but it's important to make it a priority to block out time for yourself. I know a lot of people who 'work through lunch' at their own expense, but at the end of the day that is your time. So even if it means going out for a walk to get some fresh air, make sure you use it. 

Try natural remedies like CBD oil

For me when I'm feeling stressed or anxious about something, I usually find myself tossing and turning in bed until 3am. Which isn't ideal when you have an 8am start the next day! For me CBD oil has been great before bed as it helps calm me and fall asleep easier. Our Remedy specialises in CBD oil for women. Their formula contains essential oils such as clary sage and geranium, which is known to have their benefits for period pains and easing anxiety. They also infuse their CBD with different essential oils like peppermint and orange so it can be a great addition to your bedtime hot drink!

our remedy
Photo Credit

Disconnect

This is something that is often easier said than done, I know when I'm anxious or stressed about something coming up I probably think about it every day until the day comes. It's important to get in the mindset of 'not worrying about something that hasn't happened yet' and just trying to be present for everything else. I do that by either reading a good book (The Midnight Library currently), or going to yoga classes. Meditation and breathing techniques is something that works for a lot of people, it's just something I personally haven't got round to trying yet.

One thing to take away from this post, is to listen to your body. Remember it's ok to take breaks, and to ask for help. A lot more people are in the same boat than you think!

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