Weird summer day

Today was one of those days that was an absolutely brilliant early summer day—warm, sunny, blue skies with puffy clouds. Just lovely. But then it changed and it got weird. And now, it’s a weird summer night.

I went to Pukekohe today to do the grocery shopping and some other stops, and when I left the house it was a brilliant day. I knew that thunderstorms were predicted for this afternoon, and I wanted to get back home before then.

In Pukekohe, my first stop was the chemist that sells the tart cherry pills I take to prevent gout attacks (the only place in the area where I can get them; it seems that the only alternative is to order online). I refused a bag—what’s the point of being virtuous if one doesn’t signal their virtue?—even though they use paper, not plastic. I knew I had resusable bags in my car, which actually means my virtue was moderated by the fact I forgot to bring a bag in with me.

But my next stop was The Warehouse, where I brought in my reusable bag. Virtue level restored.

I next went to Countdown, which stopped using plastic bags a couple months ago, BUT I needed some onions, and instead of getting ones in a pre-packed plastic bag, I used one of the mesh produce bags I bought to put them in. As I did, a lady near me was putting her selections into a plastic bag. My virtue score rose dramatically (not the least because I bought the non-meat meat again and some of the non-chicken chicken we want to try, but that’s virtue of a different sort altogether).

By the time I was checking out, the clouds were gathering together, darkening the sky. But the rain held off all the way home, and even until after I got home, unpacked everything, headed out for Friday takeaways for dinner and got back home again.

Then the weather hit.

We had lightening and thunder and heavy rain, but, at first, the gutters didn’t overflow; apparently when I cleaned them out the other day I did a good job. Bt later on the rain got heavier still and the gutters overflowed where the bottle-brush like stuff is in the gutter. Maybe I should move it.

What was especially weird was that the lightening and thunder kept going. And going. And going. I used to say that thunderstorms were unusual in Auckland, but they’ve become much more common in recent years. But this is the fist time we’ve had one that just kept going for an hour or so. And more thunder sounded a couple times throughout the evening. That’s weird, too.

Still, I avoided getting caught in the storms (Leo did a little bit), we never lost power, and the cleaned-out gutters performed as they were supposed to. And, the first part of the day was warm, sunny, and summery. All up, I’d say it was an awesome day—a little weird, maybe, but still really great.

I’ll take it.

More bag changes

Things are changing quickly for the provision of plastic bags at supermarkets, with many grocery stores already ending free single-use plastic bags. But it turns our that ending those bags isn’t the only change, as an email I received this week explains. I’m intrigued by this change.

A couple weeks ago, I blogged about ordering groceries online for the first time in many years. I was surprised by the reusable bags my order was packed in, but I was surprised again a few days ago when I received this email from my delivery store (graphic above is from that email; I think it's cute):

We've got some good news! From Monday 3 September, single-use plastic carrier bags will be gone from checkouts and online shopping at Countdown Pukekohe South.

Shopping in-store? Remember to bring your own bag, box, basket, bucket or whatever from home. But if you forget don't worry-there'll be plenty of reusable bag options available in-store. It's all good.

Shopping online? Your online order will now be packed into paper bags. They're recyclable, can break down easily in marine environments and don't place any onus on the customer to clean and return a reusable bag, which is obviously difficult in an online shopping service.

It's one small step for Countdown Pukekohe South, and a large step toward our commitment to phasing out single-use plastic carrier bags at all Countdown supermarkets by the end of 2018! Together, we can do some good for our environment, so bring your bags and we'll see you soon.

There are several things to say about this, beginning with the fact that this is, I’m sure, a boilerplate email sent to customers of particular stores. What that means is that this is a common-enough thing now that they need a boilerplate email, and I’m really glad about that.

Second, Countdown—and, I’m sure, its competitors—are eliminating single use plastic bags well before the government will officially ban them. That’s awesome!

But the thing that stuck out for me was the part about online shopping: Paper bags?! I still remember when paper was all there was, then when store staff would ask, “paper or plastic?”, and then when plastic was the only choice. I’m well aware that making paper can cause its own problems, but the end of life part is FAR superior, and has far less impact on the environment, than any plastic bag.

But I also noted the part that said that paper bags “don't place any onus on the customer to clean and return a reusable bag, which is obviously difficult in an online shopping service.” That’s inarguably true, but I was also well aware that many folks in America would likely be a bit squeamish about the old system, presuming the bags were somehow “contaminated” by whoever used the bags last. I wasn’t, and it also never occurred to me that anyone would need to “clean… a reusable bag” because I can’t imagine getting one dirty. Still, the move to paper fixes all that.

Ironically, I’ve been thinking about the need for paper replacements for plastic bags at home. We use plastic bags (supposedly “compostable”) in our kitchen rubbish bin, and I know there were (too large) heavy duty paper rubbish bags available. I don’t know if they’re still sold, but if they are, they’re too big for our bin, which would be a waste.

I’ve also been thinking about cleaning out the cat box. Not to put too fine a point on it, some of what I clean out is rather moist, so if I use paper I’ll need to double bag (old skool again…). But the only ones I’ve ever seen at the grocery store were for lunches, and a bit small.

The larger point here is that if we’re gong to reduce our use of plastic bags outside of stores, we need to have replacement options. Sure, there are some for, say, produce bags in a grocery store (as I talked about in a post earlier this month), but the reality is that people will want bags to line their rubbish bins. I will, too, and so far I haven’t seen good options. Which means that will probably become a blog topic in the future.

So, I’m glad to see the moves by the grocery store I use, but we still have a long way to go to reduce our use of plastic bags beyond at stores. I’m confident we can get there, but we’re not there yet.

A day out

Sweet corn fitters for breakfast in Pukekohe. Nigel’s car is in for its service, so an early start. Beside, I haven’t posted food porn in ages! It was nice, btw, but sweet chilli sauce was a bit too hot. #lifeinnz #auckland #pukekohe

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Jan 11, 2018 at 11:52am PST

Today was a day out. The caption for the photo above pretty much explains what we were doing out and about early in the morning, but it was a good a day even despite the early start. And, it taught me a thing or two.

My breakfast of sweetcorn fritters is one of my go-to meals at a café because it’s not eggs, not over the top (usually), and I like the various ways it’s done. And for me, that was pretty much all there was to it until my sister posted a question: “Aren't corn fritters a Southern dish over here?” I didn’t know. So, I looked it up. Of course.

It turns out that, yes, corn fritters are made in the Southern (especially) USA, and the main difference between theirs and ours is that theirs includes butter, and ours doesn’t [Edmonds provides a classic Kiwi sweetcorn fritter recipe]. In most NZ cafés, the fritters are more like pancakes, and one near our hosue uses a waffle maker to make theirs (probably with butter…), which works surprisingly well. The best corn fritters I’ve had (so far) are still from the place I blogged about nearly three years ago.

After breakfast, we ran a couple errands (dog food and grocery shopping, mostly) before heading home. We were almost no sooner in the door before Nigel got a message that his car was ready. I put the groceries away, we rested a bit, then headed back out.

We had lunch in Pukekohe (just fast food, so, not Instagram-worthy…), stopped for a couple more retail errands, and then went to pick up Nigel’s car. Then, we went home, and our errands were done.

All in all, a productive day. We ordered some fencing for a project we’ll be doing soon, but that won’t be delivered until next week, which is fine. And we would’ve needed the dog food tomorrow, so that was important. But, we also got to have a nice breakfast out together, at a Pukekohe café we’d never been to before. The best part is, there are a lot more left to explore.

I’d never had corn fritters until I came to New Zealand, and until today I never really knew all that much about them. Having a day out can be a good thing for many reasons.