Bye bye, bottled water!

Buh-bye.  That’s exactly what one town is saying to bottled water.  Residents of Bundanoon, New South Wales, voted to ban the sale of bottled water in their town. 

It was the second blow to Australia’s beverage industry in one day: Hours earlier, the New South Wales state premier banned all state departments and agencies from buying bottled water, calling it a waste of money and natural resources.

“We’re hoping it will act as a catalyst to people’s memories to remember the days when we did not have bottled water,” he said. “What is ‘Evian‘ spelled backwards? ‘Naive.’”

I hate buying water.  I am a sucker for a bottled beverage, true that.  Why do they have to put the little cooler of tasty beverages right by the check out lane!?  But, water?  Even if I want water, I won’t buy it - instead I’ll opt to purchase a tea or soda.  

In any event, a neat victory Down Under.  And I hope it sends a message to the bottled water industry – and hopefully to other parts of the world!  Read the entire article here.

You spin me right round, baby

Oy.  My head is hurting.  There must be some heavy stuff in there.  Or maybe just annoying stuff.  Just stuff.  Stuff the likes of:

-growing up is weird.  

-when I die, I would like to have enough money to donate to public radio.  I heart NPR.

-I just threw away a pair of jeans that I really liked.  JP thinks I own far too many pairs of jeans.  I think he’s wrong.

-The Road by Cormac McCarthy.  The lack of punctuation in contractions like “hadnt” and “cant” is slightly irksome, but understandably stylish.  (I just Googled this book, and apparently it will be a movie as well very soon…)

-I never thought I’d own a cat.  I mean, one that I really like.  

-for the past 2 years, my 4th of July holiday has not included any fireworks.  Tear, tear.

-sarcasm & humor is almost better than sweet & salty.  

-pianos are cool.  Too bad I got stuck with organ lessons as a kid.  I know, don’t ask.

Oops! I cheated…

In a relationship, you often do things by default of being with that other person.  Not that you hate it.  Not that you love it.  But, you do it because you like being in a relationship with that person – and that’s what they are into.  Like going to watch The Proposal when you feel neither romantic or comedic.  Or stopping for lunch at a sushi restaurant – when you don’t eat sushi.  Or dieting.  

I’ve been on a diet by default for four – or is it five? – weeks now.  The Pace household has been eating on the leaner side these days.  Given the humidity down here, I can’t imagine why we’re not just sweating off the pounds.  I was never much into saunas.  Anywho, we’ve been eating whole wheat everything, eggs, turkey, cheese, fruit, flaxseed….  The list goes on.  And ice cream, cookies & cakes of any sort haven’t touched our kitchen in awhile now.  (Well, ok, I did sneak a small package of Maria biscuits in the grocery cart last week.)  The upside is that JP is doing a lot of cooking these days.  He’s even taken to dish duty more than usual – which I wholeheartedly appreciate.  (Dishes suck.  But I can’t stand to see them in the sink at night, so I must do them before I go to bed every night.)  And, the diet seems to be working.  For JP, at least.  Me?  I’m trying not to count anything…

However, I cheated recently.  On my diet, that is.   In a moment of weakness, I grabbed some food to go at Wendy’s.  Come on, who can ignore the vanilla frosty!?  And when the fries are good – they’re goood.  It was so gross and good at the same time.  I’ve decided this is why fast food exists – to let us know that we’re human and can succumb to the marketing powers that be at food chain companies, and at the same time, make us appreciate real, fresh food.

After I received my food, I thought, “Should I tell JP?”  No.  I’m sooo cheating right now.  Damn, this french fry tastes good.  But, not really.  But, I’ll have one more just to be sure.  Ugh, it’s sooo salty.  Salt is good.  Maybe I should go to the gym today?  Wait, I don’t go to the gym.  I mean, do 2 visits in the last month count as “going” anywhere?  I’ll just take the stairs up instead of the lift.  That’ll do.        

 

So, that was my moral dilema of the week.  

Switching topics, it’s imperative that you all go buy Regina Spektor’s new album, Far.  I actually listened to the entire album on NPR, then picked up the CD on Sunday afternoon.  (Yes, I actually bought a CD.  Unwrapped the plastic carelessly, pulled out the disc carefully, and put it in the CD player lovingly.)

One love

It’s true.  We’re addicted to music.  And, I love when we get to see it LIVE. 

  

We headed South to Revolution a couple of weeks ago to tune into some sweet reggae plus some.  Opening acts were local faves The Resolvers as well as Zaki Ibrahim who belted out neo-soul, which was a nice surprise.  But, the main course was Mishka and he sounded as sweet and melodic as he does on our stereo at home!

This weekend we stayed closer to home stopping by Respectables Street Cafe on Clematis.  (Clematis was in full effect as O’Sheas closed the street down to celebrate their 15th Anniversary!)  Respectables was bringing in some local talent, Spread the Dub, who did a great dub rendition of Men at Work’s The Land Down Under   And, the main talent was reggae master - straight from Jamaica – Yellowman.  It’s funny, you watch the opening act, then you watch the main – and there’s no denying why the order is the way it is.  There’s no denying a professional!