Panic Attack At Sainsburys

I had a dream. I had gone to watch Eurovision at my local Sainsburys and had obviously taken my wooden chopping board with me. Unfortunately, I left it in a plastic bag propped up by the wall in the lobby and forgot to pick it up when I left. This quite upset me and I woke up really worried that I'd lost my chopping board. I was almost having a panic attack - I was really short of breath and had to have a glass of water.

But I think that last part was part of the dream too.

In case you're concerned for me, I checked in the kitchen when I got up and the chopping board is still there. So it's all good.

Interesting Cordials

I've bought some rather nice cordials from Sainsburys.

The first is the one that sounds most normal to me: Raspberry and Mint. It tastes like a jug of summer fruit juice that someone has put too much mint in. Or like a fruity mojito.

The second sounds a bit stranger, to me at least. It's Rhubarb and Ginger. Rhubarb would never be my first choice for a "fruit" to have in a drink. I think it tastes nice, but a bit odd. In cordial form it's transformed into something quite delightful and the ginger gives it a bit of a kick to detract from the sweetness elsewhere.

I recommend them! There's a third one too, but it looked mingin' so I didn't buy it.

Bag Recycling

As I mentioned last week, I've joined my local recycling scheme. This morning was my first collection. My Special Box was more than full, so full in fact that I've had to throw away some stuff that should have been recycled. What was in there was put into separate plastic bags for paper, cans and glass, as they request. Plastic bags from supermarkets are quite good for that sort of thing. They also make good bin liners.

I read in the newspaper the other day though that one of the big supermarkets (Sainsburys, I think) was planning to have a series of days when they don't give out free plastic bags and will instead give out more durable reusable bags (normal cost: 10p!). The idea of this would be to get people reusing the reusable bags rather than getting new ones each time. I have no issue with this except that it could mean an end to my free bin liners / recycling separators. That would be annoying. I think reusing a supermarket bag as a rubbish bag is a decent enough way of recycling - it also saves me having to buy actual rubbish bags (except for my kitchen Brabantia which has special ones).

But it might not be so bad, as I found today when I went to get my emptied Special Box that they had left the empty plastic bags for me to reuse next time. So that works ok.

I remember going to Dublin a couple of years ago. The strangest thing, stranger even than it like being in a Britain where they use the Euro, was that the vast majority of the shops give you paper bags rather than plastic ones. This had come about after the Irish Government introduced a tax on plastic bags. It would be good to maybe do the same thing here. Some shops seem to have moved to paper already - Virgin for example. I'm not convinced it works for larger items - paper bags can be very scratchy against your legs. And they may not be so good in the rain.

Generally when shopping (even at the supermarket) I try and put as much as I can into my rucksack, and hence avoid the need for bags paper or plastic. This is definitely the most environmentally friendly method (though I think my rucksack may have been produced in a sweatshop staffed by four year old chinese kids).

So to summarise:
1. Paper bags and plastic bags exist
2. Paper bags are probably better for the world but are a bit rubbish sometimes
3. I'm not sure what sort I prefer...
4. I'd quite like to maintain my suppy of free rubbish bags

And my point is? No idea.