envirogeo

all things sustainable, vegan and fashion.

  • Lessons from Secondhand September

    Hi, it’s been a while!

    I recently went to Barcelona on a solo trip partly because I’d heard about how great of a city it is and it helped that it was very vegan friendly. I’d also challenged myself to a solo travel adventure this year 🙂

    An Instagram post I made for Secondhand September last year.

    I have a confession…

    I post about sustainable fashion on my story quite a bit but I found when it came to my holiday I was a bit of a hypocrite. I thought I needed new outfits. Vinted is usually my go to but I’ve recently found it difficult to find items that fit me quite as I want them to, especially for work. This means I end up taking them to a charity shop anyway which isn’t a very sustainable option – for my purse included. So I did make some new purchases from a fast fashion website in the hope that they would be long term purchases that fit me well, are my style and that I could rewear over and over again. And this was mostly the case; however, I did have to return a couple of items. But, sustainable fashion can be tricky.

    I found that in the end, I did dig out a bikini and swimsuit that I’ve had for about 4 years and wore these on my holiday as well as a dress that I bought on Depop ages ago. I will be making sure I keep wearing the new pieces I bought as well.

    Sustainable fashion tips:

    • I’ve said it before but the first thing to do before purchasing something is think “Do I need this or do I want this?“. Fast fashion has driven into all of us that we desperately need new things all the time to keep up and give our wardrobes a ‘refresh’. But actually, rewearing is caring (and also cool).
    • The second thing to do is ask yourself “Will I wear this at least 30 times?” Being really honest with myself here helps me to really focus on why I am buying something and lets me know whether it’s an intentional purchase or an impulse one.
    • Get to know your wardrobe! What are your favourites? Which are the pieces you wear all the time? This is such a great starting point because this is your style and it means you know you will wear them because it’s similar to what you already have!

    I love this story that I shared by Venetia La Manna:

    The most sustainable piece of clothing you have is already in your wardrobe

    I’ve realised that most of the time, we have the clothes that we’re looking for already. The dress I wore and felt great in is one I’ve had for years. My dad is a better example than me – he recently wore an outfit that when we worked it out added up to a total of 75 years old. Now that truly is sustainable fashion – and was the inspiration for writing this post so thanks for that dad!

    I also wanted to write this blog because 1) I wanted to highlight that I’m not always perfect and 2) while Second hand September is great I think it’s important to realise that it’s the clothes that we already have we should focus on first before we think about buying – even if it is second hand. (Although yes please to a circular economy!)

    We’re being told we need the newest trends every day. One of the most powerful things you can do is to wear and love the clothes you already have, rewear them, repair them and take care of them.

    While we can’t buy our way into being sustainable, what we CAN do is make an effort to buy less, wear more and take care of the clothes we have. By doing this we’re making a huge impact.

    If you got this far, thanks very much for reading and I hope you found it useful – do comment any other tips you’ve found have helped you in your sustainable fashion journey!

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  • Film review: Companion

    Look away now if you don’t want spoilers.

    You have been warned.

    I had an urge to write about the film I watched last night and thought, this could be a thing for me. I can write film reviews. It doesn’t have to be perfect, I want to try it out. Try something new. I was also inspired by this Instagram post below – thanks Sophia! And here I go. All thoughts are my own.

    Credit – Instagram: sophia.joan.short

    I had zero expectations for this film. My friend chose it and I thought that seems a bit different, yeah let’s go for it. I’d picked Baby Girl for us to watch last month and that was quite an experience to say the least. People left the cinema after half an hour…I digress.

    I was so pleasantly surprised. From the off, I disliked all the characters. I couldn’t think of anything worse than being stuck in a house with them in the middle of nowhere. It was weird vibes. My bad feeling about the boyfriend Josh occurred almost instantly. There was something about him telling Iris to “make sure you smile” and “look happy”, that grated me. As women it takes us back to all the times we’ve been told to smile by men. Instantly, I wasn’t happy with him. And my instincts were right.

    I was intrigued by Iris and I was particularly intrigued by her conversation with Kat, one of Josh’s friends, who Iris is desperate to impress. Iris says to her that she doesn’t feel liked by her, to which Kat responds “it’s not that I don’t like you, you make me feel replaceable”. I thought it was odd. What does that even mean? So the twist that Iris is a robot early on then made a lot of sense, I should have seen it coming by the film title, really. (I hadn’t seen the trailer in my defence.)

    I found myself rooting for Iris to escape alongside our fellow viewers in the cinema, it was thrilling, exciting and dangerous. I also enjoyed the humour throughout despite the subject being quite heavy – the film was exploring a future that’s already happening. Robots as companions. Sex bots and the creation of them for ‘male pleasure’. Iris as a companion for Josh, to love him and do anything for him – emotionally, sexually and practically.

    Humour was a powerful tool. My favourite part being when Iris discovered Josh had set her intelligence to 40%. How insulting. The audacity. It was a satisfying moment to see her immediately increase this to 100%. The less intelligent Iris was, the more controllable and mouldable she was to what he wanted. An incel’s dream right?

    I also enjoyed the ‘meet cute’ of Eli and Patrick at the party, mentioned at the very beginning of the dinner, with the dinosaur costume. It created a much needed lightness to the awful events we were watching unfold. The repetition of this with Patrick and Josh was a little more menacing, demonstrating the complete lack of power and control of the robots. This was starkly contrasted with the cheesy, light hearted ‘Lil Boo Thang’ by Paul Russell playing in the background.

    The whole movie for me came back to Josh. It wasn’t just about the humans vs robots trope, it was about the ‘nice guy’. The man who on the surface might seem perfectly good, respectful and normal. But who, unsurprisingly, blamed women for all of his hardships and monologued about how difficult life was for people like him (a straight white man). The incel energy was palpable. It was difficult to watch, not to mention the violence we witnessed from him against Iris.

    I enjoyed the ending. Iris finally has total control of herself and that’s what we as an audience were rooting for. It felt like a very topical movie especially as technology, AI and robots blend more and more into our everyday lives and relationships.

    Overall, I’d give this film 4 stars out of 5. I enjoyed the twist, and the eerie and uncomfortable atmosphere it created. It was full of action and I enjoyed the ending with Iris’s new found freedom.

    Do let me know if you enjoyed this blog and I’m keen to hear your thoughts – whether you agree or disagree with how I felt or thought about it! This might become a more regular thing. The question is, what to watch next?

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  • Vegan in Berlin🌱

    A vegan (me) in Berlin

    I recently went on a week long trip to Berlin with my friend who is also vegan and we had such a great time! When I did a little research before going I’d seen online that it was known as the ‘vegan capital of Europe’. I was very excited about this as I’d been to Paris earlier this year and I had a lovely time but really struggled to find many vegan options there at all (“pas de fromage s’il vous plait” was a favourite phrase of mine). I’m going to share my favourite places for food in Berlin so that in the future you can visit them too and experience the delicious variety of vegan food on offer in this city! Vegan food, drinks and milks are all very clearly labelled too which makes life so easy.

    📍 Like Thai Vegan. Instagram: @li.ke.thai.vegan

    Like Thai Vegan – We went here on our first evening and it set the standard extremely high! You can order both small and large plates so it’s perfect for trying lots of things out on the menu.

    In this picture I got the Li.Ke Pad Thai as it had to be done and it was delicious and so filling! We also ordered the gyozas (best I’ve ever tried), the Easy Green which was pak choi cooked in a ginger plum sauce and Fran went for the Pho Pia spring rolls, the Crispy Tauhu Tang (crispy tofu) and I can’t remember the dish on the far right.

    Fully vegan menu
    Inside the restaurant

    It had a really buzzing atmosphere and the service was great, if you are able to visit I highly recommend you do. You’ll want to book for the evening especially the weekends as it was super busy when we visited on the Sunday evening. Vegan heaven.

    This is the link to their website which says they are the first vegan thai restaurant in Germany!

    📍 Planet Bowl Berlin, Kreuzberg. Instagram: @planetbowlberlin

    Planet Bowl – Although the picture I took doesn’t make it look the most appealing, I can assure you it was such a hearty meal that was the perfect cure for my hangover that day. You literally create your whole bowl from scratch (hot or cold) so I went for the sushi rice with home made vegan kebab doner, lots of salad, edamame beans, avocado and a sesame dressing. Although it was quite expensive, it was worth it as it was so filling and you get a generous portion unlike some places!

    brammibal’s donuts
    “donut eat animals”

    📍 brammibal’s donuts. Instagram: @brammibalsdonuts

    Brammibal’s donuts 🍩 – If you have a sweet tooth, this place is for you. They have a huge selection of different donuts to choose from, I went for the red velvet one which was so tasty.

    📍 Kaffee Ingwer.

    There were also plenty of places to enjoy a great vegan coffee too, some of my favourites included: Cafe Morgenrot (@cafe_morgenrot) a vegan and vegetarian cafe; Kaffee Ingwer (@kaffeeingwer) and Bateau Ivre (@bateau_ivre_bar) you could also get a beer if you fancied here! ☕🍺

    Oyster mushroom bagel.

    📍 Cafe Nuendrei. Instagram @cafeneundrei

    This place was perfect to pop in for a lunch break, coffee or smoothie and lots of people were working on their laptops which was a vibe. It has a cosy downstairs level too. An unexpected vegan gem that we found on our trip!

    On the theme of lunches:

    Vegan chicken wrap.
    Inside Swing Kitchen.

    📍Swing Kitchen. Instagram: @swing_kitchen (they post some great memes!)

    Fran and I went here for lunch on one of the days and we were so impressed by the range on the menu it took me about 10 minutes to finally decide what I would go for! They also have herb plants all around that you can add to your food and eat if you wish! I chose the Swing Wrap which had vegan nuggets, salad and a gorgeous lemon basil sauce. Delicious!

    Tofu noodles.
    Seitan skewers and seaweed spring rolls.

    📍 Sunshine Vegan Restaurant. Instagram: @sunshine_vegan_restaurant.

    The more of this I’m posting the more I want to go back and relive this delicious food. 100% vegan menu, the seitan skewers were amazing and so were the seaweed spring rolls I rate this entire experience a 10/10. The tofu was cooked to perfection soft in the middle but crunchy on the outside, the noodles were divine and I’m always happy when there’s coriander involved too. The prices were really reasonable here as well!

    📍 Lucky Leek. Instagram: @luckyleek

    Our tour guide recommended trying out this fine dining experience and we’re so glad we listened! It is all vegan, fresh and seasonal produce and you have the option of a three to five course meal paired with organic vegan wine. Although it’s on the more expensive side, we treated ourselves and had a great time trying things we never had before! If you get the chance I would definitely recommend coming here, the staff are so warm and welcoming too just make sure to book for the evening.

    Smoked aubergine (eggplant) and polenta for main.
    Bell pepper soup (above) and cream apple soup (below) for starters.

    I also tried the vegan cheese board for dessert and although the flavours weren’t my favourite it was so impressive how much effort had been made into creating all the dishes and the extensiveness of different types of vegan food they were able to make. The cheese board was full of home made cheese variations including some made with cashew.

    Thank you so much for reading this far. These are just a few of many delicious vegan places in Berlin so go and explore and see what you find. If you enjoyed this please give it a like and share it with your friends 🙂 I hope to be posting more regular content soon so look out for a food review in the next few weeks!

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  • Welcome to my new blog!

    Hello and welcome 🙂 When I first started my Instagram blog @envirogeo in July 2017 I’d wanted to share my journey about transitioning from vegetarian to vegan as well as my own tips for how to be more eco-friendly and (imperfectly) zero waste. I knew that Instagram would be a great visual way to engage people and also show that vegan food wasn’t boring! I wanted to learn more about other important and interrelated issues such as fast fashion, climate change, racial and gender equality and share this with others. We really can make a difference in the smallest ways whether that’s reducing our meat and dairy intake, shopping more second hand or signing a petition. Together we have so much power.

    My face after you sign the #StopJackdaw petition!

    Through Instagram I’ve been able to connect with and learn from so many wonderful people doing brilliant work and it gives me hope that we will truly make a positive change. I always had in mind that it would lead to a blog so I could start writing in more detail about the issues I care about and also not relying on just one social media platform! (Remember when Instagram crashed? That really motivated me to finally get started with my online blog!)

    This blog is going to be about all things sustainable, vegan and fashion. I hope you enjoy it.

    envirogeo.

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