Went – Ate – Loved: June 2019

Went

We began June on the Isle of Wight. The sun shone constantly – it feels like such a win when it’s actually warm sunny when you go somewhere in the UK.

I enjoyed a glass (or two) of wine watching the sun set…

….whilst on cruise liner watch as they sail majestically out of Southampton water.

Continuing our theme of exploring places on the Isle of Wight I’ve not visited over the 15 years I’ve been going there, I give you…Carisbroke Castle:

Thanks to my kids studying castles this term at school, we got to visit this absolute gem. I also learnt that during the English Civil War, Charles I was imprisoned here for 14 months before his execution in 1649.. He tried to escape on several occasions but his first attempt was foiled when – in tragi-comedic style – he got himself wedged stuck in the window that he was attempting to escape through.

We also visited another place I’d never visited before on the Isle of Wight; Blackgang Chine. Blackgang Chine is the UK’s oldest amusement park in the UK, having opened in the 1840s.

Ate

I was impressed at the gluten free options on the cafe menu at Blackgang Chine.

And what’s not to love about a gluten free Mr Whippy 99 ice cream in a gluten free cone?

This month I’ve tried to eat a little more healthily (I’d grade that B- overall for the month) and thanks to the warmer weather – finally! – dinners have looked like this.

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It wasn’t all salmon and salad – I thoroughly enjoyed lunch with Natasha at Honest Burgers. Not much beats a good catch up over great gluten free burgers.

Loved

June has been another very intense month for me in the day job with long hours in the office. I’ve been super happy that, despite this, I managed to publish this gluten free guide to Puglia.

Writing this blog is purely a hobby for me and is very far removed from my professional career. I make no income from it and just write if I feel like doing so. I’ve been really happy that I’ve felt like writing given everything else I’ve had going on this month.

Like many people, thanks to the BBC1 War On Plastics programme, I’ve been looking more closely at our household use of single plastics.

One of the biggest changes I’ve made this month is ditching the daily 1.5 litre bottle of Evian I buy to drink at work. Every day. I’ve used this a convenient way to check I’m drinking enough water, but in truth it’s just so convenient to grab a large bottle of water as I get a coffee in the morning. Not only am I buying one of these bottles of Evian every day, and then throwing the bottle away every day, it’s costing me £2 a day to do this.

I realised that every day I send my kids in to school with their reusable water bottles refilled with tap water. Yet every day I buy and dispose of a water bottle myself.

This didn’t seem quite right.

So I bought a bottle from Klean Kanteen*.

*The bottle buying process took me about 20 hours+ of dedicated research. Who knew there could be so many different water bottle options to choose from!

So far I’ve saved:

• 9 x 1.5 litre bottles of Evian (I bought the new water bottle mid month and I work 4 of 5 days in the office with 5th day working from home)
• £18 in Evian water costs

This means I’ve not yet broken even on my Klean Kanteen purchase. The bottle + extra cap + delivery = £30.85. But I certainly feel better for not disposing of 9 large Evian bottles.

Next month – reusable coffee cups.

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