Month: March 2019

Left on the go

Food & Drink

You are always on the go and you love that your coffee is too? We eat and drink more on the go than ever before, which may fit in with our urban lifestyle, but is not helping the environment. In Vienna alone 84 million to-go coffee cups are used and discarded every year by tourists as well as inhabitants. In order to curb the amount of waste the city of Vienna is therefore running an experiment called “My Coffee Cup”, which involves reusable cups, from early 2019 onward. The cups come with a deposit of 1 Euro and can be returned at one of the 30 partner shops or at one of six deposit machines in town.

Mann wirft leeren Kaffeebecher weg.

So, businesses are finding solutions to deal with the debris of our to-go habits. This is the practical and business friendly solution and it is certainly worthwhile every support.

Yet, I have been asking myself, why is it that we need all these cups of latte, chai and matcha on the go? Why do I buy them in spite of being well aware of the amount of surplus garbage I produce? Maybe because the frothy drinks entertain our taste bunds, convey a feeling of hygge, while we rush through the streets of urban anonymity, busy communicating across multiple media channels?

The point is, that about twenty years ago the urban human being did not have the need to have a sip of water every ten minutes and a coffee every two hours, at least not outside of buildings. Which was good, because there were no Starbucks or Caffè Nero coffee shops in Europe until around the Millennium.

The same restrictive attitude used to prevail with regards to snacking. In the Eighties and Nineties not even children took food on short trips to town or to the zoo. For the last ten years or so, no parent leaves the house for more that half an hour without several bags of snacks or Tupperware boxes full of different kinds of foods. In spite of there being many more shops selling on-the-go foods than ever before.

There seems to be an angst that we might have to “go without” in the middle of abundance. The worry that we might miss a treat, miss out on our daily indulgence. The disquiet that the constant entertainment could stop for a second and open up the abyss of emptiness. Nothing added, just the taste of our self on our tongue.

So, I will try and stop suckling on to go drinks and just sit down for my next coffee. And the one after that.

Nomophobia – mobile angst

Communication

What is your most precious belonging? What would you not spend the weekend without? What breakdown constitutes the biggest everyday disaster? The breakdown of your mobile? Lately vendors sell small cage-like tools to lock up your and your friends mobiles for the evening to have a few hours of quality human-to-human time. Would you lock yours up?

pexels-photo-257923.jpeg

Why would we want to disconnect ourselves from your phones? What would we do with the port to our friends and family blocked? Without the weather channel, the games, our favourites blog and news entertainment sites? Everybody’s phone numbers, our e-mail accounts, our images, our notes and social connection platforms.

Locking the mobile away, is cutting of our emotions. When the mobile is off, the world of the emojis remains dark. They float through virtuality unable to share a laughter, a kiss or a hug. We can no longer receive emotions of others, and perhaps more painfully, we are cut off from giving, cut off from those emotions which only exist through sharing.

Do you feel the disquiet that the constant entertainment could stop for a second and open up the abyss of emptiness? Nothing foreign-headed added, just your own thoughts in your head.

Why would you want to lock away your mobile?

To kiss your lover, to cook food, to tickle your cat, to open the door to your friends and have a meal with them under the early evening sky.

 

 

brand reduction

clothes, Uncategorized
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

One way to safe time and keep the wardrobe lean(er) is to chose two brands for clothes (and shoes) from which to buy. Either online brands or shops. The shops have the advantage, that you use less CO2, because you can try different models on in store and there is no sending back and forth of packages. Also you don’t have to stay home or go to the pick up station to get packets and take them there for sending back. The advantage of online shopping is that you don’t have to go to the shops and listen to loud music or search forever for the two items you are actually interested in.

The idea of sticking to two shops is that if there isn’t anything you like in a season you don’t buy anything. If you have the urge to buy, you ask yourself if you actually do need something urgently, or if you just like to have something new. And if you need something, how urgently you need it. Do you need it next week or can it wait a few weeks or month?

Before you go shopping check your wardrobe, if you have 10 good shirts you probably don’t need another one, even if the one in the shop looks good on you. On the other hand, if one of your three pairs of trousers is still sort of okay but wearing thin on the buttocks or very faded, it may make sense to replace it, should there be a good candidate. If not, you already know to look out for trousers next season. Ask yourself what you need. A need does not emerge because the shops have a new delivery.

when less is not more …

clothes, Uncategorized

… now would that be soothing sight …

AdobeStock_32980609

Sometimes less is not more. “Why are they doing it?! Do you women find this attractive?” This morning on our prime recreational island (“Donauinsel“) most of the male early morning joggers were flaunting their naked upper bodies. My partner, well brought up as he is, was sporting a cycling top and assorted black pants, while asking me the above question. He doesn’t understand of course, because he is a cyclist and cyclists have a uniform. And if there is a uniform and you are not wearing it, you look like a clueless beginner. So cycling gear is what saves the eye from semi-nude cyclists.

Since there seems no such attire for the contemporary running man, best to strip. Obviously. Last year the ratio of clothed to semi-naked turned out a tiny bit in favour of the clothed bunch, but this year, the only place you’re likely to see a shirt on a male jogger, is in his hand.

Fact is, about 95% of the naked male upper bodies running around this summer would look a lot better in a shirt. And the remaining 5% would look a lot classier. It is simply unkind to expose arbitrary fellow humans to your nakedness.

You think it’s the tanning factor? How great is a brown torso over a white-pinkish groin going to look? There is a nudist beach on Donauinsel, where you can get an overall tan, so why do the stripy thing?

I suppose it has to do with the current selfie mania and taking shots of yourself in front of the bathroom or the gym mirror. Thankfully we live in a time of rapid change. So: What will replace selfie-ism? And do we have to go through a phase of the semi-naked man in public spaces and transport before that?