I Wish to Look Like a Picnic

I'm saving for a trip elsewhere, so there are a few addictions that I can't afford to feed. The main addiction that (sadly) makes me craziest if I can't indulge it is buying clothing for myself.

I don't enjoy the act of shopping, but I do like having beautiful things, and when I go full throttle with a savings scheme I usually buckle big time about three months into it and splurge. I think that comparatively I'm not a consumer fiend. I never have the latest Mulberry bag (though somehow every other woman I see on the street seems to have one), I abhor the below-average quality of the on-trend goods in Topshop, so usually go without the offerings from the high street leader, but I always find a way quench my thirst.

However, this is important. So: no more smoking; more packed lunches; no more buying of frivolities. But I can't just turn a blind eye to spring/summer 2011 trends!

And this is what I came up with: I have done little sewing in the past 6 - 8 years, but figure this is a great time to jump back into the creative world. If I can teach myself to knit again (and I did in November last year, though just the basics) then I can learn how to sew again. And what better way than to channel a bit of, say, Dolce and Gabbana into my life? I say D&G simply because I saw an advertisement with 5 beauties walking happily from a picnic scene towards the camera, each wearing a piece of gingham and a smile. And who doesn't love gingham in the summer?!

If you know the right places to go, you can get bargains. I found a metre of red gingham fabric for £1.50, 10 metres of elastic for £1.00 and a reel of white thread for 40 pence. Is my confession to elastic screaming at you as it is me? I thought I would begin gently with an elasticated waist band rather than darts and a zip, so the nod to D&G is really only with the fabric choice and not to the craftmanship.

I set aside my Saturday to dust off the sewing machine, courtesy of a 16th birthday present, and make a skirt. Here are the results!

The tools:

After whipping out the iron to flatten the seams:

Some hand stitching to secure the elastic and to neaten the fabric ends:

The final product:

Hoorah! A new item to add to my wardrobe. I still have half of the fabric left, most of the thread left, and about 9 and 3/4 metres of elastic left, so really the skirt can't have cost more than 85 pence to make. Clearly it's nothing fancy but hopefully, when I don a white t-shirt or blouse with this simple and very feminine skirt, I will look like a picnic.

Weakness

Do you know your weakness?

Not your vices and what you feel that you can't live without, but the character flaw that helps make you who you are, for better or worse.

My biggest weakness is thinking too much about the little things that probably shouldn't matter. Like the opinions of people who aren't my friends; like the lack of friendliness and manners in shop assistants and the general public in London; like the way an English-speaking person might say an English sentence totally wrong, for example 'I could of went to the football match...'; like over-analysing something that I want to do, so that sometimes I persuade myself out of a dream. Sometimes these things drive me crazy and I dwell on an incident or a person. I almost make myself ill with this kind of thinking, especially when I wonder why people don't care about these things!

But I try to step back and reason with myself, because part of me sees that the things that bother me don't really matter. This weakness is a trait that is part of me. One that I am working on and trying to thin out a little, but one that I suspect will remain. My goal is to make it more of an endearing quality than an overbearing flaw.

And then I think 'thank goodness I can see this flaw in me'! I'm not oblivious to the crazy, nor to the occasional unreasonableness, so I can calm it down a bit. It lurches and leaps, but it also softens here and there.

But how many people are aware of their own weaknesses? Someone that I used to work with was generally a good person, but she could never admit when she was wrong, and a consequence of never admitting she was wrong was never apologising for her mistakes. People noticed this and it made her distinctly less appealing, even if the mistakes were tiny. Those that she may have affected with a tiny error here and there were more put out by her inability to just say 'I'm sorry' than by the mistake itself.

But that is just a little trait in an otherwise happy life and character. What about the ones that are character altering without the host even being aware of it? Someone I used to know, who I was fond of, managed to fool me as well as himself into thinking that he was an easy-going chap. But I've realised in retrospect that he had a few significant knots that needed loosening. 

I'm going to compare him now to a cliché of an American jock. Perhaps the captain of the football team in Ohio, the good looking, popular, successful young man who is going out with the prettiest girl, is part of the cool gang and cannot under any circumstances be seen to be doing anything off-beat, like talking to a nerd or going to the 'wrong' party. And he has to go to every mainstream party in case he misses out. This guy I knew was like that! He felt pressurised to conform and to make sure he had the right friends, that he was doing what appeared to be the right thing and doing what he thought made him happy, but not what he felt made him happy. He feared being an outsider, and was terrified of being alone. And who doesn't worry about being lonely from time to time? I suppose it's a little taboo to associate oneself with that word, but it's a feeling that can fester and is an effort to quash.

And on the outside it seems like he has removed traces of loneliness, but does he feel  happy? The point is that I see this as a weakness, and one that he won't admit to. But when/if he does, will he choose to change direction? I don't think so, which implies that he's doomed to a life of almost-happiness. And I don't think this is uncommon.

Some people are just naturally appealing. They just make other people feel good, they have a happy disposition, and they know when they like a person or not. (The extreme person of this nature is, I think, really rare but you can't miss them when they're around.) These are the strong people who can cut the people out of their lives that they don't like or who offer nothing but misery and nastiness, rather than hold on to another number in the crowd for the sake of appearances. These people are the complete opposite to those who just 'make do' with appearance, or who hold on to 'tactical' friends (the latter of whom are the worst simply because of the underlying deceit). 

This all seems to be about shallow aesthetics that do nothing to make you feel good. We can't all be like those gorgeous creatures that attract everyone for all the golden reasons, but surely there's room for a little more honesty? And certainly there is room for recognising the strong values before those harbouring the fear of loneliness hurt the ones who truly care.

My Little War

I am at war. Well it's more like a peaceful protest. The company in question does not know this. Most people who know me are aware, though some of the 'mosts' think that it is due to snobbery. And I can understand this view, because one the reasons for my beef is a little uppity, though not necessarily untrue. At least in my opinion.

The company? Tesco. The reason? Oh there are many.

The first reason that I will outline is the one that indicates snobbery. I think that the goods they offer are of poor quality relative to the prices that they charge. Compared to M&S and Waitrose where you can almost guarantee that you are paying for items that have been prepared with decent ingredients, Tesco's only guarantee is that you will spend more than you think you are for the most base items.

My main example comes from the time that I used to shop there. I would buy a ham and mustard sandwich for £1 for lunch. I was aware that the quality was poor - cheap white bread, meat that has about 5% meat in it - but I needed a quick, easy and cheap lunch. Over the Christmas period the price went up by 10 pence. I could deal with that, as yearly inflation is a given. However, the following month saw this price rise by another 10 pence. The item was still the same, but Tesco profits were increasing swiftly. (And, for the record, you can get a free range egg sandwich on seeded bread for £1 from M&S. As far as I can see, the better quality sandwiches in M&S cost little, if any, more.)

Whilst Tesco winningly display their eye catching orange and red signs that convince their customers that they are getting a great deal, they use an underhand method of marking higher prices on the products next door to the 'deal' in order to rake in the pounds. I imagine this is a common tactic, but Tesco's reputation is falsely built on providing inexpensive goods. The extra cash certainly doesn't go to the suppliers. According to the Guardian, pre tax profits to the end of February 2010 were at £3.4b, up 10.1% on the previous year.

Yes, they are a business and their main criteria is to make money. But it seems that they do this at the expense of UK and world citizens.

For example, the UK farmers' plight seems to be aggravated at the moment:

http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/061110/uk___farmers_protest_at_tesco_.aspx

An important point to mark from this article is this: “Latest statistics suggest English dairy farmers' numbers shrank by another 3.5 per cent in the year to September [2010], though the figure was 5.5 per cent in Wales, where a further 115 producers quit as a result of low prices.”

This has nothing to do with demand, as our population only increases. Suppliers cannot feasibly run their own businesses. Forget about profit, they cannot continue to survive. A friend of mine works on a stall selling cheese at the weekend. The reason for the very existence of this cheese is because the farmers could not sustain a living by selling milk, which had been their previous interest. Tesco is squeezing the supplier to bursting point.

I see this as unethical and totally irresponsible. And yes, other supermarkets are culpable in a similar way (though apparently not on such a big scale), and none of them should be excused, but Tesco is the most visible supermarket in the UK and I believe that it has a responsibility to ensure that their standards are respectable.

Standards? Pah. Another Guardian article published today (1st Feb) marks the company as it bows under new pressure from the public. Their credit card charges were noticeably out of line with industry standards, and their policy seemed to celebrate the theft of even more money from its customers. According to the Guardian's research, the company could be "raking in around £12m a year" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/feb/01/tesco-reduces-credit-card-charges).  Perhaps the credit-card holders should have taken notice of the small print. Perhaps they shouldn't have been living on credit. If you can't afford it...

Anyhow, it was another money-spinning scheme with poor standards.

Other standards to take note of are their environmental ones, or lack thereof. As mentioned in my previous blog, Tesco offers a points scheme. If you use your own bags rather than Tesco plastic bags, you will get points. Great! Incentivising environmental awareness! Not a bad plan. Other ways of collecting points include buying fuel... You can then spend your points on air travel and motoring. The Tesco Clubcard is nothing but a PR gimick. The company recognises that there is a place for environmental issues in business and abuse the issues instead of embracing them.

The environmental issues? See the following points that The Ethical Consumer Research Association Ltd (ECRA) make on www.ethicalconsumer.org:

1. Climate change — the food industry is responsible for a third of greenhouse gas emissions
2. Energy efficiency — large stores and door-less chiller units are inefficient
3. Road freighting and food miles — fewer local farmers and shops mean food has to be transported further, plus sale of out-of- season produce means more air miles
4. Car use and traffic — 1 in 10 car journeys in the UK are to buy food. Work for DEFRA suggests that car use for food shopping results in costs to society of more than £3.5 billion per year from traffic emissions, noise, accidents and congestion.
5. Waste (packaging and food) — grocery packaging still makes up roughly a quarter of household waste.

When I used to work at Tesco, I would see food item after food item being thrown away. In most cases the food was perfectly edible. The excessive wrapping was also, naturally, thrown away with the food. 

According to the BBC, "Seventeen million tonnes of food is being ploughed into Britain's landfill sites every year - all because it's cheaper and easier for the food industry to dump it than give it to those in need. It's a massive waste when you consider that around four million tonnes of this food is perfectly alright to eat." (An article from 5 years ago. With hundreds more supermarket stores popping up all over the place, could this figure be any less in 2011?)  http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/yorkslincs/series7/supermarket_landfills.shtml

I spoke to a manager about this at the time and his attitude was lackadaisical. Why not give it to staff at the end of a shift if it is to be thrown away? They will be dismissed for theft. Handing it out to others who need it? It is too costly to do so.

Just as it is too costly to pro-actively set about some much needed ethical standards. The above manager worked 6 day weeks, 9 hour days and got paid £15,000 a year. So perhaps the salaries of the mostly hard-working staff could be addressed for one thing.

For another, providing ethically sourced food to consumers. Animal welfare in particular should be top of the list, and I don't think the choice should be given to the shopper whether or not to buy free range eggs, free range chicken and so on. I eat meat, and I like to know that the animal that I am eating is healthy, that it is not pumped full of water to make it appear bigger and tastier, that it did not develop painful ulcers due to shocking living conditions, or have cuts and sores as a result being attacked by other animals in too-tight living quarters.

Co-op and Waitrose have fantastic records for providing ethical products; Co-op was the pioneer in ethical trading standards, and Waitrose is now the leading supplier of Fairtrade products, including those that are hard to find, such as jams and biscuits. M&S is also committed to improving its ethical strategy and fairtrade commitments. It has launched an organic cotton range, which means that the working conditions for the cotton pickers are vastly improved.

Co-op is also markedly committed to reducing its impact on the environment, as it sources "98% renewable electricity in its 5,500 sites across the UK" (http://www.greenwisebusiness.co.uk/news/coop-and-marks-and-spencer-named-uks-greenest-supermarkets-2013.aspx). If you haven't the time to read this short article on 'greenest supermarkets', I'll highlight another point from it: "Tesco, Asda and Netta were identified as the three worst performing companies [of the 19 leading supermarkets that were assessed]".

Co-op is the fifth largest food provider in the UK and shows that profits can be made ethically and responsibly. Tesco has no excuse and frankly I am disgusted by the business. I have been in the store three times in the last two years and will never do so again. I try to be as balanced about this as possible, and understand that others are less than saintly. But their visibility makes their culpability more disgraceful, and their outrageous profit margins pure capitalist greed. Am I naive? Perhaps. Nevertheless I expect more.