6 lazy ways YOU can save the world

Hi all,


I'm back for a one-off blog post special. Or maybe it will become something more, who knows. Firstly, a bit of background as to why I disappeared from blogging. I quite simply ran out of things to write about, I'm off of all anti-depressant medication now, I'm not working on sunny islands anymore (although, in my head, I'm there every day), and I've been pretty busy. Pretty busy researching perhaps the most depressing topic that's come into the media to date. - Microplastics

Let me quickly explain what microplastics are. Microplastics are plastic fragments that are less than 5mm in length, about the size of a sesame seed. and they are everywhere. In the ocean, in your food, oh and in your drinking water. Scary right? My dissertation research has involved dissection, acid digesting and then filtering some mussels that were taken from pristine beaches in Greenland. And I can tell you now, there were microplastics found in every single one of them, the final sample contained 32 polystyrene beads. 

Now I've told you how much of a ubiquitous problem microplastics are, I'm going to tell you 6 ways that you can reduce the amount of plastic waste you are producing and they're very simple. So simple in fact, I have decided to call them "lazy ways you can save the world." Mainly in the hopes that you would click the link and I could push my anti-plastic agenda upon you. You're here now, so you might as well read on. 

1. Carry shopping bags with you

I work in retail and I cannot tell you how many times I hear people say "Oh, I've left my bags in the car, so I'll just buy more!" I understand that it can be hard to remember your bags after a busy day at work or uni. But, a relatively simple solution to this is to pack a couple of canvas bags into your handbag/backpack/man bag, that way you will always have some on you. And if all else fails, pop your shopping directly into your trolley and pack your bags in the car park. If for any reason you may struggle doing this in the car park, a colleague will be more than happy to help.

2. Buy a reusable drinking bottle

Stop buying individual one-use bottles of water every time you're thirsty. Get yourself a nice reusable bottle, and try to avoid a plastic one, if you can but no biggie if you can't. I do recommend glass ones such as these from Drop bottle @ www.dropbottle.com! And they'll make you're Instagram feed a lot prettier than those single-use plastic ones, promise. ;) 


3. Buy a KeepCup (other brands are available)

In 2011 it was estimated that 2.5 billion coffee cups were thrown away each year and that figure is likely to be higher now. Some of the biggest sellers of coffee in the UK, including Costa and Starbucks, say they have started recycling coffee cups, but that's only if customers dispose of their takeaway cups in the store. But I guarantee 80% of students get their coffee to go on a daily basis, I know I did. So that's an awful lot of waste going to landfill and eventually entering our oceans. Please, buy a KeepCup or any other travel cup! Link here to KeepCup: http://amzn.eu/9i5IIEQ


4.  Ban the straw!

In the U.S, the consumption of straws is high enough that they could wrap the straw around the circumference of the earth 2.5times A DAY. Not in a month, or a year, daily. A lot of companies now will make you ask for a straw or provide paper straws. I have heard a lot of complaints about the paper straws going mushy and I will respond to that in my usual way - Just get over it. The health of the environment is a lot more important than that minor inconvenience. However, I do understand that some people do require straws for health reasons, you can now buy reusable metal straws in a pack of 3 at your local ASDA or Walmart and if that fails, you can also purchase them through eBay or Amazon. 


5. Switch to shampoo and conditioner bars 

As I was in the shower the other day, I looked down at the little rack that we have to store all our shampoo, conditioner and body wash in and I was so ashamed about how much plastic there was. So, after some research and talking to other eco-friends I went out to purchase my LUSH shampoo and conditioner bars (There will probably be a review on these soon). They were around £6.50 each but they will last me around 3 months, so in reality, these cost around the same as buying shampoo and conditioner in plastic bottles. Except I can wash my hair knowing that what is going down the drain is purely natural ingredients and at the end of it, there will be no residual waste. Win-Win! 


6. Buy package free

This one is relatively self-explanatory. Stop buying things with excess packaging - like your fruit and veg, go and support your local fruit and veg shop (if you're fortunate enough to have one). Avoid buying packaged foods in your supermarket and if you are presented with no other choice - buy the packaged goods and dump the plastic packaging at the till. Just do it, 75% of supermarket staff hate excess packaging too. If it is dumped in store, the company are obligated to try and recycle it (This is based on my personal experience at ASDA stores, I cannot vouch for elsewhere). Regardless, you will then place pressure on the company to just stop putting excess packaging on things (Seriously, bananas, apples, and oranges do not need it), as they will be losing man-hours for people to clean it up. 

These six recommendations are for the average person, who might now be in the financial or living situation to go completely waste free, however, if just 100 of you applying these six steps to your daily life, it will help to minimize the plastic problem we have in modern society. Please, just give it a try, and once you've tried it, tell two of your friends, and tell them to tell two of their friends. Eventually, this will create a snowball effect and we can all work towards living more sustainable lives.

Thank you for reading this today, any questions, queries, problems, please pop them in the comments below. 

5 Thing Every Strong Woman Knows To Be True -

This is something I've wanted to blog about for over a month or so now. I have never overly considered myself to be one of these strong, independent women. Although, I have always endeavored to be. Until an incident that happened recently, those that are aware of it will know exactly what I'm talking about. It opened my eyes to just how far I've come in the space of a year. I have taken so many long strides in terms of my self-confidence and although I'm not quite ready to set the world on fire and leave a massive Rebecca shaped dent in history (But who knows, one day!) I am beginning to encounter some common problems that other strong women have encountered. So I'm back - with another wonderful list, don't lie, you've missed it, haven't you? Anyway, here's 5 things every strong woman knows to be true.

Your tough exterior still houses a sensitive soul:

Flashback time to when I was 14 through to 17, I could not handle criticism. Not in the slightest but not because I felt I was perfect and above the criticism but because I threw my absolute heart and soul into everything I did, in academics, in friendships, in relationships, so when somebody presented criticism to me whether it be constructive or just plain rude, I would just go into meltdown. "What do you mean x isn't right? I put everything into it." This led to a lot of crying, screaming and anger on my behalf. I don't know what changed in my mental chemistry but nowadays, I can take criticism just as long as it's constructive and allows me to better myself from it. I developed a tough exterior that meant I could push aside the emotional side of things in order to understand what I needed to do next to improve. However, I can still hurt, I'm not autonomous but that is what has led to a very nice quality in me - I never want to stop learning. I can sit back now and say"Yeah, okay, y went wrong but if I'm in that situation again I can handle it, mitigate it."

People can occasionally be intimidated by you:

I've found this a running theme through every aspect of my life. Especially when you only stand at 5'4 and can never really see over the tops of crowds. Due to my height, I've developed a bit of small person complex but not necessarily in a bad aspect. (Wait for all the psychologists to lose their wigs over that one.) I have adapted a way of speaking in front of people that commands a certain level of mutual respect (still with typical Rebecca humor breaks thrown in.) My "presentation voice" as it's been labelled by some of my close friends. This somewhat natural ability to lead, instruct and brief people has been intimidating to some - those who don't know the way I operate can see me as a bit of an arsehole (Sorry, Mum, please pardon my French.) But as I said in my first ever blog, I'm a bit like marmite, you're either going to love me or hate me for it. I have come to accept that I will not win over everyone in my life but I'm not going to strive to please all of those people anymore. Another step in the direction of becoming a strong, independent woman.

You're everyone's support network:

This is not a complaint about my life by any means. This is a warning all you other beautiful, strong people out there who are always there for everyone else, even with your own troubles going on. We've all been there haven't we; you're consoling one friend over coffee about a recent break up, your phone is pinging all over the place with another friend who needs help with an upcoming exam/assignment/interview/other stressful life event. For the love of everything. Just. Stop. Please. Take a time out when it's all getting too much. I will quite frequently offload to be my wonderful mother when I can't cope with certain issues, not to moan or boo about it but just because she is the strongest woman I have ever met and there is very little she hasn't dealt with in her life. I digress, I call her to ask for advice, so I can be the best support network to all my friends, plus she's usually there to just tell me when to slow it down and think about my own mental health. Find someone like that, our mother, your brother, your sister, cousin, the neighbor down the street  just find someone you can offload to when you feel it getting too much.


That bad habit of doing it all on your own:


This leads me on nicely to my next point - I know I have a seriously bad habit of trying to deal with all my personal problems by myself and occasionally, this leads to a pretty bad melt down. The latter isn't being strong, that's just being silly. You know all those friends and family that you keep supporting? Well, they're there to support you too and don't ever forget it - after all, a problem shared is a problem halved. Playing the heroine, the martyr, doesn't always mean you have to walk alone.



You're unstoppable: 

I have actually lost count of times I have been told "You're not going to make it." or "You're not cut out for this." And as you lot will probably feel too. This. Really. Hurts. I have worked tirelessly for the last 8 years to get towards my degree and now I'm finally here, I'm doing it and I'm doing well. There is nothing some strength, determination, hard work, copious amount of tea and beans on toast can't fix. (Much love to you Dad for the beans on toast.) When you have these set backs in life, whether it be from what someone has said or your plan has gone entirely right. Sir back and review it. Day will follow night and you will get there sometimes you just have to take a different route to what you had planned. You are unstoppable. And don't ever forget it.


Ciao, Adios, I'm done.

A thank you and a promise:

I am breaking my blogging hiatus for the final time; from now on I would like to get back into blogging properly again because it is something I have missed very much. More so that it acts as an open journal and I can get all of my thoughts out onto the screen, and in some way and some how, support other people whilst I'm doing it. I digress, more on that in my next post.
What's spurred me back into blogging again is my beloved brother - Darren. Those who know and to those who don't I will make this very clear. Yes, I am an only child but yes, Darren is my brother. To cut a long story short, he has loved me, supported me and picked on me in the same way any big brother should, blood isn't always thicker than water. It all began when I was out doing my internship in GC, My brother and now sister-in-law, Carly were getting married but being the worst sister I could've been I missed the wedding because I was out diving (Sorry!) But I also missed something very special - the announcement that I would be having a niece or nephew very soon. Darren had asked me to do a wedding blog then but with my head not being in the right space at all - I failed abysmally there, again, sorry bro.

Those months went on and I am very proud to announce that I am now Auntie Becca (Not Becks, Darren.) to a gorgeous little girl called Baylee-Anne who came into this world on the 26th January 2017 at 00:18hrs weighing 7lbs 11oz. But as you can guess Auntie Becca was yet again not in the country... I think we all know where I was. Baylee-Anne if you ever find this blog when you're older, I'm sorry and I promise to take you out to the Island with me and teach you to dive when you're old enough. However, all was not the typical post-baby bliss as it should've been, Carly had been induced and after a long time waiting for contractions to start was given an epidural to ease the pain, beautiful Baylee-Anne was born but poor Carly was still coping with a post-dural leak in her spine. And so this leads me on nicely to the main two parts of this blog - A Thank You and A Promise.

Thank you Carly, for making Darren the happiest I have ever seen him, for being quite frankly one of the most beautiful, kind, considerate, funny, compassionate individuals I have ever had the privilege of meeting and I am so proud to say you're part of this beautiful and slightly strange pseudo family that's been created. You are a fantastic mother to Courtney, Rowan and a fantastic step-mother to J, I hope when the time comes for me to have my own children I can be as wonderful as you are, Baylee-Anne is so lucky to be going into such a loving family with all her big brothers and sister to look after her.

A promise to Baylee- Anne. You haven't met me yet but be assured not a day goes by when I don't think of you, you are so beautiful, you've met your Granny G and Grandpapa G an I'm sure they will promise you the same things I'm about too. I promise to love you, support you and protect you throughout whatever you do in life, If you need me, I will ever only be a phone call away. I can't promise I'll be a perfect Auntie because technically I've already failed you in that respect - I managed to miss your Mum and Dad's wedding, your announcement and your birth when I was 2000 miles away but I hope you'll forgive me for that, princess. I'm counting down the days until I can finally give you cuddles.

With all my love,

Rebecca.

Mirtazapine and Me: We're back here again

Wow, that was officially the most depressing blog title I could ever have conjured up. 10 points to Rebecca for that one. I noticed recently I have been far, far too wrapped in work to even update my blog. So, tonight's the night. Hola gente hermosa! Please don't hate me too much for not writing. 20 points for whoever translates the spanish in any of my blog posts, I'm slowly learning more. Answers on a post card.

It's been a while since I've done a mental health post and that's for two reasons. Firstly, back in the summer I made the decision to come off of my medication because I was in quite frankly one of the most amazing places in my life, physically and mentally. Secondly and more recently, I'm in perhaps one of the lower places in my life. Not the lowest though, the lowest was when I first started on my medication this time last year. Yeah, that wasn't pretty. Anyway, I digress. I haven't wanted to do a post on mental health because I've always viewed this blog as showing the positives in life and how to deal with mental health and view it in a positive manner, or at least as positive as it could be. This post is designed to show you all the more honest side of things.

We all fall off the wagon, in some way, whether it's a diet plan, a project, studying or in a job. We all do, we can all agree on that one. I fell off the wagon at the latter end of September and the early start of October. Due to the stress of coming back to university and the sobering reality that I wasn't living my beautiful, crazy, island life anymore. Morph and the black dog hit me, hard. I found the first month and a half of uni immensely difficult, not in terms of content or deadlines but because I was scared that I was falling back into a dark place. I had grown scared of taking my medication, I had grown scared of reaching out for help. I just wanted to run, I had many thoughts of dropping out and I'm not ashamed to admit that. 

I'm very glad to say I'm out that phase, thanks to some very fantastic people; to my mum and dad for reassuring me that no matter what decision I would've chosen, you would've been proud, to the faculty rep at the university for giving me a massive wake-up call, although you may not of realised it at the time but you encouraging me to go for the course rep position re-ignited the fire in me keep going, you reminded me of the passion that 6 year old Rebecca had. And brought that passion back to 20 year old Rebecca. To my course mates, for being the beautiful people that you are and giving me the support network that I needed, I love you all dearly.

Now that I am out of the woods, almost, I'm taking my medication properly again. I've got renewed drive to succeed in my degree and just win at life. I've come out with my first 1st of the year in an exam last week, I've gotten heavily involved in the university's sub-aqua club and am currently helping in planning the international trip for January 2017, I have the opportunity to go Malaysia in September next year. And how could I forget, I'm going back to my beloved island for 5 weeks in the summer.

Even as I'm writing this post, I'm feeling much more positive about everything, laying it out on paper has made me realise that I have so much to look forward too and so much to give this year.

It's been a hard few months, I won't lie. However, I realise that even in the darkest of moments, I still have my scrappy doo attitude to life, there is no point giving up everything I have worked so hard for until this moment, there was no point in just taking the easy way out. If you take anything from this blog post, guapa, just remember, that no matter how dark it gets, no matter how bleak it feels, there is no shame in reaching out, it will help you immensely, and you will get through this.

As always, if you read this and you feel low, or sad or just want a vent, please do not hesitate to contact me.

2nd Year Begins. (The Return, Now It's Personal...)

So, lovely readers, we can now get back to usual proceedings in my blogging. Yes, it's the return of lists, it's the return of goals, it's return and this year, it's personal. Much love to my Dad for inspiring this blog and it's title. And to my brother, if you're reading this you will get your blog soon. In fact it's about to be written after this one and put on a schedule to be posted in the next few days. Muchos love.

I digress (Wow, we truly are back to normal proceedings.)  But yes my 1st semester of my second year back here in home sweet Hull has begun and I'm thoroughly enjoying my new modules thus far, they are actually something that I want to chase in my life. As promised though, this will be in list format and in that list it's time to outline some goals, and a quick review of all the goals I put up in my first blog about university life last year. Drum roll please...

The Magical, Mystical list of Rebecca's goals this year!

Numero Uno - Firsts All Round.

Yes, I am still chasing my goals to come out of my degree with first class honours, I've had the warnings from my peers that I'm going to burn out this year. And yet again, I will choose to disregard them, sorry guys, I know you say it in kindness. First year taught me a lot about myself and the way I operate, I know that I can push myself to almost (almost being the key word here.) to breaking point and still come out of the other side. In fact, I have no fear in ending every day exhausted but having achieved something because I know how worth it it will be. I also have something now that I didn't exactly have in the beginning of last year and that's an absolutely fantastic team of course mates who are as driven as I am, And I genuinely don't give them enough credit for how amazing they are. So guys, this one's for you. *raises mug of tea* 

Numero Dos - Stumpy.

Those who know me well enough, and one customer in Gran Canaria who allowed me to witter on about one thing that I am truly and utterly passionate about (Thanks Jacqueline!) And that's Stumpy the Orca. To put it in very brief terms, Stumpy is an Orca located in the Norwegian Fjords. Researchers can only but guess that she was involved in a collision involving some form a speed boat. This has caused him to lose most of her dorsal fin and immense damage to her back. This, as you can imagine folks, is severely debilitating for an organism that has to eat such an immense amount of food to survive, and travel massive distances in their lifetime. Things weren't looking great for this young Orca. However, he has been seen with no less than 5 other orca pods. And wait for it, the coolest thing is every pod knows how to look after Stumpy in some way, whether it's stunning fish and bringing it too him, or half eating a fish and giving it to Stumpy. This altruistic behaviour is rarely seen anywhere else in the Animal Kingdom, especially by other pods or families of the same species. Within a module of 2nd year and I am able to write an essay on any form of any behaviour that interests me.

This is it.

Numero Tres - Looking Ahead.

To follow on nicely from my last point. I have been thinking one hell of a lot lately what I would like to study for my masters degree and then hopefully for PhD. And that's Animal behaviour and looking more in depth at stumpy's case study and case studies of other Orcas with a similar issue, And hopefully go on to to looking at more of a reason as to why this occurs. I have a few theories form the research I've been doing but I have a few people I need to run this past first.... slight problem of having to survive my degree first and then get funding... yep.

Numero Quatro - Dive into it

Ha, can you see what I did there. Ah, okay, I'll sit here smiling silently to myself. But I'm currently ready and waiting to begin my volunteer post as a Dive Master with my local dive shop, and I can't wait. The BCD has been dry for too long and I need to get back to being used to wearing a dry suit, plus I just have a natural yearning now for diving. I basically just need to grow gills, this is the level we have reached ladies and gents.

I believe these are my key goals for this academic year, and well, academic life. Plus I'm struggling to recall all the spanish numbers to make my points with, whoops. But I've decided not to create a list of goals as long as my arm this year. I achieved what I wanted to do last year and that's get my 1st in first year and by hell or high water, I'm going to do it again this year. That's very simply my one goal and I have to keep that central to everything right now. For the sake of Stumpy! Kinda... That's just what I keep telling myself anyway.


Fin.

Who is Becca?

It's nearly 1am here in Hull, I'm sat in the kitchen alone, hearing the noises of a new home. The creaking of the floorboards, although strangely, nobody is moving. But in this almost silence, I'm very much deep in thought and it's thoughts I wanted to write down.

Throughout my entire 20 years and a few months on this earth, I have never liked my name being shortened. The line "It's not Becky, it's not Bec, it's Rebecca." Falling from my mouth in a very similar fashion and tone as my mother. But in recent months, I have accepted Becca as a more tolerable alternative. Predominantly because customers in Gran Canaria just defaulted to calling me Becca, why, I have no idea whatsoever. This began to become the running joke in my family, that when I'm in that wet suit I'm "Becca the Dive Master." It's suddenly got me thinking over the last few days, what's in a name? There's a lot more to Becca then Rebecca. People always used to ask me how I'm so confident in situations like public speaking or meeting new people, despite the anxiety problem. It is immensely easy to fake being confident, it's very easy to put on a mask and the more you do it, the more natural it becomes and the more you adopt it into your normal persona.

And that above, is the whole point of this blog post. I have adopted "Becca" as my persona. You see, when I was in that wet suit, when I was Becca, I had so much confidence, I could brief a full boat of people and be confident about it, I could conduct introduction dives and have a laugh and a joke whilst doing so, I could put people at ease when I was diving with them (Shout out to the Italian family I did a double tank dive with, you guys were fab!) I have noticed ore an more recently that I'm transferring a lot of the "Becca" traits into my "normal" life back on land. I stand a little taller, I'm a heck of a lot more confident and eloquent when putting new ideas to a group of people, I can now handle most situations, I can even make and receive phone calls to people I don't know, - level up!

By putting myself in a situation that I knew would be uncomfortable in the beginning, I have completely changed myself and my outlook on life. I like to believe that Becca is a cooler person *puts on shades* No? Okay... Anyway, but Becca is the person that 13 year old me always wanted to be, the girl with the nose ring, the slightly blondish hair that doesn't ever really fall right, the girl who is always planning her next adventure, the girl who will ever give up on her dreams.

To try and round off this blog post, and to allow you, dear reader, to take something from it. I want people who are scared of social situations, scared of doing that presentation in class next week, or maybe, like me, you get a little bit nervous when it comes to paying for you shopping at the till. To make a persona for yourself, it doesn't even have to have a name, just create that version of yourself that you want to be, to create the self-fulfilling prophecy. And soon you will be conducting that presentation or even talking to that cashier with more ease and confidence.

Until the next post, guys, be good and be safe.

Moving On

This blog post is going to be a little bit different in comparison to the ones I've done before. There won't be any lists, just me chattering away about how life has been in the last few months, why I haven't been blogging too much and my new goals and ambitions. It's been a perspective changing few months and I've had a really hard time readjusting back to normal life. This is partially why I haven't been blogging too much in the last few weeks either, I don't want to let go of the happiness I felt when I was over in Gran Canaria, I found the lifestyle for me, I found the career path for me and I didn't want to have to face the fact it's over. But this is where that famous quote comes in - "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it's happened." And I'm trying my best to keep smiling because it's happened but it's hard. I've tried to write the blog posts summarising the last few weeks that I was out there but I can never finish them. This will probably be quite a short blog post due to the fact that I just want to complete one and get it out there following such a long hiatus.

So I'm going to try now. Yes, I'm now a PADI certified Dive Master, I finally completed the stress test without killing off Ryan, or completely emptying the tank, I could conduct introductory dives for customers on my own and although there were a few teething errors in the beginning in, I was getting better and better every time. I als achieved something that I thought I never would whilst I was out there. I'm now also a Discover Scuba Diving leader.This means I can conduct the PADI Discover Scuba Diving session by myself now. In order to get this certification I had to conduct 4 DSDs under the supervision of a PADI instructor (Big applause for Sam who saw me through these!) I conducted one in the middle of the 8 weeks, although this was a apart of my Dive master internship to see if I would be interested in being a DSD leader.

To cut a long story short, my next DSD would be to the most difficult customer I would ever face and that was my own Dad (I would also like to add after I had taught my Dad on his DSD, we had the amazing opportunity to see how to teach 5 DSDs at once, thank you to Ryan and Sam for letting me part of that, it's certainly taught me a lot about logistics!). During my last week out in GC I had one hell of surprise when my parents facetime me and then pan the camera round to show me a beautiful picture of Anfi beach behind them. After crying considerably and regaining some composure I ran from patalavaca to Anfi. It was an absolutely amazing experience and I'm truly blessed to have parents as understanding as them - To such an extent they were fully prepared for me to turn around at the end of that week and say I wouldn't be going back with them,

This leads me on nicely to both my short term and long term goals. As much as it was immensely tempting to stay in Gran Canaria and become an instructor, university has to come first and it always will. So my main goal right now is to absolute smash my degree and come out with a first, then at the end of the next two years, I will be ready to go back to Scuba Sur and begin my IDC. However, there are some things I'm ding in the middle now that will keep me ticking over. I'm now a member of the Above and Below dive team here in Hull and I will soon begin assisting them with pool sessions and hopefully out on some dives too! Through them my goal by the end of this academic year and before I go back to gran Canaria for a holiday next year is to become an Assistant Instructor and hopefully get my EFR instructor done too, they're effectively the pre-requisites for becoming a PADI instructor, so I'm doing this in stages, and I really can't wait to see what the next chapter of my life brings. All I know is I've found my calling in life and I will chase it, and nobody will stop me.

My time as a DMT and in the latter stages of the 8 weeks as a DM has been the most educational and thrilling experience of my life, I cannot thank my Scuba Sur family enough for all the individual lessons you taught me. I'm going to end this blog post here for now but I'm settling back into uni life at the moment, waiting for lectures to start - I can't wait to get stuck in! Bring it all on. Until next time, dear reader, be good.