O, where have all the brassieres gone?

[changeling]

Something's eating our bras. It's the only explanation I have. I have none in my drawer. Steph has none in her drawer. There's one of mine in the dirty clothes basket, and one of Steph's in the washing machine. We have no clothes drying on the line. So where the hell are our bras? It's a mystery. I may be boob-loose and fancy free today.

...

I wanted to write about the sweat lodge of last week, but I had work the next day, and I always find it hard to write about these things too far after the fact. Perhaps I'll be able to set aside some time tonight.

...

Daharja's getting us to cater her birthing party. I think we've devised a kick-arse menu. I kinda wouldn't mind getting myself some catering qualifications – at the very least a food-handling certificate – and setting up as an occasional freelance caterer. I suspect we'd need to get ourselves another ABN (S and I have one each). Steph has already proposed we call it "Boombahs", and designed a flash page. Heh.

...

I had an email in my inbox from [Publisher] today. I'd applied for an editorial assistant position with them. I figured this was another letter from them saying, "Thanks, but no thanks", but it wasn't quite. It told me that they'd received my resume and that the shortlist would be devised soon. There is yet hope. I should also hear from Oxbridge about the customer service position at the end of this week or beginning of next week, too – not exactly glamorous, but it's one step in the right direction.

I still want to sign up to the Victorian Writer's Centre and the Society of Editors. Maybe I'll do that end of this week, when I'm not working. I have another round of data entry for "The Academy" tomorrow. Blah. At least it's sufficiently time-consuming to make the day go by reasonably quickly.

...

Better go get dressed. Suppose I'll put on yesterday's bra again. I want to get the washing out and leave in plenty of time to get into the city. I've decided that I'm going to do our shopping for the second half of this week at the market, as we're staying at my parents' place, and the likelihood of food that we'd eat is slim. This way we get some organic food, and I get to pick up some organic seeds – and maybe some seedlings – for growing herbs and things at home. I have a longlist of things I want to get at the moment:

• lettuce
• leek (plant now!)
• rosemary
• mint
• parsley
• thyme
• chives
• spring onion
• broccoli

Lettuce is right at the top of my list right now. Maybe if I'm pulling it from the ground it won't be entirely cased in ice crystals when I go to use some. I don't know what's up with our fridge. It was only just fixed a short while ago.

...

We found out why the shower kept going icy. The perpetual hot water tank we have requires sufficiently high pressure to tell it to keep making hot water. I have always used a far lower pressure than Steph, hence why I've always had a problem, and of course we've recently been using the water-saving setting on our shower head. ARGH. I'm so annoyed that I have to choose between saving water and having hot showers (we only have about four-minute showers, I'd like to note here. The water was going cold literally about a minute in). At the moment I'm compromising by sometimes having a hot shower sans water-saving head, particularly when I need to wash my hair, and washing Japanese-style out of a bucket. When we have our own place, we're getting solar hot water. There's just no excuse not to in Australia.

Comments

[ignited-spark.livejournal.com]

I had an Aussie online friend who told me that the first time he visited the U.S., he was horrified by the amount of water in American toilet bowls, both because of the conservation issue and because "the surface of the water's right up there two inches from your arse!"

[daharja.livejournal.com]

Did you know about this website:

http://www.5starhouse.vic.gov.au/

Apparently solar hot water or a rainwater tank is now compulsory in all new homes across Victoria!

Yay!

But why not BOTH!!!!????

[daharja.livejournal.com]

So scary...and so true! And the bowls in the US were so huge! But the weird thing was, they didn't seem to be any more effective than the Aussie ones.

And no dual flush systems anywhere! At least not in WV where we were.

[ignited-spark.livejournal.com]

I don't even know what a dual flush toilet is. I've never seen one.

The sad thing is, I've tried to be environmentally conscious and get one of those tank barriers or use the old "half gallon milk jug full of water/stones" trick to use less water per flush, but it makes my toilet malfunction and not flush at all. So much for that :P

[naewinter.livejournal.com]

Dual flush is just two buttons, one empties the cistern and one half empties it. It came into toilet design after decades of putting a brick or two in the cistern during droughts. I don't think single flush toilets are made here any more. =)

D, if you want to feel less guilty about the hot water, take a bucket or two into the shower with you. We tip them on the garden afterwards. We have a solar hot water system too, mum's always ranting about how they should be mandatory on new houses. =)

[daharja.livejournal.com]

Do what you can. If it doesn't work, then that's not really an option. But there are other ways you can make a difference.

I've just been reading a stunning book by a lady called Linda Cockburn called "Living The Good Life". Their family became pretty much totally sustainable on a half acre block for 6 months, to see if it could be done. The book tells their story, but also gives some startling facts, and introduces the concept of 'virtual water', which is how much water goes into the things we consume, and how we can cut our usage that way. For instance, one litre (about a quart) of milk takes 1000 litres (about 250 gallons) of water to produce.

Check out my post at http://community.livejournal.com/greenripples/9946.html about how to shower for three weeks with the equivalent amount of water that goes into a quart of milk!

So you may not be able to change your toilet system, but you can cut down your milk consumption by a quart a week - and you've just saved 250 gallons/1000 litres that week. Quit milk entirely, and you're saving lakes worth over the course of your life, and untold amounts of pollution - check out my article from The Independent about cows - http://daharja.livejournal.com/413312.html

There are amazing changes we can make, just by switching from one product to another. It just takes a little education and willpower. But don't think that because you can't make one change you can't make another.

[ignited-spark.livejournal.com]

Heh. I no longer drink milk, anyway :) But you have a good point. There are other ways to conserve than the immediately obvious.

[daharja.livejournal.com]

That's it. It's easy to see the obvious - plastic bags, for example. But becoming sustainable is going to take society as a whole looking at every aspect of the way we live and analysing everything from the ground up, if we're going to make it through the next 100 years as a species. It's scary stuff, and we're certainly not up to the challenge in our current state. But here are small signs of hope.

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

We've already got a bucket in the shower. I use it to flush the toilet. I just resent the fact that I should have to use MORE, unnecessary water to ensure my system remains unshocked every morning.

I agree. Unfortunately, as they'd only just had this system installed when N—— got the place checked for eco-efficiency, she refuses to replace it. LE SIGH.

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

N——ll, Steph's mum, tells me that at some stage in the past, rainwater tanks were literally verboten in Victoria. Water companies were raising a stink as it was water they wouldn't be paid for. I think that's more insane.

I can't wait until we move out. Solar hot water will be just the beginning.

[watersusurrus.livejournal.com]

I don't even know what a dual flush toilet is. I've never seen one.

... My brain just exploded.

You know, I have to repress my Australian water brain when I go and see American movies (and so does delirieuse) when a character turns a tap on and then they stand there and talk while it runs. OMG YOU CAN'T DO THAT HERE.

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

I just can't fathom what it must be like to live in another country, where saving water (even just with a dual-flush cistern) isn't automatic.

We had ads through the eighties and nineties telling us not to "be a Wally with water" (wally being a colloquial term for a duffer here).

Steph made me watch How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and there's a scene that's supposed to be all sexy where the two main characters make out in a bathroom. Only, one of them's about to have a shower, so the water's running THE WHOLE TIME the scene's going. I couldn't focus. All I could think of was how much water was being wasted. I don't think I'd be the only Australian to react that way.

[watersusurrus.livejournal.com]

The council banned them. (Rainwater tanks.)

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

*SNAP!*

[ignited-spark.livejournal.com]

I noticed when I went back to Oklahoma for my brother's wedding in October that my dad brushes his teeth while letting the tap run. He also used to work for Halliburton! My dad may be evil! :D

[naewinter.livejournal.com]

Just discovered, we now have three buckets in the shower. I suspect we may just end up with a hose running out the window.

[ignited-spark.livejournal.com]

Probably not.

In the area of Colorado where I live, we've had drought conditions and water restrictions most summers for many years and yet people STILL devote gallons and gallons of water to having a green, non-native-grass lawn around their homes, washing their gas-sucking SUVs once a week, and other such pointless activities. Between that and the recent population growth in the Front Range area, it's gotten so bad that the aquifiers are at a constant low and city water has to be piped in from the Arkansas River 50 miles away. It's ridiculous.

I grew up in Oklahoma, which has a decent rainfall and one of the largest water tables in the country beneath it, where people took having water for granted. Bad enough to do that -- nothing is infinite -- but here, in a semi-arid climate prone to forest fires and too dry to support most food crops, you'd think people would have a bit more sense.

[ignited-spark.livejournal.com]

In my city, Colorado Springs, it's illegal for private citizens to collect rainwater for home use. The utility company doesn't want to lose money that way :P

[watersusurrus.livejournal.com]

That's just so... argh! I know Starhawk had some company try and get her to pay for the water that was coming out of the spring on her own property, o_O!

[watersusurrus.livejournal.com]

My Dad's not allowed to take the rubbish to the outside bins anymore since we found him taking out the recycling and dumping it into the landfill bin! (My council has created a three bin system: recycle, landfill and green waste.)

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

We can't fit that many in the shower at a time! In any case, I (and Steph when she remembers) use jugs to run the cold water in until it/the pipes heat up, then we use that water in cooking and to drink. That really reduces the amount of water that the buckets collect anyway. Especially since I tend to have such low-pressure showers.

[naewinter.livejournal.com]

We have that weird combination of both, it's bigger than a normal shower but too small for a real bath. Think I'd prefer a hose going out the front door actually.

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

That outrages me. I'd campaign if I were in your position. I feel that violates a pretty basic human right, and it's just plain retarded in a drought-affected state.