Obscure Journey

Fighting Consumerism

Publié le 30 Novembre 2018 par Charly Cross

Catégories : #advice, #fashion, #life experience, #life lesson, #shopping, #tips, #recycling, #upcycling

We all know we live in a highly consumerist society, or era better said. This can easily be said about technology, clothes and even food.

Technology these days is poorly made ON PURPOSE to be replaced often. Why do you think Apple releases a new iPhone every 6 months or so? their excuse is: "we added a little fix" or "we improved this little thing," and so on.

The same can be said about clothes - at least about what we call fast fashion. Except their excuse is "that you MUST keep up with the trends." There are of course several other aspects in our lives where we're told "this season you MUST buy this or that in order to impress" and the list goes on and on.

You know what? you must not keep up with any trend! you must not impress anyone with newly bought stuff either!

You know what? I've had it! a long time ago. And as a result I did all I could to stop buying new items. At least on full price. There are only a few exceptions, because I can't find everything discounted or as second hand. I also started sharing with A coats, shoes, scarves, tshirts - mostly because that's all we can share, since A is much tinier than me.

Below are some of the stuff A gave me - i chose to show you 3 pairs of pants. One of the pairs is pink and thick sweat pants, which is one of the most recent "gifts". The oldest is the pink silk pair with an over-sized upper part, while the black pair are some ripped jeans for which i must lose some weight.

I started buying clothes only when there are sales, or from discounted boutiques - so basically the stuff other people didn't like anymore. Let me give you some examples below: 3 pairs of jeans from an discount outlet and 2 tshirts on clearance from a known store (fast fashion, which I'm not very proud of, but I figure that sometimes it's ok if there's an item that we really really like. it's more wasteful if the stuff gets destroyed, in my opinion, and a shame for the work of someone.)

And yes, 2 of those pairs of jeans are identical, because they fit me so well, and they are so comfortable. The material and the seams seem of pretty good quality as well, and the price was unbeatable - 10 lei a pair! (about 2.5 USD?) The darker large pair is also made of a good quality fabric - thick and heavy, and not stretchy at all. I thought they're designer, but i think they're fakes. Meh!

I also checked the clearance section of another fast fashion store, but the men's section. I found 2 pairs of jeans that i really like how they look and feel. See them below as well, in the 3rd picture.

I also got some clothes and footwear for free, from a "swap shop" event I found on facebook. There's a jeans jacket, 2 pairs of boots, and some tshirts. A got a few dresses as well, and a flannel shirt. I'll include a pic of a few of the items, not everything.

One of the tshirts I got had a few holes in it, that I didn't see when i chose it. I didn't think much about them, and I decided to mend them somehow.

Speaking of free stuff, remember my post about the expensive stuff I simply found? That's another way I fight consumerism. or by using facebook groups like freecycle, where people give away for free, the items they don't need or want anymore.

I mentioned earlier I mended some clothes. Luckily, these days fashion is very permissive and allows patches over patches as well as destroyed garments.

On the tshirt with little holes, I used some clear nail polish to prevent the holes from getting bigger. Then i proceeded to sew on, by hand, some small patches or (printed) ribbon. The ribbon was used as a tag on some other item A got from another outlet (i think).

Another way we saved some money and fought consumerism, was to share some of the clothes we own. The easiest is to share the jackets and the shoes, like in the picture below. But granted, we can't share all the shoes nor all the jackets.

The home clothes and socks are other items we share, just because it's more convenient this way.

I want to hear from you, how do YOU fight against consumerism, and if you have any other tips for me. :)

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Seaside adventures in August

Publié le 11 Novembre 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #adventures, #impressions, #life experience, #people, #public transportation, #story, #shopping

We wanted to relax for a bit and get out of city. Since we have Ciel we can't go on a vacation like most people: Ciel needs someone at all times and it's not familiar with strangers. He also barely eats by himself.

We decided to leave for the seaside in the morning and return at night. With all the preparations I still had to return to get a scarf I forgot. When we got to the train station we learned the train would be 45 minutes late, but in reality it was an hour late.

While we waited, we got some pretzels for the road, as to avoid spending a lot of money on food.

The train was also over sold so we had to stand because there were no more seats available. Luckily A found a chair in first class and sat for most of the ride. Our tickets were for 2nd class. The train was also fast and had some air conditioning.

When we got to the resort, we found the beach quite fast. We had to find a seat as this was one of the most popular resorts at the seaside, so it was packed!

The first views of the Black Sea. there was a small lake in the resort, by the beach.

The first views of the Black Sea. there was a small lake in the resort, by the beach.

Here, we have too pay for chairs and umbrella, but not if we sit directly on the sand. However, we need umbrella and they're only available next to the chairs. The price was some $6 for a chair and they only take cash. The guy charging for the seats was gypsy and we suspect him off having stolen my phone.

I had the phone on me some 5 minutes before finding the right place, and I noticed it gone after the guy left. I also kinda felt something.. Like something was sliding up at the back of my pants, but I ignored the feeling.

The guy returned to see if we found cash, and in telling him we don't have cash, just the card, he started to be verbally agressive. Then we openly accused him off stealing, and he insulted us. We left and I managed to use A's phone to lock mine. Then I asked a to text my phone and ask for it to be returned. A lifeguard called us and met A and returned the phone. But! The lifeguard had no business to be in the place where it went missing. I literally walked between other chairs and the lifeguard has no reason to do so. Here claimed he found it.

I think the phone was returned because they couldn't use it or resell if it was blocked. I'm glad I have my phone back, but I lost some videos I took in the train, for I also erased it's data.

In the end we managed to find some other chairs and we didn't pay for those. We stayed some 2 hours there I think.

We managed to go in the water and it felt nice as it was warm, despite the rather dangerous waves. Lifeguards were constantly on the lookout for people going too far and calling them back. The limit to the deep water was set pretty close to the shore too.

We found a place to eat and rest and recharge the phone a bit. Then we went on the beach again. This time we went in a different area and were forced to pay for chairs as there was no sand, just smashed seashells that were cutting into our feet. We spend some extra 2 hours there with constant visits to the shore. Of course I collected some seashells too.

Then it was time for us to return. Before leaving, we bought a bag, some sun glasses for A's mom, some sewing needles for me, a rabbit keychain, and some bracelets.

The return train had seats for us, but it was smelly! There was little luggage space too though we only had 2 bags and As purse. The trip was also longer and most of it happened in the night. There was a really beautiful sunset though. Once in the city, some 3 hours later, we managed to catch the last bus home too.

I fell asleep as soon as I got home, after checking on Ciel and seeing he actually ate by himself. He does that when he stays alone for too long.

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

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One man's trash is another's treasure

Publié le 6 Novembre 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #adventures, #life experience

I don't know why thrifting is (at least for some) addictive. If you don't know what thrifting is, let me tell you: buying pre-worn/used or second hand clothes and items. Gross? maybe a little bit, but once you give your clothes a good wash, who's going to know? The worst is with stuff you can't really clean like electronics or books, but many other things can be easily washed.

DISCLAIMER: Bear in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. I used these affiliate links to give you the option to check the book out, for yourself, if you so wish, through a well trusted seller. While I will be very glad if you decide to buy any linked item, the decision to do so or not, belongs to you. Thank you for reading!

At the beginning of October I found some plates at the trash. Most of them were broken, but i did find a whole one, another one chipped and cracked a little, but seems to still be good for use, or at least as decoration, and a coffee or tea cup without a handle. I took them. In fact this is not the first time I found used porcelain pieces thrown away. But these ones are special because they're branded Zepter and ... well, Zepter stuff is VERY expensive, as you can see from the link. The chipped and cracked plate alone costs some 100 Pounds (that's more than 100 Dollars, and a bit more than 100 Euro). The cup costs almost 100 Dollars if i remember correctly, and the other plate was the cheapest, at some 22 Dollars maybe.

These are part of some china sets for 12 people, with more than 60 pieces per set. Each set has all the plates needed to serve a meal, and apparently are made by hand. The bottom line is that I would never pay so much for my plates, no matter how much i like them.

These items were brand new, but full of dust, making me think they broke in storage or during transportation. Regardless, they were trash for whomever threw them away, and a treasure for me since I can't afford them and wouldn't buy them even if i did afford to.

Out of these items, the chipped plate has yet to be used. I'm waiting for some special occasion of sorts. You can have a peak at them in the pics below:

Now I want to talk about a few other ceramics I found thrown away. First there is a tea pot for 2 cups of tea. I didn't have one till then, and I have been using it almost all the time since. The teapot linked is very similar to the one I found.

At the same time with the tea pot, i found 2 small plates - probably saucers from some coffee set. One I use to feed the cats on, and the other one i kept for human use. I get a lot of use from both, so I'm happy.

The third item found was a ceramic strainer, for tea. It has some Chinese details on it, I used it quite a lot, so yay for me. And the last thing i found at the same time was a coaster made of a weird material that also seems anti-slip. It gets used often, so it's a nice find. You can see below a few pics of my treasures.

I just realized, my findings don't end there. Recently, our neighbors got rid of some stuff, like some old armchairs, some pieces of wood, a mannequin bust, and other stuff. I believe they also installed some wooden flooring.

I took in some pieces of wood i managed to put together into a small table on which i can also sit, if i need to. Or stretch my legs on when sitting on the couch. It's not stable on all the sides, as you'll be able to tell from the pictures, but it's something I didn't have and that gets used.

I also got 2 pieces of the wood flooring - they were thrown away, as most likely they needed to adjust the length of some of the board. A smaller one is used as a larger coaster and the other one as support for my laptop when i want to work with it on my lap.

All in all, I did find trash, but I also found good use for it all, with one exception, as mentioned above.

Most of the pictures I took today, despite having the items for quite some time.

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