Entertainment on a Fiver- Museum Murder Mystery

I'm so glad I found this! Digging around in the London edition of Time Out I saw this promotion for a murder mystery at the University College of London  (UCL) Museums and there were costumes involved. Sold! Lucky for me, my friends are as crazy as I am and also were all on board for dressing up for an evening of crime solving.

The costume portion required much debate, mainly caused by me getting overexcited with multiple costume ideas. The final decision was the characters of Clue (or Cluedo for the British Audience). I went with Mrs. Peacock and since the event was free so I was able to put the five pounds to my thrift store costume.

The event itself was really well done. The mystery was spread out across all the different museum within the UCL. After collecting clue from the different museum, you scrambled them to form a phone number and whoever called in the answer first won. Pretty clever. In fact, more clever than us since we didn't figure it out.

But we did win best costume! In fact, I don't think I've ever been so popular as when I was walking around with a whole group of people dressed like Clue.

And what was our prize? A preserved head of a coypu head adopted in our teams name. We have future plans to go visit it and see what our hard-work has earned it.

New Look and New Focus

Long Distance Neighbours has shifted its update and we felt that our new focus required a bit of reorganizing, that naturally led to bigger plans to update our look, and this led to our new layout. So welcome to our new blog layout! (Round of applause for @AliaK_ who did all the actual work!).

I realized that after doing this update I haven't really given a comprehensive overview of the way this blog has shifted. I've gone from a blog about my internship abroad to a lifestyle and ethical living blog in London. So I thought I'd try and lay out for everyone what is going to be happening on my site now.

Ethical Shopping/Living/Fashion
One of the underlying philosophies of Long Distance Neighbour was that we live in a globally connected world and what we do here does impact the lives of people on the other side of the globe. I'm trying to live this value by shopping and living ethically- including fair-trade, eco-friendly and locally made. I'm going to share with you all my great finds and tips, and hopefully make it a bit easier for anyone else looking to do the same.

Things to do in London
I'm going to credit my mother on this one. She really made a point to me about how shopping has become a passtime. 'Don't know what to do today? I'll go wander around shopping." Getting out of the mindless shopping rut, I wanted to find other ways to spend my time. And a lot of great little cultural events are held by not-for-profits and involve local business, so its a double win!

International Development
I'm still working in international development so I would still like to share thoughts, comments and stories about international development. I feel that people who work in international development don't spend enough time trying to explain the intricacies of their work. There is too much of "See this suffering child? Give us money to feed her/him!" Lets just say it doesn't really work like that on the ground. While I'm not 'in the field', I'm going to work at keeping you connected to that world.

So you can navigate through by location to find all the past posts. You now can also search through ethical living to find any of my reviews and tips under different subject. Hope you all enjoy it and leave comments if there are any issues you want me to cover.

Ethical Body Wash and Lotion on a Budget- Naked and Love and Toast

Having ditched all my heavy bottles of moisturizer and body wash (luggage priority went to more important things like fabric and giraffe statues), I needed to replace most of my bath/body products. Also being in the process of setting up house, I need to replace things on a budget. There are a lot of ethical body wash and lotions but I was interested in what options I could find in my standard drug store. This is what I managed to dig up.

24 Hour Coco de Mer Body Butter and Ooh La La Body Wash by Naked

I bought the body butter first and I loved the scent so much I bought the body wash too. It's a mix of coconut, shea butter and passion flower. The body wash is creamy but it lathers well enough. Though if you like a really frothy body wash you might be disappointed. When I opened the body butter it seemed unusually solid and I was worried. But I find that it melts really well into your skin. They're both available at Boots, the Naked company has a strong ethical standpoint, and their only £4.99 each. They qualify as triple threat beauty products!

The Salt'n Sea Body Lotion and Sugar Scrub by Love & Toast

This product also smells delicious, a bit like lemonade but not too sweet. I like the scrub a lot, it reminds me of the Soap and Glory crush scrubs but a more ethical option (yay for good dupes!). The body lotion is nice, but it does this weird thing when you work it into your skin, sort of like it doesn't seem to absorb properly? I also find the packaging frustrating. I know that sounds weird but it's hard to work things out of their tubes. I purchased these at TKMaxx however, this scent collection isn't available anymore and looking on the website some of the packaging has been changed. So while I give these products mixed reviews I would be open to try other products by this brand. I'm especially intrigued by their perfumes and lip balms because the scents are so yummy.

 So some really good finds and some mixed results. It goes to show that you can find some great products while keeping quality and ethics in mind (and not break the bank)! 

Entertainment for a Fiver- Cheap Theatre

One thing London is good for is cheap theatre. There are all of the Broadway style shows but there are also a lot of really good smaller theatre productions as well. After seeing a write-up in the Guardian I talked my co-worker into venturing into Dalston Junction for a 'pay what you can' theatre night.

Play: My name is...

Arcola Theatre, Dalston Junction

Venue:

It was a very cool vibe. The cafe attached to the theatre has tea, coffee, wine, beer, and food. We sampled things in a variety of those categories. The consensus was good and cheap. We also found this cool garden cafe around the corner from the theatre which is worth hanging out in.

The play itself was in the basement of the theatre it was a very cosy set up and worked well with the intimacy of the play itself.

Play:

I'm not familiar with the story, but its based on a true story about a mixed background family in Scotland.  

"When 12-year-old Gaby disappeared from her home in Scotland, the media announced that her Pakistani father, Farhan, had kidnapped her. The spiralling headlines were only momentarily silenced when it emerged that Gaby may have fled of her own accord, choosing to spend her life in Pakistan. To her Scottish mother Suzy’s great distress, Gaby declared, “my name is Ghazala” and turned her back on ‘Gaby’ and, seemingly, the West…"

The play-write worked with the family to true and capture the complexity of their story. I'm not a theatre critic but I think captured beautifully the clash of culture, religion, belief and the family ties and love in the story.

If you're in London, its on until May 24th and even on regular days tickets are only £12-14 which you can purchase on their website HERE. Try and see it if you can!

Triple Threat Body, Skin and Hair Products

Not going to lie, its hard to keep all the issues in mind when buying ethically. So I try to simplify it as checking three things "Good for the planet, Good for its people, Good for me." That could look a little different depending what I buy. Here's whats on my list so far for checking body, skins and hair products. 

Good for the Planet
There's a lot under this umbrella from sustainability issues and environmental impact. Some of these you have to dig into company ethics but here are some things to flag for yourself and check your labels

SLS/Sulfate Free/DEA Free – The only reason they are added is to make your products foamy and lather better and they require fossil fuels. Skip them, they also dry out your skin anyways.

Paraben/Phthalate/Phosphate Free – will irritate both you and the lakes and rivers. Suppose help increase your products shelf life but just don't buy too far ahead and you'll be fine.

Cruelty Free- testing on animals is bad... enough said

Bio-degradeable/Recycled packaging – reduce, reuse and recycle still holds true

Organic/Sustainable – no harmful practices thank you!

Good for its People

Decent work – We like either locally made (where there are labour laws) or fair-trade/community-trade/direct-trade which ensures people are fairly treated. Check your labels see where things are produced (though this sometimes leaves out other parts of the production chain).  

Checking out company's websites and whether they mention their workers isn't a bad way to check either.

Good for Me

Just because something is an ethical product doesn't mean its a good one. Naturally derived products can still be duds. I've had natural ingredients irritate my skin (no lilac for me!). I don't like shampoo that leaves residue in my hair or weirdly filmy body lotion. I'm also not always a fan of some of the 'natural' fragrances. How it works, how it smells, how it lasts are all still important questions.

There is always new information coming out about what is 'ethical' in a product and ratings can change all the time but here's to doing my best! 

10 Things I Know After 1 Month in England

Today is my one month anniversary in England. I'm wouldn't say I have the swing of things yet but here are some of my personal truisms. I managed to get 10 in all and I think its only appropriate that 3 of these involve weather.

1. I always need an umbrella (or rain-jacket) even if its perfectly sunny when I leave my house.
2. The tube map is not nearly as complicated as the underground pathways between tube lines.
3. The crazy bureaucracy in Southern Africa? Yeah they learned if from the British.
4. My co-workers want tea as much as I do (which is always)
5. I will always find it cold, especially inside
6. Cross walk lights are really only 'suggested' times its probably safe to cross
7. I don't have enough battery on my phone to spend an entire day trying to navigate London
8. I know where my British Grandfather's love of puns come from
9. The British have perfected the sandwich and the charity shop (which are also good when enjoyed together)
10. Leather footwear is a must in a rainy climate

Now that I'm settled in London I hope to do some more exploring so stay tuned.

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Entertainment on a Fiver - Coffee Tasting

I have discovered that living in London is expensive...

(Shock! Horror! You don't say!? Why doesn't anyone tell you this!)

However, there are also a lot of entertaining things to do for pretty cheap. I've given myself about 5 pounds a week to do something entertaining/cultural.

This week's activity was a coffee tasting at Milk in Balham.

Despite coming late to the coffee drinking game (I managed university without it, but regular work was my downfall), I actually know a bit about coffee due to my father's coffee obsession. A few years ago my father decided that grinding his own coffee wasn't enough and moved to roasting his own coffee so I've witnessed a fair bit of the process. So when I was a brunch last weekend and saw a coffee tasting organized I figured hey why not.

How a Coffee Tasting Works (based on my limited experience)

1. Coffee grounds are put in glass cups for you to smell
2. Hot water is poured over the grounds and you smell it again
3. At a very precisely timed moment the staff skim off the coffee
4. You slurp a spoonful of coffee, swish it around in you mouth and (no joke) spit it out into a paper cup
5. Repeat slurping at various intervals as the coffee cools

In conclusion, coffee tasting, interesting thing but perhaps requires an interpreter for the less coffee knowledge. What I have taken away from this experience is:

1. I know very very very little about coffee growing, processing and buying
2. Coffee for tasting is not remotely brewed like you would for drinking which I find confusing
3. Picked the 'most unusual' coffee as my favourite, but not the 'best one'... meaning I better at finding unique than quality? (a bit hipster of me?)