ethical life Local Adventures

Its a dance! You know all those fancy coordinated dances you see in Jane Austen films? Think that but more jumping lively. Think lines of partners spinning people and dosey-doeing and the like. Now imagine all that happening with people who just learned the dance combinations in about 3 minutes and you'll have an accurate picture of my Saturday night.

So how did I end up at such an event? Well I am aided and abetted in finding interesting and slightly unusual (at least for this Canadian) events by my little expat cohort in Greenwich. Everyone has been really keen this month to come up with things to do. I think I'm not the only one coming out of a winter hibernation. So I've got a pretty packed schedule of shows and events for the next month. One of the girls turned up this dance event in honour of St. Patrick's day. Despite having only the vaguest of ideas about what this might be like, I figured why not?

Now I have to admit I was a bit wary of what this would entail. When I heard Irish folk dance, at first I had some bad flashes of River-dance. Lots of bobbing up and down in place. Rest assured you will not look like river dance. It was actually really fun and pretty social since. Most of the dances required getting into groups of 4 or 6 pairs so we managed to meet a few other people. And with everyone at the dance being solidly in the amateur category, we were all muddling through it together. Be prepared to really move though. I didn't really know how energetic all those dances would be. We were all exhausted afterwards and everyone had sore legs the next day.

If you are game to try out a Ceili, I have some tips for you before you go:

1. Wear good flat shoes. Ones that you feel comfortable jumping around in and don't hurt your feet. While my little black boots were okay during the evening, my feet have really paid for the experience the last few days.
2. Dress to stay cool. While Ceili in no way requires workout gear (you don't need to really move that freely), but you will get moving and we were all feeling really warm after a few dances.
3. Know your right from your left and your clockwise from your counter-clockwise. If this is a challenge for you (and it is for me... especially the clockwise thing), you will need to be prepared to bump into many, many people. Luckily, you won't be the only one so its not too embarrassing.

With that you are all prepared to go out out and do some jigging, kick-stepping and swing your partner round. Enjoy!

ethical life

I read somewhere last fall that when people look back, they have stronger and happier memories about the things that they did rather than the things that they bought.

While this has always made sense to me (even much beloved items are often out of sight, out of mind), I realised that I don't exactly live by this principle. I've always been a bit of a shopaholic in truth. A lot of my money goes into things.... okay mainly clothes, but lets be more generous and say things.

When I started blogging in London last summer, I originally thought to concentrate on being an ethical consumer. After a couple of months, though, I wasn't enjoying the enormous pressure to keep buying things and trying them out. In fact, I felt like I was constantly obsessing over what to buy next; needing to buy something so I could write; worrying about spending money to try things, even if I was happy with what I was already using.  Even if it had an ethical dimension, it still felt like a lot of hyper consumption.

Starting this year, I've decided I want to spend more energy, more time, and, yes, even more money, on experiencing, creating and doing, rather than shopping. I will still talk about ethical products and decision making, because I do think these are important. But I want to explore the idea of 'living well' beyond buying. Explore it in the broadest sense - as in 'well' for myself, the world and the other people I share it with.

I guess that moves this blog firmly into the field of being a 'lifestyle' blog. I hope you will enjoy this second (or third or perhaps fourth, not quite sure honestly) go at this and don't mind sticking with me as I try to get my head around what this might entail.

I would love suggestions of sites and activities around London that you think I should check out. Leave ideas in the comment box please!