There’s a Rang-Tan in my bedroom . . .

Please,  please  watch this short video from You Tube.  It’s just one minute and 31 seconds long.  Please, please, please watch it.

I don’t know about you, but this video made me cry and I vowed that I’d share it on the blog here.

If you don’t know anything about Palm Oil, maybe I can help just a tiny bit and give you a little information:

Palm Oil is harmful is to animals if eaten, obviously causing a problem to marine life, and  a vet here in the UK even had to save the lives of 5 dogs  (<— LINK will open in another window for you)  after they ingested some on the beach.

Palm oil is a type of vegetable oil derived from palm fruit grown on oil palm trees, and it’s one of the most unsustainable industries in the world.

Causing mass deforestation around the world (specifically Africa, Asia, and America, but mostly Indonesia and Malaysia),  palm oil growth is destructive to the environment and the habitats of many now-endangered species, as well as the homes of native communities.  Because of huge demand; it’s in everything.

More than 50% (yes, you read that right – more than FIFTY PER-CENT) of the items on sale in your grocery stores, contain Palm Oil.

Most of the time, it’s a completely unnecessary ingredient,  but it’s so hard to find alternatives to products that don’t contain it. But at least if we’re all made aware, we can try our hardest to avoid it…

10 things you’re probably buying which contain Palm Oil and you didn’t realise it …

1.  BREAD

Most loaves of bread you buy at the supermarket will contain palm oil, so next time you go for your weekly shop, check the ingredients carefully, or even better – buy bread from the counter or a local baker and actually ask them for the list of ingredients they use!

2.  CRISPS  –  (‘Chips’ for our American readers)

It makes sense that making crisps requires some kind of oil, but sadly most of them use palm oil. The packet will likely say ‘vegetable oil’ though, so be aware (this is another commonly used name for Palm Oil). The best thing is to look for crisps that expressly use an oil like olive, sunflower or coconut, or find savoury crunchy snacks that don’t contain any oil at all!

3.  MARGARINE

Margarine is a commonly used substitute for butter and dairy spreads, but even though you’re doing a good thing by avoiding the dairy industry, most of these products contain palm/vegetable oil. Try substituting margarine in recipes with coconut oil, or olive oil.

4.  VEGAN CHEESE

Same as above, many of the dairy substitutes sadly seem to contain palm oil in some form. Keep an eye out on the ingredients and shop sustainably;  many vegan cheeses come in plastic packaging and contain loads of random additives!  (One of the reasons I don’t eat Vegan cheese!)

5.  SOAP

Many supermarket soaps seem to contain palm oil for some reason, buy from local artisans, or brands that use only natural ingredients who don’t test on animals.

6.  ICE CREAM

I have no idea why there needs to be palm oil in ice cream… odd that!  Not all brands do, so always check the label. 

7.  PIZZA BASES

Many supermarket oven pizzas or ready-made pizza bases contain palm/vegetable oil in the base.  But again, check the label because not all will.

8.  INSTANT NOODLES

A staple for all budgeters and quick-lunch-addicts alike, vegan or otherwise.  They’re probably not great for our health anyway.  Oh and yes, this includes Supernoodles, Pot Noodles and Tesco Instant Noodles (for readers in the UK).

9.  SHAMPOO

As with the soap (mentioned above),  try to support ethical/environmental brands when buying personal care/beauty products.  Places like Lush and the Body Shop are good places to start.

10.  CHOCOLATE

Palm oil in chocolate is a more rare occurrence, but still something to check on the ingredients labels.  It can be easy to avoid, so why buy it by accident?

It’s almost impossible to never buy anything with palm oil in it, but if we all are made aware of the issues and try our very best to cut down on palm oil purchases and avoid it where we can, then maybe we can each make a small difference.  All those small differences will add up to a BIG difference.

BE  A  PART  OF  THE  DIFFERENCE!

LINKS:  (all will open up in another window for you)

Say NO to Palm Oil

25 Sneaky Names for Palm Oil

Palm Oil is Everywhere.  Here’s what to do about it.

My BIG thanks to Anna at ‘The Cornish Life’  for help in putting this post together in a short way, as I’m totally unable to ‘do’ short because words just keep tumbling out of my head and my fingers are compelled to share those words!  tsk tsk.

Have a truly blessed rest of your day, my wonderful friend.  Thank you so much for coming, reading, and BIG THANKS particularly for watching the short video at the head of this post.  Be a part of the difference.  Alone we can achieve a small thing.  Together, we can change the world!

Sending you much love, from me in my corner, to you in yours.

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Things I’ve learned this week.

Happy 19th of May and … HAPPY FRIDAY!  Aw it’s great to see you.  I’m kind of getting rather fond of these Friday Get Togethers.  It’s a bit like Bingo Night, don’t y’think?  lol.

I’ve been through a week of learning some odd and strange things this week.  I’ve come across things, seen things, experienced things and found out some weird things.  All of which I’ve had to use the good ol’ interwebby to discover more.

For instance ….  I learnt a new way of saying:  Avocados.  Yes, there really is.  😀

Imagine, if you will, being the 7-year-old child you used to be, then add a sprinkle of ‘cheeky monkey’,  and a pinch of ‘smiley rascal’,  and just for good measure add a large soup ladle of ‘twinkly smiles’.  Stir the mixture and then continue to read as I educationamalise you.

Say this sentence three times:  Have a CAD dooze.  Say it again… and again.  Have a CAD dooze.

Now you’re going to say it in that way in which we all talk… we miss some letters out of the pronunciation:  So you’re going to miss that letter H and the letter D on CAD.   It now becomes Av a CAdooze.   Make sure that you make that ‘CA’  into a hard sounding KA,  (not soft sounding, like you’d hear in the word: car.  Hard sounding like in the word CAt).   Av a  CAdooze.  Practise it … Av a  CAdooze.  Av a  CAdooze.   Say it out loud:  Av a  CAdooze.

You can now switch your brain back on and listen to the way you are now saying Av a   CAdooze.   Av a  CAdooze.  Av a  CAdooze.  It’s three separate words.  Av | a | Cadooze.

So now I’m going to ask you   . . .  do you  Av a  cadooze?

This week I’ve also learnt about an incredible, unique flower whose petals turn clear as glass when it’s splattered by raindrops.

No, I’m not making it up and its not April the 1st.  The little flowers of this wonderful plant turn from white, to clear when raindrops hit it’s petals.  Take a look ….

And this (below) is what it looks like normally, before the rain . . .

It’s called Diphylleia Grayi …  or commonly known as the Skeleton Flower.  It comes from the mountainsides in the colder regions of China and Japan. The flowers come out in late spring, with large, fuzzy green, umbrella-like foliage topped with small clusters of pretty white petals.

Isn’t that just jaw dropping amazing?  I’d never heard of these flowers before.  Have you?

Next!  …  I learned this week that every night, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence are lowered into a bomb-proof safe.  Again … something else I never knew.  It’s the little things like this which make me open my eyes wide and ask myself why I never knew *that*  (whatever *that* might be).

We’ve all, no doubt, been struck by an ice cream headache at least once in our lives. Well …. I found out this week that there is a proper name for it!  The technical name for an ice-cream headache is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia.  Heckaroonie … I can’t even say it!  LOL.  But I know exactly what it feels like. tsk tsk.

Oh … and I learned this, this week, and it tickled the heck out of me . . .

Marco Polo described them as:-  “scarcely smaller than elephants.  They have the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephant’s. They have a single large black horn in the middle of the forehead…  They have a head like a wild boar’s…  They spend their time by preference wallowing in mud and slime.  They are very ugly brutes to look at.  They are not at all such as we describe them when we relate that they let themselves be captured by virgins, but clean contrary to our notions.”  What do you think he might have thought he’d found and was describing for us there?

He thought he’d found  . . .   [drumroll] ….  Unicorns.   But it’s believed that what he was actually describing was the one horn rhinoceros.   Bless his deluded little heart.  lol

And finally ….  I learned a few things about chickens …  but the one thing I learned tickled me so I thought it might interest you too:

Apparently, according to those in the know,

• Danish chickens go gok-gok; 
• German chickens gak gak; 
• Thai chickens go gook gook;
• Dutch chickens tok tok
• Finnish and Hungarian chickens say kot kot.
• The French hen goes cotcotcodet. 

Where-as my chickens go:  SHREEeaky BLEEEAKKK FOUR FOUR FOUR cluck cluck! VERY shouty, especially when just about to lay an egg.  But the littlest one says:  Paw, paw paw beek beek bok.  Paw paw paw beek beek bok.  She’s a pathetic sounding little thing, but so sweet and so very tiny.  (A Bantam – who has feathered feet.  It makes her look like she’s wearing slippers.  Bless!  lol).

And now ladies and gentlemen, we arrive at the part we’ve all been waiting for ….

THE JOKES

Two sailors are at sea. One says:  “That sure is a lot of water out there!”.   The other replies: “Yeah! And that’s just the top of it!”

Q:  What does a pirate say on his 80th birthday?  …  A:  Aye Matey.

A puzzle for you:

• Michael J Fox has a short one.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger has a long one.
• Madonna doesn’t have one.
• The Pope doesn’t use his.

What is it?   click, hold the click and drag here for the answer:—> … a last name. 😀

What do you get when you cross an elephant with a hyena?  A stern rebuke from the ethics committee and an immediate cessation of grant funding.

Q: Why don’t anteaters ever get sick?  ….  A: Cause they’re full of anty bodies.

Q:  What do you get when you cross a cow and a duck?  A:  Milk and quackers

and finally …

Knock knock. Who’s there?   Salad.   Salad who?   Oh, just lettuce in!

And that’s me done and dusted!

Another week over, and I’m wiser and more educated than I was last week.  So now it’s over to you.  Have you learned anything this week?  If so …  tell me what.  I’d love to hear about something you’ve learned this week.

Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee with me.  I love seeing you and spending some time together having a laugh.

May your weekend be thoroughly enjoyable.  And may next week bring you smiles and joy from the moment it begins!  Be good to each other,  and …  may your God go with you.