This week I wanted to tell you all a little about my zero waste journey and cutting out single use plastics. Why I started it, how I got started, and how it's going.

Ok so lets start with the reason why I started. It was honestly because one day last year I realised that I couldn't remember the last time I went anywhere without seeing rubbish on the floor. And not just in the city (I live in London), but everywhere. Even in the middle of fields while out walking, or half way up a mountain! 

The more I started to notice the rubbish (particularly plastic) everywhere I went, the more it started to make me angry. I am not an angry person, quite to opposite in fact, and it was driving me crazy that I was starting to feel like this constantly because I was constantly surrounded by this infuriating amount of litter. I was walking down the street to work one day and complaining with a friend about the amount of plastic litter on the floor and right there and then I decided that I had to do something about it. So that is how my journey began.
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It's definitely not the most exciting story, but I decided on that day that I would eliminate single use plastics from my life. Getting started seemed pretty daunting because now that I was aware of it I realised that we use SO SO much plastic in our day to day lives! How on earth was I going to stop using all of it?!? The answer turned out to be one thing at a time. One little swap after another. So bit by bit I started changing the way that I lived and how I shopped. My very first swap was to start using shampoo bars instead of bottled shampoo. (I don't really count using reusable bags for my shopping as I was already doing that, or reusable water bottles because I was also doing that already to save money..)

It took me a while to make that first swap because I had to use up all of the shampoo that I already had. It was important to me not to waste it and so once I was down to my last half bottle, I switched to shampoo bars. I've since switched again to use Beauty Kubes shampoo as I've found that it's kinder to my hair. Next up was another easy swap, my toothbrush! Switching from plastic to bamboo was really easy and I actually like my bamboo toothbrush better as it's slightly smaller and easier to clean my teeth with. It's a shame that there's not an alternative to the plastic bristles yet but it's still a lot less plastic. When disposing of them I've been pulling the bristles out and saving them to either recycle somewhere suitable or to put into an eco brick.

After that I went on to make a few more wonderful easy swaps: reusable cutlery, lunch boxes, reusable straws, period pants (I wish I'd discovered these earlier!), deodorant, bars of soap, produce bags, mason jars to pre-prepare my breakfast, getting an epilator (which will last me for years), re-using packaging etc to wrap presents, and finally glass bottles for ketchup and mayo.

There's a quote that I've seen a few times which I really love: "We don't need a few people doing zero waste perfectly, we need millions of people doing it imperfectly." I don't know who wrote it but I think they're spot on. We all need to change the way that we live to create a better future and ensure that our planet does have a future, preferably one where humanity doesn't go extinct. But it's not a competition, and we shouldn't shame people because it doesn't look like they're doing enough. Cheer them on instead for the changes that they have made, no matter how small, because it all counts towards what we want to achieve. Everyone's journey will be different, everyone's circumstances are different; but I think it's really important now that we all wake up to the issue and start doing what we can.

Hello everyone and welcome to my first ever blog post!
I wanted to start off with a really fun one and thought what could be better than sharing one of my recent adventures with you all.

Last week I FINALLY took a couple of days out of my crazy busy actors life schedule to actually have a little mini-break holiday and do something fun for myself! (I'm not very good at treating myself as I'm very goal driven so can be a bit of a workaholic sometimes...)

We had a couple of vouchers from last Christmas that needed to be used and they were for a night's stay in a hotel and an experience. Seeing as how I like adventure and being active, it was decided that we'd go to Snowdonia in Wales and check out Bounce Below (which I've thought looked cool ever since I first heard of it). Bounce Below is one of the attractions at Zip World near Blaenau Ffestiniog in a massive underground slate cavern, and is essentially four floors of bouncy nets that are strung across the cavern with slides and net tunnels too.
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To say that Bounce Below was good fun would be the understatement of the year. I had an absolute blast!!! When you book you get given an hour to enjoy the experience and while that may not sound like long, let me tell you that after forty minutes of jumping around like a loon, sliding, and laughing my head off I was absolutely knackered!

One hour is definitely long enough and it's more than worth the money. I highly recommend the experience to anyone except those who don't like heights. You can see through the nets to the levels and people below you, and the cavern floor below that, plus as it is bouncy the floor is anything but stable. But yes, as long as you're ok with heights then you will love it.

To add to the atmosphere the staff play music (I won't forget bouncing along to Guns N' Roses Sweet Child O' Mine) and the whole cavern is lit with colourful lights. The experience is child friendly and they provide mats to help you get down the slides too.

While Zip World itself doesn't have a cafe, there is one on site and they have good and reasonably priced food. They even had jacket potatoes to keep my wheat intolerant tummy happy. There is also a gift shop and a couple of other experiences with the company who own the old quarry, though we definitely did not have time to do it all in one day.

In the afternoon we decided to do the Zip World Caverns experience as well because quite frankly it looked amazing. And it was! ​

Oh my gosh, where do I start with this one... It's a three hour zip lining and climbing experience through the caverns next to Bounce Below. I was excited about it from when we booked it, I got more excited when I could see other people doing part of the course during our time on Bounce Below, and it honestly lived up to every expectation. I absolutely LOVED it and can say that it is probably my favourite climbing/zip lining experience so far.

Like Bounce Below, the caverns are lit with bright colours and the location is just beautiful. You have to start off by going through training to make sure that everyone knows how to use the equipment properly and safely, and the equipment itself is extremely clever. With some of it designed by a local man, you are attached to the safety line at all times and it is not possible to take yourself off of it, there are clever lock style gates that help you move from section to section. I felt very safe doing the course because of this, which was great because once you set off it is not with your instructor so you can go at your own pace, there's even a way for you to overtake each other if you're faster or slower than the others around you. Don't worry though because the instructors are on hand watching you on cameras so they can come to assist you if you need help.

During the experience we completed eleven zip lines, scaled the walls of the cavern, scrambled a little on the slate and up nets, crossed rope bridges, and even got to choose between the challenge of monkey bars or a tightrope at the end. I chose the tightrope because I just don't have that much upper body strength (no seriously I tried them in my local park and only managed two bars before failing hilariously), and I didn't fancy just ending up dangling above a cavern!

I had the time of my life doing the Caverns experience and it was certainly the highlight of the trip. I've love to go back to Zip World again at some point to try out their other experiences, especially as they also have two more sites, so hopefully that will be possible...

If you want to see more from my experiences there then you're in luck as I will also be posting a vlog from the trip so do keep an eye out for that on #TheReelRoad playlist on YouTube!