Living Simply

Yesterday was Pancake Day and I'd kinda forgotten, given that it was one of those days when you're first in the office and last out. So, having missed out on the pancakes, I was reminded by G that of course you're meant to give something up for Lent.

But it reminded me of the thing with diets is that by focussing on what you're meant to be giving up, you're missing the point that suddenly not eating that mars bar with your eleven am coffee is more likely to make you give up sooner or later as you're just taking the pleasure out of your life.

So rather than giving something up for Lent, I've been inspired by the Live Simply idea, originally found on the Live Simply website, but the concepts isn't restricted to one faith. In fact, if you strip out the whole question of faith, it's still fundamentally about justice and fairnes in our dealings with others.

Which is a lot more positive than just giving up chocolate for a few weeks.

Timing is Everything

On Sunday, we went out and bought low energy lightbulbs, enough to replace all the existing standard bulbs that came with our new house. All good stuff.

Next day, what did I see? This news item on the BBC News site warning of the dangers of low energy light bulbs! It would be great if we could have one answer so that we knew what we did was really going to make a difference, not just shift the problem from one place to another.

In the meantime, I'll keep the low energy bulbs. If nothing else, I should wind up with lower electricity bills.

Pressies

Amazing! According to the Motley Fool (www.fool.co.uk), the average Briton received £90 worth of unwanted Christmas presents this Christmas. This is on top of a figure I heard last year (can't remember where from now) that said the average family in Britain spends £2100 on Christmas, and that by Christmas 2007, most people were still paying off their credit card bills from the previous Christmas. That's a whole lot of pressies.

So, if you did receive £90 worth of unwanted presents, most charity shops would probably be glad of them, especially if they're still in their boxes. Our nearest will be getting a haul fairly shortly.

And Sainsbury's (and no doubt the other major supermarkets) are doing their annual recycling of Christmas cards, with proceeds going to The Woodland Trust. Well done Sainsburys.

Cards for Charity

My annual rant - most so-called "charity cards" give virtually nothing to the charities they're meant to be helping, especially the ones from supermarkets. If you're going to give charity cards, go to Cards for Good Causes where 80p in every pound goes to the charity in question.

Go on, you know you want to.

You Tube...

Maybe I’m a late developer but I’ve only really just discovered You Tube. After a pleasant hour last night of searching out old Beatles videos, I came across some clips from the wonderful film Baraka. Baraka as a film is difficult to categorise: a feature length meditation on the beauty and tragedy of the world set to music. It’s uplifting and thought-provoking in equal measure – the photography is breathtaking and the music haunting.

The clip on You Tube is from the band Dead Can Dance and is a central set piece in the film. I first saw it on MTV back in 1994 and went straight out and bought the video.

The piece is called The Host of the Seraphim, and I challenge anyone to watch the video and not be moved.

Slow News Day

It’s a slow news day at work and there were no announcements about anything on the company intranet, so a couple of interesting facts for the team at the morning huddle:

It’s Buddha’s birthday today (in Hong Kong & South Korea).

On this day in 1626 a Dutch explorer called Peter Minuit allegedly bought Manhattan for 60 guilders, which works out at about £20. When you think that the average weekly pay for financial sector in Manhattan in 2006 was just under 8½ grand, that’s quite an investment.
(Thanks Wikipedia for those!)

And as it had been a while since I had a "hippy" huddle…

A group of UK charities are launching an appeal today for the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and Chad – one of the first times that so many charities are acting together to tackle a humanitarian crisis. So it’s well worth having a look at the background behind it and donate if you wish.

However, applying Problem Management thinking, it’s worth looking to tackle some of the underlying causes of the conflict, otherwise things will never get better. One of the best ways is to put pressure on your MP & businesses to intervene in Sudan. Intervention can mean many things, but if you’re interested, you can contact your MP through www.parliament.uk and you can apply pressure on other areas through a number of websites such as www.pressureworks.com or www.Oxfam.com etc.

Strange Creatures

A type of turtle previously thought extinct has appeared in Cambodia, according to the BBC. It's a strange looking creature, with a rubbery shell and I can't help thinking it looks like it's been run over by a truck! It's more good news though, to balance out the seemingly constant news of species dying off all over the place.