Podcasts

Walking to work is a great way to get some exercise.
And listening to Podcasts on the way to work is a great way to pass the time!
Here are my current favorites:

This American Life
Chicago Public Radio
Overall 8
Diversity 8
Production 7
Type Stories of Interest

The News Quiz
BBC Radio 4
Overall 8
Diversity 6
Production 8
Type Comedy / Current Affairs (UK)

Radio Lab
WNYC
Overall 8
Diversity 7
Production 9
Type Stories of Interest

Edinburgh

We went to Edinburgh during festival season for 11 days this year (21-31 August) during which we saw over 20 shows! It was wonderfully gluttonous. Three lovely couples generously put us up. So... we decided to take a photo of each performance we went to - or if that wasn't permitted, we took something representative of it... DAY 1 SHOW 1 - POTTED POTTER - The Unauthorised Harry Experience - A Parody SHOW 2 - Tao Samurai Drummers (Lis' favourite of the week) SHOW 3 - North Sea Gas - The Best of Scotland (acoustic music - we were the youngest by a long shot) DAY 2 SHOW 4 - GELABERT AZZOPARDI (the most remarkable thing about this show was that not only had Rick & Mo happened to book for the same show on the same night but their tickets were right next to ours!) DAY 3 SHOW 5 - The Tiger Lillies - The Songs of Shockheaded Peter and other Gory Verses DAY 4 SHOW 6 - News Revue 30th Anniversary (like being back at the Sydney Uni law review) SHOW 7 - Barry & Stuart - Powered by Demons DAY 5 SHOW 8 - Africaaah! (an African Children's Choir) SHOW 9 - Triology (in 3 parts as the name suggests - so woeful we left after part 2 - the photo depicts Dwayne howling in anguish at how bad it was... it was supposed to be a modern take on feminism but we didn't really feel it had moved anywhere since the 1970s especially given that at least 45 mins of it was taken up with playing excerpts from a video of a panel of speakers from the 70s - not even the very long scene of 25 naked women of every shape and size jumping around on stage could inspire us to stay) SHOW 10 - The Dark Party (crazy Australian blokes torturing themselves e.g. hanging a car battery from chains connected to nails through the nipples of one of them, swallowing razor blades... - I had to pretend it was magic, but it wasn't) DAY 6 SHOW 11 - Afternoon Delight SHOW 12 - Chris Cox: Mind Over Patter (very clever - used knowledge of how humans behave to pick what choices audience participants would make - both Dwayne & I were called up at different points, and he picked our choices - incredible!) DAY 7 SHOW 13 - Circa (amazing Australian acrobats/actors/gymnasts) SHOW 14 - Axis of Awesome: Infinity Rock Explosion (Jess & Byron joined us for this - again, Australian group made particularly famous for a song around time of last Australian election) DAY 8 SHOW 15 - The Last Witch (play about the last witch to be burned in the UK - bit too predictable for my liking - The Crucible is better) we also fitted in some Haitian singers who look more exciting here than we thought they were (we saw a few free comedy shows and plenty of street buskers but I haven't included everything!): SHOW 16 - Edinburgh Tattoo (Lis' twin favourite - but it flew by and I wished it had gone on for much longer - the Swiss were the star attraction) the Swiss with their glowing batons (they also had flaming batons a little later): this is at the end when all the bands are out marching back and forth: DAY 9 SHOW 17 - The Really Terrible Orchestra (we thought they'd be clever or fun but they were just terrible - the feel-good side is that it's a group of relative newcomers to music) SHOW 18 - Michael Clark New Work (modern dance - I loved the colours in this performance) DAY 10 SHOW 19 - Charles (I can't remember anything about this unfortunately! and the photo doesn't help really though it is lovely and colourful) SHOW 20 - The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra We then caught the sleeper train back to London through the night and went straight to work! What a time.

Sponsored by Hovis

Hovis is a bread brand here. A few weeks back, we saw that some Hovis loaves were reduced to clear at 13p (about 20c) each so we bought 2 loaves to freeze and use. Not only were the loaves super cheap but they also had a voucher on each that entitled us to get 30p off our next purchase of a Hovis loaf. Dwayne used the 2x30p off vouchers on full price loaves (so 1.25 reduced to 65p for the two). So far - 4 loaves at 91p... We thought that was pretty good but it didn't stop there... I was walking to work last week and saw that people were carrying super-large Hovis loaves and tracked them back (not far!) to where they were giving them out. And, would you believe, they stuck another 30p off voucher on the free loaf of bread! The next day they were again handing out the super-size loaves so I got another one - with another voucher. We then used the voucher from the first of the free loaves to buy - you guessed it - a loaf that was reduced to 29p! (we actually made 1p on that buy). We still have the second voucher to use at an opportune moment. Hey we may even use it on a full price loaf if we have to! TOTAL: 7 loaves of bread @ 91p (with 30p voucher remaining on stand-by) --> 13p per loaf It's not the bread that's expensive in London.

Good Coffee in London

OK, so London is not renowned for its coffee culture, especially if you are from places like Italy, the Antipodes or just about any country that loves coffee (excluding North America, who, bless their little hearts, think that it is possible to make good coffee by percolation, filter or one of several other sub-optimal methods). BUT, there is a strong coffee culture if you know where to look.

So here is my current top 10 of coffee in London:

(OK, its not currently 10, but the list will change, and someday it will be 10).
I am using new criteria to rate coffee shops, which will eventually appear on all listings. There is an overall score, and rating for coffee, with a separate rating for milk quality (determined from a latte). I have also tried to determine whether free WiFi is available!

And here is a fancy Google map to earn some nerd points, with the next places for review marked with a '?':
View Good Coffee in London in a larger map

Berlin

so... one of our favourite activities in a new country is to wander round a supermarket picking out the different items and, especially if we're in a self-catering apartment (as we do for cooking fun + cheapness), we load up with a stack of stuff to take back and enjoy... Today we're in Berlin and, after our wonderful 5 hour guided bike ride around the city in the sun, we loaded up at the supermarket with sweet and savoury quark varieties, a few bottles of weissbier to sample, sauerkraut, random sausage cuts and so on. Wonderful! (except for the beer bottle that dropped out of our basket and smashed on the ground in the process...) We get to the check out, scan everything through, struggle to fit it all into two large bags (of course the Germans have been recycling and doing other environmentally-friendly things for decades longer than the rest of us, so bags must be bought everywhere). Then we try to pay. Nup, AMEX doesn't work (no big deal, sometimes that happens), but then they say they also don't take VISA or VISA debit! So, after over 50 euros of food has been carefully selected, scanned and packed, we are embarrassed that we can't pay - after some hunting, we find an ATM, withdraw cash, and back at the supermarket, ALL the goods have to be re-scanned and re-packed before we pay and trek back to our place hugging the large bags to prevent them busting open. hehe - fortunately didn't take too long before we were laughing about it! more on Berlin to follow... : )

The great Tutu

Desmond Tutu was brought from South Africa to speak at an A4ID event in St Paul's Cathedral, London, on 13 July, to raise awareness of our work and be a rallying point for so many of those who have been and who could be involved. Tutu spoke engagingly and humorously as ever on 'The Millennium Development Goals: A Moral Challenge". It was very exciting seeing the crowds pour in - the place was packed with almost 2000 mostly lawyers - scary thought, ey?! Our friends, the Barkers, with their friend from Malawi - they were thrilled to meet Tutu afterwards. When he shook my hand kindly before the event began, I was dumbstruck! I don't have any photos of Tutu here I realise! But these photos above were all taken by Dwayne and they give you a bit of a feel for it all. If you want to see more photos, many of which are Dwayne's, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/a4id/collections/72157621386532182/

Athens

Some photos from our trip to Athens recently - the soldiers with pompoms on their feet doing their ceremonial dance! or at least the guard ceremony outside parliament - The meat and fish market was a good place to get food to cook at our apartment... but we left the pigs' heads for someone else... We walked up to the Parthenon (of course!) and saw the new Acropolis Museum... And found where the first Modern Olympics were held: And best of all, in the 40 degree heat, we found a fabulous spot to swim - ahh...! Dwayne's presentation on CSR at the conference - which was the primary reason for the trip - was very well-received. He's been asked to speak on the topic in South Africa and Sydney. We also enjoyed having dinner with those in the 'Business & Management' stream, including quite a few who we knew through Dwayne's MGSM days.