Entries from July 2007 ↓

Update: Looks like Blackle didn’t give all the facts. Energy efficiency is only made up on the old bulkier (CRT) monitors rather than new slim (LCD) monitors like those used on laptops. CRT monitors are being phased out and it’s rare to see them around much these days (although i’m sure theres a hell of a lot still around) so the numbers are inflated somewhat. It’s not fair to completely lambast this idea, it makes some difference and psychologically it makes you think about the environment issue when you see a markedly different coloured website. But, yes, do what your mum says and always tell the truth. Don’t make money deceivingly or the increasingly-aware internet-empowered society will bite you back.

Interesting story I read over at Innocent Drinks about saving energy consumption by changing the homepage that loads whenever you open your internet browser:

‘When your screen is white, be it an empty word page, or the Google page, your computer consumes 74 watts of energy, and when it’s black it consumes only 59 watts. A guy, Mark Ontkush, wrote this article about the energy saving that would be achieved if Google had a black screen. Taking in account their huge number of page views, according to his calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved.’

In response, a black version of the Google search engine has been created called Blackle. I’m sure there’s going to be some counter-claim to this, but i’ve done it anyway.

Change your homepage today and do your bit! (Caveat: some users may have accessibility issues in seeing the contrast of colours on a black page, so go and hug a tree instead.)

Some other interesting eco news recently:

• As much as I despise Starbucks, they’ve partnered with Innocent Drinks recently for a Buy 1 Get 1 Tree promotion. When you buy an innocent smoothie from Starbucks and enter the attached promotional code on the Innocent website, a tree will be planted in India to help combat climate changeand provide income to local communities. Just don’t buy anything else of theirs please.
• Tom’s Shoes is a cool business I heard about over at the Seth Godin blog (a daily must read by the way): ‘If you buy a pair of these very inexpensive shoes, he gives a pair to a kid in the developing world for free. No fine print.’ The shoes are made in Argentina and the free shoes are distributed here too. ‘Tom has turned the shoe into a souvenir. A post-modern shoe, a shoe for people who don’t need shoes, but are happy to wear a statement. This isn’t the first pair of shoes most Americans will buy, it might not even be the tenth. But it will be one that people talk about when they’re wearing it.’
• The man in Seat 61. ‘Maybe you don’t like flying, or are concerned about air travel’s contribution to global warming. Or perhaps you just prefer real travel by train or ship, where the journey is part of the adventure… Either way, The Man in Seat Sixty-One will tell you how to travel overland comfortably & affordably where you might think that air was now the only option.’

1, 2, 4 trains pass. Each set of lights at the end of the tunnel offers hope. That’s 4 sets of hopes dashed. Finally you squeeze on. You feel sorry for the people left stranded on the platform, but you’ve served your time. Crushed against a curved door. No sounds except the squealing of the train. Frequently a stop in-between stations. Darkness. Sounds of the operating theatre. No room to move. Sweating. It’s not even 20 degress outside.

First stop. Mass exodus. Human gridlock. Mass influx. Now stuck in the middle of the carriage with nothing to hold on to but the thought that you can change lines at the next stop. Instead you sway with the other people suffering the same plight. Like a concert, except it’s not entertaining. Somehow people manage to find room to read a newspaper when others can barely heave a sigh. Next stop you need to change lines. You push your way through. Fighting for the freedom of being outside the carriage and its relative fresh air. Still hundreds of meters underground. Still miles from your destination.

The next train is on the other side of the station. This is the rat race. Your destination is the most important. Thousands of people meet in the centre of the station, all coming from and going off in different directions. In the middle you bump into people rudely, as if it’s part of life. Sometimes people complain. They’re obviously new to this.

The next platform is always covered with people. Despite this, you’ll get on. The same amount of people are exiting the trains. Replacing one block of outgoing passengers with another is the challenge though. The incomers are itching to get on and claim a prized seat, the people on the train are itching to get off to go through the same process on another platform.

We’re all on. Angry people who just missed a seat now stare angrily at their nemesis. They’ll give them another stare when they leave their seat or when they themselves leave the train. The seated will read their papers as if everyone got a seat. For the next twenty minutes they are in business class. Gradually the numbers thin and you can breathe a sigh of relief; you’re about to reach your destination, a rainy summers day, car traffic, drunks, dealers and 9 hours behind a computer screen working for a cause you don’t believe in.

Couple of weekends ago we ventured down to Elephant and Castle to see this Kiwi band who had been on the iPod for a long time, but I was yet to see. Cool reggae/jazzy sounds and a cool crowd as well. The venue, Coronet Theatre, is almost an exact replica of the Hi-Fi bar in Melbourne. I miss you.

Photos of the Katchafire gig

And now… the last 3 months described in bullet points:

Returned from Brazil

• Poverty
• Rain
• Sleeping on couches
• Borrowing money
• Wanting to be back in Brazil
• Despite this, happy to be in London with good friends, sort of

Cambridge

• Ange’s sister Belinda lives in Cambridge
• We rode our bikes through the university grounds and watched the ‘punt’ boats on the river
• Beautiful city centre, lots of old looking buildings and a sunday market selling amazing samosa’s
• Plenty of drunks kids with big IQ’s, the worst kind of drunk kid
• On the last night we saw DJ Jazzy Jeff (old-school hip-hop!)

Bethnal Green

• Found a place that was extremely cheap in East London
• Right next to a massive park (Bethnal Green) with tennis courts, basketball, soccer (football they reckon), lots of chavs (bogans) with dogs (bulldogs) who have to excercise their dogs in a 5 metre x 5 metre cage right next to our house (very strange)
• 9 housemates and 1 bathroom, but suprisingly quiet most of the time. Originally 3 Polish girls , 2 South African guys, one spanish guy. Now 3 Polish girls, 2 South African guys, 1 Spanish girl, 1 French girl. There must be a joke somewhere in there. Great not to be living with Australians (no offence). Our housemates are very funny and nice people (socialists). We love our house.
• 1 stop from Liverpool St but the tubes are manic in the mornings, have waited 4 tubes once before being able to get on. Hot, sweaty, smelly tubes. We’ve now started to take a bus to avoid it.

Markets are free

• Our first few weeks back we just went to markets: Portobello (clothes), Borough (best food in the world), Colombia Road (flowers - we bought some for our room - don’t ask me which ones, I don’t know), Spitalfields (all of the above)
• I challenge you to make me a better toasted cheese sandwich than that which you can buy at Borough Market. It’s not possible and if you take up the challenge I get free toasted cheese sandwiches. So, go on.

Cinematic Orchestra

• I booked tickets for this before I went away to Japan, Australia, Brazil
• FRONT ROW! Wicked act
• These guys are an amazing fusion of jazz, funk, orchestral, hip-hop. I thoroughly recommend. My mum loves them and she has good taste in music (sometimes)

Mr Scruff

• Our second gig since coming back. Scruff is cool, but this gig wasn’t great - mostly because we were too broke to drink too much and we all know that it is nigh on impossible to have fun without alchohol.
• Had a bit of a dance but not as much fun as the last time we saw him.

Parliament Hill

• Hampstead Heath is one of the most beautiful parks in London. Much more unkempt than the other parks - it always reminds me of Sherwood Forest in Robin Hood. On one side of the park lies Parliament Hill - which, next to the London Eye, is the best view of London city i’ve seen.
• You can’t exactly see all of London from Parliament Hill, mainly the East half, but it is incredible because of the distance you can see. When you live in London it’s hard to imagine life outside of the concrete jungle, but from this vantage point you can see past the city towards the rural areas. It’s a relief to know this actually exists.

Abbey Road and Lords

• One especially rainy summer day we decided to pack our cameras for the day and become tourists.
• I’d already been to Lords with Dad, but for Ange’s Dad’s sake I dragged her along to take a photo in front of this hallowed turf.
• About 10 minutes walk away is Abbey Rd (home to the recording studio of the Beatles) and that famous crossing from the cover of one of their albums. Forget that its an iconic landmark, its funny just watching people trying to get photos of themselves crossing the road. The perfect shot has no cars in sight and you have to look forward and stretch out your arms while you walk - and for extremists, to wear a white suit a-la John Lennon. But, there are always cars, and there is always this confusion about whether you are going to walk or wait for them to pass. If you like seeing near-misses between cars and pedestrians this should be your first stop.

Ange’s Birthday

• Happy Birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Angeeeeee. Happy birthday to you. Hip Hip. Hooray. Hip Hip. Hooray. Hip Hip Hooray. (Cue some jerk with ‘For she’s a jolly good fellow….’)
• We had a big picnic in Bethnal Green for Ange’s birthday at the start of June. It was a BIG picnic. There were tapas, salads, falafels, wine, beer, thankfully lots of sunshine and about 20 friends (no jumping castles).
• The boys kicked around a Geelong football (not paid up, but proud nonetheless) and resultingly couldn’t move the next day. But that may have been down to more than kicking the football.
• We wound up at our house as the sun came down and a few of us greeted it as it came back up. I woke up in our garden.
• Happy Birthday to you

San Sebastian

• Great to come back to my favourite place in Spain. Beaches, food, drinks and um… rain? We took a few days off work to give us a long weekend.
• Night 1: Delicious tapas, litres of sangria and a dance in some crap bar with our mates from London - Dave, Dan, Kallie and Rhi. We were staying in the Old Town, so, thankfully, a short stumble home.
• Next day awake at midday. You’ve got to relax on holidays right? Straight to a restaurant for greasy food followed by an ice-cream (its the San Sebastian way). We then went up to the fun park (via the funicular) on top of the mountain overlooking the main beach. Not only is this one of the best fun parks you will ever go to (it has dodgems, pat the donkey and a rollercoaster), it also has the best view in San Sebastian.
• Dodgems are the most entertaining fun park activity and I want some in my backyard when I buy a house.
• I won a watergun on the ‘Race the turtles’ amusement. The watergun had a leak, which fatally flawed its operation. I gave it to some kid afterwards who is no doubt rueing having taking a piece of plastic junk from a stranger - when he could’ve refused and made me look harder for a bin.
• Gave the trampolines a miss this year.
• Went to an Italian restaurant for dinner because we wanted a proper meal - tapas for every meal is not cool.

Biarritz

• 1 and a half hours from San Sebastian on a train lies Biarritz, just inside the French border. We caught some old-school trains with interiors coming straight out of the 70’s. Funky.
• I love France. J’aime Francais or something.
• I tried to speak a little bit of french and then realised it’s been 13 years since I was learning French at school (that is a scary thought). I wish I kept it up, Latin has turned out to be fairly useless. OK… completely useless.
• Biarritz is quite a posh place, big buildings, boulevards lined with expensive cafes. Beautiful beaches and lots of annoying small dogs.
• Again we had Italian food for dinner, perhaps the best Italian food i’ve ever had. Well done France.

Afro reggae

• Afroreggae is a huge social movement in Brazil, aimed at keeping kids in the favelas (slums) away from selling drugs and getting involved in wars with rival factions that dominate some of the poor parts of Brazil. It’s a brilliant premise - bringing them education in music, arts and dance and stopping the growth of gangs.
• We saw a gig by Afro Reggae one night at the Barbican which was really cool. Great drumming and some really nice vocals as well. There was a bunch of kids from East London in the audience, who Afro Reggae had been doing workshops with recently, and near the end they all jumped on stage for a dance.
• The night after the gig we went and saw Favela Rising, the documentary about how the group was formed and the work it does. GO AND SEE THIS MOVIE. These guys are inspirational in what they do for the kids of Rio and the story of their formation is incredible. It’s life-changing sort of stuff, go and see it now (because your life needs to change).

Ben’s 30th

• Last weekend we celebrated Ange’s brothers 30th.
• After a few beers in a bar in Camden, we ended up in some party in Dalston. Actually it was a converted church and it had stuffed foxes, people wearing fancy dress, an underground theatre and it was bloody cool. London can be so random.

Audience. This is my life until about 5 minutes ago.