Back in 2010, I undertook a four month unpaid communications internship with the Global Poverty Project. The GPP is a unique organisation as it works alongside other charities rather than being in competition with them (for funding and exposure). It focuses on educating people about international development and encourages them to get involved with the movement to end extreme poverty through various means including: fundraising, campaigning and donating.
In the short time I worked there I learnt more about international development and some of the charities that are involved with improving living conditions for those less fortunate than ourselves. I also gained an understanding of the not-for-profit sector.
I have since been writing film reviews for the website, specifically films which contain content around extreme poverty. The idea is to promote films that can educate us all further and hopefully as a result of this, the word will spread and more action and participation will ensue. Some of the issues explored include fair trade, blood diamonds and trafficking.
Have a look at the website blog to see some of the films we recommend you watch.
A few weeks back I went with some friends to Cottons. I’d never really had Caribbean food before so was quite excited to try something new - although not as excited as I was when we arrived and I found myself standing opposite a bar with the largest selection of rums imaginable!
Cottons is quite an intimate restaurant with a friendly vibe and the barman was happy to tell us about the rums and let us smell some of them to understand a little more about the various brands. Cocktails will set you back about £7 each. I think I had a raspberry daiquiri and a classic mojito but on reflection, could have been more daring.
The food was reasonably priced but not cheap with a starter setting you back around £5 and a main between £13-16.
I ordered the seasoned chump of lamb (roasted with Caribbean spices and served with a sweet potato & vanilla mash, saute spinach and a plum & red wine sauce). My main was £13.95, cooked beautifully and presented with love. The flavours were more delicate than I expected - I really enjoyed the sweetness of the dish and the fact that the lamb was still nicely pink and tender.
I would skip desserts as two of the four of us had them and weren’t that impressed, they were like something you’d find in the back of your kitchen cupboard and heat in the microwave. Perhaps Caribbean restaurants don’t have so much of a focus on desserts as seems to be the case with some other cuisines: India, Chinese & Thai.
My best friend has everything, every year on her birthday I deliberate over what I can buy her that she hasn’t already got… jewellery, make-up, bags, chocolates, DVD’s… not so inspiring - so this year I thought I’d get her an experience instead. I found the Green & Black’s Chocolate Making on Buy a Gift which, although cost more than I’d usually spend I decided it would be worth the money as it would be something fun we could do together.
We were both really excited about the experience when we turned up on the Sunday, in the cold and the rain to a deserted Farringdon side road where we (along with everyone else who’d booked the session) were left waiting outside for about 15 minutes. The building was uninspiring on the outside far from the quaint, romantic, well lit little chocolate shop I’d envisaged. Once we finally stepped inside the building was like a small factory, very industrial and I think everyone was a bit bemused as we headed down to the basement. Having watched a thriller the previous night, my imagination did start to wonder as to whether we were going to make chocolate or just be murdered…
Luckily, we weren’t murdered! Instead we were greeted by our chocolate making expert who was very welcoming and got us all seated in what looked like a home economics room at school. He explained the process of making chocolate, had us tasting various chocolate and demonstrated certain techniques we would try to make our own chocolate truffles and buttons. The session was actually a lot of fun and we’d definitely had our fill by the time we left! We also had a lot of chocolates to take home.
Here’s our little group!
A friend gave me a lovely little early Christmas present, a book of beautiful quotes fondly named ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. Its title and content are based on the old British ‘pull yourself together’ attitude which inspired the production of three posters by the British Government’s Ministry of Information around the start of the second world war. The posters were to be used as reassurance for the public should the German’s look likely to succeed in invading. These posters were fortunately never needed and therefore not distributed, although one of these posters was discovered in later years by bookseller Stuart Manley in a dusty box. Manley hung the poster in his bookshop and due to it’s popularity, the phrase was then applied to many other items which are now sold across the UK.
I was reading quotes from the book on my train journey out of London the other day when I realised the women sitting on either side of me were reading it with me! The three of us ending up discussing a number of topics relating to the quotes we read as I turned the pages. What a pleasant journey, it reminded me that strangers are just people like me who I don’t know yet…
Here are a few quotes from the book… it was a challenge to choose only twenty, this is the best bible you could ask for. Take the time to read them, they will make you smile!
1. ‘If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it’s just possible you haven’t grasped the situation.’ (Jean Kerr)
2. ‘If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.’ (George Bernard Shaw)
3. ‘The only function of economic forcasting is to make astrology look respectable.’ (John Kenneth Galbraith)
4. ‘The safe way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket’ (Frank Hubbard)
5. ‘Catch a man a fish, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to fish, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.’ (Karl Marx)
6. ‘A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.’ (Bob Hope)
7. ‘Expenditures rise to meet income.’ (Parkinson’s Second Law)
8. ‘Luxury: The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house as a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.’ (Kahil Gibran)
9. ‘We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.’ (Winston Churchill)
10. ‘A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable but more useful than a life spend doing nothing.’ (George Bernard Shaw)
11. ‘Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.’ (Winston Churchill)
12. ‘Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle.’ (Plato)
13.’The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.’ (James Oppenheim)
14. ‘A vigorous five mile walk will do more for an unhappy but otherwise health adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.’ (Paul Dudley White)
15. ‘You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.’ (Dale Carnegie)
16. ‘There are plenty of ways to get ahead. The first is so basic I’m almost embarrassed to say it: Spend less than you earn.’ (Paul Clitheroe)
17. ‘Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.’ (Robert Louis Stevenson)
18. ‘Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.’ (Swedish proverb)
19. ‘My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened.’ (Michel de Montaigne)
20. ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.’ (W C Fields).
On Saturday myself, my boyfriend Cai and my friend Helen headed over to Canary Wharf following my invite from Greenpeace to visit their new campaigning ship the ‘Rainbow Warrior 3’. All Greenpeace supporters were invited to the event to see for ourselves what our donations have helped them to achieve. We arrived around 10.30am and after just a few minutes of queueing, were welcomed into a section of the river side with information banners about the work Greenpeace have been doing over the years. From campaigning to reduce climate change and promoting clean energy, working to protect the remainder of our earth’s forests, defending the oceans and the creatures within them and advocating peace - Greenpeace really has been doing it all!
There was also a stand where I purchase a beautiful postcard book and a Greenpeace t-shirt. We then boarded the ship which had a large bell at the front, huge masts, an impressive communication centre and a helipad at the back of the deck.
Once we’d had a look around the ship we popped into the shopping centre to grab some lunch. What a really feel-good morning.
To find out more about Greenpeace and their campaigns visit http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/
Get Connected - Signposting service for young people -
Get Connected is a charity offering a signposting service for young people of 25 or under across the UK who are looking for options and support with any issues they may have. These issues can be about any subject ranging from homelessness to drug addiction to family problems. This is a fantastic non-profit organisation providing our young people with the options they need to empower them to make their own choices.
Bodeans BBQ Restaurant, Soho London -
Wow! This place does ribs like Paris Hilton does shopping! Typical ‘American Diner’ style food, large portions and reasonable prices. Give it a go…
The is a photo I took of the picturesque country that is New Zealand. I was overwhelmed by how stunning these two islands are - the epitome of natural beauty.