Do You Know Who Joseph Kony Is?

Do You Know Who Joseph Kony Is?

(I didn’t. And he’s about to become famous for all the wrong reasons.) With regularity, the one thing that pulls at my heartstrings and emotionally overwhelms to the point that tears are guaranteed to form and spill is when I see ‘community’ getting together; when people put aside their differences for a common good and a united effort. Many of you will have likely seen this video...

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Social Networking Takes to the Skies

Social Networking Takes to the Skies

Dutch airline KLM has taken social networking one step further by not only letting you pick your seat on its flights but letting you pick WHO you sit beside. KLM’s newly launched service, Meet & Seat, allows those with facebook and/or LinkedIn accounts to share their profile details pre-flight with other passengers. So when it comes to choosing your seat, in addition to waffling...

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Lunchtime Exploration

Lunchtime Exploration

Whether working from home (unstructured), or at the office (structured), or knee-deep in a project (oblivious of the time) the importance of taking a lunch break can’t be underestimated. Not only is it a chance to refresh your focus, replenish your body with fuel, and with any luck an opportunity to get some fresh air, but it can also be a time for exploring and adventuring. Sure, I know, most...

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Goodbye Sugar

Goodbye Sugar

I think I might be slightly crazy, but I’ve decided that today – March 1st – is the day I will give up sugar. Apart from the inherent health benefits of reducing my intake of the delicious white stuff, I’m doing this because I want to exert control over my body, overrule desire with willpower, prove to myself I have an inner fortitude and strength – a lesson in self-discipline...

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Stopping to Swing

Stopping to Swing

Today I swung. I walked by an empty playground and realised it had been ages since I’d hopped on a swing. (Why is it an activity that imparts such a sense of freedom – of exhilaration – is relegated to children? Why aren’t more adults hopping on swings and flying high?) I got some amused looks from the people in the neighbouring dog park as I walked up to the middle swing of the swing...

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Where Does The Time Go?

Where Does The Time Go?

Funny how time flies. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was living and loving life in Guatemala. (What an amazing country for anyone who’s looking for an action packed destination that fits so much variety – topography, culture, history – in one postage-stamp sized country.) Unfortunately, life started getting lonely & isolated there and heeding the call of friends in...

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9/11 11 Ten Years On

9/11 11 Ten Years On

Ten years ago to the day I thought my life had come to an end. As I ran from a collapsing building that looked destined to fall upon me; as I was swallowed by a barely breathable black cloud so dense that no light penetrated, I thought ‘this is it’. For nearly 3000 people that was indeed the case. As pitch black gave way to a lesser grey, I emerged from the cloud to find the world had...

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Back to the Present

Back to the Present

I’ve been reminded recently by a friend about the importance of staying in the present … … and how sometimes if your mind is already in the future then perhaps it is better to fast forward to the future so you can get back to the present. Anticipation is one thing. To look forward to something is a treat sweeter than spontaneity, despite the immediacy of the thrill fulfilled. While...

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Botox, yeah baby!

Botox, yeah baby!

Excuse me if I don’t smile for the next 4 months I’ve just had my face selectively paralysed in the name of beauty, the pursuit of youth, and most importantly because it was something I hadn’t tried before. Actually I’m joking, not about the Botox, but about being able to smile. I can still smile. A doctor friend who youth-ens, beautifies, and generally clarifies people’s...

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Laidback in Laos

Laidback in Laos

In a poetic tale of hedonism, guest writer Aram McLean recounts drunken days & free-loving nights in Laos and still manages time to experience the country’s raw beauty. The way is a mix of clay, mud and manure, making a soup of epic slime. Leeches roam the path. And they jump! Yes, jump. Curling their bodies like some blood-sucking mutant of an inch-worm, they hurl themselves at our bare...

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Standing at the Bottom of the Top of the World

Standing at the Bottom of the Top of the World

Motivated by a lecture, guest writer Vicki Dawson, realises a dream by climbing one shallow breath at a time to Everest’s Base Camp. On October 25th 2010, something that had started as a vague idea and then became a full blown obsession, led to me standing at Everest Base Camp crying my eyes out… Armed with 80 wet wipes, two pair of trousers, two tops and some sturdy walking boots I...

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Around the Airport in 80 Days

Around the Airport in 80 Days

Vancouver Airport (YVR) launches a contest to find a correspondent to live, eat and sleep at the airport for 80 Days ~ without leaving. Following in the footsteps of Queensland’s hugely successful viral campaign to fill the World’s Best Job, earlier this week Vancouver Airport launched a web-based contest to find a storyteller who would live at YVR for 80 days and 80 nights telling...

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