Andy's dream

My friend Andy just emailed me with this:

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Hey I had a dream the other night that you were on stage singing Band Aid style on the mic with Amy Winehouse, you grabbed the mic off her saying 'move over wino' and started belting out this tune! It was a classic.

You should enter xfactor this year seriously - it's a premonition!!
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Hmmm... should I?

I scored a goal in footy!

Ok, so it's nowhere near as momentous news as the birth of the twins, but I am proud to say I scored my first goal (in 2 years of playing footy, but may I remind you I play back defender!) last night! I was very excited. It's given me new oomph to play better and harder. Watch out Camden Ladies' League! Check out the match results online if you don't believe me. And the fact we lost by 6 goals is not the point!!!

Ben is an uncle!

Yesterday, Tracy gave birth to two beautiful baby girls - Isabel Rose and Olivia Grace. They are identical twins and they are just gorgeous. They are also in critical care because they are a little premature, given they were mono-amniotic twins (sharing the same amniotic sac - very rare). James and Tracy are thrilled, as you can imagine. And Ben is very excited about being an uncle! And of course me at being an 'auntie'! :)

Dining in darkness

Last night I took Ben out for dinner for his birthday to 'Dans le Noir?' where meals are eaten in pitch darkness, and you are served by blind waiting staff. (I never made it to the equivalent Melbourne restaurant, so this was a new experience for me too).

Ben and I were both quite excited by the prospect, and made our way into the restaurant in a line of people, hand on shoulder. We were seated, and felt our place settings, and got our bearings, kind of. It was very strange... it made you feel like your eyes weren't working, and of course it meant that your sense of hearing was amplified. It was fun to start with, but we soon found that the other people in there were talking so loudly (and making stupid loud noises for the hell of it, like moronic children) that we could barely hear ourselves over the din.

It got to the point where two of the waiters had to yell over everyone to be quiet. This only worked for half a minute, unfortunately. And they were mocked for it, too. After five minutes of cacophony, I, being the quiet wallflower I am, also yelled out for people to 'please keep the volume down', and also got mocked, particularly by the guy making the stupid noises, who made another stupid noise for my benefit.
This enraged me, and I screamed out "you're a fucking twat!". Ok, so I lost it a bit. But you have to imagine the pitch darkness, the difficulty hearing each other speak, and the beginnings of panic and distress feeding the situation.

The couple next to us asked to leave, before their starters reached the table, and we quickly followed suit. I was so angry that some thoughtless assholes had to spoil it for so many other people, and that we missed out on what would have been a novel dining experience (we didn't know what we'd be eating). Anyway, we got out of there and ended up having a lovely meal at a nearby restaurant. After a few drinks and some food Ben's heart rate was back to normal and my face had lost its unhealthy flush.

I have to conclude that we prefer lit meals.

Giving ethical presents

While we don't always want to acknowledge it, we live in a hopelessly greedy and consumerist society. We buy and buy and waste so much, every day. Half the time we don't think about whether we really need that item, whether we couldn't perhaps re-use it or fashion it into something else, or find a more sustainable alternative to the new thing. No wonder we're depleting our planet's resources at a devastating rate!

A good friend of mine, Kate, started encouraging her friends to buy ethical gifts last year, particularly when it came to her own birthday presents. I think this is a great idea and I'm now ready to do it myself. (Yes, I'll confess, it took me a while - I've always been a girl who's loved her 'stuff', but even I can change.)

So, all I ask of you is this: When a friend's birthday is coming up, or an occasion like Christmas, consider getting them an ethical gift. It may not be as tangible or as fun to play with as a regular gift, but it will help slow mass consumption a tiny bit. And it will also help heal the planet a tiny bit.

Certainly when it comes to presents for me, I'll be more than happy to receive an ethical gift :)

Where to shop:
Oxfam Unwrapped (International)
Your Tomorrow (UK)
Ethical Gifts (UK)
Present Aid (UK)

Other ideas:
- make your own cards from bits and pieces at home - get creative!
- make your own presents!
- give someone a voucher for your time doing something nice, like cooking a meal or giving a massage

10 years in UX

This morning I realised, with a start, that I'll have been working in usability/user experience for 10 years come September. Ten years!! That's such a long time! I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand, there's a sense of pride - I've come a long way in that time. I'm light years away from the green post-grad who donned corporate wear for IBM GSA back in '98. On the other hand, part of me is thinking I should broaden my playing field, have a career change, do something else with my life. But as ever, I'm kind of stumped as to what my next move should be, as it could be in any number of directions! Plus work has started getting quite interesting over the last six months, and promises to continue being interesting. So, the 'big move' is probably going to go on the back burner for a while. Again. But ten years... that's enough to scare anyone out of their comfort zone...

Are you a considerate passenger?

Transport for London have just launched a new campaign to encourage people to be more considerate on trains and buses. This issue is close to my heart, as I, for one, cannot stand the littering and the music-on-mobile playing that are almost part of the fabric of catching public transport in London.

I wonder if this campaign stands any chance of working. I can only hope.