Making time to think

From the BBC website:

When Barack Obama met David Cameron, the pair got around to discussing thinking time - and the lack of it. It's not just potential leaders of nations who are short of opportunities to reflect on the bigger picture. How can any of us grab thinking time during the working day?

... few of us complain of having too much time, whether at work or at home. As a public service, the Magazine asks how to grab yourself some thinking time - from those who've had time to think about it.

[Image from FreeFoto.com]

Keep taking the Tablets...

Hundreds of pieces of Hollywood movie memorabilia are up for auction on 1 August. The autction will include the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments (click on item 8) from the 1959 film Ben-Hur. The film starred Charlton Heston and is famous for its chariot race. The tablets were made in consultation with experts in their field and only five pairs of the tablets are known to still exist.

If you prefer not to let Hollywood act as your commentary on the Ten Commandments you might be interested to read God's good life: the Ten Commandments for the 21st century (David Field), Mere Morality: What God Expects From Ordinary People (Lewis Smedes) or Smoke On The Mountain: an interpretation of the Ten Commandments (Joy Davidman).

Hitting the high notes on Snowdon

Forget concert halls and theatres: three cellists have scaled new heights to perform their music.

This is a wonderful news story about a trio of cellists who climbed Snowdon, carrying their heavy instruments on their backs and then played together at the top. It was the latest mountain in their challenge to play at the top of the highest peaks in the UK and Ireland. The self-styled "extreme cellists" have so far raised over £3,000 from their mountain music challenge, which will be donated to a spinal injury charity and mountain rescue organisations.

Sandcastle engineering

If you are heading to the coast this summer you may be interested in the science of building sandcastles - there are several links here, including one to amazing sand sculptures from around the world.

[Image from FreeFoto.com]

GOOSHING: the ethical shopping tool

I entered a recent Cafédirect competition and was delighted to win a copy of The Good Shopping Guide!

This tipped me off about GOOSHING - the free ethical shopping tool. Using GOOSHING makes it easy to buybrands from the most responsible companies at the cheapest price… and boycott those corporates that don’t care about animal welfare, human rights or the environment. The price search tool seeks out the lowest prices available - on 250,000 products from over 350 shops. GOOSH away.....

Star in a reasonably-priced TARDIS

A fun idea by staff at the BBC has resulted in a "hilarious mash up of Doctor Who and Top Gear": Star in a reasonably-priced TARDIS. This combines clips of the TARDIS in flight from the show with David Tennant's appearance in Top Gear's Star In A Reasonably Priced Car slot. It shows Jeremy Clarkson talking Tennant through a lap in the TARDIS and when the clip was shown to Clarkson and Top Gear's Executive Producer they loved it and agreed that it could be put online.

Walking gear: sales and reviews

The Infusion walking weekend is only six days away.... If you need new or replacement walking gear and clothes check out livefortheoutdoors.com website (home of Trail and Country Walking magazines) for reviews of particular products, and the Ramblers provide good generic advice on walking kit on their website. There are a lot of sales on at the moment - online as well as in the high street:

• Blacks
• Craghoppers (for the Earl Grey clothes)
  
• Lands End (or visit their outlet in Oakham - free tea & coffee for visitors)
• Millets
• Rohan
  

Blogging break over

The recent blogging break has been unintentional - it was in part due to a new job and the resultant tiredness when adjusting to a new routine, coupled with no longer having access to a really fast laptop. Then came our summer holiday and a hotel with a slow Internet connection.

All this time, though, possible blog topics and links have been bookmarked and a selection will get posted over the next few weeks. The Infusion blog is back....