Orphan Centre in Malawi needs money

Something to send to those thinking about visiting Africa shortly... Sean, Trek leader and spiritual guide ;-) from Mexico, just forwarded an email from a friend of his who has just set up an orphanage in Malawi:

Hi all-

So I'm still in Malawi, and in the spirit of local children (gimme money! gimme bottle! gimme pen!) I'm writing my first official gimme letter - or at least a slightly more polite version.
I've gotten involved in starting up an orphan care center in the village of Malaza. In one month, we've gotten over 600 orphans registered, and I'm a wee bit overwhelmed, not to mention woefully financially unprepared.

Here's the request part - we're trying to construct a basic block building, which requires bricks, iron sheets and cement. Then food, utensils and clothing enter the equation. I hate to ask for contributions, especially since I'm crap at communication the rest of the time, but even mailing off 2 or 3 USD or 1 pound sterling amounts to a lot here. Send me your change! Any currency is great.

So, if anyone is so inclined, please send contributions to the Chivamulu Orphan Care Center, c/o Richard Longwe, P.O. Box 107, Chintheche, Nkhata Bay District, Malawi (we can issue receipts - all very official and whatnot).

Anything sent goes directly to the kids - no overhead here.
Sorry to be a bit of a mooch and I hope everyone is well and happy.

Thanks in advance.
-Rachael

Some cool and funny bands

To bands recently recommended to me by Laurie...

• The Viff - quality funky rock type stuff
• Bunty vs Chickenshit - beatboxing and random stuff
  

And one recommended by Alice...

• The Ducks - hilarious random songs about gay ducks!!

And completely randomly...some idiot of a happy-slapper gets his commupenses!

Pascua Lama - a sick greedy plan by Barrick Gold

Would you believe it??! A Canadian company called Barrick Gold intend to destroy two glaciers high in the mountains in Chile in order to dig two huge great open cast holes in the ground to extract gold, silver and copper. What's really great about this project is that these two glaciers currently provide the cleanest water in Chile, but forever afterwards the water will be completely unusable due to the poisonous sulphur and other chemicals used in the extraction of the metals. I mean who ever heard of destroying a natural glacier in the name of greed? Oh and then also destroying the livelihoods of everyone living in the valley. Well for a 20-year extractiong program it seems a little bit much. I really didn't think things like this would be allowed to happen anymore, but clearly the greed of a few is more important than the lives of thousands. Genius once again.

They have pretty much been given the go-head to start this at the end of the year by the Chilian government, who are also stopping the local farmers and residents making any television protests against it. So basically nobody knows about it. Nice.

• Wikipedia article
• Mining Watch article
• Online petition against the mine
• Chilean site with more detail (in Spanish)
• Chilean protest website
  

Nicky's 22nd Birthday at Jesters!

So why is it we always choose the classy venues??! Well it was supposed to be Academy, if that's any better, but when you don't leave the house until 9.30pm at night its bound to end up that you don't get much further than good old Jesters. It made us all happy anyway!

We made it to the Hobbit first where apparently it was necessary to discuss the intricasies and particular qualities needed to drink in a camp manner. For some reason it started quite nicely with us just looking a bit dapper, but ended with me bending over forwards at the hips everytime I took a drink with Martin supping right behind! Lovely!!

The revenge attack came later though when it became necessary to remove his nipple for a photo!

Apparently "Excuse me, but I really like your shoes" is thought to be a good chat-up line. Well at least it is by guys in white striped shirts. Si was witness to this rather shocking attempt at a line and had to go sit down because he was practically wetting himself! So out I march from the toilets and get told to go use the line on this girl again...just to see what would happen!! Well not surprisingly she got a little bit confused and flustered but at least I didn't get smacked one which was the bet the boys had put on it!! Later in Jesters, Martin managed to solidify our position as chief pisstakers by chatting to Andy (Nicky's ex-housemate) relating the story about how much of a tw*t the guy in the white shirt was. Turns out it was Andy's mate. Oh. Anywhere else suddenly seemed the better place to stand.

As was necessary we got Nicky a lovely little concoction just as she hit 22 at midnight! Oh how we love the Baileys floaters. As ever Max was on great form. Protector of ladies from all sleezebags except himself. Now how could I say that?

Well I think these two photos say it all...Max gets kiss on the cheek from Alice, Max decides to return the favour full on the lips! Nice nice nice! At the end of the day he did deserve a reward for having made it in and out of Tescos, almost on his own...well without his personal shopping assistant at least hey Max?!! ;-)

The rest of the nigth was taken up with the usual awesome dancing and singing which we have come to expect from those at the Well-Hung-Leng Social Club!

On the confessions side of things - the whole no drinking for a month until after exams was broken by both myself (but only for the first time) and Katie (for at least the second time). But then it wasn't that bad as a slow drinking plan leads to much reduced pains in the morning...almost none in fact...at least none that were drinking-related!

The hardest week of work ever!

So last week was definitely the hardest week of work ever at Uni so far. I managed:

• 4 hours' sleep on Tuesday night
• Zero hours' sleep on Wednesday night
• Agents coursework at 11.30 am on Thursday...and
• Individual Research Project writeup at 4.30pm on Thursday
• 8 hours' sleep Thursday night
• One poster by 4pm Friday
• One poster presentation by 4.45pm Friday

OUTCH!! So I now have a massive sleep debt which I entirely intend to sort out with a whole lot of long sleeps! The eyes like bruises aren't attractive and the persistant snoring whilst trying to work is somewhat distracting. Luckily the hallucinations do not seem to have started yet.

Placeholder - Charlene's and Mark's Wedding

I'm related to gansters hahaha!

Placeholder - Lucas and his band at Glen Beer Fest!

Flipping amazing bit of Jimi Hendirx! Cowhearders, chelsea buns and custard!!

Some cool stuff

A few funny things I came across recently...

• One great Catchphrase video!
• Pandora - a great site for finding new music you like!
• One really scary site of real-life fights - shown to us to see whether we reckoned we would be able to defend ourselves against it! Cheers Nick...and NO!! I'd run the other way!!
• Janae and the Neighbours crew are on myspace! Quality. Check out this one too - there's a cheeky recognisable face in the bottom right hand corner!!
  

Placeholder - AU Ball

I got club colours! Woohoo!

Placeholder - Committee Handover Social

Getting Max very drunk and me taking one for the team...Team Lozza!