So try this as a 2012 mantra: you might be pleasantly surprised with the result.

Enjoy it, and enjoy 2012. Don’t lose sight of the forest when you can only see the trees.

…let’s keep it that way.

There is one Christmas Carol that has always baffled me.
What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won’t come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas? This week, I found out.
From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.
It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.
-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
-Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
-Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
-The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.
-The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
-The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit–Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
-The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
-Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit–Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
-The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.
-The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
-The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles’ Creed.

So now you know
Have a merry (12 days of) Christmas

Pro’s:

• There were only 5 (yes 5!) murders in the last year (in Jozi that’s a slow weekend)
• There is only 6% unemployment (in SA it is 25% – and higher for the youth)
• They read. A lot. The education system is one of the highest in the world and is free.
• The architecture (Romantic Art Noveau mixed with Russian Byzantine) make you feel like you’re in a Lapland theme park

Cons:

• In winter the surrounding sea freezes with temperatures going down to -25degrees (however the locals see this as a pro because they can drive over the frozen sea to the little adjoining islands where their summer holiday homes are, and deliver bulky furniture – which they would have to ship across in summer).
• There are only 6 hours of light (calling it ‘sunlight’ is a tad ambitious) in winter: roughly from 09h30 to 15h15 (see feature pic)
• Helsinki is the global Design Capitol for 2012, and there are a lot of decor shops to prove it
• The architecture (Romantic Art Noveau mixed with Russian Byzantine) make you feel like you’re in a Lapland theme park

But nothing really tells a story like pictures can, so here’s my always-odd perspective of Helsinki in a short slide show:

They say that it takes you the first 3 days of your holiday to finally get off the mental treadmill and start relaxing. It’s true, which is why long weekends are so bad for you. The moment your body and mind start to crumble (blissfully that is), you have to go back to work: the treadmill just stops for a while – but you never get off.

Which is why, if you had the good fortune to stop your year last week, you should be feeling just like my cat Oscar (although for cats it’s a default state of mind). I’m not taking any chances, so am speeding the process up by heading off for a massage to loosen all those accumulated knots. By this evening I hope to feel like this…

Here’s to getting some much needed rest…

http://www.timeslive.co.za/ilive/2011/11/29/batho-pele—missing-in-inaction-ilive

So in one country we have sushi kings who publicise their excess – on their own narcissistic TV shows – and children who literally drop dead from hunger. I know it happens in other countries where the gini coefficient is as warped as ours, but it still points to something being very wrong indeed. In a similar way the story reminds me of the words of one of Lebo Mashile’s poems: “How is it that we walk on gold, and we have people who cannot read?” (or something to that effect – apologies to Lebo for paraphrasing)

And while we cluck and shake our heads, we are also part of the problem.

Every day, we unwittingly throw away vast amounts of food that is perfectly edible, which ends up in a landfill. There are two main reasons for us throwing away food (1) cooking or serving too much (eg: food that either gets left in the pot or on the plate) and (2) not using food in time (eg: throwing out fruit and vegetables because they’ve gone off, or not eating food before its best-before date). The fussy eaters amongst us also throw food away because they simply don’t like eating left overs.

In a country like South Africa, this kind of food waste is practically criminal. There are too many families that don’t have the luxury of eating three square meals a day, while those who do, waste what they have. It is estimated that if we could rescue just 25% of the food that is wasted globally, we could feed another 20 million people.

The Impact of the food we waste

• In the UK 18 million tonnes of edible food end up in landfill each year. Approximately 1/3 from producers or supply chain, 1/3 from retail and 1/3 from households. The annual value of this wasted food is £23 billion (or R276 billion) and rising rapidly due to soaring prices.
• This wasted food costs the average UK family around £680 a year (about R600 a month).
• The US generates more than 34 million tons of food waste each year. Food waste constitutes just over 14% of the total municipal solid waste (MSW) stream: the single largest component of MSW reaching landfills and incinerators.
• Experts estimate that eliminating the millions of tonnes of food thrown away annually in the US and UK could lift more than a billion people out of hunger worldwide.
• In South Africa but it’s estimated that households here are also throwing away about 14% of the food they purchase, yet over 11 million South Africans are “food insecure”; in other words, don’t know where their next meal is coming from
• There are serious environmental implications to wasting food. Not only is it a waste of resources but also a waste of energy, water and packaging used in food production, transportation and storage. This all goes to waste when we throw away perfectly good food.

With COP17 taking place in our own backyard, issues of sustainability are nagging once again. In terms of food, it’s not only how we can feed the planet’s poor, or growing population, but also how we can stop wasting what we already have.

Celebrity chef, Nigel Slater, has a few ideas. In his latest TV show – Simple Suppers – he shows us how to make simple, delicious meals out of ingredients that at first seem to have seen better days. Stale bread, brown bananas and hard cheese are all transformed to make mouth watering meals. The programme’s concept is not only fascinating, but also resonates at a time when many people are cash strapped and are looking for ways and means to make their hard earned cash go further. The programme comes across as clever, rather than miserly. Check out his awesome “black banana cake” recipe:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/black_banana_cake_52982

Food has ironically become a barometer of new trends and shifting social change: it has become both entertainment as well as popular culture in our digital age. We have celebrity chefs, reality shows and entire TV channels devoted to food. Even the concept of ‘food porn’ has entered the urban lexicon.

At the height of the global financial crisis in 2009, the style of cookbooks changed radically. A rash of what-to-do-with leftovers/cheap cuts of meat, themed books hit the shelves. Back then, is was all about saving money and cutting corners. This second wave of frugal food is different: more forward thinking and less transient.

When many of us were young, our parents nagged us to eat all the food on our plates because somewhere in the world there were starving children. Well, those starving children are now in our own back yards. It’s time to rethink our food consumption, and it really doesn’t take much effort.  Mahatma Ghandi once said: “Earth provides enough to satisfy man’s need, but not man’s greed”. But perhaps in our size 0, celebrity driven age, Audrey Hepburn’s advice will have more impact.

“For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.”

That just sums up her food philosophy: food you want to eat to make you feel good. I know food is supposed to do that but so many restaurants either overcompensate on price, decor or overtly pretentious haute cuisine. Andrea gives you a meal you feel you should be having at home with friends…but is just too complicated to do it yourself, so her restaurants provide that homely environment. The Leopard has stylish mis-matched chairs, and if you look up, stylishly mis-matched light fittings.

But you won’t be concentrating on the decor for long. The food will sweep you away on a sublime journey that will have you licking your lips and scraping and sponging up all the last juices on your plate.

The slideshow below documents my meal, but don’t just take my word for it. Try it for yourself, but you’re going to have to book – such is the popularity and devoted following of Andrea’s loyal followers. The Leopard is only open for lunches, but open on a Friday night (but this can soon change)

The Leopard: (011) 4476012 – cnr 4th and 12th, Parkhurst, JHB

Besides getting the invitation to sit on a panel discussion at the Nokia World global conference, I received another call from ZARA (who are finally opening in SA in the next couple of months) to visit their HQ and see their operations…all in the same week. Who doesn’t want to find out how ZARA do what they do so well?

So I’ve managed to juggle both.

So I leave this weekend for La Coruna in Spain, then transfer to London on Wednesday (via Madrid on Tuesday), just in time to join the Nokia World panel discussion in the afternoon. It should be interesting. The panel session is entitled: Black Swans, purple cows and everything in between. Who wouldn’t be intrigued? Here’s the agenda for the day.

http://events.nokia.com/nokiaworld/agenda.html

The people I am with on this panel with are a fascinating bunch.

Philip Dodd is an award-winning BBC broadcaster and chairman of the agency Made in China, developing business and cultural relationships between Chinese and European companies and governments. He has been named one of the top 50 design gurus by ‘Design Week’ magazine and one of Britain’s top five cultural entrepreneurs by ‘Elle Deco’.  He first went to China as Director of the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) with Tony Blair, and has been working one week each month in China since 2004. He has worked with the city government on Shanghai eArts, the largest digital festival in the world, was the concept and content consultant on the British Pavilion at the recent World Expo, is the senior China advisor to Art HK, the largest and most successful artfair in Asia, has worked for Hutchison Whampoa Group and is developing mobile content for phones with European and Chinese partners., His company has recently launched a major networking club for Chinese students and creative companies and is working on a new major Design Fair for next year in Shanghai. He was called in The Guardian, one of the two most acute analysts of the changes of his generation and is credited with helping to develop the Cool Britaannia brand for the UK.

Mary McDowell is executive vice president in charge of Mobile Phones, responsible for the business and product development of Nokia’s global mobile phone operations.  Prior to this role, Mary served as executive vice president and chief development officer, leading the Corporate Development unit. When Mary joined Nokia in 2004, she held the position of executive vice president and general manager of Enterprise Solutions, responsible for the development and marketing of Nokia’s range of business-oriented devices and solutions.  Before joining Nokia, Mary served 17 years at HP-Compaq.

Parmesh Shahani heads the India Culture Lab, a newly formed experimental think tank within the Godrej group dedicated to probing the textured nature of modernity in contemporary India, and also serves as Editor at Large for Verve, India’s leading fashion and luxury magazine. In the past, he has founded Freshlimesoda.com, India’s first online youth magazine, and worked across the Indian mediascape at organizations like Elle, the Times of India group, and Sony Entertainment Television. He has also worked in the corporate world with the Mahindra group, where he helped set up a corporate venture fund and worked on other group wide innovation activities. Parmesh’s first book called ‘Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India‘ (Sage Publications) was released in April 2008. He is a TED Fellow and has a Masters degree in Comparative Media studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Can’t wait.

… or you get a big surprize when you venture in off the street and discover awesome interiors on a massive scale like this Virgin megastore on the Champs Elysees. Kinda gives your shopping experience an extra lift. Not that you need it in a city like Paris, but most welcome, all the same.