Ladurée Royale & Les Macarons

Ladurée Royale in Paris
This tea salon created in 1862 and decorated with wainscoting and frescos depicting angelic pastry chefs and voluptuous ladies, became a favorite address for people from all walks of life. Since then the tea room’s habitués have rubbed shoulders with tourists and personalities from the world over.

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Blue roses to debut in Japan

The rose has a very long history; it was first cultivated by ancient civilizations 5,000 years ago, and more than 25,000 varieties have been produced since then, in such colors as red, pink, white, and yellow. One color that had proved impossible, however, was blue. The pigment that makes some other flowers blue is called delphinidin, but roses lack the genes to produce it.

Santory makes it true at 3 November 2009 in Tokyo.

Summer 2008

At this picture, you can see my hands placing the Greek salad and feta cheese at the table of a taverna. It was taken by my boyfriend in a seaside view restaurant at Agia Marina in Attica.

You see: Summer without ouzo... isn't a Greek one! Cheers!!!

Ben Gunn, a prison blogger that won't be silenced

BEN'S PRISON BL0G is the only blog by a serving British prisoner. Ben is in prison for 30 years for a crime that he had commited when he was 14 years old. Ι wonder... wasn't it enough? Now, he is a 44 years old mature man that he has become a writer, a blogger, a reasearcher!

Looking stupidity and ignorance in the eye whilst attempting to inject some neurons into the criminological debate. As British prisoners are denied internet access, I post via the Royal Mail and the kind efforts of friends.

That the Ministry of Justice and Prison Service have embarked on a course of activity in an effort to disrupt my blog only reinforces my view that I was right to intrude on the public. That the MoJ and the HMPS have the brass neck to portray themselves as guardians of the law while traducing it reveals the very underbelly of criminal justice morality that my blog wishes to illustrate.
Ben Gunn, Guardian. Monday September 14th, 2009

Please do read below what was written by a friend of his for his personality :

Ben Gunn is a widely recognised face on the prison landings, having wandered through the prison system for 30 years. Pleading guilty to the murder of a friend at the age of 14, he has consistently fought for the recognition of the inherent dignity of all human beings. As a result, he has served decades longer than expected. Ben chose the route of education to alter his life and empower himself. He specialises in conflict resolution and jailhouse law on the landings. At present he is engaged in research towards a PhD, focused upon the role of Human Needs Theory in prison conflicts. Ben writes regularly for the prisoner’s national newspaper Inside Time (http://www.insidetime.org/) and is well known for his challenging views.He is also a proponent of non-violent political activism, having spent a lifetime resisting the worst excesses of State abuses of prisoners. He recently became General Secretary of the Association of Prisoners, arguing that change in the penal system rests in the hands of prisoners themselves.

"A little rebellion now and then is a good thing" - Thomas Jefferson.

Brainstorm tips

Everyone experiences patches in life where they just cannot think straight, they can’t come up with any new ideas and they are facing a deadline. What to do? You need to do your work, you have to turn in something! Below are some tips I recently found on Toilet Paper Entrepreneur that are sure to help you brainstorm in a pinch:

Ideas Go ‘out Of This World’. How to Brainstorm:

I encourage my people to get creative, think wildly, shoot for the moon. When we allow the craziest, most ‘far-out’ ideas to make the board (the white board), we allow limitless in all our thinking. This can result in the wackiest ideas actually being what we aspire to because we allowed ourselves freedom to really explore possibilities beyond reason. Then, the award goes to the most ‘far-out’ idea. People love to be recognized for their contributions and they get to be the hero for the day!

1. Never settle for the first idea on solving a problem that comes to your mind. There’s always going to be a second right answer with everything. Ask yourself 5 questions about the problem that determine why it is a problem to begin with and often times you will find your solution within those 5 questions.


2. Look to the outside of the situation at hand. Ask someone who is in a completely different business industry about the situation. This gives an outsider’s point of view. Often times we can’t find the answers to things or new ideas because we are too involved to begin with and can’t see clearly.


3. Try performing a “brain dump”. The human brain can only contain so many ideas and thoughts at once before overloading and forgetting some to make more room. Get yourself a journal and just start writing down (or type out on the computer) all of your current ideas without editing them, this will make room for a fresh start.

Relaxation