Tag Archive for 'London'

Getting into the T-shirt Market

Published on May 15, 2008 in tshirts. 0 Comments
Products.jpg

A while back I used Spreadshirt to create aHackney-themed t-shirt shop. With little effort and zero marketing, I’ve sold seven products, four being the I Heart Hackney Organic Women’s Tee pictured above.

There’s clearly a market here but I have no idea how to tap it. I don’t know if I feel like putting in the leg work required to contact shops.

How do you suggest I sell more of these things?
Should I design more organic t-shirts in the Hackney vein?
Does anyone want to do the marketing for me? =)

Docklands Treasure Hunt

Published on April 12, 2008 in London, Personal and photos. 0 Comments
Is this really London?

What a way to spend a Saturday. Surreal and strange: the Docklands.

Chai Pani Restaurant Review

Published on March 22, 2008 in Freelance Writing, London and food. 0 Comments

Chai Pani

64 Seymour Street
London, W1H 5BW
020 7258 2000
http://www.chaipani.co.uk/

Category: Indian

Travel: Marble Arch
Open Daily 6pm-10.30pm; Mon-Fri 12pm-2.30pm; Sat-Sun 1pm-10.30pm

Devotees of chicken tikka masala will be disappointed by Chai Pani’s menu, which proves that India brings more to the table than fried samosas and korma curries. Chai Pani is the only restaurant in London to serve the vegetarian cuisine of Marwar, a desert region in west India. With dishes like Bhindi Subzi Vg (okra in “a sauce”) and Ker Saangri (a “concoction of desert berries and desert beans”), the vast menu leaves everything to the imagination.

Times like these, it’s usually best to let the kitchen decide, so I ordered a vegan thaali (another tough choice as Chai Pani offers a staggering 16 thaalis, including wheat-free, low GI and ayurvedic). Everything arrived hot and on time, and the waiter was only too happy to decipher the mysterious array of dishes before me. I now know that “dessert berries” look and taste more like shriveled twigs than actual food, and “sauce” is Chai Pani’s code word for “oil”. Fortunately, other dishes were more inspiring. The veganized raita was good enough to eat with a spoon thanks to a liberal dose of salt and chili. The daal was the best I’ve had in London - simple, fresh and very spicy, just begging to be sopped up with Bajra roti, a traditional Rathasthan millet bread. The chilled Ghugri salad of wheat berries, tomatoes and tangy lemon dressing was a refreshing accompaniment. When it came to endings, however, Chai Pani pushed the envelope of simple cooking a little too far, with bowls of jaggery (sugar) passing for dessert. This was a poor lead-in to the bill, which came to nearly £40 a head (including drinks).

Adventurous diners will go giddy over the eclectic offerings of Chai Pani, and the dietarily-challenged will find comfort in their meatless and wheatless offerings. But others will be confused. Chai Pani means well, but they need to come to terms with the palate (and pocketbook) of its western audience.

Dinner for two with drinks and dessert: £66

Should I exercise with a cold?

Published on February 18, 2008 in Personal, Swimming and fitness. 0 Comments

As mentioned, I have a mild cold. I’m supposed to go to my swim lesson tonight, and I really don’t want to skip it because I already missed last week. Seeking answers, I typed my query on the Goog. Here’s what exercise physiologist Elizabeth Quinn reckons:

The average adult has two to three upper respiratory infections each year. Many athletes wonder if they should continue their training routine when sick. While research is limited, most experts recommend that if your symptoms are above the neck and you have no fever, exercise is probably safe. Intensive exercise should be postponed until a few days after the symptoms have gone away. However, if there are symptoms or signs of the flu, such as fever, extreme tiredness, muscle aches, swollen lymph glands, then at least two weeks should probably be allowed before you resume intensive training.

A small study conducted by Thomas G. Weidner at Ball State University backs up her claim. Researchers infected a group of volunteers with a rhinovirus and divided them into two groups: exercising and non-exercising. The exercising group trained at 70% of their measured heart rate for 40 minutes a day.

At the conclusion of the study, analysis of exercise training data, physical activity profiles, symptom severity scores and actual mucous weight measurement showed no statistically significant difference between the exercising and non-exercising groups.

The authors reiterated a useful model for exercising during a cold. If symptoms such as a runny nose, sneezing or a scratchy throat exist (so-called “above-the-neck” symptoms), it is probably safe for an individual to exercise at a lower intensity. If these symptoms recede in the first few minutes of exercise, intensity may be increased accordingly. Exercise is not, however, recommended for individuals experiencing “below-the-neck” symptoms of a cold, such as fever, sore muscles or joints, vomiting or diarrhea, or a productive cough.

I’ll see if I can back up Thomas and Elizabeth’s claims after my swim tonight. I’ve exercised on a cold in the past but this always seemed to make it worse, but it’s quite likely I pushed myself too hard. In fact, I took two very leisurely turns around Clissold Park this morning and it felt terrific; it cleared up my nose and, well, I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day.

Dog walker

My swim is from 7:30-8:15. I am going to have a light meal at 5ish, and then something small after my swim, following which I am going to crawl into bed and try to sleep for a very long time.

Link to Should I exercise with a cold? at About.com
Link to Can you still exercise even with a runny nose? at BlueSuitMom.com