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Travel Bite #4: Hotel Avante, Mountain View
I’m currently spending a couple of days relaxing in the Bay Area after attending the Cloud Connect conference. Usually I’d write about places I’ve been and sights I’ve seen, but I thought for a change I’d blog about the hotel I am staying in – Hotel Avante in Mountain View. I got my stay here through the cheap hotel site hotwire, for a very reasonable $59 (39GBP) a night. One of the things about Hotwire is you get cheap prices but you don’t find out the hotel until after you book (by area) – so I would never have known about this place – but boy am I glad I did. It’s probably the best hotel I’ve ever stayed in!
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution is about to hit the USA – great to see social change in action!
You may have seen my earlier post about Jamie Oliver winning the TED prize with his campaign to teach every child about food. I’ve just watched the UK campaign, the TV show Ministry of Food (in the UK you can watch it online via that link) and it blew me away. It tells the story of the struggles and successes of how one man went to Rotherham, where hardly anyone cooks, and educated and inspired hundreds if not thousands of people to cook, and to teach others around them. Not to mention transforming a few individuals lives along the way. It’s really quite inspiring to realize that one person can make a difference, especially if we all just do it instead of imagining failure. And it’s great to see a celebrity use their influence as a force for good in the world.
Watching the show you really do get the sense that this is the beginning of a grassroots cultural revolution. People are starting to wake up to how badly we’ve been treating our bodies with the food we eat.
The campaign has already taken root in cities across the UK, with a new food education centre opened in Bradford, and the campaign is starting in Australia too.
If you’re in the USA or Canada be sure to watch Food Revolution, where Jamie goes to the unhealthiest town in America – Huntingdon, West Virginia, and tries to start the revolution there. Trailer above, it starts on ABC next Friday 26th March with a preview this Sunday.
And if you want to get involved, and especially if you can’t or don’t cook, then just watch some of these simple video recipes, try them and most importantly, pass it on.
You can support the campaign here (for Americans) or here (for Brits).
Get involved, and maybe we really can solve the world’s obesity problems, if not for this generation, then at least for our children.
(And I hope I am not being to preachy, but it’s rare that you see something that is so overwhelmingly a good thing. I feel everyone should know about it!)
Update: You can also check out the things we can learn from this from a career perspective in this article.
Travel Bite #3: Tulum, Mexico
I bought a fresh coconut and enjoyed the juice, something I hadn’t done since my last trip to Malaysia in 2004. One trader beckoned me over and starting bargaining with me; he literally wanted the shirt off my back – as it was a genuine Premiership Southampton shirt.
http://alexbowyer.posterous.com/travel-bite-2-lake-champlain-and-a-taste-of-n
Scenic drive around Lake Champlain
Read MoreTravel Bite #2: Lake Champlain and a taste of New England
Back in May last year we picked up a Communauto car and did a day trip down into New England. We went down the western side of the massive Lake Champlain through New York State and back up the eastern side through Vermont.
We headed south over the border on Interstate 97 and stopped at a tourist information centre soon after where were able to pick up some useful maps and leaflets. We drove further south and were treated to impressive views of the Adirondack mountains towering overhead, which we plan to visit someday as well as the nearby Lake Placid. We had planned to stop first in Plattsburgh (which incidentally is supposed to be a good location for cheap flights across the USA, as many of the budget airlines don’t fly to Canada).
Unfortunately not long after we got over the border the heavens opened, so rather than stop we continued south along the 9 and more minor roads by the edge of the lake (which is technically a very large river).
We saw some beautiful houses on the waterfront. As we have seen in most places in North America, waterfront access is often difficult as it tends to be private land – unlike the UK where rights of way and footpaths exist by most lakes and rivers. One house had a beautiful little summer house on stilts on the water with a hammock looking out onto the lake – it made you wish you lived there!
Travel Bite #1: A winter drive through the Eastern Sierra, USA
Carson City & Lake Topaz