365 Days. 206 Countries. 1 Mission

If you haven’t seen Expedition 206 yet you should take a look.

Coke consumers selected 3 Happiness ambassadors through an on-line vote… and their reward? To visit every one of the 206 countries where Coca Cola is sold. Specifically their role is to seek out what makes people happy and share that happiness with the rest of the world.

And the world seems to be listening, with the trios’ uploaded content generating 400 million impressions in China in January alone. Kelly, Tony & Tono have now visited 29 countries in 42 days and are heading to the Vancouver Winter Olympics as we speak (lucky buggers). I believe they’ll be in South Africa when the FIFA World Cup hits town too. Nice.

They’re far to modest to put this up themselves, but we’re loving Jamie & Nicks’ (who happen to be our Marketing Manager and Production Manager) latest tune. Video’s cool too.

Mel & Dom

Mel got married in glorious Greek style last Saturday to Dom. No longer Avgousti, now Lovegrove, she looked stunning. The happy couple were clearly very.. well.. happy! And the sun shone and the champagne flowed. Congratulations from all of us at Life.

In a country where girls are rigidly segregated from boys and rarely participate in sports, Skateistan has managed to bring boys and girls together. Dozens of children swarm across the fountain every day, sharing boards and showing off improvised skating moves.

Several former street beggars are paid a few dollars a day to instruct playmates on basic techniques. Others are middle-class children who otherwise would have little contact with poor street kids, or with children on the other side of Afghanistan’s volatile ethnic mix.

“The boards are just our carrots,” Percovich said, shouting over the clack-clack-clack of skateboard wheels. “They’re a way to connect with kids and build trust.”

For now, Percovich uses the skateboards to entice children into informal lessons and counseling sessions. But starting this fall, he hopes to bring the kids into classrooms.

A few miles away, ground was broken this summer on a $1 million indoor skateboard park that Skateistan is building with local and international donations on land given by Afghanistan’s Olympic committee. Percovich says the children will be able to attend English and computer classes and learn “life skills” at the 19,000-square-foot park.

The park, outfitted with skateboarding surfaces and ramps, will be Afghanistan’s largest indoor sports facility when it is completed, Percovich said.

In another initiative, Percovich has persuaded private donors to pay $60 a month to send children to Afghan schools. That program targets girls and young children.

“Maybe we can play some small part in keeping these kids from becoming insurgents later on,” Percovich said. Skateistan’s logo features a skateboard crushing an assault rifle.

… Despite the widespread violence in Afghanistan by the Taliban and other Islamic militants, Percovich said he doesn’t feel threatened. In fact, he said, his reception as a skateboarder has been worse in many other countries.

Read the full story here at LosAngelesTimes.com.
And check out some great photos here.

The atmosphere on the campsite and on the course was amazing and we had a great weekend. It was fantastic standing in the handover area at quarter past midnight, seeing your team mate coming in with twenty or so other riders, passing over the armband with a quick update on the state of the course and then heading out into the woods to do your lap.

Midnight at the madness

With some stunning individual and team performances (the top solo rider completed 26 laps – that’s 234 miles of very challenging terrain), it was enough for us just to compete. We might be back next year!

Good source if you’re looking to update your trendy factor.

Grill Lense Sunglasses meets The Jetsons

Ball games & BBQs

We had our first rounders match of the Summer last week. We were missing a fair handful of keen ball players, but we still had a great turn out. So two teams of highly charged athletes. Two portable BBQs. Two crates of beer. A recipe for fun. 

One team completely dominated proceedings with a fine display of ball hitting and handling so there will have to be a re-match so the B Team can regain a little pride.

Key players to watch were Adam (the slogger of the evening), Andy (longest drive), Roz (v dodgy bowling), Ian (for those utterly butterly fingers), Rach The Coach (pre-match & post match motivator), but our Man of the Match was Nick ‘Wicksy’ Berry for taking numerous inspired catches in deep field (it became apparent that Nick’s scrotum doubles up as a very effective catching mitt).

Makes you proud.

F.W.L.D.   

Big thanks to Graeme Longstaff for his gift. It’s taken time, but it’s up on the wall Graeme. Loud & proud above the beer fridge in the studio. Where else?

So. It’s Friday. The sun’s still out. Make hay my friends!