Why you don’t need fake tan if you’ve got apricots!

Austrians love their apricots and if you spend any time in their beautiful country during the summer you’d be hard pushed to avoid eating this delicious fruit.

I’ve spent the last week in Vienna writing my book, in between eating large quantities of cake and ice cream and going to watch Rigoletto in front of the Rathaus.

Last Sunday afternoon my mother and I took the train to the suburbs to visit some friends. In their back garden was a wonderful apricot tree and we spent an hour clambering up ladders gathering the ripe fruit.

We had so many we could hardly carry them – they’d already had three harvests and were keen to give us a large bag to take home.

So on Monday morning we set about making apricot jam (along with Powidl this is an Austrian staple) and (my personal favourite) apricot dumplings. These are so popular in Austria that they come in three varieties; brandteig, topfen and erdapfel.

Brandteig is basically apricots wrapped in plain choux pastry, boiled and rolled in bread crumbs. Delicious.

Topfen is a type of cheese you can get here that I’ve never seen in the UK. It’s in everything and can be made into a pastry called “topfenteig” giving the apricot dumplings a fluffy cheesecake flavour. Also delicious.

And then there’s erdapfel. Actually that’s just me showing off – erdapfel is simply potato. The potatoes are boiled and then pushed through a sieve to make a sort of mash. Flour, eggs and semolina are added and then this is rolled around the apricots. I’ve never actually had these as my mother is adamant they aren’t worth eating. She claims they are slimy – I have no idea.

Then of course there are all sorts of apricot cakes; apricot strudel; apricot flan; a light sponge with apricots on top (no idea what it’s called, but it’s good); a different version with a sugar crumble on top of the apricots; apricots with pastry below and a layer of marzipan above; apricot and topfen parcels; apricots on top of pastry and crème anglais; apricot fleck (a large square cake) and of course the usual apricot Danish pastry. Those are just a few – I am still sampling the others!

And if you still want more apricots then how about apricot ice cream, apricot brandy and apricot schnapps? And, for the purist, you won’t have to look far to see a vendor on a street corner selling huge, golden red, ripe, firm apricots.

I’ve eaten so many that I’ll look like an apricot soon.

Dress for Success

I came across this idea whilst looking for something entirely different, as is often the case. A quick look at the website revealed a really interesting idea.

Dress for Success was set up to help disadvantaged women achieve economic independence. It does this by giving these women an interview outfit, so that they are able to search for jobs with confidence and present themselves at their best. When a woman secures a job she is then given further garments to form the basis of a working wardrobe.




The scheme goes further than simply clothing these women. They are able to access one to one coaching in CV skills, mock interview sessions, a variety of workshops and a mentoring programme.

As I see it, Dress for Success has many advantages beyond the obvious. Members of the public are encouraged to donate good quality unwanted office wear. Where better to send that suit that’s been sitting in the back of your wardrobe for years than somewhere where you know if will be put to good use? This has environmental benefits as it stops good quality clothes from simply being thrown away.

Another big advantage is that Dress for Success doesn’t just act as a distribution service. The fact that the women are given extra help to get them into work is a vital factor to the success of the scheme. There would be little point in simply putting suits on women and expecting them to magically secure jobs. Many of these women have been through severe emotional traumas so it is important that they both look and feel like confident business women if they are to achieve their full potential.



Dress for Success has offices in several countries but currently only two in the UK. If you live in London or Strathclyde look up your local office and see if there’s anything unwanted in your wardrobe that could make a real difference to someone else’s life.

This Sunday (2nd August) Community Money are holding a clothes swap and donation event in partnership with Dress for Success in London. The fee per participant is £5 and you need to take at least two items; one to donate to Dress for Success and one to swap. The event starts at 3pm and is being held at Juno in Shoreditch. Full details can be found on the website.

Count Your Mobile Blessings

We’re very lucky in the UK when it comes to mobile phones and the mobile Internet. You can pick up a Pay As You Go phone for a few pounds and it comes with credit already loaded. Sign up to a contract and you’ll be offered free laptops or iPods. Top up your phone and you’ll get even more credit – for free.

And the same can be said for mobile Internet – I recently purchased a T Mobile USB modem. It cost me £30 plus £2 per day for PAYG Internet access. All very straight forward, and if I’d been looking to renew my mobile contract, I would probably have got it for free.

So when I arrived in Vienna at the weekend I thought I’d buy myself a USB modem for use in Austria. I am here for a week in order to write my first book (which will be published by Hot Hive in the autumn). My mother has a lovely flat in the centre of town so members of the family are often here and Internet access would be handy.

My mother and I set off for the Mariahilfer Strasse (Vienna’s Oxford Street) on the hunt for mobile phone shops. As well as my USB modem we also wanted an Austrian SIM card so we could reach each other without calling via the UK.

Easy you’d think. Not so.

It took us over three hours, and an ice cream, to get it sorted.

Austrian’s don’t get the great deals we do when it comes to mobiles. Nor do they have the kind of choice we have.

A USB modem is the equivalent of £60, the minimum top up is £20 and you get one gigabyte (or two gigabytes if you sign up to the 3 Network) and you must top it up again within 12 months or you lose your credit, the modem stops working and you have to buy a brand new one!

A SIM card was £10 – no phone, just the SIM card. Again, if you don’t top it up within 12 months you lose any credit and the SIM will stop working, so you’ll lose that number.

The Austrians I spoke to couldn’t believe what a good deal we get in the UK and how free and easy the Telecoms companies are with SIMS, incentives and PAYG deals.

However there was one oddity that seemed better for the Austrians than us Brits. The USB modem I eventually bought from 3 will also work in the UK – for no extra cost. But, had I bought it in the UK, it would not work in Austria! Does that make sense?

All in all I feel very lucky – I live in a country with wonderfully cheap mobile deals AND I've got a USB modem for use here, which means I've been able to sit in the beauty of Schönbrunn and write my book.

Food for thought

I love pizza. Some people are really into making their own from scratch, getting their hands into the dough, throwing it about their head etc. I'd rather go to the local Village Pizza. And that's why radio will never die. Let me explain ...

We've been having a debate recently about how many interviews that are broadcast on air should also be available online.

The first, gut reaction was VERY FEW. After all if listeners can go to their PC and listen to the interviews whenever they like, why would they listen to the radio station? Lots of reasons actually, including laziness.

The radio station has music, world news, and various features as well as interviews, and mixes these into a smooth, rich, day long listening experience. The radio station does all the work for you.

Last weekend I was doing some work in the office. There was no one else about, so I opened the studio door, turned up the speakers and started blasting out some favourite songs. I soon got tired of having to stop what I was doing every 3 or 4 minutes to change tracks. Yes I could have turned the studio into a giant iPod and opened up our playout software, inserted some songs, put them into a suitable order and hit play. But I've already done that for the radio station. So I just turned up the radio instead.

Every now and then some techie type predicts radio will die out as increasingly sophisticated gizmos empower the audience, allowing them to create a bespoke audio experience from downloaded bits and pieces. Which is great for the few who are really into that. But, like me and gathering all the component parts to make pizza from scratch, most of us just can't be arsed.

That's not to say radio won't change. It has to. It has to embrace new technology and pursue innovation. That's certainly what we're doing. That's why we'll be adding more and more on demand interviews to the website in the near future. Sure that service uses components of the radio station, but it's not the radio station. After all, just because I've bought tomatoes, peppers and aubergines from the market in Croydon doesn't mean I'm going to stop nipping into Village Pizza.

How to write a book, even if you have nothing to write about

I was recently interviewed by Diego Mesa for his new book 'THRIVING IN RECESSION'.

You can hear the interview online at: http://twurl.nl/14izgj

Diego is interviewing a number of entrepreneurs with the aim of compiling a book of these interviews giving their advice on how to “thrive in a recession”. This seems to be becoming a common way to create a book – in effect it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a particular expertise, you can simply showcase other people’s expertise.

From my experience many of these books are actually created as a result of the author’s desire to meet or interview the people they feature. Sometimes this can be a great starting point for a book that will interest a lot of people, and other times it ends up being a bunch of conversations where the interviewer simply asks questions relevant to his or her interests. Fascinating for the author, but of no use to the reader.


If done well this system of creating a book from a collection of interviews can be a great way to get started in the book world; for many people it is much easier than creating their own material from scratch.

It can also provide a collection of ideas, advice and expertise from a range of people, all in one easy to access place. It many cases it may be the reader’s only opportunity to hear from these experts.

From the expert’s point of view it can be attractive opportunity too. Many successful business people enjoy the chance to share what they have learnt and be able to help others on the entrepreneur’s journey. In addition publicity is publicity! Every little bit helps so if you have the time, like talking about what you do and enjoy sharing your expertise, why would you say no?

So, do you have a book inside you after all?

The Guardian Gets It Wrong

On Saturday July 11th, the Guardian carried a piece on DAB radio that was, at best, poorly researched, at worst the kind of skewed, blinkered drivel usually the reserve of certain tabloids. You can read it here [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/11/fm-radio-dab-ofcom].

The DRDB has issued this reply ...

In its Editorial on Saturday – ‘Radio: Turn on, tune in, drop out’ - The Guardian again demonstrated its biased and misinformed campaign against DAB digital radio.

It is incorrect in virtually every point it makes:

1. Digital Britain states that when analogue is less than 50% of radio listening the Government will set an appropriate switch-off date (6 ½ years away at the earliest) and ensure the public is ready for it. Saying that everyone’s radios will stop working overnight is blatant scaremongering, as by any switch-off the vast majority will already be listening digitally.
2. Recent Ofcom research found that about 45m analogue radios are in regular use plus 22m in cars – not the 150m quoted.
3. DAB is not a primitive technology. It delivers digital quality sound, additional station choice (up to 50 in some areas) and other benefits such as text and even graphical information. DAB+ is just an updated version of DAB and would offer the vast majority of listeners only marginal benefits yet would make obsolete all the existing 9-10m DAB sets.
4. 88% of listeners rate the audio quality of DAB highly. The Guardian is blindly following an out of touch, audiophile agenda.
5. DAB does work well in cars – why else would Ford be making it standard on 50% of Mondeos, Galaxys, etc? I would challenge The Guardian to drive around the UK in a car with a properly installed DAB radio and report on the experience.
6. While the DAB signal is not as universal as FM (c.90% compared with c.98%), Digital Britain states this will be addressed before any switchover. The target is also to move to digital, not just DAB but also online devices and digital TVs.
7. DAB receivers have been reducing in price for some time now, and are available from as little as £25 today. We are currently working on an initiative which will reduce this to £15 to £25 within the next 18 months.
8. Re. the power consumption of digital radios The Guardian is out of date. Many DAB radios are now accredited by the Energy Saving Trust as using very low power levels, and this will only improve.

Finally, despite The Guardian’s efforts, more and more people are buying digital radios and now over 20% of listening is via digital (over two thirds of that DAB). Radio is a key foundation of the UK’s media sector and has to go digital to ensure its long term survival. I do not see The Guardian suggesting that any other media reverts to an analogue only state, so what makes radio different?

Tony Moretta
Chief Executive
DRDB

Why shaking your body is enough

If you’re looking for a dentist, mine is brilliant, he has a fantastic drill-side manner. As well as being patient with patients, he genuinely cares about doing the best job possible, he clearly knows his stuff, and is obviously at the top of his game. If his dentistry skills were magically changed into soccer skills he’d be married to a pop princess and due for a transfer to Spain or Italy. When it comes to the inside of my mouth, I would never think of questioning anything this man does.

However, that only works one way.

As we all know, dentists can’t help asking us questions when our mouths are full of fingers and assorted descendents of the Spanish Inquisition. Perhaps your God of the Gob quizzes you about the day’s big news story, or [if it was a toss up between dentistry and hairdressing] where you’re going on holiday this year, but for me it’s about our radio station.

As you’d expect, the surgery DAB radio is tuned to PASSION for the PLANET, which means that I’m frequently frustrated by not being able to answer queries about the decade a particular song is from, or the name of a band’s lead singer, or the country certain artists belong to.

But then the other day [not long after Michael Jackson’s death], my dentist asked “why aren’t you playing lots of Michael Jackson like everyone else?” I was of course forced into silence. After the Torquemada-esque implements were removed, I attempted a frozen faced explanation about the subtlety of music programming that included a surfing analogy. Looking back, the music programming is like surfing comparison is sure-footed, but doesn’t explain my decision not to follow the pack and flood our schedule with wall to wall Jacko.

Before his death, we played one song featuring Michael Jackson … “Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)” by the Jacksons. It’s still the only song featuring Michael Jackson we play. Why? Because it is brilliant, the Jacksons clearly knew their stuff, and they were obviously at the top of their game. The success of Michael Jackson’s solo hits easily eclipsed “Shake Your Body” but [for me] Michael never recreated the incredible infectious joy of that song. Go to YouTube and you’ll see a beaming Michael boogying with his brothers in blindingly bright costumes. Cheesy, but fantastic fun. Have a look at his later, bigger hits. You’ll see stunningly slick performances and trend setting, technically breathtaking video sequences, but you’ll be hard pushed to see a happy looking Michael Jackson. From the “Thriller” album onwards the songs are shrouded in sadness or shot through with a faux “edginess” that sees Michael’s “Shake Your Body” smiles replaced by snarls and scowls. And that’s why we don’t play lots of Michael Jackson songs, they are obviously well crafted and performed by an undoubtedly talented man, but they don’t make me feel good.

And this brings us back to dentists and football. Just like football management, radio programming is one of those jobs dependent on successfully surfing subjectivity. It’s one of those things people in dentistry [and every other profession] have an opinion about, and a particular way they’d do it if they were in charge. You and my dentist have your own views on Michael Jackson, and programmers on other radio stations have their own way of marking his passing. My view is that it’s best to go with quality rather than quantity, and I prefer to remember a happy Michael with his brothers loving every second of making people feel good, while shaking their bodies down to the ground.

Saving the planet and my pocket

About 18 months ago I had a Trianco Activair air source heat pump installed at home.

In that time I have seen a significant reduction in the price of my energy bills – so good for me and good for the planet too.

Activair works firstly, by using a small amount of electricity to drive a pump to extract the ambient heat stored in the air and then converts this, using a compressor and heat exchanger, into heat for domestic heating and hot water. Not only that, it has a proven and quantifiable output - the smaller version at least triples the amount of input used – meaning a great deal less energy is needed to heat water.

Previously, I used the gas boiler for both hot water and heating. I took a reading prior to having the 3kW Activair installed in the loft - this was measured at 128 units per month. A year after installing the air source heat pump, the gas consumption has been reduced to 89 units per month – a 30% saving on my gas bill.

Pretty good I think. I admit it will take a while to recoup the cost of the Activair – but then that’s not really why I did it. I did it as I believe doing your best to save energy is the right thing to do.

See http://www.trianco.co.uk.

Are you looking to build your business?

Are you looking for ways to build your business? I am. Always. Most businesses are.

The trouble is I hate sales. There is not a cell in my body that wants to be a salesperson. So what do you do?

I’ve had help from two areas; 1) Sandler Sales Training and 2) Richard White, The Accidental Salesperson.

Personally I’ve found Sandler Sales Training very helpful. It’s a clear sales system that prevents a lot of the “dancing” that salespeople and prospects tend to do. You qualify your prospects in or out much quicker and you don’t end up wasting time with people who are never going to buy but for some reason don’t seem able to tell you to your face.

Richard White helps business owners who have to sell but don’t want to. I have done a breakthrough session with Richard which helps you identify WHY you keep procrastinating about selling. You know you have to do it but you’re still not picking up the phone. Maybe you are filled with fear or dread. Richard can get you past that. And Sandler can give you the techniques, attitudes and behaviours you need to be super successful.

Our research at Passion for the Planet has highlighted that many of our listeners either run their own business or aspire to do so. I believe this is because Passion for the Planet listeners are predominantly people who are willing to take responsibility for their lives, they want a fulfilling life for themselves and they want the world to be a better place. Running a business is one way to achieve both those aims.

So we’d like to offer a little help.

In a series of regular on air features Joshua Gilbertson Director of Sandler Training will be giving Passion for the Planet listeners some tips and techniques to help them grow their businesses by increasing their sales. Richard White will be talking about how to stop procrastinating and how to breakthrough your sales fears.

The series is on air now and will run for 12 months. The on air features are supported by information on the web site including additional short tips to supplement the on air expertise. In addition each month a new interview will be featured on air and be made available on demand on the web site, so you can listen whenever it suits you.

You can also get the weekly sales tips via TWITTER – follow us at PASSIONftPLANET.

The supporting sales information, tips and on demand interviews can be found at http://www.passionfortheplanet.com.

I hope you find it as helpful as we have.