Old Man

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to give you a bit of an update on how things went with my birthday…. I am now officially 30 and feeling quite ok about it all, I don’t feel any older and according to the face book age test I am 23 at heart!

The birthday has been very cool. Firstly on Thursday I had planned on going to drinks with Gwyn after work (she was in the city having spent the day at the South African embassy applying for dual citizenship and a new passport as hers is full), so we get to the bar and I am greeted by a surprise get together with a number of my colleagues and friends. Then over the weekend Gwyn spoilt me to a weekend in Oxford where we stayed in a town called Abingdon in an amazing room overlooking the Thames and countryside. Saturday started with a gift opening session and breakfast in our pyjamas, really relaxing. Then I was treated to the most amazing lunch at Le Manoir a two-Michelin starred modern French restaurant owned by Raymond Blanc – the experience, service and 5 course meal was out of this world (http://www.manoir.com/). I have loaded up some pics if you are interested.

A big thank you to everyone for all your good wishes, gifts, surprises and all the rest, it really made my transition into the 30s a pleasant experience - really appreciate it!

Best

Lawrence

20080424 Lawrence 30th Birthday

Unilever goes Ape

I had an interesting day on Monday when Greenpeace decided to stage a peaceful protest at my office. We had a whole bunch of apes who climb all over our office building claiming our products which contain Palm Oil is causing deforestation... Just a pity they did not have all the facts. I think they were just targeting Unilever as we are a big name in order to get some airtime on the issue.

Unilever chair the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a wide-ranging coalition of organisations including OXFAM, WWF, plantation owners, and manufacturers and retailers. In November the RSPO agreed criteria for sustainable palm oil production. The problem is simply that demand of palm oil has exploded. This is due partly to growing demand from India and China and also due to the use of palm oil as a feedstock for biofuels in the energy sector. Click here for further information on Unilever's sustainable agriculture programmes.

London Marathon

Click image to see some of our London Marathon Pics... some funny ones!!!

Jacky - One of Nic's many dogs

Nic showing off his photography and photoshop skills!

Snow

20080406 Snow in London

In strong contrast to last weekend beautiful sunny weather, and even
yesterdays blue skies... We have just woken up and been greeter with a
white wonderland. So our idea of mountain biking for the day has been
tabled and we will be attempting to build a snow man!

On another note, Nicholas and Michelle have just come back from a diving
trip in Sodwana where they managed to swim with a Whale Shark... Click on the link
to see their pics http://www.2dive4.co.za/gallery24.htm

L&G

Twiggy

Twiggy, the beautiful new addition to the Bowen family.

 

We are very envious!