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I am a drunk, at least for three nights I will appear to be.

Time is flying, we have just had the third rehearsal for the Monday part of the Southwark Mysteries community cast.
The community cast meets on Mondays and Wednesday, so people that cannot make one day can come on the other.
We have now got to the point where the groups are being cast so that you need to be attending on the day of the group you are in.
On Mondays we have the groups for the tunnellers & devils, so I'm now practicing being a burly labourer digging tunnels for the Jubilee line extension.
The play is starting to appear more real now, as we have started practicing our entrance and I also visited the Southwark Cathedral today, the stage for our play.
We have group lines to learn and I have a few of my own lines, to learn, yes you heard correctly my own lines, which is very exciting.
As you may have guessed my few lines relate to my role as a drunk, I wonder if I will be named in the programme, I can see it now - A Drunk Shaun Phillips.

You can find more details on the play and how to get tickets http://www.southwarkmysteries.com
and some photos of the workshops and rehersals here.

Also for to find out how I got involved in this you can go here.

A song or two for those in need

There are some of us in the Symbian Foundation that have formed a band of sorts, we have yet to practice or play a gig and are missing a few essentials like a keyboard and drums but the intent is there.

After the earthquake in Haiti, we started to discuss what we could do to raise money to help those in need.
At first we discussed a couple of people doing some performances, we then wondered about a talent show and finally decided karaoke was going to be the best way to raise some money.

So the date was set Friday 24th February, 2010 at The Crown public house, 108 Blackfriars Road SE1 and a just giving page was setup http://justgiving.co.uk/karaokeaid to take donations.
Some of the Symbian team agreed to produce a list of songs that could be voted on before the night, with them singing their winning songs.

The night turned out great, almost everyone that came along sang.
Everyone really got into the spirit of the event and sang their hearts out and some didn't want it to end.
One of my favourite performances was Gansta's Paradise with Sylvester & his crew.

We raised £2,160 before the night and a further £240 on the night, our original target was £5,000 but if we can raise over £3,000 by tomorrow evening that would be fantastic.

The success of the event has been inspirational and we were really taken aback by the level of generosity from people with their large donations.

You can now find links to videos of the night at http://justgiving.com/karaokeaid

We are putting the names of all the people that have donated into a hat to win the coverted Symbian Rubber duck featured above, a Symbian t-shirt or a fleece.
The draw will take place tomorrow (Friday 5th March) at 1600.

The money we are raising will aid the victims of the Haiti earthquake and other people that are in desperate need of medical aid.
The aid is provided Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (Doctors Without Frontiers), who are committed to providing medical aid where it is most needed, regardless of race, religon or gender.

This was the first time I was involved in organising this type of fundraising event and i'm please how it turned out.
Finally just a last big thank you to all those that assisted in getting the event setup, those that sang and especially those that donated.

Spontaneously unraveling the Southwark Mysteries

I don't have that many spontaneous moments these days, with a family including two young children spontaneity can be sparse at times but not today!

It all started with a tweet from my colleague @jfourgeaud.

Will be heading this evening for a workshop to join the "Southwark Mysteries" cast. Gonna be fun! http://bit.ly/bQGnPS

This I thought sounded very interesting, so I followed the link to the site.
On the site was a link "Be In It" and an email address to request a place on this evenings introductory workshop. So after a quick call to my wife, I sent an email, got one back and here is what happened.

On first arriving at the South Bank University, I ticked off my name then headed to the rehearsal room, which the university had very kindly given to the Southwark Mysteries to use to practice and rehearse for the play.

Everyone was very welcoming when I arrived and we were warned in advance that a "name game" was coming later so we should take the opportunity to introduce ourselves to each other and learn a few names.
There were some people that had done this type of thing before and they seemed impressed that I had only decided earlier on that day on the spur of the moment to attend.
We started off with the writer and producer of the "Southwark Mysteries" John Constable, giving us an introduction and some background on the play.
John asked us all to say our name and a word or two to give people an idea about ourselves, he started then turned to his right. Hold on that's me, I wasn't ready so the first word I thought of popped out "Passion".
We then discussed the community cast contract, covering some principle and behaviours we would like to see from ourselves and others during the next 7 weeks.
A very large & long roll of paper was placed on the floor, for the ideas to be added. These included : take direction, respect, honesty, enjoy yourself, be non judgemental and one of my favourites "be brave", as well as many others. These words and phrases were all very positive gave me a real sense of what it going to be like working on this community project.
During the workshop we also did some physical exercises to help us become more aware of others and get some understanding of what it might be like to be on a stage with lots of other people moving around. This turned out to be quite an interesting observation of human nature and behavior.
We also did some reading, which got very interesting when we had to just read a line when we felt like it, but not interrupt each other while agreeing non verbally who was going to say the line.
There was also a song to learn which I enjoyed immensely.
We started how we finished with a word and mine was "enlightened".
My eyes were starting to be opened into a world I knew nothing about but was starting to look very interesting and enjoyable.
All in all one of the best evenings out I have had in ages and certainly the most spontaneous in the last few years, leading to my first blog right after an event.
So as a new member of the community cast of "Southwark Mysteries" I look forward to next Monday for more social interaction, learning and enlightenment.
Also a final thank you to Julian for giving my spontaneous side an opportunity.

Great place to eat Indian food in St Albans

Went out for an Indian meal last night to a place called Samoji on Georges Street in St Albans.
We found the restaurant by looking on Toptable's website, link here, the reviews looked good and the sample menu interesting.
The restaurant is set back in between the shops of St Georges, so you walk down a alleyway (which has the feel of a hollywood film set) to get to the restaurant.
Once inside there are lots of exposed beams giving the place a very rustic and cosy feel (some beams are quite low so tall people need to be careful).
As it was a Tuesday night we went on the place was quiet, only one other diner but a couple did come in for takeaway.
We first ordered some poppadoms while we decided on what we wanted to eat from a very delicious looking choice.
My wife went for the vegetable dhansak with lemon pilou, while I went for the chicken balti with jeera rice and we shared a garlic naan, washing it all down with a nice Merlot.
We both found the food and the whole dining experience at Samoji excellent and would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone, so much so that we will probably go there again very soon.

Free version of GooSync to be discontinued

Email received from GooSync about discontinuing free version of GooSync

Since the first release of GooSync back in early 2007 GooSync has gone from strength to strength. Both the Premium and Free versions of GooSync have become market leaders in the over-the-air synchronization market. We have shown our continued commitment to our users over the years with a new infrastructure, further product development and enhanced support services.

We are also now happy to report that version 2.1 is now ready for release. Features from this new version will soon be rolled into the Premium version of GooSync. We also have 3 further updates planned for release over the next 9 months.

It has always been our goal to provide a professional service to all Free and Premium users. Given the exponential demand for GooSync over the last 12 months, it has become increasingly more difficult to continue this high level of service to both Premium and Free users.

It is therefore, with regret, that we are now discontinuing our Free service. For all of you that have come to love and rely on our free offering, we will be migrating the Free GooSync service into a new product “GooSync Lite”.  This new lite version of GooSync will have all the same features as the existing free version.

The Free version will become unavailable and synchronization will be suspended on Monday 19th October. To continue benefiting from all the great features of GooSync you will be able to purchase GooSync Lite for a yearly fee of just £5.99 (approx $10). We are confident that this is priced very competitively and will allow us to continue to offer the professional level of service and support you have come to expect.

Alternatively you can upgrade to our GooSync Premium service. This allows full contact syncing with contact backup, multiple Google calendars with appointments up to 365 days in advance, appointment attendees, task synchronization, multiple device support, AutoSync and iGoogle gadgets. Also included will be GooSync’s new features from version 2.1, such as Google contact group synchronization.

GooSync Premium is available for as little as £19.95 per year, £29.95 for a two year subscription or a lifetime option for £39.95.

We hope you continue to use GooSync and we look forward to working with you in the future.

Thanks,

The GooSync Team.