Archive for August, 2007

I first learnt of this most unique post office while reading the blog of Seth Godin – one of my favourite marketers, original thinkers and agent of change for good.

Situated at Post Office Bay on Floreana Island in the Galapagos Islands this most unique post office doesn’t look much at all… at first glance.

With a collection of driftwood, old boats names, it looks more like a repository for things washed up by the sea rather than an important communications centre.

Set up in the early 1700′s the post office has become an institution of goodwill. In those bygone days getting messages personal and official back home was a very prolonged and difficult affair.

It became an established tradition that ships passing through the Galapagos would always collect any mail that had been left in the Post office “barrel” addressed to any place on their itinerary. In turn they would leave messages and letters for collection by other ships to take back home.

This service has run on good will ever since and now has become a landmark on the islands.

Visitors to the Post Office Bay are now encouraged to deposit postcards and letters in the barrel and collect any mail for them to post when they return home. Seth did just that and received his own postcard some 10 days later!

What a wonderful system…a life line in days gone by and a hint of how goodwill and an offbeat idea can inspire us today.

Here is the link to Seth’s original post:

Seth’s Blog: The Galapagos Post Office

And more on the details of the Post Office
Galapagos Island Floreana is a Beautiful Olivine Beach and a Historical Site

They say that from the moment an Ancient Egyptian was born he/she began preparing for their death.

Yesterday Eric and I with friend Rosemary had the privilege of visiting the Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre exhibition at the Art Gallery of WA. What a fascinating collection of objects! Over 500 in all, all to do with dying and securing a position of luxury and ease in the afterlife.

From the smallest of amulets and charms to huge sarcophagi (the plural of sarcophagus I have since learnt) the collection was amazing.

I suppose it was all the more impressive as I lived in Egypt for a year or so and have visited many of the temples and tombs as well as the amazing collections in the Cairo and Alexandria museums. Here the objects are too numerous to count…and even catalogue properly.

Many of the exhibits were just stacked in a corner of a room unlabelled and seemingly neglected. Attempting to find the provenance of a piece was almost impossible and if there was any identification to be had, it generally was an ancient manually typewritten piece of paper with a number and one or two words like “canopic jar” or “papyrus”. This was pinned into place alongside the object and often served as the sole description for a piece of priceless antiquity.

The Louvre Exhibition was quite the opposite. Every piece was given a detailed description and often an explanation of context.

And what did I take away from the visit… well surprising besides the fascination with the actual objects and the normal morbid curiosity that death has for us….I thought…what a waste!

So many people are obsessed with death and securing a position in the afterlife. This is not a new concept…obviously humankind has been working on this since we began to walk this earth. But looking at all the resources used and the time and effort taken…my deep feelings of sadness for these people was and is quite profound. How much did they miss out on living in the moment. Living and loving what they had and who they were with. Treasuring the moments of family and the little daily experiences we all get to enjoy.

Sure we need all to look at the big picture but sometimes we need to remember that it is the daily living that makes a life.

“Smell acts directly on the brain, like a drug” says Dr Alan Huch, a senior neurologist and director of Smell and Taste Research Centre in Chicago.

This is the essence of how and why aromatherapy works and is so useful in a variety of settings. From schools and nursing homes, to hospitals and in therapy aromatherapy has an incredible number of useful and scientifically proven applications.

For example it has been found in clinical research that Lavender oil used on twenty eight patients who had undergone bypass surgery helped reduce breathing rates and lower blood pressure and anxiety levels.

So how does it work: (warning involved description follows!!!)

The aroma enters our nose and comes in contact with the cilia, the fine hair inside the nose lining. The receptors in the cilia are linked to the olfactory bulb which is at the end of the smell tract. The end of the tract is in turn connected to the brain itself.

Scents are converted by the cilia into electrical impulses that are transmitted to the brain through the olfactory system. All these impulses reach the limbic system deep within the brain. The limbic system is that part of the brain which is associated with our moods, emotions, memory and learning.

The transmitted electrical impulses reach the limbic system where they release hormones and different chemicals direct chemicals directly into our boodstream which then in turn directly effect on our moods, emotions and thinking patterns.

For example smelling lavender increases the generation of alpha waves in the brain. Alpha waves are the waves that are found in the brain when we relax. A whiff of jasmine increases beta waves in the brain and this wave is associated with an increased alert state.Similarly the scent of Ylang Ylang essential oil helps to reduce blood pressure.

I suppose this is just a small part of the reason why I am passionate about my life at Moon Haven – I love to help people and aromatherapy is just one but oh so significant avenue of assistance.

Here is a new way to get in your 5 Vegetables a day – take them into the shower with you!

We have been busy getting together a new selection of exciting soaps at Moon Haven for an export order and we have been so enamoured with the results that I wanted to show them off here.

We have been using herbs, spices and some lovely extras like local Red Gum Honey ever since we started making soap many years ago.

Of course we have been using vegetable and fruit extracts in our skin care forever as well, but we have never taken the step of adding in full on fruits and vegetables in our soap…until now!

Cucumber, Carrots, Bananas … an extraordinary bunch of yummy skin loving ingredients now in our Moon Haven soap.

I suppose the idea came from my passion for refrigerator/pantry skin care… you know the idea of going to your fridge and pulling out whatever you can find and applying it as a mask, scrub or treatment to various body parts.

I wanted to do the same thing with our soap. So after some experimentation and testing on the usual suspects…family, friends and willing moon haven customers…we have settled on these three new soaps…

Carrot and Marri Honey (local extra nutrient rich variety from our pristine old growth red gum forests)

Banana, Vanilla and Coconut – smells delightfully chocolatey…decadent and a little scrubby!

Cooling Cucumber Mint – puréed cucumber throughout this bar combined with the spearmint essential oil will make for a delightfully soothing summer treat… and i am already loving it in winter!

Now that I have my creative juices flowing… you just never know what will come out of the soap shed next!

Perfume pumped in to stinking British pubs – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Found this article while checking out the news the other day.

It seems that since smoking has been banned in British pubs the stench of the great unwashed mixed with stale beer and various body emissions (read flatulence) publicans are desperate for a breath of fresh air… or freshly mown grass or even the smell of new leather!

This is just another practical application of aromatherapy in our every changing an complex world.

Of course if it was me I would be pumping in Ylang Ylang on a Friday night to help with mix it up for those a little inhibited when it comes to attracting the opposite sex… which would be replaced with a lavender and chamomile mix as closing time approached…you really want patrons to go home gently into the night!