easyexpat   25 September, 2005 20:13

I am not professing to become a recycling green guru overnight but below are a few things one can do to help the environment.

1. Use energy saving bulbs. Switch off all appliances on 'standby' mode including mobile phone chargers when not in use.
2. Off-set individual CO2 emissions by planting trees/making donations to organisations who plant trees. For more information, visit http://www.futureforests.com , http://www.carbonneutral.com
3. Think about the food you eat. Buy organic food and/or food that has been produced/sourced locally where possible.
4. Recycle as much as you can.
• Paper, glass, plastic, cans...: Contact your local authority to view the services they provide. Most supermarket car-parks have recycling facilities.
• Old mobile phones: Donate to a friend in need (one who has a phone that is falling apart or is the size of a brick) or return to the retailer or charity shop for recycling.
• Clothes: Drop off at a charity recycling point.
• Computer: http://www.donateapc.org.uk
• Electronic goods: Donate furniture and electronic goods eg computers, TV's fridges etc. to organisations who will services these items and pass on to low-income families. Contact Furniture Reuse Network for list. http://www.frn.org.uk
5. Travel by air only when necessary. Offset CO2 emissions by planting trees or ask your company to do so. See 2 above and http://www.climatecare.org
6. Buy recycled products where possible (It's stupid to wipe your bum with virgin toilet paper when all you are doing is throwing it back down the loo) or second hand goods such as i-pods, laptops, etc.
7. Use public transport where possible. I know it is not much fun on a Monday morning, being stuck under someone's armpit, but think you are doing something good by not using the car for that particular journey. People with smelly armpits, please wash.
8. Learn more about green and recycling issues.

Do a search on the internet - the list is endless.

L.

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easyexpat   12 September, 2005 17:22

Second EasyExpat's event of the year in London, we would like to invite you to:

The main message of the event: "You are expat, you work with expats, you've got an expat business... or you've just heard about the event...? no worries you are welcome to join for a chat"!

It will be a good occasion for expatriates and also for people involved with expatriates and expatriation in London to meet up and exchange their experience. We also welcome representation of businesses who want to talk about their services and partnership.

We have chosen a pub (we're in London, aren't we?). It's a very classical pub but with the enormous advantage of being very easy of access, located in central London, and with a place to welcome our guests at the back

Date: 20th October 2005
Where: The White Hart, 191 Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5QD
How: Tube = Covent Garden, Holborn
Map: http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?pc=WC2B5QD
Time: 7pm onwards

There is no booking, no fees. You are free to come and of course the pub will work as usual if you want a drink! (and a free buffet will be available).

More information on Easy Expat's forum.

We hope to see you there,

Easy Expat Team

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easyexpat   02 September, 2005 01:43

When you want to put photos on the Internet you may have a problem due to the size of the document. If you took high quality pictures, sizes might be greater than 500K, even greater than 1M sometime. It's good to have such quality for your record but you do not need to display them like that on the Internet. They are heavy to download, take a lot of space and sometime the software might also refuse to download them.

The solution is to downsize the images. You can either do that one by one with your favorite software (using Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Fireworks...etc) or proceed to a massive downsize of several files all at the same time using a Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP:

Image Resizer enables you to resize one or many image files with a right-click, while you are using the explorer in Windows. You choose the size and whether you want to replace the original file or save them appart.

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