Fairtrade cuppa

I may well be discovering this LONG after everyone else - but I was pleased to find out today that Tchibo coffees are fairtrade in their cafe's. Sadly the sugar they use is not - yet, but I gather some employees are pushing for it to be. Also, their ground coffees available to buy are Fairtrade as well - with the exception of instant which they are working on! It's very nice to know that the fairtrade movement is spreading to the high street.

Oh, and when buying your ground coffee to take home, why not pick up some chocolate as the perfect accompaniment? Tchibo chocolate bars are Fairtrade too!!!!!

There are many Fairtrade products popping up all over the place - it's great not to have to go out of your way to choose more responsibly

BBC iplayer

A good few months ago, I was invited to be a part of a test group for the BBC iplayer (before it's launch obviously) There was a kooky log on process, and if you got past that, the thing kept falling over and was barely useable. In fact, I gave up on it, and only when the ads on tv started coming thick and fast, did I bother to look it up again.

I am really glad that I did. It is a rare and wonderful thing when something works so well! I was surprised that it is so easy to use, and plays your selected tv show with no delays, or out of sync sound - it even allows downloads of higher quality.

In this sky/itunes climate, we've become somewhat resigned to paying for on demand and/or quality programmes - how refreshing it is to access many (sadly not all) BBC programmes, in many genres - FREE!!!! (ok, technically anyone who pay for a tv licence is paying for this anyway ....) No credit card needed, just click, and enjoy.

Missed a BBC show lately? Check out BBC iPlayer.