Magazines

*New ''Monocle'' at the newsstands now. Cover story about the Danish Navy plus The Monocle Design Directory 2009/10.

*Jungle Drums is a free Brazilian magazine distributed in London. To be honest, I never expect much from free publications, but Jungle Drums really stood out from the crowd. Great content and great design as well, the new issue has Vanessa da Mata (she will perform in London on the 26th of April, at Koko) on the cover.

Lula

Outsiders can look at President Lula's gaffes and assume that he is just a crazy left-winger(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/26/lula-attacks-white-bankers-crash), but the reality is that his presidency has been great for the poorest part of Brazilian society. Well, not only for them, because Brazil now can be considered for the first time a middle-class country (they account for more than 50% of the population).

Brazil did not have a great welfare state system before Lula, even though in the previous government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, some social programs were started. But in Lula's presidency all these programs were expanded, incuding the famous ''Bolsa Familia''.

The Brazilian economy didn't grow as much as China and India, but people must realise that in Brazil much of the growth already happened in the 70's, and it would be impossible to expect 10% growth, like you would not expect this rate of growth in Great Britain or Germany for example, even in the pre-credit crunch period.

Even though Lula's ratings are quite high, a great part of the media rally against him (Veja, O Estado de Sao Paulo), and I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it is just a simple sign of democracy and thankfully the division between government and opposition in Brazil is not as accentuated as in Venezuela for example, where there is a real division in opinion between the poorest and richest part of the society.

If Lula will manage to elect his sucessor is yet to be seen, but there are great chances that he will. And Brazil may have its first female president, Dilma Roussef.

Aesop

Aesop is a skin and body care company created in Australia in 1987. Now, Aesop have shops from London to Zurich. The service is impeccable, even the receipt is special, with the smell of one of their fragrances, in my case it was a mixture of the Marrakesh and the Mystra one.

From all their products, a good tip is their Ginger Flight Therapy, an uplifting botanical pulse point therapy, that it is certainly good for relaxation.

For more information about their products and shops, visit : www.aesop.net.au .