secret santa

Santa is a very perceptive chap. He seemed to know just what everyone from PRC would like for Christmas.

Heather: A gorgeous lippie case and girlie key ring. Lovely taste. (I don't know whether she is praising Santa's fashion sense or whether she tried to eat them.)

Nathan: Sin city DVD. Cracking pressie.

KT: 3 scratch cards which won £1.00 and 3 lucky dips for last nights draw. She's at her desk though. So no win there.

JR: A selection of pleasantly indecent little flipbooks.

Beardy: His own special mug. No more flavia branded cups for him.

Raph: A complete beauty salon, with amazing beauty tips, manicure set, hair band and loads of stuff. She shall be opening the salon later. Girls form an orderly queue please. And you there, Gary, stop trying to nick the lipstick. That's not yours.

Lex: A walking stick. (??)

Anne: A lovely selection of yoghurt, stain remover, napkins and spoons - some of which (the runny bits) is now adorning Gracechurch Street and being run over by cars as the carrier bag broke.

Rebecca: A candle holder and some lovely smelling candles.

Little H: A heart-shaped cheese.

Ondine: A heart-shaped cheese. Hrmmmmm.

Gill: The Devil Wears Prada book and some Celebration Truffles. She offered to lend the book to others. No mention of the truffles.

Gill also had to go out and get the breakfast fryup sandwiches for being the last one in to work. It's a bit unfair because the truth is, Lex and Anne were both in later... but everyone was too hungry to wait and it stopped being funny anymore.

Mike 'Nothing Up My Sleeve' Burgneay: A superb 'after dinner tricks' book. Mike also received the gift of rather a lot of alcohol and was, despite his intial protests, just as drunk as he sounded.

Tony: 2 racing Grannies. Tony will bring them in tomorrow so we can race them for money. Place your bets today (min bet £100,000). Ethel vs Deardry. Ethel passed a late drugs test, but is carrying a foot injury into this main event, so odds are 10-1.

Jan: A wind-up torch and radio. So she'll be the one doing the spotlighting on the granny races then.

...and then there's Gary. Gary's present was very special indeed and he submits the following:

Little H,

As requested, please find below full Secret Santa gift inventory. In order of preference:

1x Tesco own brand Shortbread biscuits (excellent, half-eaten on the night)

1x Tesco own brand Salted peanuts (family pack). Superb football-on-TV, girlfriend out, no-one to cook for me food.

1x Tesco own brand Baked Beans (surprisingly good, eaten on the night. Drizzled over freshly warmed toast with a sprig of 'torn' basil. Mmmm. Those aren't just beans. They're Tesco's beans.)

1x Tesco own brand Garibaldi biscuits (saving those for a posh dinner party)

1x Tesco own brand Dry roasted peanuts (lovely I'm sure but they really are pop-off fuel, so risky in company)

1x Tesco own brand ('Christmas' range) Deep filled mince pies (thanks Mike for rescuing those)

1x Tesco own brand (exclusive 'Value' range) not Deep filled 'mince' pies (the subject of a truly horrifying 'in one' spectacle at Clause on the night. There could be no winners! Only losers. With indigestion).

1x Tesco own brand (exclusive 'Value' range) Christmas pudding. Note here for foodies – it's a pudding with a twist. It's made with a hint of 'cider' (for cider read: lighter fuel).

That's all I can remember. Literally.

Thanks once again Santa. The poor will be most grateful.

bad bad bad

Debenhams are coming in today so I had to sort out the magnetic board. In the process of doing that I moved a lot of pretty gross looking souvenir magnets around and noticed we've really been places. Seville. San Francisco. Strathpeffer.

I think someone snuck this one up there without me seeing it. I'm not sure who it was that went to Tunisia, but check out this abomination of design:



That magnet fell out of the tacky tree and hit every branch on the way down.

a model railway

I didn't mention this either! We've got a new contract with the Office of Rail Regulation!

Nath led the pitch, did a superb job on it and was naturally excited when he got the call. He practically tackled me when I came through the door from a brainstorm. No doubt expecting to see the New Business Win Jive. (I have spoilt my colleagues with original choreography for all different types of joy and now they expect it all the time.)

I was very pleased to hear the news. Problem was, I was still suffering from kasbah belly from my holiday to Marrakech and the thought of jumping up and down in that condition wasn't exactly compelling. Poor Nath only managed to get a half-hearted 'get in' from me.

A bit of a delayed reaction, but may I just say we are all very happy indeed to have ORR on board as a new client -- so far they seem like a lot of fun and we definitely click on the creative work. I'm just glad our victory celebrations didn't include tagine cooking.

Hello new client! 2006 has really been our year.

The sunny side of the exhibition

There is no real chronological order to these blogs. I just post what I can when I have time. Having licked a copy project for Hyde this morning, I thought it would be a nice thing to just say how proud we were of their exhibition stand that debuted at Forum3 a few months ago.

When I came into the office, it was partially set up in here and I just went mental seeing it in the flesh. Brilliant! Calls for a Nothing's Better Than Seeing Your Work Huge Boogie.



(Had someone take my picture with it too. It's one of my babies. And it makes me look tall.)

Them I headed over to the Business Design Centre in Islington to see it in action. Look!



There you are. Smiley Hyde people swarmed with interest in their cartoon world. I had a little spy on the competition and let's face it, none of them had a bunting, did they? Frankly I think if you haven't got a bunting, you are missing the point.

The Hyde people I spoke to seemed really pleased and they pointed out that when you go up to the balcony and look down, the way the light hits, it looked like their cartoon Hyde sun was shining!



Lovely. Satisfied with a joint Hyde-Penna victory, I did the natural thing and hopped a train for another weekend of chasing guitar players. Only to arrive on Monday to be welcomed back into work mode with the news that Hyde had won Best Small Stand.

Hooray!

Who says you can't be commercially successful and just generally get ahead being nice? Hyde seem to manage. Welcome sign and all.