So far, this week has been a very quiet one in the canadian girl’s little world.
It’s lighter outside when I leave the office, so it’s encouraging to know Spring is on its way. Otherwise, c’est le petit train-train quotidien, business as usual. For the time being anyways… *evil smirk*
Today was a cleaning and reorganizing blitz in the Pepperrell home. We got rid of a crappy old dresser and put together a lovely little desk for my computer. I’ll have to post some photos before it gets cluttered with junk! Spring cleaning feels so good, and in a one bedroom flat, it’s also very necessary…
My goal is to keep the desk junk-free. The little pink book my friends gave me when I left Ottawa in May and my iPod Shuffle are amongst the few items welcome to stay on the desk. Oh and my little tin of Talent…
The tin of “Double Concentrated Talent” is nothing but a small can of tomato paste, a personalized label and a big idea for an advertising campaign. A design agency mailed those out to everyone in marketing in my office. We all found them in our pigeon holes and thought it was a fantastic idea. It was worth the effort for the agency, as we invited them to come over and present their portfolio. Now, the can serves to remind me that thinking hard about an idea and doing something unconventional can really yield results. Hopefully, I can regain the creativity I seem to have lost during all those years in school and create great campaigns like the tin of Talent.
Ok so maybe a few creative thinking and marketing books will be allowed on the desk too…
I posted a link to the fantastic Golf GTI ad the other day, and now the BBC goes behind the scenes.
Finally, an explanation on how they created the ad!
It’s the beginning of the campfest!
Tonight, it’s time for Britain to decide who’s going to represent the country at the Eurovision contest in May. It’ll be interesting if Jordan… no sorry, Katie makes it through and performs for Britain. She’s got a perfectly camp song that Europe will love (even though I can’t stand it).
Looking forward to seeing what kind of rubbish the other countries can come up with this year!
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Update:
So Javine Hilton, also known as “The girl who didn’t make it into Girls Aloud in Pop Stars: The Rivals because she looked like she’d been signed by someone else but turns out she hadn’t and was just unlucky”, will be representing Britain in May with her Touch My Fire song. It’s terribly reminescent of last year’s winners from Ukraine, yet it seems to be the right mix of campness and skimpyness to win. Hopefully next time, she won’t be showing her nipples when hugging Terry Wogan!
Jamie’s School Dinners shows the junk food culture in schools and the unbelievable lack of education kids have towards food and health. Most of them didn’t manage to recognize rhubarb, a leek or an asparagus. They ate Turkey Twizzlers and stayed away from anything that wasn’t processed, with added fat and/or full of sugar.
Dear ol’ Jamie Oliver (aka Mr. Salad Man) decided to attack the bad habits and teach the kids all about good food. It took a long time to convince them to even taste a piece of organic chicken or a bite of asparagus, but in the long run, kids not only enjoyed eating healthier, they even got involved in a bit of cooking!
It’s frightening to think children are surviving on reformed chicken nuggets and smiley-face-shaped chips (french fries for the north americans). I’m not planning on having children aaaaaanytime soon, but the idea of my child eating such junk all day long is very worrying! Kids seem to be growing in width faster than they’re growing in height!
The fact that Jamie cooked the school dinners in question on the same 37p per head budget that is used in schools across the area proved that eating well doesn’t have to be more expensive.
Damn, I love my food too much to want to subsist on Turkey Twizzlers and Dr. Pepper! Bring on the Maple & Mustard Basted Pork Roast!
I decide to start myself another blog dedicated to food and drinks! This way, I won’t be drowning this blog in food comments, though I’m sure I’ll cross-post between both blogs when I find something irresistible!
It’s like one big recipe box for those nights where choosing what to cook feels like a chore.
It’s also my WordPress 1.5 sandbox, so the look and feel of it will probably change regularly and possibly look all messed up sometimes.
Yet another ridiculous item on sale on EBay.
Still, I must admit I’m curious to see how high the bidding will go and what he’ll have put in the envelope.
We left Friday night and made it down to Brighton in record time, considering everyone expected the snow to cause traveling to grind to a halt. It was a nice chilled out evening in with Lisa, Stu and the cats… oh and the bottles of wine, boys? 😉
Saturday, we lazed all morning, enjoying Stu’s fantastic (almost) full English breakfast. Later on, with an uncertain sky and the occasional snow flurry that appeared very out of place in the Brighton landscape, we headed into town for some shopping. My attempt at finding a new coat was just as fruitless as Andrew’s attempt to find new shoes, but it was a good afternoon nonetheless.
As the afternoon was coming to an end, the other Andrew (aka Hodgson) joined us for a prospective evening of fun, food and music. We booked a table at Moshi Moshi and headed into town for a few drinks before dinner. Since Hodgson was feeling adventurous, I encouraged him to have the same “Gourmet Selection” of sushi I was having, even though he admitted never trying sushi before. As the pictures in the gallery tell, I thoroughly enjoyed my meal. It was the biggest plate of sushi I’d ever had and must say neither me or Mr. H managed to finish it all up, but it was DELICIOUS! The salmon was sooo fresh!
So once the meal was over, we rolled out of there on our big bellies and Lisa decided to go home. I was a bit bummed she’d miss out on LAL, but turns out, being home in bed might have been the better option. As LAL wasn’t on until past midnight at Enigma, we went for a drink at the most bizarre pub/club I’ve ever seen below the club. The atmosphere wasn’t great for anyone still in the realm of sobriety so we headed upstairs to see the gig I’d been looking forward to for a few months.
When Rose, the singer from LAL, arrived, I went to say hi and let her know the Canadian support was in town. She confessed the tour had been rather tiring and she wasn’t in best singing health, so she wouldn’t be doing many songs. What a shame, but fair enough, I understood how a month-long tour across Canada and Europe could take its toll on her. But even with warning, I was sorely disappointed by the show LAL put on. Moonstarr had set the mood with the crowd and people seemed to be enjoying the tunes, but LAL didn’t manage to keep it going. The small stage-cum-dancing-platform emptied and people just stood around bobbing their heads, unsure of what to do. Rose stayed behind the DJ booth, and the sound was so badly balanced, if I hadn’t paid attention, I wouldn’t have noticed there was anyone singing live in there! To add insult to injury, the DJ, who I assume was Murr, seemed to have difficulties beatmatching, a painful reminder of Ottawa’s amateur open-decks nights.
I can’t lie, the show wasn’t up to scratch. No one in the club last night will have thought “wow, LAL is great, I’m going to buy their album and see them live again!”, and it pains me to say that. I love both albums to death, that hasn’t changed. And I thought Rose was a real sweetheart when we got to chat, but someone has to tell them they owe music lovers a good show, however much effort it takes. She did say that in June, she would be back to London with the full band, rather than only herself and Murr. I can imagine it’ll be a good show, but whether I’ll be willing to make the trip to London and risk being disappointed a second time, that’ll remain to be seen.
Overall, a lovely weekend of food, drinks and friends. Just a shame about the music, really… Now that we’re home, snuggling up on the sofa with a good book sounds like the best way to end the weekend!
that canadian girl 