I don't know if you've seen it, but Henley-in-Arden is officially the 29th Richest Town in Britain according to the Telegraph (only one behind Windsor!) - we get quite a good write-up:
Is it only me or does everyone cringe when a TV programme finishes on the BBC these days?
In the interests of cross-promotion the rolling credits for most programmes are now reduced to just a section of the screen while programmes about to start on other BBC channels are promoted on the same screen.
Now, there is nothing wrong with this, unless you are trying to remember the name of an actor or the year the programme was made - but WHY does there have to be a nasty 'glitch' in the rolling credits as they reduce from full-screen to their alloted area? Is the BBC so poor that it can't afford decent editing software or has no-one else even noticed? At least if you watch programmes on BBC iPlayer you don't have to suffer!
It was this morning when I was throwing away the sturdy cardboard boxes that my kid's pizzas arrived in last night that I remembered a really interesting article in The Telegraph magazine a couple of weeks ago about a shop in London that sold food without packaging. Simply put, you take your own and pay less as a result. Some people even take their pepper grinders for a refill!
The girl who had the idea and opened The Unpackaged Shop has received a lot of attention recently and seems to be doing well - mostly due to some serious backers and some decent marketing:
I have to say that when I'm lugging several bags of rubbish out for the refuse collectors I am now much more aware of all the waste and wonder why we produce quite so much? And before anyone comments about me throwing away cardboard - our local authority doesn't recycle it!
I think it's a long time before you can expect Tescos to go down this route and at the moment Unpackaged is only in London - but it really made me think.
Not sure how I'd transport take-away pizzas without the boxes - but that's another story!
Having lived in the Land of Excess for a couple of years, it comes as no surprise that you can now dine in mid-air 50 metres up, complete with champange and 21 friends!
I love that film, The 39 Steps and always remember "Ask me a question - any question..."
Well now you can ask a panel of 300 'textperts' any question for just GBP1.00 a text - quite useful if you can't get onto Google or just need it in a hurry! Although my first free question of 'What is the square root of 2?' failed - not because of the service but the very clever software I use to text straight from my Mac desktop - Blue Phone Elite
Anyway Textperts is the brainchild of a very attractive young lady (Saturday Telegraph 23.2.08) who seems to have come up with a strikingly simple idea - just key the number 66000 into your mobile - you never know when you'll need it!
As we are lucky enough to enjoy some of the highest real estate prices in the world I am often intrigued what other countries (and less strict planning authorities) will let you spend your hard-earned cash on.
Why do I sometimes yearn for a house high in the hills above Los Angeles when I have never even been there? Here's just one of the reasons from The Cool Hunter website:
I've always watched Jonathan Ross' show on a Friday night (mainly for the guests) - but last night I realised how shallow Ross becomes when faced with true talent and personality. He was obvoiusly no match for Vivienne Westwood and the only way he could think to try and upstage her was to show her his Vivienne Westwood underpants - while he was still wearing them!
In a brillliant move, instead of mock shock or outrage, Vivienne stated that she wasn't sure what her company made - putting him down in a way I've never really seen so expertly and graciously done before!
Although I went to Art College during the evolution of the punk era and was lucky enough to have watched all the early bands perform(?) - I have to say that I have a huge respect for Vivienne Westwood in the way that she has managed to build a couture 'empire' but never lost sight of her roots. Respect.
She has also just launched a new website called Active Resistance - I have no idea what it's about but I'm damned sure I'm going to find out!
Sometimes I just think I've seen it all and then occasionally something totally blows you away. I first heard Kurt Elling on Later with Jools Holland:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/ghmq/
Since this is my first blog entry I thought I'd try and make it a
little more interesting by jumping on the bandwagon and talking about
the phenomena of the celebrity.
I am continually surprised by the traffic our own site www.noexcuses.co.uk
receives and where it comes from. One of our highest referrals seems to
be from Hugh Laurie fans desperately searching the internet for photos
of their heart-throb. Somehow they have all found a shot that the late
and great Bob Carlos Clarke took for me during the 1998 Powergen
Calendar shoot - with Hugh dressed in black leather with the model Kaja
Wunder draped all over him sitting on a Triumph Bonneville in the back
streets of London...
Now this was never meant to be a collector's image, just an overview of
a calendar page - so for all of you Hugh Laurie fans, here's a better
one!
