BA chief executive Willie Walsh must be thinking even Cadbury's have got it in for him. The newly launched ‘Truck’ commercial, a follow-up to the Gorilla playing drums to Phil Collins, isn’t quite as brilliantly weird but, it is weirdly brilliant how its launch coincides with Terminal 5's catastrophes. All will make sense when you see it….
Not necessarily three words you'd expect to see together in the title of a blog. But bear with me.
Secretive grafitti artist Banksy has just struck again - with this work on the side of a pharmacy in London's Essex Road (which, coincidentally, I used to walk past every day).
We assume that the image of two small children pledging allegiance to Tesco is tongue in cheek!
Tesco have recently started building their new store on the edge of Aylsham and only time will tell how much of an impact this has on the town.
But there are some positive campaigns going on in the town - the ongoing promotion of Aylsham's Cittaslow status and the recently launched project to make Aylsham Norfolk's first plastic bag free town as of 3rd May 2008.
We've always used paper bags at the gallery, but we're still pleased to be supporting the scheme - which for us is as much about the general principle of recycling.
The other day, I came across a reference to 'Secret Cinema'. I did a quick Google search and discovered that the alluring and ghostly website offers minimal information (obviously). What it does tell you, is that every month a new and secret location is chosen for the screening of a secretly chosen film.
London Fashion Week became a recent venue for February's Secret Cinema. YouTube has a video clip taken from the evenings performance, when the cinematic organisation showed the film 'Funny Face'.
I've signed up in the hope that one day they might come to Norwich. If you too want a last minute email invite, sign up here. For further information, you can visit their Myspace page.
Kate's reference to James Bond and Aston Martins below reminded me of a recent drive past the London showroom of Bristol Cars.
These beautiful cars are hand-built at Filton, near Bristol - and they claim to be the last wholly British-owned luxury car maker.
With no dealers or distributors, the cars are sold direct from their Kensington showroom.
I've never been in one, but would love to have the opportunity at some point.
You'll find plenty of useful information at the Bristol Owners' Club website.
Sugar and lemon or Nutella and bananas? I have to admit to having both, twice, and with ice cream.
February can be a little dull after the joys’ of Christmas and January’s smattering of snow which we couldn’t even fight with, but Shrove Tuesday is a day of glistening sweetness to cheer us up.
Pancake day (Shrove Tuesday) gained its name, as it was the last opportunity for Christians to use up their eggs and fats before embarking on the forty day fast leading up to Ash Wednesday. I’ve no idea where the pancake flipping frolics came from, but if you are one of those people who relish sports days and Village Fete’s physical challenges, then you would probably enjoy the race at Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane. Click here for an application form to take part although I fear it may be a little too late for this year. Sorry.
We'd like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!
We have lots planned for 2008 at St. Jude's - we're part way through organising our exhibition calendar at the gallery and have several new screen-printed textiles in the pipeline.
And we'll be making a New Year's resolution to keep posting to this blog a little more frequently.
Wishing you all the best for 2008!
Simon, Angie, Audrey & Kate
The image to the right - by Edward Bawden - is taken from 'Entertaining À La Carte' which features over 200 illustrations of his work for Fortnum & Mason. More...
We're delighted to announce that apart from a handful of copies at
our gallery/showroom we have now sold all 1250 copies of the charity Christmas
card printed this year.
For every card sold we're donating 75p of Maggie's Centres.
With locations across the UK, each Maggie's Centre is a place anyone affected by cancer can turn to for help. The centres are open to everyone - not just to people who have been diagnosed with cancer, but also to their families, friends and carers. Their Dundee centre was designed by architect Frank Gehry. Find out more >
Thanks to everyone that purchased the cards - you've generated £937.50 for the charity. We'd like to add to this, making a total donation of £1200.00.
Next year we'll have to print a few more copies!
Buying a silicone teddy bear which resembles a large jelly baby, which
also contains the chicken pox virus, is an odd purchase. I have heard of
parents holding chicken pox 'parties', where children are encouraged to
drink from their spotty friends beaker for the 'itch' to take over, so
perhaps administrating a teddy with a flavoured tummy button for
your child to 'taste' isn't that different.
The designer of PoxTeddy, Mikael Metthey, is exploring design technology with a scientific twist and creating some very exciting products, visit his website to view more inventive concepts.
Following on from Kate's post about the Hemingways, commited cycle commuter Wayne Hemingway has designed a £100 folding bike called the Road Runner. A search on Google has failed to find photos of the bike but I'll post some as soon as I do - it's due to be launched in the next couple of months.
The introduction of this folding bike is a natural extension to the scheme recently launched by Hemingway at his Staiths South Bank housing development in Gateshead. Residents can make use of the cycle route into Newcastle using one of the pool of 10 bikes. And every household has been supplied with a £57.50 voucher to spend on accessories.
You can find out more about the Cycle@Staiths scheme in this YouTube video.
I'm also keen to see photos of the forthcoming Shack Up bike shed. Not sure about the water butt though...
A few years back, Stuart built me a shed. This romantic birthday gift
sits at the front of the house opposite the kitchen window. The shed
has a large solid old pine door and is angled into one of the corners
of the garden. When I first looked inside my birthday shed, it was
decked out with a collection of very odd auction items, one of them
being the stylish ‘Osokool’ fridge.
Back in the 1950’s, this plaster of Paris cube with an aluminum inner
lining and a nifty polystyrene lined plastic door, would sit
commonplace in many boats and houses – so very carbon neutral. All you
needed to do to keep your perishables cool was to keep the plaster damp
and you would do this by topping up the bowl like top with cold water.
I’m pleased to say we do use our cool box. Usually at this time of the
year, we would have made use of our Osokool on our camping trips, where
it sits outside our tent door so we remember to water it along with a
long plastic planter containing 4-week-old salad plants. You see, the
great thing about the Osokool is that it is not only runs on a glass of
water twice a day but if it rains, as it always does, you can just
forget about it along with the salad leaves.
