A piece of trivia...

Nothing pleases me more than being told a useless piece of trivia I have never come across before. It lodges in my brain and will be trotted out at a dinner party sometime in the future, probably in between the entrée and main.

So this is it – we are the only country in the world that writes in blue ink. I know! Who would of thought! While the rest of the world is scribbling away in black and various other colours, we reach for the blue ballpoint.

This piece of trivia is courtesy of BiC who have a nationwide campaign planned to mark a famous rugby tournament New Zealand is hosting in September. You may have heard of it.

Details of the BiC promotion are still under wraps but it is stacks of fun, kids and adults alike will love it and promises to unleash the Picasso that lurks within us all. I’ll let you join the dots.

In the meantime, let’s stare at Ritchie…..

Healthy with Harkers!

Katie and I travelled to Waipu today to visit Malcolm Harker of Harkers Herbs. Always nice having a roadie and changing the scene, and today was no exception except we were treated to a cacophony of tonics, herbs, essential oils, salves and balms that cure, prevent and assist most (if not all) ailments. Bottom line is if you cut out gluten, dairy, oil, table salt and processed sugar you will be healthy - if you can't stomach that - start with the Harkers range. You'll be reading about it soon.

Getting busy with the fizzy

We're all fizzing with the news that we've won the recent CDB Consumer Products pitch to work on the effervescent SodaStream brand. Lovers of all things retro, Sally Frewin and Renee Bushby were particularly passionate, and clearly their bubbly enthusiasm for the brand went down well with the client, who have decided to include the well known Goldair brand in the brief.

The pleasure of discovering hidden talents

It's Alysha's birthday today, so we've just had morning tea. It turns out that our new team member, Alisa, is a whiz in the kitchen. She baked this amazing banana cake (with chocolate throughout) along with some truffles infused with Baileys, hazelnuts and other wonderful flavours. For a team of foodies that find it hard to resist anything delicious, this newly discovered talent is more than welcome!!

And then there were nine...

The pr shop has added two new consultants to it's growing family. Alisa Keall-Grant (lower image), a recent PR graduate from the BCS at AUT has joined the Auckland office as an Account Executive and Rebecca Parr (an Account Executive with a year's experience), has joined the Sydney office, which recently celebrated it's one year anniversary.

Real Women

Proving that we have lives outside of work, Sally was recently interviewed for a cool new website, www.realwomenreallives.co.nz. Have a read: http://realwomenreallives.co.nz/real-quick-with-sally-frewin/

Top O’ The Mornin’ to Ya!

There’s only one day of the year when being a green-eyed monster ain’t such a bad thing. As that day rolled around on Thursday March 17th, the pr shop girls merrily cried Irish greetings to those who passed by, in the name of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.

Shelley and Lysh started the day bright and early with a trip to the nice folk at TVNZ, to sort them out with some Irish cheer. Five young Irish dancers, in full costume, met them there to perform live on Breakfast, while Petra and Corin tried out some yummy Guinness goodies in the studio. Decked out our green four-leafed clover sunglasses, and blowing mini Guinness horn-whistles, Petra ate a hole in the brown Guinness bread and they both devoured the Guinness chocolate truffles. Big thumbs up on that one! The day’s Guinness girls also made their way around Auckland’s radio stations to let them have a chat with the Guinness team and to drop off cans of cold Guinness, pint glasses and the St.Paddy’s Day-themed Guinness tasties. One just can’t go through St. Paddy’s Day without such things, and Shels and Lysh were pleased to be able to spread the goodness.

Be Irish, or not-so-Irish, any excuse for celebrations come warmly welcomed at the pr shop, and St. Paddy’s was no exception. There was nothing for it, but to head across the road for a pint of Guinness and a few platefuls of good, thick, chips (because, as we all agreed, you had to eat potatoes to celebrate the Irish).
Lunch featured foam moustaches, as Alisa rather inelegantly tried her first Guinness, and a few minor spills, as we tried to drink our pints the ‘proper’ way (tilting the head, and not the glass, that is). Somewhat unsuccessful in this particular endeavour, we hastily retreated to an easier method – careful sipping of the very-full glass from above.

Bellies filled with good ol’ hearty potato, and salt and pepper squid (which isn’t exactly Irish, but couldn’t be turned down because it tastes so good) we returned to the office cheerful and a just a wee bit red-faced.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!