How to put the Zest back

Well we’re all feeling rather zesty at the pr shop with the launch of Bell’s new Zesty Green Tea and the Zest for Life Challenge.

To inspire and enthuse you to get off your backside, get healthy, drink loads of green tea and feel ridiculously good, the Bell Zesty Green Zest for Life Challenge offers a full nutritional questionnaire and health programme, designed by the lovely people at Real Nutrition.

Take a look at www.zestychallenge.co.nz to see how you can get back your zest for life with new Bell Zesty Green Tea (you might even win a prize).

We pride ourselves on finding people with spark, effervescence and enthusiasm for our pr shop team. Most would give up on using these criteria when looking for an accountant, but no not us.

Lovely Lynda comes into our office twice a week and sorts out our accounts, makes sure we get paid, that people pay us and plays with numbers while we stick to what we do and play with words. And then we find out that at the weekend, she jumped out of an airplane. Luckily with a parachute attached to her back. We were gob-smacked. Assume nothing when dealing with the financial sector. That is the lesson for the day.

End of Boot Camp, Boot Party

To thank everyone who sponsored and supported us during our six week Les Mills Boot Camp recently, we had an “End of Boot Camp, Boot Party last week.

We swapped our kilos cash and managed to raise more than $1000 for Oxfam!

The party also served as an excuse to show off our pretty new cars, and no, we didn’t all wear boots (although one client used it as an excuse to buy a new pair!).

We enjoyed nibbles and cold beer from the back of the Jeeps and ever had a random runner (pictured along with Sal and our PT, Cindy) stop for a refreshing beer on his run home!

P+S = PRS

As many of our clients will attest, Sally and Pippa are a force to be reckoned with. The duo are excited to announce that they are both now equal shareholders in the pr shop. The 50/50 partnership takes immediate effect and both have big plans for the business - so keep watching. The move reflects the unique relationship the pair has - a heady mix of energy, humour, hard work and perhaps most importantly, constant reminders not to take themselves or each other too seriously.

LBN is over!

It is official – we look better naked – and we even have a certificate to prove it!

After our little blow out in Week Four, we were all on best behaviour for the last two weeks leading up to the final weigh in.

Six weeks of intense trainings, no chocolate, no long lunches, no alcohol (ok well maybe a little bit!) and lots of carrots have paid off!

We are proud to announce that together we reached our goal and collectively lost 15kg. And that is no mean feat - 15kg is the same weight as 3 sacks of potatoes, 20 bottles of wine, or 441 crème eggs!!

More importantly, with the generous support of our clients, family and friends, by reaching our goal weight, we have raised $1000 for Oxfam.

And although we are all winners, we were all too competitive to leave it at that, so we also had a Biggest Loser prize for the pr shopper that made the biggest changes. Our “Biggest Loser” is Sally who lost 5kg and 20.7cm in the six weeks.

This has changed our lives and habits for the near future and hopefully, thanks to your support, our donation will help change lives on the other side of the world as well.

Again, we reiterate there will be no stripping, but we will be sipping (some wine) soon and we hope you can join us.

Giddy-up

Remember those TV ads with Mark Todd and Charisma showjumping their way over to a piping hot cup of Bell Tea? Well history repeated itself this weekend when Mark came out of retirement to compete at the Horse of the Year in Hastings. Pippa and I flew down for the day to see what all of the fuss was about.

Bell Tea have supported equestrian events since 1978, and, if my maths serves me correctly, that's a whopping 30 years, which is nearly my entire lifetime (plus or minus a couple of years). It's pretty impressive stuff.

There's nought as queer as horsey folk, that's for sure. We saw hundreds of them all dressed in funny tight pants and frantically cleaning their horses bums. Not being a farm gal, I've never quite understood it. Pippa however, used to ride horses as a girl (until she got flung off one, broke her arm, got rid of the horses and discovered the city). We even saw some clever horses that can dance to rock music. For real. Then, when we'd had enough of the big horses we checked out some small ones, and had the good fortune to meet Angel, a 3-month old miniature pony, who stole our hearts (even though she had way too much wax on her mane). So, while we didn't have to contribute to making the 10,000 cups of Bell Tea that were served, we got in amongst the action and got a feel for what it truly means to be a heartland brand.

Special thanks goes to Bill Ralston, our knight in a shining Sport Hawkes Bay car, who gave us a ride to the airport when it looked like we were going to miss our flight due to an overload of taxis. Grateful? You bet. Bill, you're a friend of the pr shop for life - there's some tea on it's way to you.

LBN - Week Four

Well it has to be said that we hit an all time low with our attempts to look better naked last week. Bought about by the stress of presenting to 100 people, launching a new magazine and generally getting fed up from surviving on protein shakes and thin air. The result was a blow-out on Thursday night after our Schmooze presentation where the entire pr shop team disco danced until the wee hours (well 1am, but that's a fair effort on a school night!). We were invited to the re-opening of Boogie Wonderland, which was a fine way to celebrate - by showing off some night fever body language of our own.

Needless to say that our personal trainer, Cindy, was none too impressed with our efforts, and didn't think that two hours of disco dancing counted as a cardio workout. So after a poor show with our training session on Friday (sweaty, hungover, bad form) we were reprimanded and told to swear off alcohol for the remaining two weeks. We've since decided that honesty is not always the best policy and have made a pact that what goes on tour, stays on tour. So we're not telling her about the Creme Egg, six beers, two burgers, bottle of wine and fruit covered in chocolate fondue that we collectively consumed over the weekend.

With just over a week and a half to go before that all important weigh-in, it's back to the celery sticks and water for us.