Blue loo roll?

Is it just me, but the idea of using blue loo roll just seems plain wrong… As found in the office loos today..

Bringing the world closer together

What a beautiful concept….

On the 10th May, 100,000s of people all over the world will be brought together..

Pangea Day is a global event bringing the world together through film.

Why? In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that – to help people see themselves in others – through the power of film.

The Pangea Day Event – view the inspirational trailer here
Starting at 18:00 GMT on May 10, 2008, locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program will be broadcast – in seven languages – to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.

The 24 short films to be featured have been selected from an international competition that generated more than 2,500 submissions from over one hundred countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person’s eyes. The winning films will be announced in late April.

The program will also include a number of exceptional speakers and musical performers. Queen Noor of Jordan, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, musician/activist Bob Geldof, and Iranian rock phenom Hypernova are among those taking part.

Such a beautiful idea, born in 2006, by filmmaker Jehane Noujaim (TED Prize winner). She was granted $100,000, and more important, a wish to change the world. Her wish was to create a day in which the world came together through film. Pangea Day grew out of that wish. Watch Jehane Noujaim’s 2006 acceptance speech here.

I’ll be there on May 10th at Somerset House in London, will you?

Is it just me?

The longer I work in this industry, the more I come across successful business people, who don’t seem to have a clue!! I make simple observations, that seem like common sense to me, but often go completely overlooked.

I really believe that the most important traits in business are to be open and honest and admit to being human. People relate to people who display human traits, who mess up every once in a while, who are passionate, who take risks, who trust their staff. Life is built upon a network of relationships, the same for your professional life as your personal. So few people recognise that. The better the relationship, (with suppliers, clients, staff etc) the better your business. Yet why is it that most businesses completely overlook internal comms? They keep their staff in the dark about changes and then wonder why they have an unmotivated workforce and poor output.

The future is bright..

I just spent half an hour drafting a long post about this, and I lost it when I accidently hit the wrong button..

Maybe this will be a better post as I will try and cut to the jist of what I wanted to say.

I am really excited right now about the possibilities of this new world in which we live in. Call it what you will, social media, web 2.0 – it all means that people are connecting, with other people, from all over the world, in a way we have never seen before. Not only that, these connections are based on truth, and honesty, and sharing ideas, and that’s great.

I get asked every day by clients, “what can we do to tap into this?” as pound signs flash in their eyes. What they should be thinking is, “how can we change our business to adapt to this new behaviour” or more importantly “lets go back to grass roots marketing, listen to what our consumers want, and make it, and give it to them, how they want, and when they want it” That’s all this is folks, its nothing new or scary, now is a great time for brand managers and marketing directors to admit they have no control anymore, and take the brave step of letting their consumers decide.

It’s time for the corporate giants, the big wigs and the beaurocrats to stop hiding behind the faceless corporate facade and face the music, and much more exciting than that, now’s the era of the entrepeneur – who understands the way the world works, and builds their company around it.

But this is bigger than a business opportunity, I truly believe that we can make a huge difference with our collective voices.. so lets do it, it’s a brave statement, but let’s change the world!

This post was inspired by Libby Davy from Authentic Blogging, and Seth Godin and his fabulous new book “Meatball Sundae”.

Finally, I can call myself a snowboarder!

Ok – After meeting the love of my life 3 years ago – I went from loving lazing by the pool, reading, getting tanned, and drinking ice cold beers… to loving active snowports holidays. Its finally happened – I’ve been well and truly bitten. I have been boarding for over 2 years now, but suddenly its all clicked, got my own board, my turns are smooth and I love the feeling of flying down the mountains.

I am off to Whistler in 2 days – my first snow trip outside of Europe – I can’t wait!.

Don’t get me wrong – I still enjoy a good beach holiday too (and usually my other half will surf!) but there is nothing like flying down a mountain, feeling the fresh powder under your board.. the sun shining.. the air glittering with snow… bliss!

So you won’t hear from me for a few weeks as I will be in Canada! Bye for now : )

Sex and the City countdown!!

Well it didn’t work – need to get to grips with this coding malarky – if anyone can help? Tried to put the Sex and The City Countdown widget on here but it obviously hasn’t worked!!

V. excited about the film release anyway, not long now. Just heard the news about Cynthia Nixon (who plays Miranda) she is recovering from breast cancer – poor girl..

If anyone can help me to put the countdown on here – please shout!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I just had to post to vent my utter bewildering excitement about the fact that its precisely 13 days until we head off to snowy Canada to Whistler for our annual snowboarding trip! I am sooo excited! Bought my first board – after two seasons of rentals, and its amazing, a Bataleon Violenza – the triple base technology makes turning so much easier and I don’t catch an edge as much – in fact – I managed to land a small jump, twice!! : )

Then to top it all off – it snowed yesterday here too!! Counting the days….

TED 2008 Conference

Just reading the blog for the TED 2008 Conference, and there are some amazing minds out there – truly fascinating! Really want to go one day….

Check it out for yourself here 

The greatest soup in the world

ok, so I don’t normally enthuse over soup, but oh my good god, I have just had the exquisite nectar that I believe to be the greatest soup in the world.

It was butternut squash, coconut and ginger and it was nectar of the gods. Rich and creamy, with just the right hint of a kick (from the ginger) and the depth of flavour and consistency was parfait.

I purchased such heaven on a spoon  (in case you’re wondering and want to experience the delights for yourself – and no I am not friends with the owner) from Hullabaloo, an organic cafe in Kings Court.  Its a little pricey (at £3.50 without bread or £4.50 with) but it is a-ma-zin – and well worth it.

Enjoy!

Sarah *the soup queen* Cheal

PS: I did try their Cauliflower cheese soup a few weeks ago which was equally as gorgeous – but you expect that from a soup with cheese in it – not from a soup containing plain old butternut squash.

Awww… an unlikely relationship

Warms me cockles – check out this article about the survival of a baby monkey, who struck up a relationship with a pigeon.