Brief non-encounter

I've been here before. Well not exactly here - the last time I missed my stop and got to New Southgate, whereas this time they changed the train so it didn't actually stop at Ally Pally. So here I am at Bowes Park ( I don't even know where it is) waiting for a train back into London.

And not a drop of alcohol has passed my lips.

I could murder a drink though...


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Marketing and England

It's been a while - an age really - since I last posted, which means I'm probably writing for an audience of one.

But I feel compelled to write because I've just attended the Marketing Society's summer cocktail evening on the rooftop of JWT's offices in Knightsbridge. And it's been an interesting evening.

Arriving without knowing a soul, I chatted with someone in Business Development at JWT. We had an interesting discussion about branding and suchlike, and were joined by someone from another agency. She was there as a prospective new member, so when the President of the Society made a speech which included an incentive offer for members who recruit new members, it didn't take long for a quick scam/strategy to emerge. The splendidly named Emmaclare signed up, as recommended by me, and I earned £60 worth of John Lewis vouchers. Money for old rope.

Later, I met the usual bunch of bores and snake-oil salesmen, but as I was leaving I bumped into Carmen, the Business Development person at JWT, again.

Reprising our conversation, she told me that she didn't think we should pay agencies for anything. Rather, she suggested a strategy where we give agencies the chance to work with Ministry of Sound for nothing, but on something innovative, something that's never been done before, that they can pick up the awards and kudos for. An interesting and quite attractive approach, I thought, but then a Business Development person might say that. She then gave me her card and it turns out that she's only the Managing Partner...

The cocktails, provided by Courvoisier, were excellent, and the setting - a lush lawn 5 stories up, across the road from Harrods - stunning. And I didn't even have to miss the World Cup as there were no games tonight.

Talking of the World Cup, I'm loving the rumours emerging from the England camp. Apparently there are 4 big stories ready to break; one of which involves shenanigans by a senior player with a certain authority (let's call him Player SG), which angered another player who previously held that authority (Player JT) and whose authority was stripped for similar but arguably less serious conduct. The story goes that JT approached the manager (FC) to complain, and the England camp split into two factions - those for SG and those for JT. If true - and that's a big if - it explains a lot about that last couple of weeks.

Then there's the story about Rooney and another prostitute...





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Hello hello, I'm back again

OK, I know that Gary Glitter has defiled what used to be quite a good expression of resurrection.

Nevertheless, I'm back, again. I haven't blogged on melvtopia for a while, mainly because I've been so caught up with work that I've left any semblance of creative expression in the office.

Frankly, I've had nothing left to give. And I'd rather write nothing than go through the motions of churning out blog posts.

But tonight I met up with my old friend, colleague and erstwhile boss Steve K. Over a decent although not brilliant tapas at Navarro's in Charlotte Street, we talked of many things, from business to politics to football to personal matters - amongst which was his sense of betrayal at the recent demise of melvtopia (at least that's how I heard it).

So in recognition, and appreciation of, Steve's wise counsel tonight, I'm inspired to pick up my pen/iPhone and write. Quite what to write is still up for grabs, but progress is progress...

I know. How about the interview I did with my old University magazine?

Ah, I could talk about that, but what would I have to write about next time?

(See what I did there?)

Until next time...


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The new melvtopia - more twitter than facebook

As you may have surmised, I've been finding it difficult to keep melvtopia up to date.  In the early days I had a purpose (fueled by the demise of zavvi) which developed into an interest in trying to write stuff that readers - albeit a very small number of then - might find interesting.
Lately, I haven't found the time or the creativity, but I'm not ready to give up so what I'll try is shorter, twitter-style updates, with the occasional proper post when I can.  Let's see if that keeps melvtopia alive until my next epiphany...

Time - that most precious commodity...

...unless you're living in squalor in the Brazillian favellas and have got all the time in the world but little in the way of food, water or shelter of course...

If you'll forgive my uncharacteristic minimising of the suffering of the world's disadvantaged, you'll notice that it's been some time since I last blogged. I CAN'T FIND THE TIME! I'd love to be posting more regularly, even if no-one reads my ramblings, but work/life balance seems a long way away at the moment.

So I'll give you a very quick recap of the last few weeks. A great weekend skiing in Les Carroz with the Casuals; Rangers destroying Celtic and the league, won the League Cup with 9 men but out of the Scottish Cup; work relentless but beating targets and delivering most of what we're supposed to be delivering.

This weekend James is home and tonight I'll be doing my March barbecue. Next weekend is Easter so a very welcome break coming up - it'll also give me a chance to rest my assorted football injuries for a couple of weeks. Have a good one.


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Limited Addition

The much-vaunted fall in educational standards isn't all bad, I discovered on Saturday.

In my local cheese shop I ordered some (very ripe) Brie de Meaux and some mature Manchego, costing around £7.40 and £4.30 respectively.
The girl at the till entered the two amounts, but must have left the previous transaction open because the bill added up to around £29. To her credit, she did notice that it was wrong so tried again, this time adding up to £40.

Giving up on technology, she decided to just add the two amounts in her head. A sensible plan I thought, except that in her method of adding up she started from the left and not the right: "7 and 4 makes 11, 4 and ...".

Needless to say, and I hope you'll forgive the mixed metaphor, she got into a bit of a pickle, which she impressively resolved with a flourish. "This is too difficult - can we just call it a tenner?".

Everyone's a winner.


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Tales of customer service

Wenge and I went to Frederick's on Friday night.  Hidden down Camden Passage in Islington, it's a conservatory-like room, and features the kind of service that makes you feel special but not suffocated.

After a tartiflette starter I went for a cote de boeuf, a ribeye on the bone that should have been bursting with flavour.  It was OK but not as good as I'd have expected, so I ended up leaving quite a lot of it on the plate.  When the waiter came to take our plates away he asked if there was anything wrong, and I explained that I was disappointed in it.

No sooner had he taken the plate away than one of the management came to send the chef's apologies and to tell me that they wouldn't change me for it.  The desserts, when they arrived, were exceptional as was the gigondas that the sommelier had recommended to go with our meal.  So we'll definitely go back.

Contrast this with Ministry of Sound's favourite caff, Terry's.  I took Brian there on Thursday as he'd never been but had heard all about it.  As we walked in, licking our lips in expectation of eggs, bacon, cumberland sausages, chips, beans, mushrooms and the rest, we were met by the boss who casually informed us that he wouldn't be serving fryups today.  I thought that maybe there was a problem in the kitchen but no, the reason Terry's weren't serving fryups was that they had too many dinners and wanted to use them up.

A restaurant that won't serve what's on its menu?  Ridiculous.  But we'll also be going back to Terry's, no question...