Monthly Archives: July 2011
You think you know someone
Driving up to Scone Palace in Perthshire on Saturday morning, myself, Geraldine and Russell were in high spirits. We were off to the Rewind Festival where an array of acts from the 80s were going to strut their somewhat arthritic stuff on a bright and sunny afternoon. To get ourselves into the mood we had the hits of the 80s blaring out the car stereo while we sang along and took in the stunning views as we crossed the Forth Road Bridge heading north. A Spandau Ballet discussion took place … but more of that later!
The headline act was Tony Hadley but others appearing on that day were Rick Astley, Billy Ocean, ABC, Bananarama, T’Pau, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Hazel O’Connor, The Beat, Cutting Crew, The Bluebells, Go West and Hue & Cry, but not necessarily in that order!
For me, the definite highlight of the day was Billy Ocean. Boy, he may be 61 years old now but he is still the smoothest operator around and knows how to get the audience into the palm of his hand within a few seconds.
For Russell, however, it seemed as though his highlight was Bananarama! From the minute the 2 girls stepped onto the stage (yes, I know there used to be 3 of them), Russell was beside himself, jumping up and down (more or less in time with the music) and singing along at the top of his voice and yes, he knew all the words! I’m not sure who was more surprised, me or his wife! Neither of us had absolutely any idea he was clearly a closet fan of their work and the image of his pure enjoyment at their set will stay with me for a very long time. Never again will I see my pinstripe suited friend in the same light I can tell you!
But back to the Spandau Ballet conversation. In the car Russell announced that Tony Hadley would end the night by singing True. I disagreed (obviously) and insisted that the final song would be Gold. A true classic that would have everyone on their feet singing along. Who was correct? You guessed it – it was me! For those that know me well, you will be aware that of course I am always right and it is somewhat stupid to expect ANYONE to know more than me, especially about 80s music – my specialist subject!!!
Popinjay Press Release
Tuesday 26th July saw Falkirk based Social Enterprise Company Popinjay launch Scotland’s newest Social Media Marketing Company.
The company, created by Linlithgow based entrepreneur Russell Dalgleish and headed by Tessa Heywood, provides jobs for the unemployed and disadvantaged in the Falkirk area to give a reasonably priced solution to those organisations that want to use Social Media platforms to win new business.
In the fabulous setting of the Brockville Lounge at the Stadium, an evening packed with some amazing guest speakers and culminating in the showing of the trailer for the new UK thriller “Making Ugly”, one of Popinjay’s first clients, it was a highly successful and enjoyable evening.
And officially launching Popinjay Russell Dalgleish said “we believe it is the responsibility of those of us who have had the enjoyment of experiencing successful and fulfilling careers to ensure that those that follow us receive the same opportunities. By linking Social Media with a community based project we believe we can achieve this.”
For more information, please visit our website www.popinjay.net
Popinjay Operations Director Tessa Heywood said “it is very satisfying to see that Popinjay has already been able to make the first two appointments and I hope to see our team continuing to grow throughout 2011.”
Popinjay
Our company will operate as an Internet Marketing Agency providing guidance and advice to companies to further their business aims through the use of Social Media campaigns. By Social Media we include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube etc. Our unique proposition is that finding and using relevant content is key to any strategy and we are uniquely positioned to find what will work for our clients.
Social Enterprise aims
- To provide employment and training opportunities to disadvantaged groups in our society. These will include the unemployed and those with physical and learning disabilities.
- Charities and Social Enterprises will be provided with access to Popinjay services at a discounted fee. In addition those companies who operate either as charities or Social Enterprises will be provided with free-of-charge training to secure a better understanding of the benefits to be obtained through use of Social Media.
- Profits will be re-invested to allow the company to grow and a % of profits will be donated to charitable organisations that are either locally based or share the same goals as Popinjay.
Have your cake …..
and eat it too!!! No party is complete without a cake and the launch of Popinjay proved to be no exception! Check out the amazing work done by the lovely Catherine in Linlithgow – it tasted pretty fantastic too!!!
A full report on the party will follow once we’ve all had time to catch our breath!
The time is fast approaching …..
Now counting down to Popinjay’s official launch party at Falkirk Stadium this evening! Goodie bags are packed, presentations ready, video camera charged – it’s going to be a great night so look forward to seeing you all there!
Semi Finals – yes!
I am delighted to announce that Making Ugly has made it to the semi finals of the International Movie Trailer Festival – can’t wait to find out how far we’ll get! The grand prize is $5,000 plus a meeting with an industry insider so there’s a lot riding on this – fingers and toes crossed!!!
Weekend round-up
From the intense activity on Twitter, it seems that we all have an opinion on the the tragic, if not entirely unexpected, death of the singer Amy Winehouse at the age of 27. It is always shocking when somebody so young makes an untimely departure from this planet but as a friend of mine pointed out on hearing the news “Drink and drugs don’t ruin you, you ruin yourself”. It is too easy to blame the eventual cause and not to address the reasons why someone who would appear to have everything ended up in such a mess. She had a true, raw talent that it seemed no-one (Amy included) was prepared to nurture but instead, this tortured soul had access to the money and the hangers on that led her to her untimely death. Such a waste.
On a much lighter note, we were well represented in sporting events for once this weekend, with Amir Khan putting on a boxing masterclass to to knock out Zab Judah in five rounds in their light-welterweight fight in Las Vegas and Lewis Hamilton winning the German Grand Prix, moving him up to third place in the championship. I am neigher a Boxing nor a Motor Racing Fan but I am still pleased to see the Brits putting on a good performance and proving we’re not as rubbish as we think we are!!!
The SPL got underway with the early start of the new season and there was the inevitable win for Celtic and a disappointing draw for Rangers. Let’s just hope there is more of a spark when the Barclays Premiership starts on 13th August.
It’s the ‘Ender of an era!
As a teenager I was madly in love with David Essex. His pictures were plastered all over my bedroom walls, I went to his concerts, I even wore white flares for a while, his signature look! 
He was beautiful – his long, darly curly hair and twinkling eyes sent my hormones into overdrive and I thought I was in love!!! I was actually lucky enough to talk to him in the BBC bar one night after a Top of the Pops appearance – I thought all my Christmases had come at once!!!
Imagine my surprise, therefore, when tuning into an episode of Eastenders recently and hearing that lovely lilting voice of his, turning round to the TV and being confronted by this elderly looking man, somewhat out of shape, white-haired and bald – oh how I could have wept!!! The voice was the same, the sparkly eyes were still there – but where has that sex symbol gone?
Oh, and the goatee beard is a definite no no!!!
I wish he hadn’t taken the part in Eastenders and I could forever remember the long dark curly haired boy he used to be. My dreams of when he would “Hold me Close” and “Make me a star” would remain intact.
Tempting fate?
There will be no more Chinese proverbs from me for a while! I was heading back to my car in central Glasgow this afternoon when I managed to fall flat on my face in the middle of Ingram Street! I think I just tripped – I’m not sure – but my left leg is badly scraped along with my pride! Pedestrians on my side of the street just carried on walking as if I were invisible (obviously assuming I was worse for wear with drink!). I would however just like to thank the rather lovely young man who ran across the street, dodging traffic, to check I was alright – there are some good people out there!!!
I’m stuck on you!
Far too often we find ourselves complaining about poor customer service, reading about the problems we face with difficult suppliers and consequently being inordinately pleased at having received the barest minimum of success when ordering things online.
It is important, therefore, to make sure that when you receive a service which is above and beyond what you could ever expect, that you make sure you shout this from the rafters and give that organisation the credit it deserves (and hopefully a few more orders as a result!).
Friends, please let me introduce you to www.motivationinlearning.com, based in Co. Down, N.Ireland and in particular their subsidiary www.superstickers.com.
I was looking for some reasonably priced stickers for a promotional event I was organising in Falkirk and a google search led me to the Superstickers site. It was extremely simple to upload the image I required onto the website, I ticked the box stating I was happy with the image and sat back and waited for my stickers to arrive. Sure enough, a few days later they were dropping through my letterbox, carefully packaged, and exactly what I wanted. I was delighted.
Coincidentally, a couple of days later, a business acquaintance asked me if I knew of somewhere she could get some stickers from and I naturally told her about superstickers.com. I suggested that since I had all the details to hand, if she provided me with her logo I would have the stickers made for her. This she agreed to do and I duly went through the same process for her stickers, uploading the image onto their website, paying the requisite amount and was prepared to just sit back and wait for the delivery as I had done on the previous occasion.
I was surprised therefore to receive an email a couple of days later from Superstickers saying there was a problem with the stickers. When they ran them off, the image was blurred and they asked if I could send them a jpeg file of the image to see if that made things clearer. I emailed them the file straight away and thought no more about it. Imagine my surprise therefore when I received a phone call from Rita at Motivation in Learning to see if there was another solution as the file I’d sent was still not producing a good enough quality end product. After a brief discussion we decided that it would be best if they substituted one of the images I’d sent with something they already had and the very next day I received the finished stickers which are absolutely perfect and exactly what I’d wanted.
All this for an end product that cost less than £10. I wholeheartedly recommend Motivation in Learning and Superstickers. The service is above excellent, the people delightful and the finished product is of a quality that is second to none
Tessa's Blog 