new words to ponder

Lots of new words have been added to the dictionary, including quite a few that describe our status as an increasingly obese nation.

It's also slightly worrying that not many people know what a blog is.

creative juice

People sometimes ask us how we come up with creative ideas for marketing/design stuff. Easy. Two pints of shandy, one pint of orange and lemonade and one pint of lime and soda. Maybe some nuts too.

milk, two sugars

The folks upstairs at Fruit Towers have got a method for reminding each other how they take their tea. They write it on the walls above their desks.

from the top - Nicky, Lucy, Jonathan, Jenny

please mind the atmosphere

A clever idea for personal carbon offsetting - read more here.

gee honey

Did you know that honey bees have to gather nectar from two million flowers in order to make a pound of honey, which means that one bee would have to fly 3 times round the globe to make a pound of honey? Cor blimey. However, in reality the average honey bee will only make 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in their lifetime. Sob.

But the best bee fact is that they communicate using the medium of dance, as shown in this highly informative film.

Thanks to Vicky for letting us use this photo from her flickr.

write to your MP

A couple of things about our campaign to get rid of VAT on smoothies:

1. The story made it into the FT this weekend. It's gathering speed.

2. If you feel strongly about it, you can go to www.writetothem.com , find your local MP and send them a note. Or indeed send them a note about whatever is bothering you the most - late buses, wonky town hall clock, lack of good discos in your constituency. Use the power of democracy, today.

Thanks to Gil, who let us know about www.writetothem.com via our blog comments.

absolut surprise

You learn something new every day. Absolut vodka is owned by the Swedish government. Well I never. More here.

go tansy

Tansy is our hero. More here.

ethics and chips

Last Sunday the Observer Food Monthly kindly made us part of 'the most ethical meal on earth', which was very good of them. But that got us thinking. Do we actually shop according to our ethics? Personally speaking, I think I'm alright when it comes to thinking about the consequences of my purchases, but as I sip on my tea, I'm not quite sure where it came from. I don't know if it's ethical tea. So perhaps I'm a bit rubbish.

The same goes for quite a bit of my shopping - I'm quite good at being good and considerate in some areas, but my bin bags/deodorant/bread might not be as ethical as they could be. I guess it comes down to me being a modern day hypocrite like most people - I do good stuff where I can but probably fall down in a few places.

So, a question - how ethical are you? Do you shop with a conscience? Or do you do as much as you can and then give up and buy a bag of chips? Is there such a thing as an ethical bag of chips? And are we all hypocrites?

Would be interesting to hear how far you go - if you have time, post a comment.

sweet dreams

We are very impressed that Travelodge have hired a Director of Sleep. He will be responsible for testing mattress tension and pillow density, as well as writing a "dream plan" that every guest can follow.

What a great job. If you know of any better ones, please let us know.

As seen in The Independent