same same but different

Here's a quick spot the difference for you

Before you start writing in about the variation in shading, the bottle shadow or the hidden netball, there's actually only one difference, which all eagle eyed Dutch speakers will have clocked straightaway - namely, that our recipe book is now available in Dutch.

Hot off the press, it will make a lovely present for all your Dutch friends, neighbours, colleagues and football coaches and you can get it here, here, here, here and here.

our new french recipe book

We've just had our recipe book translated into French.

We thought it might be a straightforward translation job, but no. Lots of our questionable 'jokes' and cultural references needed to be rewritten (thanks Matt) and we came up with some new recipes too, especially for the cultured French palate.

We kept the wee-o-meter in though. Everyone needs to wee, even the French. It's now known as the pipi-o-metre.

the first few pages

We started writing a book this week, trying to record the story of our company so far and a few of the things we've learned too. We've been talking about it for a while, and got some of your ideas a while ago, but this week saw the actual beginning. As you can see above, it's always best to commence with a blank page and stare at a tree for a bit before committing yourself.

Richard took up a spot in the kitchen, close to the kettle and the biscuits.

Then before we knew it, the sun was setting and the day was over.

Word count after day one - about 4000.

Biscuits eaten - pretty much a whole packet of chocolate digestives.

running man

You may remember in our last marathon update, we asked you to recommend your favourite running routes through London.

Now, you know that karmic rule about whatever you put out there you get back threefold, reap and ye shall sow type thing etc? Well, in our search for new running routes, the running gods have been generous indeed.

We got pointed in the direction of some great websites, discovered some hidden areas of London and last week, got a great big dollop of karma in the shape of Chris D, a running guru who has just started working here.

Not only a whiz at all things financial, Chris is also a keen runner and has just written a great book called 30 Great Runs In London.

All runs are as traffic free, green space and easy-to-get-to as you like and come with a detailed route map, highlighting all the interesting places along the way. As well as the nice pictures, Chris also tells you where all the hills and hard bits are and, most importantly, where you can go to the loo.

He very kindly gave each of us a copy so we're going to roadtest a few of his runs in our final few weeks of training and let you know how we go.

a book to help us save the planet

Call me a latecomer, but we found this at the Design Museum the other day. Originally published in 2002 and updated last year, it's "a complete guide to beautifully conceived, ecologically sensitive and consumer-friendly furniture and objects for everyday use". In other words, it should help us kit out the office without screwing the planet.

we're in the top ten

Somehow our recipe book has made it to number 7 in the bestsellers list on Amazon. Number 7 out of all the books that they have in their big warehouse. Wow. Could have something to do with the fact that it's on special offer at £5.99.

Just thought we'd let you know, in case it's your Nan's birthday soon.

a new book about us

Here's a new book that has been written about us. It's in a series called Great Brand Stories and tells the story of innocent. Written by a nice chap called John Simmons, it's a rollicking good read, full of mystery, intrigue, cops, robbers and a saucy incident involving a vicar and some smoked haddock.

Actually, that's not strictly true. It's about fruit, some drinks and some people. Our story. Quite interesting if you're into smoothies, entrepreneurial stuff and more smoothies. You can buy it here.

the world changing book

The World Changing book has arrived. It's a modern day Whole Earth Catalog, and has sprung from the fine blog/site of the same name. The book looks great, and it somehow feels like it's of the earth - lots of recycled textures, unfussy design and plain speaking. Pretty refreshing.

It'll make a good Christmas present for the practical world-changing person in your life.

what should we write a book about?

Recently we've been getting confused. We've been talking to some people about writing a book, and we have an idea for what it should be about but a) we're not sure it's the right idea, and b) we're finding it hard to sum up our idea.

So it would be good to hear what you reckon we should write a book about, seeing as you might possibly be the people who would buy it. Seems sensible to check with you first.

We just did a recipe book, so we don't really want another one of those just yet. What we're thinking is something more about the company - the stuff we've learned since we started up seven years ago and so on. A bit of the history, a bit of stuff about how we run the business, and a few pages about camping and all of the other things that we like doing.

Here's some stuff that I wrote in an email to try to describe it further:

"...we don't believe that we have all of the answers. We've done things well (which we'd like to share), we've done some things badly (we'll share these too) and we once went to the Natural History Museum on school trip (a visit that still inspires us to this day and which we'd definitely like to share).

...we don't believe that there is a single foolproof code for running good businesses - we don't believe in business books that promise 'the answer'. However, we do believe that if we share all of the things that have worked for us and that have inspired us, perhaps others will feel inspired to to do something more rewarding as well. Maybe they'll find a nugget that helps them. Or maybe they'll just look at the pictures."

It's all a bit vague at the moment. Perhaps you can let us know what you'd actually like to read and we can take it from there. Comments please...

oranges

Here's a short post after the last long one. It's all about a book called Oranges by John McPhee that we like a lot. Mr McPhee has an ambling, rambling style that takes you through the history of the orange, and along the way we encounter such characters as Confucius, Louis XIV, Columbus and Ben Hill Griffin of Frostproof, Florida (it's a real place). There's something about the rhythm of his writing that makes you want to just slow down and think about oranges, maybe whilst snoozing under a tree. It's very clever when you can make people feel like that by choosing exactly the right words.

Thanks Mr McPhee.

You can check out Oranges here. If you read it, we hope you enjoy it.