team extreme

Tne innocent climbing club (aka Team Extreme) went on their first ever outdoor trip last w/e.

They've been practicing indoors for a few months now so decided it was time to hang out on some real cliffs in Snowdonia.

Jojo expertly organised the whole trip and Dringo Adventure provided everything from fit instructors (essential) through to equipment (also essential) and accomodation (comfy). Everyone had an excellent time and learnt lots more about climbing, like how to pose for photos mid rock.

On the way home, they decided to pop into the Cheese Rolling competition at Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire. Tim R and Mav both entered the race to chase the cheese and despite the pouring rain and a very steep hill, both acheived respectable times (in that they didn't come last).

You can watch a little video of the cheese race here. Tim R is the chap in the bright yellow jacket, 28 seconds in.

He came second in the best dressed cheeseroller section though. That award went to the chap in the suit.

whose breakfast is it anyway?

It's been a while since we did a 'Guess whose shoes/hat/dog that is?' so here's a little competition.

Mike, Abi and Simon all had breakfast this morning.

But what did they have?

Someone had nettle tea, healthy cereal and a banana

Someone had toast with brown stuff on it

And someone had crisps and chocolate money

Just match the right person to the right breakfast and tell us about the most interesting breakfast you've ever had, in under 80 words. The best (and most correct) answer will win a crateful of smoothies.

Answers by Tuesday breakfast time please.

guerilla knitting

I went to visit Meera in Stockholm at the weekend.

Along with lots of excellent coffee shops, impressive kitchenware and an archipelago of astounding beauty, Stockholm also has rather a lot of knitting graffiti.

Apparently, artists knit onto whichever lampost, doorknob or car aerial takes their fancy and refuse to be moved along until they've completed the row they're working on.

No one is quite sure just how many Swedish guerilla knitters are out there but they're doing a cracking job, brightening up the streets, making people smile and keeping chilly lamp posts nice and toasty.

bit of a thickie

Our new big thickies have been out for a few weeks now in Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Ocado. 

There are three of them and they're in big, 750ml bottles.

This is the first time we’ve ventured outside the juice aisle with big drinks (our big thickies are found sitting with the milk and yoghurt drinks), so we’re dying to know what you think of them. 

• When are you drinking them?
• Why are you drinking them?
• What are you drinking them instead of?
• What do you like about them?
• What do think we could improve?

Anything else you care to share please do.  Just leave a comment to this blogg post.

Thanks.

an artist's kitbag

We're drawing and designing some new stuff to go on the big cartons. Ed is here to lend us his art skills - here's a handy guide to the equipment he's using:

Some Karisma colouring pencils. Accept nothing less.

A watch, so you know when to make a cup of tea (ten past three by the look of it).

Some paper, so you can draw big pictures of mangoes...

...or elephants and paintbrushes.

And a plastic bag so you can carry your stuff home.

crisp anyone?

Sometimes bad news can be swiftly followed by good. Our Ailana has decided to leave us and set up her own little PR agency. Tomorrow is her last day at Fruit Towers and she asked one of her new clients to send in a few crisps for her leaving do. And he duly did so.

So thanks to Jonty at Burts we think we'll have enough crisps to get us through at least a week. And he's promised to send a box of crisps to the person that guesses correctly how many packets are in this pile. Your favourite flavour and everything.  Answers on a postcard (or as a comment below) by midday on Friday 23rd.

No more time to write, we've got lots of potatoes to get through.  PS if we get more than one correct answer, we'll draw the winner out of a hat.

retailer of the month

Every month, we choose one of the lovely places that sells our drinks to be our 'Retailer of the Month' and award them a posh certificate and other treats for hard work, great service and tidy hair.

This month's winners were Celeste and the good folk at the Queen Margaret Union Shop on the University of Glasgow campus.

They have their own shop mascot called Alphonso (pictured bottom left) and are currently doing a roaring trade in Beef Roysters and Chocolate Orange bars.

Part of their prize included a morning's hard graft from the dashing Colin. As well as sampling our drinks to the students, he also helped put out the cereal bars, restack the water and made a beautiful display of stationery items. He's good like that.

Make sure you pop in and say hello next time you're wandering round Glasgow Uni.

And if you'd like to nominate somewhere that sells our drinks in a particularly fine way, then please drop a quick email to Mike J and let us know why they're so very good.

friday came early this week

We'd usually post a clip of this calibre on a Friday, but we couldn't wait.

changing rooms

Ian the builder is a busy man of many talents.

This week, he is turning our old loading bay into a gym.

Soon, it will be filled with step machines, treadmills and lots of lycra clad people, pumping iron and following workouts that look a bit like this

Hopefully, we'll be able to keep the door open when it's ready and thus remove the need for air con.

Energy saving or what?

king of the links

Please say hello to Stu.

Stu is one of our designers here at Fruit Towers and can often be found eating a bucket of cereal at his desk.

He is also the main man when it comes to finding the links we send out in our weekly newsletter to our family and some of the stuff we post on this blog.

When it comes to finding quality links, Stu's top tips are:

• Subscribe to lots of blogs - If you set up an RSS feed compiler (I like netvibes) or bookmark stuff you like, using a site delicious, then you'll always be up-to-date with the good stuff out there.
• Follow the trail - Links lead to more links. It's neverending really. If you find a good blog, check out their favourite blogs and websites and so on.
• Sleep upside down - It helps.

If you're not too sure what an RSS feed is, this helpful little video explains everything.

If you find any brilliant links (keep it clean, mind), then please send them to [email protected]

Happy searching.