Nick Cave, Phillip Pullman, Margaret Atwood, and Graham Norton.
Under the shadow of Nelson's Column.
Reading.
This, dear readers, is no fiction, but could instead become your Friday night if you are very lucky, because we have some rather special tickets to give away.
10,000 people will gather in Trafalgar square this Friday (the 4th) to be treated to a wide range of performances and readings from some of the most celebrated artists of stage, screen and theatre. And because here at Fruit Towers we like nothing more than to squirrel away with a good book, we decided we'd like to get involved and support this event.
Friday night kick starts 'World Book Night', a nationwide initiative to celebrate and encourage reading- as part of this, 1 million books will be given out the day after by 20,000 passionate readers who have volunteered to get involved. One of these is our lovely Katie here at innocent, pictured here with her favourite read.
So if you know your Forster from your Fabric and your Tolstoy from your Turnmills, and would love nothing more than to spend your Friday evening raving about reading, we might just be able to make it happen for you. We have 20 sets of tickets to give away- to be in with the chance to get your hands on a set, just take a peak here.
For many, this will go down as the day when it rained a lot, or as the weekend where they had a particularly tasty croissant for breakfast.
But for me, Sat 19th Feb will be marked as my favourite day at work. Ever.
A few weeks ago, we blogged a post inviting people to come along to a special film makers' workshop here at Fruit Towers. 60 soaked, but surprisingly chirpy, budding film makers came through the doors of the Towers on Sat for a very special workshop with Ben Wheatley - film director, funny man, and chap who made our advert.
With beanbags and biscuits, and a Wizard of Oz style presentation from up on the balcony, Ben shared some of his top tips for film making, ranging from how to use storyboards effectively to the importance of time management in directing.
We'll let you into a secret...the number 1 rule of film directing?
Never, ever sit down.
In the afternoon, our budding film makers were set loose to create their own 30 second mini movie superhero movie, armed with Ben's tips and a no expenses spared* film makers' kit.
*this may not be strictly true
They looked up for the challenge, so we threw in additional angle of artistic opportunity/anguish and gave them each a genre or theme for their mini movie, ranging from slasher horror to circus chic.
They spent a bit of time brainstorming...
...and then the magic started to really happen as the gaffa tape came out, the fishwire was attached, and a selection of Fruit Towers' finest random props were put to excellent use.
The result? 9 truely excellent films watched with lashings of popcorn that had us in stitches.
Check out some of the results, and find out how you can get involved in our mini movies competition here.
Thanks so much to those of you who came down for the day. We'll be smiling about it for a while to come.
Whilst 2011 may officially be the year of the rabbit, here at Fruit Towers it would seem that it's all about the lemurs.
Not content with giving them a starring role on our new OJ packaging, we're also really excited because the innocent foundation is working with Feedback Madagascar to fund a yam growing project.
'Where's the link?' I hear you cry.
Turns out that the Madagascan rainforests where these yams grow are also home to the only bamboo lemurs you can find in the world. So not only will this foundation project be helping to ensure a regular food source for local people in the area, who previously struggled when their rice crops ran out, it'll also be making sure that the bamboo lemurs' habitat is conserved.
Check out BBC2's "Attenborough and the Giant Egg' on March 2nd at 8 o'clock to learn more about the incredible work that Feedback Madagascar are doing.
Remember where you heard it first. 2011 (unofficially), the year of the lemur.
Animals are good to look at. We put pictures of animals on our juice labels and write captions to go with them. Check out the mud loving chimp above to see what we mean.
In the summer this photo of a lemur will appear on our next round of juice labels. We want you to write the caption that goes with it, with your words being seen on hundreds of thousands of juice labels.
What is this furry fellow thinking, saying, or looking at? Is he in fact a she? What you write is completely up to you.
We'll print the caption we like best on every single label with a lemur on it later this year. Your words will be read by shed loads of people (probably millions) and you’ll receive international fame, fortune and a hefty delivery of juice and smoothies.
Just post your caption as a comment below. The competition will close at 6pm Thursday 17th March, and we'll announce the winner the following week.
David Tennant did a whirlwind tour of fruit towers at lunch time today, marking our first celebrity visit of 2011.
Alex and Liz were lucky enough to spend some time showing him the delights of our product kitchen.
Three interesting Dr Who facts:
The Tardis cost £4,328 to build.
The ethereal theme tune was the first in the world to be made up entirely from electronic sounds.
It was never made entirely clear why the Daleks were so ill-tempered.
Inspired by our superhero ad, the Purple Patch Arts Group for Manchester Teenagers got down to some PVA glue based fun and whipped up some heroes of their own, who we happen to think bear more than a passing resemblance to a popular five piece boy band.
From left to right we present Dude in a Hood, Spiderman-Rap, Village Person, Pipe Cleaner Man and Swimming Small Face. Our little caped crusader's quaking in his smoothie-filled boots.
In between the madness of your Christmas shopping last year, it may have escaped your attention that there was a bit of a media backlash against plans to draw up a Government policy on public health. Reports circulated that some of the big food and drink manufacturers were involved with drafting the policy, which understandably ruffled a few feathers. After all, this is a policy that has a huge task of reducing obesity and which, if something’s not done soon, is going to affect every other person by 2050 (and what people eat and drink clearly plays a huge role that).
We should point out here that we’re not opposed to businesses being involved in policy development: it’s important to ensure that policies can be implemented effectively. But we do think that such involvement should be open and transparent.
Back in November we were aware that the Government was busy beavering away at the public health White Paper and it got us thinking what we would do if we were put in the hot seat. We had loads of ideas but we were interested in getting the opinions of real experts. So, we invited nine of the very best experts we could find to Fruit Towers for a roundtable discussion. Well, we say roundtable but actually we don’t have a round table big enough to fit nine people around. What we actually had was a four-rectangle-tables-pushed-together discussion. But that doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?
To celebrate the launch of our new juice this week (yes, we launched a new juice this week), we had a big juicy breakfast inside Fruit Towers.
There were bagels, salmon, jam, and a fair bit of juice.
To round up the morning and to keep the juices flowing, we had a squeeze-off. The aim of the game was to see who could squeeze enough oranges quickly enough into a carafe to fill it (set to the overture from Carmen). And who do you think won it? One of the big fruits himself.
You may have heard, but we've just launched our brand new orange juice (and apple juice too). To celebrate, we've got 11 breakfast hampers to give away.
We squeeze 11 oranges into every carafe, so we've got 11 overflowing breakfast hampers to give away (we're simple like that). In each hamper you'll find: homemade muffins, crunchy granola, fresh fruit, marmalade (made by our very own Kat E), tasty bread, napkins, limited edition innocent juice glasses, wonderful tea from teapigs.co.uk, along with a thirst-quenchingly large amount of juice. There's plenty to share.
To be in with a chance of winning, just tell us your best orange or apple pun or joke. Our 11 favourites will each get a hamper delivered to their door. Here's a couple to help start the ball rolling:
- two oranges walk into a bar, one says "your round"
- you make me peel like a natural woman
- ooh-aah, juiced a little bit
To enter, click here (entries only open for UK residents - sorry).
Competition closes at midnight Monday 14th February.
