I tell you what gets my goat - charity pleas

I spent ages on creating social networking links to a charity plea, completely unrelated to me, (whilst I am trying to raise my own www.justgiving/alanharrison) which was asking to help raise money quickly.

Just received a grumpy message from the original source of asking for help asking me to take down the post, saying it was inaccurate and not for public consumption.

1. As I copied and pasted it from said person's original email, all inaccuracies are theirs

2. don't send out requests for charity help and then say not for public consumption.

I wish the recipient of the charity all the very best. I shall keep to my own causes in future.

Humpf.

check out www.apelsintojos.com

THE IMPOSSIBLE PITCH II - HELP THE INTERNS! check this out http://buzz.bazooka.se/


APELSIN TO JOS
A LEGENDARY ESTONIAN POP GROUP.
A FARAWAY NIGERIAN CITY.
AND A SEAT LEFT FOR YOU.


Back in March, Swedish advertising agency Volontaire put its philosophy* to task by getting three interns to blog the progress of their ideas for a pitch presentation for Adidas worldwide called The Impossible Pitch.

Now, three more interns have been set a new mission for the agency’s client Brämhults, a small Swedish juice company with a big dream: to take the legendary Estonian pop group Apelsin to the Nigerian city of Jos.

To understand why, here is a Swedish glossary:
Apelsin = Orange (you know, the fruit) Jos = Juice (freshly squeezed, of course)

By taking the Estonian band to the Nigerian city, Brämhults hopes to manifest their business idea in an entertaining way.

However, there is one problem: the Estonian band doesn’t know anything about this yet.

So in late November, the interns are going to Tallinn to try and persuade Apelsin to get on a bus and drive through Europe, over the Gibraltar Strait to Western Africa and the Nigerian city of Jos, where they will shake hands with the mayor, and play their brilliant tunes in front of hundreds of ecstatic people.They will probably say NO.

That’s why the interns have two weeks to whoop up a petition via a social media campaign on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and their daily blog of ideas, dreams, videos and suggestions: http://www.apelsintojos.com/. The more that sign up as fans on Facebook, the bigger the chance that Apelsin says YES.
So what’s in it for the audience? One lucky Facebook fan gets a seat on the bus to Nigeria with the band. The rest will follow the road trip as a mini series.
HELP THE INTERNS! JOIN THE FACEBOOK FAN PAGE!



Info: Amanda Harrison + 44 (0)1296 660 294 ah@amandaharrisonmedia.co.uk
Volontaire: Carl Unger CEO +46 (0)767 730 450 carl@volontaire.se

*Volontaire has five beliefs:

1. Companies no longer have the power to control their brands
2. Communicate with people, not target groups
3. It's neither about traditional nor new media
4. No one is waiting for your next advertising campaign
5. Great ideas come from everywhere

Emu Boots v Celtic Sheepskin Boots

I first fell in love with sheepskin boots about 9 years ago, when I bought my first pair of black long Celtic Sheepskin boots. Since then I've bought the dark brown long poppers and light brown short poppers, and I've blogged about them before. Living in the country and being hot on comfort, from every mid-October they're pretty much a permanent fixture on my feet, following a summer wearing pretty much only my Electra Gold sequinned Fitflops or last season's Pierre Hardy high-heeled ankle boots from The Gap.

What I've learned about sheepskin boots:

• don't wear them when you're in the kitchen. Suede and olive oil don't mix, and don't stack the dishwasher. Enough said.


• they're like wearing radiators, so great for the outdoors, not so great for causing hot flushes indoors when the heating's pumped up


• you can get annoying "jean stain" on the boots even wearing old jeans, so the dark colours are way more practical


• they do look best on models, with Cameron Diaz' length of leg, the same way most winter chic with all its bulk only suits the similarly blessed

Having been in favour of the Celtic Sheepskin company, a Cornish brand, I was never going to vere to the WAGtastic Ugg brand, being Oz.

But Sylvie at http://www.fuelmyblog.com/ selected me to review a pair of also-Oz Emu boots from Fitness Footwear, so my future brand loyalty is in question. So, Celts or Emus?

Celtic Sheepskin has a wide range of boots, from the trad Celts to poppers, bikers, buckles, bow, ribbon etc in a really wide variety of colours.

Turquoise suede boots anyone? I know the 80's are back but even then - as new romantic 13 year olds - it was black or burgundy all the way, and, for the record, in those days we called them "pixie boots".

Celts are certainly not cheap, with the knee boots (the ones I bought way back when) at £140, calf classics at £103 and regular at £97. Just about the right mid-range price given that they last for years and years. They are "100% sheepskin upper • Lightweight, flexible rubber sole• Built to last with double-stitched seams • Hand finished to the highest standards• Machine washable." Although I have washed my boots (and I forgot to mention I've got through two pairs of the moccasin slippers) they are never quite the same, which might be my failure to be a wonder at laundry.

Emu - on its own website - has a pretty wide range too, although without the colour pop of the Celts. Fitness Footwear's selection has mostly just the two types, Brontes and stingers. I get to choose which ones I'd like sent to me, so to try something different from my Celts, I went for the Bronte Charcoal.

Having had on my new pair of Emus for a few hours, I notice that they have more sock room than the Celts, and are slightly less tight on the leg, which is great as shoving jeans into boots is never a pleasure. They are very comfy, in a new boot way, so it'll be interesting to see how the insoles wear. I'm not sure if they are as warm as the Celts, but I have been sitting still in a cold room.

The main difference to me is the feel of the suede, which although fine is less soft and luxurious than my Celts, but that's probably down to the price, since these come in on Fitness Footwear's website, with a current 10% reduction, at £69.95. I think I'd think they were a bit steep if I was buying them for myself.

The Emu branding on the boots is more obvious, and I imagine for UK consumers this is an Emu v Ugg battle, or at least a pitch to show that Emus are a much better quality and cheaper - but not so much as to be skanky - alternative to annual winter throwaways that stink and fall apart after a few wears.

Last word, though, from my husband, who thinks the Emu's are smarter. But that could be because the thinks grey is edgy...

Next day.... still have them on, wondering whether it's OK to drive in them? I did do yesterday, but husband seems to think that the sole is such that I shouldn't, any thoughts?

Jan 2010 - since then I still wear and like the boots, but I think the sizing is on the large size, my 39 size 6 feels way too big for me. Also, I'm standing on kitchen tiles a lot and the soles don't seem to keep the chill off. But I do like the pattern that the soles make on the snow!

Parks Candles' Sandalwood and Ylang Ylang Aromatherapy

I adore these candles, they smell divine. It's a pity Parks Candles' packaging is so shit - it makes the candles look cheap, which at about £18 is not reflective. Get a good design agency, sort out your website and pitch yourselves against Jo Malone!

www.charmsoflight.com

Truly charming jewellery by truly charming designer and reiki master Caryl Haxworth, http://www.charmsoflight.com/ offers some amazingly good value gemstone jewellery and stones. I've just bought a chakra bracelet, opalite guardian angel and best of all, Carly made for me some rose quartz drop earrings for my wedding which received great compliments. Such lovely presents too.

tumblr's the new twitter

Having a bit of a fiddle on the internet today - connecting all my online stuff at flickr, tumblr, twitter, facebook etc together. Tumblr's fast becoming my favourite for its ease and its fun.

Contemplating Webber's drive through penalty... Belgian Grand Prix 2009

Contemplating Webber's drive through penalty... Belgian Grand Prix 2009
Originally uploaded by Amanda Longhurst

Didn't spoil a fabulous weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix. What an amazing track and Spa Francorchamps is lovely. Bloody chilly camping though! We were at The Elephant camp site. Really nice three small fields, but only four loos and showers for whole campsite.... Clean though. Expensive, but it would be for 30 mins walking distance to the track!

Vodafone Cockpit Karaoke Competition To Win Tix for Monza

Pretty nifty idea by Vodafone Germany - they sent events people round the campsite we stayed at for the F1 Belgian Grand Prix, to video us impersonating a racing car. They uploaded them to the contest site on youtube and, I can't work out whether most views wins or most voted for (or how to vote) but anyway the winner gets VIP tix to the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Check me out. How embarrassing, but worth a shot, eh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KODQxDuY28c

Project Kittens and Moonbeams

Right, enough of all the Dilbert-like process monkeys who micro-manage and drive me bonkers.

Project Kittens and Moonbeams for focus.

Hugo Boss email campaign

Really like the Hugo Boss email I got today. A rather lovely looking Lewis Hamilton promoting the formal suit range, plus a change to win a trip to the Singapore Grand Prix staying at the Mandarin Oriental. Now that's what I call good targeting....