BJK&E

It was on Saturday February 16^th 2008 and a beautiful crisp morning that I found myself standing outside a gorgeous barn conversion set deep in the Gloucestershire countryside.It was on this day that our Emily Rich and her fiancé John decided to make their vows to love, honour and cherish each other for the rest of their lives. The groom looking handsome in his dark suit waited nervously until his bride looking perfectly demure and stunning in her creamy white gown swept up the aisle, joined him at the front and in matrimony. The day went perfectly with possibly the tastiest canapés in the world and champagne to start, followed by posing for pictures. We then took our places at the round banquet tables and munched our way through a delicious hog roast with all the trimmings while copious amounts of champagne, wine and beer were consumed. The hilarious speeches given by all the wedding VIP’s followed which, as all agreed, really were superb and I was left wanting more. The room then transformed into a dancehall with a Glastonbury DJ on the decks. Smoke machines, flashing lights and lots more drinking ensued, ensuring a right good knees up with a real journey from the 80’s right through to today playing everything from Take That to Nirvana.It was agreed the next day that as far as weddings go – it was perfect from beginning to end and everyone had a really great time.

     

To begin with the hens started off in the Latino Bar and Restaurant in the Park Plaza hotel guzzling champagne, cocktails and wine, Emily was showered with presents from all her friends and a few mini games were played which ended in Emily dressed in a lovely pink fairy outfit, feather boa, pink bracelets and finally nipple clamps. The girls were then handed their Emily masks which everyone had, making it look like 14 Emily’s bouncing around Leeds - which is actually quite a scary thought.

Next they headed for a nearby bar Epernay for much champagne swigging. They then skipped off down the road to the highlight of the evening which happened to be a karaoke nightclub appropriately named “Oh Karaoke” where they sung their hearts out wearing funky wigs and shaking their hips. The evening ended up with a surprise visit to Greggs Bakers (classy) which conveniently happens to be open until 4am in Leeds and was just what the doctor ordered after drinking copious amounts of alcohol, which was quickly followed by just one more drink at the hotel bar.

A delightful full English breakfast the next morning geared the hens up for their trip home. All in all a real boozy fun weekend was had by all and the pictures say it all.

We wish Emily and John lots of luck for their future together and hope Saturday goes perfectly for the lucky couple.

Wow 2nd time I’ve ever blogged, I could become a serial blogger. I was going to blog about something really interesting but what ever caught my imagination has fluttered out of my head like a butterfly. Instead I’ll fall back on the new Rajar figures, which frankly are dulllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll, Chris Moyles is still obnoxious and is the most listened to show in the UK. To be honest I’d rather sit next to some half deaf old man on the tube trying to talk to his completely deaf wife about what they’d like for dinner than listen to chris Moyles. Oh and 4 of the 5 biggest digital only radio stations have lost listeners in the last 3 months. Really? So is that now half a dozen ‘early adopters’ listening to it? Did anyone not realise that they actually weren’t very good and offered nothing more than what is already available? Get a frequency or take yourself home please.

A friend told me about a useful tool in the fight to give up smoking - an online quit-o-meter. In the process of getting my own quit-o-meter I discovered the joy of a personalised goggle home page. I now have my quitting smoking tip of the day, word of the day & a brain tuner similar to Nintendo DS. I can also choose my own background - have gone for a soothing pastoral scene. I could also have Tesco’s deal of the day or random pictures of kittens. BBC news is un-surprisingly the most popular with over 800,000 users. It’s really easy to add more applications just by clicking on the ‘add stuff’ button. You can search by keyword or just look at the newest or most users. The latest addition is a car members gallery with new pictures of cars everyday. Currently, there doesn’t seem to be many corporate users outside of media owners and Tescos & ebay. It seems a perfect environment for advertisers who want to update their users regularly - flight deals, betting etc.

FYI - It’s been 2 weeks and 3 days, I’ve saved £97.28 and not smoked 353.77 cigarettes.

Last night, with heavy hearts, we bidded a fond farewell to the legend that is Gareth Rees in the traditional BJK&E way - drinking lots down our local pub! We began the evening in the boardroom with a drink and a short slide show demonstrating the many faces of Gareth (ask Claire nicely and she might let you have a laugh at it) and then progressed down to the pub where we plied him with hoegaarden and shots all night until he left drunken messages on my mobile (about lychees or something!).  Gareth has been a much loved character around BJK&E for the last couple of years and we will miss him and his drunken ranting immensely! Good luck in Manchester and come back to see us soon.

I really like Time Out, not just for it’s listings of what’s going on in London but also for the fact it tells me a little bit more about this sprawling city that I live in, and not being a Londoner there’s quite a lot to discover.

Thankfully the new refreshed Time Out makes it an even better magazine. The content is pretty much still the same but it’s been shuffled around to provide more of the insightful and interesting editorial in the front of the magazine rather than scatter it liberally throughout, making it a better read and leaving a lot of the listings towards the back of the mag.

The only downer is maybe how long Time Out might be around and relevant, as the deluge of free publications is continuing to grow, supplanting what you may get from great reads like Time Out, plus the internet means you can find all the listings you might desire free at the touch of a button.

Maybe Time Out’s next major step will be to go free?