BJK&E

To start the BJKE festivities this year we were suprised by semi-clad Mr and Mrs Claus, fully equipped with tequila and sambuca shots and some quite impressive packages - the Secret Santa presents.
I think a Boob Radio and an E-B Gun went down particularly well. Thanks Santa!

After an alarming amount of early evening shots, we were transported to a secret venue in an old-school double decker London bus which happily contained much champagne and cheesy music (and its very own doorman lurking at the back in case we got a bit rowdy I presume)

Arriving at the Southwark Rooms, and with “Jingle-Bell” Jones as Quiz Master, we split into five teams (Aptly named Prancer, Dancer, Doner, Vixen and Comet) for a festive quiz - the prize being a box at the O2 to see Chris Brown (Not actually sure how many people knew who he was, but Angela and I were jumping about like school children at the prospect, particularly when we won!)

This was followed by an awards ceremony, where  winners included:

Most likely to get told off: Dan
Most likely to flirt: Louise M
Most likely to cry:  Nat and Kate
Most likely to be sick: Tim J
Most likely to say ‘I love you’: Alice

To be honest, the rest of the evening is all a bit of a lovely blur but an awesome time was had by all.
Massive thanks to Benny, Tim and Alice for arranging such a brilliant Christmas do!

Movember finally came to an end in the BJK&E offices (and everywhere else). Using the pretence of a raffle, we raised a whopping £88 for prostate cancer and gave away some ‘amazing’ prizes; the following all went to the lucky Kate Rigby…Paul Weller CD, flip-flops, baseball toy binoculars, inflatable guitar, ski and snowboard holiday brochure and a bottle of champagne. Ian Richmond won second prize - a lovely bottle of Sainsbury’s finest (basics range) Lambrini, the lucky chap!

There were also some awards for this years participants:

The biggles award went to Andrew Kingston for looking like a WWII fighter pilot.

The facial hair of the day award went to Matthew Waghorn (everyday) for his varied approach to Movember (and facial hair in general).

The A for effort award sadly went to Patrick Lindon who, despite trying really hard, didn’t manage to push out more than a light down on his top lip.

The confused.com award went to Daniel Parkinson for growing blond top lip hair despite all other hair on his face, head and body being brown. Weird.

Photos of our final efforts can be found below. Comment if you want, we don’t care anymore, just happy to rid our faces of such a disgusting blight. Who grows a moustache for any reason other than charity!? Buffoons, that’s who.

A new BBC commissioned report has suggested that since the 60’s Britain has slowly been segregating geographically in terms of wealth, politics and demographics with an ever more defined North/South divide. One particluar area the report highlighted is ‘Social Fragmentation,’ suggesting that the traditional neigbourhood barely exists anymore as we become more and more polarised. 

Apparently people in Edinburgh and London feel the least ‘belonging,’ whereas those in Stoke are feeling the love of their neighbours more.  So what do you think, do you have any sense of community in your area? Do you wave to your neighbours or hide when you see them? Or do you think perhaps think communities are being redefined in other less geographic ways?