Fear manifests itself in so many ways. It could be that spike of anxiety when we spot the speed camera flash as we hurry past. It might be filling the car up with fuel only to find there’s a problem with your debit card. For those brave enough to have tried it, it might be […]
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Right. That’s it, I declared with as much gravelly voiced authority that only Morgan Freeman possesses. You really must get a new phone. Mrs S. had just tried to take a photo with her fully charged but ancient Google Pixel 2 only for it to conk out. If it’d been a Tesla, it would have […]
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Mowing our lawn is usually well underway by now but we all know what the weather’s been like this winter. The last time we had this much rain Noah was pulling up the gangplank and setting sail, so it’s unsurprising things are a tad late. Luckily, we’ve had a few dry days recently so, with […]
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Daniel Priestly may not be a household name but at 43 years old he’s done pretty well for himself. Born in Australia he’d built a multi-million-dollar enterprise by the age of 25 and has gone on to grow businesses in the UK, USA, Singapore, and Australia. Right now, he’s getting a lot of airtime as […]
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The email landing in my inbox read a bit like a Ben Macintyre spy novel. Clouded in mystery and intrigue, it explained that a man had collapsed in the street in Holywell and whilst attempting to establish his identity one of OUR business cards had been found “about his person.” KGB Double Agent Oleg Antonovich […]
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Everyone seems to be fretting about AI taking over and replacing people. But there aren’t many virtual workers that I know of who’d be brave enough to scale a tall ladder and fix a wobbly chimney pot. I’ve never been to building school so I’ve no idea what their coursework looks like. But it doesn’t […]
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How many of us have spent the best part of a weekend assembling a piece of Ikea flat-pack furniture? You’ve sweated, sworn, and spent hours trying to put together something childishly simple but the hope is you can stand back and admire your remarkable woodworking skills … At times you might have thought it would […]
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We all know that oranges are, well, orange. But novice designers often come unstuck when they want something a little out of the ordinary. The colour of your logo, for example. The English language has 11 basic colour words which can be split up into primary and secondary colours. But then it starts to get […]
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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society tells the story of the wartime book club and its island members. In 1946, London-based writer Juliet Ashton, played by Lilly James, was invited to the island to meet the club whose wartime experiences capture Ashton’s imagination. But for some, their wartime experiences were still too raw, […]
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Former US Secretary of State, James Baker defined the 5 Ps. Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance A dictum I should have taken on board long ago and which is why my planning for 2023 is shaping up well. Three things have been chewing my backside off for far too long which is why they took […]
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In 15 years of brutal but dazzling conquest, Alexander the Great never lost a battle. A close-run encounter with the Illyrians demonstrated his brilliance – even when caught off guard as he faced them outside the city of Pelion. Arriving at nightfall, tired after one of his trademark lightning-fast forced marches, Alexander made a hasty […]
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Now that the clocks have changed many of us have to make our way home in winter’s inky blackness. But before they wound their way back, there was just enough light for me to walk home across the fields and marvel at watching nature bedding down for winter. One of my very last cross-country walks […]
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In the heart of London lies our most famous church: Westminster Abbey. Burial place of over 3,000 souls and where every coronation, bar two, have taken place since 1066. Spared during the dissolution of the monasteries when he granted the abbey cathedral status, Henry VIII ensured that it was saved from the destruction inflicted on […]
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On a large wall in his light-filled Paris studio is a mood board filled with pictures and ideas that inspire the world’s most famous shoemaker. Expelled from school at the age of 16, Cristian Louboutin began his career in shoes just two years later. Branching out on his own, he opened his first store in […]
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If the BBC has a conker expert on speed dial, I’m sure they would be heard on the airwaves declaring a vintage year. In the same way as the head winemaker of one of our ancient port houses might be found wreathed in the smoke from a fine Havana whilst celebrating a momentous grape harvest […]
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Walking across our drive the other day, I spotted a weed. There’s nothing unusual in that but in the Atacama Desert-like conditions we’re experiencing right now, it’s a wonder that anything is growing. Ok, so our drive isn’t the driest place on earth and unlike the Atacama, we HAVE seen rain in the past 500 […]
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Alert! Alert! Unidentified item in the bagging area. Alarms start ringing. People stare. Store staff rush towards you. And the next minute it feels like Scotland Yards’ rapid reaction force (all wearing size 14 Doc Martens) are sprinting over to apprehend you. As your face turns puce and your ears burn with embarrassment you realise […]
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On an industrial estate in West Yorkshire stands an imposing grey building. Behind a tall perimeter fence and a security cabin at the gate, 50 shades of grey it most certainly isn’t. Although you might find a copy of it behind those walls. Because inside that inconspicuously monotone building lies 373 miles of shelving that […]
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“We thought we had one box left, but we’ve run out! How quickly can you get us some more?” That’s how the urgent call usually goes. Now, ordinarily, we’re only talking about a few thousand Invoices or Letterheads – and we can get these run off in a day or two and out for despatch. […]
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Just in time for Remembrance Sunday, I finished a wonderful book called “The Searchers”: The Quest for the Lost of the First World War. By November 1918, the whereabouts of over half a million British soldiers remained unknown, and the book details some of the extraordinary searches for the missing which go on to this […]
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Cast your eye over a map of the London Underground today and you see a thing of pure beauty. It’s simplicity personified with clear lines, well-defined colour coding, and easy to read text. In an instant, travellers quickly know how to get from point A to point to point B with the minimum of fuss. […]
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Now, I’m as partial to a glass of fizz as anyone – but English sparkling? Delicious though it is, it’s got a few too many zeros on the end for me. Although if a generous host happens to press a glass or two on me, I’m not refusing! So, when a catalogue dropped through the […]
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All I had to do was put up some fencing around a Scots Pine tree … And I’d made a bit of a Horlicks of it. If a fencing contractor has seen it, they’d have probably burst out laughing. But that’s without reckoning on Tenzing Norgay – also known as my better three-quarter’s goat which, […]
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The human brain can process images up to 60,000 times faster than words … A point worth bearing in mind next time you’re updating a web page or printed material because a well-curated image library is worth its weight in gold. No, your images don’t have to look like a Hello magazine photo-shoot – just well thought out […]
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Campaigning for any election is a bloody hard job. Late nights, early mornings, and all day out on the stump. Harangued by unfriendly voters and snappy dogs, and there’s always a dribbling baby or two for an unenviable photo op. Yup, it’s hard graft all right but with the tantalising prospect of winning a seat […]
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How many of us haven’t railed against lockdown recently? For a very lucky few it may have been a blessed relief but for many, it has been pure mental torture. For the most part, at least we’ve been able to venture outdoors for a little exercise and freedom from our temporary imprisonment. But for some […]
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Throughout 2020 debate raged about face masks. Some love them but many loathe them. Some experts said they were essential whilst others said they didn’t do any good at all. In any event, they were a new experience for many of us working outside the medical and research fields. Considering how long they’ve been in […]
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It’s an astonishing thought that the summit of Mount Everest is made of Limestone. Which means that around 450 million years ago it once formed part of the seafloor. With the summit now standing at 29,032 feet, that seafloor has moved an awful long way over those mega-anna (*) and continues to do so at […]
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Last week we talked about the cost of being invisible in the marketplace. Whether you are using Google Ads, SEO, Leaflet Drops or whatever, getting your message out there doesn’t come on the cheap. Sure, if you’ve got a big budget and are prepared to fire money at the problem like it was going out […]
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In the rich tapestry of our royal rogues and rascals poor old Queen Anne seems to have been a bit of a dull old thing. But who could have guessed her obsession with candles would have such a profound influence on our retail landscape? For those living on a shoestring in the early 1700s, tallow […]
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