I'm bored with it - not of it!

There was a story in Metro this morning that appealed to my inner pedant and gave me and fellow PR and friend Laura a good chuckle on the train. I stand firmly alongside John Humphreys when he complains about tautology saying it is the 'the linguistic equivalent of having chips with rice'. Brilliant.

As a PR bad grammar and the misuse of words is something that just shouldn't happen and fellow PR Steve Earl and journalist Sally Whittle are just two people who agree and blog about this topic regularly.

And so inspired here are a couple of my all time bugbear phrases that this article overlooked:

1. Blatantly obvious

2. To be fair

3. Bored of (trust me, it is with. A big thanks to my friend Barney for drilling that one into me and all my friends!)

4. At the end of the day (yes it's in the article but is just THAT annoying)

5. No word of a lie (thanks Claire!)

6. Oh yes, and any unnecessary acronym, like ITCEC

So, if you use any or all of the above - stop it.

That is all.

The dangers of sexy surveys

Rory Cellen-Jones didn't think much of the news today (we think from uSwitch) that Granny's like Gaming.

The debate has also worked its way on to twitter with a few journo's slating flaky surveys - they've even slating the PR for trying to light-heartedly defend the survey - ooh er!

Not that I blame them. Yes, surveys have been the source of many a successful campaign for us (like this lovely one for a client) and, let's be honest, there is always a certain level of assumption with the stats as you are looking at a portion of the population, not the whole of the population. However, there is a fine line and in order to maintain credibility it is important that we don't cross it.

Note to self - no sexed up surveys!

Back to Business

I'm back from Vegas and it was fantastic. Although it seemed like a short trip, just four nights, it was the perfect amount of time for us to be there. We did a bit of gambling (ok a lot, but we had to try Craps and BlackJack!), a trip to the Grand Canyon, saw Mystere by Cirque Du Soliel, visited a few hotels, went on the New York New York roller coaster (not with these guys!) and "Insanity" over the Stratosphere Tower.

Highlight - making big winnings on roulette although I didn't put it all on black as the odds were just 2-1, I made more by putting $2 on black 13 - I walked away with a tidy $70 from that bet.

Lowlight - celebrating too much on the last night and suffering turbulance through a hangover on the flight home!

Anyway, I'm back now. And I've come home to some great news - Rainier PR (sister agency) won the Tech PR agency of the year award from the Flackenhacks, Steve Earl tells us more.

What recession?

Doom and gloom all over the shop means there is plenty of talk about how to survive the recession, no matter who you are. Sally Whittle has posted some tips for how journalists and Steve Earl offers his tips for PR's here.

It can all be a bit much sometimes, my tip is - find the news behind the recession. I've had a great week so far at lighthouse talking to journalists about the real stories of the moment, completely avoiding all talk of the financial crisis. It has actually proved a really good time to introduce some of my cleints to some of the traditionally harder to reach media as they are just so keen to talk about something other than the economic climate.

And on my positive note I will leave you all for a short time while my husband and I venture off to Las Vegas to make the most of the strong GBP, staying at the Bellagio and betting it all on BLACK!

Recession, what recession?

See you in a week!

Restaurant Review - Cocoon, 65 Regent Street

I've just been for a lunch at Cocoon Restaurant and thought I would share my thoughts.

The entrance is tucked away just on the corner of Air Street, close to Piccadilly Circus. You go upstairs to the main restaurant which is surprisingly big. The food is sushi, sashimi, dim sum and bento boxes and there is a sushi chef man in view on the restaurant floor, which is nice.
Vegetarian and meat options are both good.

In terms of suitability for a client meeting - its great, very stylish and not too busy. The tables are perhaps a little too close for a journo briefing but having said that I didn't hear much of what the business men on the next table to us were talking about and they were the only other people near us!

Deffo worth a try.

We made it!

Sophie and I completed the 10K at Hatfield House on Sunday in very respectbale times (Sophie much more respectable than me but it's the taking part that counts). Thanks to everyone who sponsored us, including Wadds and Steve and for the good wishes I got from everyone like Paul. It was all very much appreciated.

We had an amazing day and the 2000+ people who took part did their bit to raise over £100,000 for Cancer Research UK.

I just wish people would stop asking me to do the half marathon next!

It's finally here...

...10K race time is this Sunday.

Spare a thought for me while you are relaxing on Sunday over your lovely roast dinners, Sophie Jarvis and I will be hauling ass round the Hatfield House 10K run for Cancer Research. I have to confess, my main concern is getting round ahead of my mum who is also taking up the challenge.

Of course we will be rewarding ourselves afterwards with a trip to the pub!

I'll let you know how we get on!