Shop. Save. Support.

I had been thinking a lot recently about charity shops. Charity starts at home, doing your bit, giving something back and all that. It got me to thinking how much charity shops have changed over the years.

Gone are the days when scouring Oxfam shelves drew up nothing more than a stale old coffee pot complete with eight year old Kenco coffee granules, or a forage in the bargain scarf, hat and glove bin saw you withdrawing clutching a mothball eaten nylon BHS neckerchief.

No, these days you can shop successfully for an entire occasion – 0n a budget. And you get to go home with an over smiley sense of worth having done your bit, and given something back. Actually, you feel quite chic and ahead of the times being so Samaritan-savvy and Red Cross-cool.

Baby shower to go to? No problem, don’t just take one gift – for the price of a Mamas and Papas Lotty Ladybird play mat and gym you could festoon your expectant friend with a buggy, a play gym, romper suits, nursery rhyme books…who’s laughing now Mrs ‘I bought the most expensive thing at Babies R Us, ha!

Likewise, need to cater for a children’s party on a budget? Have you seen the toy and game section in your local Age Concern shop recently?! Pristine and shiny jigsaw puzzles; not a piece missing, Twister – used once because rain stopped play, Buckaroo – now who can say no to Buckaroo?! Need I say more, get down there mum, keep the little sweeties entertained for hours – a magician – at least £25 an hour – second hand selection of games – no more than 50p an hour – pinky swear.

Finally, we can’t leave out two more ultimately important shopping occasions. The starter home – while a trip to IKEA can be very satisfying for the bank balance, we can’t rate charity shops for kitchen get up highly enough. (Note – IKEA trip is always recommended with girl companion, not husband or boyfriend – as soon as he drops and smashes a crate of 24 x 8p tea light holders as a result of being barged by someone overheating at the prospect of so many bargains, there are going to be tears). If you want to be über cool, then deck out your culinary corner with super stylish tumblers decorated with orange flowers, a set of Babycham glasses complete with fawn, a soda siphon, oh and of course the obligatory Charles and Diana place mats and coasters. You WILL be the envy of all of your friends.

Last but not least, the fancy dress party! Save the best for last – bash to go to as a gangster? no problem! Dark glasses, cheap black suit and accessorising water pistol coming right up. 60’s, 70’s or 80’s do – easy, all catered for. Personal favourites of mine (all executed perfectly over the years) – the cleaner, the hill billy and the hippy. Voila.

Anyway, the reason I was prompted to write this blog (and potentially let my local Oxfam, Red Cross, Sue Ryder and Cancer Research shops know that I can help them treble footfall), was because of an article in The Times Magazine this weekend. I’ve rambled on enough, so read and digest at your leisure.

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/fashion/article5918235.ece

And remember, you don’t even need to leave the comfort of the sofa+wine+salt and vinegar chipssticks. Oxfam has an online store, AND sells on Ebay. If you need more reasons to go and shop a la bargains, then go back to Primark, I give in!

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/

Not convinced by the sole opinion of little old me? Read up on the thoughts of highly rated fashion blogger Style Bubble. http://stylebubble.typepad.com/style_bubble/2008/08/show-some-chari.html
Admittedly the charity shop offering in London will see you much more likely to stumble upon a vintage Chanel handbag hidden under a pile of Stickle Brix, but it just means we need to search a little higher and lower, the rewards are there, honestly.

Reading launches with first Tuttle

Yesterday, armed with trusty Sat Nav, I headed from Oxford to Reading for the first Thames Valley Social Media Café event.

Taking the back roads and ignoring trusty Sat Nav for the first 10 minutes, I enjoyed the short drive, smiling at the field of a thousand piglets, distracted by the thought that my seven month old would love to come and visit these little pink trottered, squeeking little piggies.

I arrived, at the wrong end of the road, and after chat with exceptionally helpful and friendly traffic warden found Workhouse Coffee and proceeded to unintentionally queue jump, thinking selfishly of a good cup of tea – having found the jar empty at home earlier that morning.

So, my first introduction to a fellow Tuttle attendee was with Steve Lamb, who very kindly let me proceed with my tea ordering. He even continued to talk to me after I got his name wrong, asking if he was another Steve I’d met on Twitter (sorry, and thanks Steve!!!).

For those who couldn’t be there, and are interested in what a Tuttle is, and how the group came to be, stay with me for a little of the history.

Started in London by Lloyd Davis, and named after Harry Tuttle, a character Davis admired in Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film Brazil, new groups are beginning across the UK, including Brighton, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Newcastle and Manchester. And, unbeknown to me, right on my doorstep in Oxford. Must investigate (and record voice note to do so on new Blackberry. This is so making my life A LOT easier).

The groups are made up of people with a common interest in social media, and I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of really interesting, and very welcoming people.

Steve, told filled me about his role at Microsoft, as did his colleague Saqib. Was interested to hear about South by Southwest, a festival in Austin Texas which has grown from a tiny music event to a music, film and media gathering attracting people in their thousands. Thanks Steve also for the list of Twitter apps, I’ll be investigating Dabr, TweetIE, NatsuLion and Twhirl.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Neville Hobson, who along with Drew Benvie, Matt Brady and Benjamin Ellis arranged the first Reading meet. Thanks Neville for the tip about Philip Schofield being an interesting person to follow on Twitter, and for arranging a very successful first get together.

Andy Piper, another Tuttler (can I say that?!), was really helpful and spent time chatting with me about his job at IBM, the social media guidelines they issue, which are readily available on their site (will be taking a look), gave me some great advice for the website a Client of mine is about to launch, and talked to me about how he manages all his social media activities. I was happy to admit that I find the vast amount of options available somewhat overwhelming, so Andy is going to give me some of his time over the phone to have a chat about making the process more streamlined, so I can get the best out of the applications I’m using (Twitter, Facebook, Delicious and so on). Thanks Andy, hopefully I’m forgiven for putting your cards down and letting them be poached!

Another important point actually, Andy and I also talked about my plans to rebrand, and made a good point when I mentioned the mammoth task of updating all online accounts from my old, to new company name. Anyone going through a similar process – keep your existing domain name for a cross over period if you can, and point the old domain to your new site once live, so that people can still find you.

I managed to chat with most people there, some more briefly than others, but hopefully there will be opportunity and the next get together – no date yet, but planned for April. I enjoyed talking with Nicky who with a business partner runs a B2B PR company in Reading called EvokedSet. We’ll hopefully stay in contact and pass opportunities between us, with Nicky specialising in B2B and myself B2C.

Before leaving I managed to chat with Matt Brady for five minutes who writes a local Reading blog. It was also Matt who mentioned that Oxford already has a Tweetup which I’ll be looking up.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable morning and great to network with people with so much knowledge about social media, as well as being thoroughly nice, welcoming people. For someone like me who has only been using Twitter for a short while, but is keen to learn and promises to be a hardworking student, having the opportunity to meet a chat with people who have so much advice to share is invaluable.

I’ll be there next time…till then.

Oh, and not so trusty Sat Nav will not be invited for the journey next time. There were certainly no nice views, or fields of pigs to smile at on the M4 route home.

Sod The Chef, save the Duck

Earlier this year, as followed by Channel 4, Heston Blumenthal took on the almighty challenge of resurrecting the once cherished road side café that is The Little Chef.

The three part TV show saw the Fat Duck chef frustrated by the bosses reluctance to roll out his menu across the chain, and uncovered doubts as to whether there was ever any intention of taking on board any of his suggestions.

A conclusion later on this year will reveal all, but in the mean time, Heston’s attention has been reverted closer to home. With a mystery bug now having struck down as many as 400 diners, the doors remain closed while investigations are ongoing.

Bad timing for the chef, with his new series Victorian Feast airing at the moment, Blumenthal is reported to be devastated by the closure of his three Michelin star restaurant, which looks to remain locked up for a while longer yet.

The cause of the illness suffered by diners is yet unknown. Although the restaurant itself carries out its own regular testing, when you’re boiling, freezing, moulding, boiling and blow torching ingredients until they resemble the abstract art that you wish them to, it does make you question exactly what it is you’re spooning into your nervous mouth.

My husband and I are going to a fancy dress party at the beginning of April; a 30th birthday celebration with an ‘H’ theme. With very short hair and black glasses, Mr Blumenthal was an obvious choice for my other half. I wonder though if he’ll be spending the evening alone concocting something with dry ice. Maybe he should go as He-Man instead, everyone loves He-Man.