So it’s been another couple of weeks, which means another blog. Actually got my first couple of recommendations for YouTube video of the week and LAD of the week recently so cheers for those guys. So let’s crack on…

First up, ‘YouTube Video of the Week’. Now I thought that I would get some inspiration for this weeks video from TV show ‘Rude Tube’, so I sat down to watch it and it turns out that weeks episode was all about sex so thought it might not be appropriate for the innocent minds of RMP and our users…

I was also shown a hilarious video by Wicko AKA Big Dog yesterday but similarly its not exactly appropriate, so you’ll have to ask him yourself! This weeks choice is a bit of a mood lifter, so although there may be some rubbish people out there, this is just to show that there are still some people out there doing some amazing things and to confirm that in general PEOPLE ARE AWESOME!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo0Cazxj_yc

I’d absolutely love it if you guys commented below and told me out of those, which was your favourite little clip. Mine is the guy doing that flip thing on the big bouncy ball (Not it’s technical term I’m sure).

So it’s that time for my ‘Purchase of the Week’ feature and I’m surprised I can even do one this week due to the pathetic attempt at a bank account I claim to have. I was recently on the road down in the beautiful South-West of England attending the Plymouth and Exeter Careers fairs and got peckish so decided to venture into a sandwich I have never tried before, a mouth-watering Bacon, Brie & Cranberry baguette. Now to many of you this may be the norm, maybe even a weekly occurrence, but for myself it was a strange combination that I had previously decided to steer clear of. I mean I’m sorry but who sat there hungry one day and thought “ohh you know what I could really do with? A bit of bacon, cheese and fruit!” It’s odd and you can’t deny it! However, as I have recently discovered it’s genius. I was just sat there letting this crazy arrangement of flavours do backflips on my tongue and absolutely loving it! So the moral of this story is to just try something different, if you can’t afford a holiday, you can at least let your taste buds take one!

Now time for something that I always like to put a lot of thought into, ‘LAD of the Week’. This week it’s a bit of a remember a LAD award as it goes to a natural born performer who played in one of the greatest rock bands of all time and had millions of people across the world left in awe as he dominated any stage he graced. I am of course talking about the late and ever so great Freddy Mercury, who 20 years yesterday we lost in an untimely death.

Queen has sold over 300 million albums worldwide and continues to live on through various fantastic (and not so fantastic) tribute bands as well as continuing to inspire many music-makers of the modern era. He is undoubtedly a rock-god who used every inch of the stage to perform classics such as ‘Another One Bites The Dust’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and their most played song of all time ‘We Are The Champion’. Not only does he live on through his music but through The Mercury Phoenix Trust which raises awareness and helps educate those in the developing world of AIDS, the disease that took the legend away. So the only thing really left to say is RIPLAD.

As always it’s been a pleasure and it’s time for me to shut up and for you to get back on with some work!

Adue, Kwa Herini, Auf Wiedersehen and Goodbye!

Tom

I have written this blog three times today. The first two attempts followed the same format as my previous posts and, whilst the first I completely wrote off in my head for being too boring, the second I really quite liked. Why then am I telling you this like I am not going to post it? I should. I’m not going to.

With one final section of my blog to complete I looked to my writing portfolio for inspiration and came across this; a blast from the past that both amused me, reminded me of why I love working with students and made me so grateful for the friends, family and opportunities I have had.

I studied in Ireland and this is one of my letters home that substituted my actually being there.

Enjoy.

Dear All,

xxx

I hope your Guy Fawkes nights and Halloweens went well and would be keen to find out what events you attended and costumes you wore. My Halloween was pretty un-eventful in the end but Bonfire night went out with a BANG – haha pun intended. I decided to spend a load of money on one fire work instead of some money on a load of fireworks, check out what £35 gets you if you go to the right place in the video below.

£35 of Firework

RUSSELL’S REVIEWS

As mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to attend a couple of exhibitions and did so! The Power of Making @ the V&A, and Hidden Hero’s @ the Science Museum, both situated down the aptly named Exhibition Road in London’s South Kensington.

The Power of Making celebrates innovations in craftsmanship and the manipulation of mediums we come in contact with every day such as clay and Nylon and Technologies from steam bending wood to Milling spider-bots! It was packed when I entered the airy room of the Victoria & Albert with a single file queue of people ant marching around looking at every extremity of all the interesting artefacts on offer. Some of the pieces included a Mahogany bicycle, a puppet from the Wes Anderson film ‘The Fantastic Mr. Fox’ and a 12 foot gorilla made of coat hangers (see above). Even if craftsmanship or making isn’t your thing, you will find something that interests you here and plenty for you to point and say “How did they do that?”. Its FREE admission and runs until the 2nd of January 2012.

Hidden Hero’s is a display of everyday products that go unmentioned and un-noted as we use them everyday without thinking about their origin or history. To be completely blunt, you pay to look at tin cans and post-it notes… I wouldn’t waste my time checking this out again, even though the annotations are very interesting the exhibition itself lacks a quality that you would expect from the Science Museum, Vitra and a £6 entrance fee. Instead, check out the website 10 x more engaging and free!

Summary: Definitely visit the V&A, the POM exhibition is free, interesting and engaging, once your finished there you can tour the rest of the V&A and its vast library of treasures, then spend £6 on lunch and vist the Hidden Heros exhibit via the comfort of your arm chair and laptop.

10 Second Review – Colombiana (IMDB) In Columbia a little girls gangster parents get killed, grows up wanting to be a killer and seeks revenge. Fast forward 10 something years, she’s a contract killer, (played by Zoe Saldana) and a good one to boot. Kills everyone. 5.3/10

Before I sign off, I’d like to congratulate Tom WIlson for Winning the ‘Blogger of the Month Award’ here at RMP. Tom has been Awarded the dazzling Blogging Trophy to display on his desk for a Month on behalf of Team Goose for his outstanding contribution to the RMP blog and interesting Feature ‘Lad of the Week’ as well as some munchies to keep his sugar levels up in these cold winter evenings. Well done Tom!

On the eve of Global Entrepreneurship Week I thought it was probably time to write another blog (long overdue, apologies Rus!)…

So, I thought I’d share my thoughts and tips on starting your own business for any students out there who may be considering giving it a go…

With the well publicised challenges in the graduate job market and the popularity of ‘entrepreneurship’ on the rise thanks to shows like Dragon’s Den and The Apprentice, now is a great time to start a business.

1. The Idea – OK so I’m stating the obvious here, but having a good business idea is clearly a good starting point! However, it’s not as hard as you might think; you don’t have to invent a new product or come up with a brand new concept to start a business. Many of the best new businesses that are out there are simply about taking an existing idea, product, service and offering an improved version of that. Think about the challenges and everyday problems that people face – could you create or offer something better than what already exists?

2. Research - So you’ve got an idea – good start. Now it’s time to start testing the water and do some research. Is there a genuine need for your idea? What is the commercial potential? How will you generate revenue? Discuss your idea with people you trust, or better still, partner up with one or two friends (as we did when starting RMP). Your university should have an Enterprise office where they can offer you advice and a sounding board to help you get started.

3. Business Plan? For me, writing a 40 page in depth business plan is a waste of time. We wrote one back in the day and never looked at it again, and if I did, I doubt it would look anything like the business does today. Yes, you clearly need a plan of action to get started, but don’t waste your time writing pages and pages before you’ve even got started. You’d be better off getting out there and working on the business!

4. Start up capital - One of the many beauties of the internet and mobile technology is that you can start a professional looking business from your bedroom. Clearly it depends on the line of business you are going into, but for a few hundred pounds, you can get a simple website up and running which portrays a professional company. Ideally you don’t want to be giving away a stake in your business at this stage, so keep your eyes open for business competitions (such as Shell Livewire - who give away £1,000 every month to new start-ups) and speak to your Enterprise office at university who might be able to point you towards local funding for new businesses. If you require larger amounts of capital to get started, then you might want to consider angel investors or venture capital firms – be prepared to work hard for your money and you will need to be able to convince potential investors that they will see a significant return on their investment. Check out this really useful section on Startups.co.uk about raising finance.

5. The Admin - the less glamourous side of a start up business, but absolutely fundamental to success. Doing things the right way form day one can save days and weeks of hard work down the line and help to avoid any potential pitfalls in the future. Incorporating your business is a good starting point and is actually a quite simple process and only costs £18 on the Companies House website. I’d also recommend finding a good accountant who can advise and help on the financial/legal side of things. You’ll want to purchase any web domains that are relevant (again, only costing £5 – £10 for 12 months) – check out 123-reg.co.uk. Also on the to-do list should be the setting up of a business bank account – take your pick from the High Street banks, they all offer good business banking services. (We bank with HSBC but also should mention our friends at Barclays, who we also have an account with, after winning £50,000 in their ‘Take One Small Step‘ competition!)

6. Get out there! The company has been formed, the website is live, the bank account is open and ready for income – now it’s time to get out there and start networking, marketing and selling your product or service! Let the hard work and fun begin…

Recommended websites:

• Startups.co.uk - www.startups.co.uk/
• Smarta - www.smarta.com/
• Shell Livewire - www.shell-livewire.org/
• Bitsy - bitsythis.com/
• Enterprise Nation - www.enterprisenation.com/

Hello again,

Plenty of blogging going on over at RMP and I am keen to keen to keep my own going. Last time we interviewed the yellow suit wearing Sales Director and co-founder Ollie, read his interview here. It was a real insight into a special boy who has grown up fast over the last 2 years.

Today I am interviewing Chris, my other mate from halls at Loughborough in way back 2003, the other leg of the “Tripod” (we didn’t come up with it), definitely the sturdiest and heaviest of the legs at that. Chris has had many roles at RMP, he would claim to be our “Director of Technical Excellence” having taught himself a lot of the coding, database and other essential areas of the website, he also dabbles in the finances, PR, recruitment, sales, is the @RateMyPlacement Tweeter and generally just being the Big Dog around the office.

Chris, how are you? 

I’m good thanks Al…

So… What were you doing when I disturbed you?

Checking out BBC Sport and Twitter.

What’s your average day like?

Depends on the time of year – at the moment (especially with Ollie on holiday in Thailand), I am looking after the campaign delivery side of RateMyPlacement – so doing my best to ensure all of our clients have successful campaigns on the website and receive a great service. Aside from that, I look after the ‘business’ side of things here, so your finances, your business planning etc.

What’s been your best thing about RMP?

I’d say taking something from literally an idea all the way to where we are today, with our own offices, a growing team of great people and exciting plans for the future. It’s been an amazing few years and I’m genuinely excited about where the next few might take us.

It’s also been great fun building the business with a couple of good mates, we’ve had plenty of good times along the way.

And the biggest challenge?

From a business perspective, I would say initially convincing companies that students submitting a review of their placement/internship with them was not a bad/negative thing!

From a personal perspective, my ability to delegate. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and do sometimes find it hard to delegate tasks that I’ve built up from scratch over the past few years. Having said that, this is clearly a vital aspect of running a business and something I am working on.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Rich.

What would you be doing if you weren’t doing this?

Bloody good question and one I’ve got absolutely no idea on. I’d have probably followed the well-trodden graduate path down to London, got myself a decent grad job, then realised I didn’t want to work for a big company and gone travelling for a few years.

Ideal dinner party guests?

How many am I allowed?

• Noel Gallagher – love that guy, I could listen to him speak and sing all day long
• Josh Homme – the Ginger Elvis
• Harry Redknapp – I reckon after a few glasses of red, he’d have some great stories and I could persuade him to give me the last 10 minutes of a Spurs game
• Holly Valance (topical) – saw her on Strictly the other day (not that I watch it, just passing) and reminded me of how much I loved her when she was in Neighbours

Need another girl otherwise Holly might feel outnumbered…

Either Cheryl Cole or Sue Barker. Or both.

What a dinner party that would be.

Pet hate?

Incompetent people. Just be better at stuff.

Favourite Sport / Music?

Sport – football. I am player-manager of the Mighty Civil Service 4th XI – oldest club in the world and members of the Southern Amateur League. At the time of writing, we’re sat in 4th place in the Minor Division North, in case you’re interested. I’m also a part-season ticket holder at Spurs.

Music – rock & roll. Love a guitar. Last gig was Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds a couple of weeks ago at the Roundhouse – amazing.

Top tip to any student looking for a career now?

Don’t give a recruiter any excuse to reject your application. Check it, check it, get someone else to check it and check it again. Spelling/grammatical mistakes in an application form are unforgivable.

If you have any questions for Chris, he loves nothing more than to email or Tweet, get him on Chris@RateMyPlacement.co.uk or @RateMyPlacement.

Next time we’ll be interviewing Liz, the longest serving member of the Team.

I hope you enjoy the blog, I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts.

Ali ali@ratemyplacement.co.uk

Hi guys

Now I know I said I would be doing a blog every two weeks, and that it has been a lot longer than that since my last one. I do hate disappointing my huge fan base, the guys in the office and my mum, so from now on I’ll do my absolute best to keep the blogs flowing.

So let’s get back on track. First up, ‘YouTube Video of The Week’. This week we have a video that has spread like wildfire and is getting coverage from the likes of The Sun and CNN. Flashmobs have been a huge viral sensation for a few years now and this video continues that trend with a romantic twist. Watch the video (with sound) and enjoy… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy8D2mx2EVc

It is also a video that a member of the RMP family can relate to. The lovely young lady who is being proposed to was an ex-girlfriend of RMP co-founder Alastair Lindsay, when questioned on the video this is what he had to say:

“Fair play to the lad, he’s clearly more attractive, imaginative and romantic than me. She had a lucky escape and I wish them all the best.”**

The main difference I can see between Ali and Adam? About 3 Feet!

Now we have my ‘Purchase of The Week’ feature. I have been excited to write about this since it is all I have been playing lately. I went out and bought myself the incredible CD that is ‘The Kinks – The Ultimate Collection’. There isn’t enough I can say about this beautiful collection of music, hit after hit, tune after tune! Whether you haven’t listened to them at all or it has just been a while I urge you to revisit them. After a few days of running through the album and arguing with myself I have decided my favourite song is ‘Stop Your Sobbing’. This, however, was an extremely hard decision and it could have easily been 6 or 7 others.

It’s available from places like Amazon and E-bay for around £3!! Which is just outrageous for such a top piece of work.

Please let me know of any of your favourite ‘Kinks’ songs/gigs/interesting stories as I’m just discovering them myself and would love to hear them!

So Finally, we are brought to the “LAD of The Week” feature, something I’m always on the look out for. This week it goes to a man who time after time just amazes the nation with a look into the far corners of the world and the nature that inhabits it. That’s right, this week’s award goes to NatureLAD, David Attenborough.

His latest BBC series, ‘Frozen Planet’, started a couple of weeks back and it has been an absolutely storming hit (as most of his shows are). Even at the amazing age of 85 he manages to show an enthusiasm towards every living thing, from the micro-bacteria that lives on a snowflake to the breathtakingly intelligent Killer Whales and how they strategically take down their pray. He shows us parts of the world we never knew existed, and most of all does what no teacher in 12 years of school to do…get me interested in science!

The man is a true legend, and with that the big LAD nod of approval goes to him and his team for allowing us to discover things we never knew we could.

Sir David Attenborough….NatureLAD!

So it’s time for me to shut up and for you to get on with some work, cheers for reading. I’ll be back soon.

Adue, Kwa Herini, Auf Wiedersehen and Goodbye!

Tom

**May not be an exact quote

Nominations now open in the National Placement & Internships Awards 2012!

Wew are delighted to announce that nominations are now OPEN for the third National Placement & Internships Awards 2012, sponsored by PwC.

Due to be held on Wednesday 18^th January 2012 at City University in London, the Awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of employers, universities and students within the world of undergraduate placements and internships.

There are 15 Awards up for grabs, including 7 Awards for employers, 3 for universities and 5 for students. Awards up for grabs include ‘Best Placement Student, Best Intern & Best Society’ with up to £1000 for the winners!

Entering is really quick and simple just visit the website at www.rmpawards.co.uk

And fill in a nomination form before the deadline of Friday 18^th November.

To find out more, click here.

Good luck!

So much happens in a week that quite I have quite literally had to go through a blog breakdown to pick a selection from the many ideas that I had for my second blog. I quite enjoyed sharing what my week had been like in my first blog and it seemed to get a fairly good response; I’m going to stick with sharing weekly anecdotes with you, but I want this to be as interactive as possible – why not tell me about your week too? I’ve also come across a couple of other really good blogs worth sharing. Enjoy!

This week I learnt….

……….how to really appreciate boobs

Nearly all of us have loved or known someone suffering at the cruel hands of cancer. Cancer isn’t picky or prejudice, doesn’t care who you are, how good you are or how old you are. Whilst I and many people I know owe a lot to charities and networks like Macmillan and TCT, I also love finding out about smaller organisations, groups and even individuals all showing their support.

Beauty and the Boob is a bit like a good bra; supporting boobs the world over. It is a fantastic blog that I came across this week; witty, well written, intelligent and inspiring – I can do no better than to quote straight from it…

“Beauty and the Boob celebrates the female breast in all glorious shapes and sizes, bringing you the best and bang-on in boob-related fashion, beauty, news, health, gossip, features and events. Working in the Plastic Fantastic industry highlighted to me the immense role boobs play in the lives of women everywhere, and the even greater need to chat and refer. Written by a lady, for the ladies, be they Natural Nancys, Silicone Sallys or Reconstructive Ritas – this blog leaves no boob ‘untouched’.”

……….French (well, ‘un petit peu’)

For those of you that don’t know, back when I was languishing in the extended holiday periods you are accustomed to as a student, I spent two months living in France in a small little village called Mayregne in the Pyrenees.

View Larger Map

Since then my spoken French has fallen somewhat by the way side, but in an attempt to appear cultured and less of an ignorant monolingualist, I have decided to pick it back up and have a bit of a re-fresh. Here are some handy phrases that you may just need and remember when you least expect it;

Je voudrais une biere s’il vous plait.

I would like one beer please.

Je suis extremement occupee a ecrire mon blog.

I am extremely busy writing my blog.

Ah, une chaine d’ail….juste ce que je cherchais!

Ah, a string of garlic….just what I was looking for!

Avez-vous entendu parler de l’OCP? Ils sont etonnants.

Have you heard of OCP? They are amazing.

One of my favourite things about the French is their approach to food, and I assume it is this that recently got me the nickname ‘amuse-bouche’. As we have become a generation of techno-dependents I thought it only appropriate to utilise Wikipedia in my explanation of this exquisite, fine-French finger food;

An amuse-bouche [amyzbuʃ] is a single, bite-sized hors d’œuvre.[1] Amuse-bouches are different from appetizers in that they are not ordered from a menu but, when served, are done so according to the chef’s selection alone. These, often accompanied by a complementing wine, are served as a little tingler for the taste buds both to prepare the guest for the meal and to offer a glimpse into the chef’s approach to cooking.

The term is French, literally translated to “mouth amuser”.

The Amuse Bouche Champagne Bar in Soho is definitely one to visit when you’re next in London.

……….What the Dog Saw

Having last week reached my peak in learning how to smuggle cocaine, this week I started reading ‘What the Dog Saw’ by Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm was a staff writer at the New Yorker and is the author of some fantastic books such as The Tipping Point; How Little things make a Big difference (2000), Blink; the power of thinking without thinking (2005) and Outliers: The Story of Success (2008).

Just a few pages in, I can’t give you a full review but I am already captivated by Gladwell’s provocative storytelling and illuminating anecdotes of the ordinary (The Ketchup Conundrum) and the extraordinary (The Talent Myth). I can however reiterate the review given by one of our very own clients; “Witty, probing…uniformly delightful…a comic’s feel for timing and a bent for counterintuitive thinking” (Bloomberg).

One early quote I’ll be sure to remember is “…it is impossible to separate Product Development from Marketing – the two are indistinguishable: the object that sells best, is the one that sells itself…”

……….fairytales do come true

Picture this.

You’re in holiday mode; the sun is setting, there’s a sweaty sheen forming across your reddened brow and you’re making your way into a tourist-ridden bar where drunken holiday makers ride a giant mechanical whale .

Believe it or not, this is what fairytales are made of.

I know this because of what happened to two of my best friends last Summer – and last weekend I helped them celebrate their wedding for the second time this year. Yes, the second time. The first time we celebrated their wedding in Phoenix, Arizona. The story is best told by the leading lady and you can check out her blog here…but here are the key facts to whet your fairytale appetite;

1. 42 weeks from the day they met (10th July 2010) to the day they married (30th April 2011).

2. Of which, they spent 35 days in each others company pre-marriage (including meeting, trips back and forth and the week before the wedding).

3. 5266 miles moved (according to Google Maps) from Phoenix to London to spend the rest of their lives together. …and here’s a photo of us all celebrating Phoenix-style post-wedding;

Amber’s advice of the week….

Show your support.

Tickle your taste buds.

Think outside the box.

Believe in fairytales.

Morning, I hope the weekend has been kind and fair to you all but alas, we are back at work, time to knuckle down and deal with the matter and deal with it proper!

Its been a quiet couple of weeks in Russell’s world (outside of work), Ive had one main focus (not work related) over the past couple of months and that has been the refurbishment and modification of a 30 year old foldaway bike to shuttle me from Fenchurch St. to RMP HQ in Vauxhall. I was using the Raleigh Twenty (so called due to it having 20inch wheels) to get to work a couple of months back but it gave up on me, the tyres ruptured and blew up!! luckily I wasn’t to far from the station to walk it in, I then realised it was time the Twenty had an overhaul. So thats what Ive been up to some evenings when I’ve had the time and money. From its obtainment to this point I have been using my personal blog for any updates related to the bike so check that out if your interested, it gives you an idea of parts gathered for the machine and how I originally brought it for £21.01…

Other than the health benefits of cycling everyday I am also keen to dodge, at any available opportunity, standing in confined spaces with strangers on the tube, catching their colds, negotiating standing space and having the privilege to pay for this pleasure, so in effect im saving £80 a month by cycling and not using the tube… CASHBACK!! Before it gets too cold to film, il slap a camera to my handle bars and record a short video on the way into work for you to check out my route, so keep your eyes peeled.

Since starting at RMP, I havent taken full advantage of the attractions London has to offer after work, I am generally a casual museum goer and feel this needs to be revived, so once a fortnight im going to make it my objective to gain some culture, ideally, if this is something I can help influence my work the better, if not I shall merely drink from the fountain of knowledge and report back with my findings. So this week I will be going back to my Design roots and visting The Power of Making at the V&A. If you find making and craftsmanship intersting check out the video here and il let you know how the exhibition was in my next post. As im intending to goto 1 exhibition a fortnight, Il review each of them and post them up here incase it tickles your fancy.

Just before I sign off, I thought I’d share with you all how I kill an hour train journey and another 1 hour out of London everyday. I tend to assault the good ol’ fashioned paper back but have decided to down arms for a while and attack a truly great saga… The Sopranos. I got the whole shabang from eBay for £30 would you believe it?!?! So that’s what il be tackling for… several series on my iPhone as I’ve never got past season 1 before now.

As to not shun the wonderful book, I’ve mentioned the last five books I read below, let me know what you thought of them by commenting bunderneath, my pick of the lot.. ‘Degrees of Freedom’, if you like sci-fi read this trilogy, its awesome.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - the book Blade Runner was based on.. funnier than the movie

Lord of the Flies - exciting and fun at first, until children start killing one another

1984  - cheer up

Peace and War – an interstellar war where one tour of duty is 200+ Earth years

Degrees of Freedom – Final in a trilogy set in a post apocalyptic London (Metrozone) where the future is determined by a Russian Physicist and ex-kidnapper

Stay lucky people, dont forget to Like this post thank you please. Rus

Hello all!

As you can probably tell by now, RMP has jumped on the blogging bandwagon and every other Thursday you will be hearing from myself, I’m one of four placement students here trying their best not to mess up all the hard work that has been put into the company thus far.

Now I could bore you with stories from my life in London, but instead I have decided to bring you some regular features that will hopefully bring a cheeky smile to your face.

Firstly, I will bring you “YouTube video of the week”. My first one, some of you may have seen as it has racked up over 3.5 million hits and it sort of tells you a lot about myself as a person and my sense of humour. (Volume needed)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK_CKtYCRIc

I think what we have learnt here is: Kitten + Tortoise + Chamillionaire = YouTube Hit! I’d like to thank my friend Daniel for introducing this to me and hopefully you guys enjoyed it as much as I did. I’d also love to hear from you guys about your favourite YT vids, so either post them in a comment below or send them over to tom.wilson@ratemyplacement.co.uk and I’ll pick my favourites to blog about.

So next up we have my “Purchase of the Week” feature. Here I will discuss, yes you guessed it, my top purchase from that week and being somewhat of an impulse buyer I’m sure we will see some amusing items. This week my award goes to my Thomas the Tank Engine Toothbrush. I recently visited friends in Sheffield for a 21st and stupidly forgot my toothbrush, so took a trip into Poundland and found this little beauty. After making several appearances over the weekend my friends gave me a challenge to get photo’s of Thomas at various landmarks I visit across the globe and you can see the first one here when he visited Edinburgh Castle.

Features from this item include: Teeth cleaning, suction pad at base that allows it to be stuck to (almost) all surfaces and best of all, if your name is Thomas, it has your name on it!

Next I bring you the “LAD of the Week” feature. Here I will discuss who in the week has really stepped up to the plate and earned the prestigious nod of approval from men across the country.

This week it goes to a guy who literally changed the way we look at the world and certainly how we interact with each other. I am of course giving this week’s award to the late Steve Jobs. After a long battle with cancer, Jobs unfortunately passed away last week leaving the technological world in mourning. Not only did he create technology like their were pieces of art but gave us the opportunity to do things such as play Football Manager on the go, get football score updates by the minute and check out the latest Sweedish page 3 girl on the train without looking like a complete pervert.

A few notable tributes include one from Barack Obama: “Steve was among the greatest of innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.

“The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.” 

And on that note I award Steve Jobs the LAD of the Week award. We salute you sir, RIP.

On that note I would like to give you a huge thanks for reading, especially if you made it to this point. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks and feel free to leave comments or questions/tweet the blog to friends/repost on your wall, it’s all appreciated.

Adéu, Kwa herini, Auf Wiedersehen and Goodbye!

Tom