Something for the weekend
More questions than answers
To the Cube in Birmingham last week for a press conference with Marco Pierre White. There was a strange mix of hacks present, but two in particular were completely smitten by the man who often likes to wear a tea towel on his head. Remember reading Smash Hits when you were little, and their inane "do you like cats or dogs" line of questioning? Well, said journos weren't much better.
Clearly dumbstruck in the face of stardom, one wibbled: "What meat do you like with your Sunday lunch?", whilst the other, who professed out loud to having interviewed "a lot of celebrity chefs", asked Pierre White whether he liked beans on toast. We made our excuses and went to Greggs.
Birmingham or bussed
Commuters in the West Midlands could save up to £400 before Christmas on fuel and parking alone by leaving the car at home and catching the bus to work, according to one bus operator.
National Express West Midlands calculated the average costs of fuel per mile using the AA's figures and the cheapest season tickets in Birmingham's biggest car parks. National Express West Midlands figures are based on daily journeys in and out of Birmingham city centre five days a week. These figures are worked on average traffic rather than the more fuel consuming rush hour traffic and don't include depreciation as a result many commuters may find they save even more.
To mark the start of the festive discount and to alert commuters to the money they could be saving National Express West Midlands staff took to the bus network in festive dress with presents for passengers. Imagine this lot annoying at 7am when you've got a red wine hangover. Ho, ho, ho.
Go wild
It's been four years since the last Property For Kids (PFK) ball, but this October it was firmly back in the saddle as figures from the property industry descended on Edgbaston County Cricket Ground for a wild west-themed evening.
The Blazing Saddlebags event, which will provide funds for Edwards Trust and contributes towards the £500,000 that has already been raised to help disadvantaged children in the West Midlands, was held in the newly opened exhibition hall. Eventologists, the event management company, worked with the PFK committee to transform the space into a fabulous saloon bar, complete with tequila shot girls, wagons and a bucking bronco.
Chris Read, chairman of PFK, said: "It was great to see so many people make a real effort with their Wild West costumes and get into the spirit of the evening, which resulted in raising a fantastic amount of money for a worthy cause."
