Something for the weekend
Rum Deal
It'sh shomtimes a great job being a baker, honesht, jusht ask the folksh at Sunrise Bakery. The Black Country business' latest offering, the Paradise Estates rum cake, has sold out at RumFest event, the world's largest rum festival.
Although the exact ingredients are a family secret, our exhaustive sampling can reveal that it definitely includes rum, port and – hang on, oh yes, a hint of sherry. It's being produced for special occasions such as Christmas, christenings, birthdays, the sun going down, a day ending with the letter y… Indeed such is the enthusiasm which Sunrise has for its new cake that managing director Errol Drummond says they're already planning a plain version without fruit, which by our calculations means space for yet more rum, port, sherry…
Card carrying
This week's Bono Award for "Doing My Bit for the Planet. Honest" must go to Barclays regional director Richard Haighton. While every manual on business etiquette goes into raptures about the importance of handing over a crisp, neat, exact, business card in the correct two-handed manner Richard is giving out his card with his telephone number crossed out with swish of the biro. "We’ve had a bit of a shake-up and it's my way of making sure we don't cut down a rainforest to print some new ones." Large parts of the Amazon can now sleep safely…
Booking the trend
Now never let it be said that accountants lack the festive spirit. But considering their patron saint is a certain E Scrooge, locked away in his counting house, bean counters prefer to celebrate with a bit of cost-conscious, home-made fun. Which is why Harrison Beale & Owen decided to celebrate Christmas with a Christmas tree made entirely from – er books and beans. The Warwickshire business hired local creatives Vortex Creates to build a seven foot tree made entirely from book pages, glue and jellybean decorations.
It took the two ladies from Vortex 500 pages and 24 hours of rolling, folding, improvised-on-the-job origami and gluing to build the tree which, it claims "captures the personality of the organisation". Well done, Vortex. Take a day off, but make sure you're back in on Boxing Day…
