On Thursday, I went out to a farm (yes, a farm!) in the country to meet with Tesco Supermarkets in a place called Welwyn Garden City . I still have no idea where I was (Herfordshire??), but it was quite pretty. They're a pretty interesting account, and growing like crazy - kind of becoming the big Wal*Mart over here and taking over the world! They absolutely love all of the BBC product I have, so that went over well. The day before I went to HMV (luckily they're just a walk down Oxford Street), which is by far my biggest account (almost 1/4) and had a little brainstorm. Really liked them a lot and they're going to take me out this week to show me around their flagship store at Oxford Circus and talk about some things we can do with Playback. It's really nice to sort of have this blank canvas to work with for the business.
I've actually been managing to have a bit of fun, finally, too. A friend from Variety in LA kindly hooked me up with a couple of her London-based colleagues (Tommaso and Alberto) and we finally met up a couple of weeks ago. They took me out for a really nice meal with a few of their American friends, and we all made a fun night of it, topped off by playing billiards (!) in a pub - very badly I might add. :-) Went out with them again this week to a private media club/bar place called Soho House and then went dancing in a pub with a very bad DJ. Very silly but also very fun to finally have some nice people to do things with. As luck would have it they're also going to be in Cannes at MIP and said they'll introduce me to some people while we're there. It will be nice to know some people there, as the whole thing sounds pretty overwhelming. I have 10 meetings set up already, and am supposed to double or triple that amount before I go. Yikes!
The Arse have been having a good run since I last wrote (knock on wood..or 'touch wood' as they say here). We amazingly knocked Real Madrid out of the Champions League in our second match against them. It has gone down in history as 'the best nil-nil draw ever seen.' David Beckham even cried afterwards. It was incredible. I was on such a high that I decided to try to nab a scalper ticket to the next match against Liverpool on the 12th.
I met up with Johnny Harber and his friends before hand and had a really hard time getting a ticket (there was such high demand tickets were going for over $500 equivalent!) but about 3 mins after kickoff I got lucky and got one - then had to run around the entire stadium to get to my seat! It was electric. Liverpool are ahead of us in the table and we were expected to lose--or draw at best. We won 2-1. It was an amazing game, and I had an amazing seat - it was worth every penny (pence?) to be able to scream 'Dennis!!' and him actually be able to hear me!
This week, we will need more than a bit of luck, when former captain (and Gunner for nearly 10 years) Paddy Viera comes back to Highbury to play against us in the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time since he left us last summer for Juventus. They're one of the best in Europe, so keep your fingers crossed!!
Last Sunday I had a nice surprise in that the famouse Zoe T from Disney was in town - she's now in film school at Columbia in NYC - and was here on Spring Break. So we got together on Sunday - went for a nice pub lunch in Hampstead then wandered around the Heath (it was sunny!!!!) and did some shopping. Hadn't seen her in 3 years or so, so that was fab. She helped me take a few pics in front of one of my favo(u)rite areas, which I've included below.
The music scene has also been good - John Murray, Adrian and friends came down to see The Bluetones at The Garage on the 15th who were great. And Adrian and I went to see The Crimea at the Bar Academy in Islington last night. I can't complain about being able to actually walk to gigs! This Sunday sees Depeche Mode at Wembley, the night before I leave for France. Can't say better than that...
I have a few more pictures to share--like Johnny Harber in a big Guinness hat on St Patty's Day and scenic pics from Hampstead Heath--but I can't figure out how to get them off my camera phone. I'll add them when I do. Until then, I am off to sleep so I can get up at the crack of dwan and trapse through the rain to the crazy convention...Nighty night...
posted by Eleanor @ 3:01 pm
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