The magical W list

 

The W list or the Magical List as some have called it, is a way for women to celebrate women. I was extremely surprised to find out that out of the 150 blogs on the Todd’s Power 150 Marketing Blogs, only 13% are written by women.

 

Valeria Maltoni started collecting links of blogs written by women and the W list was born! Needless to say, the W list getting bigger and bigger by the minute! The full list can be found here on our wiki the W Magical List of Women Bloggers.

 And if you’re a Facebook user, why don’t you join the W List Facebook Group?

Fancy a drink in London?

Are you a blogger? Do you live in London? Are you free on Thursday 6^th September? 

Fellow Frenchie blogger Sandrine is organising a little get together at the Prince Regent, 25 Gloucester Road, SW7 London.

 Hope to see you there!  

I’d like a coffee please

Photo taken in Poland - April 2007

Here’s something I’ve been meaning to blog about for while. Coffee!

Making my way to the office kitchen, eyes half-open, I reach out for an individual dose of Nescafé instant coffee. And every morning somebody asks me whether I’d like some milk. I politely refuse, and whoever is in the kitchen looks at me as if I come from planet Mars.  

Well I am certainly not from Mars but I am French – and the French do not put milk in their coffee! And they prefer fresh cafetière coffee to instant coffee. 

During my recent Italian trip, my friend made me some coffee for breakfast. I was expecting a nice large cup of Italian coffee but he gave me a small espresso cup… I should have known better!  

In a nutshell:

• If you ask for a coffee in England, people will most of the time add some milk 

•  If you ask for a coffee (un café) in France you’ll get a large black Americano 

•  If you ask for a coffee (un caffè) in Italy you’ll get an espresso

Understanding different cultures is an art… so is coffee making! 

 How do you take your coffee?

It’s my blogging birthday!

Blog till you Drop is 1 year-old today! I made it!  

This blogging journey has been filled with the unexpected but it has only just begun!

So here’s to my new friends:

• I’d like to thank Twan for being my first ever reader and for sticking by
• Chris Brown and Reshma Anand – it was fantastic meeting you! We’re only a plane ride away!
• Thanks to Mack for his friendship and for creating the z-list where I met so many great people
• Mike, keep creating, it freaks people out!
• Christine and Katia – thanks for the insightful posts. I am looking forward to the Bathroom Blogfest 2007!
• Tesa, we should hang out in London, or perhaps Hong Kong? What do you reckon?
• Thanks to the London bloggers Neil and Organic Frog for making the whole blogging experience local!
• And finally, kudos to the z-listers for being such a vibrant community.

Before I indulge in strawberries and champagne, I’d like to know what you think of Blog till you Drop. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!    

This has been a fantastic year and I look forward to my second blogging birthday!

Are you on Facebook?

Facebook seems to be the new hot topic on the blogosphere. I just spotted a couple of posts by Mike Sansone and Jason Falls and I just thought I would chip in. 

Myspace: I originally signed up as a friend of mine told me how awesome the site was but cancelled my account a year later.  Myspace is great for music and if you are into chatting and possibly meeting random strangers but apart from that, I am not quite sure what the fuss is all about.  

Linkedin: Linkedin is a useful tool for business networking – but like Mike I do believe that Linkedin lacks a community feel – we should perhaps get Mack on the case?! 

Facebook: Virtually everyone I know is on Facebook. Remember the email from our CEO? Until last week I primarily saw Facebook as a social networking site to stay in touch with my real-life friends (unlike myspace where I was chatting to random strangers) and keep my friends updated on recent adventures.  At first glance Facebook is yet another social networking site, however as I was playing around with the features, I discovered that the site is in fact a lot more than that.  Facebook is more user friendly than Friends Reunited – I just joined the ex-GfK NOP group and found quite a few former work-colleagues I hadn’t spoken to in ages! I also found quite a few old friends from uni on the site. Saying that, Facebook should seriously look into making the site accessible to non-English speaking users; I am yet to find one of my French friends on the site…

Facebook can also be used as a business networking tool – I recently discovered a group specifically for market researchers called ‘I work in Market Research and no I don’t stand on the street with a clipboard’ but groups like these could more than likely be used as a recruitment tool. I also particularly like the WordPress plugin for Facebook that sends an alert to my friends each time I publish a new post on my blog – this could also potentially be useful if you’re planning on using Facebook as a business networking tool. 

Last but not least, Facebook is used by some as a dating site – I am not quite sure what’s that ‘poking’ business is all about though!

Green or not? Marks and Sparks

  If you’ve been to M&S Simply Food lately, you might have noticed that M&S are trying to be greener – the fruit and veg trays are made of recyclable materials, and there are dozens of ‘do you need a plastic bag’ shelf wobblers. 

However when I bought my lunch today, I noticed that the bananas were wrapped in a plastic bag and the Store Manager gave me a carrier bag at the till even though I only had one item. Surely they should try to challenge us a little more? In France, it is practically impossible to find a carrier bag these days… 

Saying green but not quite doing green me thinks!

Light at the end of the tunnel…

 

 

Something a little more personal today… I came back from a wonderful holiday in Italy this week only to face some radical changes in my life.  

My boyfriend David and myself have decided to go separate ways… David is a talented aspiring photographer and we will still be working together on his website. Stay tuned as I’ll be posting a link to his flickr account and website very soon.   

Secondly, I decided to leave my company yesterday as I did not feel fully satisfied with my current role. So yes I am back on the market! If you’re looking for a multilingual quallie/planner full of energy and passionate about brands, I’d love to hear from you. The prospect of not having a job to go to is scary (although I am on 3 months notice) but I am feeling terribly excited about this! 

Finally, I’ll be celebrating my 1^st blogging birthday in 11 days!  Stay tuned!

That made me laugh!

An email from our chief executive

‘I have been informed by IT that we are currently registering an average of 17 hits a minute on Facebook. 

Up until now we have always allowed a sensible amount of private internet usage - so long as it confirms to our code of conduct and doesn‘t interfere with our work. However, the current level is unacceptable. 

I have asked IT to monitor usage over the next week or so.  If we can self regulate that would be good. If not I will need to take more serious action.’