My intra-ocular lens surgery

Greetings from France,

 

Something a little personal today. As some of you may know, I am currently in France for my intra-ocular lens surgery (IOL) until next week.

 

I’ve been wearing glasses since I can remember and have a fairly strong prescription (around -6.5D + around -0.5 astigmatism on both eyes). I started wearing contact lenses when I was 15 but became intolerant a year ago – I was devastated.

 

 I saw an eye surgeon for the time 5 years ago but was told my cornea was ‘abnormally thin’ (400 microns, an average cornea being 520 microns) and that laser surgery would never be an option for me (as it reduces the thickness of the cornea even more). But in March this year, I was told that IOL surgery would solve my problem and here I am in France typing this post.

 

An IOL is a small lens which is designed to be surgically inserted behind the cornea (the outer surface of the eye). Once in place it serves to focus the light accurately onto the retina (the back of the eye) thereby treating short-sight, long sight and astigmatism. The surgery is quite heavy with both eyes being treated separately under general anaesthetic.   

 

I had my right eye done yesterday and I am already blogging… not bad! I can see a little – it’s not great yet (definitely much better than what it was pre-surgery!)  but my eye-sight will take a couple of weeks to settle. I am getting my left eye done next Wednesday.

 

I will try to blog as much as I have already seen some pretty interesting ads (amongst other things!) on French TV.

 

PS: Sorry about the typos – I am on a French computer when an AZERTY keyboard!

Addicted to Twitter! (for now…)

 

… is the question my geekiest friend asked me this afternoon. ‘I don’t get it, I really don’t!’ He’s not the only one, and admittedly, I only just started playing with Twitter… I guess I’ll find out in the next few weeks whether this is lust or love!

 

A while back, I asked my Twitter followers what Twitter is all about and Mack gave me the following answer.

 

 

 

 

So far, I have seen people twittering about the weather, traffic information, sending useful links, and promoting their blogs. Here is what Phil and Mack had to say about how they use Twitter:

 

 

 

I think there’s a massive opportunity for brands to build relationship with their consumers on Twitter, by creating their own Twitter pages and sending regular Tweets to their followers.  Saying that, I think Twitter will have to develop a way of sorting contacts in a more practical and organised way i.e.  allowing users to classify their contacts in groups (e.g. marketing Twitters, friends, brands, news etc)

 

I think Twitter will also radically change the way we consume media as the application evolves – Twitterpic via Twirl is simply great and allows Twitters to become real-time journalists sharing information and news as it happens.

 

Watch this space  

 

Further reading: Discover new Twitter friends with who should I follow

Twitter is listening to its community!

 

It’s taken me some time, but I am now truly addicted to Twitter. I will post something about it in the coming days.

 

As a fairly recent user of Twitter I haven’t come across any major problems – OK, it is sometimes a bit slow at updating who you are following and your followers list, but apart from that, my experience has been pleasant.

 

But Mack reported a few days ago that Twitter went down but no one told the community why…

 

Well I am pleased to announce that Twitter has listened to its community! I just tried to send a message on Twitter right now (12.35 GMT+1), and saw this message on my homepage:

 

 

 

Well done for listening Twitter! Glad to see you’re trying to keep your community happy! Saying that are you talkig about your night or my night? Not everyone who uses Twitter lives in America!

 

Update: Twitter also have a blog

A little something light and fluffy!

 

Photo taken at The Cans Festival - May 2008

 

I was tagged by both Sandrine and Christine ages ago but never found the time to do these memes! Better late than never

 

Christine tagged me on the 4×4 about me. There are four categories and 4 bits of information are needed for each category:      

4 places I have lived in:

• Lyon, France where I was born and grew up
• Canterbury – United Kingdom, my uni town
• London – I started off in Bow, East London, then moved to Willesden Green in North West London, and I currently live in Clapham Junction,  South West London. Each area is so different - I guess this is why London one of the coolest cities in the world!
• 4^th – who knows?

4 jobs I’ve held

• Sales Assistant at the Galleries Lafayette in Lyon
• Barmaid in Baa Baars, Canterbury’s meat market (god that was fun!)  
• Dance teacher (ballet)
• Qualitative Researcher since I graduated

4 foods I really like

• Jacket potatoes because they are soooooo versatile!
• Veggie sushis (as I am allergic to fish!)
• Pizzas from ‘Pizzeria da Michele’ in Naples – they are delicious!
• My mum’s cooking!

 

Sandrine also tagged me on the bloggers’ most useless chain! Each blogger needs to list 6 totally random, uninteresting thing about themselves… Since Sandrine is French, I’ll write that meme in French:

 

•  Niveau musique j’adore tout ce qui est rock, Indie et Britpop
• Je suis souvent habillée en noir… certaines personnes pensent que je suis goth ce qui n’est pas du tout le cas!
• Je suis myope comme une taupe ! Je rentre à Lyon la semaine prochaine me faire opérer des yeux
• J’adore Sex and the City et Eastenders !
• Mes amis considèrent que je suis la plus anglaise des françaises ! On me prend d’ailleurs souvent pour une anglaise - je ne sais pas trop si c’est un compliment ou pas 
• J’adore l’Europe de l’est

 

And now I tag everyone! Just link back to my blog and I’ll leave you a comment!

Last night’s episode of The Apprentice

 

Did anyone watch The Apprentice last night? For those of you who didn’t, the task was ‘all about telling a story’. The remaining contestants were split into two teams and asked to develop a new brand of tissues. They must brand their product, design the packaging, produce a print ad, and film a TV promo for a blank box of tissues within three days…

 

Fair enough, the teams didn’t have an awful lot of time on their hands, but did anyone notice that none of the teams even bothered doing a competitor analysis? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to be doing when you launch a new product… correct me if I am wrong, but this might also have helped when producing the ads!

10 green bottles standing on a wall…. but how many units per bottle?

    

 

I simply LOVE the new Alcohol Units campaign by ad agency VCCP! The campaign aims at educating consumers about the number of units there are in drinks.

 

Adverts will appear on television, radio, advertising boards and newspapers advising that women should not regularly drink more than two to three units a day and men three to four.

 

The graphics are visually attractive, the message ultra-simple, informative and straight to the point! I am sure lots of consumers will complain that we live in a nanny state but I am 100% behind this campaign.

 

I simply wanted to point something I noticed when I was made aware of the campaign a couple of days ago… The first graphic I ever saw was the pint of beer with the number 3 drawn in froth in the London Lite (OK it’s not a broadsheet but that paper is great for stimulus!) – would it not make more sense to firstly educate consumers as to how many units per day are acceptable per day and then show the number of units for each drink?

 

I haven’t seen (TV) or heard any of the ads on the radio yet so I may be wrong…

 

The ads certainly won’t solve the binge drinking problem in the UK but they may help consumers realise how much alcohol they consume…

 

To be continued…  

PS: In case you were wondering, the title of this post refers to the 10 green bottles song (and if one green bottle should accidentally fall… there would be 9 green bottles etc). My mum taught me that song when I was 4!

Introducing the ultimate Facebook on the go for the masses (and it’s a little scary!)

It is being billed as the ultimate Facebook on the go! Instead of logging on to search for friends, mobile phone Bluetooth technology alerts people to other users logged on nearby. In other words, profiles, pictures and background flash onto the screen so users can decide if they want to strike up a real conversation.

 

The system piloted in Berlin, called aka-aki, can also reveal whether a stranger is a friend of a friend and even if you share the same interests to break the ice. Fear not, the system also allows you to screen out any undesirables. Pheww!

 

I don’t really see this service working in the UK the Brits love privacy, and in all fairness I find the whole concept a little scary! Although one obvious use for the service is dating, I think I would be a little scared of anyone randomly approaching me and knowing my name and lots of info about my life.

 

What do you guys thing about this service? Is it the next big thing or am I being paranoid?

More about aka-aki in English right here

A confession…

Photo: The cans Festival, London

 

 

Remember the cutie with an impressive spec? Yes, I am talking about the Xda Orbit 2. Well I have a confession to make… whilst I think it is a brilliant phone with lots of cool and useful apps, I have actually started using my old Samsung E900 again. Don’t get me wrong, the Xda Orbit 2 is a fab phone but I am a texter and I missed having a keypad. I found it really hard to text on the go… yes I am a girl and I multi-task!

Go and check the Xda Blog for more info about the applications that can be downloaded onto the phone.

UPDATE: Steve from VCCP left me a comment to ask whether I had tried to download the resco keyboard. The answer is yes, I have… it is easier to text with the resco keyboard however it is not the same as pressing buttons…

Damn fucking tasty!

Dutch Pizza chain New York Pizza, one of the Netherlands fastest growing pizza delivery chains, has launched an integrated advertising campaign with three short ‘mafia style’ films featuring flour, tomato sauce and a pizza delivery boy, to prove that New York Pizza makes the best tasting Pizza around with an unrivalled passion for the best quality ingredients.

Don’t you love the Netherlands? I cannot help but wonder how they always manage to get away with everything! Oftcom would probably choke on their pizza at the sound of the F-word!

The flour ad is my favourite – you really wouldn’t know that they are advertising pizza. The tomato on is a little bit too gruesome in my liking and I don’t really get the third one… Pretty damn good!