Review | New Ski Wear from Simply Piste

As the saying goes ‘better late than never’, and that certainly applies to this blog post, which was supposed to go up a short while ago but sadly the fates intervened with some interesting consequences…

Having had my laptop removed from my possession (stolen) my original blog post went along with it (I hope the thieves enjoyed reading it!) But what that allowed me to do was give my new ski suit a more rigorous test than I had previously intended.

Bought from Simply Piste, my Five ski suit arrived a little over three weeks ago and since then I have been putting it through its paces (mostly using it to combat the broken heating at home). The purchase process was simple enough with the site being easy to navigate and the suit was delivered within a couple of days.

A black and red suit, I had initially intended on spending a little more money as I have always labored under the illusion that the more you spend the better the product. However budgetary restraints meant that I needed to consider a cheaper option (which could easily have been at my peril) and with that in mind I purchased my £90 suit.

Having received it, I promptly went to my nearest dry slope to give it a try. The salopettes were very comfortable and durable, as having fallen a couple of times on the hard surface they only scuffed very slightly. They do have some braces on them that can be annoying. In the end, having adjusted them a couple of times I gave up and took them off which was much better. They fit very well and dealt with the cold excellently, meaning my legs were nice and toasty.

The jacket, which is very bright ensuring there would be no visibility problems on the slopes, was a little more difficult to get used to. When walking around with it done up like in the pictures, it is stiff and unforgiving in the neck. Luckily once the top button was undone it was a lot more free flowing and came into its own on the slopes.

It moves very well with the contours of your body especially while you are skiing. There are numerous pockets for storage including on the arms and whilst you wouldn’t put anything too heavy in them, they are great for carrying bank cards and notes (just don’t expect to empty your penny jars into them and be able to move your arms). There is also a glove pocket and detachable hood which is great as the hood can be quite annoying.

The one thing that had me concerned was that the cold still penetrated it somewhat and I was worried that if this were the case how would it hold up to snow and/or rain. The answer I was soon to find out…

Due to the laptop debacle, the delay in re-writing my post allowed me to test the suit out in Ireland (the home of rain). Throughout the weekend it rained cats and dogs and the jacket kept me both warm and dry, whilst the oversized hood that really annoyed me when skiing came into its own, keeping kept my head nice and dry.

All in all, for £90 an excellent suit that is good quality and will come in handy when I go skiing next year.

A snow angel rating of * * * * out of 5

If you have any questions about the suit, this blog or any comments you would like to leave please feel free to do so. I hope you enjoyed it and I will blog about my other ski related purchases shortly.

The Devil wears a ski suit!

What do you do after you have booked your ski trip – you buy your ski wear! Having booked my trip for next year my attention has turned this weekend to what I will be wearing when I carve up the slopes of Bansko, Bulgaria.

Having missed the previous year, the equipment I had may have been sufficient for another season. Sadly though, having lent it to my sister’s boyfriend, a travelling Australian whose lack of consideration for his own clothing is matched only by that for someone else’s, I was none too surprised when he returned minus a few items.

When I say a few I mean he brought back one glove, a broken pair of goggles (how he broke them I have no idea), no jacket and the wrong pair of salopettes. Fortunately, I didn’t borrow him my long john’s (for hygiene reasons) but having searched the garage I have found my long johns are long gone - basically rendering me totally ski wear-less.

But every cloud has a silver lining and I now have the pleasure of being able to purchase a whole new wardrobe funded by some Australian dollars – sweet! With this in mind I have made my first purchase (a ski suit) and will be reviewing it this week and giving it my Snow Angel rating – stay tuned!

If you have comments on this post, my blog in general, how I should test my new equipment or on skiing in Bansko I would love to hear your thoughts! Please use the comment box below...

The 5 Golden Rules of a successful media tour

The media tour is a vital tool in the arsenal of any PR practitioner; helping to develop relationships with journalists and putting a face to the email signature. Whilst a good media tour can secure coverage a bad one can be professionally fatal for you and your client.

With this in mind I have come up with a list of 5 Golden Rules for surviving a media tour unscathed:

1. Don’t pre-book appointments longer than a week in advance. It’s difficult tying an editor down and booking a meeting more than a week in advance leaves you open to schedule changes and cancellations. By booking it within a week the editors schedule is more defined and it also keeps it fresh in an editor’s mind.

2. Always check when an editor is on deadline and never try to book a meeting around this. If they get the slightest hint that the magazine may be delayed hitting the press, then your meeting will be the first thing to go out the window. By checking little details like this you’re showing an appreciation for their timetable, which will curry favour with the editor.

3. Ensure you take a note pad and pen. It sounds simple but often the little details are overlooked. Failure to have such basic tools will reflect badly on you and your abilities.

4. Put all relevant material on a USB stick for the editor. The average editor’s desk is often awash with pieces of paper and by taking printed releases you will only add to the pile. Not only can you include all press releases but you can also add all relevant high res images, which can often be crucial to the success of a release. Make sure you use a client or own company branded stick, as each time they use it they will think of you.

5. Bribe editors with coffee and/or pastries. Shameless as it may seem this is possibly the most important rule of media tour club and will immediately soften an editor to your cause. Make sure you find out what they like in advance though - give a latte to a cappuccino drinker and you’re on the back foot from the off.

Ultimately, the media tour is a great way to meet an editor face to face and let them get to know you and, more importantly, know your client. Good relationships built on the back of these meetings could mean it’s plain sailing for the coming year but bad ones could leave you up a certain PR creek without a paddle.

Kim Kardashian wedding: brilliant PR stunt or career killer?

Kim Kardashian is/was a star on the rise following the success of the television show ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’ and various spin-off shows, which have launched her into stratospheric heights of stardom.

Being all too aware of this she may have thought she was untouchable, made of Teflon perhaps, but the recent backlash against the most prominent Kardashian over her divorce announcement has left fans with a bitter taste in their mouths, and the lingering question - was this all just a PR stunt?

Far be it from me to cast aspersions on her marriage but having lasted a mere 72 days, one can rightly speculate that the decision to marry was career and not love driven. While her manager (and mother) defends her client stating she ‘didn’t earn a dime’ from the wedding, reports in the New York Post speculate that she, and the Kardashian clan, stood to make nearly $18 million dollars, which over 72 days equates to about $250,000 a day, from the marriage and ensuing promotion and television deals.

News of the divorce was met with an outpouring of contempt from fans towards Kim, with most taking to Twitter to air their views. A trending topic on the subject listing things that have lasted longer than Kardashian’s marriage became an overnight sensation, with some of the best tweets captured in a recent Yahoo! article. If you want to have a look type #thingsthatlastedlongerthankimkardashiansmarriage into Twitter.

Numerous comments have been posted on articles written about the divorce showing a turn in the tide of support for the Kardashians and anger that it was assumed the public would not see what the marriage inherently was – a PR stunt. So much so, that E! is looking to suspend re-runs of the four hour wedding special and debating the release of the latest series of ‘Kim and Kourtney take New york’, in which Kim and Kris talk about having a break (an obviously outdated decision at this point).

Whilst the normally infallible Kardashian clan has rallied around their sister in her time of need, and Kris Kardashian has appeared on a bevy of shows refuting rumours of the wedding being a PR stunt, there is no argument that the Kardashian stock is in a recession of its own.

Whatever your opinion of the wedding, there is no denying that the Kardashians made money from the affair but at what cost in the long run? In time, the loss of scores of fans and vicious tirade against the Kardashians could far outweigh their payoff. Worse still, this story contradicts the findings of my last blog surrounding Guy Fawkes and how there is no such thing as bad PR. Apparently there is….

Guy Fawkes: No such thing as bad PR

The yearly burning of Guy Fawkes effigies is a testament to the power of a well developed reputation, seeing as 400 years after his death the person most synonymous with the failed plot to revolutionise parliament, a disillusioned soldier and a pawn in a greater man’s plot, is celebrated with a firework extravaganza worthy of a hero’s homecoming. Despite the fact he was caught, tortured and executed, in the years following his death Fawkes’ reputation has seen a transition from villain to hero – ah the power of PR.

Fawkes’ perceived failure was successful in bringing to the forefront of the political sphere, the issue of Catholic oppression and whilst following his death Catholics were persecuted more than ever, within Catholic circles the legend of Guy Fawkes was being built.

Vilified in public but exulted in private, the years since that fateful day in 1605 has seen his overall status as villain supplanted. Modern times have seen Fawkes’ transformation to hero solidified via his home town, York, running a PR campaign in 2005 to challenge perceptions of Fawkes as a traitor. Couple that with the 2006 film V for Vendetta in which the protagonist is a revolutionary attempting to incite change within a dystopian society while dressed as Guy Fawkes, and it shows how opinion of Fawkes has changed over time.

Even today, there are protestors occupying various sites across the country sporting Guy Fawkes masks (both here and across the pond where Fawkes’ legend has little weight), in a homage to a man willing to use any means necessary to disrupt an oppressive regime and who has been considered “the only man to enter parliament with honest intentions”.

The Catholic PR machine of the 1600’s (underground as it was) turned Fawkes from hero to villain following his death by detailing his heroic exploits as a soldier in Spain and over-emphasising his part in the overall plot. Popular culture and a disillusioned section of society in turn, have taken Fawkes to their breast and subsequently moulded him once more into an agent of revolutionary change.

His legacy clearly lives on today and where original views of the gunpowder plot were that it was an unqualified failure, the result it seems, is that it was an unparalleled success for Guy Fawkes (putting aside his torture and execution), developing him a reputation that money can’t buy.

Eek…Coffee Supplies Set To Dwindle

Few things fill me with impending dread, but news that coffee supplies are set to dwindle over the coming decades is one such thing.

The Guardian Eco has interviewed the sustainability director of Starbucks, Jim Hanna, who states that they are already seeing the effects of climate change on their coffee suppliers: “if conditions continue as they are there is a potentially significant risk to our supply chain.”

The increased threat surrounds the Arabica bean, one of the most important to the coffee trade. Climate change has meant that an influx in pest infestation, along with changing and more aggressive rain patterns, are threatening even the most well established coffee farms.

This is the second threat in less than a month to a food source that many cannot live without. Late in September, research from the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture warned that chocolate was also under threat due to spiking heat in Ghana and much of the Ivory Coast, the world’s main producers, meaning that by 2050 these countries may be unable to produce chocolate.

With this in mind, the question is now is it too early to start bunkering coffee?

While the shelves of supermarkets may not yet be stripped of the remaining coffee supplies, there is an onus on action in the present before it’s too late. With Hannah set to address members of Congress in Washington on the severity of the situation, coffee addicts the world over await with baited breath any decision that will keep our coffee mugs full in the decades to come.

Some Domestic Incidents: An Exhibition of New Painting from Britain

24^th September – 13^th November

MAC

www.macarts.co.uk

Home is where the heart is – or so they say. A new art show, in conjunction with Prague gallery Biennale 5, looks at the different perceptions that people have of their homes and how every day occurrences can make a home into an oppressive force. Instances like burglaries, family deaths or even visits fro bailiffs have the power to strip warmth from a home and leave an indelible mark.

For others, the home is never a happy place from the start. It is a place of loneliness and melancholy, misery and oppression – where the walls are more akin to a prison than the proverbial castle they should be. Some Domestic Incidents explores the reality of these differing perspectives and the gulf that exists in modern perceptions of the home.

With a number of artists collaborating, including Graham Chorlton, Sally Payen, Oliver Clegg and many more, the subject matter is as diverse as the perceptions of the home they represent. Midlands based Chorlton will explore, in his segment, night scenes often devoid of human presence, with chairs pulled from tables and cards discarded on tables, all signifiers of relationships and lives that have ended in the home. Another West Midlands based artist Sally Payen previous work has addressed issues of angst, protest and civil unrest. In her pieces for the show depict the remnants of a house party that has gone sour.

Curators Matt Price and Charlie Levine will be hosting a free tour of the work on 20^th Oct at 7.30.

Written for Area Magazine

George Shaw

I woz ere

18^th November – 11^th March 2012

Herbert Gallery

www.theherbert.org

Coventry born George Shaw has forged a formidable reputation within the art community over the last 15 years, culminating in his recent Turner prize nomination. His work surrounds the area he grew up in, Tile Hill, which was often riddled with the graffitied musings of a disillusioned youth, who took comfort in scribing I woz ere wherever they chose.

Much of Shaw’s work documents these, seemingly obscure, areas of his youth and the disembodiment he felt when returning later as a so-called ‘visitor’ to his old stomping ground to find everything changing. The moody simplicity of Shaw’s work is haunting and yet there is an underlying beauty that lurks beyond the surface. What usually would be considered mundane subject matters, are brought to life by the deft attention to detail and the skill of Shaw’s brush.

Having showed his work once this year already, Shaw believed that the Coventry paintings would end following the showing. It was not to be, as fresh inspiration following the death of his father means that he continues to cling to the past, working on his end to the Coventry paintings. In a sense, his work is his moniker on the Coventry landscape - his I woz ere.

For the first time, Shaw brings the product back to the inspiration with his first show starting at The Herbert in Coventry, in November.

Written for Area Magazine