My birthday party forms the basis of preacher's sermon
How can you tell if your ideas and initiatives have gone truly 'viral'? Well, if people you've never met before are talking about you in their church thousands of miles away, that would surely be a good sign. I was therefore delighted to find that my barmy birthday bash in 2003 (see www.35forphil.com) has attracted commentary from a Methodist preacher in Melbourne, Florida.

The sermon at http://www.suntreeumc.org/sermons/Invite%20how.htm draws an analogy between my attempts to woo 35 celebrities to a pub in London and the ongoing desire of the Church to attract new converts.

I'm thinking of inviting the Reverend to my 40th.

Click here for my home page: www.philwoodford.com
Copywriting, creative direction, training lecturing
04.14.06 @ 02:21 AM PDT [link]

A bit of culture that doesn't cost
Took the mini-Woodfords to a free workshop at the National Gallery, where they got a bit of book learning about art and the chance to have a go themselves in a first-class facility with paint, rollers, sponges, aprons and lots of other messy kind of stuff.

There was quite an adventurous session in the main gallery, where a museum guide and artist sat about 35 kids down in front of Il Tramonto, a picture by Giorgione, dating from the early sixteenth century. It wouldn't have been my first choice for accessibility, considering there's Monet and Van Gogh tucked away a few doors down, but there were a lot of bright children there and they definitely seemed to get something out of it.

A highlight was the guide asking the assembled youngsters why Saint Roch - one of the classical figures depicted - might have beent travelling from Montpelier in France to Rome on foot. The answer (to see the Pope) took a fair bit of prompting. Initial suggestions were that it could have been part of a medieval fitness drive.


Artist Thomas Gosebruch demonstrates stencil and printmaking techniques during a free workshop at London's National Gallery.
04.13.06 @ 04:11 PM PDT [link]

We make it to the London Eye
Finally got to take the kids on the London Eye. The day was significant for two reasons. First, because we'd had an abortive attempt to get on the thing at Christmas (blogs passim), when it was closed for maintenance. (It was freezing cold and an altogether unsatisfactory trip.) Second, because it was my only proper day off work since becoming self employed. By that, I mean it was the first real working day - a Thursday - that I've taken as a holiday. Previously, I've only stopped for a couple of hours' kip at a weekend.


Houses of Parliament from the British Airways London Eye: I tried to get elected here on two occasions, but couldn't get enough people to vote for me.


04.13.06 @ 03:47 PM PDT [link]

Who can stand still for the longest?

Don't cross this zebra: Passers-by take an interest as I team up with human statue on London's South Bank


04.13.06 @ 03:29 PM PDT [link]

Green Wing still on fine form
I should already have given a pat on a back to the writers and cast of Channel 4's bizarre hospital comedy, Green Wing. We've been treated to the first two shows of the new season and the gags are coming thick and fast.

Particular highlights of the last episode included Imaging and Radiology Consultant, Dr Alan Statham, holding a crazy, sex-laden phone conversaton with his ex-lover... without realising that she was in a conference call. We later see the good doctor, played superbly by Mark Heap, simulating coitus with a prostitute in a taxi in order to humiliate his former girlfriend, who also happens to be the Head of HR. (She's a little mixed up herself, having slept with her son - Dr Guy Secretan - at the end of the last series.)

I can't really explain the owl-related conversation between Statham and junior doctor, Boyce, but it was a joy.

Another BAFTA on the way for the staff of East Hampton NHS Trust?


04.10.06 @ 05:06 PM PDT [link]

Sausages certainly make you think
I admit to having a soft spot for sausages. I cooked some in the oven earlier today for Mrs W, the nippers and myself. Tonight, looking at the vast quantity of congealed fat in the dish, it's a wonder that we're not all signed up for Gillian McKeith's emergency colonic irrigation and artery declogging programme. You'd have every right to say that I'm bang out of order feeding this kind of stuff to the kids. Or should that be banger out of order?

Surprising just how much fat there is, really. Expecially considering that the "coarsely chopped prime British pork has been blended with egg and breadcrumbs and carefully seasoned to create a deliciously succulent pork sausage."

(Repetition of pork is a little ugly in that sentence. I'd pick that up in one of my copywriting classes.)
04.10.06 @ 04:54 PM PDT [link]

Hold music at travel company Kuoni
"I'm walkin' on sunshine...ohh, ohh... I'm walkin' on sunshine... ohh, ohh..."
04.09.06 @ 03:51 PM PDT [link]

Kleine Scheidegg in the Bernese Oberland

Tepee or not tepee? That was my question in the quirky Swiss mountain resort of Kleine Scheidegg last August.
04.09.06 @ 03:49 PM PDT [link] [No Comments ]