Second Northern Planning Summit this in Leeds. Last time was fun but we enjoyed a bit more Leffe than we should – one of use ended sleeping in tent apparently (name withheld to protect the guilty).

"Your twenties are torture,really, because you don’t know what you’re going to be or whether it’s all going to work out, and you are supposedly an adult but you haven’t really learnt anything…I think your thirties are a wonderful time." Helen Mirrren

The nights may be drawing in, but you also get to see more sunrises like this on the way to work.

Next time you lose reception on your TV take the time to appreciate what your seeing. Part of those crackly bits on the screen are caused by radiation from the Big Bang. Your watching the start of the universe, the few seconds when it suddenly went from infinitely small to infinitely big. It’s not often…

Pipex is pleased with the former Knight Rider. Brand recognition is up 50% according to this article. But hold on – up 50%? Who had heard of Pipex before? Anyway, they’re hiring Pamela Anderson next. No need to artificially inflate any figures here… By the way, there’s some stuff around for an insurance company called…

I quite like that Vodafone line,it certainly applies to one or two accounts I’ve worked in in the past. If you’ve ever worked on a housebuilding account, you’ll probably be glad you don’t anymore. Same work, week in week out, same old dull site visits, just change the price on that ad this week and…

The Future Foundation has found that in Europe, luxury is no longer reserved for the selected few. A certain level of material wealth is within the reach of more people (half of the UK think they can afford to splash out), so luxury is less about flashy names and more about ‘me time’. Instead of…

Went to a wedding at the weekend. The evening do was fancy dress, I’m the pathetic Baywatch character in the middle. Her indoors was the quickest draw in the west. The smaller Dark Lord of the Sith beat the bigger one in a lightsabre duel. Thankfully The Jedi were on hand to protect us from…

Once opon a time I used to swim competitively and I thought I was pretty good. One summer I was in America and this smug kid from Wisconsin not only beat me without really drawing much breath, he had time to wave. It reminds me of then story of Mozart and Salieri. Salieri was a…

Books about design, advertising etc are probably not the best places to find something new, since you’ll only end up doing the same as everyone else. Isn’t more useful to find stuff that has nothing to do with it? Like this piece of graffiti. I have no idea what this means, but it strikes me…