Later this month will also see the anniversaries of two more of the October 2007 intake, Mia and Simon©. I’d like to think that the four of us have made an impact on the work that we do here, for the better! Read the Access press release written when we started last year.

Speaking for myself, I’ve had a much enjoyed year working on some exciting projects with lovely people. I look forwards to plenty more years of this!

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been popping in and out of an award ceremony or two. Our BODYWORLDS ambient media idea has become quite the little superstar.

First was the Chip Shop Awards where – in addition to enjoying a grand night out - we came away with a Vinegar. To those of you who aren’t down with the Chip Shop lingo, that’s a silver medal/best runner up/second prize. Very nice.

Then came the FRESH awards. This year FRESH received almost 1000 entries from over 200 agencies, so the competition was fierce. In true Access style however, we weren’t phased and came away with a very respectable bronze.

In the words of Gunther Von Hagens, “Danke schön”.

Since the game is in Japanese, read the following English instructions:

1. Touch ’start’
2. Wait for 3, 2, 1.
3. Memorize the number’s position on the screen, then click the circle
from the SMALLEST number to the BIGGEST number.
4. At the end of game, the computer will tell you the age of your brain.

Now, after you’ve struggled with that for a while to get your score somewhere close to your own age, check out these guys..

Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry is saying its farewells to Body Worlds 4. As a final marketing push, the museum came to Access and asked for a closing message to be emblazoned across the side of an ad van.

With football fever in the air, it seemed only right that Gunther’s plastinated sportsmen should take centre stage.

The van will be driving around the entire Northwest region over the next week 

They think it’s all over… it is on the 17th of August.

Skipping around the TV channels the other night I came across “Polish Radio London 24″. I wasn’t specifically looking to ‘watch’ a radio station, as I think it’s an odd thing to do, never mind the extra energy consumption used in running it through the TV (carbon footprint, rising energy costs and all that). Anyway, I gave it at least 10 minutes as I was intrigued by the description - “A compilation of the best rock tunes to come out of Poland in the last twenty years”.

I questioned whether a station could fill 24 hours with famous Polish rock tunes from the last 20 years, but then they probably follow the same formula as many other niche channels, repeating the programming on a rolling basis. (I’m sure the Polish Rock Music +1 channel will follow soon just in case you miss anything). Sadly, the music wasn’t Polish or even rock - just a mix of Euro trash house - so I switched over.

Back in 2005 the BBC asked “Do we need any more digital TV channels?” Personally I think I’m missing “UKTV Food, excluding celebrities pretending to be chefs, or anything with Ainsley Harriot, Anthony Worrell Thompson or Gary Rhodes 24 +1” channel.

What would your TV channel be?

It’s been three years in the planning, six months in the deliberating, over 4,000 music tracks reviewed, sixteen table plans torn up and eleven venue endured Ruth’s meticulously planned plan (as only you clients would understand!), but Ruth & Graham finally tied the knot last weekend and a great time was had by all - as you can see. The Belle Epoque in Knutsford was a fitting location for the event, providing excellent food, service and backdrop for the entire day.

Love was certainly in the air as we mixed with staff from the the aforementioned and our rather larger rival, BJL - now you don’t often see that on a Saturday night in Knutsford!

They’re off on honeymoon now, so we get a (small) breathing space before the net big events at Access - our first baby, our first batch of eggs and talk about the next wedding!!!

Anyhow, best of luck to the happy couple (’you’ll need it Pal’ as John was heard telling Graham on one of his many fatherly chats) and get back to work soon!

What else could you do with a lift?

These are just a few I found on the net…

I thought I’d bring up the subject of good typography practice, particularly in headlines. Too often now we seen overly long headlines and worse still all in capital letters.

It’s much easier to read a short headline in lowercase or even sentence case than it is ALL IN CAPITALS.

Did you know the brain registers lower case type much quicker than it does capitals? Did you know that the letters don’t even have to be in the same order?

As long as the first and last characters are correct your brain can still quickly decipher the text.

Here’s a good example:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

You shouldn’t create headlines all in capitals, and worse still, whole paragraphs in capitals; it just registers on the brain as rectangles and makes it that much more difficult to read.

You have to get the people from one side of the river to the other using the raft. Only the Mum, Dad and Policeman can operate the raft. The Dad cannot be left alone with any of the girls. The Mum cannot be left alone with any of the boys. The thief can be left alone or has to be in the presence of the policeman, but cannot be left alone with anyone else.

To start just click the image above, then the big round button.

So, this weekend I bought a chicken coop and bought two lovely new Bantam hens.

After the easy to assemble flat pack coop has built it was a fairly simple matter to clip the chickens wings (totally painless, just trimming some feathers) and let them explore their new home.

The chickens love scratching around under the conifers at the back of the garden. Infact, I had to lop off quite a few lower branches as we just couldn’t see the chickens as they spend almost all their time under the trees, eating bugs and worms.

One of the chickens used the nesting box and layed our first egg.

Not a massive egg as the chickens are still ‘pullets’ (under one year old), but as they grow older the eggs will get larger. Felix had this one fried with some chips.

We’ve not really named the chickens yet, although the name ‘nugget’ is a favourite for one of them. Other possible names are ‘dipper’ ‘gravy’ and ‘chicken in a basket’. If I get another three ex-battery hens I’ll probably call those ‘Kay’, ‘Eff’ & ‘Cee’. The coop is large enough for about 8. They don’t need that much room inside and they like to huddle close together on the perches.