Stephen Cribbett's blog

I had the absolute pleasure of visiting The Lexi Cinema last night. For those of you that have never heard of the Lexi, it’s a micro-cinema on Chamberlayne Road, Kensal Rise. Not only is it the best digital cinema in London - and believe me, the sound and vision packs a lot of punch - but it’s also a social enteprise. This means that it gives it’s profits to charity, which in their case is a community in South Africa. Brilliant!

If you love film, be it arthouse, international, or the latest release, then I can highly recommend you take a trip to this gorgeous old building. The team are warm and friendly, the wine is good, and they even serve salted popcorn (rather than the sweet stuff that I really don’t like!).

I wish the Lexi every success, and urge you all to go visit, either on your own, with your partner, or even with the kids.

If you’ve not heard of a Wordle, then it’s a bit like a tag cloud, but more graphic. Here’s mine from the words used on this blog…

I was very excited this week to literally stumble upon a brand new, nearly completed Goyard store near London’s Grosvenor Square. For those of you that have never heard of Goyard, they are a French trunk-maker that is older and, some say, more respected than Louis Vuitton. Founded in 1853 in Paris by Edmé Goyard, the company counts among its clients the Maharajah, Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

If you’ve ever visited their Paris store you’ll know the delight one gets when experiencing first-hand the charm and exclusivity of their products. So move aside WAGs, this is real luxury for those with real class, not the purchased variety!

So last night I paid my first visit to the new(ish) Wembley to see England’s gladiators versus Ukraine. Now I love football, though I’m beginning to er on the side of playing rather than supporting. Money, egos, politics etc have turned me off the game over the last few years, yet I play several times a week and can’t get enough of it (provided the opposition a decent, respectable blokes that is!).

So watching the game live last night made me think about how good live television coverage is these days, better than watching it live methinks. Ok you don’t quite get the roar of the crowd, or should I say the yobs behind you wanting to fight anything that moves, but commentary, replays, angles are so damn good now.

The game was ok, England won 2-1 if you didn’t already know. The player that shone for me was Wayne Rooney. He’s a step ahead of everyone, including his own team mates, thus finding a player that he can play off is a HUGE challenge. He’s the guy we love to hate and hate to love, but his raw talent is unquestionable, and was the highlight of the night. So, please Messrs Capello and Ferguson, keep him fit for South Africa - we can’t do it without him!

Yesterday presented itself with the much anticipated new series of Skins on E4. I was addicted to the first series, and have been especially interested to follow E4’s comprehensive social media campaign, including Twitter, connecting the audience to the characters.

My levels of excitement weren’t quite matched by the first episode and the new characters, but then again I was so well tuned into Tony and co, from series 1, that I expected it to take some time. Last night’s plot was a bit far-fetched for my liking - teachers farting into megaphones, really! - and subsequently lost a sense of realism.

That said, I will be watching the next episode, and hoping that they maintain the approach taken in series 1 whereby each character had their own episode.

For me Effy is the one to watch - a dark horse, with stunning beauty! An actress to watch for the future!

1. There is such a thing as a Porridger. It’s a special pan in which to make porridge.

2. Freshly-cut logs should be left for around three years to dry out

3. My father-in-law competed in nine Le Mans 24hr races in total, winning once

4. Boxing Day sales are still an excuse to get rid of old stock that nobody really wants, thus proof that we as a country are obsessed by perceived ‘bargains’

5. A clean break from work is essential to mental health and well-being. Better still, one every three months…

It’s great news that supermarkets have finally taken the initiative and started to help us make our decision to use recycled shopping bags. I was in Sainsbury’s yesterday and was told that for every recycled bag that I used, I would receive additional Nectar points. OK, the ‘nectar’ is worth about as much as the pound right now, but it’s a good little motivation nonetheless.

Now I’m quite good at remembering to keep old plastic carrier bags and re-using them for my weekly groceries, but what struck me yesterday was the fact that Sainsbury’s bags are probably the least likely to last more than a handful of shops. So there I am, at the checkout, loading up my groceries into a superbly strengthened Paperchase bag! Now it’s not like Paperchase sells the world’s heaviest pen, or the most volumous paper ever, so why are they using the most robust bags? Of course, brand experience comes into play here, but surely there’s some knowledge and experience that can be shared amongst the bag-buying staff at the two retailers?!

Been away and off-line for a while. I can’t blame Hermione this time, it’s my new iPhone that has had my attention! Oh well, I’m no longer ahead of the bell curve, just a happy chappy!

My trusted Apple Mac G4 PowerBook officially died today, or so I was told by Micro Anvika! Having dropped it a mere foot onto a carpeted floor, the circuit board has, to put it technically, broken.

I’m sad now, and feel like I’ve lost a life-long friend. A service of remembrance will be held at midday.

I feel compelled to write and congratulate a bank today (yes, I did say a bank!)  for a great piece of service design.

It’s rare that I pay-in cheques at a branch these days, but alas I had two to deal with. I visited a familiar branch, only to see that it had closed down. The message on the window asked me to go to their ‘exciting new branch’ a few hundred metres away! Yeh right, since when has a bank branch been ‘amazing’ I thought!?

Off I trotted, to find a huge new branch full of terminals, but not many staff. Think Heathrow T5, but not even that bad!. Here we go, I thought. All technology and no thought to what really customers want, are comfortable with, or feel inspired to use. Out of the mist appeared a member of staff who asked what I needed help with. ‘Paying in a cheque’ I said. She directed me to a you know what….a machine!

I’d already filled in my paying-in slip, and had it in my hand, along with the two cheques. She swiftly threw them all in a machine together, unattached, as if it were about to do a 40 degree wash! I then swiped my card, et voila. The machine spat out a photocopy of all the cheques AND the paying-in slip on the cutest bit of tiny paper you’ve ever seen.  Amazing! Quick, easy-to-use, and it provided me with something I could physically put in my wallet as a momento.

It was the combo of the mini photocopy, and me not having to ram cheques and slips into an envelope, remember how much the cheques added up to, write on the envelope without bending it and causing it not to enter the mouth of the best, that put a smile on my face. So well done HSBC, all is forgiven, well almost!