mccullochblog

When Monarchy and Media come knocking...

In the profession I practice it's a great rarity that I counsel a client to believe that 'longevity' is a really strong news hook - i.e. a good reason for making it into the newspapers. However, I was delighted to see that maxim of PR tossed aside when it came to the great landmark my grandfather recently achieved - the age of 100!

Not only did Willem Frederik Sinoo receive a letter from Beatrix, the Queen of the Netherlands, on his birthday, he also received visits from two reporters and two photographers affiliated with national newspapers! The most notable of the two - the Algemeen Dagblad (circulation 550,000!) - published the story in its "Close to Rotterdam" supplement, which apparently brought Opa quite a good deal of attention during his neighborhood walk the next day!

For those of you not versed in Dutch I am pleased to report that I applied the principles of Media Relations very carefully in my management of the interview. Scandalous questions were deftly bridged and carefully prepared jokes and quotes were meticulously inserted.

I'm particularly proud of the paragraph that reads: "One of Willem's grandchildren, born in 1972, recounts another family joke: 'He likes to say that he is the most expensive customer the Piet Smit pension-fund has ever had!' Mr Sinoo spent most of his working life at the shipbuilder, Piet Smit."

The Twelve Days of Christmas

It's been eleven days, to be precise, since I boarded a plane for the umpteenth time this year and reached the 55,000 miles flown mark for 2006. It's a characteristic of my life with Emma that even an eleven day jaunt ("a short trip" according to the suprisingly-welcoming Customs and Border Patrol official at San Francisco airport) is enough time for D&E to cram in as much as most people do in a year.

As if to prove the point - and to retain a little festive cheer - here's a quick summary of the past week-and-a-bit in the style of your favorite Christmas song!

All together now...On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:

12. Rejuvenating hours of sleep to recover from crossing eight time zones

11. Concerned emails exchanged with neighbors in the US about our flooded kitchen

10. Charming rendezvoux with extended family members in Holland

9. Warm welcomes from immediate family members in Dover, Bournemouth and Cheam

8. Weary train journeys across the UK and Holland

7. Good-old-days visits to home-town and university friends

6. Excited under-five-year-olds escorted to a Peter Pan pantomime, a village pub and a zoo

5. Generous but fragile and bulky Christmas presents received from family members

4. Tiring flights on aircraft between San Francisco, London, Amsterdam and Rotterdam

3. Luxurious overnight stays at hotels in London’s West End and central Rotterdam

2. Delightful upgrades to Business Class travel by United Airlines

1. 100th Birthday Party for my grandfather! (See photo album)

And a PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEee.....

Roll on New Year's Eve.

Is six inches enough?

Al Gore will tell you that in years to come you'll be lucky to get six inches, but most people in Northern California still expect more at this time of year.

It's tempting of course to lead you to believe I'm referring to the sordid after-effects of too many sherries at the office Christmas party, but alas (you filthy-minded swine) my mind is not in the gutter, on this occasion. Not at all!

While in other parts of the northern hemisphere, December means rain, short, dark days and gloomy afternoons in the office, here in NorCal December brings the first hope of a great ski season. Indeed, Emma and I were contemplating a trip this weekend but sadly - despite a liberal 'dumping' of rain over the Bay Area this week - those raindrops haven't arrived as snow in Lake Tahoe's mountains. Apparently, there is a mere six inches of snow cover at our nearest resort.

And - contrary to the counsel of therapists all around the world - to snowboarders and skiers, six inches simply isn't enough. And so sadly the snow-fun will have to wait until the New Year and the special snow-stuff box in the bedroom will remain nothing more than a place upon which to throw clothes for a few more weeks. Alas. We shall have to console ourselves with mulled wine and carols instead.

Speaking of which...to those of you in the UK I plan to visit from next week, I shall expect nothing less than turkey, turkey curry, minced pies, Christmas crackers, Stollen cake and a jumper with a reindeer on it. Mark my words!

The Sound of No Fingers Tapping.

I wonder what you deduce when I don't blog. He's too busy? Can't be bothered. Life is too boring to blog about? Life is too exciting to have time to blog about it?

Of course, it's usually some combination of all of the above. Let me ellaborate:

- Too busy. Well of course I'm busy. I mean, there's the job; the putting the bins out; the eating food at regular intervals; the constant worry over the proper use of the semicolon. Oh yes, I'm busy, sure enough.

- Can't be bothered. Rarely the case, to be fair. I'm nearly always thinking about blogging something, but often don't find anything particularly interesting to blog about and - for fear of lowering the extremely high literary standards I set for myself (present blog excepted) - I tend, in those instances, not to type anything. Then of course there's the book. I'm still working hard on the book whenever I can, which tends to use up all the words I'd normally put into a blog. The book is still a long way from being finished, but a lot closer than it was when I put up that page on my old web site.

- Life is boring. Well, COME ON, not everyday can feature exciting international business travel, big business deals, fine dining, exotic weekend excursions and football on the telly. Mind you, we did have a cracking little trip to the Carneros Inn this weekend. Apparently Nick and Jessica stayed there once. And then of course there was Arsenal V Chelsea today. Blimey, maybe life IS constantly exciting after all!

- Life is too exciting. Well, there was the office party last week and then Simon came to visit and we went to see the dinosaurs. Emma and I did a great bit of shopping on Saturday and had a fantastic lunch this weekend with Jodi and Gary, and then there were the photos from Zambia that I had enlarged, framed and then hung in the hall (what do you mean that sounds boring?!). Should I have used another semicolon in that paragraph?

Anyway, in lieu of a proper blog, please come back soon for a suitably edited review of 2006 New Year's resolutions and my traditional annual photospective and blogrospective. Can't wait, can you?

Oh, and Emma and I might even go skiiing at the weekend if my knee has fully recovered from last week's inadvisable return to the football pitch. As you can see from the picture of me above (aged 3, with Ron) I've always been a natural on the slopes!