rufus

Our orange Vespa went on a day out last week, visiting some of the North East’s finer sites. Ranging from the Stadium of Light to the Newcastle Quayside our orange ‘V’ embarked on a whistle stop tour, demanding it’s picture taken at every site for it’s scrap book. The ‘V’ could also be seen hanging around the back of the Sage soaking up some of the graffiti and relaxing down Roker beach but the tour came to an abrupt end when the ‘V’ insisted on having an ice cream. No way man, how could it possibly eat an ice cream when it’s got no hands? Anyway here are a few of the lovely snaps that were taken and all the images can be viewed on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rufusshmufus

A fun little motion graphic showing what could happen when ET attacks. It was created by Paul at Rufus and secretly shows us a little snippet of what he dreams about at night! Top job Paul. Keep dreaming.

Our Gareth is back from his travels. Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Kyoto were some of the destinations privileged to experience the ‘G’. After having a brilliant time site seeing, cooking strange food on street corners with total strangers and drinking lots of alcohol he has just about managed to drag himself back from his amazing experience. He also done some useful things while he was away! Spending time researching both eastern and western brands and retail across the cities he visited. The power of global brands and how they build cities just as much as the bricks (or wood) and the people themselves was clear to see especially in ultra fast developing cities like Dubai and Shanghai (in preparation for World Expo 2010). He has kindly brought us back some presents which included condoms, an umbrella, lots of weird flavoured sweets, a mechanical bug that changes direction when you clap your hands and wait for it… something you sprinkle over your food that probably has good intentions but doesn’t really look very appealing! I will have to repay the compliment when I come back from Blackpool with a stick of rock and a miniature version of the Blackpool Tower! Amazing!

Sunderland hosted the 21st ‘Sunderland International Air Show’ this weekend and WOW, what a show it was. Whilst staring up into the sky, memories came flooding back of the famous film ‘Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines’ in which the legend, Terry Thomas played the cheating Sir Percival Ware-Armitage, an Avro Triplane-flying rogue who “never left anything to chance”. The funny thing is though, how one thought leads to another… for example, I went from the international air show to… ‘Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines’ to… Terry Thomas to… Terry Thomas’ teeth! I just could not get the thought of those big, gapped teeth out of my head for the rest of the day and I even went home after and searched SKY incase they were re-running the classic on an off chance. But unfortunately no such luck. Oh that reminds me I need a check up at the dentists!