Archive for the ‘Office Stuff’ Category

A disturbing turn of events…

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Pepe’s Progress is, as we have previously established, pretty unstoppable. The show of public support for this red rubber band deity is second-to-none, and we, as an office, have been truly touched. Apart from Customer Services, of course. With all this positivity in mind, it is with great regret that we have to report another piece of hate-mail directed at our beloved Pepe:

Sick.

We do not know who sent it, but we are taking this very seriously. The culprit is obviously just jealous of Pepe’s might and stature, and is TOTALLY LAME. What does it even mean? Send them where? Is it from the dreaded RAUL?! Are Customer Services to blame? We’re considering turning this disgusting artefact into a paper plane and lobbing it into the Thames. Tied to a brick.

IWOOT’s Children In Need Hat Competition Winner

Friday, November 20th, 2009

After a day of mildly ridiculous headwear being bandied around the office, a consensus has been reached. It was decided that, due to sheer effort, interactivity, topicality and ingenuity that Cathy from Customer Services would be a worthy winner - one look at her Jedward-themed hat will surely convince even the most stony-hearted of cynics. The joy of it, people, the joy!

cathy1

It really does deserve a close-up:

EVEN MORE AMAZING.

Here are some other notable entrants:

ElliotWoot masquerades as an extra from 'Chicago'

DebbieWoot is markedly more traditional

JennaWoot just misunderstands.

Don’t forget to keep on donating to our Just Giving page, here.

Donate To Children In Need With IWOOT

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

As listeners to Terry Wogan’s breakfast show will know (and that includes me), Children In Need is tomorrow night. At IWOOT Towers we’ve decided to go all-out and do as many fun, interesting and down-right ridiculous things as we possibly can to contribute to this great cause.

As we reported yesterday, our Charity Football Match was a smashing success (partly because we won), and we’ve got whole host of things lined up across the rest of this week and next week to make us much wonga as we possibly can.

We will be doing the following in addition to our footy triumph:

  • Enforced hat-wearing
  • A swear-box in customer services (much-needed, apparently)
  • Indian Head Massages
  • Cake Sale
  • Professional portrait photos
  • A pub quiz this coming Wednesday

It’s so easy to donate - just click on the button below to go to our Just Giving page and give us what you can spare. It all goes to Children In Need, so you can be sure your money will do immeasurable good in their hands.

IWOOT FC In Nail-Biting Charity Belter

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Last night, the cream of IWOOT’s athletic contingent (the least unhealthy, in other words) took on the formidable might of Thumbs Up, one of our lovely suppliers in a charity football match for Children In Need. It goes without saying that it was a sporting encounter comparable with the big leagues, and a jolly old time was had by all at the Norbury Powerleague Centre.

The most important thing to note is that we won, 11-10, after being 4-1 and 7-2 down at certain points, so it really was a valiant effort from our own little Carlos Valderramas.

 

Here’s a convenient list of match facts:

  • IWOOT’s team was made up of Ben (scored 4), Sergio, Simon, Neil (scored 3), Neil and Paul (also scored 3), with lady support from Melissa, Wanessa and Jo.
  • One of our goals was an own goal from Thumbs Up. Whoopsie!
  • Simon grazed his knee quite badly (see below).
  • Ben was awarded a shiny medal for being Man Of The Match.
  • Sergio moaned before, during and after the game, and also brought a dressing gown with him for the shower.
  • Post-match, everyone went for a slap-up Mexican meal courtesy of Thumbs Up - big thanks to them for being such great sports and giving us such a good game!

Obligatory action shot

Sergio minus dressing gown

Simon, pre-knee trauma

picture-101

Well done everyone!

Pepe’s Progress

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

As you can see, Pepe is now something of a minor giant, stalking the IWOOT office with the ease and demeanour of a jungle cat. It’s all thanks to you, generous blog readers and rubber band senders - we are truly touched by your dedication to Pepe’s cause.

The tail-end of last week saw a mammoth package containing a reported 427 elastic bands (as detailed here) and, truth be told, it was this behemoth that saw Pepe truly take off. As things stand currently, we’re wrapping each band around only once rather than twice or three times. That’s how serious things are getting.

Day 4

Of course, we still need more, so keep them coming in:

Pepe, Creative Department
Unit C11 Parkhall Trading Estate
40 Martell Road
London
SE21 8EN

If yours is the 25th, 50th or 75th package we receive then you’ll win a small token of our gratitude, so make sure you include your postal and email address along with your phone number. We’re getting there, folks!

And The Winner Is… (Week 7)

Monday, November 16th, 2009

As you may have read on our Facebook wall, this week’s decision was another difficult one. Some entries were just unfeasibly cute or funny or weird, but we opted for one that ended up ticking all three of those boxes. We got a great response this week on a particularly tasking challenge (apparently getting cats to stay still when they’re dressed up is a bit tricky - who knew?), so well done to everyone who had a go, we’ve now got a thoroughly strange gallery of dressed pets.

Someone has to win, though, so we’d like to congratulate Elliott D’Alvarez on dressing his rabbit as Super Mario:

elliott-dalvarez

How cool is that?!

We were also impressed by these two, amazing efforts all round!

Lianne Johnson (SNAILS?!)

Sarah Cank

There are only three iPhones left, so make sure you get your thinking caps on for this week’s competition too.

“Baby When The Lights Go Out…”

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Us IWOOTers were forced to toil in darkness earlier today (well, it certainly wasn’t as bright as usual… and it was raining…) when our power unexpectedly went ‘pop’. Though the shock was initially overwhelming and asseverations of ‘blimey’, ‘crumbs’ and ‘oh, fiddlesticks’ were flying around the place like nobody’s business, we had to knuckle down and accept that it was someone else’s job to turn it back on.

 

So what did we do? We played Jenga, had a sing-song, kicked a football around, had an early lunch and generally invoked the spirit of the Blitz. What ho and all that. Who says Friday 13th is all bad?

Customer Services tune out the darkness

apple1

Just in case you’re wondering, the title is in reference to the 5ive song of the same name. Other power/electricity-related songs include Huey Lewis’ ‘The Power Of Love’ and Nelly Furtado’s ‘Turn Out The Light’.

Pepe’s Rise Continues

Friday, November 13th, 2009

We’ve not quite hit the 25th package yet, so no prizes today, but we did receive another enormous amount of red rubber bands - we thank you all!

Pepe’s progress is now really gathering some momentum, as you can see from today’s picture below. He now feels a little more like a cricket ball than the rubber ball we were used to, it’s only a matter of time before he becomes football-sized…

 

 

 

My, how he's come on!

One person in particular sent an especially large number of bands - 427 if the letter is accurate - so super-thanks go to Tanya Embleton! Here’s her package of red rubber happiness:

tanya_pack

Keep them coming in people, Pepe needs you to help him grow.

Pepe Is Growing…

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Thanks to the generous contributions of the general public, we’ve amassed a wealth of red rubber bands for Pepe after only one day of asking. He has officially grown in size, as you can see below:

 

 

 

 

 

day1

The first package we received (special delivery, no less!) was from Julie Cole, who will receive a small token of our gratitude very soon. Maybe it will arrive bundled with other post and some more red rubber bands could be sent in… Anyway, we got a whole stack of post this morning, so there’s every chance that if your package arrives with us tomorrow you could be the lucky 25th sender and, therefore, another prize winner! Keep them coming in folks, Pepe needs you.

Here’s Julie’s letter:

Special Delivery!

julie-lettercens1

Our first batch of red rubber bands looked a little like this:

batch-1

And here is some Pepe hate mail we received:

Shame.

Oh well. Still, we’re off and running, Pepe can only go from strength to strength!

Send Us Your Red Rubber Bands and Win a Prize

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

In the last few weeks, we haven’t been sure what would be going on in regard to the Royal Mail strike. Worried that we might never again walk past a red rubber band-adorned pavement, we started collecting the little gems as exquisite reminders of how noticing that cute little rubbery guy could brighten up one’s day. As the collection of these elastic treasures started mounting, we started investigating a way to best economise, Ikea-style, the storage surface area that the slow wave of malleable redness was taking up. You know, that ‘Just because I have nowhere else to put it that doesn’t mean it can’t look vaguely cool’ solution. That, folks, is how we gave birth to Pepe. As you can instantly see, Pepe is a ball made up of rubber bands.

Pepe has grown into a bit of an obsession in the creative department. We have spent hours scouring pavements and drains, and have just stopped short of mugging posties (although Simon the Aussie was not too shy to help himself to a nice little stash he found on top of an unguarded trolley). With Pepe growing in leaps and bounds week by week, we have been strutting while maintaining that Atari-playing, emo-retro cool suaveness that us swanky creative types are best known for.

Here are some pictures of Pepe’s very gradual progress so far:

He began as a baby...

... and became...

... a slightly bigger baby.

It was with much horror that we have recently discovered that we have been played for fools. You see, our wonderful (grumble grumble) Customer Services team have actually been constructing there own ball of rubber band glory for the last two years. And, whilst it pains me to admit it, the CS Ball whom we shall not dignify with a name, is somewhat monstrously larger than Pepe. That was fine - we were prepared to endure the sniggering, the taunting and the name-calling. It did, however, reach a breaking point when Jade loudly pronounced for the entire office to hear, “Wow, if you look at them next to each other, it seems only fitting that Pepe orbits our [name removed out of spite] ball.” And that was the final straw.

Luckily, the Royal Mail strike is over. And with Customer Services hungrily hoarding any bands that come into our office, we are left scavenging the streets for tidbits that the Postie might have dropped on the floor. Luckily for us, we have you, oh valued and loyal reader of the blog, and this is why we implore you to help us. Similarly, as is the spirit of the IWOOT blog, that help will most certainly be rewarded.

So, without further ado, I (finally) introduce you to THE MOST RANDOM COMPETITION WE HAVE EVER RUN EVER EVER. Basically, we would like you to send us in any Red Royal Mail Rubber Bands that you might find. And, keeping the fun factor, we will be giving a sur-PRIZE to the person that sends us the 1st, 25th, 50th and 75th envelope containing a rubber band.

Send all red rubber band packages to:

Pepe, Creative Department
Unit C11 Parkhall Trading Estate
40 Martell Road
London
SE21 8EN

Make sure you include your address and phone number so we can send you your prize, should you win!

 

Competition Terms & Conditions:

• The competition closes as soon as the 75th package arrives.
• Prizes will be awarded to the 1st, 25th, 50th and 75th rubber band pakages we receive - only one package to be sent per person in the interests of keeping it fair.
• This competition is completely free to enter, no purchase is necessary.
• No cash alternative is available for the prize(s) offered.
• This competition is open to residents of the UK only.
• Employees of I Want One of Those and their immediate families and anyone professionally connected with the promotion are not eligible to enter this competition.
• The winner will be notified of their win via the e-mail address provided in their package, and under the name submitted on their entry. If a response to this notification is not received within 14 days, IWOOT reserves the right to randomly select another winner. In light of this, please ensure you submit an email address that you use regularly!
• No responsibility will be accepted for entries that are not received.
• From time to time we may include customer comments and feedback on the site, and in our catalogue and other media. By submitting your comment you are granting us permission to publish it and, if necessary, edit it for clarity and typos.