RFP tenders – don’t you just hate ’em? Above you see the Wieden + Kennedy shopfloor at 4.00am when not a creature should be stirring. But, what’s this? There are still some people toiling at their workstations instead of tucked up at home in bed.

Frere…

..and Ollie.

This is because we’re preparing one of those giant tender documents for a big RFP (request for proposals) for a new business opportunity. These things are brain-freezing monsters that require huge amounts of work to be completed against a nightmare deadline. You need to compile case histories on everything you’ve ever done in the world ever and supply the inside leg measurement of everyone who’s ever worked for the company.

You end up with a book the size of the Bible, but possibly somewhat less profound. And by this time in the morning the quality control may be suffering.

Trying to get people from other offices round the world to help you pull the information together is never easy as they all have work to do creating brilliance for our existing clients. And if you don’t manage to accomplish the allotted labours in the required time, and deliver – as stipulated – your 37 hard copies printed on vellum and bound in pigskin to Megacorp HQ in Ulan Bator by 1.00pm Tuesday then your submission may be considered ineligible.

Crisis point was at around 1.00am when we realised that it wasn’t going to be possible in the time available to get it all the many, many pages made beautiful in Quark by Ollie’s Mac wizardry. We were going to have to keep it in Powerpoint and make the best of it. There was a brief interlude of exhausted weeping but we’re past that now.

There may still be much Powerpoint to go before we sleep.

Sophie writes:

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an email to the agency, appealing for runners. As part of that appeal, I mentioned ‘that great feeling when you receive a smile from fellow joggers passing by’. Stuart Smith (resident marathon runner) however, pointed out that in his long history of running, not once has he received a smile, wink, nod, not even vague, glazed acknowledgement from any passing runners. He’s suggested that long blonde hair, cycling shorts and a pair of new pink trainers could be the cause of the varying reactions we each receive. Of course my immediate response was to argue vehemently that people aren’t just being friendly because I’m female and that there’s a genuine feeling of empathy and comradeship within the urban jogging scene.

But after last week, I may just be inclined to agree with him. Which was a little disillusioning. Once again, we were 3. But this time an all-female, all-blonde 3. And it would be naïve to deny the different responses we received to running with Tony and Jason last week. Not only from fellow joggers, but from passers-by, lorry drivers, car drivers, shop owners, curry house waiters… To be honest, it became a little tedious.

But then I realised; if we were spreading a little aesthetic happiness in the

East London

Last week was extremely enjoyable. We went at a manageable pace and made it to 7.4km. Which we were all very chuffed with. I’m not going to bother with the street by street lowdown (we got horribly lost), but these are the things we learnt/noticed along the way:

–          All of

East London

–          Running with your arms not only gives you greater momentum, but it’s a highly effective workout for the biceps.

–          Running with your arms whilst looking at your feet helps you go further. Especially if you’re looking at pink trainers.

–          Someone needs to invent a portable, jogging-friendly music speaker system / an i-pod device ensuring everyone’s listening to the same thing at the same time.

–          Victoria Park is underrated.

–          It’s fun to save a bit of energy for the final 3 minutes, and have a little race home with yourself / fellow joggers.

Until tomorrow, 1pm, reception. Hope to see you there.