Partying at Fat Sam's Grand Slam with Bugsy Malone

I had a super awesome day with my Mum yesterday. A great Good Friday!

We made our way to London for Future Cinema's Bugsy Malone at The Troxy.

I followed Fat Sam's instructions on the invitation and from the moment we arrived and joined the other guests under the archway, we were entertained.

It was a great reason to get dressed up! The characters from Bugsy Malone were brought to life. It was highly engaged with it's guests, because you really felt like you were a guest at Fat Sam's Grand Slam, not a member of the audience.

It was over 3 hours of fun, and so worth the trip to see it.

If you get a chance, go and see it! They have a kids version and a grown ups version. There's a bar and Mama Lugini's Italian food such as spaghetti and lasagne. (The food smelled great!)

Thank you to Future Cinema for inviting me along!

I've storify'd all my tweets, pics and videos from the day. Enjoy! :)

September reviewed - Part 1

September was undoubtedly my busiest month this year and I want to capture a record of it just in case my memory fades on me.

A lot of them deserve their own blog posts really, and I'd like to think I'll go back and cover some of them in more detail but hey, it's October already. A brand new month to fill!

There were lots of highlights and here are a few of them.

Wateraid Charity Ambassador

I've already blogged this (whew!). This involved a short weekend in Wales walking 6.2 miles and doing some social media reporting on the day.

Tired but happy at the end of the walk!

I also managed to meet up with my Tweety Friends before the big walk.

I met up with @getgood and we went to a cool bar that had beds!

And of course I was drawn to this Tweety Friend cushion. Twitter mad? Me? ;)

And I finally got to meet a long time twitter friend Elizabeth @realityminus3 We enjoyed a hearty Wagamam's dinner, drinks and a great chat! A lovely evening.

Birmingham Canal Trip with Birmingham City University

I got an invite for a trip along Birmingham's canals from BCU's Press Office. It was like a net working event, only on a canal boat, with drinkies and nibbles. Despite living in Birmingham for quite a while now, I'd only ever been on one canal boat trip many years ago, so I thought it time for another one. It was a lovely evening, with lots of new and interesting people to meet such a media peeps and lecturers.

Social Reporting for the Indigo Trust

I had a full day in That London with the talk about local team at Indigo Trust's “The Power of Information: New Technologies for Philanthropy and Development” Conference. This involved using a mixture of social media platforms throughout the day for live reporting, such as youtube (for interviews), flickr, audioboo and of course twitter.

It was a huge conference with a lot of key note talks to cover and speakers to interview. It was interesting to see how much output, as a team, we were able to deliver across all the mediums.

A post conference glass of wine with @getgood (she pops up everywhere!) and @clarewhite. Belles of social media reporting ;)

Long weekend in Palma with my mum

Three nights away with my mum @createdineire and taking on the Palma Live Challenge set by bmibaby. I love these types of social media and travel collaborations. bmibaby asked their friends and followers what I should see in Palma and set my itinerary. I reported live on my adventure. I've gathered all my updates in one handy blog post here, and my Palma review is live on bmibaby's blog too!

Bed Jumping in the bloggers room at @horizonte24 hotel. It's a must! ;)

Metapod Kaleidoscope Course - Day 1 of 5 days

This is a course run by Fierce Earth and Helga Henry is my mentor! It's a bit of a change to have a mentor (I like it!) as it's normally me doing mini mentoring sessions with folks that ask for my help.

It’s aimed at senior leaders in selected businesses to focus on commercial skills and business growth in a way that is congruent with your artistic and cultural development.

It's named Kaleidoscope as it helps to change your perception/view of y our business. I think that's right. Anyway, it's certainly worked after only 1 day of the 5 day course (there's 2 x 2 days coming up in November). It's not very often I talk 'business' and plans with anyone. I have an idea, figure out what I want, make a plan, and go for it, very generally speaking.

Already I can feel my perspective changing, and I must admit, it feels a little unsettling. It's thrown me a little. Before the course I had a set road ahead, and now I'm questioning it (which isn't a bad thing at all); Am I
on the right road? Am I working as efficiently towards my goals as I thought? Is there another way, a better way? What can I remove from my life/business? What's superfluous? What can I add? And although I do feel a little unsettled, I'm going with it, accepting these new feelings, being open to change and getting excited about what will happen next!

We got crafy on the course. Always a winner!

Whoops, I've run out of blogging steam tonight! I think I'm going to have to break this post up in to a few parts. There's a lot of pack in! :)

Say hello on twitter: @karenstrunks

This weekend - Palma Live!

Sponsored by

@bmibaby_com

@turismebalears

@horizonte24

This weekend me and my lovely Mum, Margaret aka @createdineire, will be donning our sun hat and shades and heading for sunnier climes in Palma!


My Mum @createdineire

We  are flying with bmibaby and we shall be arriving at the Horizonte Hotel on Friday evening and check out on Monday.

What shall we do in between? It's over to you! We are putting ourselves in your hands!

Leave a comment on bmibaby's Facebook page or their blog, tweet me, of leave me a comment here. I'm making a note of all recommendations!

The hotel have made their own suggestion!

Bed jumping?! OK. It's on the list. My mum can't wait :D (video)

Do you Gowalla? 

I'm going to be updating my Gowalla passport as I go along, so come and join me! 

Of course (of course!) I'll be tweeting too, and you can follow the hash tag for the weekend #palmalive 

Once again I'm putting myself (and my Mum!) in your hands and inviting you to be my virtual travel companions! Have you been to Palma? What do you recommend? Have you always wanted to go? Where would you like to see? I'll do my best to fit it all in! :)

My first busines class flight! Cairo bound with British Midland International

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I've written about my Cairo experience and my Four Seasons experience, and today it's all about my first Business Class experience!

When I found out I was flying with British Midland International I immediately had a look at their website to see if they did a business class service, and then proceeded to keep my fingers crossed. I was so excited when the news arrived that me and Nicky would be flying business class!

I have never flown anything other than economy before, and have always longed to see what it's like behind the curtain that divides the economy class section from the business class section.

I'm going to tell you all about it!

My journey from Birmingham began at 5am with a 2 and half hour coach trip to Heathrow Airport. We quickly found the BMI Premium Check-in area. This area was sectioned off, and a member of staff was there to greet us. There was the bonus of no queues too! And even if there had of been some people ahead of us, there were some comfortable looking chairs nearby to take the weight off. As you can imagine, check-in was quick, friendly and efficient. Great start!

Once we had gone through Heathrow's security, I had a quick glance in some of the duty free shops, but I was really keen to check out BMI's business class lounge as I was starting to feel a bit tired and hungry from my 2am start to the day.

There were two staff members who welcomed me to the lounge.

It was a huge area with lots of seating and rooms. For example, there was a room that was perfectly set up for using laptops with plugs on the desks. All through the lounge there were comfortable chairs and settees and coffee tables.

There was quite an array of food available for breakfast; cereals, yogurts, fruit, hot rolls, and pancakes for example. Having a suspected wheat/gluten allergy, I asked a member of staff if I could just have bacon and eggs. Within minutes I received a plate that was loaded with rashers of bacon and scrambled eggs, far more than I could eat with the best will in the world!

Nicky arrived after doing some duty free shopping, grabbed some breakfast and said that she was feeling tired too (she hadn't slept at all the night before!).

But there's no need to worry about finding a place to catch forty winks in the business lounge, they have thought of everything and have provided beds, complete with a bedside table and table lamp!!

The beds are in a quiet area of the lounge and are partitioned off by curtains, affording a little bit of privacy.

There wasn't much time to snooze though as our flight was soon called. It was running about an hour late, but that was no problem in such accommodating surroundings.

Passing the time in the business lounge is so much more pleasurable, not only are there the comfortable chairs/settees to relax on, there's an array of magazines and newspapers to read, and several tv's to watch. Or you can take a seat at the bar and enjoy watching the planes take off and land through the floor to ceiling windows overlooking the runway. Of course, with free wifi you can stay connected and catch up online too.

I made a little Qik video and streamed live from the lounge. It's a bit shaky but hopefully it will give you a bit more of a view of the area and what's on offer.

And then the mega exciting part of the trip - it was time to board the plane!

We took our places in the large leather seats. Not only is there the extra legroom that you would expect, but we were in the emergency exit aisle so we had even more room!

No sooner had all the passengers boarded then we were given a choice of drink. Champagne, orange juice or water. Um.....champagne please! Cheers

Soon after take off we were handed menus. And some more champagne. And a little gift box which I got super excited about!

I selected the poached pears, fresh figs and yogurt to start.

For my main course, I chose scrambled eggs, steak and lamb. Both dishes were equally nice and I really enjoyed them. As you can see the presentation was great too.

 

The 5 hour flight passed quickly chatting to Nicky, reading, and watching films. I selected The Rite, which is a pretty silly film about priests and the battle against evil starring Anthony Hopkins, but I really enjoyed the 2010 remake of Brighton Rock.

Another glass of bubbly? Oh, ok then!

The descent began and I caught my first glimpse of the River Nile. Excitement started to build up again. One of the flight attendants tried to help us see the pyramids, but we were sitting on the wrong side of the plane (on the left) and the seat belt sign was on, but I was happy enough with this view knowing I'd be seeing the pyramids soon.

It was so nice to feel so looked after on a flight. I can see why people chose the business or first class option. The whole experience was very comfortable and relaxed and it was a lovely stress free beginning of my short holiday to Cairo.

Thank you for such an amazing experience BMI!

Book your flights to Cairo at flybmi.com

Say hello on twitter! @karenstrunks

Five star luxury at Four Seasons First Residence Cairo

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When British Midland International told me I'd be staying in the Four Seasons in Cairo, it was all I could do to not jump around with excitement! The Four Seasons?! Five Stars?! Yes!

I'm all for luxury, but just don't enough of the finer things in life as often as I'd like. This was going to be a REAL treat.

There are two Four Seasons hotels in Cairo, the Nile Plaza and the First Residence (on the River Giza) which we stayed in

The 5* experience began when me and Nicky arrived at the airport and were greeted by our Four Season driver. He took our luggage and walked us to an air conditioned BMW. Waiting for us in the car was some chilled water and refreshing lemon scented towels. And it's these little touches continued throughout our stay.

We got our first taste of Cairo traffic on the hour's drive from the airport. I enjoyed just taking in all the new scenery along the journey. When we arrived at the hotel we were greeted by the assistant manager who swiftly took care of our bags and showed us to our rooms.

Thoughtfully, they had given me and Nicky rooms next to each other. My breath was taken away as we were given a tour of our accommodation. I've stayed in some nice hotels before, but this was another level!

Hand written welcome card: "Dear Ms Strunks, Welcome to Four Seasons Cairo at the First Residence. Have a memorable stay"

I wasn't sure what do it first! So of course I made a video giving a tour of my room!

 

The next thing I wanted to do was get online. The Four Seasons do charge for wifi. If my memory serves me correctly it's $20 (usd) for 24 hours for one device, or $30 (usd) for up to four devices and super speed. We had the first option complimentary and I found it fast and efficient for general internet use. I think the super speed would be useful if you wanted to connect more than one device and had a lot of uploading/downloading to do.

So, within minutes I was tweeting away! Yay.

Well stocked fridge, snacks, and complimentary water

Room Service Menu

Suggested jogging routes with measured distances

View over River Giza towards Tahrir Square

After a day of travelling, and grabbing a bite to eat and a few drinks, I was ready for sleep.

I've got to tell you about my bed!!

It was perfect. Do you know that lovely feeling you have when you get into a bed, and it's so comfortable and you think 'bliss' and have a smile on your face as you fall to sleep? That. But x10! I LOVED the bed.

The next morning me and Nicky made our way to breakfast armed with our cameras. This was not just any type of breakfast. This was something else! 

Of course there was breakfast cereal, and fruit and yogurt and such like - and even with those items there was a huge choice. But there was so much more. Countless types of bread. Savory traditional Cairo dishes, and sweets. Meat and dips. Fresh local honey comb. Fish. Spices. Vegetables. Whatever your heart desired for breakfast there was something here that would satisfy it.

This is a very big hotel. It has (I think) 17 floors. It has a shopping mall. Several restaurants. A Spa. Pool. Casino. Bars. If you were so inclined, you really needn't leave the hotel at all. Everything you need is at your disposal.

 

The opulent corridors and indeed, every room, had the most amazing fresh flower displays!

Of course I was drawn to the red flowers! ;) Thanks to Nicky for taking the photo!

At every turn there was more splendor. I was in love!

This is the shopping mall. Three tiers of shops surround an open restaurant.

Of course, we had to make use of the pool too! Nicky dived straight in and cooled down. I relaxed under the shade of an umbrella.

I've been totally bowled over by this hotel. They have earned their 5 star rating for a reason.

They second guess and meet their guests needs. Even things you didn't know you wanted or needed, they provide without prompt. More fresh fruit for your room? There it is. Running low on bottled water? Don't worry, the fridge has already been stocked up. You must be hot from exploring the city? Here's a refreshing lemon scented towel. You need directions to a restaurant? No problem, here's a map and directions in Arabic for the driver. We'll even ring the restaurant and book your table for you. All these seemingly small gestures went towards making a relaxed and stress free stay.

Not only does the hotel offer luxury surroundings and accommodation, but the staff were second to none. They were friendly, attentive, efficient, and went that extra mile.

I can not fault anything about my stay here, and I have been thoroughly spoiled!

 

Thank you to the Four Seasons and BMI for a stay and trip of a lifetime!

Coming up -  my business class flight :)