Russell Davies

tiffin genius

There's so much to love about this story in The Guardian.

The One Stop Thali Cafe in Bristol has been selling these Mumbai tiffin carriers to their regulars - so they can get takeaways from the restaurant using them. They're £20 each (inc your first meal) and they've sold about 1,500 in the last 18 months.

This is genius. In one fell swoop they've:

1. created genuine differentation for the business
2. done something environmentally responsible
3. made a little bit of extra money
4. tied their customers a little closer to their business
5. won themselves some interesting PR
6. actually improved their service (tiffin carriers keep the food hotter for longer)

And they've done it in a way that's:

1. entirely authentic to their business and its heritage
2. incredibly simple and charming (not some fiddly promotional thing with forms and vouchers)
3. generous and open - you can use your tiffin carrier at any restaurant

Brilliant.

roll on the velodrome

I found myself very excited by London winning the Olympics. First by the announcement on the radio and then as I was walking down for lunch at the New Piccadilly I saw a splendid flypast down The Mall of which the above is the smokey remnant.

It's going to be brilliant. Arthur'll be 13; just the right age to take to see all sorts of odd and exciting sports - and I've always wanted to visit a velodrome. And it's a minor triumph for New Labour and we're still fans of them in our house.

It's also a victory for pitching. And I've always thought that pitching is the core skill of Britain's creative industries. We're fantastic at ideas and pitches; we can really make that stuff sing. We're slightly less good at following through but let's hope that's not so true in this instance.

moleskine, powerpoint and pen

Like these people. Seems like you can only buy it in the US at the moment.

a little driving movie

From portland to seattle and back again.

duck

Had a trip down to the river. Started off at HMS Belfast, which was splendid. The best thing we found out is that the Belfast's forward guns are trained on Scratchwood services, about 12 miles away. This just gives you something new to think about at Scratchwood.

Then off to the Design Museum, which, as always, was disappointing. Every time we go we vow never to go again. It costs a fortune and the features always look great on paper and let you down when you get there. Today was no exception. An exhibition on surfboards and shapers which told you very little, seemed only to scratch the surface and was visually unthrilling. Which seems hard to do with surfboards. The only decent thing there in recent years was the Thomas Heatherwick collection for the Coran Foudation.

forest park

Just got back from a couple of weeks in Portland. Had a very nice time. Particularly enjoyed myself wondering around Forest Park. It's one of the great things about Portland that there's a ruddy huge forest just a few minutes from downtown.