Dan Germain

drinks for tom

My friend Tom is coming over tomorrow. I went out to the garage to see if we had enough drink in stock, to have with lunch. Looks like we should be OK. Tom will drink anything.

magic box

It's been a while, but I think this is worth it.

I was looking for some beer to take to a BYO curry house in Great Malvern the other night, and I tried a local boozer. Not only were they happy to oblige, but they had a special Tetrapak-style carton for me to use, with a special clip for the top that kept the important liquid within.

So, proper cask-conditioned draught beer to take away. No problem. Just stick it in the box.

You can keep your fibre optics and your touch sensitive screens. This is the most important technological advance I've heard of since man invented the spoon. Cheers.

i just had a yorkie

Haven't had one for ages. It tasted really good. I used to eat lots of them, and have to admit to shoplifting a fair few of them in my youth, which is something I've never really owned up to before. So I'd like to apologise to the shopkeepers of Stony Stratford, which is where most of the thieving occurred. Sorry. Here's an old Yorkie advert, which I hope puts a a smile back on your faces.

dan's very best

International superstar graphic designer Ben Terrett sends me a message:

"I'm not sure if you do guest posts.

But if you did, and you asked me, I'd submit this picture."

restaurant review

Saw this menu last week. It looked great - about three thousand different types of oysters and lots of other good things too. It's a pity that the menu wasn't actually the menu at the pub in which I was sitting - they must have pinched it from somewhere on their travels and hung it up because it looked nice.

The '&' was the best bit.

In other food news, I was in a magazine today, talking about food. I like food.

country hazards, part 6

Please welcome the first crop of the summer. There will be more to come, but I thought I'd dig a bit of it up yesterday to see what's happening. Of course, growing stuff is all very well, but then you have to eat it. So I need a recipe that involves beans, potatoes and beetroot. Please.

another bloody water

Funny new water brand from Australia, obviously.

Nice vans too. Familiar.

Found at the dieline.

it's all about the biscuits

This story confirms what we have known for years. Always choose an agency based on the quality of the biscuits on offer.

goodbye for a short while

I'm about to enter a world without blogging. Our second child arrives next week so I won't be spending too much time with Typepad.

I just wanted to leave you with one thought before I disappear for a few weeks. Rap Snacks. Why don't we have them in the UK? Some smart entrepreneurial street kid'd better be reading.

photo from TheeErin's flickr

small things are important

Today I am enjoying this email that I got from Ocado.

The picture's nice, the gag is sort of OK, but the thing I like about Ocado is that they do small stuff well. Their site works really well as a shopping site, and they keep tweaking all of the tiny details to make it better and more intuitive.

As for this email, it's just them telling me something small and new. It won't rock my world but it makes me feel another degree of warmth for them. And the idea that you can ask their drivers to cover up their dirty boots is excellent. It helps do all of those things that brands are supposed to do these days - be human, act responsibly and help keep my new carpet spotless.

Thank you Ocado.