Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Protection through occupation

George, my brother, was over last night helping me to paint the new house (thank you by the way, Geo!) He has recently moved houses as well, in fact come to think of it he moved south of the river of well. George has moved into an apartment in an old secondary school in Lambeth. It's a listed building and at some point it will probably be developed, but at the moment it's empty. Or rather to say, it was empty, it is now filling up.
There's a company called Camelot who manage the school and about 1500 other sites like it. It's an interesting proposition. Camelot rent out rooms, in George's case the room is the size of a large New York-style loft with views out to Big Ben, for practically no rent. The tenants get the opportunity to live in some quite incredible buildings cheaply, the property owners get peace of mind as they know that there will be no problems with squatters, vandals or arson and for them it is cheaper than hiring 24 hour security guards.
A "win-win situation" as an American business book might say.

Moma Foods

I met Amy Farren at a party a couple of months ago. She left a high powered job at BCG earlier this year to set up her own company with a friend Tom, MOMA Foods. Moma is a new type of breakfast company - looking to provide an alternative to the typical breakfasts that we so often grab when we are busy and on the go. For me that's usually a muffin (which even if they say they are Skinny, I know that they are still full of sugar and fat) and a cup of caffeine heavy coffee. Moma make yoghurt-based breakfasts - my favourite is probably the Dr Bircher which is a prebiotic yoghurt, mixed with organic apple juice, low GI oats and seasonal fruits. The Moma story and their ethics and principles are quite similar to Innocent, in fact Moma catered the breakfast opening of Innocents new "wing".
Amy has asked me to help them work on building the Moma brand identity and developing an integrated communications plan. It's a really fascinating project to be involved with - the product is excellent, tasty and healthy, the founders are smart, good people and the brand is starting to build up a following. I think that there is a real story to tell about Moma that people would be interested in.
The Moma breakfast stands are currently at London Bridge, Canary Wharf, Vauxhall and Waterloo East from 6am - 10.30am every weekday. If you've ever tried any of their breakfasts or have seen their stands, it would be good to get your thoughts.