Hi Dost’s

Welcome to my 15th and quite possibly last blog for a while (no tears please). I am starting a new job next week and I am certain my spare time will be evaporated away faster than a cup of boiled water on the surface of the sun, which has just been hit with a flamer thrower.

I have really enjoyed writing these blogs, where I have spoken to many great celebrities including Debbie McGee, Gillian Cross, Tony Hart (sort of) and Christine Hamilton to name but a few. I have also undertaken a few random missions including trying to get a free t-shirt from various large organisations, by offering my marketing ideas (I had some interesting replies and one of two success stories). One of my proudest missions was to help the villainous mastermind himself in one of his latest evil plots, yes the Demon Headmaster wanted my help to get him back on our TV screens – although I didn’t quite achieve that, I did at least get a few interesting people thinking about it!

This blog is mainly here to wrap up a few blog stories from my previous blogs, where a few extra emails and thoughts will be written down to tie up the loose ends.

ITV Are Jerks! (OR ARE THEY!!!) *SPECIAL BONUS FEATURE*

In my last blog (number 14) I emailed ITV after they managed to royaly annoy me, with one of their ludicrous online football poll questions. They asked: Should Arsenal and Porto be thrown out of the Champions League for contriving a dire 0-0 draw?

I was angry at wrote quite a stern email to many departments in ITV (please see blog 14 to see my exact email) and received a few quikck replies, however after afew days I received a very detailed, and quite funny reply from Georgina Monklan, as shown below:

“Mr. Wallett

I am sorry that you took offence from this poll as clearly it was done
in jest. Yes, Porto did hit the post twice and no, I do not believe that
Porto meant to do this - it would have taken WWE style rehearsals for
this to happen after all.

However I think you will agree that the final ten or fifteen minutes
were some of the most dire football seen in the competition (and
probably any competition for that matter) this season - I distinctly
remember the Arsenal centre-backs exchanging 10 or 12 passes before even
thinking about maybe going forward, and Porto did anything but hussle
them while it happened.

Hence we felt that the two sides deserved to have the proverbial
'mickey' taken out of them and thought that readers might feel the same.
The fact that more readers voted 'yes' in the poll than any of the other
options shows that we were somewhat justified and that there were plenty
of readers also willing to have a laugh.

In general, our feeling is that we would prefer to ask some more amusing
questions than the average 'who are you backing to win the Premiership'
sort of drab that gets stale quite quickly. We are trying to add a bit
of character to our editorial and be more amusing than "a dead rat that
has 'I AM NOT CHARISMATIC!' tattooed on his back".

We appreciate your feedback, but hope that you understand and possibly
agree with some of the points of our explanation.

Many thanks

ITVi Customer Service (on behalf of the ITV F1 web team)”

I will be honest with you, I was expecting a very wooden and boring reply to my question, but instead I got a reply that was witty, funny and answered my questions quite well, hats off to ITV and Georgina – I was pleasantly surprised. I emailed Georgina so the following reply:

“Dear Georgina

I appreciate your reply to my initial question. Sorry it has taken so long to reply to you, but things have been pretty hectic recently. Anyway i found your reply witty, funny, clever and too be honest i can even accept you have answered my questions. I wasn't expecting much from you guys at ITV, but I am big enough to accept when i have to take my hat off to someone!

You might be wondering if i own any pet rats, or even pet rats with tattoos on their backs - well i can safely say i don't.

I wish you a great 2007 and wish everyone luck at ITV. How are things going since your new boss stepped in?

Thanks again for your kind and non-templatey reply which i usually get from big companies.

Kindest Regards

Adrian Wallett”

So I guess ITV aren’t that big a jerk after all. I guess everyone deserves a second chance (excluding Saddam Hussein).

Business Tips for the Big Boys (all for little more than a t-shirt) (BTFTBBAFLMTATS for short)

BLOCKBUSTER WILL YOU VOUCH FOR ME?

In my last blog I emailed Blockbuster Video my marketing idea, and after a little cheekiness they agreed to reward me with some free rental vouchers! One day later I received 20 – yes 20 free rental vouchers! I couldn’t believe it. Throughout Xmas I have used most of these vouchers at my localish Selsdon store. The cool workers had never even seen these vouchers before, and regarded me as a mini celebrity after obtaining these golden tickets! I have successfully rented a few cool movies and games with these vouchers and again thank everyone at Blockbuster for my cool gift!

KRONENBOURG MAKE CONTACT – FINALLY!

In my 12th blog I emailed Kronenbourg a marketing idea, but after receiving no quick emails I gave up on them quicker than Mourinho should give up on Shevchenko to ever score another goal! I was indeed quite surprised then when I received a weird parcel about a week ago. I quickly tore open the packaging, feeling like Christmas was happening all over again and I was staring at a brand new Kronenbourg T-Shirt! Yes a grey and navy t-shirt! Mission complete! I also received quite a kind letter as dictated below:

Dear Mr Wallett

I am in receipt of your email to Nadja Schaeufele regarding Kronenbourg 1664.

Thank you for your advertising idea, unfortunately, it does not fit with our brand positioning and at present we would not look to take your proposal any further.

We do however, thank you for your interest in Kronenbourg 1664 and enclose a t-shirt as a token of our appreciation.

Yours sincerely

Justine Dixon
Group Marketing

I am of course disappointed that they chose not to use my advertising idea, but at least I tried. I now own a rather naff, but deeply treasured Kronenbourg t-shirt.

Please see my MySpace pics to see a great picture of me proudly wearing my newest t-shirt, looking rather geeky but immensely proud!

I would like to say thanks to all the companies that have replied to my many odd marketing ideas, some have even rewarded me for my time, or just to get me off their backs with a few polite emails and in some rare cases some quality goodies. Overall Heinz was my favourite company out of all of these marketing experiments, as they offered quality emails, quality goodies and a brilliant bright orange t-shirt!

WEBSITE YOU MUST VISIT

I have recently set up a Flickr account. This is a great website to showcase your photography for free and in a quality way. I currently only have pictures of Thornton Heath, Mickleton and Rome (if you can name a bigger contrast I will be amazed!), but I hope to add more images as time goes by. Feel free to leave a comment to my pics and let me know what you think. You can visit my Flickr pics by clicking here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrian_wallett/

If you like digital photography I really recommend setting up a Flickr account, if you do please add me as a contact and as a friend!

Random Rocky Quote

In the vast majority of my blogs I have offered you a random Rocky quote from the five Rocky movies, why did I do this I hear you ask? I feel Rocky is a great story of an underdog who defines many people and somehow makes it, where the odds were so highly stacked against him, that Timmy Mallett would have had better odds on becoming the UK’s next Prime Minister! I feel everyone can adopt Rocky’s spirit and determination to succeed and following your dreams! I hope one day all of you follow in the footsteps of this inspirational character and aim as high as you can and never give up, even in the final round!

Rocky Balboa is the 6th and final instalment of this great series (I plan to see it as part of my birthday celebrations) , I am 100% sure it will be a great film and I urge you all to watch it and shout out one last time – YO ADRIAN, I DID IT!

Below is a quote from the upcoming movie, I wont dissect it, and look too deeply into it, I feel the sheer poetry of the quote is all that needs to be said:

Rocky Balboa: It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!

WALLETT’S HOTEL KEEP TIGHT LIPPED

I am sad to report that Wallett’s court (blog 14) have so far not replied to my email, where I apologised about my very rude email. To make amends I even posted them my apology and included a few images of my artwork, but alas they still haven’t replied. My final throw of the dice was to send one last email as shown below:

Dear Gavin Oakley

Sorry to keep bombarding you with emails and letters, and I guess keeping me on my toes is a good lesson for me to be more patient with life and not act so rash. I posted a letter to you and Wallett's Court just before Christmas, did you receive it? I enclosed some images of my artwork and some of my photography. I would be very grateful to know what you think of my artwork.

I have now been offered a new job, with better pay, more prospects and more responsibility, so fingers crossed things are look up for me in the new year.

I hope you and your hotel had a great Xmas and new year period and I wish you all the luck for 2007.

Any reply would be grateful, even to say you haven't accepted my apology at my previous rude email.

If this email reaches the wrong person, please, please, please forward it on to Gavin Oakley.

Keep cool and kindest regards

Adrian Wallett

But still no reply – I feel either Gavin Oakley really hates me and is teaching me a lesson on being patient (quite a good chance), he is too busy to reply throughout this busy period or just ignoring me until I go away. I hope he replies, but it seems less and less likely after every passing day. I still like the fact that Wallett’s Court shares my surname, but will it ever share my heart? – only time will tell!

Well this is the end of a chapter as far my blogs go – at least for the short term. I will look to getting them up and running again one day I am sure, and in between that time I am sure I will embrace myself on more random email missions and celebrity emails, all ready to be unleashed again to the public! Thanks so much to everyone who has read my blogs, left comments and subscribed. Please keep subscribed as you never know when I might be back, blogging again!

If you have any questions regarding any of my 15 blogs, please fell free to leave a question in my comment section and I will try to answer. Any other comments (either good or bad) are all very much welcome!

And please remember one last thing:

YOU ROCK DOST

Adriano