Slap my wrists I’ve not updated my blog in a while!

It’s all been very busy in the Cuffe & Taylor HQ recently. Since my last blog we have put the final night of Lytham Proms 2013 onsale which will be...

Rita Ora supported by Conor Maynard and Stooshe!

We also have the Fylde’s Got Talent auditions this Saturday with the grand final taking place at Lowther Pavilion on Sunday 21^st April.

Also since my last blog we have had Pancake Day. Here is a lovely picture of our very own Rachel attempting a toss (attempting being the operative word!)

I also went to see Girls Aloud at the O2 on Saturday and was pleasantly surprised at how well they sang live (especially with Cheryl having flu at the time).

I’ve also booked to go to V Festival in August which I’m REALLY looking forward to as Beyonce is headlining (and I didn’t manage to get tickets to her own tour last month when they went onsale).

Now that I’m losing my festival virginity and we have a summer of concerts planned again for C&T I thought it was about time to invest in some hunter wellies. I did buy some last summer but struggled to fit my chunky calves in them so they had to go back. After spending quite some time in my dinner hours searching for funky wellies I discovered that:

A - Unless you have legs like Nadine Coyle or Victoria Beckham, regular Hunter willies are going to be pretty snug in the calf area!

B – The only ‘funky’ hunter wellies are girls ones and will not accommodate my size 11’s!

C – The ‘wide calf’ fit hunters are only available in plain colours

So I found some lovely metallic Hunters that are actually available in men’s sizes!! The gold ones were abit to crazy even for me so I settled on some bronze coloured ones – fingers crossed they fit this time!

Notice how in this post I didn’t even bring up my Brit Award predictions (because they were pretty much all wrong!!)

Brits Predictions 2013

The Brit Awards 2013 are due to take place later this month and I thought I’d have a go at predicting the results, here goes....  (my prediction is in bold, second prediction highlighted in red)

British male solo artist:

Ben Howard

Calvin Harris

Olly Murs

Richard Hawley

Plan B

British breakthrough act:

Alt-J

Ben Howard

Jake Bugg

Jessie Ware

Rita Ora

British female solo artist:

Amy Winehouse

Bat for Lashes

Emeli Sande

Jessie Ware

Paloma Faith

British group:

Alt-J

Mumford & Sons

Muse

One Direction

The xx

British live act:

Coldplay

Mumford & Sons

Rolling Stones

The Vaccines

Muse

International female solo artist:

Alicia Keys

Cat Power

Lana Del Rey

Rihanna

Taylor Swift

International group:

Alabama Shakes

The Black Keys

FUN.

The Killers

The Script

British producer of the year:

Damon Albarn

Paul Epworth

Jake Gosling

Mastercard British album of the year:

Alt-J

Elemi Sande

Mumford & Sons

Paloma Faith

Plan B

International male solo artist:

Bruce Springsteen

Gotye

Jack White

Frank Ocean

Michael Buble

British single:

Adele

Alex Clare

Coldplay & Rihanna

DJ Fresh

Emeli Sande

Florence + The Machine

Jessie J

Olly Murs

Rita Ora

Rizzle Kicks

Robbie Williams

Rudimental

Stooshe

James Arthur

Labrinth

So there you have it, my predictions for who will win the Brits this year. Also taking place on the very same night is the Cuffe & Taylor website launch (where a very special annoucement will be made about the Sunday night headliner of Lytham Proms 2013)


Also - got to mention how fabulous Beyonce was at the Superbowl Half Time Show earlier this week. Think there are a lot of people trying to get hold of tickets for her Mrs Carter World Tour which she announced the same night as her amazing Superbowl performance, I know I'll be trying to get my hands on some tickets!

New Year, New Diet

Like most others at this time of year I’m always optimistic that I’ll lose a few pounds that have built up over Christmas (who am I kidding, built up over the past few years, and when I say pounds I mean stones!)

According to some statistics I heard on the Radio the other day, the third week of the year is when most New Year’s resolutions are broken, whether that be giving up drinking, giving up smoking or the most popular one in my house, dieting! So far my mum has been doing ok on the Slimming World diet but for me, I just can’t get myself into it. As much as I would like to be nice and slim before I go on holiday in April, I know deep down that it’s going to be tough with my lack of will power and bad influences from certain members of the office (aka Susan).

I doubt I will have any motivation to diet over the summer as when I return from my holiday in April its full steam ahead with the Cuffe & Taylor summer events which includes Lytham Proms Festival Weekend 2013 and the Runrig 40^th Anniversary Concert which I'm really looking forward to.

With this in mind I thought I would try a ‘quick-fix’ diet to get me well on my way to achieving a temple body (Whats so funny?!) I know of a few people who are doing the Lighter Life diet and have had amazing results so far but at £70+ per week I’m reluctant to do it. When I asked a friend how she was finding this diet she said:

“It’s good but be prepared to eat a lot of dust!”

I have however come across a similar diet called the Cambridge diet which is fairly similar to Lighter Life, just a lot cheaper, so I have decided to give it a go, wish me luck!

P.S. When I go from looking like this….

....and start looking like this….

….I’ll post you a picture!

FYLDE'S GOT TALENT IS BACK!

The annual Fylde’s Got Talent competition is upon us and performers from the FYLDE BOROUGH area only are being sought to showcase their talents.

The lucky winner’s will perform on the same stage as the headline act for the Sunday night of The Lytham Proms Festival Weekend 2013.

The competition, now in its fifth year is proving to be a real hit with the locals, and Cuffe & Taylor are hoping that next year will be no exception. So far previous winners have performed alongside international artists Boyzone in 2011, and Family favourite Olly Murs in 2012.

 

A spokesperson for Cuffe & Taylor said “We are really proud of how successful this local event has become, it has almost taken on an identity of its own. We are constantly being approached by local talent who wish to enter the competition, as they all want the opportunity to play on a world class stage, alongside their idols. We are close to announcing the artist for the Sunday night, but as yet it is a closely guarded secret. Needless to say the winner will not be disappointed.”

The competition is looking for all types of performers – singers, dancers, musicians, magicians and comedians – all encouraged to take part whether soloists, duos, bands or groups.
So if you think you have what it takes then visit www.lythamproms.co.uk to apply.

Auditions will take place at Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish Centre, St Annes on Saturday 9th March starting at 10:00 (audition time slots will only be given to those who apply online beforehand). Space will be restricted so participants are encouraged to stick to their audition slot times. The Grand Final will be held at Lowther Pavilion, Lytham, on Sunday 28th April 2013, tickets priced at £10.00 plus booking fee.

All money raised from the competition will be donated to the RNLI, which is a charity that saves lives at sea. They provide, on call, a 24-hour lifeboat search and rescue service and a seasonal lifeguard service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboats in 2001, its lifeguards have saved more than 140,000 lives.

  In order that we raise as much money as we possibly can, we have introduced a small entry fee of £2.50 – per act, this is payable on the door at the auditions.

To book your tickets for the Fylde’s Got Talent Final visit www.lowtherpavilion.co.uk or call the box office on 01253 794 221.

Happy New Year!!

First of all let me start by saying Happy New Year!

Santa sadly didn’t bring me a black Cockapoo puppy called ‘Ruby’ but I did get lots of other nice goodies to make up for it so I’ll let him off this once.

Yesterday the C&T office took a little trip to Madame Tussauds Blackpool to celebrate Susan & Ryan’s birthdays which took place over Christmas. I was quite gutted to find that Kylie had left and was now living at Madame Tussauds London. So off we went with our little bag of props down the promenade to Blackpool for the morning.


Here are some highlights! ENJOY.....

show off your best 'Poker Face'

Su-Bu & Su-Bo

Susan & Rachel share a snap on Blackpool Beach
Just a few miles down from where Lytham Proms takes Place

Me & Susan during our Jeremy Kyle Interview

Ryan helping Tiger out with his game



We all made it through the C&T Christmas Do!!



Peter & Lottie the Cockapoo hard at work



Well that was an eventful few days! On Thursday morning we were dog-sitting in the office, Lottie the Cockapoo came to play for an hour or so and she was such a little cutie (even despite having a little accident on Susan’s leg, whoops!)

On Friday afternoon we all opened our Secret Santa presents and to Gaz and Ryans delight they got their new Christmas outfits...

They're sexy and they know it!

The Cuffe & Taylor Christmas Do took place on Friday and a fantastic night was had by all. We planned on going to Peters house for Canapés and Cocktails before but this soon turned into Champagne and lots of shots so as you can imagine we turned up to the Christmas party very merry! One of the highlights of the night for me was when Peter sat on a whoopee cushion and almost fell off his chair (even more funny when under the influence of alcohol).

 

Susan, Rachel and I took a moment before the party to learn the Gangnam Style dance. We later performed the dance in perfect unison, to which I later got names ‘Psy’ after the man who sings the song...

Now for the photos... ENJOY!!















 













MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Holidays Are Coming

I’ve always been a huge lover of Christmas and even though I am now 22 my excitement for the party season hasn’t shrunk.

In the office we all have advert calendars but because we don’t want to have to take any chocolate home when we break up for Christmas next Friday, we have decided to also work back from 24^th December as we go forwards – well I’m not going to complain about the extra chocolate! 

I’m also addicted to M&S Turkey feast sandwiches (followed by a nice bit of CAKE for dessert). Yesterday I also discovered Costa Coffee make a lovely gingerbread latte so of course I had to treat myself to another one of those today when I went to get my Turkey feast sandwich from M&S!! I couldn’t recommend this drink highly enough to you; you should all go try it.

With recent weekend trips to London & York and Christmas parties coming up in the next couple of weeks I haven’t yet had time to do any Christmas shopping yet which is totally unlike my usual ‘wrapped up by November’ self! Instead I have been gallivanting around the country and sticking 1440 crystals on my Cuffe & Taylor Christmas party outfit, which will be unveiled this Friday (pictures to follow next week).

Anyway it’s time to sign off, better go write some Christmas cards and my ‘list’....

Dear Santa,

For Christmas this year I would like:

*another couple of hours added to every day in 2013

*something sparkly (obvs)

*a boyfriend (yea right)

*a Cockapoo puppy (think I’ve got more chance of the above request than my mum letting me have another dog)

Thanks big man!

Love Brett

Aged 22 years