Brexit according to Queen Bey
Fans of EG’s Question Time debates will know we only ever stage them when major musical acts are in town. Touring schedules of One Direction, Justin Bieber, Manic Street Preachers and more have all clashed with dates in our long-running debate series.
And this time it was Beyonce. While her Bey Hive (the official name for fans of the singer) flocked to Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, property networkers did what they do best in Cardiff City Hall, just down the road.
There, a panel of industry professionals also had a stage, but it was to make sense of the Brexit vote and the implications for Wales. Though it occurred to Diary the key messages could have been written by Queen Bey herself.
There was emphasis on being a Survivor as the song from Beyonce’s former band Destiny’s Child goes, and also making Lemonade when life – or in Wales’ case, Brexit – threatens to give you lemons. See, motivation – you never know where you will find it.
Call Grainger’s midwife
When your title is customer relationship manager for the UK’s largest listed landlord, you probably don’t expect to be managing one of the greatest relationships between two people. Unless you are Khush Rajgor from Grainger.
While getting ready to call it a day last week, Rajgor bumped into one of the tenants at Grainger’s Abbeville development, looking agitated.
“Everything okay?” asked Rajgor.
“My wife is having a baby,” said the tenant.
But before Rajgor could say congratulations, the tenant added: “Right now. In the bike shed.”
So, while dad-to-be called an ambulance, Rajgor kept mum as calm as possible, counting contractions and hoping that the ambulance would soon arrive. No such luck. It soon became clear that the ambulance was not going to make it in time.
After a traumatic delivery (for Rajgor, mother and baby are fine) it looks like this customer relationship manager is going to have to make room on her business card for a new title: emergency midwife.
Property on the slide
Last week Sky News put its reporter on a roller coaster as a metaphor for post-referendum turmoil. Not to be outdone, team EG headed for the longest, fastest tunnel slide in the world – ArcelorMittal’s Orbit on the former Olympic site, E20. Judging by the screams of terror, we think we nailed what it was like to be property stock.
Queen first to the quarter
Ever on the lookout for news, Diary also checked out Lend Lease’s new pop-up event space at the International Quarter on the Olympic Park, E20. We are sad to report that for once we were not first on the scene. Rumour has it the structure previously hosted the Queen’s 90th birthday celebration. Now that’s what we call an anchor tenant.
Mail-dominated analysis
The ever self-deprecating Alan Carter, property analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, has apologised to e-mail recipients of his notorious update as they are likely to hear from him more often as a result of Brexit.
“Bad news I’m afraid. Instead of getting one of these notes every month or so, you are likely to be inundated for a while because (a) I’ve nothing else to do, and (b) because this is a sector now likely to be driven very much by snippets of info until the bigger picture becomes clearer.”
Carter will at least be able to spend more time on the golf course. Coincidentally, of course, he did seek to highlight SEGRO as an attractive stock, while thanking it for a jolly day out on the fairways.
Iggy’s tail wag for the mag
Last week’s Diary page featured the tale of a pampered pooch unexpectedly making its stage debut at architect Buckley Grey Yeoman’s Building Creative Communities breakfast. And now we know why. Iggy the terrier, the faithful hound of .ing Media’s managing director Leanne Tritton, is clearly a big fan of the mag.
