Bring your daughter to the slllll…auction, oooh yeah. Diary thinks that is how the song goes. It is definitely what popped into our head (and now won’t leave) on hearing that a warehouse, once used by iconic heavy metal band Iron Maiden for costume storage, sold at Auction House London’s most recent sale. The property – in the rockiest of all towns, Royston in Hertfordshire – was offered at £70,000 but topped the charts, selling at more than double that. Diary wonders if it might have reached The Number of the Beast (with a few more zeros) if the warehouse had come with the costumes included…
The writing’s on the wall
With EG mere months away from its big move to the heart of the City, it’s only natural that thoughts should turn to interior décor. And, thanks to a timely e-mail this week, Diary knows what it wants to see in the new gaff – motivational quote wallpaper. According to Wallsauce, its new range is intended to bring (much-needed) “positive vibes into 2019”. It says: “The power of positive messaging in any environment has long been accepted as having an uplifting effect on mood and attitude and with a Wallsauce inspirational wallpaper in your home, office or gym, you will be sure to be creating the most positive environment possible to reach whatever goals you have set.” There are plenty to choose from: “All things are possible if you believe.” “All you need is love.” “Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.” But, in the unlikely event Diary is given any input on our new HQ, we’d choose the one pictured below. Mainly because it reminds us of our favourite mantra, as immortalised by Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em: “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”
Notorious P.I.G.
In the corporate world of blustering egos and supposed infallibility, it is rare for any company to have the honesty to put its hands up and admit it just doesn’t know. So hats off to executive real estate recruitment company Bohill Partners, which, in its latest compensation review inspired by Chinese new year earlier this month, declared 2019 “the year of the P.I.G. – pretty impossible to guess”. It went on to say: “As a result, predicting where compensation levels are likely to head over the next 12 months is no easy task, though we do not foresee pay rising significantly.” Diary is hoping that by the end of the year it comes to stand for “pretty impressive gains”.
Blow-up LOLs
Here at EG we take our responsibilities with REWIRE – our initiative to help the industry on its diversity and inclusion journey – very seriously indeed. Which is why at the first event of the year – a special gathering for those women out there who put their hands up saying they wanted to get involved in more events and be more visible in the industry – we definitely did not lower the tone. Nope, not us. There were no analogies with blow-up dolls, we did not talk about role play and the language was definitely not the dirtiest we have ever heard at a property event. Nuh-uh. Or was it? If you want to find out why we actually were talking about blow-up dolls, then you definitely need to make sure you listen in to the EG REWIRE podcasts (available on all your favourite podcast channels) and come to our next REWIRE event. Just e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk to get yourself added to the list.
Unpublish and be damned
Well, that’s one way of streamlining the planning process. Word reaches us from across the Irish sea that some 29,000 third-party objections to planning applications have “disappeared” from Dublin City Council’s online planning portal. Apparently, the letters of objection dating back years were “unpublished in error” (after being published in Eire…). Work is under way to fix the problem. According to the Irish Times, Green Party councillor Ciarán Cuffe has described it as “an extraordinary outage”, by which he could have meant outrage, but we’re honestly not sure. Cuffe took to Twitter too, wryly adding: “With apologies to Oscar Wilde: to lose one planning observation may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose 29,000 looks like carelessness.”
Downward-leasing dog
Diary drove past the very sad-looking Toys R Us in Milton Keynes last weekend, reinforcing EG’s Valentine’s Day revelation that almost two-thirds of the chain’s portfolio remains empty a year after it fell into administration. What to do with all that space? Well, this might be a bit of a stretch, but how about… yoga? It only comes to mind after hearing that the Soo Yoga Group – controlled by former England Rugby International, Ben Cohen MBE, and dancer Kristina Rihanoff, who famously met on Strictly Come Dancing – has entered into its first letting agreement: a rather confident 15-year lease for 12,800 sq ft at Palace Capital’s Sol Northampton leisure scheme. It’s simple maths: rugby + dance = yoga. Or something. Fingers crossed for great success that could inspire Soo Yoga to expand into former Toys R Us premises across the land. Geoffrey the Giraffe even sounds a bit like it could be a pose.
