September has been busy for the J&PR team this month, from holidays to team building sessions, it has been pretty non-stop!
Here’s what we’ve been up to…
Starting with the ‘back to school’ brigade
Kirsty returned from the most amazing holiday - 27 nights covering Miami, Key Largo, Key West, Orlando, Bahamas, Haiti, Jamaica, Daytona and Fort Lauderdale. The family made so many memories together and they enjoyed it with friends. They were disappointed the Moon Rocket didn't get off the ground despite the 4.30am start to the best viewing point! Days later Kirsty’s youngest son joined his big brother at secondary school - she says doing just one school run again is a joy!
While Kirsty enjoyed her own holiday, her professional highlight is coming back to the office and getting to hear all about the summer holidays from the team. September has historically been our busiest month of the year so we were all refreshed and ready to go!
Rhea’s personal highlight for September would be her eldest starting secondary school and seeing him ride off down the road with his friends! He is loving it so far and she’s enjoying getting to see him experiencing all of the different lessons and get his lesson planner diary, his art sketchbook and French dictionary and everything he needs - it took Rhea right back to her own days at secondary school!
With back to school comes ‘back to football’, and for Si that means running the junior football team he coaches. The team started with a 7-1 win and 1-1 draw, which was an absolutely amazing turnaround after last season when they lost almost every match (sometimes by a very big scoreline...). Si and the team have worked hard over the summer training twice a week, so it's so great to see the youngsters getting some positive results after being so dedicated. Let's hope they can keep it up!
A busy month
Dani is enjoying starting with new clients and working with exciting current ones! Joyed to take on work for Bettws Lifehouse and Design & Visual Concepts and eager to get going and learn more about the amazing companies. She’s also very excited to have spoken to some exciting people working with Jesmonite in Ghana and Australia this month - a 6.30am work call is always a great start to the day!
Securing high-profile media coverage for clients is always satisfying, and whilst we specialise in Shropshire and regional press, we do have the ability to go further and wider whenever we can. A great example of this was when a case study from one of our longest-serving clients, Lanyon Bowdler, ended up in the New York Post! That is definitely one of Si’s professional highlights for this month!
Tony enjoyed speaking to Shropshire author Roy Bradshaw about the upcoming launch of his latest book: Mr. B’s Busy-Bea (The Ritzzz Hotel).
His personal highlight was a very important one, getting the all-clear after attending a prostate screening event in Bridgnorth!
Time with loved ones
Freya was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her boyfriend's brother and (now) wife! They had a fantastic day and evening celebrating the pair and Freya couldn't be more grateful to have been asked to be part of their special day. She also really enjoyed tucking into the gorgeous grazing table! As anyone who knows Freya will tell you, she’s a huge cheese fan.
Sophie’s personal highlight was her best friend visiting from London. The pair lived together in Cardiff for a year and they don't get to see each other anywhere near as much as they'd like to, so it was a real treat to have her stay for a weekend. They went for a walk around Bridgnorth and enjoyed looking in all of its charity shops and great local independents, then they went to Ironbridge for her first tour of the World Heritage Site. On Saturday evening they went for dinner at their favourite place, Peepo, and then met up with some of Sophie’s friends for drinks. Sophie said it was great to have all of her favourite people in the same place - only missing her favourite colleagues of course. They finished the weekend with a delicious Sunday roast at Sophie’s mum's house!
We’re all hoping for an invite to the next Sunday roast at Sophie’s mum's house!
Dani became an aunty this September, Luna Aria was safely born this month and said it is a really exciting time. In case you didn’t know, Dani is a knitting wizard! Luna Aria is going to be the best dressed niece in the country!
Dani doesn’t know it yet, but we’re going to make her knit us a new uniform!
Freya R went to Corfu for a week with her friends Sophie (not our Sophie) and ‘Woz’. She spent the week in the sea, pedal boating, at the pool and then returned home with a passion for tzatziki! Whilst there, they also witnessed the most incredible thunderstorm that woke them all up in the middle of the night. It was worth getting up for.
Our Workplace Workshop
Kirsty, Rhea, Sophie, Freya M and Freya R all said the Workplace Workshop we had with Lucy Edgar of Human Everything was their professional highlight of the month! You’ll notice a trend here…
While Kirsty loved coming back to work after her holiday and seeing the team, she also enjoyed the fantastic day with Human Everything - a Workplace Workshop after completing our DiSC profiles - and the whole team laughed, laughed and laughed!
Rhea felt the session allowed us to get to know each other better and gave us a lot of laughs and fun - it made her realise how fantastic our J&PR team is and how well we work together to deliver the services our clients need.
Freya M said it was really interesting finding out how each member of the team works and how to communicate effectively.
We promised we had not bribed her to say this… Sophie said she loves every day at work but this one was really special. Being able to chat openly, learn more about each other and have a great laugh at the same time was amazing... and you can't beat a paid-for Subway lunch!
Sophie has really tried to take things we learned about each other onboard and our DiSC types, and it's already making an impact on the way she considers working with the team.
Freya R enjoyed her Human Everything presentation with Si, trying to sell the other DiSC teams a bulldog clip… through laughter and a few tears. We also got around to doing the work book club (finally!) and Freya is looking forward to getting started on the next book!
