Day off, joint account, thumbs up Marks & Spencer, into Insider event

Today was a most welcome day off. Sometimes it is good to have a day off. Toni and I kicked things off with a visit to Nat West to setup a joint bank account ready for when I move in on 26th December. This was all very painless to do which was a pleasant surprise for a bank!

Next stop was Marks & Spencer to do some shopping. We picked up a few Xmas bits and then hit the food hall. The plan had just been to get some gluten free bread but then as we looked around we realised that Marks & Spencer had done something very strange. They had introduced massive amounts of gluten free products and not just tucked away in a "Free From" aisle but spread throughout the store. It was wonderful, so many things Toni would have struggled with were now gluten free: sausages, burgers, fish cakes, meatloaf etc etc. We ended up doing a weekly shop rather than just getting a few bits.

When we got home I sent Marks & Spencer a very long email praising them for such a fantastic range of gluten free products. How often do we feel compelled to write a letter of praise rather than complaint? LOL

In the afternoon I headed up to King's Cross to meet Dan Miller and the pair of us made our way to The BrickHouse in Brick Lane for the into Insider Windows Phone launch event (the end result of our trials of the Nokia Lumia 800).

Proceedings were kicked off with a beer and us having to dress up and pretend to be cold for a photo to try and win a holiday in Finland:

Alex James (of Blur) was the MC for the night.......

Along with a free bar and free curry all night we were treat to three musical sets.

ISABEL ROSE
Very pleasant and chilled, Isabel delivered some cool acoustic guitar with some sweet vocals

BEBE BLACK
Soulful, yet powerful, vocals against a piano backdrop, it was actually quite a remarkable set that was way too short.

CHIPPING NORTON ALL STARS
The musical event finished off with a mighty fine swing band. They were joined onstage by Nick Moran (of Lock, Stock fame). Great little set that got the crowd going and a few of us dancing.

The night was rounded off with DJ sets from Alex James and also Sophie Ellis Bextor, with her hubby Richard Jones (from The Feeling).

It was a fun event overall and I can't complain with getting a free phone, free drink, free food plus some celebs that I wouldn't normally get to see!