Charlie’s thoughts on December

The best thing about December was that I got presents and I got to go away for a week’s holiday at the end. This blog is not however about such things. It is supposed to be about how hard I work at Robinson Howell Partnership Ltd. Because of that Christmas malarkey though, it was a shorter month at work than usual. What did we do?

Sue and Lyndsey have been running around like puppies sorting out the next tour for Spot On. It’s quite exhausting watching them. Sue says it’s like doing a giant jigsaw with someone changing the picture on the box all the time. Not sure about this though – dogs are not good at jigsaws. Things seem to be in place and will apparently be on the website very soon.

Lyndsey’s been talking to my mate Stephen at Source Creative a lot about how they can make the Spot On website even better than it is now. That sheep is still on the front page but I think his days are numbered!

Rob’s been making friends with a thing called a Creative Partnerships Database – whatever that is. Well I say making friends.... I’m glad he doesn’t talk to me like that.

Rob and Lyndsey have started an evaluation project with Ludus. It’s in Wigan... maybe they’ll bring me back some pies.

We’ve had snow – lots of it and it looks like we’re going to get more. I like snow. It’s fun and I like chasing snowballs. It’s a good job that we do our computing in that cloud thing as poor Lyndsey couldn’t get in just before Christmas. Her bus still hadn’t come after she’d stood in the cold for an hour and a half. We’ve re-named it the Wuss Bus.

We had a competition before Christmas. People had to answer a question with a chance of winning a highly prized, beautifully crafted effigy of me made of fur. I think it’s called a puppet but I’m not at all sure about where you’re supposed to put your hand. Ooh Err! It was won by an extremely lucky person who works at the Arts Council called Claire Eddleston-Rose. I hope she looks after it. There was also a competition to win some tickets to see a Spot On event which was won by someone called Una who works for Brouhaha in Liverpool.

Like I said I went away for a week’s holiday at the end of the month. I went to Devon. There wasn’t much snow down there but it was a bit chilly. I’ve put in a picture of me and my mate Jess who’s a rather cute black Labrador. Black Labradors are the second best thing to brown ones. We did lots of running around together and took our people out for lots of walks in the countryside.

I’ve been thinking more about this dog union thing - a union for dogs who work in creative places. I’ve come up with a name - British Association of Rather Creative Canines (BARCC ) – now I just need a manifesto and perhaps some members. Let me know if you’d like to join, I’ll post the information on my Facebook page.

Speaking of Facebook Lyndsey has been asking me to come up with acronyms for the Robinson Howell Partnership page. So far we’ve had ‘Reindeer Hauling Presents’, ‘Really Hate Parsnips’ and (following the staff Christmas party) ‘Returned Home Plastered’. If you have any other suggestions you could post them on our Twitter page.

New Years resolution – eat more bones, form a canine union and take my work colleagues out for more walks.

Charlie's Thoughts on November

Is it me or is it just too dark outside?

Much has been happening at Robinson Howell during November, Sue and Rob have been out and about around the North West. Sue is busy going to see lots of performances that are happening through Spot On, she’s just started programming the new season and she seems very focussed on lots of pieces of paper which are spread all over the office. I have been helping her by making sure she gets plenty of fresh air every day.

Rob is out Creative Partnershipping a lot, although I suspect he is driving to Blackpool to eat ice cream on the sea front without sharing it with a certain Labrador. He’s been all the way to London without me too, he said he had a meeting, but I think he took in a show – he even went first class! He’s also been working with Paul Hartley on a project called Plugged In which is about young people doing five hours of culture or something like that. Paul has a dog too called Monty. He’s little and he goes to work with Paul’s partner Joe. She’s an artist and he’s very skilled at sitting on his bed in the studio so he doesn’t get any paint on him. We working dogs should stick together. Is there a canine union anywhere? Anyway, Monty said that if anyone wants to look at what Joe paints in her studio you can check out her website here

Lyndsey has well and truly settled in to the office, she has been reading a lot and Rob and Sue keep giving her folders of work to look at. She seemed to enjoy the editing of mailout, apparently she had to write a review about a Girls’ Guide to Rocking, but I’ve been watching her very closely in the office and she hasn’t rocked from side to side once! Even Lyndsey went out to visit the people who design our websites, and again I was left to man... errr... dog the office. She is learning to tweet and is spending a lot of time on Facebook – she says it’s for work but maybe you should check out what she’s been up to. She says on Facebook you have to search for Robinson Howell Partnership, and on Twitter you can go to it here, You can even be my friend on Facebook now, just look for Charlie Brown – there are a lot of us, so you can make it easier to find me by filtering the results and typing in my workplace which is, of course, Robinson Howell Partnership.

Speaking of new friends, I got an email this week from two dogs in Cumbria who’ve been reading my blog. They sent me a picture of themselves and they look like really friendly canines, perhaps they would join the canine union with me and Monty. I’m not sure if they have jobs like me but they certainly have someone to type their emails like I do.

We’re all looking forward to Christmas; the advent calendar has been dusted off and is ready to go up on the wall.

In the post this morning came a big letter addressed to Charlie Brown, Office Dog – that’s me. Sue helped me open it and it was an advent calendar for dogs – wow – I’m not sharing it. To be honest I don’t really know why I have to wait and just have one bit each day. It would be far more efficient for me to have it all at once.