Boo hoo

These are sad times at Fruit Towers. Although nobody really wants to talk about it, there is a sombre feeling in the air, and people weep quietly in secluded corners, thinking about what might have been. Yes, it's the end of winter, and thus time to bid goodbye to the seasonal recipe that helped us get through the dark months. Apples, cranberries and cinnamon will leave a smoothie-shaped hole in our lives, but we reckon we'll be a bit more cheerful next week, when we'll be announcing our brand new spring recipe. It's going to be very exciting.

Dai another day

In case you hadn't noticed, today is St David's Day. This means that Welsh people all over the world will sing special Welsh songs, and Welsh women will wear traditional costume down to the pub for a lager and lime this evening. We wanted to find out about St David, so we asked our Lucy, who is very Welsh, but she shamefacedly revealed that she was a bit sketchy on the whole St David story. So we turned to our very own patron saint, St Google, to find out a bit more. Click here to read about St David and also to see the Flowers of the Week, which are looking pretty Welsh.

Work is fun™

Work is sometimes boring. After you've done the exciting stuff, like making lifesize models of HMS Victory out of paperclips and four sheets of loo roll, it can get a bit samey. So we were heartened to receive some nice pictures from a man called Chris, who has brightened up his workspace with a collection of innocent bottles. Have a look at them here.

We are also working on ways to alleviate boredom in the office. Our webcam is usually a very boring thing indeed, but just recently we've shuffled the furniture round a bit and now there is someone sitting directly in front of the camera. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Geoffcam, a bit like a webcam but solely focused on Geoff's desk. If you spot him getting up to anything a bit funny, please email us st stoppickingyournose@innocentdrinks.co.uk

Our spring thing

It's official. Spring has finally arrived. Even as we speak, the people of Fruit Towers are taking off their woolly jumpers and changing into yellow singlets with brown piping, standard issue for this time of year as far as we're concerned. But even better than all of us wearing vests is the fact that our new seasonal smoothie has arrived. And it's quite special, even if we do say so ourselves, not least because it's the first time we've used vegetables in one of our drinks. Oranges, carrots and mangoes is the recipe, and very nice it is too. We've been working on it for quite a while - if you want to read all about our baby carrots, click here.

Hot to trot

There is a school of thought that says that running is just walking for impatient people. But here at Fruit Towers, running seems to be taking over. For one thing, there is now an innocent running club who leg it up and down the banks of the Thames twice a week. And this morning Amanda told us all about the half marathon she did at the weekend, around the Silverstone racing track. Ever the professional, Amanda battled through hail, wind, muscle cramp, freezing weather and a broken leg* to finish in a very respectable 2 hours 45 minutes. In other running news...

• Geoff (of Geoffcam fame) will be running the Paris marathon in aid of the Aegis Trust
• Barney will be running the 151 mile Marathon des Sables later this year (see below for more)
• And this morning there was a fox running about on our roof

Off to the ball

We will use any excuse to get dressed up, whether it be in yellow vests or perhaps something more formal, like a posh dress or bow tie. Last Friday we put on our fanciest kit and went to Barney's Sandstorm Ball, the sole purpose of which was to raise money so that Barney and his brother can go and run 150 miles in 6 days across the Sahara. Quite why Barney wants to do this we don't know, but he has always been a little bit loose upstairs, so we are letting him get on with it all. Anyway, the ball was amazing, themed as it was around the mysteries of the desert and those balmy Saharan nights. It was held at the London Souk (aka Fulham Town Hall), and there were lots of great things to see (belly dancers and bedouin tents) and do (dance to the Moroccan band, eat proper tagine and drink authentic Moroccan lager). By the end of what was a very 'emotional' night for everyone, Barney was closer to his fundraising target, having raised £14,000 on the night via some very fancy auctions (flights in Tornado jets, borrowing a Ferrari for the weekend, and, erm, winning some innocent drinks).

Barney asks us that we direct you to the website of the people he is raising money for. They're called Journey of a Lifetime, and they do a great job of taking disadvantaged kids on amazing journeys of a lifetime. If you happen to find a couple of spare thousand pounds in change down the side of your sofa, or maybe just even £1.28, and you'd like to make a donation online, you can do it at http://www.justgiving.com/desertcrazy

*the broken leg thing is a bit of a fib

Bright lights, Brum city?

The reason why it's so quiet in the office today, is because many of our number have gone on a work-related* jaunt to Birmingham. We have a lovely stand at the NEC Food & Drink Expo 2004, complete with real grass, not to mention real people. We all get quietly excited about being able to get out of the office and tell lots of lovely people about our drinks, including our new spring seasonal smoothie - oranges, carrots and mangoes. If you're in the area please do pop over to stand H91 in Hall 19, whereby you can ask us all sorts of questions about our range, discuss the merits of cheese and try and find out where you left your house keys last night. To find out more, please click here

* the rumour that this was a ruse to go to Cadbury World are completely false, but should you swing by, don't forget our Buttons.

They're trees, to be sure

We're very fond of all things Irish. After all, they've given us Boyzone, Westlife and Guinness. We're also big fans of trees, and when we found out there were no plans for any new trees to be planted this year in Dublin, we took it upon ourselves to plant some Tibetan Cherry Trees (Ringsend Park) and a Magnolia Kobus tree (Scoil Ide, Raheny). Peter "please call me Alan Titchmarsh" Oden, oversaw the operation in Ringsend Park, along with a little help from Ringsend Junior School. We say a little help, but whilst Peter went to make himself a cup of tea and swapped some stickers, the children dug the holes under the watchful eye of Jimmy the caretaker, and Norma the headmistress. Have a look at the trees here

To continue the Irish theme, we're going to be in the Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Cork on Wednesday. Look out for our cow, grassy and dancing grass vans, and wave your flags and throw some money at Matthew H, Peter and Alexis. There will also be special promotions in the local O'Brien's sandwich bars, and a sampling session in Dunnes Stores, on Patrick Street.

Watch out for this man

We all know news travels fast in this day and age. No sooner do we hear Jordan and Peter Andre are together, then they're not, then he re-releases a record, then they're together again, blah blah blah. Rather unexpectedly we turned up in a Malaysian newspaper called "New Straits Times." Nestled amongst reports of a woman who stabbed her husband 193 times, and another lady who gave birth to her grandchildren, was a picture of one of our grassy vans, being, dare we say it, stroked by "an unidentified pedestrian." Please watch out for this man, and should you see him, keep a safe distance and ring us on the banana phone 020 8600 3939 with his whereabouts. And if he happens to be your brother/friend/neighbour, please send us in his details, and a case of our drinks will be on their way to him, after fingerprint analysis and car caressing techniques have been determined.

Watch out for our man

To spice things up a bit, we thought we'd have a Geoffcam challenge. Sometime this week, during office hours, Geoff will be doing a handstand. The first person to send an e-mail to dontforgettotuckyourshirtin@innocentdrinks.co.uk after he's done it wins a case of our finest drinks.

There was only one person who was eagle-eyed* enough to catch Geoff on Geoffcam doing his handstand as mentioned in last week's webnews. The lucky winner is Jancy D, who contacted us a mere 3 minutes after the event had happened. Well done.

*eagle eyed or just very bored. You decide.

It's in the bag

Let's face it, you always need a bag. And as most of us love them, you can often hear gasps of joy over the latest Fiorelli/Gucci/Waitrose bag throughout Fruit Towers. A young man called Daniel Gray took the love of bags to a whole other level when he made his very own innocent bottle bag, complete with the dude logo, and space to transport your favourite drinks around. Upon seeing his photos we asked if he'd mind giving up a bit of study time, all in the name of furthering his sewing technique, to make us one of our very own. He very kindly did send in a replica, which we got some young visitors to model to show its versatility. See the bag in all its glory here.

Vital news

Every now and again you may feel as though you've lost that spring in your step, the twinkle from your eye and that tenner you'd tucked away safely for a rainy day. Worry no longer, as we're going along to The Vitality Show at Olympia, on 26th to 29th March, to try and find all of this and more. Pop along and find your own smoothie nirvana, and don't forget to let us know if you've found a miracle cream or want to show us how you can get your legs behind your head. Find out more here.

Pat-a-cake

As you may recall, we were looking forwards to taking part in the St Patrick's Day parade in Cork. A rather large 40,000 people turned out for the big day, the sun shone upon our vans, whilst our very own Matthew H, Peter and Alexis were very restrained and sipped on nothing stronger than mineral water the entire day.

To continue the rather tenuous link, Dan G was asked to go and talk about innocent up in Scotland. He was a little bit reluctant to go as it was on his birthday, so Suzanne and Kay, who organised the trip, gave him a very special cake to make him feel right at home. Dan showed great willpower by bringing the cake back to Fruit Towers, with its icing still in tact, so he could share it with everyone. Click here to see top notch cake decorating and some parade photos.