Some things that you might like to know

In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II was named an honorary Harlem Globetrotter. A person uses approximately fifty-seven sheets of toilet paper each day. And this weekend we were named Britain's Best Employer in a book published by The Guardian, intriguingly titled Britain's Best Employers 2005.

We were commended for our pay and benefits scheme, the company culture and above all for our commitment to providing free cereal and toast for breakfast. If you fancy a bowl of Rice Krispies and a job, have a look at www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/us/jobs/ for more details.

Some places that you might like to visit

We found out today that our drinks are on sale at London Zoo and Legoland. Two prime tourist attractions selling our stuff. So if you hadn't planned a trip already, maybe this news will steer you away from other less refreshing venues.

Some things that you might like to own

Every once in a while an invention catches the collective imagination of a world that is crying out for new ways to solve age old problems. Mr Dyson did it with his clever hoovers, sorry, vacuum cleaners. And Henry Ford put his finger on the nub of our needs with the first ever mass produced motorised carriages. But we think we might have found something that rivals the creations of Messrs Ford and Dyson. It's called the Double Decker Pet Stroller and we think that the picture sums it all up. Take two cats for a walk. At the same time. For only $250. Feel the innovation at www.skymall.com

Some prizes that you might like to win

And now to a competition. It's a post-Easter sort of thing for people who may have eaten a fair few chocolate eggs. All you need to do is send us a picture of you doing something to work off the Easter excess. It could be a brisk walk with your cats and your Double Decker Pet Stroller, or perhaps you and your friends in the office doing some circuit training or amateur kickboxing. The three pictures that sum up the mood of post-Easterness the most win a case of drinks and a copy of our award winning* book Stay Healthy, Be Lazy. Send pictures to workitbaby@innocentdrinks.co.uk by the end of Sunday 3 April. Thanks

* Best Little Book With Picture Of Some Broccoli In It, 2004

A new look

It's time for a new look. We thought about wearing some ironic grey slip ons and getting a directional wedge hairdo but then decided to save the fashion for later and treat our labels to a makeover instead. It's nothing too dramatic - we've just made them a bit prettier, and they're a bit bigger too, so we've got more room for claptrap and piffle round the back. You still get the same drinks inside, but after nearly six years we figured we should fancy them up a little. We hope you like them. Let us know what you think at f-f-fresh@innocentdrinks.co.uk

A new parade

Matt and Peter are our men in Dublin and they love putting on a good show. Usually it's just a laugh and a joke down the pub or maybe some sock puppetry, but last week they went to town, seeing as it was St Patrick's Day. They got us involved in the main parade in Dublin, which we are reliably informed was the largest ever St Patrick's Day parade, with over 750,000 people lining the streets. Check out the pictures that they allowed us to show you.

A new person

Please say hello to Kate. She's our new Grocer Supply Specialist, and she's definitely the first one of those we've ever had. Kate has some special facts to share with us including the following:

• She has kissed Jason Donovan
• She learned to knit in South America and has been working on a scarf for some time
• If you cooked her some chicken (skin off) and mash she would definitely eat it

A new Austrian snowman

We get sent lots of interesting things but pride of place this week goes to Henry's snowman. Henry lives in Austria and sent us this picture of his handiwork. Nice arms.

A new vote of thanks...

... to everyone who sent in ideas for our new recipe book. We're supposed to write it pretty soon so your help is much appreciated.

A new place to sell our drinks?

We will soon be embarking on our annual sales blitz. What we do is all leave the office for a day, drive around in Cow Vans and pass the time of day with shopkeepers. Some of them even agree to sell our drinks, which is a bit of a bonus. If you know a nice shop near you that doesn't sell our drinks but really should do, please email downmystreet@innocentdrinks.co.uk

The best three suggestions will win drinks galore. We're especially interested in London shops right now, though to be honest we'd be grateful for local knowledge from wherever is local to you.

Food, Glorious Food

Are you at a loose end over the next couple of days? Or are you just a bit bored of work? If you're one of our distributors, or are thinking of becoming one (perhaps you're packing in the rat race to start a lovely little café) then we have the ideal entertainment for you. The International Food Exhibition is happening at ExCel in London's Docklands, and what a show it promises to be. If you like food and drink, you should be OK - it's Europe's largest food and drink show, and if you're clever you can walk round all day eating and drinking for free. Check out http://www.ife.co.uk/ and come over for a chat with us at stand 4727.

Lit crit required

Writing books is easy. You pick a title, invent a hero and then write some stuff about them getting into trouble but eventually coming good and getting the girl/boy/flu. So when we sat down and thought about writing a new innocent book we thought we had it sorted. Of course, we forgot that we were a smoothie company and that we should probably write a recipe book. So we sat down and had another think and decided that it would be a good idea to ask you what you'd like to see in an innocent recipe book.

• what makes a recipe book great?
• what annoys/overjoys you about juicing and making smoothies?
• what would you like to know more about (smoothie related stuff please)?
• do you have any recipes that you'd like to share with us?
• any other thoughts whatsoever about juicing and smoothie-making that you'd like to see in print?

Send your thoughts to bookish@innocentdrinks.co.uk and we'll reward the best 3 sets of suggestions with a case of drinks. And if your recipe gets used, you'll gain even more riches and rewards.

Let them eat cake

People seem to try quite hard to get jobs at Fruit Towers. Last week we had a man outside giving out flyers saying why he should work here. And someone else got up rather early and came up from Devon on the train to give us a cake that was shaped exactly like one of our cow vans. In fact, it looked better than one of our cow vans, and if anyone from Renault is reading, perhaps you could use this shape when remodelling the next generation of Kangoo vans. Anyway, if you fancy working here you should check out the vacancies by looking at http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/us/jobs . And remember that usually a simple letter and CV will suffice, although we never frown upon cakes (flapjacks are our current favourite).

Golden Years

We're only just over Brad and Jen splitting, and felt we needed something which would give us a bit of faith in the act of being wed. And boy did we find it. The lovely Doreen and Gordon opened their doors and invited Row to their Golden Wedding Anniversary party up in Nottingham. Doreen is a massive fan of our mangoes and passion fruit smoothie, calling it 'better than golden nectar,' so we made sure she had some to hand on her special day. Although there was talk of teaching Row how to tango, she settled instead for hearing all the gossip from Doreen's best friend Audrey, who'd known her since she was 14. (That's Doreen, not Row). A great time was had by all.

Hello. Do we say this every week? That we've got loads of news so we'd better shut up and get on with it? Well, even if we don't, it's true this week. Here you go...

Doing it for the kids

We've been trying to keep this a bit of a secret for a while, but it's pretty tough to keep it a secret when they're on the shelves in the shops. Our new smoothies for kids are finally ready and will be on sale later this week (in branches of Waitrose to start off with). There are two delightful recipes to start off with, and we reckon that those of you who are parents will be happy to hear that they are the only completely natural kids' drinks on the market. No concentrates, no added sugar, no sweeteners and simply no additives whatsoever. They taste amazing too, as the slightly too old author of this week's news can testify, having just finished 3 cartons in one sitting.

Gongs

Soft Drinks International is pretty similar to Time or Newsweek. Each week it examines international affairs in depth, but tends to have a tighter focus than the latter two magazines, concentrating as it does on the world of soft drinks. Last week they made the announcement that our drinks had won the prize of 'most innovative fruit juice drink' in the whole world. Not Shepherds Bush, not the UK and not even Wyoming or the Hindu Kush. The whole world. Which is a bit special. We're proud.

The facts that matter

Getting back to matters of a slightly more local nature, our Fiona has been researching shops in the UK that sell our drinks. This week she throws up a couple of facts about these shops. Anne's Pasties, in Lizard, Cornwall, turns out to be our most southerly stockist (and is run by our Nicky's aunt and uncle). Meanwhile, a place called Trenarbies in the Orkney Islands is our most northernmost outpost.

Grow your own

Some of you may remember some little bottles that we gave away a while ago. They looked pretty much like our regular drinks except for the fact that they were filled with soil and melon seeds. The idea was that some of you would take them home and grow some melons. So imagine how happy we were to get some photos from Amanda showing us her bumper crop. Should feed a family of five for a week.