What we’d really like you to do this week is to take some time out from your hectic daily schedule to think about frogs. They jump really high and have massive eyes. Amazing.

Healthy hunting help at hand

Veg pots. Healthy, tasty, filling, and always there for you. Well, nearly. While we’re trying our best to get them into more stores all the time, lots of you have emailed to say you don’t know where your nearest veg pot stockist is. Well fear not, for help is at hand. If you drop an email to hello@innocentdrinks.co.uk, letting us know your post code and saying something like ‘Hello there. You have a nice face. I’m itching to tuck into a veg pot but don’t know where to find them. Can you help?’, then we’ll have a look on our clever store finder thingy to see where your nearest stockist is. Simple as that.

Money, money, money

Finance teams. Every business has one. But just what is it that these Excel literate, often very beautiful people actually do? We got talking to some of our Finance team to find out and the results were, well, a little confusing. From what we gather, finance is all about taxis and ice lollies. And numbers. But mostly taxis and ice lollies. For a more in depth understanding/further confusion, just click here. For now though, please take a moment to enjoy this picture of our Ben from Finance playing frisbee in a pair of short shorts. Is there anything better than short shorts? Probably. But not on Ben. Just look at him go.

Short shorts continued...

This is possibly the most frightening line up the world has seen since the Munsters gathered together for a family photo. The ‘shortest shorts competition’ was the final event at our innocent Sports Day last week, which we held for no other reason than to get us down the park and out of the office for a while. As well as scaring small children with our milky white thighs, we also competed in some rather more serious events. The kiwi and spoon race, the wibbly wobbly race and the three legged race. No room for butterflies on the start line or pushy parents here. It was like Sports Day at school, only fun. For a full round up of the day’s events and some more garish photos, just click here. Eye shielding advisable.

The crust of the matter

Who’d have thought there could be so many names for the-thick-bit-of-bread-at-the-end-of-the-loaf. And just how is it that the term ‘the-thick-bit-of-bread-at-the-end-of-the-loaf’ never took off? Beyond us. Thank you all for giving us a slice of your mind. In the end though, there could be no other winner, and no more tenuous bread-based puns, than Loopy, whose term ‘the outsider’ (to be said in thick Glaswegian accent) had us kneading stitches.

And finally...

This week, everyone is either on holiday, down the park or ‘working from home’. So if you’re sat at work reading this, just follow this script* and treat yourself to an afternoon off.

Knitter natter

August. Technically the time of year to be lounging about in a nokini, sipping on a mint julep, as opposed to drinking cups of tea and knitting miniature woolly hats. However, as all wise knitters know, it’s never too early to get the needles a-clacking. Especially on a wet Wednesday in W6. Which is why we invited some of London’s finest knitters (a.k.a the Stitch and Bitch knitting group) along to Fruit Towers for an evening of cake, chat and knitting. It’s what fashionable types would call a ‘soft’ launch for the Big Knit 2009. We just called it a night of knitting and cake. Click here to see what went down.

Graze for free

The people at graze are giving away a free box of healthy treats to everyone in the innocent family. Instead of a crisp sandwich, you just go to their website, choose what you want to go in your box (from fresh pineapple, cashew nuts, and goji berries to yoghurt covered raisins) and they deliver them straight to you at work or at home. It’s like a healthy version of pick’n’mix minus the covert shoplifting. Just follow this link, click the green 'promotion code? enter it here' link on the right of the screen and then type in the code - (code only available to innocent family members) to get your first box free and your second half price.

The crust of the matter

Since the new toaster has become the focal point of all gossip and skiving related activities in Fruit Towers, many an interesting discussion has taken place in the face of its chrome glare. Is it acceptable to have chocolate spread before 9am? What is the difference between wholemeal, brown and that seedy bitty stuff? And just what do you call the end of the bread? Purists say it must be referred to as the crust but others beg to differ. Bums and heels to name but a few. Let us know what you call that-thicker-bit-of-bread right here. Best name wins a breadbin of drinks and some toast (lightly buttered).

And finally...

*’Yeah. I’m not feeling so good. That egg bhuna I had last night is twisting my melon. I think it’s best for everyone if I just go home now.’

The best saffron requires crocuses picked at dawn whilst the best soufflés need unlined copper egg bowls. However, for the best in recycled medieval battle ware, foldable art and town crying, all you need do is read on.

Newly opened

Occasionally, the tubes for our squeezies prove to be tricksy little things to open. Due to the way the material tears when you open it, small hands have had an irksome time of trying to get into them. Thanks to some hard work from our Jacqueline and her engineering friends, we're working to improve this by coming up with opening solutions designed to get you to the puree pronto. We’ve now added a channel to the tearing mechanism, making it a more S shaped tear and ensuring you can get into the squeezie. If pictures are your thing, you can see a little diagram which explains it all here. Obviously it was a lot more technical and complicated to than that two line summary indicates. But you get the drift.

Oyez, oyez, oyez

Joe’s dad, Alistair, popped into Fruit Towers this week to bellow a specially penned ditty for Gurdeep’s birthday (and for everyone else who was within earshot). Although he lost out at the British Town Crier Championships to another well lunged fellow, Alistair still reigns supreme as the National Town Crier Champion and you can see him action right here. Sadly, the video cut out before Alistair finished his cry but if you can come up with a suitable two line ending and post your entry on our blog, then you can win yourself a big box of smoothies. O yay indeed.

Fold a friend

Inspired by last week’s link to Ross Kemp’s facial origami, some of the folk in the Tropics have taken it one step further and come up with their own monthly competition: Fold your Friend. Each budding origamist must choose a photo of selected desk mate (first up: Dr. Shilpee) and make their own foldable interpretation of said colleague’s face. Jeremy’s was inspired, Jim’s fancy and Miche’s just looked a little crumpled. However, King of the Folds was James M (although he did enter more than once, scooping a highly commended post-it note rosette as well as the winning prize). You can see more of paper folding at it’s finest right here.

Big well done to David who wins a coolerbox full of our kids’ smoothies and squeezies after taking part in last week’s survey.

And finally...

This week’s news is like a golden syrup sandwich on an Andalucian beach. Hot, sticky and ever so slighty gritty.

Second time lucky

Hot off the press, the second edition of our book is now available. Despite the fact that we only published the first edition back in May, inevitably we were going to leave stuff out. Like the odd word/comma/photo of Adam in his pants. So we’ve added more pictures, a few more words and some other tidbits too. If you’ve already bought a copy of our book and are feeling slightly short changed, then fret not, for you are now officially in possession of a first edition (and not that much has changed anyway). Buy it a dust jacket, pop it in the library next to those VHS tapes disguised as old books and in 60 years’ time, your grandkids’ inheritance will be sorted. Cashback indeed.

When life hands you lemons

Eat nice things. That’s what the theme was in Fruit Towers last week anyhow. Firstly, Tansy brought in some magic sweets that make sour fruit taste sweet, meaning you can now eat lemons to your hearts content and not have a face like a smacked weasel in the process. Then Rose taught us how to make smoothie bread with faces in it and then Joe found the biggest Revel in his 25 years on this planet. Sadly it wasn’t the giant malted milk caramel bliss he’d been dreaming of but at least next time the giant coffee chocolates come a-calling, he’ll know to eat one of Tansy’s miracle sweets first.

Berry buying: the real story

Choosing the best berries should be simple. Sample lots, pick the tastiest and then go home. If only. Last week we told you how Atha’s bag went on its own South American mini break. Well, this week’s yarn comes from Rozanne and Dan’s latest berry sourcing adventure in Eastern Europe. After being greeted by a dog on the runway and hiring a car that sounded like a hairdryer, they managed to pick up a speeding ticket in the first twenty minutes of driving. Tickets never actually get issued out there. Instead, you have to fork out lots of cash to make the men go away (an extremely sustainable ticketing system when you think about it). Then, after getting totally lost, they were picked up by our suppliers in the dead of night, driven through forests in a blacked out Audi at 180kph, plied with vodka, potatoes and breadcrumbed meat and made to sing along to Russian pop. And that’s before they’d even tasted a single berry. Needless to say, the rest of the trip was spent playing catch up kip in between berry farms and avoiding all forms of Polish sat nav systems. Read more here.

Squeezed to meet you

Have you or your kids tried our new squeezies yet? We launched them back in April as a healthy treat for small people. 100% whole crushed fruit puree, in a squeezy tube, available in red and yellow. Ring any bells? Well, if you have tried them and fancy winning yourself a shedload of smoothies and squeezies, simply by answering a few quick questions, then just click here and let nipping out to the cornershop for icepops this summer be a thing of the past.

And finally...