So it’s d-day today for the London mayoral candidates. The culmination of months of blood, sweat and tears to decide the direction of London for the next four years. Quite exciting really isn’t it? Well, not if you take a straw poll of the Launch office. There is a significant portion of people who aren’t going to be voting today. They have their reasons, but one can’t help but think, as Blonde_M pointed out to me on Twitter yesterday, that politicians aren’t doing enough to inspire people to want to be involved.

This election campaign feels like a real damp squib to me. Apart from a few flare-ups between Boris and Ken (including some rather amusing swearing), no-one is standing out. Maybe it’s due to over-familiarity with the candidates, but I don’t feel that any of them have made a real effort to separate themselves from the pack, to stamp their authority and their vision on their campaign. It’s (unfortunately) come down to personalities – who do you like? And if you don’t like any of them, what do you feel like doing? Exactly….not voting at all.

Obviously politics relies a lot on personality, but one really felt that after the General Election social media would play a huge role in UK politics in the future (as it does in the US). However, whilst the mayoral election race has generated a lot of conversation online (according to this anyway), and even predicted the result, it hasn’t been harnessed or crystallised by any of the parties or the candidates. Yes, Boris did an #askboris twinterview, but a lot of the questions were like the man himself – hugely frivolous. As far as our research here can tell, there  isn’t even a hashtag that has been decided for interested people to group their conversation around. #londonelects is getting a fair amount of activity today (polling day), but it is nothing to the #GE2010 that captured imaginations two year ago.

Maybe I’m just being too unrealistic and idealistic, but I think it’s up to politicians and their advisors to explore new channels to come up with new ways of inspiring new people to vote and get involved in politics. If Obama and his team can do it, why can’t we do it in England? Admittedly, we don’t have Jimmy Fallon, but there are plenty of other options.

Hi, I’m Katrina, I recently joined the All-Channel Launch team working mainly on Tesco and BP.

Having only been a Launcher for 6 working weeks this week heralded my first piece of experiential activity and the opportunity to spend a day with former Olympian and hurdling legend, Colin Jackson CBE. It just so happens that Colin is one of the nicest men you will ever meet and just as well as we were asking him to run his first ever half marathon on before of the Tesco Great School Run. This he did with consummate ease and a big smile on his face the whole way round.

Prior to my arrival, Launch had taken the brief to raise awareness of the 2012 Tesco Great School Run ( a 2k fun run staged at schools across the UK encouraging children, family, friends and teachers to take part in exercise for fun) and encourage other children/schools to sign up. The idea was simple yet effective – get Colin to run between the primary schools in Westminster to thank them for signing up to this year’s run and spur on kids to take part. The response we had from schools and kids alike was fantastic and far exceeded our expectations. The best way to give a snapshot of the day is by numbers:

• 15 miles run
• 1000+ kids met
• 100 Autographs signed
• 20,000 steps taken
• 500 high fives
• 150+ banners made
• 5 London Landmarks

It is not every day you get to work with a British sporting legend but seeing the response from the kids along the way was truly refreshing and I would recommend it to anyone! Coverage included: The Sun, The Guardian, TalkSport, The Mirror, The People, MSN to name a few.

As my colleagues know, I am an Australian who has lived the majority of her life on the Sunshine Coast.  As such, I am always amazed and excited at the distinct change in seasons we experience in the UK, because in Australia, we slide from one season to another without really noticing. Here there are shorter days, lower temperatures and beautiful colours in the foliage, which are hard to go unnoticed.

If I were an artist I would find it hard to choose which colours to paint, with all the different greens in the parks, closely followed by the gold and browns. Just beautiful autumn shades. 

I took the above photo a few weeks ago, and, together with my walks through the countryside, it’s really helped me understand why I love living in England.

I must admit walking along residential streets in London the colourful fallen leaves can be mushy and dangerous, but even these add to the beauty of the season. Obviously it’s not so attractive when you’re spending your Sunday afternoons raking them off your lawn…

The next season in line is of course winter, and with it comes a colour change – white snow perhaps? Again the distinction between one season and another will be made obvious, and does spell the festival season, so make sure you enjoy! 

As a born and bred Londoner, I know a thing or two about travelling on the underground. There are certain things that I have had to learn to accept, such as wannabe rude boys who insist on wearing their jeans around their knees and playing their music for all to hear, and businessmen who can’t seem to manage to fold the newspaper back on itself, preferring instead to read the FT with their arms stretched out to full capacity. But there are a few things I cannot and will not accept:

1. Coughing / sneezing / yawning – You would think that covering your mouth / nose with your hand while you cough, sneeze or yawn is basic manners, and yet it seems that many grown men and women still have trouble managing this. Instead they insist on showering me with germs, and forcing me to inhale their dodgy morning breath.

2. Public Displays of Affection - There is nothing worse than being penned in next to loved-up couples in the first heady throes of romance, especially at 7.30am on a Monday morning. Kissing on public transport is absolutely not necessary. Undoubtedly you’ve just spent the entire weekend together, and you will – undoubtedly – see each other again at the end of the day, so please be rest assured that your relationship will survive if you are not glued together for a 20 minute train journey.

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Our friends at TalkTalk have been working on something pretty exciting recently, and it involved light. Lots of light. If that sounds a bit tame, you ought to have a look at some of the colourful results, because TT spent last week hot-footing it around the UK in a bid to brighten up the places you know and love with the help of some ultra cool light graffiti.

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I think everyone who knows me knows how I feel about the weather. I find myself changing along with it, so everyone at Launch will no doubt be glad that we’ve recently been experiencing a little heatwave, which couldn’t make me happier.

I’ve been spending the winter months – with the grey skies and the help of my SAD light – hoping that the rumours of an exceptionally hot summer were going to come true, and they have!

The Met office issued their first ever Heatwave warning,elevating the hazard level to 3!

I remember the best summer we ever had in Britain, the 1976 heatwave. Oh, now those were the days. I had just had my first daughter, suffering a pregnancy which, admittedly, was made all the more uncomfortable by the weather, but certainly divine when she arrived. We spent most days lying in the local park with our picnics, babies lying quietly in their prams in the shade, of course.

While many of us have opted to try and bask in every glorious moment of the sunshine as possible, there are ways to cool off in the London heat and here are a few of my favourite tips:

See the Richard Long Exhibition at the Tate

Buy some gelato at Scoop

Swimming in a lunch hour at the Oasis

……And those who know me will know the only tip I will be using is the ice cream one.

At the age of 59, and at the invitation of my daughter, who had lived in London for 10 years, I decided to give up my very orderly life on the sea front in Australia and move to the UK’s capital. 

It’s a thrilling city to live in, but the initial temping work I undertook was certainly an experience, as was the daily commute adventure – bravely tackling the crowds on the Tube, finding the correct route and praying that I managed to stick to it. I admit that I started off a well-mannered traveller (as most people naively are when they first arrive in London); I would stand back while people pushed and shoved and elbowed and squeezed. But after hearing the very sound advice: ‘If you don’t push with the crowd you’re still going to be left on the tube station platform at lunch time,’ I now use my full height of 5 foot 10 inches to make sure I rightfully gain my place.

I had worked at the Australian Embassy in London as a 21 year old, and so I knew only too well what excitement the city could hold and was determined to get out there and re-visit lots of charming places. As my home in Australia has a short supply of theatres, I started visiting shows on a regular basis, and am now proud to say that there aren’t many that I haven’t seen.  We have a nice social group at Launch, and I’m extremely lucky, being a little older than most of my colleagues, that we can all go out socially together. 

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As the only Canadian here at Launch Group, and a relatively new resident of London, I thought I would share my top ten list of favourite things to do/see/eat/watch in the big city. Perhaps it’ll give other newcomers some ideas!

So, in no particular order:

Borough Market

It’s very popular and incredibly crowded on Saturdays, but I love coming here to eat lunch and   
spot all the different kinds of food on offer. It’s an epicurean’s dream…

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