Read All About It...

Thanks to our top chum at the Scotsman, Gaby Soutar, we have a selection of cookery books for sale in aid of our Micro-Tyco drive. Which is just as well because I suspect those kids are beavering away, being cute and making money washing cars, cleaning chimneys and suchlike.

Anyway, I have on offer:

Pasta By Theo Randall - £10
The Giraffe Family Cookbook - from the Giraffe restaurant - £10
Grogan's Companion to Drink - by Boozehound Peter Grogan - £15
Marco Made Easy - Marco Pierre White - £10
Sunday Roast - Clarissa Dickson Wright - £10
Plenty - Yotam Ottolenghi - £10 - This is a foodie's must have, normally £25 but there's slight damage to the cover so we're making it cheap.

Bids, offers etc - as usual - to ross.boyce@search.co.uk

The final week...

We're in pretty much the last week of the Micro-Tyco challenge and we're hoping to finish with a bang!

We've extended the closing date for bids on the whisky and the custom cake 'till Friday the 26th and to get you excited, here's what Whyte & MacKay's Master Blender, Richard Paterson, has to say about the whisky:

Whyte & MacKay 30 Years Old Blended Scotch Whisky
It takes 30 long years to create this masterpiece but only seconds to recognise its outstanding quality.
COLOUR: Bright, golden mahogany.
NOSE: Deep and mellow. The sherry wood exposes itself immediately. Hearty and grand, the weight of the Speyside malts lingers in graceful harmony.
TASTE: A classic refined flavour brought about by its many years in wood. A blend of this age must be drunk with respect - slow, not hurried. Each flavour must be given time to reveal its many fine qualities - rich and mellow, elegant and distinguished. All these excellent attributes are captured on the tongue leaving the palate rewarded and satisfied.

As we mentioned previously, the recommended retail price is £150 but it's so rare that Harrods and other retailers charge more - when they can source it.

All offers on this stunning bottle of Whisky or the Custom Cake baked by the Great British Bake Off's Lea Harris to: ross.boyce@search.co.uk

Extended closing dates for Cake and Whisky Auction

Wow, there's a lot of interest in both whisky and cake (and why not, most of us like one or the other - and often both).

We've decided to extend the closing date of both auctions to the 26th November - though if someone offers us something amazing beforehand we'll probably snap their hand off, we're doing this for charity you know.

Offers (in cash or trade) for both can be sent to: ross.boyce@search.co.uk

We're still here...

It's been a busy few days for the Search Micro-Tyco team (we do have real jobs as well you know), so we've been a bit quiet on the blog-front but I'm happy to report we have a few other initiatives to announce in the next few days.

Check back here soon...

Time for cake

In a great turn up for the (cookery) books, the amazing Lea Harris, baker extraordinaire and Scotland’s only representative on  BBC2’s Great British Bake Off has offered to support Search’s Micro-Tyco effort.

Lea has pledged an “IOU” birthday cake to the highest bidder and as her specialities include an awesome chocolate truffle cake (along with pretty much anything else you can think of) then for cake lovers or anyone who wants to impress a cake lover, this is an opportunity not to be missed.

Bids and offers to ross.boyce@search.co.uk

The boring stuff – the closing date 19^th November,  we can deliver the cake in Edinburgh or Glasgow or it can be collected from Search’s offices in Edinburgh or Glasgow.

We're getting serious...

If the nippers are raising £50 a day, we'd better raise our game (or possibly employ them now while we can get them for 2 Freddo bars a day with an index-linked 10p mix-up to reward performance).

We now have our bottle of Whyte & MacKay 30yr old, voted the best blended whisky in the world in several competitions, up for sale or swap.

This has an RRP of £150, though it's so rare that Harrods and other online vendors are selling it for between £160 and £175 a bottle - when they can get it.

Please contact ross.boyce@search.co.uk with whatever offers (cash or swap) you think are appropriate; and please remember, it's for charity.

Some bad news...

Ah, gay Paris - a lovely place for a long weekend for my wife's birthday; imagine how relaxed and refreshed I felt coming into work this morning (and it's a 4 day week as well).

The effect lasted until about 9:16am when I opened an email from Mick Jackson telling me that one of the primary schools turned their £1 into £55 in the first day!

This is getting serious....

Get fit for Wildhearts in Action

Micro-Tyco Zumba!!!

The latest event in our Micro-Tyco adventure, is a Zumba Class led by Gillian McCausland of the Gillian McCausland School of Dance!! 

The class promises to give everyone a flavour of Zumba and a really good workout!!  Its open to everyone male and female; experienced or novice and is LOTS OF FUN!!!  So come along support a great cause and learn how to shake it Zumba style!!!

When - Tuesday 23rd November @7.30pm

Where - Slouch, 203 Bath St, Glasgow

How Much - £5.00 all proceeds go to Wildhearts in Action

Contact Debbie Shields to reserve your place NOW!!!

debbie.shields@search.co.uk

07838 999 959

0141 272 7754

The first steps...

The first trades are in!

Search’s  £1 was promptly turned into 2 chocolate bars which were in turn sold for a pound each (it’s all a question of knowing your markets, in this case a hungry wife).

Of our £2, we managed to negotiate a great trade when Craig McGill from Digital and Marketing and PR Specialists Contently Managed said he'd swap me a pound for a bottle of whisky from his collection (it’s the good stuff that retails for about £150 a bottle). I’ll see if I can track down some further info on this from Whyte and MacKay’s Master Blender, Richard Patterson (www.twitter.com/the_nose) before we decide what to do with the bottle (though we’re currently open to offers or suggestions).

Thanks Craig, we owe you a major favour.

Our other £1 (and a personal guarantee) have secured several boxes of chocolate which have turned the receptions of our Glasgow and Edinburgh offices into tuck-shops for the duration of the Micro-Tyco month; which the IT division are already making great use of.

Stay tuned to find out where we go from here… and offers on the whisky to ross.boyce@search.co.uk

The Adventure is Afoot...

Yesterday was Tuesday.

We arrived at Hamilton Council Offices for the launch of Micro-Tyco and were greeted by a room full of schoolkids (and a few teams from the University of West of Scotland).

This is going to be tough, schoolkids have captive markets plus cuteness going for them; anyone who’s met me knows I can’t claim to be cute.

Still, we’ve been given our Pound; the adventure is now afoot!

The Adventure Begins...

4.30pm Friday the 29th October, Glasgow.

We've just met with Mick Jackson, a pretty inspirational guy (who supplies our office kit via his Wildhearts In Action charity) and he's just told us about how Wildhearts In Action and their micro-finance initiative is supporting women in the developing world, empowering and enabling them to move from poverty and build stable and secure futures. Mick's next project is Micro-Tyco, replicating the entrepreneurial spirit these women show and raising funds (and the charity's profile) back in the UK; Wildhearts are going to give teams from schools and businesses across Scotland (this is a trial) a loan of £1 and the instruction to "go forth and multiply (the Pound) in a month, Search's Directors have signed us up and "are we up for it" Mick asks.

Of course we are.

"that's great guys" Mick roars, "now here's the kicker - it starts on Tuesday!"

Tuesday. That's 2 days notice, time to get inventive. Stay tuned to find out what we're up to...