I was digging around in a box earlier tonight for something and came across a very sad sight. Everyone's favourite miniature Hero was looking a little dejected and out of sorts.
I have to confess now that since returning from Algeria, mini-Andy has not been quite himself and his recovery has waited while maxi-Andy went out and lived it up with postcards and that sort of thing.
Disgraceful.
So today the comeback begins for 2010.
Keep watching this space for more mini-Andy adventures!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/property_and_mortgages/article6990719.ece
Buy a copy today! Further write-up when I get to a computer (I.e. when I'm not freezing in Greenwich park on my phone)
It became apparent that this was a hobby and not a business, so the matter was dropped and Mr Hoang was not fined a penny
I and the readers of my REAL wall are so relieved that the council have backed down over this without unnecessary fines and it's such a relief to know that it only took a 50ft sign over Tower Bridge, blu-tacced protest postcards on the door of the Town Hall and a sustained blog campaign to get them to do so. my REAL wall will continue to showcase the most innovative mailart in London and I'm looking forward to including a postcard from the council on my REAL wall soon.
This months press coverage is in a local magazine called Westside
The write-up is on page 10, under a headline about the local library running out of books.
I have to confess I don't particularly like this write-up. I wrote a full write-up of the incident and they've pretty much left out the facts and written up a pretty poor, humourless article. There's no mention of my REAL wall, the headline screams that the council have actually levied the fine, which they haven't and the picture is a generic pic not one that I sent. I'm most miffed that your protest mail hasn't made it into print anywhere too, which is a real shame.
Oh well, any publicity is better than nothing I guess, and I've finally got some time to get your protest post to the council this weekend, so watch this space.
Quote of the weekend came from Khiem who said about the council
"I think I might just call them and tell them to write you a public apology to save themselves a world of pain"
I think he might be on to something there...
Here's what we saw when we turned up at Tower Bridge for the filming of the next Nokia advert yesterday.
A 50ft screen shaped like an arrow was hanging from a crane advertising Nokia maps.
I was scheduled to have the message
"Thanks to all the people who have sent post to my REAL wall. The council will never get us!"
Readers I need your help ASAP!
Yesterday I saw an advert which read
"Have a special announcement to make? We will make your message spectacular. Service is free of charge, first come first served"
I thought about it for about 2 seconds and picked up the phone. Having a chat with the boss of a large advertising company I talked them through my recent my REAL wall/council windup and said that the announcement I would like to make would be something like
"Sending postcards is not a crime - leave us post fans alone Hammersmith council!"
The guy liked the sound of it and has booked me in to film on Saturday.
The idea is that they are putting up a 50ft billboard somewhere in London to display this message.
I need to send them an appropriate message by the end of today, and thought I would open this one out to my readership.
So, what should the billboard say? Think my REAL wall. Think council. Think text message/twitter length wit.
And hurry up about it!
We made it into the paper! This screenshot comes from the online edition of this weeks Hammersmith and Kensington Times, where my REAL wall, yours truly and your postcards are the prominent headline on page 3.
Thanks for all your outstanding contributions and a new REAL wall featuring the paper to follow soon!
On Friday, I got a call from my mortgage advisor telling me that the Sunday Times had been in touch with him. They wanted to interview a young couple who had recently taken out a mortgage, and so he thought of me and Elena, and gave me a call.
The paper arranged for a photographer to be around in an hour and interviewed me on the phone as to why I chose the mortgage I did and next thing you know, me and Elena were on the front page of the Sunday Times money section!
I could hardly believe my eyes on Sunday, when I picked up the paper and saw our thumbnail on the front page in the top left hand corner, the very first thing you see when you turn to the money pages, and all my friends have remarked how little sense it makes that I, who care not a jot about the stuff, should be there looking like some money guru! As Jason says "...it just doesn't compute"
Amusingly, the paper reported my name as Anthony Hoang, the second time that my name has been spelt wrong in the papers. And yes everyone I know has ripped the piss out me for that already, so feel free to add yours below...
For REAL wall fans, me and Elena tried our very hardest to get your mail in.
The picture on the front page, which is also featured on the online version of the story was taken with the official REAL wall as the white background. The photographer was looking for a white background and said "Could you take those postcards down and we'll take the picture over there"
D'oh!
Inside the paper, on page 4 me and Elena are pictured on the stairs. After clearing the place up a little, Elena slyly draped Okadascat's knitted banner across the top of a table in front of us, and I set up a postcard from Richard Canard at our feet on the staircase.
Desperately we tried to maneuvre ourselves so that the photographer would take a pic of a postcard, but to no avail. Shucks. Maybe next time.