Finally, after months of office whispers, rumors and speculation, the world’s largest apple store opened last Saturday – practically opposite GA HQ.

Legions of apple fans queued overnight to be the first to enter and experience the Covent Garden homage to all things ‘Apple’, housed in a fabulously refurbished Grade II listed building.

The retail space is spread over three floors, with larger devices and accessories displayed on wall-mounted displays and smaller gadgets on wooden tables. It also features a set-up room where customers can ask for help to get started with their new devices.

The new store is Apple’s 28th in the UK and will employ 300 staff. As well as housing just about every Apple product under the sun the store will also host regular events, workshops and presentations.

Click here for more information and a schedule of workshops and events.

The seat cover is from a design which appeared on the Northern Line in the 1930’s

This got me thinking, a. Because obviously our office is based in Covent Garden and b. As a massive geek, I was naturally quite excited and thought, yes I think it’s true, or in this case ‘tube’.

It’s a way of using traditional tube advertising but making people go online to find out the answer and lots more. An interesting way of making the tube interactive!

The point of the site is to show what a rich heritage the underground has, and what a place for art and design it is as well as providing us with lots of interesting facts. At the same time it gets people online onto the TFL site so it can promote more of the initiatives it’s currently undertaking. It’s a fun little project which I hope has caught people’s eye in a bid to show what history lies below us in London and how the underground, even as the oldest in the world, is moving with the times.

You can play tube or false online now by clicking here.

Chequers – 47 Bedford Street
A sandwich mecca. Buy a huge sandwich of the day and get a cup of soup for free. Watch out for the lunchtime queue that often stretches all the way down the road!

The Master’s Diner – 32 Henrietta Street
Sometimes, only a good old fashioned fry-up will hit the spot. This great little greasy spoon also makes a mean sandwich.

Food For Thought – 31 Neal Street
Something for the vegetarians. Food for Thought makes delicious veggie food – but be prepared to wait. Sharing tables is the norm and the service can be slow, but the flavoursome food is worth it, so try a take-away instead.

Wong Kei – 41-43 Wardour Street
Great food in generous portions. However, this little Chinese gem is famed for it’s rude staff and brash service! Take it all with a pinch of salt and you’ll eat a good, hearty meal.

The Mediterranean Salad Bar – Earlham Street Market
For £4 the friendly staff working behind the Mediterranean Salad bar will give you a big box stuffed full of delicious goodies – from salad to olives, sun dried tomatoes and hummus. You’ll also get a massive hunk of bread to go with it.

Rock & Sole Plaice – 47 Endell Sreet
Voted one of the best fish and chip shops in London, this establishment is always packed full of tourists, luvvies, suits and trendies – but no one cares when they’ve got chunky chips and crisply battered fish in front of them! Outdoor tables come into their own on a balmy summer’s evening.

Itsu – 41-44 Great Queen Street
Yes, it’s a chain, but they do do the best sushi, soups and salads. There’s also indoor and outdoor seating.

For sit down eating try Sophie’s Steakhouse and Joe Allen.

Take a look at our pics…

To celebrate the 180th anniversary of its famous Market Building, Covent Garden is marking the milestone with a diverse programme of free events that combine culture, art, history, fine food and good old-fashioned entertainment.

The festivities kick off this Friday with the unveiling of a massive birthday card and cake that will feed 2,000 people (no guessing where the GA staff will be at 12.30pm!)

Alongside foodie treats, there’ll be goodies for grown ups, art installations, ice sculptures, party games, workshops, entertainment and live music for all. For a full schedule of this weekend’s line up visit: www.coventgardenlondonuk.com

This year they will re-run their production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ which is back following rave reviews last year. (GA cameos with Juliet longingly enquiring ‘O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ from our window!)

The company will also be performing ‘Wind in the Willows’, which débuts this year. We have spied on a few of the rehearsals and it looks like a great production with a set that Ratty and Mole would be proud of.

This is one of London’s ‘hidden’ gems, and the perfect way to spend an afternoon or evening soaking up some culture and reminding yourself why our city is so fantastic!

Take a look at the Iris Theatre site if you fancy finding out more about the productions or want to book some tickets, we’ll see you there!

Last week I found out that Midnite Cookies, a little cookie shop based just around the corner from GA HQ, has a late night delivery service. In fact, not only will they deliver cookies to your door between the hours of 7pm and 1am but, if you live in zone 1, they’ll also deliver them for free! You can also order online.

This could be a dangerous discovery but hey, there’s nothing like a cookie to aid a late night in the office!

Visit their website for more information: www.midnitecookies.com

A few months ago we placed Snog (the frozen yoghurt shop) in our Frame of Honour for using their unopened store to promote their social media campaigns. Finally, in a mist of drizzle, Snog has opened and we just had to put another post up on our blog in honour of it being the quirkiest shop on Garrick Street. It certainly lifts my mood whenever I walk past. In fact, with such a cute little store, there’s no need to even wait for the sunshine!

N.B. Note the excellent promotion of all their social media platforms on the store front!

Yes, you heard right. Today, I broke a world record.

Don’t believe me, well here’s the proof:

So, as you can hopefully see from my great Nokia phone film footage, I broke a record for “the most amount of people in one place simultaneously flipping a coin”.

Nice.

And the point of this? Well, this PR stunt world record attempt was the brainchild of agency Taylor Herring to promote a new Channel Five series called Heads or Tails.

I think it was quite a nice idea, although I would have perhaps done more online to build buzz prior to the event.  But anyway, I’m sure the ‘world record’ will provide a soft news story, and so this might make a few papers tomorrow, just in time for the show’s premiere on the weekend. On that note, I’m slightly regretting my proximity to Justin (watch vid of the photoshoot below!)