As if seeing Cinderella – Mop in the name of Love!  - the rock’n’roll panto at the Playhouse on Thursday isn’t exciting enough (more on that next week!), I can start filling up my 2012 calendar as the Playhouse have announced their Spring 2012 season...and I have some particular favourites that I’m looking forward to...

Mogadishu (Mon 30 Jan to Sat 4 Feb) a “powerful piece of theatre”, explores the clash of youth, class, race and justice and arrives at the Playhouse following its world premiere and sell-out runs in London and Manchester.

I’m particularly looking forward to A Streetcar Named Desire (Fri 17 Feb to Sat 10 Mar), with Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz directing the new production of Tennessee William’s classic. The production will be the first time Tennessee Williams has been produced by the Playhouse in over 30 years, starring Amanda Drew (Blanche) who Bodinetz describes as “one of our great theatrical actresses” and Sam Troughton…”a remarkable Stanley.”

Later in the season Mary Shelley (Wed 9 to Sat 12 May) tells the remarkable tale of the author of Frankenstein, her controversial philosopher father, her scandalous elopement aged 16 and how she wrote a novel, so radical in its ideology, that in 1817 she changed the literary landscape forever. Another ticket I’ll be booking straight away!

Other highlights include April’s collaboration with Shakespeare’s Globe launching the national tour of Henry V (Thurs 12 to Sat 28 April), Alan Ayckbourn’s trilogy The Norman Conquests in May (on sale in March 2012), the outrageous Oedipussy (Tues 13 to Sat 17 Mar), Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Crossing Points (Fri 23 and Sat 24 Mar) and a new musical production of Swallows and Amazons (Tues 27 to Sat 31 Mar) with songs by the Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon.

The theatre’s Season Saver will be available on all productions in the Spring 2012 season offering deals for multiple bookings.

More information can be found at www.everymanplayhouse.com and tickets are on sale now…you’ll see me at the front of the queue!

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At the end of last month we attended the Juice FM Style Awards and had a fabulous time! One Card sponsored The City Lifestyle Award which Karen (our account manager) presented to our friends at the Echo Arena (congratulations also to nominees Tate Liverpool and the Liverpool Empire!).

When we arrived at the beautiful venue The Hillbark Hotel, there was a red carpet, paparazzi and the entrance was lined with mad fans! It was funny, but we know who they were there for…as the beautiful Nicola Roberts performed on the night, along with Tinchy Stryder, Sunday Girl and Cover Drive!

We were lucky enough to have Ricky Tomlinson on our table, he was lovely and was happy to pose with me...and the One Card!

The night was really fun and we got to see some of our fabulous partners winning awards, such as:

The Hotel Award - The Hilton Liverpool

The Business Enterprise Award - Voodou Training

The Restaurant Award - East Z East

The champagne flowed all night, the atmosphere was sparkling and all in all it was a great night. Thanks Juice FM!

Here are just a few pictures from the night...

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The_Juice_FM_Style_Awards_2011.zip (531 KB)

Last month I attended an event at Hope University hosted by the Liverpool Primary Care Trust and the Decade of Health & Wellbeing.

The focus of the event was the Workplace Wellbeing Charter, which helps local businesses to improve the health and wellbeing of their staff.

If you think about it, it makes complete sense…as a business owner your workforce is your most precious asset, so shouldn’t you do everything you can to keep it safe? 

Whether your reasons to improve your employees’ wellbeing are financial, social, demographic or legal, it all leads to one thing…a happy productive team!

Inspired by this, not only have the One Card Team signed up to complete the Charter but we’ve taken the Five Ways to Wellbeing as our basis for coming up with our own personal team charter to improve our health and wellbeing:

Connect

We’ll take time to ‘connect’ with each other as a team by spending one lunchtime per week together –whether that’s taking our sandwiches to the meeting room, going to sit in the park or visiting one of the attractions we have on the One Card!

Be Active

We’ll be taking the stairs instead of the lift and getting off the bus one stop earlier as we undertake a pedometer challenge! More on this as it happens.

Take Notice

We’ll be having a monthly photography competition in the office to see who can take the most impressive picture whilst they’re out and about in the city! We’ll post them to the blog and on our Facebook page.

Keep Learning

Each month we’ll invite an expert from their field to come in for a lunchtime chat…be it social media, presentation skills or web design…our doors are open!

Give

We’ll be giving ourselves a break from our computer screens. 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the afternoon to do a different type of work or have a team catch up. I might even start an at-desk exercise session!

We’ve also made our own personal pledges which we'll tell you about soon...

We’ll keep you updated with our activities as we progress.  In the meantime, why not let us know how you’ve been staying healthy and well in your workplace, send us your own photos or tell us about your pledges – we’d love to hear from you!

“We have been working hard at One Card Liverpool to create an up to date members card which meets all of the needs of the modern consumer,” he said.  “As the recession has continued to hit the UK, there has been a massive increase in demand for discounted deals from consumers who are looking for offers from their favourite venues. We have worked hard to sign up 130 of the region’s best venues, attractions and events organisers who provide us with exclusive deals which are available to One Card Liverpool cardholders only.  We have also worked hard to improve our technology to ensure our members receive news of these deals instantly. Our new services include our own iPhone and iPod touch application.”

“Prior to the rebrand, One Card Liverpool appointed Karen Podesta, who previously managed events for a range of organisations including the British Film Institute and the British Library. Karen’s ability to identify and work with an interesting range of businesses, venues and events has enabled us to sign up some of the best partners in the region for One Card Liverpool.”

“I am delighted to be working back in Liverpool alongside so many fantastic attractions, venues and businesses. Working closely with such successful events as the Liverpool Shakespeare Festival and the Liverpool Food and Drink Festival have been recent highlights. The combination of my passion for local events and the city, and Matthew’s IT skills, has enabled us to provide both our partners and members with an improved offering.”

Today we've hit the sent button on our latest (and hopefully greatest) email newsletter to all of our cardholders. We continually strive to include things that we think our cardholders want to see, attend or take part in, and we hope you find something to enjoy this month.

Within this month's newsletter, you'll find a range of fantastic offers including a large drink upgrade courtesy of Gourmet Coffee (formerly Coffee Republic), 20% discount on food at the newly opened eastzeast, 2 for 1 theatre tickets to see The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Liverpool Playhouse, together with a whole host of fantastic ticket offers at the Liverpool Philharmonic!

And for those of you who love the thrill of a good old fashioned competition, don't miss out on the chance to win a box of 12 delicious cupcakes from Laura's Little Bakery, or £25 to shop with at www.Made-Here.co.uk.

All of this and lots more await you in your email inbox, so click away!  And if you'd like to share any thoughts or feedback about the One Card, or the newsletters you receive, get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter.

From all of us here at the One Card, have a great weekend!

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Vielen_Dank_Berlin.zip (263 KB)

I have just got back from my short trip to Berlin, which is a wonderful city.

I stayed at the fantastic art'otel Berlin city center west by park plaza in West Berlin. I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone who fancies a short trip to Berlin, staff at the hotel were very helpful and the food in the factory restaurant was fabulous.

While in Berlin I attended an Original Berlin Walks tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable and could show us all the hidden secrets to Berlin.

Some of my highlights of the tour being - 

The Neue Wache (New Guard House) - Original a guard house for the Crown Prince of Prussia the building is now a war memorial. An enlarged version of Käthe Kollwitz sculpture Mother with her Dead Son (pictured below) is inside Neue Wache. This sculpture is directly under the oculus, and so is exposed to the rain, snow and cold of the Berlin climate, symbolising the suffering of civilians during World War II. Due to it raining on the day of our tour we got to see the effect first hand.

Book burning memorial at the Bebelplatz - A memorial by Micha Ullman consisting of a glass plate set into the cobbles, giving a view of empty bookcases, commemorates the book burning. A line of Heinrich Heine is engraved, stating "Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen" "Where they burn books, they ultimately burn people".  Students at Humboldt University also hold a book sale in the square every year to mark the anniversary.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe / Holocaust Memorial - 2,711 concrete slabs with no symbols you are free to make what you want of the memorial. 

All in all a fantastic trip! If you have never been to Berlin and enjoy learning a bit of history get yourself on a flight it's only 1 hr and 30 mins away.

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Can_Cook_Studio_-_Indian_Cooke.zip (2.92 MB)

I am your typical ‘can’t cook, won’t cook’.

Since coming to Liverpool and having to fetch for myself, the thought of cooking was the last thing on my mind. Why bother when there are takeaways all over the city centre, just minutes away. So along with that thought, my ability to cook went downhill. Now though, 3 years in, I’m starting to think, maybe this is a little expensive and I should start to use that funny looking thing with four rings on it in my kitchen. So when I got an invite from Can Cook studio to go and join in one of their evening Indian cookery classes I was more than ready for the challenge!

When I arrived I was in a class of six, so I paired up with a guy called Paul (if only he knew what he was getting himself into!) and we worked together. The place looked great! Big work stations, and a front dining area to enjoy some Indian starters before we began. We then went through to the back where there was a full demonstration area to watch the chef cook, with mirrors above so you could see inside the dishes too! It felt like I was in the studio for Saturday Kitchen! Then we were introduced to a great guy, Richie Simon, our chef! Really nice and friendly, and allowed us to have good conversations whilst he was cooking and trying to time his food, which was good. He understood everyone’s different abilities and then set us off to have a go ourselves! We made ‘Pork Vindaloo Patti’s with Chickpea and Tomato Salad’. I don’t really like chick peas, but Richard advised if there was something in the recipe not to your liking you can leave it out, everybody likes different things. So I did, it was still gorgeous!

The highlights of the night include:

• Learning how to paste ginger!
• Almost burning the place down when I put my Naan bread under the grill and forgot about it!
• Chopping my onion to the beat of ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, the chef asked for requests so we had Queen blasting out in the background!

I walked away from the night with some of my food in takeaway boxes (as there was so much!) and a full recipe book showing all the recipes used that night. I would highly recommend the classes to anyone, if you’re a ‘can’t cook, won’t cook’ you will most probably come out of it like me, I try to cook at least once a week now! Or even if you are a good cook, it’s nice to learn new recipes and possibly different styles of cooking. Go and then let me know how you found it!