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On Wednesday evening we held our first Leithal Thinking Presents on The Mary of Guise. Our guest Thinker was Paul Cox from Opticomm an expert in Econometrics. As a die hard United fan with offers of tickets to Rome he sacrificied a great deal to be with us but his (literal) loss was our gain as he he shed light on the dark art of Econometrics for assorted Leithers and their clients.

Our next Leithal Thinking Presents is planned for early July.

Mary of Guise - Home of "Leithal Thinking Presents..."

Tuesday was another day of contrasts. The afternoon saw me speaking at the national annual conference for Hepatitis C in Glasgow. The evening saw me watching the winner of the French equivalent of Britain’s Got Talent – the delightfully named Incroyable Talent - break dancing in a theatre chock full of children.

The afternoon session possibly sounds more impressive than it was. In reality, I was half of a double act with Karen, one of our Government clients. We were presenting progress to date with the communications activity designed to raise awareness of Hepatitis C. She had five minutes on what we were doing next. I had five minutes on findings of two sizeable pieces of research which had helped to inform the what next.

Those that know me will know that I struggle to be succinct. So the challenge of condensing what I (sadly) calculated to be not far short of 25,000 words of debrief into 5 minutes was sizeable. And I think I might have hogged up to 6 or even 6 and a half minutes of our precious slot. Karen was far too polite to comment.

From one concert hall to another and back in Edinburgh, I headed along to the Festival Theatre (again!) for a rather fabulous show called Breakin’ Convention which has been touring after a spell in Sadler’s Wells. The French guy was accompanied by a mix of local acts and international acts including a spectacular South Korean crew, Myosung, performing a piece called The Revolution Will Not Be Supervised. I’ve never see break dancing that makes a political point. I would recommend seeking it out.

Last night, Brie and I were treated to the fiftieth anniversary production of West Side Story, at the very hospitable hands of the marketing boys and girls at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh.

The show was as you’d expect. Crowd-pleasing songs (though have you ever noticed that all the ones you like are stuffed into the first half with a pauce selection of curious discordant numbers and reprises peppering the second half), a polished and portable set (touring production), a cracking little orchestra, the most gorgeously voiced man as lead boy, Tony and a most suitably sweet girl as Maria.

But punctuated by ample refreshment breaks, poor Brie stood patiently through me talking wildly about my favourite subject all night. The experience was topped off with a chance to meet the cast in the bar, post-show.

I always get a bit star-struck in these instances so managed to choke out a ‘great show’ and then fell silent. The actors stared back expectantly. Emma said encouragingly that we worked for the agency that made the IRN-BRU ads. The actors stared back expectantly. And then luckily, as is often the way in these slightly awkward encounters, little knots of conversation distracted little groups of people and the Them And Us moment of awkwardness passed. I would be hopeless in Hollywood.

Anyway, I would thoroughly recommend a corporate hospitality package for anyone who has starry eyes and enjoys a night at the theatre. As this night had icing on top.

We recently had the pleasure of hosting a team from the Marketing Society schools competition. Alva Academy were assigned to us and tasked with using us to help them develop a radio script and a presentation explaining quite why their new product idea was so good.

Yvonne, David and I took to the barge a couple of Fridays ago to aid and assist. They have a cracking product idea. Really well thought through. And whereas we’d imagined it might take hours to help refine and shape, they were actually sharp as darts, got our meagre points really quickly and came up with a lovely idea for a radio script before we broke for lunch. A disconcerting example to set for copywriter David.

Yvonne and I set sail for Stirling last week to watch their final presentation to the judges plus playing of the ad they’d recorded at a local radio station. And they did brilliantly. I am fiercely and unreasonably proud of them - given that we had almost nothing to do with their efforts. So I eagerly await the judges’ verdict on awards night!

Amidst breast puns galore, M&S have this morning retracted their £2 extra charge for bras for plumper breasted women. Courtesy, as ever, of facebook and the informal but fearful pressure group network. Having heard about it on Radio 4, I opend the Metro to find a glorious full page ad of breasts with the fine headline: “we’ve boobed”. And the rest of the newspapers are having a field day. The Scotsman is one of the gentler examples.

So enjoy. It’s a license if ever you needed one, to let puns, lewd comments and general ribaldry abound. (Disapproving though I may be!)

And we are. Triumph at the Roses last night for the IRN-BRU “If” ad. A best commercial award, a best copywriting and a grand prix. And an equally well-deserved award for an exceptionally fine Government DM piece from Sean and Caroline. Fantastic work.