Oddbins used to be the high street vintner of choice but its 158 stores have not turned a profit for a while  - £8.6m losses at the last count. Hopefully all that’s about to change: The salad days for the brand came under a young lady called Nick Baile in the late 1970s. Now Baile’s son Simon has bought the firm. It was last bought by the French in 2001 for a reported £57m. No one yet knows what Simon has paid for it but he currently runs a nice little wine retailer called Ex Cellar and claims in his biography, like me, to bleed “wine, not blood.” It nice that this British brand is coming home, and makes them a serious prospect for a career in the industry once again. Cheers!

Strewth! The London Borough of Croydon is so desperate to hire the right staff that two officials flew to Australia to interview candidates for 4 planning officers. They found the right recruits who fly over later this summer for a two-year contract. Planning staff are the second hardest posts to fill by councils after social workers, and Croydon has been struggling for years to maintain a full team. The cost of finding and engaging temporary staff is simple not cost-effective and apparently pales next to the expenses of two officials packing their shorts and getting pissed in Melbourne and Sydney on the job hunt – the cost for the process will be fully recovered in the first year. Croydon is birthplace to Kate Moss. I’ve got a photo of her going down under if anyone wants to see it.

A government programme offering green advice to business called Envirowise (who ever thought of that name should be shot - Ernie Wise?) has come up with some alarming statistics on waste in Uk offices. Up to 120bn sheets of paper are wasted annually on needless printing, couple to that to print costs and its costing firms an average of 4% of their turnover. I once met a girl from KPMG who (somewhat ironically) won a trip to the Brazilian rainforest for coming up with an initiative to curb the firm’s waste of paper. Wherever your heading, even on a placement or work experience, have a look at the company’s waste and see if you can suggest how to improve matters. Remember the 4% line people will listen and take notice of the idea, and more importantly you… I beg your pardon?…You’re very welcome.

I must admit that a young man called Alex Curran (wife of footballer Steven Gerrard and friend of Jordan - ed) hasn’t really troubled my radar but Alex came hoving into view this morning when he rattled the cages of those who are feeling the bite of the credit crunch, or indeed just have a rational sense of perspective on life. Curran offered a fail safe fashion tip to those of us who dance around our £2,000 Zagliani lizardskin handbags. She has them “injected with Botox to make them soft.” Critics might wonder whether she has had her brain injected with Botox too. Maybe we should club together and get her a new bag that says “This is not a Zagliani lizard skin bag.”