Justgiving's blog

New office plant!

We are back in the office but it STINKS of wet smelly socks! The smell by my desk is so bad I've had to move to the techie side of the room! I'm now sitting with star trek fans and they keep trying to make me sing Lional Richie's - 'All Night Long' so I can join their band ‘DJCM’ (which I think stands for Dreadful Jingles and Can’t Move but apparently it’s just their initials).

During the flood most of the water landed in my In-tray which happened to have a packet of pumpkin seeds in it…the results were very exciting!

I was so pleased with my new office plant that I gave it some more water in the hope we could all have pumpkin soup in October…sadly my excitement was short lived and they both died over night. (maybe something to do with the lack of soil).

- Molly

Can anyone suggest a quick fix for smelly carpets? …answers on a postcard please.

We're back on track

The ceiling is a little bit yellowish but Old Street Towers is back online. All phone numbers work again.

Call Jonathan now everyone, he wants you to!

Anyway here's the old CS den that was in the temporary office:

Jules likes being on the phone so much that he pretends he's on it even when he's not.

- Simon

Office Wars. Episode II: Attack of the Phones

We've been getting many many emails from people along the lines of:

"Your phones are engaged!!!"
"Why can't I get through!!!"
"Your mobile is busy!!!"

This is mainly because our telecoms provider is useless.

Today Dom our adventurous and handsome CTO has gone back to the wet offices to bring back phones and to get the lines redirected properly. The number you CAN reach the helpdesk on, whether you be charity or user, is

0845 021 2110 or 0845 021 2133

By ringing this number you'll be put through to the helpdesk den. Or CS den as it is now known. Observe:



Colouring pencils were already here when we moved in to Aldersgate Street.

Helpdesk monkeys + colouring pencils =

None of us are quite sure what 'CS' actually stands for. Theories include 'client slaying', 'counter strike' and 'coffee spilling'.

You can also call Tom Mansel-Pleydell's Happy Playful Helpline on 020 7297 8711. Here's a picture of Tom being happy and playful on it:

Our normal numbers will be working later today apparently. Hurrah!

- Simon

Office Wars. Episode 1: A Phantom Boiler Menace

So some of you know and some of you don't. Last weekend the boiler in our office building decided to explode, flooding all the offices below it, including us, Greenlight and lava-lamp luvvies Mathmos.

The carpet is wet and stinky, the PC's miraculously survived (my laptop was sodden but still functions) and at the moment we're in our second lot of temporary offices next to Barbican tube.

We like it here because they have plasma TV, free coffee, big fat sofas, Molton Brown soap in the loo and air conditioning. I highly recommend coming for a meeting now because we're here until next week and we have security passes and everything. Swish.

So as promised here's some pictorial evidence of the boiler-centric cyclone that swept away our Old Street palace.

Plastic bags are in this season



That's Molly's bottom half. When she sat here it was normally this wet because she chucked a glass of water on the floor at least 3 times a week.



My business cards had been dripped on for two days. They now have a certain bendy quality to them as you can see.



Yes, that's the colour of the water coming through the ceiling, and no it's not what it looks like. (I mean wee btw.)



A drippy ceiling!



More drips!



Yuck!

So there we have it. Sorry if you haven't got through to us on the phone. The 0845 number on the site works and we're all online.

Part two of the saga to come...

- Simon

Everything got a bit wet...

...but everything still works and we're soldiering on.

The full story with dramatic photos are coming soon.

- Simon

Tom Mansel's Friday Factoid Factory

Let Friday 16th June be a monumental day for all to remember!

Our head of client services Tom has offered up the first in what we hope will be a series of interesting Friday facts to enlighten everyone's favourite day of the week from this day forth.

Tom's first Friday fact:

Did you know that there are enough blocks in the three great pyramids at Giza to build a 10 ft high, 1 ft thick wall around France?

I for one, did not know this.

Awesome Tom, truly awesome.

- James C

Jonno's World Cup Wonders

Here's Jonno, helpdesk monkey to the stars and also several thousand UK registered charities:



As you can see he not only has a 'Crouchaldinho' t-shirt, but he also has a mini world cup that plays national anthems. He has also decorated his wall as you can see with all his favourite players and pull-outs from the papers.

As our resident 'Statto' here's Jonno's Group Stage World Cup Factoid:

During the 1930 World Cup Final, Argentina and Uruguay were at odds over which type of ball to use. The Argentinians fancied the leather ball while the Uruguayauauan's favourite tipple was made of plastic. To resolve this two balls were used in the final. During the first half, the Argentinian leather ball was used. They were leading 1-0 at half time.

The second half was dominated by Uruguay with their plastic covered ball who eventually ended up winning 4-2.

This was clearly before adidas got involved then...

- Simon

Bad Robot Dancing

Jules and Charles are really sorry about this, but the world NEEDS another Peter Crouch tribute...

- Simon

SA Rugby

Right, i know that everyone is in crazy Football mode... and fully understandable..!

But i thought i would blog about the SA rugby games which are happening behind the scenes,

....especially for all the South Africans in the office! (not many!) (and any south africans reading this!)

They beat Scotland on Saturday! Woohoo! Well done boys!

- Dee

Things are heating up!

Temperatures are rising here at JG towers! There are 24 of us crammed into a small office with big greenhouse type windows, no air con and the temperature is 31 c!!!  So like the wicked witch of the West we feel like we are all melting! So if anyone would like to pop in with some ice-cream please do (a 99 with flake if possible).

- Molly

After a hot, sunny weekend...

....someone always turns up to work really sunburnt.

The first annual JG 2006 Lobster award goes to James v2.0, with this impressive entry:

Note the pensive expression and panda sunglasses outline.

You can compliment James on his achievement by emailing him at redfacedlobsterboy@justgiving.com *

- Molly

* this won't actually work

And this week

Two amazing things happened this week:

1. Yesterday, Ben wore a Star Trek T-shirt. I believe it was of the Deep Space Nine variety. Sadly no-one was quick enough to get a photo because the guy just moves so fast.

2. I got an invitation to a reception at the Chinese Embassy today. Out of the blue. Best thing in the post for ages.

Have a good weekend people.

- Simon

Fundraiser of the month, June 2006

Our Fundraiser of the Month for June is John Reeve.

Like thousands of other football fans, John will be in Frankfurt in time for England’s opening World Cup match on June 10th. But he will undoubtedly be the only fan who has walked all the way there from the UK. His walk is to raise money for the Leukaemia Research Fund in memory of his son Tim.

Read his story here. Visit his page and sponsor him here.

If you want to nominate someone as a future Fundraiser of the Month, please drop us an email at community@justgiving.com or post details in our forum.

Good luck John, from all of us at Justgiving!