The Bodeans video

You may know we at Karmarama love Bodeans. You may also know that to celebrate our love Tom and Robin wrote a song. If you are a little bit weird you may also know that Dave, Sam and Nick from Bucks. produced the tune. What you didn't know is that this thumping tune now has a video featuring cardboard cut outs of Will and Aaron.



You now probably know this is all just a bit weird.

(Rumor has it Will and Aaron owe Dave, Sam and Nick a Bodeans, but we're not getting involved)

Hyde the hen- The night out.

Last Thursday saw us all go out to celebrate Alex getting married next Saturday, and in true hen night style there are a few stories to tell.

The evening began in the garden with potent cocktails served by Paul, our in house naked butler (below). Presents were given to the hen and in keeping with UK hen night standards and regulations 97.5% of them were cock based products.

We lined our stomachs with some great food made by Siobhan, jumped into some of Fern's amazing fancy dress (again adhering to UK hen night standards and regulations) and headed into town.

And to a karaoke bar. Thanks to the bottle of wine Craig drank on the way from W14 to Leicester Square it did not take long for him to take control of the mic and start the proceedings. Eventually Nathalie (below) managed to wrestle him off the mic and proceeded to belt out some classic Britney Spears.

Fern 'Sandy' Miller led the girls in a bit of Summer Loving...


Will 'Danny' Flack replaced the inferior mic for a more traditional beer bottle approach to lead the T-birds.

Jono put the mouse head on...


...and The Hen finished things off with a bit of Tina Turner. Good Times.

Karmarama Kake Off

It's been an awful long time since we held a huge baking competition in aid of Shelter's Cake Time
But your forgetful correspondent was nudged into action by a letter from Shelter thanking us for our contribution of £71.23 and promising to send us a special cookbook as a present for getting our funds in early. I'm a bit worried that this effectively cancels out our contribution (I know every little helps and everyone was very generous but I was reminded of this sketch)
but anyway, we all had a lovely time and filled our faces with the offerings.
True to form, the competition was extremely hard fought.
From Sid's emotional blackmail (he named his offering the tears of tiny children), to Jono's shameless last minute icing sugar branding

to Siobhann's handpicked blossom embellishments to K-Broadcast's employment of a professional cookery writer to Phil's recruitment of a special friend to bake an extravaganza in 6 layers of coffee cake and fondant icing (which backfired somewhat as the judges insisted he had bought it from a shop) every tactic was employed to make the judge's job as difficult as possible.

Luckily we had some genuine expertise on the panel... Phil's family friend, the celebrated Polish bon viveur as chairmen, our own Ann Hunter as a fearsome quality control expert and Natalie who, despite looking like a frail wisp of a thing, proved she could put away as much cake as both of them combined.
In the end prizes were give for Originality (my own Giant Jaffa Cake, an idea purloined from this brilliant website as a tribute to the famous Cake or Biscuit ruling ), for Prettiness (Rod's boyfriend's coffee cream confection. Apparently he avoided disqualification because sift the flour himself) for Deliciousness (Sarah's delectable Pineapple Upside Down Aussie Cake) and lastly, the overall Grand Prix to Hattie's astonishing fresh stawberry & cream gateau.


And now we are all morbidly obese. Hey ho.

More New People - What it this, the jobcentre!

And here's the last two for a while because they are more than a handful to deal with. Going by the name of Gemma and Lisa, but we've no idea which is which, they are currently lighting up the creative discipline here. But you don't want to hear it from boring old me - here they are in their own inimitable style:

We made the smallest ad in the world. (in the process of being put in the Guinness book of world records)
We were hungover when the pic was taken.
Were not actually northern. Though both of our dads were miners.
Gemma is a qualified ear piercer.
Lisa hates ice cream.
Robson Green saved Gemma’s life.
Lisa has met Paul Daniels.
We wrote the tag line for the home office.
We both appear alongside Stelios on the Easycruise documentary on Living TV.

Welcome daughters of miners, mine's a pint of black pudding

Step up Steph

And it's another hello to a newbie. Steph joins us by way of a couple of flakey agencies (only joking - honest) to help our growing team on Nintendo in the glamourous and highly enviable role of Account Manager. Now Alex and Claire can relax just a tad, especially as Alex (or Geezer Bird as she is affectionately know here) is getting married very very bum-clenchingly soon. So thank gawd for Steph. And here's a little know secret of hers:
"I am a true cowgirl at heart and worked in rodeo when I travelled through Australia. I even had a rodeo name, Stephie-lee! I have a real Stetson and through the Winter months, am rarely seen without my cowboy boots. In fact, I have been known to wear them to bed."
We shall be exploring the last revelation in some detail over the coming months, and Tom has put himself forward to get to the bottom of things. Nice one.
Welcome Steph - back to work now tho'

Meet Lucy - Front of house ain't taking no more crap

Hello To Lucy, our new front of house receptionist thing person.
She's great, right northern and not to be messed with. Here she is in her own words:
"The mighty Carlisle has the enviable title in the UK as being the city with the highest Teenage pregnancy rate, and it is with great shame that I confess I let my town of origin down in this department.
Rather than bringing a hungry bairn to the table and a stabbing outside Gregg's, I instead offer an arts degree from the toon and a year spent in Brooklyn NYC working at Teen Vogue magazine, on a film set and completing a jewelry design course.
I went to art College in Barcelona and would love to ultimately settle there in the sun, with sangria, cigarettes and lots of loons.
I have a borderline obsession with traveling and mountaineering sports, and hope to complete my second attempt of the Haute route this year.
Celebrities do my nut in (apart from Karl kennedy) and I'm a bit of a tree hugger at heart.
Favourite karaoke tune is sweet child o’mine and I'm proud of my northern roots because we have the best banter."
See, she's clearly bonkers. Say hello and ask if it really is grim up North next time you're in

Happy 8th Birthday!

May 1st. A day of drama, revolution and the birth of adland's best kept secret. 8 years ago, sat round his kitchen table, Dave 'do you want to feel my head' Bonawhatsit decided he should go straight, lose the red boot laces, and get a proper job, so he created what we now lovingly refer to as 'Karmarama'.

To mark this important occasion we had cake and a few drinks around our newly opened Barmarama. Taking a break from a busy work schedule, manic pitching and frenzied shopping for anything lemon for our summer wardrobe (you read it first here, lemon is going to be oh so very big this coming season), we gathered and had a couple of drinks to say 'Thanks for the job Dave' and general chit chat.


And in an eye-wateringly poignant moment, the Karma partners were presented with their very own steel tankards to keep behind the bar at all times, whenever a bit of magical lubrication is needed.


A marvelous time was had by all. A bit of fun and frolics in the garden. And then we all went back to work because we are a hard-working bunch.
Happy birthday us. All cards, presents, hugs or kisses gratefully received