Hansom

Singing about sushi

It’s not always easy to muster up enthusiasm for a construction and property networking event at 7.30am, but last week’s Movers & Shakers event served up a breakfast with a difference. Simon Woodroffe, founder of Japanese restaurant chain YO! Sushi finished his talk on how he made his millions with a live rendition of How I got my Yo, the song he wrote and recorded with his musical heroes The Blockheads. You couldn’t fail to be impressed as he belted out the number with no little gusto and some very interesting dance moves, and it was refreshing to see the besuited audience bopping away in their seats.

Young and the elderly

Baroness Young, chief executive of the Environment Agency, has an interesting solution to the UK housing shortage. Speaking at an event for the Adelaide Group, a networking forum for businesswomen, she said: “Us single folk who are over 55 should be forced to live in communes, so we share our resources and provide care for each other in old age. It’s not a government policy … yet.” She was equally persuasive on the subject of recycling, which, according to a survey, the male sex loses interest in after the age of 16. This, she said, was further evidence that “women should rule the world”. Her audience heartily agreed.

An unlikely return?

As the industry’s skills card scheme CSCS prepares to advertise for a new chief executive, my spies inform me that one name in the frame is a certain Eddie Ruthven – the man involved in an accountancy cock-up at CITB-ConstructionSkills a few months back. Ruthven’s pedigree for the job is apparently not is question and he is held in high regard across the industry as a CSCS expert. But the question is, who would tell the CITB he’s got the job?

An awkward lie

Golf is not normally considered to be a dangerous game – unless of course you’re lying flat on your back in a fetching comedy jockstrap waiting for a tee shot to be played from your groin. Such was the unenviable position Procure21 boss Peter Woolliscroft (above) found himself in as part of an exhibition at a recent charity golf day at the Woburn golf course in Hertfordshire. In all, £14,000 was raised for the Alzheimer’s Society – although one wag said he’d have paid double to prevent Mr Wooliscroft from appearing in a jockstrap in public ever again.

The confederation uncovered

A rather amusing tale reaches me from the Construction Confederation drinks event last Wednesday, held at Taylor Woodrow’s new stand at the Oval cricket ground. Kurt Calder, the CC’s communications guru, was extolling the virtues of the stand to a group of colleagues and hacks when the lift taking them to the top of the stand broke down. As the temperature rose, the motley crew were advised to do whatever made them comfortable. Unfortunately, this meant several rather ample CC gentlemen began to removing their clothing, making the hacks most uncomfortable indeed …

Stomach rumble

The annual drinks party of law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner last Thursday was this year entitled “Rumble in the jungle”. A mock jungle scene was created, and cocktails were served alongside performing jugglers and circus acts. The grand event was going very well until one circus performer who specialises in putting needles through his cheeks and dangling coat hangers from various parts of his anatomy got too close to a tired and emotional project manager, who promptly told him to “bu**er off and stop putting me off my food”.