Who gobbled up all the time?

I know I know – it’s been soooo long. June and July just seems to have been some kind of whirl wind and time has sped up to 100mph! .

So what have I been up to I hear you ask! In a nutshell....

4 days at the National Funeral Exhibition –wow, I think my feet are still recovering 6 weeks on!

4 weeks of being ‘Goldie Cook Secret agent’ trying to win £20,000 so I could invest into Sentiment.. Didn’t win by the way, but hey ho, some nice deserving hardworking chap did win and I was very happy for him. (How gracious of me!!)

5 days of Poxy Child....My Little girl Constance got the chicken pox! (check out her spots!)

5 days and nights at Glastonbury festival - Connie's 3rd Glasto and she's not even 3 yet!!



1 day at Wireless festival - spot my Goo on the loose flag! - Please refer to Goldiecook's youtube channel for more flag flying!

In between the festivals, fun and rum I have been working working working... recession? what recession! I am now recruiting for new crew across the UK, my email is filling up daily with applicants - now i've gotta find the time to go through them!

Friday was the last day of pre-school for Connie for 7 whole weeks... 7 WEEKS!!!! So tomorrow is the first day of being supermum & superbuinesswoman - wish me luck!

One last photo WARNING 'parental brag coming up' ... my daughter is a genius ;O) she not only started to learn to read at 2 and half but 2 months before her 3rd birthday I walked into to find this on her blackboard (Below) yes she wrote and spelt her own name all on her own... I AM SOOO PROUD!!
Right enough of that - I've got work to do!!

Take care everyone xx

Radio gaga!

Just as I was running out the office on Thursday morning, I received a phone call from BBC Radio Berkshire asking me to speak live on air... I knew what it would be about straight away as I'd had 3 calls from various sources in the past 24 hours regarding the launch of the Co-operative Funeralcares survey regarding Music in funerals).

I was interviewed by Henry Kelly - here is the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p002qzwq/Henry_Kelly_16_04_2009/

(about 33.09 on the time line).

Dont bring me flowers...

I’ve never been a massive fan of flowers for funerals. In my family we have always said no to flowers and asked people to donate to charity. I could never understand why people would spend £100 on a wreath that would be seen for an hour. I even tried to convinced a local florist a few years back to make ‘ reusable fake wreaths’ just to go on the coffin during the ceremony... I’m a bit of a scrooge!

Yesterdays funeral consisted of about £10,000 worth of flowers! I had never in my life seen so many flowers. There were 3 lorry’s, each over flowing with outstanding floral tributes. Each tribute was made into something unusual from the Tower of London, speed boats, Lorry’s, hearts, teddy’s, angels, shirts, cars and even Coke Cans – not a cellophane wrapped bunch of flowers in sight, just grand floral tributes in their hundreds! This could have been perceived as tasteless and over the top, especially as they dominated the entire cemetery, however I thought it was bloody wonderful - what a send off? How amazing that all these people emptied out their pockets to pay their respect with flowers to a good old working class man of the community... this is not a celebrity we are talking about just a great guy!

Yes, I’ve changed my mind - bring me flowers by the bucket load for my funeral, they are fab!

(I will post a still from the film as soon as I get permission from the family)

Funeral Favours

I was reading the daily undertaker today, the author wrote an article on parting gifts (what I call Funeral Favours). Here at Sentiment, we love 'Funeral Favours'. If you love giving gifts and you are pre-planning your own funeral, then why not leave a little something as a thank you to your friends and family - it doesn't have to cost anything.

Some people have sugared almonds as a traditional wedding favour (apologies for any one who had them at their wedding, but yuck!!! ). These days there is a craze for bending the rules of tradition and giving something unique. For my own wedding we hand painted (*roll of the eyes*) Yes HAND PAINTED 130 glass tea light holders!!! At 5am in the morning and with 50 still to go, it dawned on me that it wasn't the best idea I'd had! However, I have a friend who went one better. Hillary ever so stupidly thought that making an assortment of home made Jams to give to each of her 120 guests was a great idea - she didn't sleep for a week! (They did taste good though)

Ok so we're not talking weddings here, we're talking funerals. And I'm sure most of my clients have better things to do with their short lives than paint tea lights and make jam!

For one young lady (Sarah), we came up with the idea of handing out Cadbury's chocolate bars at her funeral. Sarah loved Cadbury's chocolate (don't we all? As I type this blog, the other half of my brain is planning my escape out of the office and down to the newsagents to buy myself a Cadbury's Cruchie!) Back to my point... Sarah imagined her friends finding the time to sit with their chocolate bars, with a nice cup of tea and reminisce about the good times they had together. Her other reason was that chocolate helps release endorphins and this would help her friends and family smile!

Here are a few other funeral favour ideas we have used:
Packs of Gardening seeds
Tribute DVD
Photos
Candles (scented)
For me - I'd give everyone a mix cd with 20 of my favourite songs. I like the idea of my friends hoovering their houses on a Sunday morning playing my CD on the highest volume and singing their heads off, or maybe on a road trip, or lying a beach somewhere. Or evening better - listening to my mix on their iPod's when they run their charity 'Race For Life'.

So what would be your Funeral Favour? Do you think the whole idea is awful? Please let me know your thoughts.