Ed’s face has always been rather kickable, but today was worse than ever! Painted as a football in honour of football-new.com, Ed and his family went to see an ice hockey match. Now as we all know, nothing says ‘family bonding’ like a group of men beating the living tar out of each other. Not wishing to intrude on this beautiful family occasion, I left the Moyse’s to it, and took the opportunity to visit my girlfriend in Yeovil. We decided to stage Christmas one week early, which leaves me nothing else to say but “Merry Christmas!” (I’ll wish you a Happy New Year in a week’s time when we stage that too).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was the 10th birthday of a company called eleven today… and they’ll be on our homepage again next year (as will anyone who buys one of our days) – I’m looking forward to it already.  11th birthday of eleven, year 20…12 still good, but not quite magical, unlike the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland that we visited today.  The mulled wine was perfectly mulled, the Bavarian village was oh-so German, and the elven ride attendants looked suitably miserable next to the giant inflatable euphoric Santas.  It was like the North Pole itself had crash-landed in the middle of London!

Having had Buy My Face dreams™ all last night, I needed a reality check when I woke this morning.  Nervously grabbing my paintbrush totem, I gave it a quick spin… and flicked paint everywhere.  As I cleaned up the paint and lamented on the possibility that there could be unexpected side effects from painting your face every day, there was a knock at the door.  It was Mike – he’s a recent graduate just like us, who’s trying to bust his way into TV documentary production and he was here to film a documentary on BuyMyFace.com.  We were asked to treat him as if he were invisible – we should just go about our normal lives.  I found Ross in the kitchen wearing nothing but a smoking jacket, and holding a pipe.

 

Ross: Mike, charmed to meet you.  How say we migrate to the dining room so you can film us whilst we paint?

 

As Ross spluttered after a deep inhalation of what smelled like burning coffee beans, I knew he had the right idea.

 

Ed: Yes, it’s face painting time Ross, but I will have to do my thousand morning press-ups.  It’s just part of my daily routine.

 

Suddenly we were in the dining room, and I couldn’t for the life of me remember how we got there… then Mike transformed into a velociraptor and bit Ross’ head off.  I was next, and as Mike’s razor sharp teeth began pressing on my jugular, I found myself panting heavily in my bed.  Cunning – a dream within a dream.  The day planned out pretty much as dreamt though, minus the velociraptor and smoking jacket.

 

Today was the Cambridge vs. Oxford blues slalom race. Seeing as Ed and I are both heavily loyal to our team (whatever they’re called), we took a trip down to support Cambridge and of course, hand out some Ernst and Young jellybeans.

 

After the fun had ended, we decided to take advantage of the sunshine by shooting some videos of us attempting jumps that required far more skill than any of us actually had. We all got pretty hurt and so naturally, we did the sensible thing of coming back to the apartment, having a bath, and generally taking it easy… only joking, we ate a lot of crisps and then went out to the Varsity Final Night Party! Wooh! *cough* Ouch that hurt.

 

 

 

 

 

After spending the day shielding our faces from the now oncoming blizzards, and sitting on the side of the piste staring at jumps we were never going to attempt, Ed and I felt like doing something a bit different. Funnily enough, Ernst and Young had fixed us up with tickets to a comedy show.

 

The view from the back of the room was pretty good, and we managed to make it through the two-hour show without catching the attention of the professionals whose living it is to make fun of others. Inspired by the comedy, I went straight back to the apartment to write this blog post…

 

 

 

 

 

Skis? Check.

Boots? Check.

Gloves? Hat? Kickass sunglasses? Check.

 

Snow?… ah.

 

Looking out of our apartment window here in Val Thorens, I couldn’t help but wonder why everything looked so green. A record low level of snowfall this year has left the slopes pretty bare, and the resort is therefore teaming with lots of worried skiers.

 

With a quick look at the pile of jellybeans Ernst & Young sent us, we knew what we had to do. We filled a bag, got on a chairlift, and went looking for those brave souls who said ‘no!’ to Mother Nature.

 

While bringing sweetness back to the mountains and generally being complete and utter heroes, we found time to develop a daring new trick…

 

Ed: Ross, Ross, the Ernst & Young merchandise is here!

Ross: Sweet – what have they sent?

Ed: Jellybeans.  A lot of jellybeans!

 

As we piled up the 85 packets of jellybeans, 2 hoodies, and 25 chocolate bars, it was apparent that a tactical re-packing was necessary to stay within our 20kg luggage allowance.  The pants were first to go, followed by a few t-shirts.  The lava lamp was more of an issue:

 

Ross: Ed, we need this lava lamp

Ed: Well you are very persuasive, but we’ve just got rid of half our underwear – I’m afraid we’ll have to ditch the lava lamp.

Ross: *single tear rolls down cheek, slightly blurring the Ernst & Young logo*… ok…

 

We managed to check our bags in ok in the end – mine weighing in at 20.0kg, and Ross’ was 16.9kg – tragically just enough spare capacity for a lava lamp, but it was too late.  We’re now in Val Thorens where the snow is somewhat lacking, but fortunately there are snow cannons to top-up the pistes, and yes, the slalom will be going ahead, and yes, Ross and I will be entering it.

We’re going skiing tomorrow, so Ed and I thought we’d get our affairs in order.  Dishes were thrown and insults were hurled, but after explaining to our girlfriends exactly why we’d been late home from work these last few weeks, we managed to find time to pack for our holiday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yep, we spent the whole day looking for socks, passports, and health insurance. Not a big day for us really, but it was a massive day for my cat:

 

 

It was our first advertiser from the USA – big up !  They were full of ideas to boldly venture where no face ad had ever been before… somewhere pretty swanky!  The plan was to polish our shoes, dust down the top-hats, put on our monocles, and remove our rosewood canes from their humidity controlled cabinets – we were off to see a ballet at the Royal Opera House.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revolver Studios had kindly reserved us the finest tickets available, which included dinner in the Amphitheatre Restaurant beforehand, and champagne in the interlude.  Our painted faces went down a treat with our fellow ballet-goers, and the ladies were all over us!  After leaving our numbers on some embroidered handkerchiefs, we headed back home feeling pretty chuffed.  Not only are we still a hit with the babes, but we also had some great photos for a USA press release that may come out soon with Revolver Studios.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re going to have a documentary made about BuyMyFace.com! This morning was spent talking to the guy who’s going to film it for us and storyboarding – the humble beginnings of two adolescents growing up on ‘the street’ (of Cambridge), the discovery of their face-painting talent that they hide from disparaging friends, the rise to riches and fame as they leave their old life behind, and the sex scandal that bankrupts them.

 

With our morning’s work done, we had to shift up a gear for go-karting in the afternoon. In the last month, we’ve been professional skydivers, theatre critiques, and cocktail connoisseurs, but it was time to become race drivers for team AppZapp. We accelerated, slip-streamed, span and crashed into 8th and 9th place out of 15 (in our defence, most of the people who beat us had twin-engine karts). As fun as it was, I think we’ll need a bit more experience before bringing out the AppZapp F1 team!