It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas...

Young children these days seem to measure things by how many sleeps it is until their birthday, a holiday, Christmas etc... And us at MJ head office are no different!!! Age is but a number after all and at the time of writing this blog... It's only days 44 days, 19 hours and 23 minutes until Santa is coming to town!!! SCREAM!!!!!!

It felt like just the other day Starbucks brought out their red cups and now they are BACK!!!! :) Christmas shop windows are starting to look more and more Christmas like, my wardrobe is getting taken over by winter coats, boots and brightly coloured socks and the sudden acceptance that we get up in the dark and go to sleep in dark has become a somewhat irritating reality!

Here at MJ head office we had a busy weekend!! As if we weren't already in the Christmas cheer of things (I mean, have you seen our new Christmas inspired homepage?!?!) we went to Duke of York square on Saturday for the opening of the Christmas lights, listened to carols and got to see Santa at his new grotto which has opened next to the Saatchi gallery! Children were running around in their warm winter coats and everyone was huddling around with warm coffees in their hands, getting excited for the festive season. It really is such a happy time of year for everyone and whilst standing there, one almost forgets that there is any remorse in our world and feels at one and friends with everyone around!

As if that isn't enough to put a smile and an excited step in everyone's day, things are only going to get more and more festive....

The Regent Street Christmas lights have been turned by Ty Burrell who stars in the eagerly anticipated film Mr Peabody and Sherman (Jah-mazing!), the ice rinks have opened, winter wonderland in Hyde park is a mere 11 days away, the Christmas market on South Bank is being assembled... Can we be more excited?!?!?!?!!

As MJ is your PA, we are going to be going around trying out the best of the best and will be letting you know which ice rink we suggest you try out, which Christmas latte gets us the most excited and which Christmas broadway show you simply can't go without seeing, so watch this space! We are here to help you and the a Christmas season, is without a doubt our favourite one!

Until next time... X

Miss Jones gets weak at the knees...

Miss Jones has been a busy body this week!

We attended the World Travel Fair at the Excel centre where we managed to mingle our way through the crowds and have a picture with the FA cup (yes, we are now in our boyfriend's good books-finally!) walked past a falcon in the Africa section and even rode on a broomstick whilst chatting to the other muggles interested in finding out more about visiting a snowy Harry Potter world this festive season.

Sunday is Remembrance Day and here at Miss Jones we have a small collection of poppy badges as one simply cannot walk past a man in uniform and not helplessly go weak at the knees and surrender to buying not one but a small handful of them badges!

If you are still in need of donating money and saluting our men and women in service, please ensure your pockets are jingling with coins when you leave the office for lunch or to cheers the weekend as there are sellers out on every corner every day until Sunday.

From us at MJ head office, we thank everyone who is a part of the armed forces, past and present and to come. You are all doing an outstanding job and are showing courage on a level higher than anyone of us could ever try to imagine!

Until next time... x

Miss Jones reveals lies we tell when dating online...

Hello Ladies!

Miss Jones has been investigating!! 

A survey has revealed the most popular lies told by both men and women when signing up for online dating.

Could you find love on Facebook or Twitter rather than an online dating website?

Alongside the launch of the brand new series of MTV’s show Catfish, filled with not-so-happy-ever-after tales of online dating nightmares, a survey has revealed that a whopping 58% of online daters have lied about themselves to impress potential love interests.

The results showed that of the 58% who confessed to telling fibs to bag themselves a date, 64% of those were blokes, with the most popular lie being with regards to their job, including their salary, position and job description.

So maybe have a think about whether you’d still want to grab a drink with that CEO if he was a bin man.

The next most popular lie told by men was to do with their age, rather shockingly followed by their marital status! Some guys confessed to hiding the fact they were already in a relationship, and some did not admit that they were divorced from a previous marriage.

14% of the men who admitted to lying had even failed to tell the truth about their kids, often deciding to not admit that they had any children at all.

These things should come with a lie detector test hooked up to your inbox.

The top 5 lies men tell when it comes to online dating are:

1.       Employment (e.g. status, job description, responsibilities, salary) - (48%)

2.       Age (e.g. stating a younger age, using a misleading image from years before)– (41%)

3.       Marital status (e.g. being in a relationship already/hiding divorced)- (27%)

4.       Hobbies and Interests (e.g. making themselves seem more interesting)-(23%)

5.       Kids (e.g. disclosing if they have children, how many)-(14%)

The top 5 lies women tell when it comes to online dating are:

1.       Age (e.g. stating a younger age, using a misleading image from years before)– (52%)

2.       Looks (description of body type, weight, dress size etc) - (44%)

3.       Hobbies and Interests (making themselves seen more interesting)-(27%)

4.       Employment (e.g. status, job description, responsibilities, salary)-(17%)

5.       Smoking - (13%)

What do you make of these results? Have you ever lied whilst online dating?

Love

Miss Jones 

xxx

Miss Jones has moved...

Hello Ladies!!

Miss Jones has a hectic few days!! 

Our HQ has moved! After some wonderful years in the old office we are now located on the Kings Rd, darling!  

After a crazy few days today's blog is full of tips for your office move...organisation is key!

Don’t go it alone: Like it or not, an office relocation is going to cost money. Many office relocations go wrong through companies having a misplaced belief that they can save money by not engaging the services of professional help. But office relocation mistakes can work out to be more costly and sadly these companies have paid the penalty. Conversely, businesses that do work with office relocation professionals including (commercial property agents, property solicitors, office fit-out, IT, Telecoms and office removals) avoid mistakes, save time and get better value for their money.

Start your office relocation planning early: There’s a lot to do and the earlier you start the planning process, the better. Best practice shows that 9-18 months prior to your lease expiry is a reasonable lead-in time, depending on the size of your business. It’s advisable to use this time to prepare an Office Relocation Project Plan which sets out the key dates by which you can work to. There is also a whole range of free, downloadable office relocation checklists, moving office templates and office space calculators for you to use to help plan your office relocation.

Getting the right Office Relocation Project Team together: Putting together the right office relocation project team is crucial. This will need to comprise a suitable and competent office relocation project leader. They must have enough time to devote to the office relocation project, be senior enough to be able to make decisions; be a good organiser of people and processes; have experience of setting and working within budgets; and be a good communicator. Other internal project team members should preferably include some support from Sales, Marketing, HR, IT, & Finance. Read More about an office relocation project team.

Set out a realistic office relocation budget: Preparing an honest and reasonable office relocation budget will help you stay on top of your costs before during and after your office relocation. Start by using the Moving Costs Calculator to help you identify the necessary expenditure of your office relocation.

Use the office relocation to upgrade & review: Moving office is no better time to upgrade to the latest communication technology and upgrade your business phone systems.  Speak to your IT & Telecoms Consultants about suitable options. An office relocation can also provide a trigger to review and /or switch service providers that might lower your costs and increase business efficiency.

Be prepared for the unexpected: An office relocation can be full of surprises … and these are often the ones you are least prepared for!  By planning well ahead of your office relocation and creating a Business Continuity Plan, you will reduce risk, avoid delay and ensure that costly business downtime is minimised.

Tinder rules!

Hey Ladies!!

Tinder is the latest dating trend and it seems to be working!

However, be careful…Miss Jones has some tips so you don’t make any mistakes!

1. Don't post selfies.

Everyone makes fun of selfies yet so many women still post them. Selfies suggest that you have no friends to take your picture and/or are self-involved enough to catalog self-portraits on your phone. Against my better judgment, I went out with a selfie-poster once. She not only fulfilled these selfie taker stereotypes, but also didn't even look like her, well, selfie.

2. Don't post photos of yourself as a kid.

Tinder's an online dating website where people find dates almost solely based on physical attractiveness. (Sure, maybe you wrote a few sentences about yourself, but basically no one reads those.) Posting your childhood photos sends a confusing message. Do you really want some guy who's into you because you looked cute as a kid? Look, we were all innocent before Tinder. You don't need the kiddie pics to verify it.

3. Don't only post group pictures.

Despite how fun it is to play detective across all your pictures and figure out who's the same in each one, it's so much easier to swipe left.  Plus, guys automatically assume you're the least attractive one (and swipe left). At the least, only posting group shots suggests that you have serious confidence issues that prevent you from sharing a solo photo. So do us all a favor and use a solo-shot as your first picture.

4. No tit shots.

I can't believe how often I find women with photos of either a zoomed-in shot of their cleavage or photos that were obviously cropped to show only tits. As with group shots, if all you're showing me is your tits, I'm likely to assume that either the rest of the package is pretty poor or you have confidence issues. Also it's worth noting that everyone's tits look pretty horrible at 10x zoom.

5. Do not use "U" or "R" in your messages.

Is it really that hard to type out "you" or "are"?  In the days of flip phone texting maybe butchering the English language to this extent was OK, but all of us Tinderers now have smartphone with full keyboards. The minute someone sends me "how r u?", I can't block them fast enough. If you're this lazy when you first introduce yourself, can I even rely on you to show up for our first date?

6. Don't suggest a meal as a first date.

Only suggest (and I'd also recommend, only accept invitations to) in-person activities that afford a quick and painless exit. I thought this strategy was well-known, but somewhere in the Tinder-verse it's gotten lost. After only exchanging a few random texts in an online dating app, I don't want to commit to any activity that I can't eject myself from in minutes if necessary. Stick to drinks or coffee for the first date so everyone can get out quickly if the proverbial house is on fire. Any Tinderers can pound a drink, throw cash on the table, and get right out if necessary. 

7. Don't put RIPs in your taglines.

For example: "To Ronnie — 9/27/10. In my heart forever."  I have a hard time understanding why so many women put a Debbie Downer in that tagline box when there are so many other ways express oneself to a large pool of potential future husbands. Random RIPs suggest to guys like me that you've got a serious issue to resolve, which is an awfully intimidating point of entry when looking to start a relationship. I've never swiped right on an RIP tagline.

8. Don't use terms of endearment in the first message.

Like, "Hey babe!" "Babe" is a word best used around straight men when you're familiar with them. Much more familiar than you can ever be with someone on Tinder. Swipe left.

9. Don't send a first message after 10 p.m. on a weekend unless you want to hook up.

If you're not trying to get back to Tinder's original carnal roots, keep the app shut down after 10 on the weekends. If I get a first message (or a response to a first message) after 10 p.m. on a weekend, I assume we're going to sleep together that night.

10. Don't worry about messaging guys back "too soon."

  Look, maybe some women still like to play the "make them wait" game. But it's a bad idea in this brave new Tinder world. Tinder is great because it provides hundreds of opportunities to meet people in a very short time. So by the time you've implemented your 24-hour — or two-hour — rule, I've Tindered with at least 24 other people who are just as superficially interesting as you.

11. Don't invite guys to your or someone else's home.

This happened to me once. I figured she just wanted to get straight to the hook-up, but I couldn't overcome the creep factor of showing up at a random address.  If you really want to fast track to the banging, invite the guy to the bar downstairs, pound a drink or two, run your hand up his leg and lead him to your place upstairs. Tinder may offer a whole new and at times terrifyingly efficient and technologically savvy way to date, but some things never change.

Good Luck!!!

Love 

Miss Jones

xxxx

Miss Jones asks which friend are you?

Hey ladies!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Girls, we are known for our networking skills we make friends pretty easily! But everyone we meet falls into a friend category…Which one do you think you are???

1. The steady-eddie
The most reliable and trusted of friends, you are able to do anything with this person, whether that’s going out for a night on the town or hitting the shops. This person is most likely to be more of a sister to you and maybe one day your maid of honor.

2. The shopping buddy
You can always rely on them to give you honest feedback when trying clothes on and they trust you to do the same. You both make an excellent tag team when going into the sales, grabbing things off the rail you know the other person would like. What’s more you know their measurements like your own and you’ll often pick out something for them when you are going shopping alone!

3. The agony aunt
Often one of your older friends – a mother figure who you can talk to about stuff you would never want your mum to know. Be careful with this one because there is only so much advice one girl can give…be there for her too!

4. The crybaby
You let this friend cry on your shoulder once when one of her many relationships ended, now you are the default agony aunt to all their problems. They ring at the most inconvenient hours, usually either from the loos at work or last thing at night after they’ve had a few too many glasses of wine.

5. The Samantha
Everyone knows a Samantha. Immortalised by Kim Catrall in Sex and the City, Samantha does anything says anything and is, at the best of times, a loose cannon.
She’s great to go out with in the evenings and you can always expect to have a fun time with her, but she never knows when enough is enough. With her, the time you don’t see each other is just as important as the time you spend together.

6. The Nigella
Are you always the one hosting the dinner parties, or do you just enjoy inviting your friends round to see your new home improvements? If so then you are the Nigella. You’re the domestic goddess who cooks, cleans and always looks immaculate and boy, do your friends know about it. We are all a little bit jealous of our Nigella friends we want to be her a little bit but jealousy fades when we are tucking in to one of her signature dishes and we are glad to just know her.

7. The friend of a friend
You’ve met this person a couple of times and, you’re friends on facebook – other than that there is little else. You don’t really have anything in common other than a mutual acquaintance and if you by chance bump into each other in the street, the conversation is extremely limited and quite awkward – especially if you’ve forgotten their name!

8. The ‘married with kids’
A married with kids friend is someone who you used to have real fun with until they tied the knot. Now there’s no more nights on the town, all you ever do is ‘coffee at mine on Saturdays’ and conversation is limited to what her kids are up to. Of course you don’t resent her getting married and starting a family, you just want a bit of your old friend back.

9. The plan B
You would never admit it but everyone has their ‘plan B’ friend ready to fill a gap when a better friend can’t make a night out. Of course you would never tell someone if they were the reserve friend – but you better have a good set of excuses to hand as to why they were not invited in the first place.
If that has happened to you on more than one occasion with your friend saying ‘we would have asked you earlier but I thought you were busy’, then I’m afraid you are a plan B. We hope you’re not this friend!!

10. The all-seeing-eye
The all-seeing-eye friend is the ultimate queen of gossip. She will know other peoples’ business well before they do and won’t be afraid to hold her tongue.You go to them when you want the latest scoop however, you are careful of how much of your own news you let them have.They often give the impression of being loyal to you, but when news starts spreading about you and that guy you met the other night, you know where it has come from.

So which one are you?

Have a great day!

Love 

Miss Jones

xxxx

Got a bit of a Halloween hangover...

Hello!

Now you may be sat with the remains of fake blood and face paint on your body at home feeling sorry for yourself after trying every Halloween cocktail and shot at the bar last night but some of us still had to crawl into work!!

Miss Jones is here to help! I have drawn up a little list of all the best hangover cures, use them wisely and your boss will never know that you were that crazy witch at the bar last night...

 Berocca - Puts the vitamin B back in, as well as the big glass of water it's mixed with. It's probably best to do this before you go out.

Coke - Fizz for the nausea, liquid for the dehydration, and a caffeine and sugar hit to make you feel a bit more lively.

Coffee - Same as Coke but without the bubbles to help ease the nausea. Try it with honey instead of sugar since the fructose is absorbed quicker than the sucrose in normal sugar, and it's better for you.

Ginseng - It's been noted that since caffeine is a diuretic like alcohol, it can actually make the dehydration worse, so try the herbal equivalent instead.

Vegemite On Toast - Something in your stomach is good, and salty is even better. Plus you get a Vitamin B top up. The same reasons also make peanut butter a good choice, but the oily nature might make some sensitive stomachs feel a bit yucky. If you do try try this one, skip the butter and just have dry toast.

Cold Pizza - Who knows, but it seems to work.

Asprin - Simply attends to the headache and does nothing for the level of alcohol in your system. Don't take them before you go to bed.

Bananas - Sugar in the form of fructose, and potassium, which is one of the things you lose lots of when you drink. Bananas are also a natural antacid to help with the nausea, and are high in magnesium which can help relax those pounding blood vessels causing that hangover headache. For a variety of reasons try a peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich on white bread.

Vitamin C - Another thing the alcohol takes out that you're advised to put back in as soon as possible. Orange juice, tomato, a 600mg Vitamin C tablet - doesn't matter, just do it.

A Hot Bath - The heat will sweat out the toxins that are causing all the problems. You'll feel a bit woozy at first but go with it and you'll feel better afterwards.

Chocolate Milk - Other than the rehydration factor, I find that chocolate milk offers the tummy a soothing coating for the nausea. It also repletes some of the vitamins your body is now woefully lacking. The sugars and salt seem to be the perfect balance of the carb/salt fix. Last, the flavor seems to do wonders for that ghastly "did I try to mop the floor with my tongue?" taste in your mouth.

Sauerkraut -  the acid/nadh balance and the nutritional value - but from first hand experience it works rediculously well. I've seen it work in the most extreme cases." If you can't bring yourself to eat the actually chunky bits, try sauerkraut juice (out of the sauerkraut bottle) mixed with tomato juice, or a good helping of Sauerkraut Hangover Soup. 

Hope this helps!!

Love 

Miss Jones 

xxxx