Penny Black’s Social Diary: Rodeo and Markel’s déjà vu tie

Penny (memory) Lane

Have you read Insurance Post’s Throwback Thursday column? A gripping read for anyone as old as I am who can remember a world before the internet and when Tik Tok was just the sound of a clock.

As I am a historic figure, a LinkedIn post from Marianna Hunt, campaign manager at Abrdn, the company once known as Standard Life, caught my attention recently.

Hunt went delving into her company’s archive of hundreds of items documenting its history.

She said: “Looking at how 19th century PR professionals did press cuttings (think scissors and glue) made me very grateful for the wonders of media monitoring platforms.”

Sights included a photo of the head of the West Indian office in the 1960s riding an ex-rodeo horse to work (and parking it in his parking space) because an oil strike meant he couldn’t use his car plus a pile of ash that was once policy documents that set on fire when the London office was bombed in the Blitz.

Post doesn’t like it if the team rides into the office on a horse as you never know when the animal may stink up the podcast studio.

Penny’s Lunch Box

Percayso’s platter at their Christmas party may have been fairly beige, but it was ample with plenty of burgers and tomato sauce. This was so good a spread that when this picture was showed to former Post team member Jon Guy, he headed on over to the party. Four stars.

Out of context

“Slightly embarrassing that I am wearing the same tie in that photograph.”

Markel’s managing director in the UK Neil Galjaard wishes someone had pointed out the outfit he was wearing was the same one on the photo on the slide behind him.