Barfly: Township spirit takes Diageo boss by surprise

A MAN used to taking things in his stride, Nick Blazquez, the Bridge of Allan-raised president of Diageo Africa, was nevertheless taken aback when he spotted, one dusty afternoon, a £245 bottle of Johnnie Walker in the bar of a South African township.

Still, pleased to see that the increasingly affluent citizens of Johannesburg were enjoying the very occasional snort of Diageo's super-deluxe King George V Blue Label, he told the bar owner so.

She quickly put him in his place. "That's the third bottle we've gone through in two months," she said.

Are Orbit trio on course for planet Branson?

A TRIO of PR men are reaching for the stars with the launch of a new firm, Orbit Communications. Having escaped the gravity of their previous employer, Indigo PR, Alex Orr, Alex Bruce and James Tout have spoken of their "galactic" ambitions. They gave no hint about who their potential clients may be, but they aim to attract work related to energy, professional services, construction, skills and the planning process. Or is Barfly missing a hint in the title of the new firm? Amid rumours that Sir Richard Branson plans to base his space tourism business, Virgin Galactic, in Moray, are these spacemen making a play for the PR work?

Art imitating life? Wood does a Sterling job

HE'S a 40-something, mild-mannered communications guy by day, but at night James Wood immerses himself in the murky world of international arms dealers and post-Cold War intrigue.

Or at least his alter-ego, Craig Sterling, author of a soon-to-be published thriller entitled Stealing Fire does. Wood's first book under the pen name features Andy Harris, another 40-something and a dodgy arms trader who eats, drinks and smokes probably a little too much.

Of course, we would never make the elementary mistake of thinking an author must be like his protagonist. But Wood/Sterling does admit to a stint in the defence industry, long ago before he began working as the head of communications for the Edinburgh Bioquarter.