Rachael McKelvey

• Overweight and grazing
• Word of the year
• Math’s thinks Chester is the prettiest
• 10,000 more McDonalds
• Next years colour of the year

Overweight and grazing
In the same week that a new report published that Britain’s “weight problem” is costing almost £100 billion a year and the effect on national productivity is nine times bigger than previously thought, Waitrose Food and Drink report determined that British people are no longer eating three meals a day but choosing to graze, with 30% of the nation eating two meals a day and replacing the third with snacks and 10% saying they only eat one meal a day and graze on snacks for the rest of the time.

The report indicates that Hybrid working, and the increased pace of modern living has caused the dramatic change in eating habits and why Boomers still traditionally stick to three meals a day, that and food and drink brands most definitely target our stomachs and leverage social media at different times of day.

The most popular time of day for snacking has turned out to be after 3pm…this is my favourite time, along with 43% of those 2,000 questioned for the study. The next popular slot was midday to 3pm, which indicates people are skipping lunch. The executive director of Waitrose, James Bailey said that food inflation had changed how people were eating in all aspects of their lives, from time of day to what they are eating.

Word of the year
As the year draws to an end, it’s time for Oxford’s Word of the Year 2023 and with over 32,000 votes a team of language experts have hailed “Rizz” their word of the year.

Apparently 2023 was the year for personal and professional PR and its charisma that commands the attention…so enter internet slang rizz to distil that romantic appeal and charm into 4 letters. While the first usage in the corpus is dated in 2022, usage sky rocketed after actor Tom Holland in June told Buzzfeed “I have no rizz whatsoever. I have limited rizz” and the internet then went wild with the memes.

The other contenders included “prompt” which has seen dramatic increase in usage thanks of AI, “situationship” to describe informal relationships, “swiftie” to describe enthusiastic fans of Taylor Swift. Other words also in the mix were “beige flag” used to describe traits in partners that are neither good (green flags) or bad (red flags),”de-influencing” to describe the act of not encouraging people to buy things, “parasocial” to describe that thing you do where you follow a celebrity so much you think you know them and  “heat dome” to describe a specific weather phenomenon.

Maths says Chester is the prettiest
Through the power of Google Street View and the “golden ratio” a group of mathematicians have named Chester the prettiest city in the world, beating Venice who placed second!

The cities were ranked based on the highest percentage of buildings adhering to the “golden ratio”, expressed as 1:1.618 which is a determined set of proportions that has “captivated mathematicians since ancient times”. It’s the ratio most observed in flowers and shells and is considered inherently beautiful in the natural world.

Chester is one of the most historically significant cities in England and boasts a 1,000-year-old cathedral, Britain’s largest amphitheatre and the countries oldest race course and a whopping 83.7 of the buildings analysed met the golden ratio, beating Venice by 0.4% and London by 1.3%. Little old Chester hey!

10,000 more McDonalds
McDonalds is thinking the unthinkable in its new targets for development, loyalty and cloud technologies with the aim of increasing stores across the globe by 10,000 by 2027, bringing its total store numbers globally to 50,000. Only 900 of those stores are looking likely to be in the States, with the focus of the expansion in developing markets China, Japan, India and Brazil who are in line for 7,000 new restaurants. These 10,000 new stores equate to a new McDonald’s opening somewhere around the world every 4 hours and 23 minutes, which is wild.

The restraint giant also wants to increase membership to its loyalty programme in the same time frame as it turns out those members spend twice as much as non-members even with their new menu. The introduction of phone ordering and in restaurant screens in fast food stores has seen an increase in the amount of food people are willing to order and I am definitely guilty of that, would I order a side burger or extra doughnut if I has to say that out loud to person? Absolutely not. Do I do it when I just have to tap items on the screen, yes I do!

Next years colour of the year
I’m a big fan of Pantone, there was a time in my life where the only redeeming feature of my role was the pantone book on my desk and the ability to use my brain to work out the required repeat for cutters and plates for printing.

Pantone have chosen to end 2023 on a high and unveiling its colour of the year for 2024, Pantone 13-1023 Peach Fuzz which can only be described as a soft peach-beige (sounds delightful) but according to Pantone reflects “our desire to nurture ourselves and others”.

“In seeking a hue that echoes our innate yearning for closeness and connection, we chose a color radiant with warmth and modern elegance. A shade that resonates with compassion, offers a tactile embrace, and effortlessly bridges the youthful with the timeless. said Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, in a statement shared on the company’s website.

The colour chosen annually is selected by a group of the institutes members from various industries and backgrounds across the world who all come together to decide what they think the next year will bring based on colour psychology, research and mood of the global zeitgeist and so far so good, the colour of the year for 2023 was Pantone 18-1750 Viva Magenta which echoed a dark and richer barbie pink tone.

 

Current watch:  Fisk – I would appear if I had to pick a favourite genre it would apparently be Australian Comedy, they are witty and dry and I just seem to love them. Fisk is about a lawyer Helen Tudor-Fisk who returns to Sydney after her career and marriage have fallen apart. Helen is played by Comedian Kitty Flanagan who plays the role in just the most awkward funny way possible delivery laugh out loud lines alongside cringey awkward moments.

The show is ultimately rather clever in it’s approach to sexism, ageism and the social expectations of women. Season 2 has just dropped on Netflix and I am excited to see what happens next for Helen at Gruber & Gruber and whether she continues to feel that she’s “not really a dead people person either”.

Current read: Over Sharing – Jane Fallon – Some more fiction for this year, I think maybe my brain has reached that end of year need to wind down already. This was brilliant, funny and cutting in equal measures. I think you like and dislike all the characters in equal measure throughout the book and end up back at liking them all. The main protagonist is Iris, a forty something kitchen fittings salesperson whose life crumbled, because of one women, or so she thought. In her journey to bring down the now social media influencers perfect life she discovers that all might not have been how it seems. The book takes place for three people’s perspective of the same situation and it was a fun read that I would recommend with a blanket on rainy Saturday afternoon, which is all the kinds of Saturday afternoons we have.

Most Impactful Listen: Trendy: Oh Come, All Ye Faithful: religion, politics and values – This was really more interesting that I thought it would be, these two are a really great pair for getting into the why’s behind things. They ask are we now a secular country, who still goes to church and how much faith plays a role in running the country and determining policy. The why’s behind them and the cultural shifts are fascinating in a I’ve never linked those two things before but that makes perfect sense kind of way. I found the bit about education and the impact of religion eye opening, given that I’d also listened to The Bunker: Different class: A proles’ guide to the elite private schools that churn out our leader which acted as the timely reminder about the origins of private schools and how they were all founded to support the most disadvantaged in communities not just kids of rich parents.