ok, i know you are all just dying to read all about this week’s blog post, so let’s not waste any time shall we?

today my friends, is a great day! my ipod was playing all the right tracks this morning, and to top it all off, i am celebrating my birthday tonight with a bunch of my friends (a bit early, but monday night celebrations are never a big hit). and to top it all off, i will also be going on a burrito date with the wonderful richard who writes for the vitamin blog as well. so i figured we could celebrate with a great track by jam, a trio made up of some of the musicians from the japanese band soil & pimp sessions, featuring the amazingly talented artist jose james. why you might ask? well, because it is a song that always brings the biggest smile to my face and it represents all the happy feelings i am having at the moment. so enjoy, have a wonderful weekend, and i will catch you all on monday when i will be the tender age of 21 (for the third year in a row haha).

wow!  so much has happened since i last
spoke to you.  my album came out and went in at number 3 which to be quite
frank, i’m still incredibly shocked about.  my single pack up has also
been creeping up the charts so i’m ecstatic about them both!

i had an amazing album launch party which was a
blast, funnily enough we were sipping champagne and i-focus!  not
together though, that would be weird.  had all my friends and family and
everybody who worked on the project came down!  absolutely fantabulous!
 ended up at jimmy napes’ studio for the after party dancing to old school
garage.  always gets me going.

the best part about the last couple weeks is how
totally random my job has become.  i was in the studio recording a version
of my song rollerblades in simlish.  if you don’t know what simlish is,
you need to get to know.  haha!  simlish is the language of the
sims, which i will shyly admit i was addicted to when i was younger.  i am
pretty excited about having my own sims character made with a sims video
singing rollerblades in simlish.  must say.

i’ve also been lucky enough to visit the bbc
quite a few times.  i got to go on a few radio shows, one with edith
bowman reviewing a bunch of songs.  one with scott mills singing very
catchy and silly lyrics to my song pack up for the world cup, dedicated to
lloyd. one helping matt edmonson take over vernon kay’s slot and another with jo
whiley on radio 2 singing live supporting will young !  amazingness all
round really!  absolutely loving these extra bits and bobs that have been
planted in my path !

i did a gig for mtv which was amazing, and got to
meet laura, ricky and melvin at diggs too!  always thought their studio
was big but it’s teeny tiny!  they must have special effects or
something.

some other random but terribly exciting shiz is
the lottery !  i got to perform and press the button, and have been
visiting some other tv shows like this morning and london tonight and the
crush.

back to more musical things, i have been in the
studio with roll deep.  so there may be something coming out of that !
 just jamming but you never know.

i have actually just come back from a weekend of
madness.  i played at 4 festivals, tramlines, secret garden party, radio
aire and key 103.  all amazing fun !  my highlight was definitely
secret garden party cos my gig was smooshed into this tiny tent and there were
people so close to each other they could have been getting it on til 6 in the
morn’.  it got incredibly steamy in there which always creates an
incredible vibe!  i kept a vitaminwater on hand to keep me hydrated.

absolutely loved performing and if that
wasn’t enough to make my day, i got to get up onto the main stage and perform
with the gorillaz sound system!

their show was amazing and it was an honour to
join in!  well that’s what i’ve been up too!  hope you’ve had a
goood few weeks too!

hello my lovely friends, how are you all doing today?
i know you might have been awaiting the second part of our little hiphop history lesson, and i don’t want to disappoint you all, but you will simply have to wait another week. why? well, because i suddenly felt incredibly inspired to make a very special playlist for today. i think it might have come as a result from the mix i shared with you all on monday, because just like that one, todays power-chart is jazz as well. but not just any kind of jazz, oh no no no!it’s one of my all time favourite sax players cannonball adderley, a man who inspired me a lot when i used to play the saxophone myself.
his music is magical, and i felt in a slightly magical mood when i put the playlist together. it’s mostly love songs (as you will notice if you have a listen), but i guess that’s what his music always represented to me, love in its most wonderful form. so if you are in a jazzy kind of mood, make sure you tune in to my cannonball adderley playlist. enjoy and happy wednesday!

my oh my, what a scandal that would be! luckily, he is not really cheating on the lovely katy perry, just acting out a scene from his latest movie with jennifer, arthur.

if you
have had your ‘i’s on our blog or tweets over the last couple of weeks, you
will have noticed that we have been giving away iPad’s to celebrate the launch
of our new flavour, i-focus. we’d like to thank everyone who participated, and
hope you had as much ‘i-focus’ fun as we did!

i spy with my little i treasure hunt

bottles
of i-focus were hidden in 6 major cities all over the uk for two weeks. the
treasure hunt produced 3 winners

mark forrer (@markforrerphoto)

mark murray (@markmurrayuk)

sian alcock (@sianysian)

i find
it hard to focus when… blogger competition

for
those who were unable to take part in the location based treasure hunt, there
were 2 iPads to be won on two different blogs as well; where entrants had
to  complete the sentence ‘i find
it hard to focus when..’

the
winning entry on friedmylittlebrain.com was jennifer who answered:

i find it hard to focus when… that big green goblin comes over for lunch and demands that I serve it fried chicken brain cos I haven’t a clue where I am suppose to get it from let alone why it has come for lunch or even where it has come from, arghhhhhhhhhhhh

the
winning entry mystylepa.com was leila who answered

i find it hard to focus when…..

I’ve
had a late night,

Too
much to drink,

Next
morning, head’s pounding,

Can
barely think,

My
stomach’s churning,

Feel
so unwell,

This
surely must be,

The
hangover from hell,

Can’t
face breakfast,

Feel
so atrocious,

Got
such a craving,

For
chilled i-focus,

This
raging thirst,

Makes
me irate,

Only
Vitaminwater,

Can
help me hydrate!!

wishing
all the winners lots of iPad fun! to see what else we got up to, check out our
blog and take a look at i-focus photos of the vitaminwater teams
activity on our facebook page.

i’m sure i’m not the only one who loves lazy days. the kind of days when you stay in bed way past the time you know you should be getting up. a morning (that’s really early afternoon) where you indulge in a nice brunch consisting of pancakes, strawberries, creme, maple syrup, freshly brewed coffee and homemade orange juice. a day where you spend most of your time in your pj’s or comfy clothes, cuddled up on the sofa or sitting out in the garden. you know what kind of day i’m talking about right? well this sunday i had the pleasure of having one of those days and of course, with a day like that also comes a little mix of some great music, because i wouldn’t be me if i didn’t have a mix for an occasion like that. so if you’re already fed up with monday, don’t worry, this collection of songs are guaranteed to make you feel like it is the weekend again, or at least make the new week a little bit more bearable. enjoy!

we
recently surpassed 2,500 twitter followers, and so wanted to give something
back to all of you! we know you guys love festivals as much as we do, so we’re
giving you the chance to join us at two separate festivals next weekend.

the
two festivals are…

1.
camp bestival

camp
bestival is a cracking family festival in a castle by the sea. it takes place
from the 30^th of july to 1^st of august at lulworth castle
in dorset. the line up includes calvin harris, ellie goulding and example,
check out the full line up here. we have one pair of adult
weekend tickets worth £155 each up for grabs.

2.
kendal calling

kendal
calling has been occupying the fields of cumbria for one weekend every summer
since 2006. it takes place in lowther dear park in the beautiful lake district.
the line up includes the doves, the coral and calvin harris (yeah, he gets
about, check out the full line
up here.
the festival is sold out, but we have a pair of full weekend camping tickets
worth £85 each up for grabs.

the
competition is open to all our twitter followers, (you can follow us here). to enter in the competition for festival tickets all you
have to do is tweet this

i want
tickets to #kendalcalling courtesy of @vitaminwater_uk http://gvwurl.com/comp

i want
tickets to #campbestival courtesy of @vitaminwater_uk http://gvwurl.com/comp

to get
you in the mood… if you need some tips on festival fashion, check our this blog post by louise, or how about some funky
festival ideas for your finger nails!? best of luck!

 *terms and conditions apply

friday again, and this week we’re extending some blog lovin’ over to ape to gentleman, whose aim is to transform guys across the land from the common man to the modern man with their trusty tips and suggestions.

now, i can picture men everywhere shouting, “i don’t need grooming tips! i am a man!” – but before you veer frantically towards the big ‘x’ at the top of your browser window, ape to gentleman carefully sift through a mound of products handpicking only the best suggestions, presenting them with a dash of wit and charm to make for an easy read.

and even if you fancy yourself as quite a dapper well-kept gent, there are some hilarious articles such as ‘ape to gentleman’s “back the beard” guide’, which will at the very least give you an amusing heads up on where not to go wrong with your grooming routine. vitaminwater was also recently featured in a great post ‘hangover survival guide‘. which only makes us love him even more! 

if you’re on twitter, check them out here.

have a great weekend guys!

a very big happy birthday wish to the oh so wonderful and talented kissed asplund! last year she treated us with a special gift (even though, if memory serves me right, the birthday person should be the one who is receiving gifts and not the other way around… but i am not complaining the slightest!) and this year she has been kind enough to do the same.