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• Calculators are for wimps

  We're driving through the west of England on wide open roads in brilliant sunshine, taking my son back to university for the start of the term. The new small car, with the back seats folded flat, is like a Tardis for the amount of student luggage... Posted Oct 06 2008, 08:25 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: price reporting, corporate life, drive, cars, training, ICIS Training, calculators, brain training, breakfast

• The Blog celebrates its first birthday - a year of chemicals gossip

  The ICIS Chemicals Confidential blog is today celebrating its first birthday. Born in the maelstrom of the Reed Charity Blogathon on 24 September 2007, it has grown unexpectedly strong and bonny, boasting 257 postings over the course of its first year... Posted Sep 24 2008, 08:56 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trivia, gossip, ICIS, price reporting, blog, corporate life, media life, blogathon, birthday

• Out with the US Coast Guard

  A hardy ICIS editor went out on a US Coast Guard vessel yester day to see what they we re doing about the long line of vessels waiting to get in Houston Port - some 164 ships in line. S ays Heather Doyle of ICIS Houston, " While we were out, I had... Posted Sep 19 2008, 02:20 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: Texas, ICIS, Houston, price reporting, Climate, Hurricane Ike

• ICIS-CBI China reporting team

  Alfred Wong has sent this photo of the smiling ICIS-CBI China reporting team, standing on the steps outside the offices on a warm autumn Shanghai day. In the picture (from left): Front row: Tina Liu (news), Crissy Qi (team leader of Chinese reports),... Posted Sep 15 2008, 03:31 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: CBI, ICIS, Houston, price reporting, Mangalore, Shanghai, ICIS-CBI

• Football and chemical freebies

  I'm sitting in a football stadium on a mild and sunny Saturday afternoon in this cool damp English summer, watching our team in what is only its third game this season as all the expensive new players fail to score a single goal. Watching football... Posted Aug 18 2008, 01:06 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: conferences, Sabic, ICIS, EPCA, price reporting, corporate life, football, LyondellBasell, Neste

• Houston fashion goes tropical

  A tropical influence has been evident in ICIS Houston in advance of the scheduled arrival tomorrow of Tropical Storm Edouard. They tell me that dress-down Friday shirts have been tending towards Hawaiian over the long hot Texan summer, and that in last... Posted Aug 04 2008, 05:50 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trivia, fashion, ICIS, Houston, price reporting, corporate life, media life, Hawaii, Tropical Storm Edouard

• The lure of a Hawaian conference

  Our Houston pricing editors were enthralled to receive a last-minute press release from BASF inviting them to this week's World Brewing Congress at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, where the chemicals major would be showcasing some... Posted Aug 01 2008, 04:15 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: business travel, conferences, BASF, Houston, price reporting, wine, media life, beer, Hawai

•  True confessions: Julia is a 4x4 driver

  My colleague Julia confesses to her weakness for a powerful motor ... I am a 4x4 driver. Actually, I'm now a non-4x4 driver since the cost of driving has become astronomical. A Mercedes ML 320 is good-looking beast, drives like a dream and is safe... Posted Jul 23 2008, 11:00 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: gossip, gasoline, price reporting, petrol, cars, crude, children, fuel costs, Mercedes

• New Indian ICIS team in Mangalore

  These cheerful folk are the new ICIS team in Mangalore, India, snapped here by Andy on his trip there at the end of June. The photo is taken inside the compound where the office is located, on a former cashew plantation. Read More... Posted Jul 11 2008, 06:02 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: India, ICIS, price reporting, Mangalore

• ICIS runner in Edinburgh Marathon

  ICIS London's own senior editor, Ed Cox, is back in the office and collecting up all the funds he raised for his local hospital by completing the Edinburgh Marathon. Here he muses on the experience for which he trained mercilessly and in the process... Posted Jun 17 2008, 09:45 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: gossip, ICIS, price reporting, charity, fund-raising, Edinburgh Marathon, Ed Cox

• ICIS news editor in Wall Street Journal

  ICIS news editor Americas, John Waggoner was quoted in the Wall Street Journal's MarketBeat blog on Friday . In an article entitled "One Word: Plastics", harking back to the famous advice in "The Graduate" but perhaps not so wise... Posted Jun 16 2008, 09:16 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: plastics, chemicals, movies, price reporting, Wall Street Journal, crude

• Surreal moments in Shanghai

  Since we’ve described the Blog as a look at the “off-beat side of reporting on the global chemicals industry …behind the scenes at training sessions across three continents”, I feel I should record some of the more surreal moments of the editorial training... Posted May 11 2008, 09:46 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: business travel, London, CBI, ICIS, price reporting, Shanghai

• I am a Shanghai commuter

  Nothing beats the daily rush-hour commute on the Shanghai metro for getting the real flavour of working life in the metropolis. From the minute you step into the station – by-passing the teams of workers polishing the ground, the railings, the turnstiles... Posted May 11 2008, 09:38 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: business travel, CBI, ICIS, price reporting, Shanghai, commuting

• More ICIS/Chemease pricing reports on China

  Everyone wants to read about China, I tell the 18 Shanghai reporters who are looking to me for guidance on how to write for an international audience. In fact they are already writing for a huge Chinese readership, but now they are going to turn their... Posted May 11 2008, 09:19 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: China, business travel, Chemease, ICIS, price reporting, Shanghai

• Fakery in alumni brochures and chemical websites

  There I was, sipping a glass of something cold on the terrace of the House of Lords at an alumni reception, the sun slipping gently behind the curve of the London Eye, the Thames drifting lazily by, in whimsical reminiscence with the Master of the college... Posted May 06 2008, 10:01 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: ICIS, price reporting, fakes, Platts