Diary: greetings, prop-pickers

Inspired by the fact that EG’s award-winning podcasts are now available on Spotify, we thought it was high time we launched an EG Property playlist. A collaborative collection of songs to provide the soundtrack for each week in real estate. After a call-out on Twitter for suggestions (and the prompt to add your own tunes), the list has started to grow. Suggestion number one was Pay Your Rates by The Fall (in homage to the late Mark E Smith) [main picture], followed swiftly by Primal Scream’s Loaded (no explanation needed). Stuck in the Middle with You from the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack was put forward by one tweeter to “illustrate the plight of the hostesses” in the Presidents Club scandal. Our House is on there too, obvs, and, after Amazon’s unveiling of a miniature rainforest in its Seattle HQ, so is Welcome to the Jungle. Keep adding your suggestions and tweet us @estatesgazette using #propertyplaylist – and find the playlist here. Days of future pasty Last weekend saw Standard Life Investments staff move from their glamorous offices at the top of the Gherkin to Aberdeen Asset Management’s somewhat less shiny home, down the road at Bow Bells House, following the pair’s £11bn merger. One Standard Lifer shared their woes with Diary.  “At the bottom of the Gherkin we’ve got a lovely Konditor & Cook,” they sobbed, “and at the bottom over there they’ve got a Greggs. That about sums it up.” Fancy seeing you here It’s a small world, property. And so was proved at last week’s start-the-year event organised by property marketing network Profile. The group’s director, Duncan Lamb, revealed that, that morning, an uncle and niece had said goodbye to each other at breakfast – only to be unexpectedly reunited at lunch, when each turned up to the annual shindig. Do families not talk anymore? The choice of a new generation Here at EG, we are firmly committed to being an all-ages publication. And we’re glad to see that family-friendly approach is appreciated in the household of Emma Horton, managing director of specialist property public relations firm Foundations PR. Indeed, her little girl Bethan accepts no substitute, as demonstrated in this delightful photo. As Emma put it on Twitter: “Two year old daughter getting stuck into the week’s property news – who needs Peppa Pig when you have @EstatesGazette?” Who indeed. One of Diary’s colleagues confesses that she too could be found with a copy in her hands at a similar age. So, Bethan, if you’re reading (and we know that you are), give us a call in 20 years. Moo-ving the goalposts The long vacant former cattle market site in Derby has finally been sold. It is 11.5 acres, just a mile from the city centre and, when it was put up for sale, was heralded as rather important. “The site, which is suitable for industrial, office, leisure and mixed-use is in a key strategic location and could transform the gateway to Derby,” said the selling agent at the time. Fast-forward to this week’s announcement that it has actually sold to Inchcape for… two car dealerships and a “vehicle preparation centre”. Now Diary is sure that having somewhere to buy a nice car – Jaguar Land Rover will operate one of the dealerships – is highly desirable, but we can’t help wondering if this is quite the “gateway to Derby” first mooted. Now that’s a promotion The departure of Alison Platt as chief executive of Countrywide last month, following a profit warning, saw the appointment of a new turnaround team. Peter Long, executive director, stepped into the role of executive chairman and Paul Creffield, previously managing director, commercial development became nothing short of group operation director – or “GOD” as he’s now known around the office. A bit of divine intervention would certainly go some way to sorting out the company’s woes. Photo credit: ITV/REX/Shutterstock