I had a consultation on Saturday and because my usual venue, The Institute of Directors, was shut we ended up having a very civilised lunch at Cafe Rouge in Hays Galleria. Now I don't usually do restaurants for consultations, all that eating and menu balancing seems to get in the way, but this worked out well and made me wonder whether the atmosphere of the IOD is quite right for me.

I will have to check out alternative venues, but my criteria is that it must be quiet, easy to find, with good food available (and I must admit the IOD does the most gorgeous of Cappuccinos), with maybe some kind of quirky or arty twist. At the moment the members gallery of the Tate Modern looks promising - although I'm wondering how busy it gets.

Paula Gardner is the author of Get Noticed: Boost your small business profile in 30 days or less.

Some good client news coming in. Period Features http://www.periodfeatures.net/got mentioned in The Observer this Sunday - and owner Lucie hasn't even finished her PR ecourse yet!

Mini Gallery ( www.minigallery.co.uk ), are holding their first exhibition of affordable Art. Featuring an eclectic mixture of the artists that exhibit on Mini Gallery, this will be at Brighton Race Course on 4th and 5th June. Check out http://www.minigalleryexhibitions.co.uk/index.aspto find out more.

Paula Gardner is the author of Get Noticed: Boost your small business profile in 30 days or less.

We had a bit of a disappointing Easter break (everyone was ill..but not at the same time so it seemed to drag on forever). In between fluey bugs we did manage to sneak in a lovely weekend pottering around Richmond. We stayed at this lovely B and B http://www.doughtycottage.com/and had the best cooked breakfast that I've had in a long time.

Also caught up with a bit of popular culture and read (finally) The Da Vinci code by Dan Brown. I thoroughly enjoyed this and forced my (devoutly Catholic) husband to read it straight after just so that I could talk to someone about the plot! Being a Godfather story fan I was also interested to see that there's a new book (Not a Mario Puzzo) called the Lost Years. I haven't read it yet (dithering over ordering it from Amazon) if anyone has read it I'd love to know what you think.Finally, also got to see Constantine with Keanu Reeves. Interesting film, very different from your usual run of the mill thriller, and enjoyed that immensely.

Paula Gardner is the author of Get Noticed: Boost your small business profile in 30 days or less.