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We had been planning for a while, and the day had finally come!!!
Thursday 17th December was D-Day for the Christmas parties at Hampstead Parochial Primary School.

We were nervous, we were pirates and we were ready!!!

We spent the morning decorating the hall – this is how it looked early on!

You can see Jose and Barbara fitting the red fabric from the ceiling for Santas Grotto and the pirate bunting that Shelley and Phil put up!

This is how the hall looked when it was finished.

This is the completed Grotto, minus Santa but complete with presents for the first party!

And this is how all the pirates looked!!

Initial feedback from the head was “the children said it was magical and the best Christmas party that they had ever had in the school.” Rebecca Hughes - the deputy - also said thank you from the staff - “they were blown away by how well organised and professional the afternoon was.”

Don’t worry - there will be more blogs and more photos over the coming weeks - so watch this space!

Thank you for Reading.

The Dollar index which measures the strength of the USD against a basket of currencies hit a 3 month high as the USD extended its recent rally. However the motivation for the rally shifted- previously the USD gained on the back of recent positive economic data in the form of retail sales and payroll numbers. Yesterday it was more a case of good old fashioned risk aversion creating a demand for the safe-haven USD. A more upbeat statement from the Fed may also have helped as they slowly turn more hawkish, however it was a clear case of risk off that drove the US dollar higher yesterday. The problem is that a weaker USD will have contributed to better economic data and now the USD is gaining we could see future economic feedback stuttering.
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Last night the Federal reserve kept their interest rates on hold, reports indicate we may not see a rate hike until late 2010 or even possibly 2011. The dollar has gained against most currencies on the back of this, and USD/JPY tipped higher for the third consecutive day.

UK retail sales figures for November MoM came in this morning at -0.3% against an expected 0.5% rise, pushing sterling lower against a basket of currencies. Cable has moved below 1.61 on the back of last nights Fed decision to keep interest rates on hold, boosted by the poor UK retail figures. Key support levels around 1.6083 should see the dollar move towards 1.59 regions.

Data due for release tomorrow includes German IFO, GBP public finances, and Euro-zone trade balance for November.

That is when looking at the eurozone as a whole. Since the beginning of December the euro has shed 500 points against the USD, recent problems in Greece and Austria and further structural problems within the eurozone are zapping confidence. In a nutshell along with recent problems within Greece and Austria, you also have concern over Italy, Spain and Portugal and exposure in Eastern Europe; take this alongside a strong euro and expanding deficits and you have forward looking issues which are shaking investor confidence. To add to the woes of the euro, the USD has had a fine run in the last week being largely supported by stronger economic data. Read the rest of this entry »

The euro has again moved lower against the majors and in particular against the USD moving down to 1.4523 overnight and overall down 500 points from recent highs. The cause of the downturn has been attributed to the recent jitters in Greece and more recently in Austria. The Greek prime minister commented yesterday that Greece does not have much time and must take tough decisions within the next three months- decisions that have been left for decades.  In a very direct address he stated that “we must change or sink” and vowed that he will tax the bonuses of Greek bankers by 90%- move over Alistair Darling! Read the rest of this entry »

Instead of donating to 3 charities this month, we are concentrating all our efforts onto one project. Not only that, but as a member of Bitc (Business in the Community), Currencies Direct have decided to not only donate our money this month to one charity, but also to donate our time!

Bitc introduced us to Hampstead Parochial Primary School, who are a small C of E parish school that is one of the least funded schools in the Borough of Camden with one of the highest levels of special needs and English as a second language. The school spends all of its funds maintaining the old Victorian school building, which leaves nothing in the budget for any extra curricular activities. Unfortunately, Christmas decorations and a Christmas Party fall into this category. We have volunteered to decorate the school hall and stage and to organise and hold 3 back to back Christmas Parties so that every child in the school gets to dress up, play games, and visit Santa to receive their Christmas gift! Phew! Did I mention the school has over 200 children?

The parties will be on Thursday 17th December, and there will be 10 volunteers from Currencies Direct who are taking part. We are all very excited about the parties at the moment, but to be honest – I’m getting very nervous too and I think that children can smell fear!!

We are building a small grotto on the stage and then turning the main hall into a ‘Pirate Christmas Treasure Island’ with face painting, dressing up, pass the treasure and many other fun activities for the children to partake in!

The plucky volunteers are:

Sara Cuthbert
Ignacio Hernandez
Jose Ivars-Lopez – aka Santa
Phil McHugh
Claire Kelly
Frances Barrance
Deepak Goyal
Shelley Cox
Barbara Manko
Nic Gidaracos

This is the first time that Currencies Direct have been involved in a project like this, and if it goes well it could pave the way for a more structured volunteer programme. We have had some sterling help from people in the office who have obviously donated money, but also helped with wrapping presents. I also need to give a big thank you to Tomas at C3 Imaging Ltd, Peter at Trebuchet Design, Alice and the team at The Gate, who have all been generous in their support and helped to give the party accessories and design a more professional look and feel that we could ever manage on our own!

Watch this space for more details!

The countdown to Christmas has truly begun!