Pete Turns 60

A big Happy Birthday goes out from all at Instanta to my brother Peter Brassey who turns 60 today. Peter (above in his hippy days) has always been a bit of a Peter Pan figure and it seems strange to think of him collecting his bus pass. Many of you will remember him from his time in the 70's,80's and 90's when he played a very important part in the development of the company before taking early retirement at 50. Pete now fills his time with a variety of interests including his website Finestrat.co.uk which specialises in advertising Spanish holiday villas to rent. He spends his time between England and Spain but when he is in England he can always check out what's going on in Spain by clicking on the web cam at his Spanish apartment here. Anyway have a happy birthday Pete.



On Saturday I went to a book signing at Waterstones. Local artist Malcolm Fryer who introduced me to antiques many years ago has just provided the illustrations for a new Sci-Fi book Bugz Contact. I am a huge fan of Malcolm's art and we have four of his paintings in our collection at home. I hope that he gets the success and recognition that he deserves. As he is now in his 70's success has come late.




Another artist in our collection is the fabulous PJ Crook. We have two of her paintings including The Race (above) which I bought for Marion's birthday. We got an invite last week to her latest exhibition. Sadly it is being held in Paris so we can't go but it was interesting to see in the catalogue that whilst Toyah Willcox, Billy Joel, Peter Gabriel, Billy Connolly and the Marquess of Bath all get a mention in the catalogue for having PJ's work in their collection, we don't. Hmmm.

There was a great game at Anfield on Saturday (even though I did have to stand for 90minutes). I think the pure joy of the occasion is very well captured in the following.



Thanks to everyone who attempted the competition. I showed you three clips and told you that there was a link and the answer was a game. The clips were the wonderful Scissor Sisters, the cool Sly and the Family Stone and Jack Dee doing a routing about Papers. I hope that clears it up.

And so to the latest competition and your chance to win £50.The first to order a boiler and provide us with the correct answer will get £50 off. Link the following number to today's blog headline. 1972