As the year draws to a close I thought that it would be good to hand out a few awards so here is a mishmash of both my own and Instanta's best and worst of 2008.
Customer of the Year
I might as well start with this the most difficult of all to choose. There have been so many candidates including the old industry stalwarts, C&C Catering, Caterware, Keemlaw, Old Ford Catering, Lloyds, South Coast Catering, Allsop & Pitts and John Garner from the CEDABOND stable. There are first rate wholesalers R H Hall, Nisbets and the Wolesley Group and genuine internet dealers ABC Direct and Aquahot but in the end, despite the boss being an ardent Chelsea fan, I am giving the award to Carford Group. It is rare to find such a professional set up in any industry let alone this one and I get the feeling that Carfords share our aim of achieving high standards of customer service through lashings of integrity, attention to detail and being pleasant to deal with. Thanks Nick. A truly excellent business. Visit their website here
Service Company Of The Year
We closed our service department a few years ago as there were simply not enough faulty boilers to justify the cost of keeping it open. Since then we have continued to develop a network of independent engineers who cover the whole country for us. We have particularly enjoyed working with Jonathan from PB Hayhurst, Hans from Apolon, Dave from Quality Catering Maintenance, Leon from Surelink,Ian at Blackpool Catering, Tony from Cater-Tech Liverpool and Tom from North Brighton but my award has to go to David and Amanda Sweeney of City Servicing in Essex. It is hard enough to service boilers in any city centre but to cope with the logistical nightmare that is London and to carry out the work so quickly, efficiently and friendlily is an amazing achievement. So thanks Dave, Amanda and your team. And come on you Hammers.
City Servicing
Unit 2 Rectory Road Globe Industrial Estate, Grays, Essex RM17 6ST
p: 01375380165 f: 01375392228
Film of the Year
Marion and I love nothing better than a good film. And we have seen plenty this year. High on the list are the Coen brothers "No Country for Old Men" a masterful piece of cinematography and Clint Eastwood's recent "Changeling" a fascinating tale of police ineptitude wonderfully told. But for sheer joy, innocence and happiness my award goes to "Juno" a truly feelgood movie in a feel bad year.
Most Costly Mistake Of The Year
No contest. It may have cost Liverpool millions but it cost me a bet of £650. Although on the positive side it saved me a trip to bloody Moscow.
Worst Christmas Cracker Ever
Marion went for a Christmas lunch with her friend Jane on Saturday. I know that times are hard but just take a look at the cracker that came with the meal. The restaurant shall remain nameless although it goes without saying that it was not our favourite Warehouse. The hat is two inches tall, the gift is a tiny purple plastic pair of lips and the joke? "How do you get rid of a boomerang? Throw it down a one way street." WTF I know that cracker jokes are supposed to be groan inducing but I think I could be funnier just putting down a few words at random. The sky is blue but at least there are partridges in heaven.
Best TV Show of the Year
Regular readers know that me and Marion don't get out much so telly is a popular pastime. Next year there can only be one winner, Chris Tarrant's new game show "The Colour of Money" developed by our son Paul but this year, whilst Paul's "Are you an Egghead" was a good show, it was not his original idea. Our own favourites included magnificent costume dramas like "Tess" and "The Devil's Whore", "X Factor" as always, the fabulous and sometimes outlandish "Beautiful People" and recently "Outnumbered" and the broodingly menacing but beautifully filmed "Wallander". But my award goes to "Harry Hill's TV Burp". Harry's brilliant take on the week's tv is simply excellent on every level. Where else could you see my hero the Pogues' Shane McGowan signing "Fairytale of New York" - with a whale?
Employee of the Year
It would be wrong to single out anybody from our workforce for this accolade as they have almost all put in a fantastic effort and managed to increase production despite the introduction of a completely new range of equipment. Our R&D team has produced the finest range of machines that we have ever had in our 50 year existence and our spares department has managed to hit all targets for getting spares out on time. We have met all our quality initiatives and our Environmental Management System has done its bit for the world. Our sales team has managed to increase sales in extremely difficult times and our office staff have treated customers courteously and given them an excellent service. Our buyer has helped us to control costs and our credit controllers have kept on top of the situation in the face of criticism that has sometimes bordered on abuse. Well done everyone. Keep it up in 2009 and we'll beat the recession.
Here's a song for Christmas.
What? You didn't expect something Christmasy from a sworn atheist did you?
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