We Get By With A Little Help From Our Friends

And it works both ways. So when we are asked for a bit of help from someone who has helped us out e.g by providing us with lot of equipment for our staff gym like Dave Rogers (pictured with factory leader Tony Mercer above), we are more than happy to assist. Even if it is repairing his heron. After all we're all about water aren't we? And so are herons. Actually I could do with one of those for next to our pond.



Here's a word of advice for those smug Apple Macbook users like me.If someone sends you a birthday present that involves software on one of these tiny little Cd's, don't put it in the CD drive in your lovely Apple MacBook Pro. And if you had read your Apple instructions you wouldn't have done that would you? But there again who reads instructions? Not me obviously judging from the panic that ensued after said mini disc disappeared into the bowels of the laptop never to be seen again (almost). Fortunately I turned to the Internet for the solution thinking that even amongst those super intelligent people who own Apple computers someone else must have been daft enough to do the same. And I was right. Within five minutes I had the solution from a highly technical website. What was it? (All computer geeks look away now). 1. Hold laptop firmly with cd drive facing floor.2. Shake vigorously. Don't laugh. It worked.



I had to show you the wonderful packaging that a present arrived in. Lovely isn't it? I had a great birthday with some great gifts and had a very pleasant evening with Marion at the Warehouse Brasserie before flipping Florence went and spoilt the day by beating Liverpool. I also had a brilliant birthday card from Paul and Josephine that mocked up a tabloid newspaper reporting me winning the Booker Prize for my novel. You may mock son. You may mock.

Orange Wednesday tonight and we're off to see Creation. The film got reasonable reviews in the papers and we're quite looking forward to it. I reckon we've seen about 39 films so far this year. Mind you with our Orange Wednesday deals and with Vue gift vouchers kindly donated by my mum it's only cost us a little over £100. That's what I call value for money.

Having worked in a bank I know what it's like to fear robbery and I also know that the consequences can have a devastating long term effect on the vistims. If this have a go hero had arrived to help me out I would have been furious. How did he know the guy didn't have a gun? And as for the woman! Whatever happened to humanity? She should have been arrested for assault.

It's My Birthday And I'll Blog If I Want To

Whilst looking for a photo to accompany today's blog, I realised that I have hardly any photos of me taken over the last twelve months. Which is a good thing really as, instead of being in the reasonably healthy (if slightly overweight) condition I was in when this was taken I seem to have aged considerably since then. Well, I have, I suppose, as I am now 56 rather than 55 and that's a time when you start thinking about your mortality. Perhaps I'll have to find God. Anyway, as you will have guessed from, my subtle headline, it's my birthday today.It's been a hectic year. On the negative side we've had a recession to cope with at work and I've ended up needing a hip replacment to add to the problems of high blood pressure. But on the positive Instanta has done very well during the crisis, daughter Sarah has done very well in her job and got a new house with partner Duncan (who is also celebrating his birthday today. Have a good one Duncan) and son Paul has done very well in his job and got himself engaged to the lovely Josephine and (just in case you haven't read this blog before) I've written my first novel. Maybe next year I can celebrate its publication and I'll be attending book signings instead of boiler sellings. To celebrate we are going to The Warehouse Brasserie tonight.



For my birthday I have treated myself to this wonderful sexy calendar.It may have been been done before but the story behind this calendar parallels the original Calendar Girls and is equally heart breaking. I hope that you will support this extremely worthwhile cause which has been supported by the excellent Workhouse Marketing who do all our super sales literature by clicking here.

The group of brave women are revealing all in a ‘calendar girls’ style calendar to raise money for cancer patients. The group from Ribchester in Lancashire, led by Janis Whitlock who lost her husband Brian to cancer last September just 3 months after their wedding, have posed for a tasteful calendar with a seasonal twist. The picture for each month relates to the theme that is associated with that time of year, for example Poppies in November. The group is selling the calendar to raise money for the Rosemere Cancer Foundation at Royal Preston Hospital, part of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The 2010 calendar costs £7.50 plus p&p and, as well as on eBay, can be bought on-line at www.ribchestercalendargirls.co.uk. Janis said, “ The idea came from a gentleman in the village called Billy Sharples who has also lost his wife and a son to cancer. The ladies of the village were keen to ‘bare all’ to raise funds , and with the help of Workhouse Marketing who photographed and designed the Calendar, and of CPL Design and Print who printed the calendar, both companies supplying their services free of charge, we have managed to produce a stylish calendar fit to grace any fridge” Dennis Benson, Chairman, Rosemere Cancer Foundation, said: “We are delighted that Janis and her friends have decided to raise funds in this way. The money raised will prove invaluable in contributing toward the care that cancer patients from across Lancashire and South Cumbria receive.” PLEASE BUY THE CALENDAR. 100% OF THE PROCEEDS GOES TO CHARITY.



Here's little Sam Clayton looking all grown up in his new school uniform. It only seems five minutes since his mum Liz was working in our office but Sam is four already. Just think, when Liz joined us, I wasn't even fifty! We are sure that Sam has a brilliant time ahead of him at school. He is such an imaginative little boy that I was thinking of asking for an autograph as I'm sure he'll end up on stage one day.



Marion is transforming into Kirsty Allsop. Son Paul and his fiancee Josephine need to find a new flat as their landlord has sold theirs so they are desperately trying to find somewhere quickly. Working over ten hours a day they have limited time so Marion is doing loads of background searching for them. The biggest problem with London flats is that every time you find the perfect one on the Internet you contact the agent and it has already been let.Mind you I bet Kirsty didn't wake up this morning and tell her husband that she had just dreamed that she had killed someone.........with a melon!

As it's my birthday I'm indulging myself with my all time favourite YouTube video (again.)Forgive me but if you can find a more exuberant happier clip on the Internet please do let me have a link.

We Bought The Lad From Sunny Spain

This is not (and never will be) a football blog but football (and Liverpool) has played a large part in my life and it sometimes finds its way on here. There has to be an exceptional reason of course and, of course, there is today. On Saturday I was lucky enough to be amongst the forty odd thousand fans who witnessed Fernando Torres score a most sublime hat trick. Football has had a lot of bad press lately but when you see a player as graceful and scintillating as Torres you realise why it is sometimes called"The Beautiful Game".In my forty two years as a regular on the Kop I have only seen a handful of Liverpool players with that special something.In the seventies it was Kevin Keegan, in the eighties Kenny Dalglish, in the nineties Robbie Fowler but only now as the noughties are reaching their end has a player emerged to be given the ultimate accolade of Liverpool Superstar. At half time on Saturday I sent a text to my son Paul "Torres is Roy of the Rovers" it read. Five minutes into the second half I sent another "No! He's better than that". Arise Fernando a legend already (and he's only 25!).



You will no doubt have read about the amazing glut of spiders that has been witnessed here in the UK. It seems that we are in the mating season. The conditions are perfect and they are breeding like rabbits. OK they are breeding like spiders really. They aren't quite as cuddly as rabbits as Marion will tell you having let out an ear piercing scream when we got back from the pictures the other night and she found a mini tarantula on the kitchen floor. We haven't escaped them here at Instanta either but, as you can see, we are humane and, instead of stamping on the Instanta giant spider, we used the old glass and cardboard trick and took it outside (and then we stamped on it - we didn't want to spoil the floor with squashed spider. Only kidding) and released it to enjoy the spider breeding season - there are some pretty hot spiders in the bushes behind the canteen.



David Bailey eat your heart out.It was Southport Air Show this weekend and the Red Arrows flew so near to our rooftop that I could see the whites of their pilots' eyes as I looked out of our loft window (or I could have if they weren't wearing goggles). Here's my photo of the lead plane as it went over about ten feet above the chimney. Flipping fast aren't they?



What's that? You clicked on the director's blog link thinking it might be relevant to your desire to purchase a super smashing water boiler? Here's our wonderful CT2000 just for you. Actually I got an email on Friday asking for entries for the green equipment awards at a CEDA or CESA do in the late autumn. I think it's all very well to give an award to a product that is green but what about the manufacturing process? Here at Instanta we have followed our green principles to the extent that a recent BSI environmental management system auditor told us that our energy usage followed a perfect curve and was the best that he had seen.Maybe we'll enter all our products and argue that because they are all made in an extremely green environment, they should all win.

I can only finish with one thing today.

The Love Affair With Mercedes Ends

A couple of blokes came and picked up the Mercedes CLS two weeks ago. Before it went back I took it to the local body shop for a quick once over and a touch up of any minor blemishes and the collectors took the car away in pretty good nick for a three year old vehicle. Imagine my surprise yesterday when a bill for just under £500 arrived from Mercedes Benz Finance claiming this sum was required to get the car back up to scratch (groan). No mention of the expensive bluetooth fitting that I left in the car or the unused and very expensive polishing kit or the fact that I drove 37,900 miles whilst contracting for 45,000 miles or the Nokia phone cradle. If you went to look at a three year old car would you expect it to be completely free of marks? No. I have written to them complaining and if I don't get a satisfactory response I don't think I will ever look at Mercedes again even if they do bring out a hybrid.



We had a staff meeting this morning. That's when I had the unenviable task of telling everyone that we fell short of the profit sharing target by just £9,000. However, to sweeten this bitter pill we have agreed a pay increase of 2% for everyone with immediate effect. And, considering that the current inflation rate is just 0% I hope that's a pretty fair compromise.


I mentioned at the staff meeting that our buyer Gav (above right) has volunteered to be our new Sports and Social organiser now that Lauren has left. The first ideas are a pool tournament, a bowls night and a night at the dogs. We talked about paint balling but I always end up getting hit more than anybody else (including a disproportionate amount of friendly fire)and those paintball pellets sting.



Off to Anfield tomorrow for Liverpool v Hull City. This is the sort of team that Liverpool struggled against last season so let's hope that we get a more realistic result this year. My problem is the persistent standing on the Kop. It never used to bother me much but since I've needed a hip replacement I dread the ball heading in our direction as the getting up and down is extremely painful.


You know how Youtube has been awash with vidoes of computer generated babies doing all sorts of stuff like skateboarding. Well here's a refreshingly new one with not a bit of computer tampering whatsoever.I challenge you not to smile.

Blogging Over Breakfast

Blimey, better be careful I just missed getting milk on the lap top. After arriving in the office almost too late to blog yesterday I've gone to the other extreme today and am writing this in between spoonfuls of my favourite Shredded Wheat Fruitful. We've got a board meeting this morning so I'll be busy again.



So. What's on the agenda? Well firstly there's last year's results which are OK all things considering (you know, recessions and credit crunches and all that). Then we've got to talk about the annual pay settlement which has to be fair but considered (you know, recessions and credit crunches and all that). And then Nick has to tell us all about how sales are going and Dave will tell us about the admin side. Then we'll talk about the current year's plans and the new equipment for 2010 and then we'll have to wind up early because there's holidays in the office and someone has to answer the phone during the lunch hour - yes we directors aren't above answering the phone you know.



We went to see "Gamer" last night. Our film choice is usually heavily influenced by critics but, as we have not read any reviews of this, we went with an open mind. The verdict? I thought it was bloody brilliant and Marion liked it too. A very clever plot full of action. OK you have to suspend belief that any of it is feasible but it is , as it says in the credits, sometime in the future. And if any of you have got partners who are spending too much time on "Second Life" you want to check out the futuristic version in this film. So I recommend "Gamer". No doubt the critics will come up with no stars. I'll be interested to read their verdicts.By the way I think that Bruce Willis has a film with a very similar plot coming out any time now."Gamer" will have stolen its thunder.



A nice surprise this morning when Betfair refunded half of my last week's £20 as only one team in my accumulator lost.But I would much rather have had the £200 if they hadn't! ******* Stuttgart!


I have to thank the Guardian for pointing me in the direction of this NFL score celebration from Terrell Owens. When you realise that the Dallas Star is to Dallas fans what the Liver Bird is to Liverpool it makes Adebayor's goal celebrations look pretty tame.And if anyone else wants to send a text telling me that Ryan Giggs has just made it 5-3, don't. I've got lots already.

It's A White Rabbit Day Today

I'm late - so late - for writing today's blog. By the time I finish this it will be time for tomorrow's blog. Why? Well I've been off to Ribchester to visit the super Workhouse Marketing and plan next year's brochure. "About time he did some work" I hear echoing behind me. We've come up with some good ideas. It's very difficult to improve on something that is already nearly perfect but we've taken on board the few criticisms levelled by Nick and Peter (feedback from their customers)and hope to iron out those few minor niggles.If there's anything you don't like about the current brochure, speak now or forever hold your peace.



One thing we will be highlighting in our new brochure is our ongoing commitment to green issues. We are supporting the 10:10 campaign. One of the first things that we have to do is run more fuel efficient vehicles. I've got my Prius on order. The lease on Nick's BMW will be expiring next year so, sorry Nick, looks like you will be joining me.




I decided to watch the second half of Liverpool's game against Leeds last night. I didn't want to impose the football on Marion and said that I would watch it in the spare upstairs bedroom so she could watch something of her own choice. But Marion kindly agreed to go upstairs and watch our thirty year old Hitachi portable (which works great). It's quite amazing watching high definition on a 30 year old set. They don't make things like they used to do they?



Spare a thought for young Craig Buckley. He planned his second week on the road meticulously and drove out into the extremities of Wales. He arrived at two of his appointments bang on time only to be told "Sorry "x" (who shall remain nameless)is not in". Now I don't know about you but I think that's pretty bad form. How much does it cost to phone and make a cancellation. That would have saved Craig a long drive, a huge waste of fuel emissions and the expense of his time and motoring costs.

I'll finish today with some skaters trying to replicate a game very much like Tetris. It's not quite the Baa Studs and their sheep but as they asked me so nicely I couldn't refuse.

Philippe Starck My Neu Eero

Have you seen "Design For Life" BBC2's new reality show? It's a sort of "Apprentice" for budding young English designers but instead of Surallan overseeing the wanabees we've got the wonderful Philippe Starck or should I say Philippe Starkuh with the best comedy French accent since Inspector Clouseau.Starck is an inspired choice as he spicks in reedles that have ze contestants who are vying for a six month contract to work with Starck in Paris scratching zur eds in confusion.Instead of a pointing finger and "You're fired", Philippe's losers leave with a kiss on each cheek and a "piss and lurve" from Philippe.Unmeesarble.



Looks like we are hitting a bit of a dry patch for this week's choice of Orange Wednesday movie. Perhaps we'll give "Gamer" a try. It's got an interesting premise. Sometime in the future a new game has been invented whereby the players control real people.They are using death row cons (who else) as the cannon fodder and no doubt there will be a character who fights against the controls but as we haven't read any reviews yet we can go with an open mind.



And speaking of Orange, we've been having a few problems with our mobile phone signals dropping out lately. Nick phones this morning to say that he has got some new settings that will make things much better. I followed his instructions and reprogrammed the handset to see the full signal immediately disappear.Oh well, nice try Nick.



Nick went to meet an excellent chef yesterday with a view to him helping us with our presentation of our sous vide equipment at the Hotelympia show in February.He was suitably impressed with the equipment and we are hoping for an excellent response. We are also showing a sous vide digital water bath at the Restaurant show in London next week.



I know I keep banging on about my novel but if I don't nobody else will. I've almost completed yet another edit and have got just five chapters left to rewrite. I have employed a professional critic to give me an honest opinion as, in truth, mums, wives and friends are not going to be totally frank and, as the professional is paid 50% up front she can say what she really thinks.Mind you I suppose that if she wants the second 50% even she might be less harsh. She said my sample chapter was "interesting". Hmmm. Now that's a very ambiguous word.

Have you been as disappointed as I have been with this year's X Factor? It is just so formulaic. First half loads of rubbish and then the acts get better yawn yawn.There have been so many bad acts this time that they just aren't funny any more. Fortunately the audition rounds are now over. But we can't knock Simon Cowell too much. After all he brought us the wonderful Diversity.

We All Dreamed Of A Team of Carraghers

Oh how we Liverpool fans loved Jamie Carragher. Our rugged hero would lay down and die for the reds as he threw himself whole heartedly into lunging tackles and last ditch goal line clearances.Jamie was our hero and his spirit was such that the chant regularly rang around the ground. "We all dream of a team of Carraghers, a team of Carraghers a team of Carraghers". But I don't think we'll be hearing it again for some time because, after several shaky matches already this season, on Saturday poor Jamie put in the most inept performance of his whole career in a Liverpool shirt. Just two minutes into the match at West Ham he was guilty of dawdling whilst a young Hammers' forward took the ball off his toe and went on to miss an open goal. Not long afterwards Jamie pulled the same player down in the area for a blatant penalty and, later in the same half, was one of several players guilty of poor marking for a West Ham equaliser.I was saddened to see Jamie floundering so badly. He had the good grace to retire from the England squad when he knew that he was too old. With the pace of the Premiership so frenetic,unless he is carrying an injury that we don't know about, now must be the time for Jamie to do the same for the Mighty Reds. I know these views wont be popular but I have been one of Jamie's biggest fans and I don't want our dreams of a team of Carraghers to turn into our worst nightmares.



It's one of our regular board meetings on Thursday so Dave and Nick are busily writing their reports (I've finished mine). It will be interesting to hear everyone's views on pay as the annual review is now due. I hope that we come to a sensible decision - I'm sure that we will.



The mystery of the number of visitors arriving at the blog site using the search term "Nick Neal" has been solved. It seems the guilty party was none other than er... Nick Neal doing a bit of what is known as "Vanity Googling". It seems that when people have a bit of time on their hands they sometimes type their own name into the search engine and look at what comes up. I'm afraid that I'm too sensitive for that type of thing. I'd have to look through my fingers at the responses.



Oh go on, I just had to try it. I just typed the name Brassey in. When I asked for pages from the entire web I found the first mention of son Paul on page 24. Niece Lisa was on page 38 and where was I? Nowhere. 755,000 entries and not one was anything to do with me. So I narrowed it down a bit and typed in Brassey again and this time just pages from the UK. This time son Paul turned up on page 7, Lisa was on 11 and finally there I was languishing on page 40. And why? Because I write a scintillating blog? Because I'm an upcoming unpublished author? Because Instanta boilers are the best in the world? Because I was on the Antiques Roadshow or Treasure Hunt? No. Because I've got Skype. Exit stage left followed by a bear.

When son Paul devised the exciting Game Show 'The Colour of Money' for ITV little did he know that within twelve months his idea would have turned into a smash hit in Italy of all places where thousands are tuning in just to see the comical little bespectacled 'professori' offer words of advice on mathematical game play to the contestants.At least I think that's what they are tuning in for.......honest!

Product Placement - It's The Future

The other day I was delighted to read the news that British TV companies are finally going to be allowed to use product placement in their programmes. It will be fascinating to see if the Rovers finally stops selling Newton & Ridleys and moves to Carlsberg or Fosters. I see it as a huge opportunity for Instanta. You will already spot our boilers in the occasional drama and soap but I can see it going much further than that. Perhaps we'll get a couple of sous vide units in Masterchef and a boiler in River Cottage but we'll know we've made it when this sort of thing starts cropping up.

Craig Buckley is back in the office today after his first week on the road as a sales representative. Craig tells me that he enjoyed the week and met some very interesting people in Gloucester Bristol and South Wales. He did not bring any orders back but is confident that they will soon be flooding in. Someone commented last week that Craig looks very young for a salesman. What do you think?



I had a bit of time off yesterday and spent eight hours reworking my novel. I was criticised for writing a book that was too short at 52,000 words but now, with only half rewritten, I am up to 72,000. I've got a feeling it's going to turn into my Goldilocks moment. This one's too short, this one's too long but this one's just right! The big question is, is there a market for a soppy romance set on a Greek island? If Mamma Mia is anything to go by, perhaps there is.



I've got a really good site monitor program that shows me exactly where all the traffic to the blog comes from and what search terms have been used to get there. It's interesting to see how many people have been searching for Nick Neal lately. Is there anything we should know Nick? Or is there another Nick Neal?

If you enjoy tennis. You'll enjoy this. Have a good weekend.

31st October. Put It In Your Diary. The Follies Are Back

I just got a message on Blogger that The Ship Inn Follies, the vaudeville and drag act run by our APC driver Steve (that's him third left) and his friends are putting on another performance at the Original Ship in Leyland on 31st October. Tickets are £5 each but hurry as their next show (a charity performance in aid of Support Our Soldiers on 6th November) has already sold out. We haven't been able to get to one of the shows yet but we've seen the photos and heard glowing reports so if you are near Leyland please support them. You can check out their blog here.



I missed my trip to Orange Wednesday to watch the dire match between Liverpool and Hungarian champs Debrecen. Half way through I got a text message from son Paul which offered me £50 if I could get this chant started to the tune of Quantalamera "Gone to the pictures. I should have gone to the pictures". On a positive note I was seated in the Upper Centenary Stand and did not have to stand up once during the match. I looked down at the Kop and saw that the whole lot stood up for the entire game.



We've had no less than three positive sales enquiries from Dubai this week. We don't do much exporting but maybe we should. Anyone fancy being our Export Director? Mind you with our budget you might get as far as the Isle of Wight ferry.



It only seems like five minutes but two years have almost passed since we started working with the wonderful Workhouse Marketing in Ribchester. Workhouse have done some tremendous sales literature for us and we've got our first meeting scheduled next week for us to get cracking on our 2010-2011 brochure. I'm trying to make up my mind what we will be able to get into it but we've got a pretty good idea. There are one or two products that might or might not make the February deadline but we'll have a good try at getting everything in.If you are looking for a marketing company with bright ideas, originality and a great sense of humour, look no further. You won't be disappointed. Here's a link

We'll end today with some footballers jumping bulls.Bit more exciting than Liverpool.

Dan Brown A Publishing Phenomenon

It would have been nice if it was my novel "Give Your Tomorrow" that was grabbing all the headlines this morning following it's massively successful launch. But, sad to say, it wasn't. No, it was Dan Brown and his new book "The Lost Symbol". According to the reviewers in the posh papers it seems that the book is a load of rubbish but, with Tesco reportedly selling nineteen copies per minute and ASDA shifting 18,000 yesterday, I doubt that Dan will be losing much sleep over the reviews. I haven't read any of Dan Brown's books but I believe that this one takes a swipe at the Freemasons and that can't be a bad thing.



So what have I got against the Freemasons? It's a long story so I'll try and keep it short. I once worked for a bank. It was full of Freemasons. I had a very nice manager and one day I had a heart to heart with him and told him how much I disliked the way that the masons were getting business by scratching each others' backs. It was a way for mediocrity to rise to the top and all the top jobs in the bank were being taken by them. My manager nodded sagely in agreement.

A few weeks later it was my annual appraisal with my manager. I was gobsmacked when I had was given a C rating having only ever had A ratings throughout my entire career. I complained to head office who were sympathetic. My manager was apologetic but stood by his appraisal with no valid explanation.

A few weeks later I was working late and the manager's door swung ajar. He rushed to shut it but not before I spotted him dressed in full masonic regalia, apron and the lot. I didn't spot if his trouser leg was rolled up but the mystery of the C rating was solved.



Along similar lines, the Harper Collins Authonomy website seems to have developed a mutual support mentality. Budding novelists such as me upload their books onto the site and wait for constructive comments. The more support a book gets, the higher it rises in the rankings. The prize at the end of the month is an appraisal by the Harper Collins editorial team. But members are inundated by fellow eager novelists asking for comments on their books in return for comments on yours. Are you going to write "This is worse than Dan Brown" if you think that they might support your novel? No. So the upshot is the person who writes to the most members asking them to look at "The Book Wot I Wrote" is more likely to be at the top at the end of the month than the new (but very quiet) William Shakespeare.



If you are new to this blog and are asking yourself "what the hell has this got to do with boilers?", here's our best selling 1500LCD just for you. We sold out of these for the first time last Friday but Jason got the lads together and with a big effort we were back in stock with another 100 plus yesterday leaving customers boilerless for just a couple of days. I'm hoping that production is running to target as Factory Leader Tony Mercer is back from his holiday next week and we'll never hear the end of it if we miss targets in the only month that he's off for a fortnight (again).



We are supporting the 10:10 campaign - the campaign to save 10% emissions in 2010. As usual for Instanta we aren't doing the obvious like saving on lighting or heating, we did all that years ago when we got our ISO14001 accreditation from BSI. No, we are making our contribution to 10:10 through extra energy efficiency measures in our new ranges to be launched at Hotelympia in February. We aren't going to tell you what these are as we know that our competitors are regular blog readers but all will be revealed at Hotelympia. Lincat will have plenty of time to come and have a look as they won't be exhibiting this time.




Got to fly now to go and get Marion and Jane tickets for Orange Wednesday's showing of Julie and Julia. I'll leave you with an appropriate tribute to the wonderful Patrick Swayze. R.I.P Patrick.

Happy Birthday Pete

It's my brother Peter's 61st birthday today so many happy returns Pete. Many of our customers will remember Peter from his twenty odd years at Instanta before his retirement in 1999. He now divides his time between Southport and Spain where he has an apartment in Finestrat. He's a devoted Hispanophile and loves everything Spanish (especially the sunshine).A devoted father to son Chris and daughter Lisa, Pete enjoys fishing, metal detecting and together with wife Val does a lot of walking around the Spanish coast and interior. Have a good day Pete. I just dropped your birthday card round but find that you are back in Spain.



And more congratulations go to Rebekah Dowell who worked with us for a few happy weeks in the summer. Rebekah passed her driving test yesterday (first time). Well done Bekah we were all confident that you would be successful.




Today's the day that we decide on the choice of film for this week's Orange Wednesday but as Liverpool are at home, I've got Red Wednesday and Marion is going to the cinema with her friend Jane. She's off to see Julie and Julia starring Meryl Streep. It has good reviews and I'm sure that they'll both enjoy it.



It almost wasn't Red Wednesday for me. I enrolled our season tickets in the Champions League scheme on the Liverpool Website but when I checked the credit card statement the other day was surprised that my payment for the Debrecen game hadn't been taken. I phoned the club to be told that my purchase of the Cup season ticket was nowhere to be found. Fortunately they found me a couple of tickets in the Upper Centenary Stand for tomorrow and enrolled me in the scheme for the rest of the season.

And on that note, I'll finish with some of the worst defending ever to grace a Premier League football match. I know that Tony Lowe and Peter Brindle are avid Burnley fans but honestly this was dire (look at the marking on goal three and the offside trap on goal four). It even made Liverpool look good!