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.