Thursday 30 April 2009

Is It Really A Year Already?




It hardly seems five minutes since one of our Instanta babies, Natalie Drummond's Olivia, arrived and yet today she is having her very first birthday. Nat has taken the day off to make sure that she does things in style and we hope that it is a great day for all.



Speaking of kids, I found myself in a difficult situation last night. I went for a swim after work and, as I was getting changed, in bounced a little lad of about 8 who proceeded to tell me how great he was at football and then started cracking jokes which needed a response "knock knock" etc. He was a total live wire and just wouldn't stop talking. But aren't kids supposed to avoid speaking to strangers, especially in a swimming pool changing room? What do I do? Ignore the charming little lad, encourage his conversation or do as I did, put my clothes on whilst I was still wet and scarper. I'll probably go down with swine flu now.



I know everyone has been talking about swine flu all week but I see that the pig farmers and pork producers are asking for a change of name as it's damaging their image and there's no proof that pigs have got anything to do with it. But it does seem that pork sales are falling. A bloke on the radio this morning suggested Tequila Flu but that could damage tequila distillers. If it's Mexican flu do we boycott Chiquitos or stop eating fajitas and chilli? We need a name for the virus that is serious enough for us not to become complacent but not too scary or damaging. I've been thinking of some names and have come up with maybe Lincat Flu, Calomax Flu or Marco Flu. Just a thought.



Marion and I keep banging on about how wonderful Venice is so Jenny and Craig just went for a few days. What do we read in yesterday's paper? Water levels in St Mark's Square at very high levels. I do hope that it didn't ruin their break.

Last day of the month today. That's when we invoice everything that moves. First indications are that we will be slightly up on last year's turnover for April so that's encouraging. At least we only invoice things that have been ordered. Some of our suppliers are sending us stuff that we ordered for next month. I don't know who they are trying to fool becasue we won't be paying for them any earlier. Because we sell almost exclusively from stock and have virtually no forward order books we can usually gauge the financial climate quite quickly. Our own experience of the recession to date has been a drop in growth but no significant drop in sales. May might well turn out to be different. We had a huge order last May which is unlikely to be repeated so I can see our sales being down next month.



Sales might also suffer as Peter is on the run from the Garda after the other day's blog when I grassed him up. He's lying low at the moment.

Having missed out our Orange Wednesday last night, curiosity about X Men Origins Wolverine got the better of me. So here's a taste.



Wednesday 29 April 2009

Shock As Turner Prize Shortlist Includes Art!!



After years of installation pieces dominating the Turner Prize the judges have stunned the art world by announcing a shortlist this year that includes works by artists such as Enrico David (above) that even a Philistine could recognise as art. I had a look around the Tate in Liverpool last year and couldn't believe some of the stuff on show. Some of it was absolutely stunning, Degas, Picasso, Warhol and the like but some of the installation art left me feeling like all those people who watched the king in his new clothes. Maybe I'm thick but I just didn't get it.



The sous vide literature is on its way to the printers so it's time to get writing a newsletter to send out with it. Nick took a pre-production model to an interested customer today and he is going to put it on trial with a major hotel chain. Let's hope that they like it as much as we think they will.



Our stand is booked for the Hotelympia exhibition at Excel next year so it will soon be all systems go in planning for that. Every time it comes around there's a major debate as to its worth but it remains the major UK Catering Equipment show and we feel that it will be a great opportunity to demonstrate the sous vide equipment.

We just got sad news of the bereavement of one of our ex staff who has lost her mum. If you are reading this S, please accept everyone at Instanta's sincere condolences.We are all feeling for you.



Next week Peter and Nick are joining me and Marion on a trip to Celtic Manor in South Wales. We are there for the CEDABOND workshops which is when we get to meet all the members of that buying consortium and bring them up to date on what we can offer. Peter is going to play golf on their super course and the rest of us hope that we can get a few minutes to enjoy the outstanding leisure facilities on offer. It promises to be an extremely worthwhile couple of days and we are all looking forward to it. I wonder what the mood will be. When we were at the CEDA conference on Friday it was quite amazing that just one person that I spoke to said that business was anything other than rosy. As that one person has always been noted for his frankness and honesty (a well as a good head for business) I am tempted to think that all those who said that business was booming were being, how shall I put it, economical with the truth.



It's Wednesday so that should mean just one thing "Orange Wednesday" but as the local Vue seems to be suffering an "X Men Origins Wolverine" overload and showing it on two screens, the choice is limited as we have seen most of the rest and we don't fancy Hugh Jackman with his built-in cutlery. We thought about "The Uninvited" but having seen Korean Kim Jee-Woon's original, we don't think it could be bettered. So that will be the second week of 2009 with no film and, as we are at the CEDABOND do next week there will be none then either.

Is it or isn't it Dave the Rave? There has been tons of speculation on the following Youtube video of a 1988 rave. It's quite a psychedelic little film and the question on every ones' lips is "is that David Cameron right at the start and the end?" For my twopence worth the answer is "Yes". My second comment is "So what!" What do you think?


Tuesday 28 April 2009

The Mississippi Delta Was Shining Like A National Guitar



Yes Gav's mum Margaret Quinn who helps to tidy our offices and canteen was bouncing into Graceland (Memphis Tennessee) in February and she has just managed to bring her photos in for us to see. As there were no less than 600 shots we almost had to close the office for the day in order to have a look at them. Margaret is a lifelong Elvis fan and by fan I mean fan by the real definition "A person marked or motivated by an extreme, unquestioning enthusiasm, as for a cause" as Margaret's devotion to Elvis is unwavering. Anyway here she is in front of the famous Graceland mansion. I can see from the photos that she had a wonderful time.



It was sad to read that even pets are suffering from the credit crunch as the RSPCA has reported a 57% increase in the number abandoned by their owners. Spare a thought for this poor creature, another victim of the recession. It seems that hard up women have been buying naked mole rats when the batteries in their rabbits run out.



I see that the pirates have struck again off the coast of Africa. This time they opened fire on the Italian cruise ship MSC Melody which had 1500 people on board. The pirates were repelled by armed Israeli security guards, employed by the cruise operators, who returned fire on the heavily armed marauders. This action came in for severe criticism by Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Resistance Programme who said "They should have used other means to shake off the pirates, like a loud acoustic device." Hmmm. Which would be more likely to stop you boarding? A gun or perhaps 1500 people on board shouting "BOO" at the same time. With Swine Flu stopping air travel and pirates putting everyone off sea travel I wonder if the news is being manipulated by the British Tourist Board in an attempt to boost holidays in the UK?



I just got back from Tesco. I love innovation and was first to try the automated checkouts last year but I gave up on them as they are so slow to use as people in front spend forever attempting to buy just a couple of items and the whole thing becomes a stimulus for high blood pressure as you watch their hopeless incompetence. So I now have the tills sussed out and know how quick most of the cashiers are. Sometimes it's better to wait for a particular cashier rather than go to an empty till manned by one of the bad ones. So I picked my favourite cashier today and sure enough she wizzed the customer in front's shopping through in no time but then I had to wait five minutes for the customer to find her credit card and then another two minutes whilst she sought out her points card. I think it's a woman thing. All the blokes in the queues seemed to have cash or cards at the ready, all the women started searching for it after they had packed their bags.



Sales Manager Peter Brindle was in Ireland last week. During his visit to Ballinrobe in Co Mayo he got taken short and popped into a field to relieve himself. Unfortunately Peter didn't shut the gate properly. The result has been viewed 160,000 times on Youtube.



Only kidding Pete
.

Monday 27 April 2009

Harry Hill's BAFTA Makes Up For Our CEDA Disappointment



Watching the BAFTA's last night reminded me of Friday night's CEDA awards when Instanta was nominated in the best light equipment supplier category. But like Ant and Dec, Mitchell and Webb and Jonathan Ross, Marion and I failed to lift the award and went home empty handed. However, all that was forgotten when Harry Hill won the BAFTA in the entertainment category. I know Harry poked fun at Paul's "The Colour Of Money" but we'll forgive him for that and thank him for brightening Saturday evenings for weeks on end. So which is better a CEDA or a BAFTA? There's only one ---- No I've done that too many times now.



Today it's time for the final proof reading of the sous vide literature and we can get it off to the printers. I'll have to write a newsletter now to get all the people who don't read the blog up to speed. If everyone read this it would save us a fortune in printing and postage.



That swine flu is a bit worrying isn't it? I've just read that there are two possible cases in Scotland - a couple of people who just came back from a holiday in Mexico. If you remember all the fuss and false alarms about bird flu and how we were all doomed and then nobody died you'll probably just laugh it off. But don't be complacent. This one has crept up on us out of nowhere and there are already over 100 confirmed deaths in Mexico and many more under investigation. Yesterday the USA announced a public health emergency and was talking of raising the pandemic alert level to 4 ( a global emergency is level 6). The most famous pandemic that we all know about was bubonic plague and we all know what happened there.

Did you hear about the controversy surrounding the Miss USA beauty contest? Miss California was favourite until she gave the following response to famous gay blogger Perez Hilton's question about the legalisation of gay marriage.



What do you think? He asked her for her opinion. She gave her response. It may not be the answer that Perez wanted to hear but her answer was an honest one to a difficult question. I don't agree with her but to call her a "dumb bitch" was out of order. and did nothing for the gay movement. One thing that wasn't asked was "What the **** are we doing holding beauty contests in 2009?"



Sunday 26 April 2009

Britain's Got Talent. Diversity Show Susan Boyle There's No Room For Complacency

I complained that, on the evidence of last week's show,Britain definitely hasn't Got Talent but faith was restored at the very end of this week's episode when dance troupe Diversity took to the stage and wowed the audience and the judges with a performance that was slick and entertaining. After an hour of absolute dross in which a little girl who sang in a posh voice was the sole highlight, Diversity (whose name sounds like a team from the Apprentice) stole the show. Watch out Susan Boyle. It may not be a one horse race and , purely in betting terms, Susan could be the lay of the year. Here they are so you can judge for yourself. I can see them going down a storm with the great British public.



Speaking of lays of the year. I had a small accumulator bet which included a win for Manchester United yesterday. At half time with United 2-0 down I was absolutely delighted and never has a £40 win been less appreciated in my entire betting career. I blame the ref. That was never a penalty. I've just been looking at the fixtures and Liverpool can make them sweat for a few weeks yet as long as we keep on winning.



Son Paul was at Covent Garden last night for Il Trovatore which was a birthday treat for his fiance Josephine. I hope that the performance was better than the ones I have seen reviewed this week which were patchy at best.



I had a go at Plane Stupid a few months ago as I thought that their blocking the runway at Stanstead was, well, plain stupid but having read today's Guardian report on member Tilly Gifford's experience of police undercover incentives, I'm going to join. It could be a nice little earner. After all, to quote the cops, "UK plc can afford more than twenty quid".




If, like me, you enjoy politics and you enjoy a laugh, you must listen to The Now Show on Radio 4 Saturday at 12:30pm. I've always been a fan of Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis but they have excelled themselves lately with some superb comment on the current situation. Mind you, Gordon Brown, Jacqui Smith and Alistair Darling have made their lives easy recently. Today's Labour party must be a comedian's dream.




Do you remember when Queen were rock icons and Freddie Mercury became infamous for having a notoriously promiscuous gay sex life? I've just seen an advert for a free Queen CD with, wait for it, The Mail On Sunday! After The Pet Shop Boys a few weeks ago it doesn't come as a great surprise but what's next week's freebie? Elton's Greatest Hits or a dvd of Brokeback Mountain? Right on Mail newspaper group. That's right the ones who employ Graham Poll, who single handedly made English referees a world laughing stock by booking a player twice without sending him off at the World Cup, as an informed "columnist".

At least here's one decision that he got right. (Honest!!!!!)









Saturday 25 April 2009

Nick Howe's River Cafe Kitchen Wins The CEDA Grand Prix



Marion and I spent yesterday at the Carden Park Hotel near Chester. We were attending the annual CEDA conference which culminated with a Gala Awards dinner.We were delighted that Instanta was nominated in the category for best light equipment supplier but disappointed when we didn't win. We were also delighted to see so many of our customers shortlisted for awards for the best kitchen projects of last year with every nominee on our books. The overall Grand Prix winner was Court Catering for the fabulous new kitchen at the famous River Cafe. It was highly appropriate for Court's Chairman Nick Howe who is so much at home on the river with his coaching of the Oxford University team to win with this most famous of London restaurants. Congratulations Nick.




Despite the razzmatazz of the awards, the evening will be remembered by most who attended for the emotionally charged presentation of the Industry Personality Award to John Kitchin of C&C Catering by his son, CEDA Chairman Peter. It was wonderful to see an award presented with such genuine feeling, obvious love and affection and total lack of inhibition. There was hardly a dry eye in the house by the time Peter finished his heartfelt tribute and it was great to see the award being given with a kiss. Well done Peter and congratulations John for a well deserved accolade.

Having been to a lot of these events over the last twenty years I must congratulate CEDA Chairman Peter Kitchin on the standard of the annual conference which has come on in leaps and bounds under his stewardship. The day now flows like a well oiled machine and is an eclectic mix of speakers and workshops all of which manage to run to time. I was particularly impressed by the standard of speakers.



Douglas McWilliams was a sort of Jeremy Clarkson of the Economics Scene and presented an amusing take on the current state of affairs (although, as Guardian readers we wouldn't figure high on his Christmas card list)



Neil McDaid once worked in Barclays City Office (a few years after me) and knew many of my old colleagues. He gave some sage advice on how to get finance from your bank using the Barclays training acronym CAMPARI although his SODA (Sod Off Don't Ask) is far more appropriate in the current climate.



Andy Bounds is someone who makes me wonder if we are influenced by our names as Andy literally bounds with energy. He is an exceptional motivational speaker who offers sensible and stimulating tips on sales.



Finally my very favourite speaker Tim Harford who writes for the FT as well as presenting on TV and radio.Tim's take on micro economics was hilarious. I now know that if me and Marion were planning next week's Orange Wednesday today we would be trying to find somewhere showing "Roshamon" but no doubt when next Wednesday comes it will be "Monsters Vs Aliens". Well done Tim I might even consider reading the FT now and then.



One final note on the conference. Over £10,000 was raised for Claire House children's hospice. A moving video was shown at the dinner. This is a truly worthwhile cause.

The Orwell Awards last week had a section for blogging. No I wasn't in the running, I don't have enough readers yet although I am pleased to say that they are increasing rather than declining.I would like to see more comments though. Perhaps I need to be more controversial to get them. The winner was Night Jack written by an anonymous detective. You can check it out here. He's clearly an excellent writer. I haven't read enough yet to decide if I see eye to eye with him.

I'll leave you with a reminder of the work being carried out by Claire House.Click here if you would like to make a donation.





Friday 24 April 2009

Apprentice Kimberley's Campaign Was Truly Pants Man



Well we got through the day without anyone spilling the beans on Wednesday's "Apprentice" and , unlike the Likely Lads it wasn't rained off by a flooded pitch. But poor "Rough Tough Cream Puff", Kimberley's downfall was a foolish pitch for a breakfast cereal that she was bullied into by estate agent Philip Taylor. Another great show with yet another wrong decision. I know that the "Apprentice" would be nothing without its "characters" but nobody in their right minds would employ Philip or his adversary Ben. No doubt that means they will both be there at the end.



Me and Marion are here at De Vere Carden Park Hotel near Chester today for the annual CEDA conference. There's an interesting mix of speakers and workshops and it promises to be an eventful day. There's a black tie awards dinner in the evening. I wonder if we'll win anything.



There's an important Instanta birthday on Sunday as the lovely Lauren Oldfield hits 24. Lauren drew the short straw when the office jobs were handed out and ended up with the most demanding and difficult role of credit controller. It's not a fun job but Lauren carries it out with panache and aplomb (two words that I have chosen specially for her). As our credit control is pretty strict Lauren is on the receiving end of some pretty difficult phone calls but she always handles these politely and with great professionalism. Lauren is a great dancer and spent some time at dance college. When she was at school she performed in a Spice Girls tribute group as Baby Spice. She met her boyfriend Darren here at Instanta and they enjoy their weekly ritual Chinese meal every Friday night. When she's not chasing people for money, Lauren loves taking her King Charles Spaniels for a walk. Many of you will recognise her from our website and as our poster girl. She's a true asset to Instanta and we wish her the very happiest of birthdays.



There are reports that plans are afoot for a musical about the life of Jade Goody. This has to be complete and utter nonsense. I suspect that, as Jade is one of the most popular search terms on the internet at the moment (behind Susan Boyle, The Apprentice and Britain's Got Talent) this story is simply aimed at getting more traffic to the website pushing the story (something we , of course, would never do).



Here are some police who clearly didn't read the manual properly."In dealing with the subject, take care to leave no blood on the face, no wounds on the body and no people in the vicinity" quotes the manual for urban law enforcers. I see that our boys in blue failed on each count. The manual was published on the web and is for Chinese law enforcers but I can see Gordon Brown ordering plenty of copies so his boys don't make the same mistakes next time.



Plenty of interest in the sous vide machines and they aren't even launched fully yet. Nick's got an appointment on Tuesday with a dealer who supplies a major hotel chain which is moving into sous vide. So that's encouraging.

Finally, did you read about the Apple iphone application game that involved shaking a baby until it shut up? What a great idea. What's next? Beat the wife, kick the dog or put your cigarettes out on grandad?







Thursday 23 April 2009

The Apprentice-Tell Me Last Night's Result And You're Fired




Orange Wednesday last night meant that we had to record "The Apprentice" so we have to spend today like that famous episode of "The Likely Lads" when Terry and Bob spent the whole day trying to avoid the England score before watching the match on "Match of the Day". So I don't want any emails, text messages or comments on the blog telling me what happened. And if anyone here starts dropping hints, you know what the result will be "You're Fired!"



Last night's film was "State of Play" which has a very strong cast including Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren and Ben Afflek.It's a well directed and very powerful drama with several outstanding tense scenes. It's amazing to think that this was written by Paul Abbott, the creator of "Shameless" which shows what a talented writer Abbott is. Apart from Russell Crowe's Frank Gallagher dress sense, there was absolutely nothing that would indicate that they were from the same pen.



Did you read about that Charla and Brad Muller? Charla, a devout Christian gal from Charlotte North Carolina was reading her bible (Galatians 5.22.23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,meekness, temperance: against such there is no law) and decided there and then to give her husband an unforgettable 40th birthday present.The present? Sex every day for a year. (Not much of a present if you are one of those Shia Muslim blokes in Afghanistan who already have that on statute). Now I know that I can be a bit of a cynic but two things spring to mind. Firstly how did those verses trigger her weird birthday present? And more importantly , as she is now promoting her book "365 Nights A Memoir Of Intimacy" did she not just think "How could I write a book that's guaranteed total worldwide publicity?" Brad is 41 now. I could be extremely crude and make something up about what he got for his birthday this year but the truth is often better. This year's gift - Golf Clubs.



I've just come back from Marc Vérité's new bistro having presented him with his new SV38 Sous Vide digital water bath as a thank you for his work and effort in helping us to get the equipment just right. Marc says that we must emphasise how useful this method of cooking is for portion control and for bringing efficiency to the kitchen. The literature is almost on the press so it will soon be all systems go.



No luck on the day out with the metal detector yesterday. I spent three hours wandering around fields that I have searched a hundred times before as I had no time to research somewhere new. I dug up about six items all of which turned out to be scrap. One of them was so deep it took half an hour to dig the hole due to the number of rocks under the turf. After all that digging I lifted out a rock the size of a small paving stone and underneath it was a large lead disc. It must be a very old large lead disc but not a very exciting large lead disc. I must find time to find somewhere new.



Yesterday's budget marks an end to New Labour and a return to the very very bad old days of old labour. The country is broke and Darling's forecasts of revival are ludicrous. The only way out is for everyone to pay more tax but no. What does Darling do? He puts the highest tax band up to 50%. This way he can be seen to be making the rich pay for the mess that he has created. It's all their fault so let's make them pay for it. This is clearly an attempt at vote winning. The high rate will merely put high earners off UK (don't labour remember the "Brain Drain" of earlier times they were in power and the huge number of tax exiles they created). The new 50%rate will raise a paltry couple of billion. Meanwhile all of us normal tax payers will pay no more and watch the country slide into oblivion.We really are in a mess. Don't underestimate it. Had Darling done something drastic, we would have all felt the pain but he'll leave that for the new government in another twelve months when things are even worse.



I've just about recovered from Tuesday night on the Kop. What a performance from this bloke and what a night it was. Probably the best I can remember since the Newcastle 4-3s in the 90's. The result was a bit of a disaster but I'd rather watch this sort of football anytime and a point against Arsenal is always a good result. Anyway there's still a chance. United have some tough games left.

I'll leave you with the present that Brad bought Charla for her next birthday.












Tuesday 21 April 2009

BNP Members Are Oddballs & Compulsive Liars- Official



I am grateful to the Guardian for reporting that a BNP internal guide for senior activists which was leaked to the anti-racist group Searchlight says that some BNP members are"oddballs", "Walter Mitty Characters", "Compulsive Liars" and "born troublemakers" . Nothing we didn't already know but great to see the party making the admission in their own training manual. They are expected to win seats in the European parliament in June. Our reputation in the rest of Europe is already pretty bad. God help us if any of them get in.



I just had an attempt at ripping me off on eBay. I listed these great antique cups and saucers by the famous Meissen porcelain factory and was very pleased when they sold for £365.99 to a bidder in Germany called Udisse. My delight was soon shattered when Udisse emailed me to say that there had been a mistake and he couldn't pay. I therefore cancelled his bid and made an offer to the person just below who bid £355.99. She replied that she would be happy to buy them but would now only offer 120 euros. Now I don't know about you but if I was prepared to bid £355.99 for something at 12 noon and was then offered it at 10pm for the same price, I might be a bit suspicious but still want the item and maybe make an offer of say £300 but 120 euros? This means that both the high bidder Udisse and the under bidder Correge both made mistakes. This has happened to me before and last time I fell for it and accepted the much reduced offer but it seems to be an elaborate ploy to wreck the auction by scaring off other bidders by pushing the price right up and then cancelling the bids and trying to get it cheap. Be warned.



Apologies to Natalie Drummond who I overlooked when mentioning Instanta's Everton fans on Sunday. Nat is such a fanatical blue, her first question on reading yesterday's blog was "what was Sir Alex jumping up and down about?"



I am hoping for good weather tomorrow as I am going to have a try out with my metal detector for a couple of hours. It's a great hobby but I don't get a lot of chances to do it. The Guardian recently highlighted a reader's story about finding a fabulous iron age gold torc which ended up in the British Museum. Of course this drew the usual letter of complaint from someone who said that the finder was wrecking the country's archaeology. So the British Museum has a magnificent artifact on show from a field which previously had no significance or historical interest and the finder gets slated! There are millions of fields in this country. Most contain nothing but some do and unless they are know historical sites it is only metal detector users who are going to discover them. Give us a break.



Off to Anfield soon. I am pleased to see that Arsenal seem to have a few injury problems. Sounds a bit disingenuous of me but we need every point between now and the end of the season. And if we score let's hope that our goal celebration is better than this.

Monday 20 April 2009

Take A Look At Him Now




Happy Birthday today to big Westlife fan Craig Mercer. Craig, who works in our Engineering Department is 24 and will be celebrating with partner Keely and daughter Amelia. Craig has worked for Instanta for almost six years now after being recommended to us by our factory leader Tony who said that Craig was punctual, teetotal and hard working. Well I suppose one out of three ain't bad and what else are you going to say about your son? Craig has plenty of saving graces including being a keen Liverpool supporter, a very good footballer himself and quite a dab hand at golf. Having survived a terrible car crash a few years ago which left him with a metal plate in his back, it is amazing to see the speed and enthusiasm with which he throws himself around the pitch.His performances at our Christmas Karaoke where he gave us his Westlife repertoire were memorable although by that time of the evening he was indeed flying without wings.Have a great day Craig.



We watched "Britain's Got Talent" last night as we were out on Saturday. I have to say that, having not seen any previous series, this show is starting to look like a triumph of production over content. If you boil the hour and a half long show down, you had a kid who could sing a little bit, a good looking bloke who could play sax, a dance troupe who looked like they might be quite good, a drag belly dancer, a singing parrot that refused to sing and a guy who danced like Michael Jackson but, wait for it, WEARING A DARTH VADER HELMET. Strip away the fantastic editing and the gloriously self deprecating humour of Ant and Dec and the fact is that, if this is the best, Britain clearly hasn't got talent. Thrown together at the end of Blackpool pier, these acts would be playing to empty houses.

Here's something I could watch all day long.Most people grow out of tantrums when they reach five. If my kids had behaved like this they would have been sent to bed early.





Here at Instanta things are ticking over quite nicely. Marion and I are off to the CEDA conference at Carden Park in Chester on Friday. It's always a well organised event but, at our age, it is hard to listen to advice from speakers who are invariably a lot younger than us and who are fired up with all that enthusiasm of youth. In the evening it's an awards dinner with black tie. If there's one thing in life I hate it's formal dress but at least I've got my own dinner suit that gets worn about once a year and, at least if still fits twenty years on.



Tomorrow's match against Arsenal at Anfield is hugely important. I am taking our Operations Director David Wilson who (whisper it) is an Arsenal fan and will probably be the only Arsenal fan on the Kop. I hope he enjoys the spectacle but not the result.

I'm sure that you will have enjoyed today's video so much. Let's see it again with some music.