Looking forward to Saturday's Eurovision with excitement, I am probably in a minority as , when I asked around the office if anyone else was looking forward to the big event, I was met with blank stares and comments such as "is it on?"I don't know why but I have always enjoyed the parade of kitsch and glitter along with some dreadful songs, rigged voting and the humorous asides of Wogan (sadly no longer involved) and we had some fantastic evenings with the kids and their friends.I still remember the 1998 contest when German entrant Guildo Horn had the whole family plus an assortment of teenage guests rolling on the floor in amusement with his song "Guildo Loves You" which finished a creditable seventh. So on Saturday evening Marion and I will be glued to our sets and watching the spectacle unfold. I wonder if daughter Sarah will be carrying on the tradition in her new house in St Andrews. To add a bit more interest I will have my laptop at hand and have a flutter. The inside info is that Azerbaijan could win but I don't usually back the favourite.
The Apple iPad hits the stores this week so I might have a look as we are going into Liverpool on Saturday. I love Apple (who this week have been announced as the world's largest technology company overtaking Microsoft) and wonder why the Apple TV (above)has not taken off big time. I bought this years ago and it is a super little gizmo that allows you to stream photos from your computer and show them on the TV along with all your iTunes songs which it plays through the sound system. But it's much more than that. You can download TV programmes and films (at a price) and watch whatever you want. I downloaded a film instead of going to the cinema yesterday but by the time we have finished eating our evening meal it was too late to watch it. Oh well we have 29 days to view before it disappears from the Apple TV.
An air of sadness hangs over the office as Max Vidal works his final two days with us. Popular and laid back Max has been a regular in the office for a few years now and will be well known to many of our customers for his friendly service assistance and his tough but fair handling of credit control. But he's not going far. We've found him a new office in our machining department and he is hoping to develop a service empire. Max will still be handling incoming technical calls and warranty requests but in addition will be working with Gav and Dave on product development and testing.
One of Max's final jobs in the office (although he'll be continuing with it when he moves) was to complete our warranty report for April. The figures are good and we still have less jobs per month than we had ten years ago. But I am still not satisfied. I hoped that before I left Instanta I would see a month with nil warranty work. I still think that with all the efforts we make to provide the highest quality it will be possible but with thousands of boilers under guarantee with tens of thousands of components involved at any time, it's a pretty tall order (or "a big ask" in new football speak).
I'll finish today with a taster for the weekend.Has there ever been a better Eurovision enty? And can you really believe that he was only 35 at the time?
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