Off to Oz

One of our Operations Director David Wilson's responsibilities is staff training. But now and then the trainer needs to become a trainee and our parent company decided that Dave would benefit from seeing how manufacturing is carried out Australian style and have booked him into a manufacturing course down under in a couple of weeks. It will be a hugely exciting and interesting couple of weeks for Dave and I look forward to hearing what he has learnt when he gets back. With a twenty two hour journey each way lets hope that fellow film fan David has plenty of viewing choices on the way.



I was saddened to see the extent that William Hague had to go to in rebutting the gay affair accusations that had been heaped upon him. To feel that it was necessary to bring his wife's unfortunate string of miscarriages into the open in order to put his point across shows just how much pressure public figures are put under by today's media. My feeling is that, if you were a senior public figure and powerful politician conducting a clandestine gay affair, the last thing that you would do is openly book a twin room in a hotel with your handsome young aide. I am sure that this was simply a case of economics and those responsible should be brought to book if their allegations prove to be untrue. Nick and Craig often share twin rooms when on exhibition duties for Instanta and football teams regularly do the same without any hint of scandal being raised.




This is a photo of me presenting Max and Jenny with their prizes in our Pick The Score competition in May. It is the last photo of me taken before I started on the diet and, as you can see, I had a double chin and was not exactly svelte. I got on the scales on Sunday to see that I am now two stone and two pounds lighter. My waistline has shrunk by almost five inches and none of my clothes fit properly. All of this has resulted in me being constantly asked about my health and being treated in some cases like an invalid. Honestly, I know that my face is a bit thin but my BMI is still only on the borderline of healthy at 25 (down from 29) and the target weight is still a few weeks off. It's going to be expensive then as I will need a lot of new trousers.But thanks for the concern and no I am not ill.



Were you amongst the 5.4 million people who tuned in for Sunday's final ever "Last Of The Summer Wine"? Being a regular fan I, of course, was watching but, however much I loved that longest running sit com - and I often found myself a lone positive voice in a roomful of haters, I could not say that this was its finest hour. In fact, it was dreadful. There were plenty of laughs but only on the canned laughter sound track as, apart from the trouserless police officers, the whole half hour episode failed to raise even the semblance of a smile and I realised that the decision to axe the show was one that should have been taken several series ago. In those days I loved the Sunday evening escape to a land where the sun always shone and the stories did not centre solely around Marina and Howard. I would like to see the BBC bring back "Jam And Jerusalem" as a slightly more edgy replacement.

I'm off for lunch but before I go, here's a brilliant video brought to my attention by The Guardian sports pages. How to overtake when there's not much room.

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