The Hidden Cost Of Dieting

Well, I'm happy to say it's all over- the diet that is. In the twenty weeks of dieting I have lost 2st 10lbs and almost six inches off my waist. But, as you can see above, the diet has its downside and nothing fits me anymore. And strangely enough I never considered myself to be really fat just a little overweight. So yesterday morning I emptied the wardrobe and tried on all the trousers.

And ended up with this lot in the charity shop pile. Then I thought that I had better check out the shirts and jumpers.

I can only say that it's a good job that I won't be needing any suits following retirement in a few weeks time or I would have to pile the weight back on or risk financial penury. Nobody mentions this aspect of dieting when they sell you the idea. Even shopping at Debenhams or M&S where trousers and shirts average around forty or fifty quid there would be well over £1,000 replacement value in this pile and, as a lot of them were from Hugo Boss and Farhi, if I returned to those shops you could double that figure. If you happen to be a "slightly overweight" fifty something bloke pop into Oxfam Southport and grab yourself a bargain - some of these (bought haf way through the diet) have only been worn a couple of times

Here at Instanta the Safan engineer is busy installing the new press brake that arrived on Friday in time for the lads to start learning how to use it tomorrow.It seems that once they have programmed it properly it will do the job perfectly every time. No change there then. Just like we did with the old manual one eh lads?

I am indebted to the Guardian Guide on Saturday for drawing my attention to this great ad from Thinkbox TV. It advertises the power of TV advertising and does so quite brilliantly in my opinion.





And to prove Thinkbox's point, here's the latest IKEA ad that I saw during X Factor on Saturday night. Excellent. Much better than 100 cats.Oh and by the way, some people say these videos don't show properly in this blog layout. If they don't fit, double click and they will open in a new window.





But I think that this one, which took up a massive two minutes during another X Factor break fails to hit the mark. I love Yeo Valley yogurts but rapping farmers?

I Managed To Catch Up

After the hectic week of reading hundreds of applications for the new Southern Area Sales Manager job, I have finally reached the bottom of the pile and created a shortlist of candidates. It's been a really interesting process as we are looking for someone who can sell and not simply someone who knows the catering industry (which seems to be the norm within the industry and has led to it becoming the incestuous place that it is). As a result, I have read through a diverse range of candidates cvs and have been impressed by the high standard. As they live all over the place I have asked the chosen few to give me a ring for an informal telephone interview after which I will be whittling the list down further.



Things are going well even without the new sales manager and orders are at a good level for this time of the year. The WA5N (above) is a particularly good seller but I am hoping that our new sales person will be able to show the customers the huge benefits offered by the more upmarket WM series and CT series boilers which include seven day programmable timers, built in filter monitors and easy to read service diagnostics.



The online diet has prescribed beans on toast with cheese for lunch today. I could make this here in the canteen but Marion is at home and I'm going to pop back and share it with her when I go to pay into the bank. It's the four week weigh in tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed I should have lost my first stone.



Dave Horrocks from our sheet metal department popped his head into my office this morning and told me that he had dreamt last night that he and I were playing scrabble and that I was making weird and peculiar words with my tiles. Now Dave, I am extremely flattered to think that I figured in your dreams but not so happy that I appeared in them as a cheat!


Remember the young drummer boy who came third in Britain's Got Talent last week. Call that drumming? Now this is drumming. Have a good weekend.