Instanta Gremlins Strike Again & A Visitor From Down Under

Half way through writing the blog yesterday my computer packed in and I was unable to complete it so for today in the following read "yesterday" and for last night read "Wednesday night. Those nice young people from Mainframe Computer Services were round like a shot and diagnosed a failed hard drive and took my PC away for surgery. We've had so many computer glitches recently that the MCS lads are starting to be part of the Instanta family . Hopefully it will be back today and I mean today this time.

Today we were pleased to welcome Chris Poole the production manager of Zip Australia who is currently on a European visit sourcing plant and machinery for the Sydney factory. Chris is a Brummie by birth but moved down under a few years ago and is very happy in his new life in the southern hemisphere. He paid a surprise visit to his family in the Midlands earlier this week and they were delighted to see him. Chris had a good look around Instanta and told me that he was impressed with what he saw (well done everybody). Married to Samantha, Chris has three children, Josh who is 21, Cody 18 and Kieran 14. Chris is off to mainland Europe next week and doesn't get back to Oz until early November.

We went to see Wall St Money Never Sleeps last night. I have to say that it wasn't as bad as I had been led to believe by the reviewers but it wasn't brilliant. I found all the financial talk pretty difficult to grasp (and I once worked in a bank)and the plot was pretty complex and slow moving. But on a positive note Michael Douglas played the slimy Gordon Gecko very well and the cinematography with the sweeping helicopter shots of NY was stunning.

Marion and I are off to visit our super daughter Sarah in St Andrews this weekend. We haven't seen her a lot this year and we hope that once we have retired we will get more opportunities. She's cooking us a meal while we are there. It's a good job we've finished the diet as she's a great cook.

The office is finally taking shape with the fitting of the carpet. Now the place doesn't echo any more and it's a lot warmer. It's a pity it wasn't all done before our visitors from Australia and our Norfolk head office arrived as I think that they would have been pretty impressed.


It was a double bill of Paul's "A League Of Their Own" last night (and I mean last night now). I couldn't promote it on the blog with the computer being down but I hope that everyone enjoyed it as much as we did. Another very funny show and a double bill to boot. Looking forward to the X Factor on Saturday. I still haven't got a real favourite but I see that Stephen Fry is going for Wagner.

Well I Would Drive Five Hundred Miles

Unlike the Proclaimers I couldn't walk five hundred miles (bad hip you know) but we did drive five hundred miles on Saturday to go for lunch at the Seafood Restaurant in St Andrews. "Is the food that good?" I hear you ask. Well it is very good indeed and well worth a visit although a five hundred mile round trip is not recommended. No, we went to see our wonderful daughter Sarah who was involved in an horrific car crash the Friday before.We wanted to see that she was OK. I am pleased to say that she looked great although she was still suffering from the shock. She won't let me put the photo of her car on the blog but the photo below of another car will give you a good idea of what happened to her. She is extremely brave and I am pleased to say that she went back to school this morning so lets hope that the kids gave her a good day.



Nasty eh. Whilst we were on our flying visit to St Andrews we managed to get a look at Sarah and Duncan's house which is unrecognisable from when they bought it last summer. They have done a fantastic job of doing the place up and it's going to be amazing when it is finished. I know that they are both a bit fed up of living in what is virtually a building site but there are three finished rooms so the house is livable in and it won't be long before there's a fourth and fifth room finished. Sarah and Paul both gave their mum a lovely birthday present so Marion had a very happy birthday (apart from the Abba tribute of course). Can you hear the drums Fernando? Sadly yes my ears are still ringing.



Here's John Walkinshaw from our electronics suppliers KLH Electronics plc looking very thoughtful. John has been working on our new all singing all dancing circuits for our new range of boilers and they are fantastic but there are a couple of tiny, minuscule glitches which have cropped up and, being a perfectionist, John is determined to put them right. We're almost there now although his assistant Michelle has christened the circuit the bungee as it keeps bouncing back to her. Pretty sure that we have ironed the lot out now and we're all set. You won't find a more comprehensive boiler circuit anywhere.



I see that BBC2 are running a quiz style programme for antique collectors. It's called Antiques Master and is aimed at finding the top amateur antiques expert in the country. I don't by any means think that I am the top amateur antique expert in the country but I may be one of the top amateur antique experts in the country who are willing to make a fools of themselves on the telly so the application is in the post.Speaking of quizzes, we are off to the local accountants Champion's quiz night tonight at a local bar. These are usually fun events. Our biggest problem is coming up with a witty name for our team. It's traditional for pub quiz teams to have quirky names like The Know It Ales or Never Been Quizzed. We are looking for something original. Any ideas before 5pm welcome.

Here are some blokes in India who must fancy ending up like poor Sarah.

Out of the frying pan.

After two sleepless nights in our Holiday Inn Express room positioned on the Tay Bridge in Dundee we asked for a change. The receptionist kindly moved us to the back of the hotel and peace from the incessant traffic noise. Our delight was sadly short lived as we found ourselves alongside the top of a multi storey car park. There were no cars in the car park but there were about thirty floodlights. The local seagull population has commandeered every one of these as permanent roosts. We learned that seagulls don’t sleep either and if you can imagine the racket that thirty seagulls can make you will understand why we are now contemplating asking to be returned to the heavy traffic room tonight.

Noise apart we’ve had a pleasant few days in St Andrews visiting our daughter Sarah who has recently bought a new house with her partner Duncan. We’ve been driving around garden centres and DIY stores and Sarah now has a variety of new plants, pots, a parasol, a sun-bed and a chimenea to go with the John Lewis table and chairs which arrived bang on time as promised. Marion has been digging the garden and helping Sarah to plant everything up.





The table and chair instructions said to allow five minutes to assemble each chair and fifteen minutes for the table. That makes a total of forty-five minutes for the lot. It took me longer than that to take them out of their boxes and it was close to three hours when I sat back and admired my handiwork. Even then there were some screws that I hadn’t enough strength to tighten right up. It really is a great outdoor set though.





It’s our last night in Scotland tonight so we are off to The Seafood Restaurant in St Andrews. It’s a superb restaurant located right on the seafront in a modern glass building. I wonder if they do any sous vide cooking? I’ll have to leave a brochure with the chef.



Going to The Seafood Restaurant means no Orange Wednesday so we'll have to make it pink Thursday and go and see Bruno when we get back to Southport. I see today that the film has been banned in The Ukraine (yet more publicity for Sacha Baron Cohen. When will they learn!). It seems that so many under 18s have been trying to get in to see the film and been turned away that the producers are rushing out a censored version with a lower rating than the current 18. We watched the Inbetweeners on Channel 4 last night. I'm sure that they would be at the front of the queue trying to get in - at least Simon would be at the front of the queue with Jay at the back telling him what to do - brilliant comedy, if you haven't seen it check it out.