Please Don't Let It Be Chucky

It may sound like we have very boring Saturday nights but I have to say I like nothing better than a roaring log fire and Saturday night ITV on the telly and this weekend was no exception. We aren't alone. There were 10 million others tuning in and they had over 2 million phone votes which means that if you take off Marion's votes for Alex and JLS there were at least two other people voting. The excitement of the X factor far outweighs the thought of getting dressed up and going out. And I only wish that I had a camera to capture Marion's reaction to the result of her finger having been on the redial button for the last half hour. She was out of her seat ,punching the air and stamping her feet with the sort of enthusiasm normally seen on the Kop when Liverpool score (beginning to forget what that's like after Fulham and West Ham). Yes her beloved JLS who she is voting for because they are "cute" and Alex who she is voting for because she can sing were the first two names to go through leaving Eggnog and Diana to sweat it out. It was then that I realised where I had seen Eoghan before. Remember "Child's Play"? That right. Chucky. Of course it's no coincidence. Chucky-Egg.



----------------------Chucky From "Child's Play"-----------------------


-------------------------X Factor's Eoghan----------------------------

I must say that I share her enthusiasm as I win £120 on Betfair if either of them win (it will go towards the phone bill) although it's a few quid lost if its Chucky. A win may compensate for the loss of £150 on Joe Swash in I'm a Celebrtity. As he was one of the only contestants that I had never heard of I bet against him which just shows that I should be watching Eastenders on BBC rather than ITV. I have had a lot of fun on Betfair this year and have put £20 a week into the account. As the year comes to a close after fifty weeks of £20, I have got in the account er £1,000 (oh well you win some you lose some). Am going to put all that on Liverpool for the Premiership if we are still top on 31st December. In the meantime I won just £35 on the next Newcastle Manager and am having a dabble at the next Sunderland manager now. I really enjoy these manager markets. Don't win much but it's great reading all the gossip and blatant attempts to manipulate the market "My mate just saw Kevin Keegan in a restaurant with Niall Quinn" that sort of thing.



Back at work we are trying to avoid talking about the you know what and are only thinking positive. We took out a big loan in May to buy the building. With the recent cut in interest rates, technically we should now be about £2,000 a month better off but as the bank insisted on a complicated "collar" as illustrated above we are actually £2,000 a month worse off. As you might guess, we aren't exactly happy about this and, as the bank only told us about the condition after we had been given permission to bid at auction and were committed to buying the property, I think we have got a good case. The above example is worded in Lithuanian but , whilst ours was worded in English, the Lithuanian version would have made just as much sense. We will have to look at more ways of raising cash.

Looking at the photo of Lauren on Friday's blog, the thought occurs that we could call ourselves "Lapland" and charge £25 a head for everyone to come and look at our Christmas tree. It seems that fake Laplands are springing up everywhere and turn out to be muddy fields with a bit of tinsel and a fake Father Xmas. We can guarantee no mud and we have the real Father Xmas (have you seen our staff holidays?) plus the tooth fairy (Marion) and Lauren has two King Charles spaniels that do a mean husky impersonation.

I got a letter on Friday from a customer who said that he was not accepting our new price list. I thought this was a very good idea so I went into Tesco yesterday and when I got to the till I told them I was not accepting their prices. A very nice young man escorted me to the car park sans shopping. Seriously we don't implement price increases willy nilly. Our small increases have been selective and justifiable. Apart from our interest rate noose, we have a 4% staff pay increase to cover and huge increases on components imported from Italy and USA. And don't say we shouldn't have had a 4% pay increase, it is important to us that our staff are successful and enjoy their lives.

Oh well. Better get back to some work. Did a full analysis of the last 12 month's warranty work on Friday and am pleased to say that action has been taken to eradicate all of the faults that recurred more than a couple of times. Will leave you now with a message for next Saturday.