Gone Fishin'

One of the benefits of the four day factory week that we have been operating here at Instanta for years is the chance for people to indulge in some of their hobbies on a Monday when the golf course is emptier,the riverbank quieter and the swimming pool isn't clogged with screaming kids.The beauty of the working hours for both Instanta and the staff is that they still put in a 35 hour working week but if an increase in production is needed they can always work Mondays in an emergency.This Monday welders Craig Peach (top) and Darren Rodwell used that time to visit some ponds in Mawdesley and they both ended up with a net full of fish.Here they are with two of the specimen carp that they landed. I've been told that there was a wager between the two about whose was the biggest but Darren suggested that they go fishing instead.



And just to show that we didn't spend Nick Neal's winnings for coming second in our Guardian Pick The Score competition on bacon butties here he is with his £50 prize. Nick led the league for most of the early months but Tony Lowe with an incredible run of correct predictions had a late surge to take the prize from his grasp.



Speaking of sports predictions I see that the bookies were suspicious of the huge number of bets that they took on Jurgen Melzer to beat Wayne Odesnik 3-0 at Wimbledon and they suspended betting on the match which strangely went on to finish er 3-0 to Melzer. Odesnik said that he would never do anything to jeopardise his career although rumours that he spent the night before the game at an O'Neils bar may have set the jungle drums off amongst the betting community with suggestions of an almighty hangover.Until the incident is investigated they will remain just that - rumours.



Proof that democracy is alive and well under the new (old) regime in Iran. When six of the national team, including their captain, wore green wristbands in support of the opposition candidate Mir Hossein Musavi in their World Cup Qualifier against South Korea they were told to remove them at half time (although captain Mahdavikia wore his green captain's armband for the entire match). All of the players have had their passports taken off them and four have been banned from playing for life. Which I imagine is exactly the sort of thing that they were protesting about. I had to laugh when I read in The Guardian that the team's chief administrative officer, Mansour Pourhiedari, initially claimed the wristbands had been intended as a religious tribute to a revered Shia figure in the hope that it would deliver a victory on the pitch. It reminded me of Gerard Houlier's comments after Robbie Fowler snorted the white line of the penalty area in a goal celebration "Robbie was pretending to eat the grass. It is something that Rigobert Song does all the time at the training ground" Hmmm. Obviously Gerard.



And still on Iran, let's all please remember Neda Soldani like this. Her tragic death during the political protests has been viewed by millions on YouTube but I have deliberately avoided watching it and won't be posting any links here. Surely the simple fact that a young woman's life has been taken away by an undemocratic regime is enough without our needing to see her life blood draining onto the streets. R.I.P Neda. Let's hope that your death was not in vain.



Following the results of yesterday's very special offer we are continuing it today. Yes. We are offering 30% YES THIRTY PER CENT off the super AF40 heated cup stacker.That's a reduction of £79.50 Designed to take forty 85mm stacking cup this is a great little unit and you can take advantage of this offer by ordering today and quoting blog offer 230609. Offers must reach us by Friday 26 June at 4.30pm.



It's Orange Wednesday today but we might give it a miss. It's a glorious day here in Southport and we may just spend the evening in the garden as the nights do start drawing in from now onwards.

It was Father's Day on Sunday and I got a great card from Sarah and Paul tells me that he has sent me something but didn't realise that it was ten day delivery!Here's a video on the topic. Give it a go. It made me laugh out loud.