I Figure We Are Doing OK At The Moment

I've been slogging away at figures all morning in preparation for tomorrow's board meeting. The accounts look pretty good all things considering although they would look a hell of a lot better if we hadn't had to pay almost £100 a day for Barclay's marvellous interest rate collar. Sales and gross profit for our first nine months are within 2% of last year and overheads are significantly down resulting in an improved net margin and, consequently, less pressure on the overdraft. We paid all our bills within a couple of days of the start of June and at the moment have £100k spare within the overdraft facility. The VAT bill is due at the start of next month but, according to the press, nobody appears to be paying that on time at the moment so we could ask for another three months grace.



I've been limping for about six weeks now and have done no swimming, football or gym for ages. The pain seemed to be easing off last week but came back with a vengeance at the weekend. A trip to the doctor confirmed that I have a groin strain and she has recommended some powerful painkillers which seem to be helping.I now realise that last week's easing was down to the painkillers that I was taking for the tooth extraction. I really miss the football (not so much the swimming) and hope that I can be back before too long.



In addition to our special offer on seconds and new (but old style) models on yesterday's blog(click here for details) that will run until the end of the month or until all are sold, today's special offer is on the WM15. Both the 3kW and 6kW units are reduced by 10% to £666 and £697.50 until Monday 15 June 2009 at 10 am. To qualify for this very special offer, orders much reach Instanta by 10 o'clock on Monday 15 June and MUST quote blog offer 110609

The best word I can use to describe last night's Orange Wednesday offering "Last Chance Harvey" is "nice". But "nice" doesn't win oscars and an hour and a half of cute kittens would have done the job just as well. It's a very predictable love story and the cinema was packed but I'd wait for the DVD and watch it with a box of Kate from "The Apprentice's" chocolates with your partner if I were you. I'm not sure which would be the sweeter. I said that I had read that it was sad but, if it was, I missed it.



Before going to the cinema last night I was playing around on Youtube and hit on the new XBOX360 project NATAL. I'm not a big gaming fan although I did have an Atari space invaders console when they first came out and loved those tennis games made up of three white blobs on a black screen. But this new project really interested me. I had to check that it was not a wind up and hadn't been posted on April fools day but no, it seems that controlless gaming is a reality and it really is being developed. Take a look at the video for a demonstration. Now that's the future (or it will be when it becomes commercially available).