All Quiet On The Factory Front

With the factory on holiday it's quiet in here this week with no throbbing and banging from machinery and no loud voices discussing the latest football news. Except for the lathe department that is. Due to staff sickness last week we got a little behind in the machine shop and Craig Mercer (left) and Steve Eyres volunteered to work the holiday to help us catch up. Thanks lads. That means that when everyone is back next week they won't be short of parts to get the production line rolling again.



Whileit is peaceful, buyer Gavin Ford has taken the opportunity to arrange the packaging for the new products with our packaging suppliers BJ Eurosell. Here is Eurosell's Jim Jackson (right) with Gavin. We have been using this great family run business since 1989 and they supply all our boxes and insulation. The fact that the family are all Liverpool fans has nothing to do with our supporting them (but it helps).



Speaking of Liverpool FC, the reds are in action tonight at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Will it be another true grit performance like the one against Spurs last week or will we be back to our dire worst like we were against Portsmouth? The Guardian had most of a page devoted to a rumour that Rafa is going to manage Juventus. I don't really have a lot of time for the rumour mill but The Guardian has an uncanny knack of getting these things right.The Gary Neville survey ended up with 88% of Guardian readers agreeing that he is a sock sucking moron - so it's a paper you can trust.



I won't be watching Liverpool tonight as they are not on TV but tomorrow it's Orange Wednesday and we might get the chance to take in a film. We still haven't seen Avatar. As it's going to be the biggest box office hit of all time I think that we should see it but, although I don't know why, it doesn't really appeal. (We still haven't seen that other Cameron blockbuster Titanic yet). We haven't seen Sherlock Holmes either so maybe that will be the choice.



I spotted a fabulous Japanes vase on the internet the other day with an estimate of just £100. Having several pieces by the same artist in my collection, I knew that the estimate was way off the mark and asked if I could have a telephone bid. Sadly I was not alone and the price soared way above my limit and I had to take another call before the hammer came down. In the days before auctions were listed on the internet things like this could be bought cheaply (even today the top bid in the room was only £180)but now that collectors worldwide can search for "sleepers" they are becoming few and far between. I suppose that the best bet for antique collectors is to drive around the country and seek out auction houses who haven't gone on line yet.

Did you hear about the survey that came out today withe the news that Britain is finally more tolerant towards gays and unmarried couples. Where Instanta leads, Britain follows. We've tolerated just about everything here for the last twenty years. Here's a short video on the subject.