Oh dear

Last month's sales were really good so I thought I'd give Sales Director Nick a treat last night and took him along with me to watch the FA Cup replay between Liverpool and Reading at Anfield.Towards the end of the night poor Nick must have been wondering what he had done to deserve having to endure ninety minutes of misery although he was probably starting to cheer up a little as we left our seats on the Kop and trudged down the hundred steps towards the exits as the clock ran down. But as we hit the bottom step a Reading player hit the deck in the penalty area and we had to trudge all the way back up again to take our seats for another thirty minutes watching the abject apology for a football team that Liverpool are at the moment. Above the entrance to the pitch in the players' tunnel is a sign "This is Anfield". It was put up in the Shankly era to motivate the team and to put fear into the opposition before they entered the boiling cauldron of noise and were subject to a fearless onslaught by the reds. I can only imagine that the sign is now viewed by the opposition with a shrug of the shoulders and a wry smile. It would be quite funny really but I, and 31,000 others actually paid to watch it. Poor Nick must be wondering what treat I have in store for him if the sales ever go badly.

Meanwhile, back at Instanta we have been testing the circuits on the new Wall Mounted Economy range of boilers that we are bringing out on 1st March.They will be available in 2.5,5 and 10 litre sizes. They look great and the new display makes it easier for the end user and service engineer to understand the boiler status than the simple multi coloured LED that we use on the current WA5. Starting at just £425 these boilers are going to make real waves in the market.



Whilst all this snow is beautiful to look at (no I didn't take this photo), spare a thought for the self employed. Whilst Marion and I are not into domestic help and share the household cleaning between us, we do have help with the garden and our poor gardener has not been able to work for weeks now. We've paid her regardless but she tells me that nobody else has paid her and that means that the weather is costing her dearly. I was in the bank yesterday and the customer next to me at the tills was involved in a conversation about how he was going to pay his workers as, being a roofer, he had done absolutely no work for almost a month.(You used to get a bit of privacy when I worked in a bank).



It's less than a month now to son Paul's wedding. Here is the venue. Its the Naval & Military Club in London which is interesting as there are no military or naval connections in either family. Paul and Josephine tell me that the club is just right for the function and the whole ceremony and reception happens in the same place. I'm looking forward to it and I'm busy writing my traditional father of the groom speech.

I'll finish with a film for Liverpool fans. Watch this and weep.