Phew. I'm glad that I won't be doing that again.

I have just completed the transition of the payroll from weekly to monthly and what a job that was!I produced spreadsheet after spreadsheet to cross check the figures and am delighted that everybody's pay balanced to the penny bar one. As that error resulted in one member of staff being overpaid the princely sum of £22 I have let it lie and he or she (who shall remain nameless)can have a drink on me this weekend. The payroll is all set up now for August and I hope that everyone can manage the long wait before the next payday. We paid the annual bonus and profit share with the last week's pay so that will make it a little easier for them.



Another thing that will help is the annual pay rise that has been agreed and will take effect on 1st August. We've gone for 2.75% which I think is reasonable in the current economic climate especially as it is not a full year since our last pay round. Some of our staff will now have KPI's (Key Performance Indicators). These will allow us to measure performance and they will be rewarded depending on how well they do in achieving their targets. One of the KPI's will be for someone here to devise an incentive scheme for the rest of the staff.



Whilst taking another mouse to the park this morning (that's two this week), my ears pricked up as a story came on the radio about a medical breakthough with another furry creature.It seems that scientists have managed to repair rabbits' damaged joints by a new method that allows the tissue to regenerate naturally. Being in need of a new hip, I immediately thought that this could be a solution for me but I was brought back down to earth when the doctor being interviewd conjectured that it would be about ten years before the remedy would be available to humans.



With just one day to run in the month I am delighted to see Peter Brindle doing very well in the new sales league table that we have just introduced. Today Peter won an order for ten UCD47Ds. Well done and congratulations Pete.We'll have to get cracking on those KPI's for you.

Great news from son Paul. He has managed to get us tickets for the broadcast of Magic Numbers in a couple of weeks time. We are realy looking forward to it. Don't know who is performing yet. Last week it was Diana Vickers. I thought that she was good.

Joined Twitter But Haven't Tweeted Yet

I like to think of myself as an early adopter of new technology.I joined Facebook ages ago (have since left),had Skyplus and HD tv from the start and was at the Apple store for the launch of the iPad (although they didn't persuade me to buy one). But Twitter is something that I have been aware of but haven't felt the urge to join. However, I noticed that our son Paul was using it a lot when we were with him last week so I decided to look into it. Haven't really sussed it or its potential out yet but I plan to find out more soon. In the meantime if you are a blog reader and you are on Twitter, please get in touch and I will add you to those I am following.If you are interested my tag is lfcchampions (don't ask).



Whilst on the subject of new technology, I keep seeing the adverts at the cinema for the new 3DTVs. I would love to have one of these but is it worth it yet? When we got HD there were only about three channels to watch and it was several years before we got the service that we get today and I suspect that there will be very little to watch in 3D at the moment and the near future. Will probably wait on this one.



Whilst I am twiddling my thumbs waiting for a visit from one of our Zip colleagues I have been having a sneaky look at Max's warranty figures. And very good they are too this month with jobs given out to our agents at less than fifty percent of the target figure. As we set the target pretty low anyway, that is a remarkable result and I hope that I am not tempting fate by drawing attention to it and go on to find out next week that the number of calls has doubled. Well done to everyone for making the boilers so reliable.




Magic Numbers on ITV1 on Saturday night at 8 o'clock promises to be a lot of fun again with X Factor's Diana Vickers performing and BGT judge Amanda Holden joining Stephen Mulhern for the show. Stephen seems to be a very popular choice of host and is very well liked. Nick's daughter Laura is working on the show and she told Nick that she met Stephen yesterday and he was very friendly. I think that the way that they react to humble runners in the production team is a true measure of the star quality of "celebrities" and, from what Paul has also told me, I think that Stephen has a very bright future. I really hope that a viewer wins a huge cash prize this week to shut up the Internet knockers who think that it is impossible - it isn't.

To get an idea of the flavour of the show - remember it's LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT, here is a clip from last week.