It's Supposed To Be Entertainment

It was August 1967 when I first handed over my four bob (20p in today's money),pushed through the turnstile and gazed in awe at the steep staircase ahead of me. At the top of the stairs was a dark tunnel through which a tumultuous noise was coming. I entered the tunnel to see the mighty Kop in all its glory and I was hooked. In the forty three years that followed I have been a regular on the Kop and a season ticket holder for the majority of those years. Why? Well the main reason is that I loved the whole thing, the game the noise, the spectacle - the tremendous atmosphere. I was happy to hand over my cash even when it escalated from a few shillings to twenty and then thirty quid and is today pushing forty. Because I was being entertained.


On Saturday I couldn't make it to Anfield as I was celebrating in London with Marion. A couple of years ago I wouldn't have considered missing a match but sadly my whole reason for going to Anfield - to be entertained - is evaporating in an acrimonious cloud of poison. There was a time when the players would beam out from the photos in the programmes with smiles on their faces but today there's a near universal hard man scowl. It was nice if we won but no big deal if we didn't as long as it was a good match. After all it was entertainment, like going to the cinema or a concert.


Last Saturday a supporters' group demonstrated before, during and after the match at Anfield and staged a sit in. More is planned for this Sunday. I sympathise with the group. I understand their hatred at the way that the club became big business and was taken over by soulless money men looking to make a quick buck and I share their frustration at seeing the one time colossus shrinking towards oblivion. But what are the demonstrations going to achieve? What is their purpose? To tell the owners we don't want them there? Well I would have thought that was pretty obvious to them by now. All they are achieving is distracting the players and distracting the crowd from what, after all, they are paying (through the nose) to see. Staying behind after the match to vent spleen at the owners who most likely are not even there is only going to get the protestors hoarse with shouting. The only people being damaged by the protests are those who want to watch an entertaining game and then get home in a decent time. Everyone knows that the ownership of the club is a disaster, the demonstrations will achieve zilch other than perhaps a burnt Sunday dinner. Until the club is either repossessed by RBS or sold to a new owner we'll just have to take it and hope that someone on the pitch gives us cause to smile. Here's hoping for Sunday.





As you make your sandwiches tomorrow spare a thought for the bloke who bought this loaf from his supermarket. He though that the bread looked a bit of a funny colour at one end and then saw it was a mouse. Oh well, at least he spotted it and found it was complete - except for the tail.


I'm away from the office today but I hear that the broadband is back up and running after three weeks. Normal blogging should return shortly.

Disaster. There's nothing on at the cinema this week.

We're suffering from Orange Wednesday withdrawal symptoms. We couldn't find anything to watch at the local Vue last week and, once again, there's nothing this week. There are a few films that we might like to see. "Fantastic Mr Fox" is only on in the afternoon. "A Christmas Carol" is not really seasonal at the moment and "The Men Who Stare At Goats" got such lousy reviews that we can't get enthusiastic about it. There was one film that opened to universal acclaim last week. "Bright Star", about the poet Keats, looks great but is it on at our multi screen cinema? Need you ask?



"Well", you might say "at least you had a night out last night". And what a night it was! My usual match day companion was away so I sold my spare ticket on the Liverpool Season Ticket exchange scheme. I went to the pub on my own and asked for a steak and chips. "Which do you want, rump or sirloin?" the barman asked. "Which is the best" I said. "Rump" said the barman. God help anyone who had the sirloin. I'm starting to sound like Victor Meldrew but it got worse. As kick off approached it looked as though Liverpool had failed to sell my spare ticket as the seat beside me was empty. But just as the match kicked off a young woman of 25 stone (I kid you not)took up her place.Now I'm not weightist but these seats are designed for the average sized backside and hers would have amply filled three.And it almost did as both I and the bloke on the other side of her leaned outwards causing a domino effect making the whole row look as if we were carrying out our own Berlin Wall 20 year celebration. Such was my seat mate's girth, I saw a young lady in front surreptitiously snapping her on her mobile making the pretence of photographing her boyfriend (who was clearly way out of shot). Not only did my neighbour fill my seat she also filled my senses with a scent that I have not smelled since the caretaker showed us all what lay below the manhole in the school playground and a mouth that spewed profanities that would make Gordon Ramsay blush. Maybe next time I have a spare ticket I will treat myself to the luxury of spilling over into both seats.



The scrap metal merchant just came round with his cheque. Over £6,000 this month! And the brass price is not at the level it was almost two years ago when we found an employee helping himself. The local court accepted his claim that he had only nicked a couple of thousand pounds worth and yet our turnover with the scrap man is already at over half of last year's figure with just a quarter of the year gone. Oh well I suppose we should be grateful that we are at least getting the right amount now.




It's almost time for us to get in touch with our favourite photographer Peter Raymond to get our photos done for our new brochure.He's a great photographer.This is some of his wedding work (I couldn't lift the commercial stuff from his website but you can see it on our website) and you can check him out here.. We've got a fair few new models to launch in February.

And if you think I was moaning earlier. This is the size of the woman sitting next to me at Anfield last night.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Whenever I look at the strip of land adjoining our factory I feel like bursting into a chorus of "Wimaway" as it would be no surprise if there were a whole jungle full of wildlife living in it. Problem is that it's also a magnet for litter and God knows what else. The idea of the strip is to act as a buffer between industrial factory premises and residential property. Since Sefton council sold off all the industrial estates last year we have been trying to establish the ownership with all parties denying it was theirs. After paying for a Land Registry search we have now proved beyond reasonable doubt that it still the council's property so they are coming to talk to us today. We are prepared to take on the tidying of the plot if they are prepared to give it to us (there is no commercial value as it has a gas pipeline running through it) but we doubt that they will do this so they will waste ratepayers money tidying it (or not as has been the case for the past five years).



If you were running a business and almost everyone on your board jumped ship it would be a pretty sure sign that the company was in big trouble and administration was just around the corner. In these circumstances the only real option open to you would be to resign. When the same happens in the government what happens? Gordon Brown simply carries on regardless. I can see him holding cabinet meetings on his own soon.



It's the Instanta annual golf day next week and Craig Buckley is busy arranging the transport to the Duxbury golf club. When he discovered that the travel company had a fire engine amongst it's options, Craig was quite excited and keen to make the booking. Can you imagine the look on the golf club members faces if the Instanta golfers turned up in that with everyone squabbling over turns to ring the bell?



And so to today's offer in our month long series of daily deals. Today the price on our super WA5 wall mounted boiler reverts to its 2008 price of £399. This price will be valid for all orders placed before 11am on Thursday 4th June 2009(I am a bit late this morning so I have added an extra hour). To qualify, all orders must quote the reference blog offer 030609



I was delighted to read the news that Gareth Barry has gone to Man City. Nobody on the Kop could understand why anybody would want to sell Xavi Alonso in order to replace him with Barry (unless of course it was the difference in the price tags with Alonso worth £22m and Barry worth £12m). Not that any footballer is worth that much. But on the subject of millions and football, the Guardian has an incredible feature in today's edition which highlights the debts of the current Premiership teams. It makes very scary reading for any football fans.Some of the scariest figures were Stoke City's who had a wage bill of £11.9m and a turnover of £11.2m. Sound accounting? To read more of the figures and the accompanying article click here.

Instead of the fire engine for the golf, how about a dumper truck or a school bus? Which is better? There's only one way to find out.