It's truly a sign that the silly season has arrived early this year when Barack Obama swatting a fly gets on newspaper front pages and has been on every news bulletin for the last twenty four hours.No doubt the annual "Beast of Bodmin" and "Man Bites Dog" stories are just around the corner. I was going to put the clip of the fly swatting on yesterday's blog but realised that everyone would have seen it by teatime. The incident goes to prove the vacuity of today's news media with even The Guardian devoting a full page to the story including instructions on the best way to swat. At least it wasn't The Guardian's front page news.
To prove the point further, Sacha Baron Cohen even got onto the Guardian leader page which commented on the premiere of his new film "Bruno". It seems that the film is sending out very mixed messages but is nonetheless extremely funny. I'm looking forward to it but don't want to see people being ridiculed unless their bigoted attitudes deserve it.
Last night's film was Ken Loach's "Looking For Eric". Being a lifelong Liverpool fan I should have hated it but the film has a great deal of charm and a wonderful performance from Steve Evets as depressed postie Eric Bishop.Cantona, who appears as "lui meme" is as sardonic as ever although none of his words of wisdom match his "Sardines Following Trawlers" which appears during the closing credits.I was saddened to see only 13 people in the audience whereas the film is probably playing to standing room only at the other end of the A580. A sorry indictment on the tribalism that overwhelms football at the moment.
Will they or won't they go bust. As one of the 1.2 million mugs who pay Setanta £12.99 every month to watch a handful of Liverpool matches that aren't on Sky I'm waiting to know if they are going to continue. I have heard that trying to cancel a sub to Setanta is as difficult as swatting a fly (unless of course you are Barack Obama who probably cancelled his sub in seconds). My sub is on a credit card. I haven't tried to stop it yet but I know that VISA won't cancel it. Fortunately the credit card expires in a couple of months.Will Setanta expire before the card? If they do, Scottish football is going to be in big big trouble.
Today's special offer is on the CT2000. There's 10% off the usual price of £545 for all orders placed before 5pm tomorrow 19th June 2009. To qualify for this special price ordered must reach us by the deadline and must quote reference blog offer 180609.
I got a very nice letter from an analyst at Plimsoll Publishing Ltd this morning. It seems that Instanta is one of only a handful in the UK Catering equipment industry not to have suffered a big decline in their financial performance. He also tells me that 201 of our fellow competitors are in financial danger, there are plenty that would make excellent acquisitions and a third of companies are making a loss. All nice to know, but at our age acquisitions are the last thing on our minds. I was watching a documentary on BBC2 the other night about a struggling Midlands engineering firm and the MD and his secretary were both still hard at work and both in their seventies!
I'll leave you today with a couple of young lads making a cheerful bit of music.
Did you see the charity shop queen Mary Portas on BBC2 last night? She's great isn't she? Given the task of turning around a Save The Children charity shop in Orpington staffed by geriatrics who volunteered mostly for a bit of company she was up against a challenge of gargantuan proportions.The volunteer workers' motto was "If it ain't broke don't fix it" but it was unquestionably broke and the attitude remained the same.I've nothing but admiration for the way that Mary managed to come up with fresh ideas and get the turnover up by over 100%.With her long legs and flashy rings Mary is certainly a character and one who doesn't mind speaking her mind (although I suspect that there is a softness under all that tough talk) and I loved the scene with the disgruntled shopper who was used to buying tennis racquets for 70p and was horrified at having to pay £1.50 under Mary's new regime. After listening to his gripes he departed with a "sod off" from Mary under her breath - brilliant.
Looking at the disgruntled shopper's less than athletic physique made me wonder why he was a regular buyer of tennis racquets. I suspect that,like many others, he was using the charity shops as wholesalers for his car boot or eBay business. Regular readers will know that I am an eBayer myself and I'm not averse to picking up a bargain but I have to draw the line at trawling charity shops. What pleasure would there be in finding a Picasso in Oxfam or a Van Gogh in the Hospice shop? I can only imagine an overwhelming feeling of guilt unless the profit was returned to the charity.
Today's special offer is 10% off the 3000LCD. That's a reduction of £45 to £405. The offer is valid for all orders received at Instanta by 5pm on Thursday 18th June.Orders MUST quote reference blog offer 170609.
An email arrives via Facebook from Jan Harbon who used to work here at Instanta. Jan offers the advice that field mice like nothing better than a bit of Green & Black's chocolate and, if I bait the humane trap with it, I will be guaranteed success. Green & Blacks? Organic chocolate that's like £1.89 at Tesco. Who are these mice to have such sophisticated taste buds? Yuppy mice? Do they go for the 70% cocoa solids or are they 85% types. Why can't they have Cadbury's dairy milk? Jan also suggests that if one pops up in the trap I need to release it at least two miles away or it will be back.I'll probably release it in the Waitrose car park. With those tastes it will be at home there.
Just when we thought we were having a few months' rest from football, the factory is buzzing with discussions of the fixture lists that have just been announced. Surprisingly as it may seem lads it's not rocket science.Everyone has to play everyone else at home and away. Let's give it a break now until August. But we are off to a football film tonight with our Orange Wednesday choice "Looking For Eric". We were right to chose that ahead of "The Hangover" which we'll save for next week as the Cantona film is only being screened once daily after the weekend.
Here's something a bit different - an interactive YouTube video.
If his staff approve British Airways Chief Executive Willie Walsh's plans,they really will be working for BA one month. It seems that the airline is in such dire straits that Willie is going to work for nothing in July and has asked his loyal workers to follow suit.The problem is Willie that when your monthly salary is over £60,000 it's a bit easier than when it's £2,000. It's an understandable gambit- work for nothing and save your job. I wonder how the idea of working for SFA might go down here at Instanta.
Here's the lovely Lauren who,left with spare time on her hands at the weekend, decided (as you do) to make rice krispie cakes with boyfriend Darren.Darren, larking around as ever, decided to break the chocolate slab by holding it in front of his forehead and butting it macho style. But unbeknown to her incredible hulk, Lauren had stored the thick bar in the fridge leaving it rock hard.Result? A very sheepish Darren with huge comic style lump on forehead. When Lauren had recovered from her less than sympathetic doubling up with laughter she went on to make the fancies and brought some in for us to try. Thanks Lauren.
It's good to see democracy breaking out in Iran. After the weekend's over hasty announcement that Amadinajhad had won within an hour of the polls closing it seems that the governing body (with the president conveniently out of the country on a diplomatic mission to Russia)has announced a recount. Well done. If he then proves to have won (which judging from the mass demonstrations may be unlikely)at least he will be seen to have won fairly.
What a coup for Shamrock Rovers. The first game that the mighty Real Madrid send their new Galacticos Kaka and Ronaldo out onto the pitch is scheduled for 20th July in Eire against the Dublin part timers whose star striker Gary Twigg at £25,000 probably cost a fraction of the price of Ronaldo's watch.
And speaking of Galacticos, tomorrow night's Orange Wednesday film visit is a toss up between "Looking For Eric" and "Hangover" which is what I had after Eric ruined the trip I had with my kids Paul and Sarah to the 1996 Wembley Cup Final. I'll never forget Paul's tear streaked face paint on the weary journey home. Both films got well above average reviews and both are comedies. I think we'll try Eric first as, here on Merseyside, there's a chance that it might not still be on next week.
Another day, another offer. Today's offer is the best selling 1500LCD at the 2008 price of £399. A few customers have complained that I'm not giving them enough time to get the orders in before the offers expire so this offer will close at 5pm tomorrow 17th June 2009 and orders must be with us by then and MUST quote blog offer 160609. This means that until 5pm tonight when yesterday's offer of 10% off the DB2000 closes there will be no less than three special deals running. (The third deal is on used and ex demo equipment on the Notice Board section of the website. Until the end of June you can make us an offer on these items).
After the sad death of Humphrey Littleton we thought that would be the end of Radio 4's long running "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" but it was back last night under the chairmanship of Stephen Fry. I didn't get chance to catch it but hope to listen tonight on the BBC Website. I doubt that anybody could get away with the outrageous double entendres like Humph.Sample quote "Samantha tells me she’s had to nip out to meet a nice chap who’s training her in computer skills. Tonight, she hopes he’s going to show her the 3.5 inch floppy he’s got in his Mac…" But we're looking forward to hearing how it went.Ross and Brand were crucified for being rude on the radio. Humph was adored for material like this.....
