Happy 59th Tony

Here's Tony Lowe from our stores. Today Tony is celebrating his 59th birthday.Tony joined Instanta almost nine years ago after a number of years in the fire service.Very much a family man, Tony, who is married to Janet,has five children Lisa, Steven, Rick, Rob and Kim who range in age from 33 to 18 and this has been a very busy year in the family as three new grandchildren have arrived since he was 58 making four in total.Tony is a keen computer fan and tells me that he is getting the computer game Napoleon Total War for his birthday.He supports Burnley FC (well nobody's perfect).Regular spares customers will know Tony well for his polite and friendly service and I am sure that they will join me in wishing him the very best for today.



It looks like a good game. How things have changed since I first played the computer game Pong which consisted of a couple of white blocks bouncing around a screen. Boy did we feel cool in the pub at 18 playing it all night.



I introduced Chris, David and Nick (some of our new colleagues from Zip) to the staff here yesterday.For once I forgot my camera so I will have to put a photo up next time they visit. The day went extremely well and I think both parties learned a great deal from it. The dust from the merger is just starting to settle. Marion and I are totally relieved to have been able to make the announcement.Several months of clandestine discussions and secret meetings are not easy but we think that the final result will be good for all parties involved.



Here are some of our new Australian owner's team. Bottom left, alongside his son George, is the charismatic and dynamic Michael Crouch AO who founded Zip and who has been heavily involved with me and Marion during our negotiations. Michael has been an excellent person to deal with and we are really looking forward to introducing him to everyone at Instanta. Top left is Michael Lee who we have also met.He is the Chief Operating Officer and Group Finance Director (and a Spurs fan).Also on the top row are Alan Butler Group Director (Sales and Marketing) and Brian Chertkow (Manufacturing Director).We have not met them or George yet but are again looking forward to welcoming them to sunny Southport.

I'll close today with the trailer for Tony's birthday present. It's a long way from Pong.

The Quiet Man Turns 39

On Sunday Jason Poland will be thirty nine. Jason has worked at Instanta for over eleven years now and is the deputy to Factory Leader Tony Mercer. Married to Jude, Jason is a very keen (and very good) pool player who enjoys holidays in far away places although he is also very much at home in Ayia Napa in Cyprus where he takes his autumn breaks.Though Ayia Napa is not famous for its quietness, Jason is very much the quiet man of Instanta. He likes to get his head down at work and, as a result, he is one of the most productive workers we have. Have a great day Jason. You've earned it.



We're down to almost the last box of our super 2008/2009 brochure and I am working flat out with Jen at Workhouse Marketing to get the 2010/2011 issue out. It's a big brochure with a lot of new stuff in it and it's starting to look very good. I've got a deadline of 31st January and it's going to take a concerted effort to hit it but at the moment we're looking good. If any customers have got an interesting case study regarding an Instanta boiler that they have supplied to a photogenic site please get in touch.We've got quite a few possibilities but so many of our end users such as the police and the royal palaces are unwilling to give endorsements as a matter of policy.



Here's Tony Lowe from our stores. Tony is suffering from a severe case of franker's cramp today having prepared over 2,500 copies of our Dealer Newsletter for tonight's post. Thanks Tony (and Jenny and Marion and Peter and Phil and Lee and Craig) for your sterling efforts in getting this out so quickly. We only got the letters from the printers at nine o'clock.



And here is the front of the Dealer News.There's some interesting stuff on the back too. If you are on our mailing list you should get it on Monday. If you aren't, we can supply you with an email copy or pop one in the post to you. Let us know.

I'm on an email list that sends me all the latest viral videos that are taking the internet by storm. One came from Coke this morning. It's supposed to be about a Happy Vending Machine that Coke set up in a University common room but it's rubbish.So here's one for Pepsi instead (that isn't).

Year End Beckons

Here are Phil (left) and Tony from our stores who, against all odds, have managed to prepare for the annual stock take in record time. Circumstances this week have resulted in the stores being a couple of men down but Phil and Tony have pulled out all the stops and done a great job and must be congratulated. Thanks also go to Gavin for giving them a hand. The accountant arrives tomorrow and, as long as the quantities agree with the books, we'll be ready for the audit very soon.



I promise to stop banging on about my novel after today.When I first uploaded the blog yesterday I erroneously stated that my book was at number 103 (a typo honest). I later corrected it to 1034 (a bit of a difference!). Today it's inside the 1000 mark. I had a brilliant bit of advice from one of the best writers on the site (no it wasn't "Give up")and, as a result, I may well take it down from Authonomy and do a rewrite. Although criticism is sometimes hard to take, there's a lot of truth in the old saying that "you have to be cruel to be kind".



You really have to hand it to the Guardian. They have some incredible writers. I read a review of the X Factor written by Anna Pickard who is not their regular TV reviewer. She summed the show up with this brilliant line on the contestants "When they were good they were very very good. And when they were bad they were televised". Perfect.



Orange Wednesday last night was packed for "Inglourious Basterds". We could not even get into the car park. As for the film. Not as bad as the critics said but not great. A typical mixture of Tarantino violence and black humour with a spaghetti western like score. The cinematography was superb.




Did you read about the punishment planned for people who illegally download files? We all know some don't we? (They will remain nameless here)It seems that they are going to have it cut off. The Broadband that is.