It's Party Night

Yes, tonight's our Xmas works' party night and this year we are going to the Floral Hall in Southport for a big Abba tribute party. It should be a great night (it cost enough)and there are thirty two employees and friends who are sure to make it an unforgettable evening for the Floral Hall staff. Unfortunately me and Marion are off to London at 7a.m tomorrow so we won't be staying to the end tonight. I think we can be forgiven as we are off to see our son Paul having not seen him since last Christmas.



Last night we had a very pleasant evening at the Warehouse Brasserie in Southport. Our next door neighbour Vincent took us out together with his sister and her husband and another friend. Vincent's companions are a little older than us but we found that we had plenty to talk about. One of the party, Margaret is an MBE and it was fascinating to hear her story of her investiture at the Buckingham Palace.She won her award for her work on the Home Watch scheme and was astonished to find that the security at Buckingham Palace didn't come up to her expectations.



The Internet is a wonderful thing isn't it? A blog reader from India asked me if I could help him to get a ticket for a match at Anfield as he had won a trip to the UK and was a big Liverpool fan. So there I was on Wednesday night meeting a complete stranger who had come all the way from India. And did he turn up? Of course he did and a very nice lad he was too. That's what you call a real fan. I hope you enjoyed it Ram even though we didn't get the result. Email me a photo when you get back to India.



And on Sunday I'm taking another complete stranger to Anfield to watch Liverpool play Arsenal. I got chatting to fellow Reds fan Greg on the Harper Collins authonomy website. We're both budding authors and have uploaded our books onto the site (his is doing a lot better than mine). I mentioned that I had a spare ticket for the Arsenal game and he jumped at the chance to see the match as he moved away from Liverpool some time ago and hasn't been to a live match for some time.His book's about a psychopathic serial killer. Hmmmmm. Actually he seems like a nice bloke.

As the time counts down to the part, here's a song to put everyone in the party mood. This link was recommended to me by our good friend Amanda from City Servicing. I can see why Amanda, being an Eastender, liked this, Bob Dylan does Knees up Mother Brown.

We Get By With A Little Help From Our Friends

And it works both ways. So when we are asked for a bit of help from someone who has helped us out e.g by providing us with lot of equipment for our staff gym like Dave Rogers (pictured with factory leader Tony Mercer above), we are more than happy to assist. Even if it is repairing his heron. After all we're all about water aren't we? And so are herons. Actually I could do with one of those for next to our pond.



Here's a word of advice for those smug Apple Macbook users like me.If someone sends you a birthday present that involves software on one of these tiny little Cd's, don't put it in the CD drive in your lovely Apple MacBook Pro. And if you had read your Apple instructions you wouldn't have done that would you? But there again who reads instructions? Not me obviously judging from the panic that ensued after said mini disc disappeared into the bowels of the laptop never to be seen again (almost). Fortunately I turned to the Internet for the solution thinking that even amongst those super intelligent people who own Apple computers someone else must have been daft enough to do the same. And I was right. Within five minutes I had the solution from a highly technical website. What was it? (All computer geeks look away now). 1. Hold laptop firmly with cd drive facing floor.2. Shake vigorously. Don't laugh. It worked.



I had to show you the wonderful packaging that a present arrived in. Lovely isn't it? I had a great birthday with some great gifts and had a very pleasant evening with Marion at the Warehouse Brasserie before flipping Florence went and spoilt the day by beating Liverpool. I also had a brilliant birthday card from Paul and Josephine that mocked up a tabloid newspaper reporting me winning the Booker Prize for my novel. You may mock son. You may mock.

Orange Wednesday tonight and we're off to see Creation. The film got reasonable reviews in the papers and we're quite looking forward to it. I reckon we've seen about 39 films so far this year. Mind you with our Orange Wednesday deals and with Vue gift vouchers kindly donated by my mum it's only cost us a little over £100. That's what I call value for money.

Having worked in a bank I know what it's like to fear robbery and I also know that the consequences can have a devastating long term effect on the vistims. If this have a go hero had arrived to help me out I would have been furious. How did he know the guy didn't have a gun? And as for the woman! Whatever happened to humanity? She should have been arrested for assault.

It's My Birthday And I'll Blog If I Want To

Whilst looking for a photo to accompany today's blog, I realised that I have hardly any photos of me taken over the last twelve months. Which is a good thing really as, instead of being in the reasonably healthy (if slightly overweight) condition I was in when this was taken I seem to have aged considerably since then. Well, I have, I suppose, as I am now 56 rather than 55 and that's a time when you start thinking about your mortality. Perhaps I'll have to find God. Anyway, as you will have guessed from, my subtle headline, it's my birthday today.It's been a hectic year. On the negative side we've had a recession to cope with at work and I've ended up needing a hip replacment to add to the problems of high blood pressure. But on the positive Instanta has done very well during the crisis, daughter Sarah has done very well in her job and got a new house with partner Duncan (who is also celebrating his birthday today. Have a good one Duncan) and son Paul has done very well in his job and got himself engaged to the lovely Josephine and (just in case you haven't read this blog before) I've written my first novel. Maybe next year I can celebrate its publication and I'll be attending book signings instead of boiler sellings. To celebrate we are going to The Warehouse Brasserie tonight.



For my birthday I have treated myself to this wonderful sexy calendar.It may have been been done before but the story behind this calendar parallels the original Calendar Girls and is equally heart breaking. I hope that you will support this extremely worthwhile cause which has been supported by the excellent Workhouse Marketing who do all our super sales literature by clicking here.

The group of brave women are revealing all in a ‘calendar girls’ style calendar to raise money for cancer patients. The group from Ribchester in Lancashire, led by Janis Whitlock who lost her husband Brian to cancer last September just 3 months after their wedding, have posed for a tasteful calendar with a seasonal twist. The picture for each month relates to the theme that is associated with that time of year, for example Poppies in November. The group is selling the calendar to raise money for the Rosemere Cancer Foundation at Royal Preston Hospital, part of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The 2010 calendar costs £7.50 plus p&p and, as well as on eBay, can be bought on-line at www.ribchestercalendargirls.co.uk. Janis said, “ The idea came from a gentleman in the village called Billy Sharples who has also lost his wife and a son to cancer. The ladies of the village were keen to ‘bare all’ to raise funds , and with the help of Workhouse Marketing who photographed and designed the Calendar, and of CPL Design and Print who printed the calendar, both companies supplying their services free of charge, we have managed to produce a stylish calendar fit to grace any fridge” Dennis Benson, Chairman, Rosemere Cancer Foundation, said: “We are delighted that Janis and her friends have decided to raise funds in this way. The money raised will prove invaluable in contributing toward the care that cancer patients from across Lancashire and South Cumbria receive.” PLEASE BUY THE CALENDAR. 100% OF THE PROCEEDS GOES TO CHARITY.



Here's little Sam Clayton looking all grown up in his new school uniform. It only seems five minutes since his mum Liz was working in our office but Sam is four already. Just think, when Liz joined us, I wasn't even fifty! We are sure that Sam has a brilliant time ahead of him at school. He is such an imaginative little boy that I was thinking of asking for an autograph as I'm sure he'll end up on stage one day.



Marion is transforming into Kirsty Allsop. Son Paul and his fiancee Josephine need to find a new flat as their landlord has sold theirs so they are desperately trying to find somewhere quickly. Working over ten hours a day they have limited time so Marion is doing loads of background searching for them. The biggest problem with London flats is that every time you find the perfect one on the Internet you contact the agent and it has already been let.Mind you I bet Kirsty didn't wake up this morning and tell her husband that she had just dreamed that she had killed someone.........with a melon!

As it's my birthday I'm indulging myself with my all time favourite YouTube video (again.)Forgive me but if you can find a more exuberant happier clip on the Internet please do let me have a link.