A Strange Case Of Deja Vu At Vue

Although deja vu is a topic that runs through all the Final Destination films, my headline today refers to last night's 3D effects at the local Vue cinema. Marion and I have been to three 3D offerings in the last few months, "Coraline 3D", "Ice Age 3D" and now "The Final Destination 3D" and there is no question that the effects are quite spectacular but all three films rely heavily on two effects - floaty things (e.g leaves, burning paper) and long pointy things that zoom out of the screen towards you. I enjoyed last night's film immensely for these effects (it would have been mediocre without them) but, unless the film makers manage to move away from long pointy things and give us a bit of variety, I can see a short life for this exciting new media. (It may have potential for a niche in the porn industry).



It's celebration time next week at Instanta with two big events affecting three of our people. Factory leader Tony Mercer is 50 on Monday but just because he is on holiday next week doesn't mean he won't get coverage on the blog. And on Tuesday it's THE WEDDING. Office manager Jenny Wright is marrying Salesman Craig Buckley.To my knowledge this is the very first Instanta marriage in 52 years and we have let them both have the day off! Look out for the photos on Wednesday.





Our sales team is off the road today as Nick, Peter and Craig are in Liverpool undertaking a training day with Andy Bounds Ltd. I'm really looking forward to their feedback from the day and hope that it gives them some good ideas.





This year's Big Brother has passed almost unnoticed here at Instanta. Last year it was a real water cooler topic and, with Craig, Max and Jenny's advice I managed to win a couple of hundred pounds without watching it. This year nobody has watched it and I stand to win a meagre £22.50 on Betfair if the favourite wins and about £18 if it's anybody else.


We haven't had a competition on the blog recently. But if you like them here's an interesting one with $300,000 in prizes.

Brüno? No No

I said yesterday that we would either love or hate "Brüno" when we made our regular Orange Wednesday visit to the movies last night. In honesty we were closer to hate than love but it was it not quite all out hate as there were one or two genuinely funny moments. I particularly liked the confusion between Hummus and Hamas as Brüno attempted to solve the Middle East crisis but as for the rest I felt that Sacha Baron Cohen was lucky to get out of some of his confrontations alive and picked on targets that were too easy this time.




Big changes are afoot here at Instanta as Craig prepares for his sales training. We have arranged for Andy Bounds the motivational trainer who impressed so much at the recent CESA conference to organise some training for Craig and this is scheduled for early September after which we are letting him loose on the customers for three months. Fortunately for Craig, he has the fall back of returning to the office (from which many readers will know him well)if his three months on the road don't work out. In the month between now and Craig's adventure we need to train someone to carry out his duties as his stand-in Lauren, our super credit controller, has decided to seek pastures new after four years of successfully chasing our customers for money and will be leaving us next week (more about Lauren tomorrow).



With just a day and a half left of the month, our sales are good and we should at least match last July. We've then got one month to go to the end of our financial year and we hope that we will have turned in a decent profit. I've been standing in for Max this week and taking service calls. I am pleased that there have only been a few calls so that area of the business is on target too. I really hate warranty calls as I don't want any of our equipment to fail but I am pleased to report that any faults that have arisen over the last twelve months have been fully investigated and steps have been taken to avoid recurrence.



One thing that comes with the end of the financial year is our annual pay round. Last October we gave a 4% rise which was pretty fair in recession and level with the RPI. This year ,if we use the RPI again, we should be looking at a pay reduction of 1.6%. Sorry lads. Fairs fair.

What about potty mouthed David Cameron on his Absolute Radio interview? He said "Policticans do have to think about what we say" and then seconds later went on to say something that must have had the blue rinse Torygraph and Daily Mail readers spluttering into their breakfasts.

Almost There

After a few months our gas tower is down to the last two levels now. One of the demolition workers popped into the factory on Tuesday and asked if he could reverse his lorry into our car park. "No problem" we said before an enormous low loader carrying a massive crane backed in and promptly churned two tracks into the warm tarmac. Fortunately the workers were very good and have made quite a good job of patching the mess up.



Today's special June offer which will run until Monday at 10.am is an extra 10% off all the twin tapped CT range boilers. That's the CT4000-3.CT4000-6,CT6000-6 and CT6000-9. A saving of up to £96.90. To qualify for this special price, orders must reach Instanta by the deadline and MUST quote reference blog offer 250609.

We're well into the holiday season now and when I go round with the pay packets it feels like there are more people away than are here. I know that isn't quite true but I'm hearing all about Nick's forthcoming trip to St Lucia and Lauren and Daz's holiday in Turkey whilst me and Marion are planning three nights in Dundee.(Tis madness but there be method in it).



I had a vist from Damian Thompson from Andy Bounds Ltd yesterday. We saw Andy give one of his motivational speeches at the recent CEDA conference and were impressed. Damian is going to give us a quote for training our sales team as young Craig Buckley is going to join Nick and Peter on the road in September so,coming at the job as a completely raw recruit, some professional training might go down well. I imagine the session might go a little bit like this.