Where Would We Have Been Without KLH Electronics PLC?

It was over sixteen years ago that we were introduced to a young John Walkinshaw and his company KLH Electronics by a fellow metal detecting enthusiast and I have to say that this find outweighed any treasure that we have ever dug up as John's brilliance in electronic design transformed Instanta's products from being advanced for the industry to being more than advanced for any industry. With John's help we developed features never before found on water boilers and had the rest of the catering trade scrambling to catch up. Not one to rest on his laurels, John has always been ahead of the game and when the competition caught up and brought out service warning codes and ECO modes we were ready to move ahead again and launch another more advanced generation of boilers incorporating liquid crystal displays, timers and built in filter monitors. The printed circuits designed and developed by John have not only been advanced but also extremely reliable. KLH have invested huge sums in automated production and these robotic production lines ensure that every board is identical and have made Instanta the market leader in advanced water boilers.  

Every electronics company needs a brilliant designer like John but we must also thank his fellow director Carol Morris for the efficiency with which she has run the operation ensuring that supplies are delivered on time and dealing with any queries quickly and in a very friendly and efficient manner. We will miss John, Carol and her husband Tom and everyone else at KLH and must thank them for the major contribution that they have made to Instanta's success.

Before we used John's design skills, all our boilers incorporated bulky electro-mechanical thermostats like these. They are good and reliable stats but the bulbs are in contact with the water and can suffer from limescale deposits in hard water areas and they have fairly long differentials when switching.

These tiny thermistors introduced to us by KLH transformed  temperature sensing by being extremely accurate and operating on a small differential ensuring constant temperatures and, being fitted externally, less sensitivity to limescale and much easier service.

It looks like Cher Lloyd, my X Factor tip for this year, may struggle to win. She came in the bottom two on Sunday night despite being much better than Wagner and Mary so she may not be as popular as I thought. Mind you, no X Factor winner to date has ever been in the bottom two so there has to be a first time and, in the same week in 2008, KLS were in the bottom two and finished as runners up. Much depends on how big the Wagner bandwagon has become. The anti Cowell brigade managed to knock Simon Cowell's act Joe off the number one spot last Christmas and they could do the same sort of thing again now by voting Wagner to win. But the laugh will be on Simon's face as he's the one who stands to gain the most from all those telephone votes and there's bound to be some sort of get out clause in that prize recording contract. I'm keeping faith in Cher for now and will be interested to see how she performs on Saturday night (if our friends who are coming round for a meal are fans of the show).

Here's another example of the hilarious jokers those great British telephone voters are. They've crucified poor Paige for the benefit of Wagner, kept a leaden lump in Strictly Come Dancing and now they're putting the knife into Gillian McKeith. OK so she's not the world's most popular woman but, after a week of being chosen for those gruesome insect torturing trials, isn't it time to give her a break?

Well I Would Drive Five Hundred Miles

Unlike the Proclaimers I couldn't walk five hundred miles (bad hip you know) but we did drive five hundred miles on Saturday to go for lunch at the Seafood Restaurant in St Andrews. "Is the food that good?" I hear you ask. Well it is very good indeed and well worth a visit although a five hundred mile round trip is not recommended. No, we went to see our wonderful daughter Sarah who was involved in an horrific car crash the Friday before.We wanted to see that she was OK. I am pleased to say that she looked great although she was still suffering from the shock. She won't let me put the photo of her car on the blog but the photo below of another car will give you a good idea of what happened to her. She is extremely brave and I am pleased to say that she went back to school this morning so lets hope that the kids gave her a good day.



Nasty eh. Whilst we were on our flying visit to St Andrews we managed to get a look at Sarah and Duncan's house which is unrecognisable from when they bought it last summer. They have done a fantastic job of doing the place up and it's going to be amazing when it is finished. I know that they are both a bit fed up of living in what is virtually a building site but there are three finished rooms so the house is livable in and it won't be long before there's a fourth and fifth room finished. Sarah and Paul both gave their mum a lovely birthday present so Marion had a very happy birthday (apart from the Abba tribute of course). Can you hear the drums Fernando? Sadly yes my ears are still ringing.



Here's John Walkinshaw from our electronics suppliers KLH Electronics plc looking very thoughtful. John has been working on our new all singing all dancing circuits for our new range of boilers and they are fantastic but there are a couple of tiny, minuscule glitches which have cropped up and, being a perfectionist, John is determined to put them right. We're almost there now although his assistant Michelle has christened the circuit the bungee as it keeps bouncing back to her. Pretty sure that we have ironed the lot out now and we're all set. You won't find a more comprehensive boiler circuit anywhere.



I see that BBC2 are running a quiz style programme for antique collectors. It's called Antiques Master and is aimed at finding the top amateur antiques expert in the country. I don't by any means think that I am the top amateur antique expert in the country but I may be one of the top amateur antique experts in the country who are willing to make a fools of themselves on the telly so the application is in the post.Speaking of quizzes, we are off to the local accountants Champion's quiz night tonight at a local bar. These are usually fun events. Our biggest problem is coming up with a witty name for our team. It's traditional for pub quiz teams to have quirky names like The Know It Ales or Never Been Quizzed. We are looking for something original. Any ideas before 5pm welcome.

Here are some blokes in India who must fancy ending up like poor Sarah.

I Can See Clearly Now

The glasses arrived from Workhouse Marketing this morning as promised and, after four days of struggling, I can see again. Forgive the lousy pun but it really has been an eye opener to discover how reliant I have become on my specs and the relief to have them back is palpable. I even have a new case for them courtesy of Mark and, if they had been in one in the first place I probably would have spotted when I dropped them.

Congratulations to Craig Buckley who turns 26 today. It is eight and a half years since Craig started in our office and he has worked his way from office junior through a spell in stores to our sales department. On 1st September he will be going out on the road visiting customers for a three month trial period and we are sure that you will make him very welcome. Apart from the potential career move at Instanta, Craig's 27th year looks to be the biggest of his life with a planned wedding to our Office Manager Jenny very soon and their first child on the way in early 2010. This will be the first wedding between Instanta staff for over fifty years and we are all very excited about it. Congratulations Craig. Have a great day. We'll let you off messing up the five a side.



I was talking to John Walkinshaw from our electronics supplier KLH Electronics PLC last week about our horrendous home electricity bill. One of John's subsidiary companies LED lighting solutions has developed this fantastic replacement for normal spot lights.The product is the first true replacement for MR16 lamps, it uses LED technology to provide the same brightness as a normal lamp and yet uses only 7 watts of power compared to 50 watts for a normal lamp. Its lifespan is 100,000 hours ( it will have dropped to 80% brightness ), around 30 years at 8 hours per day and will continue to work for many more years. It contains no harmful products unlike fluorescent lamps and emits a warm natural light for domestic use. We plugged a sample in at home and the OWL electricity monitor didn't register the cost. This is a fantastic step forward and we will certainly be replacing all our home spots with these. The energy savings will be enormous and the green implications are incredible.



I've got an appointment at the hospital this afternoon for the results of my hip x-ray. I'm hoping that it shows a groin strain and not the hip problem that the physiotherapist conjectured. The "groin strain" has been with me for almost four months now.It's not quite as painful as it was but it's taking a hell of a long time to go away. I'm not limping as badly as I was so, fingers crossed it's a muscle and not a joint problem.

I'll close with a song that not only fits today's headline but also comes from a great and very funny film.