So That's It Then

We are just a couple of hours away from retirement as I write this but I've still been doing a few figures for head office in Australia and when I finish the blog I'll be helping with a few simple book keeping jobs here in the office.

I'm dedicating my final Instanta blog to my mum and dad. Here they are with our daughter Sarah about 28 years ago which makes them around the same age that Marion and I are today. It's so very sad to think that my dad didn't get to see the end of the family involvement in what he developed although I am pleased to say that Mum is still very much around and not looking that much older than she does here.


The success of Instanta was built upon the "WB" series of boilers which everybody took to be short for "water boilers" but was, of course, William Brassey - a happy coincidence. He and my mum Ann spent most of the seventies and eighties travelling all over the country building the Instanta brand on a shoestring budget and creating the caring ethos towards both customers and staff alike that I hope that we have continued during our stint and I am sure will continue well into the future with our new owners. My parents always bent over backwards to offer the best that they could and took pride in building up a reputation for honesty,quality products, fair prices and excellent service.


So my final heartfelt thanks goes to them. Without their efforts, none of what Marion and I achieved could have happened.


So that's it from me in the guise of the Instanta blog. But I don't think that I can give up this manic addiction to writing and my future posts can be found here. There are no posts yet but I hope to have it up and running in a couple of days.


I'll end with a bit of self indulgence. I've always loved YouTube and it has given me hours of entertainment. Here is my all time favourite video. Nothing beats this for sheer joy and exuberance. Goodbye for now.

In A League Of Her Own

It's a very special birthday today as my wife and best friend Marion (here with her best friend Jane) celebrates her 55th. Working in the same office we spend many hours together and I can honestly say that I enjoy every one of them. We met when I was 16 and will have been married for thirty four years in July. To celebrate we are going to Blackburn tonight to watch Lee Mack (below). Local lad Lee has been getting rave reviews for his show and his "Going Out" tour is sold out but I managed to get some tickets on eBay. After the show we are off in the direction of Scotland as we are going to see Sarah tomorrow .We will be staying at the Premier Inn (or something like that) in Penrith (a real birthday treat for Marion as we will probably arrive at about 12.30am). I'll do my best to see that she has a great day.





I was listening to Duncan Bannatyne on Desert Island Discs on the way into the office this morning. When choosing his first song Duncan said that being a Scot living abroad in England he liked to hear a Scottish voice so Rod Stewart and Maggie May was at the top of his iPod. Er would that be the Rod Stewart born and raised in London England Duncan?




I missed Paul's "A League Of Their Own" last night as I was at Anfield watching Liverpool (who definitely aren't). But thanks to the miracle of Sky plus I managed to watch it this morning while I was doing a pile of ironing. Another good show - very funny, great choice of guests although edited just a bit too short. Even some of the highlights that were in the adverts (which were very funny) didn't make it into the show.

Nick was telling me about his plans to hold a sales meeting every Monday morning at (wait for it) 8a.m. 8 a.m! That's the time to set the alarm clock for isn't it? Better give him a key to the office. Enjoy - Nick.



Here's the latest craze sweeping the internet. All you need is a web cam and anyone can join in. You go onto www.chatroulette.com and you will see a completely random stranger who is also sitting at their web cam and you can chat to them. At least that's the theory. It seems that a pretty high percentage of people have a tendency to exhibit themselves inappropriately but hey, whatever, this little video shows you some of the possibilities of the site. It's going to be as big as anything else on the web. Why didn't I think of it?