Winter's Bone Has Real Oscar Potential

Our late night trip to the cinema did not disappoint and Winter's Bone proved well worth staying up late for.

Whether the sparse attendance at Vue was vindication of the multiplex chain's decision to give the film just one showing or the result of that showing being scheduled at 10.30pm, there's no denying that those who contributed about thirty quid in total to the cinema's coffers certainly got their money's worth.


A cast of unknowns is led by Jennifer Lawrence (surely an Oscar nominee) as teenage daughter Ree, abandoned by a neer do well father and left to look after two young siblings and her dementia suffering mother. The errant dad has used the family shack and adjoining land as surety for bail and when he goes missing the family is faced with eviction and homelessness. The film charts Ree's attempts to trace her waster father and save her home in the bleak cold of the Ozark mountain region. There's another fine performance from John Hawkes as her drug addicted uncle "Teardrop".Hawkes puts such malice into an off screen warning "I've told you once"...."with my mouth" that you know pretty well that you wouldn't be pushing the point any further.


The cast are, without exception, totally convincing and any viewer would be forgiven for thinking this was somehow for real. The Ozarks' hillbilly inhabitants live in such squalor that trailer park trash would consider themselves royalty and stay at home mums on the higher tax band might think twice about moaning about the potential loss of their child benefits. The film moves with pace and has an excellent country soundtrack (shades of Deliverance) and I can heartily recommend it to anyone who gets the (slim) chance to go and see it. Five stars for me.





Before Winter's Bone we went to see "Buried". This is a highly unusual film set entirely within the confines of a coffin. Paul, an American truck driver working in Iraq (Ryan Reynolds), is the only actor on screen with the rest of the cast appearing in voice only. Paul wakes from concussion to find that his assailants have buried him alive leaving him with just a cigarette lighter for light and a mobile phone through which to channel their ransom demands and instructions. It's not a film for the claustrophobic but it manages to hold your attention throughout the entire ninety or so minutes. I could see this drama working well as a stage play as the audience gets drawn into the shocking reality of the situation. Reynolds plays the character well although he has too much rage for my liking but as a study in cynical corporate personnel relations it will make anyone thinking of a spell working in one of the world's hotspots such as Iraq or Afghanistan think more than twice before signing on the dotted line. Whoever pitched this "It's one man in a coffin for ninety minutes" and managed to sell it, is a genius but his or her genius is rewarded with a very watchable and thought provoking drama.

After weeks when things seemed to be constantly going wrong I finally had a bit of luck yesterday when this fine porcelain bowl purchased on eBay for £9.99 plus p&p turned up. Trawling through eBay for wrongly identified pieces is a little like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack and for every gem there's a thousand or more items that are either correctly catalogued or over priced. It's a bit like traipsing around a muddy field at a car boot sale where week after week turns up zilch but once a year there's something good. Anyway, this super bowl looks brand new and consequently was not listed as the 250 year old antique that it is. I would feel uncomfortable if the seller were an amateur but as it came from a ceramics specialist I have no such qualms. Ten years ago this might have fetched a four figure sum but collectors of antique porcelain are a dying breed today and its value is now probably less than half of that. None the less a nice find for a change.


I'll finish today with a mention of the new series of son Paul's show "A League Of Their Own". Starring James Corden, Freddie Flintoff, John Bishop, Jamie Redknapp and Georgie Thompson plus guests it airs at 10pm tonight on Sky1. Sky have a great line up this evening with "The Simpsons", "Modern Family" and "An Idiot Abroad" leading into "League". The show has a later slot this time around as some of the humour is pretty adult. We went to two recordings and it's guaranteed to raise a smile. Here's a clip from the last series.

Off To Teddington

Marion and I are travelling down to Teddington studios later today to watch the recording of a couple of shows in the forthcoming series of A League Of Their Own. I pinched this photo from Jimmy Carr's Twitter feed. Hope he doesn't mind. We're looking forward to the recordings. Guests include Tim Henman and Chris Evans ( I think) so listen out for us shouting "Come on Tim" when the shows are aired in the autumn. It also gives us an opportunity to see our son Paul who has been heavily involved in the show from the outset. As he lives in London we don't get enough chances to see him and it's a pity that this will be a flying visit as we are back in the office again tomorrow.



And in the office we are still trying to survive without broadband. We have found a new supplier but they can't get us up and running without something called a MAC code from our old supplier who haven't come up with it yet. This one could run and run. Fortunately we have a temporary email server set up but it's expensive and it is not very fast. At least we aren't as cut off from the world as we were last week.



When we get back tomorrow I've got a lot of work to do on the accounts for August. I did the preliminary figures yesterday and they look good. I've just got to complete the VAT return and do some final double checks to finish them off. Then I've got to somehow train someone else here to do the figures when I have retired in a few months time. It's a lot to do but we'll manage- we'll have to.

With no Broadband I have to write this before I get to work. So time has run out now and I'm off. The blogs will have to be short until normal service resumes (unless I start getting up even earlier) by which time I will have probably lost my growing number of readers which will be a pity - mind you when I retire in about ten weeks time the blog will have to retire with me.

Magic Numbers Brings Magic To Pensioner

When Paul looks back on his career achievements he will always be able to do so in the knowledge that in his TV development work at least he made one pensioner's retirement a very happy one. Sixty nine year old Pamela Mullens was having a quiet night in watching TV when she realised that two of her phone's numbers were included in those generated by ITV's Magic Numbers show. She phoned and was lucky enough to be picked for the final challenge. Answering five questions correctly gave her the opportunity to win £350,000 but she also had the chance to win absolutely nothing. In a tense couple of minutes she picked five of the seven boxes that had money in them and none of the dreaded boxes containing an X and in doing so managed to win an enormous £290,000. We enjoyed the show again and are looking forward to a week on Saturday when we are going to be in the audience.



Here's Operations Director Dave Wilson fresh back from his holidays. On Saturday Dave celebrated his 46th birthday so congratulations from me and everyone else here at Instanta. Dave took his kids on an adventure packed break but his son Jack was a little too adventurous on a mountain bike and ended up spending a couple of days in hospital. Happy to say that after an operation to remove debris from a damaged knee Jack was up and about and he is now fully recovered. But I am sure it's a holiday that he and his dad won't forget quickly.



And here's our factory leader Tony Mercer in his new Citroen car. It's been ten years since we last changed Tony's car so it was about time that he had a new one. Mind you he does so little mileage that ten years of Tony's driving is about three of everyone else's. We gave him a budget and Tony chose the car and negotiated a deal with the local Citroen dealer. Seeing what a good deal he got I might have to ask him to start having a word with some of our suppliers.Hope you enjoy it Tony. In another ten years we'll have a look at a new one for you.



The football season hasn't even started yet but already footballers are all over the news for their typically rubbish behaviour. If it isn't Rooney weeing in the street or ex (and possibly shortly to be re-signed)Liverpool star Peter Crouch who, according to the News Of The World allegedly asked a prostitute to perform a sex act in a taxi and asked the taxi driver to negotiate the fee for him as he couldn't speak Spanish, it's the prima donnas who have been called up to the England squad for this week's friendly and have told Capello that they just can't be bothered. What a game eh! Oozing with class.

Last week I posted a video of a policeman dancing in the street. Here's a guy who thought it might be a good idea to do the same. Perhaps it's not that great an idea.

I've Ordered The Canary

After four days in solitary I have taken to answering the phone "Good Afternoon Alcatraz" so it only seems sensible to follow the famous bird man's lead and get a little feathered friend for company. The only positive so far is that I can hear the radio. The negative is that I can also hear the lads in the factory singing along to it. It's a bit like having the Seven Dwarfs out there. I'm expecting Snow White to turn up any minute. Hi Ho.



But nobody can accuse me of being lazy. Over the last twenty four hours I have labelled over two thousand envelopes for a mail shot and then put a newsletter in each and sealed them all. At least Phil was kind enough to frank them for me. There again the franking machine is in an area with people in it so Phil was probably just making sure I remained in Purdah. At least I've got the Internet which is a bit more interesting than a canary. I mean there's only so much that you can do with a canary and I imagine that after a week of its incessant cheerful chirruping, frying it would be the top option.



I hear that Clegg won the debate on the telly last night. I didn't watch it as I was busy watching Paul's show. I phoned him up to tell him how good it was and he told me that he was watching the political debate and watched his show on Sky Plus later. It's just not the same son. You don't get the same atmosphere when you watch a recorded version. I did like Jimmy Carr on last night's show. He really is a brilliant comedian. I watched Charlie Brooker's "You Have Been Watching" later.



He reviewed "Spartacus Blood And Sand" which is coming to your screens on Bravo soon. It appears that the title understates the content somewhat with the scenes that Charlie showed containing a lot more than just blood and sand and a lot more of Spartacus than you would normally expect to see on TV unless you subscribe to the adult channels. I think I will be giving this one a miss. Oh well it's almost four thirty now. That means just one thing a bit of freedom.We've got a bloke coming to sing for us here's a preview. Back in the cell Monday.

In A League Of Our Own

No, my headline today is not a homage to the mighty? Liverpool who once again put in a magnificent effort last night against a mediocre side and came away with a wonderful 1-0 defeat for the second time in a week My headline refers to son Paul's new show "A League Of Their Own" which aired for the first time last night on Sky1. Paul devised this show and has worked on it for months so, naturally, when it aired, Marion had to put on a bit of a do and here is our conservatory suitably decked out in red and blue for the teams and (if you look closely)with the table decorated with miniature sporting medals and trophies. Our closest friends came to join us and, even if it was not their cup of tea, they were all very polite about the show. Having been at the recording it is difficult for me to comment as I knew what was coming next (and they cut an awful lot out) but I thought that James Corden, Jamie Redknapp, John Bishop and Freddie Flintoff pulled it off very well and raised a good number of laughs.I am not going near the Digital Spy website as they pulled Paul's last show "The Colour Of Money"to bits and made us all feel sick for a week so I'm sticking with my own opinion. Well done son.



Sky's advertising with proud mum's hand penned addition.



There was not enough time to blog yesterday as our new boss Michael Crouch from Australia joined us for a factory visit. He is back again later today so I am writing this in the very early hours of the morning. I will be adding some photos later today after I have been to Preston to collect another of our new Australian colleagues Alan.

49 Today

Here's store keeper and all round nice guy Phil Joce. Today Phil is celebrating his 49th birthday and I would like to wish him the very best. His 40th birthday only feels like yesterday and it's a pity that I won't be around at Instanta when he celebrates his 50th next year as the 40th was a very good do. Phil hails from Ilfracombe in Devon but his accent has mellowed now and you would no longer take him for an extra from Larkrise to Candleford and would see him as a local (honest). Married to Pat, Phil is a big film fan although he prefers watching on the small screen rather than the big screen as he has a second job. Along with his duties at Instanta, Phil works another thirty five hours a week (at least) as devoted baby sitter to grandson Lewis. I mentioned on the blog on his birthday last year that Phil joined Instanta over 20 years ago and has been a model employee since then. His punctuality and sickness records over the last twenty one years are still such that there is just one entry from over 13 years ago. All our punctuality and sickness records are pretty good but Phil's is outstanding. Married for 26 years to Pat, Phil is the proud father to Calvin, Nichola and Kirsty. Have a great day Phil.



When we were away at the weekend I saw that in the pond at the hotel there was one of those duck houses beloved by the Tories.



And then I saw this one too and wondered if this was a Labour one.



The excitement is growing in our household as the launch of Paul's new show "A League Of Their Own" launches on Sky1 (and Sky1 HD) tomorrow night at 9pm. Marion is preparing a small themed dinner party for some friends and the house is awash with red and blue balloons and blown up copies of adverts for the show. The programme was originally scheduled for 8pm but, having gone to the recordings of a couple of shows, I wondered if the humour and language might be a bit strong for pre-watershed. I hope that the editing went well as we (and the rest of the audience) certainly had a tremendously entertaining time. You won't see Paul's name on the credits but he has been heavily involved in the development of this fun new panel game from the outset.

If you can't wait until tomorrow Sky have got a page devoted to the show and there are quite a few clips to watch. You can view them by clicking here

Another Instanta Birthday

Following close on the heels of welder Kirk Harrison yesterday,more birthday congratulations go out today to Assembly Worker Steve Eyres. Steve will be 32 on Sunday. He joined Instanta half a lifetime ago upon leaving school. In 2007 he had a spell as an entrepreneur and ran his own welding business briefly before returning to the Instanta fold in November 2008 when we were delighted to welcome him back. With my retirement on the horizon I will miss Steve.He is an expert on cars and always spots when tyres are not inflated properly and is a whizz at getting cars with flat batteries started.Cars apart, Steve tells me that he has recently taken up sea fishing. He enjoys this very much although he hasn't caught anything yet. Wishing you a very happy day Steve. Have a great one.



Marion and I are off down to Pinewood Studios tomorrow to watch the filming of a couple of episodes of A League Of Their Own. This is a new panel show with an emphasis on sport that has been developed by our son Paul for CPL Productions. He has managed to get us tickets for the recordings. The show is to air on Sky 1 in the near future and ten episodes are being filmed. Hosted by James Corden, there are two regular captains Jamie Redknapp and Andrew (Freddie) Flintoff together with regulars John Bishop and Georgie Thompson. A number of high profile guests have been lined up and by all accounts the shows recorded to date have been very funny. Hope tomorrows' shows are as good.I just spotted that Sky Creative have issued an ad for the show. You can watch it by clicking here




The clock is clicking down towards Hotelympia 2010. And for once we are all pretty well set and ready to go. Two years ago poor Dave Wilson was frantically attempting to get things finished on the night before the show started but this time he's done it with a week to spare. Well done Dave. We've just got to work out how to cover a tiny blemish in the stainless steel in one of the display models. I reckon a sticker will do the job.

Remember when you were a kid and you would draw stick men on the bottom corners of pages of notebooks and then flick them to make simple animation? Here's one that a student called Jamie Bell did for his AS art course. Makes my stick people look a bit lame.

Jenny Buckley Our Very Own Football Pundit

I've written about our interest in the Guardian's Pick The Score competition. This is the third season that we've been doing it here and it's always a source of fierce rivalry. We have to predict the outcome of the Premiership matches every week and I offer a small prize to the first second and third in the league at the end of the season. In 2008 I pipped Jenny Wright by one point on the last day of the season.In 2009 Store man Tony Lowe ran away with the title and this year Service Coordinator Max Vidal has taken a convincing 12 point lead just past the half way point in the season. But today I have to take my hat off to Office Manager Jenny who this week predicted the correct score in no less than six Premiership matches. That is an amazing achievement which has propelled her up our league and left her in seventh position for the week in the whole country. Well done Jenny. No extra prizes but can you give me a few tips for my bet on Betfair this week?



Just got an email from son Paul. While he is on his honeymoon his company CPL Productions are recording A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN a new programme that he has been heavily involved in.England’s Number One fan and Gavin & Stacey star James Corden will referee proceedings. The brand new format will involve former England footballer and Sky Sports presenter Jamie Redknapp and one other (to be named)as team captains and Paul has managed to get our names on the list to go to one of the recordings. I'm really looking forward to it. His "The Colour of Money" last year was not a huge hit but I reckon that this one has all the makings of a successful panel show.



I don't want to temp fate by saying this a day early but Max tells me that this month's warranty calls are likely to be less than 50% of the number that we recorded in January 2009. And considering that there are more boilers under guarantee today than there were last year I think that's a pretty good result. Well done to everyone in the factory for getting the job right. If we could eliminate a couple of niggles that continue to crop up every couple of months (components that we don't make and that we are sure are the best available) we could get the figure down even lower. Nick told me that he was going to buy me and Marion dinner on the day that we go a month with no warranty calls at all and I intend to hold him to that in the not too distant future.

As I write, poor Marion looks like she is at death's doorstep. She is absolutely full of a cold that she just can't shake off. I keep telling her to go home and try and get better but she won't listen and keeps on taking the tablets.She doesn't want to be ill on the big day in just two weeks.Jenny has been just the same as Marion all week too and she has managed to come in as well. A big thank you to them both.

Being what is known to salespeople as an "early adopter" I always like to get the latest technology. I want one of these now.

Instanta Twins Are Thirty

Well they will be tomorrow. Here are twins Darren Rodwell from our welding department and Gary from our sheet metalworking team. Darren has grown a beard to help us to tell them apart. The brothers remain close and will be celebrating with family on Sunday. Let's hope that their beloved Blackpool FC beat Watford on Saturday to make it a day to remember. Both twins are loyal Blackpool fans and season ticket holders who travel around the country together following the Tangerines.Being a proud dad to baby Ella, Gary has little time for any other hobbies but Darren spends his free time fishing, golfing and playing pool. He tells me that he is taking girlfriend Lauren on holiday to Amsterdam to celebrate his birthday. Darren has been with Instanta for 13 years which has certainly not been unlucky for us as he does a great job. Brother Gary is well into his second year on the Instanta books. We hope that they both have a memorable thirtieth.I'm starting to feel very old when people I took on at 17 turn 30.

I'm feeling a bit guilty today. Everyone else in our road except us had one of those big blue recycling bags for the newspapers. Ours disappeared one day never to be seen again and never to be replaced by our friendly recycling team.As I arrived home yesterday the bottle men had actually been (after the bottles and papers had been outside since just after Christmas). There, floating down the road like tumbleweed in the breeze, was an empty blue newspaper bag. Now I know that it wasn't my blue bag (because I didn't have one) so I suppose I should have made a neighbourly effort to return it to its rightful owner. And that's why I'm feeling guilty. Because I didn't. Now some other poor soul is without a blue bag - sorry neighbour.



I was sitting in the board room yesterday (as you do) and I realised that all the photos of our boilers on the wall were of models that we stopped making about four years ago. So I went to the printers this morning and got them to do me some prints of our latest ones. And very nice they look too (mind you the old models weren't bad at all).

Have you read the news about our Prius driving footballer? The question is, Is Gary Neville a "Boot Licking Moron". According to the Guardian Carlos Tevez certainly seems to think so after an astonishing attack on the Manchester United right-back. Neville is not the most popular among the ABU tendency, but does the Old Trafford stalwart deserve such abuse? Please follow this link to have your own say on ther matter. I don't usually vote on the Guardian daily polls but today HAS to be the exeception.



Shortly after I finish writing this I'll be off down to London to meet up with son Paul for his stag party. I'm not sure that his friends will relish having invited me along as I've vetoed getting dressed up like this and told them that strippers are completley out of order and off limits. They've settled for a comedy club in Brighton. Now lads, if you are reading this, I've heard that there are some very nice antique shops in Brighton.


Well stag parties are notoriously boozy events. So, as Paul is a huge Jets fan, I thought that he'd enjoy this interview with legendary Jets quarterback Joe Namath

A Chip Off The Old Block?

Like father like son they say don't they? But when I visited my son and his lovely fiancee Josephine on Tuesday and asked her to show me what Paul had bought her for Christmas I found that I had been outdone. All that I had bought for Marion was this pottery cat albeit a very nice vintage one made by the famous Wemyss pottery and decorated by the leading artist Joseph Nekola but, Josephine, after showing me the wonderful inlaid rosewood regency box that Paul had given her, went on to tell me about this dress.



Not only is it a beautiful vintage dress but it also happens to be one of those beautiful vintage dresses that once belonged to Audrey Hepburn that were auctioned to great publicity in London last month. And the dress is just the right size for Josephine (a huge Hepburn fan).My excuse? Marion is too tall, honest.



We were in London to, amongst other things, talk about how their wedding plans are going. It's only five or six weeks now. I'm sure that Paul won't outshine us on that front. We had a wonderful wedding at Rainham Town Hall and a fabulous reception in the local scout hut. The sausages on sticks were to die for. Beat that sunshine.



Meanwhile at Instanta, office assistant Lee Moore has been busily organising this year's Instanta golf tournament.It is usually played on a Monday when the shift pattern allows the lads in the factory to play but this year we've got three golfers in the office and we can't afford for all of them to be off on the same day so Lee has arranged a great event for a weekend. He's put a tremendous effort into doing it and I think that they are going to have a memorable time.



At the moment I am wishing that we were back in the days when we were using phones like this. Since we came back from the holidays we have been inundated with callers telling us that they can't get through by phone or fax on our main numbers which are operated by a hi tech VOIP switchboard. Our service providers are treating it as urgent but we don't like being told that our number is "not recognised". If you do have this problem please try our direct numbers on the website.

It's my mum's 84th birthday today. We are going to go to the pictures to see the New Meryl Streep movie "It's Complicated". The reviews are glowing so I'm sure that mum will love it. I know that those customers who remember her from her days at Instanta will join us in wishing her a very happy day.