It's Make Or Break For Rafa Tonight

No Orange Wednesday for me this week as we went to the pictures on Blue Monday because Liverpool are entertaining Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield this evening. Normally this would be a fixture to look forward to but the long haul up the hill and up the steps to the seat is becoming less and less inviting as the season progresses. There was a time when there would be a bound in the steps on the way to the games but it is now more of a trudge. Although he has huge support I have to blame Rafa. If you are in charge of any business whether it is making boilers or running a football team the buck has to stop with the boss. And if you can induce a feeling of indifference in a supporter who has been going for forty five years you've got to be doing something wrong.Let's see how things turn out tonight.



Perhaps the Reds will take a leaf out of the New York Jets' book. After a completely indifferent season in the NFL, the Jets (my son's favourite team)scraped into the play offs with a run of results from other teams that went in their favour. And now they are just one game away from reaching the Super Bowl the USA's biggest sports event of the year , an event that they haven't won since 1968. It will be a fantastic achievement if they make it to the Super Bowl. So perhaps all is not lost for Liverpool. Spirit of Istanbul and all that.



The new brochure is looking good. I'm getting quite close to the deadline so I need to get it to the printers soon. There's bound to be some errors in it. I am hopeless at spotting typos (as you will know if you are a regular reader of this blog) but fortunately Jenny and Marion between them seem to have the knack of picking up most of my mistakes.



I just got the figures from CESA for the last quarter. We send our sales figures to the trade association every quarter and they collate all the members' info anonymously and get the overall picture back to us. I was very pleased to see that for 2009 we beat the average change by 15%. Well done everyone at Instanta.

I'll finish with a Death Metal Rooster. Why? Why not?

Gratulacje i wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji urodzin Rafa

Last year I offered birthday congratulations to assembly worker Rafa Kolasinksi a day early so this year I am sending him all our best wishes a day late to even things out and not at all because Craig forgot to note Raf's birthday in the diary. In his eighteen months at Instanta, Rafa, who originates from Kielce in Poland, has impressed me with both his perfect English and his calm and easy going nature.It has been a big year for him with the birth of his first son Filip and he and his wife Betty are heading back to Poland for a traditional Polish Christmas christening (don't forget the photos Rafa). I hope that he had a great day.



And speaking of Rafas, here's our very own Rafa Benitez doing his impression of us Liverpool fans. I still have two season tickets on the kop. Match days used to be a pleasurable experience but, since my bad hip developed, the trudge up the hill to the ground and the hundreds of steps to the seat have started to become an ordeal. Coupled with the constant standing up and sitting down and the dire performances on the pitch I'm starting to wonder why I bother and spend most of the games in the pose above. Tonight it's Wigan, it's pouring with rain. Oh frabjous day. I'll have to start supporting Aston Villa. I just put £10 on them to win the Premiership at 100-1. Now, looking at their recent form, I think that's not a bad punt to take.



We've just had a visit from Andrew and Jen from the wonderful Workhouse Marketing of Ribchester. Photographer Andrew had the challenging task of taking a photo of the Instanta staff for our new brochure that is being designed by Jen. I'm sure that we'll be happy with the results. It's just a pity that it teemed with rain and we were unable to get a shot of the outside of the factory.



I'm starting to wonder if the 1500lcd boilers are jet propelled. They are flying out of the factory as fast as we can make them. Have we got the prices wrong? Well, if you compare them with anything on the market with a similar price we are certainly under priced. Maybe we'll have to put them up. Watch this space.Blimey, just had to duck as another one went over.

Someone sent me a link to this video. As I'm no longer a Mercedes driver I can laugh now.

Rafa Rafa Sign Him Up

We Liverpool fans have been a bit short of goals recently with Fernando Torres being sidelined with a hernia. But here's an ideal replacement, Rocky Baptiste. Marvel at his skills.

Meanwhile, out in the factory, Operations Director Dave Wilson is working around the clock getting the new models ready for photography tomorrow.He's on time at the moment and we should be able to slot the photos into the new brochure next week and be well on time for publication in February.


We worked late on some accounts last night (don't die of shock we have been known to work after 5pm from time to time). As it was late, Marion and I decided to buy some fish and chips from the chippy near the factory on the way home. The lady in the shop was really nice. I ordered two fish and a portion of chips. As she piled the chips onto the paper, I was looking around the shop to see if another customer had come in and ordered chips for the whole street but no, I was alone, and the mound grew bigger and bigger. The chips were delicious but half of them ended up in the bin. The single portion could easily have fed five. As I left the shop a number of her regulars waddled in to a jovial welcome and I made an instant decision to leave fish and chips off the menu for quite some time.



Here's our buyer Gavin looking very happy. And he has good reason for this time tomorrow he will be somewhere over the Atlantic on his way to Barbados where he and his partner Julie are joining a two week Caribbean island cruise. Have a great time Gav (Is it possible to write through gritted teeth?).

Happy Birthday Andy

Our machine tester Andy Fyles turns 28 today. He's having a day off but you can't escape getting your photo on the blog that easily at Instanta Andy. You know everyone is interrelated. So here he is enjoying a walk around the local fields courtesy of his cousin Lee. Andy tests all the machines before they leave here so, if you've got one, you'll find his signature on it somewhere. He's good at the job and manages to flag up any problems before the boilers leave the factory and get out into the world. Proud father to Bethany and partner to Claire, Andy lives next door to the factory which means that he can almost roll out of bed and straight into work.Have a great day Andy.



And talking of interrelations, here is Andy's cousin, Lee Moore. Lee works in the office but don't worry, we haven't given him a Skype web cam yet so he won't be scaring the customers. Actually he doesn't look like this all the time. He was just having a bad hair day.



I suppose that's got me thinking about families and Instanta being a family business. There are so many connections here. Of course there's me and Marion but then there's Jenny who is married to Craig. I've told you about Lee being Andy's cousin but we've also got twin brothers Gaz and Daz Rodwell and then father and son Tony and Craig Mercer and cousins Joey Jones and Colin May and mother and son Margaret and Gavin.You know that old saying "You don't have to be mad to work here. But it helps" we should rehash it to "You don't have to be related to work here. But it helps!"



We Liverpool fans are not fickle. We know that Rafa's boys won't let us down and I'm sure that last night we let in that late goal just to make the last couple of group matches in the Champions League a bit more interesting. We only need Lyon to draw or win in Florence. No problem! Why not have a flutter on Liverpool to win at 55-1?Perhaps Rafa should sign these lads up.