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 Done Josephine

In the absence of a photograph of son Paul's fiance Josephine in her dodge ball outfit, here's a photo of her hat. Dressed as a penguin,Josephine took part in a charity dodge ball tournament in London on Saturday.Being American she was possibly one of the few people who actually understood the rules of this wacky game and, as a result, her team triumphed and managed to raise a magnificent £5,000 in support of breast cancer. Well done Josephine. Any photos of the games?



Here's Lee Moore from our office demonstrating his skills as a Christmas tree decorator. Thank you for brightening up our reception area Lee. It looks good. Just straighten it up a little.We will be closing on Christmas Eve at lunch time and will reopen on 4th January.



The local Toyota garage just phoned to say that the Prius is on schedule to arrive on 31st December and will be ready for me and Marion to collect on 4th January. It is another of our attempts at supporting the 10:10 initiative and I'm pretty sure that by the end of 2010 we will have actually reduced our emissions by more than the target 10%.



I have been dipping my toe back into the eBay water a bit lately and just took delivery of this superb art deco vase designed by leading designer Charlotte Rhead.Being wrongly categorised and described, I am pleased that I was able to pick it up fairly cheaply. I've now got a cupboard full of antiques to sell on eBay. Only problem will be finding the time to list them all.Maybe when things get quieter here.




Stop press. An email just arrived with a photo of the dodge ball team. There's Josephine 2nd right looking suitably aggressive. I better not upset her when she's married to Paul.




Have you Seen all the fuss about the Facebook group who got together to try and make Rage Against The Machine the Christmas number one to try and get one over on Simon Cowell? It seems that they are being successful. All I can say is that anybody who buys it simply to spite Simon is a mug and wasting their money on a tuneless dirge.I've just joined the Facebook group Joe McElderry for Christmas Number one. There are 86 members already. And how many in the Rage Against The Machine group? Er 41,000. Come on Joe.

X Factor. What's All The Fuss About?

Within minutes of the X Factor finishing last night my email in box was awash with emails imploring me to join the Facebook group "Get The Twins Off X Factor" and a couple more to boot. Why? Because Simon Cowell decided to let the decision go to the public vote. And what did the public vote? To kick Lucie off. So the Internet goes into meltdown because the public got what it voted for. Duh! OK so the twins can't sing and basically they're rubbish. And Lucie could sing but that's about it. Did she have the X Factor (whatever that is)? No. Marion told me while we were watching that Simon would let the public decide as , after all, it's his show (Syco Productions)and what's better publicity for his show, a bland singer or a controversial pair of non singers? And he has got what he wanted with the X Factor back as the top search phrase on the Internet today. Sadly I didn't listen to Marion and didn't have a bet this week. At one stage on Betfair the twins odds were 1.03 to 1 to go. That means that a bet of £3 against them (a lay) would have returned £100. I know who to listen to next week. Meanwhile a win for my favourite Joe will bring me £165 whilst a win for Marion's favourite Ollie will win £175. No doubt, knowing my luck, it will end up Danyl (£10) or Stacy (£5).



I've been working at home today writing the new brochure. With all those new products planned for February there's quite a lot to think about and I only managed to write a couple of pages. But I did enjoy the home environment and without the distractions of the office I think I got more done than I would have done at work.




Off to Anfield tonight for the match against Birmingham City. I'm hoping that tonight will be a turning point of the season for Liverpool as, after all the expectations of last season, this one has been something of a damp squib so far. Our new signing Aquilani is expected to make an appearance and I hope he's as good as he's supposed to be.

Instead of X Factor, next week we'll have to watch this. Max Vidal tells me it's great.

Philippe Starck My Neu Eero

Have you seen "Design For Life" BBC2's new reality show? It's a sort of "Apprentice" for budding young English designers but instead of Surallan overseeing the wanabees we've got the wonderful Philippe Starck or should I say Philippe Starkuh with the best comedy French accent since Inspector Clouseau.Starck is an inspired choice as he spicks in reedles that have ze contestants who are vying for a six month contract to work with Starck in Paris scratching zur eds in confusion.Instead of a pointing finger and "You're fired", Philippe's losers leave with a kiss on each cheek and a "piss and lurve" from Philippe.Unmeesarble.



Looks like we are hitting a bit of a dry patch for this week's choice of Orange Wednesday movie. Perhaps we'll give "Gamer" a try. It's got an interesting premise. Sometime in the future a new game has been invented whereby the players control real people.They are using death row cons (who else) as the cannon fodder and no doubt there will be a character who fights against the controls but as we haven't read any reviews yet we can go with an open mind.



And speaking of Orange, we've been having a few problems with our mobile phone signals dropping out lately. Nick phones this morning to say that he has got some new settings that will make things much better. I followed his instructions and reprogrammed the handset to see the full signal immediately disappear.Oh well, nice try Nick.



Nick went to meet an excellent chef yesterday with a view to him helping us with our presentation of our sous vide equipment at the Hotelympia show in February.He was suitably impressed with the equipment and we are hoping for an excellent response. We are also showing a sous vide digital water bath at the Restaurant show in London next week.



I know I keep banging on about my novel but if I don't nobody else will. I've almost completed yet another edit and have got just five chapters left to rewrite. I have employed a professional critic to give me an honest opinion as, in truth, mums, wives and friends are not going to be totally frank and, as the professional is paid 50% up front she can say what she really thinks.Mind you I suppose that if she wants the second 50% even she might be less harsh. She said my sample chapter was "interesting". Hmmm. Now that's a very ambiguous word.

Have you been as disappointed as I have been with this year's X Factor? It is just so formulaic. First half loads of rubbish and then the acts get better yawn yawn.There have been so many bad acts this time that they just aren't funny any more. Fortunately the audition rounds are now over. But we can't knock Simon Cowell too much. After all he brought us the wonderful Diversity.

He's Back

After a gap of what seems like five minutes, our Saturday night TV is once again dominated by Simon Cowell in his new show which,in the arena format, should be called "Britain's Got The X Factor".You've got to hand it to Simon; it really is a slick piece of entertainment but the freak show elements are starting to wear a bit thin. On the basis that (a la Susan Boyle), they have showcased the best acts in show one I think we may have already seen one of the final two. But I'm not expecting it to be Danyl Johnson (the best audition Simon has ever seen).No. Marion and I think that Joseph McElderry with his boyish good looks and pitch perfect voice has much more to offer than the dreadful Eoghan Quinn (Chucky)who made it to the last three last year. And Danyl had the benefit of a track complete with backing singers (another first). Looking at Youtube hits to date Danyl is out in front but at only 41,000 views so far he's not another Susan Boyle.



With son Paul(The Colour of Money, Are You An Egghead), heavily involved in the development of game shows we watched Phillip Schofield's new programme "The Cube" with great interest. Favourite critic Charlie Brooker gave it the thumbs up and I thought it was OK but would have preferred it in a teatime slot rather than in the middle of Saturday night when we like to watch a good film.



If you are on our Christmas present list, look away now. You can now buy the Colour of Money board game. Unfortunately Paul won't get any royalties but it will make the perfect stocking filler and we've just ordered ours from Amazon.(we got the last one but more are coming soon) You can buy it by following the link here.




I've spent a lot more time on my novel before uploading it on authonomy. I've done a new cover. Let me know which you prefer.


Off to Anfield again on Monday night. After months of failure on Betfair I won £90 on an accumulator on Thursday. I put all the winnings on another accumulator of seven teams. Six have won so far. If Liverpool win I get £900. If they lose or draw I lose £150 (£90 plus a hedge I took on another game). I think that the reds will win. But my head says lay Liverpool and guarantee a win of £440. Nice problem to think about though. I'll leave you with my betting tip for X Factor

Instanta's Month Of Special Offers Starts Today

I imagine that the competition will see this promotion as Instanta trying to shift slow moving lines. But how wrong can they be as our very first offer in this month long give away is on our best selling 1500lcd boiler. For today only (Monday 1st June 2009) the 1500lcd reverts to its 2008 price of £399, that's £20 off the current list price of £419. To qualify for this offer, orders must reach Instanta no later than 10 am on Tuesday 2nd June and MUST quote ref blog offer 10609.



It looks like we might be in for a long hot summer. On Friday we had our first outdoor production meeting of the year. A few years ago these meetings were a regular Friday feature but two bad summers have meant that they have been very irregular of late. Here is the production team planning what we are going to build during June. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts trying to raise "any other business" we couldn't stretch the agenda any longer and had to go back inside after fifteen minutes. I want everyone to raise at least five points next time the weather's like this




Not quite an Instanta production meeting but another opportunity to sit outdoors arose when we held our senior citizens lunch in the garden yesterday. We get together with a number of older friends several times a year and it was very nice to be able to dine al fresco for a change. We plan a few weeks in advance and, although the Sunday roast was delicious, it was not quite appropriate for the exceptional heat.

I've woken up feeling like I've just done ten rounds with Mike Tyson for the last few days.



And here's the reason. After developing a cavity the size of the Mersey Tunnel over the last few months I finally managed to get an appointment at the dentist on Thursday. The tooth was beyond salvation and a few minutes later it was out. This is my first extraction in over forty five years and, under local anesthetic, it was not something I would recommend. Looking at how white the tiny remaining bits of enamel on the tooth are shows how good that Phillips Sonicare toothbrush I was raving about is. There's one weird side effect as I nurse a gaping hole in my upper gum. When I drink, some of the drink comes out of my nose.Not the most pleasant party trick.



I am indebted to my favourite Guardian columnist Simon Hoggart for the following joke. Two nuns were driving along the road when a demon suddenly landed on the bonnet. "Show him your cross" said the mother superior to her novice. The young nun wound down the window, leaned out and shouted "Get off the bloody bonnet you bastard"



So "Britain's Got Talent" or BGT as it has now become known is all over for another year. Sadly young waiter Greg failed to get through to the final. Although he had some problems with his cape he didn't get the chance of another go unlike young Hollie who bawled the producers into submission. I foolishly layed my winning bet against Susan Boyle after the judges raved about her final performance and ended up losing £14 when Marion's favourites Diversity stole the show. They were good though weren't they?



Commiserations to all the Everton fans both here at Instanta and amongst my friends and family. I know that my nephew Chris was getting wildly excited about the FA Cup Final and I am really sorry that he came home from Wembley disappointed. Better luck next time. I'm sure it won't be another fourteen years before they win something again.

And speaking of not winning anything, it's elections on Thursday and let's hope that the BNP get nothing. Although you probably won't believe it the following video appears on the YBNP web site. It should be compulsory viewing for anyone who thinks that the BNP is a realistic choice.





And here is a video response.

Speling Waz Neva My Strongist Poynt

As the girls in the office exhaustedly finished stuffing 2,000 Dealer Newsletters into envelopes, Jenny coyly asked me who had proof read it. Always a bad sign don't you think? Well, of course it was me who proof read it. Mya cuppa. Or should that be mea culpa? Having then been shown the glaring spelling mistake I gave the instruction to let it go and not to check for any more. (My proof reading skills are notoriously bad). A perfectionist might open 2,000 envelopes and redo the job but we are very green here at Instanta and there's quite a few trees worth of paper here.At least it will give the competitors something to tut about, "Did you see that spelling in the Instanta Dealer News?" Well, if they must know, it was there for a purpose - just to check that everyone reads it properly. Because whenever we do anything in print you can be sure that someone, somewhere (you know who you are M) will be on the phone to point out what we did wrong. Spelling apart it is an excellent newsletter, read it and you will find out how to take advantage of some special offers in June.



Just as I am reading about madman Kim Jong Il's latest nuclear bomb test, another madman Nick Griffin appears on TV in a political broadcast. The BNP broadcast ended with the slogan "Punish The Pigs" which implied that by voting BNP you would be getting one over on those wicked MPs. I think "Cut Off Your Nose" would have been more appropriate Nick as a vote for your dark politics would certainly be spiting our faces. Back with Kim Jong Il, what worries me is that if you dig a very deep hole and drop a nuclear bomb down it that produces a reading like an earthquake on the Richter Scale, isn't there some risk of killing us all? Just imagine. The bomb goes off at a particular weak spot on the earth's crust and it's curtains. Goodnight Vienna.



I said yesterday that "Britain's Got Talent" was ideal betting material and, once again last night, the final two were dead certs although I did expect it to be the other way around thinking that Stavros Flatly (above) would get through on the judges' rather than the public vote. There is certainly something appealing about the flabby duo but I'm not sure that I'd call it talent. I admire Simon Cowell who usually has the knack of getting his comments exactly right and does not shy from the truth. But , for once, I felt that he over stepped the mark with his criticism of the teenage dance duo Ben & Vicky Milan-Vega which, though truthful, was needlessly cruel and reduced the dedicated 16 year old Vicky to tears on the biggest night of her life. OK so truth hurts but is it always necessary? The couple were never going to win but had spent most of their lives practicing and deserved better. I suspect Simon regretted his remarks almost immediately.



Truly back in the old routine tonight with Orange Wednesday and "Drag Me To Hell" which will be like deja vu for Marion having joined me on the Kop for Liverpool's last home game of the season. How did the Hyypia mosaic look? Being part of it we never get the chance to see the effect. We simply turn up and hold aloft the coloured square of paper that's been left on our seats. It would be the perfect opportunity for sabotage. If the message read "We're All Gay" or We Love Sir Alex" we'd be none the wiser. Which reminds me that there is a football match on tonight. Better go to the early showing of "Drag Me To Hell" so I can get home in time to watch....... "The Apprentice". Seriously I wish United' apprentices well in their attempts to catch up with the masters Liverpool's five wins.



I see that Red Bull has been pulled from the shelves in Germany after inspectors found traces of coke in it. Was it Diet , Zero , Cherry or Classic?. I think we should know. I can see this giving all the drug test failing athletes an escape. Bath Rugby star Mat Stevens should lodge an appeal immediately. It was the Red Bull. Honest!



Two lots of charts arrived on my desk this morning. The first from the CBI shows little to enthuse about with the only glimmer of green shoots in the expectations of manufacturers who expect the fall in output to be slower. That's hardly a green shoot, more a seed. The second set of figures were from CESA. These are an industrial trends survey of how the catering industry as a whole is faring and I have to say that our figures are bucking the trend which is showing a pretty hefty downturn for the last three quarters whilst ours remains marginally up. The result? We have increased our (admittedly tiny) share of the catering equipment market by over 60%.

I'll close today with Simon Cowell getting his just deserts.