We told you Joe

Not wishing to gloat too much but here is the opening to my blog of 23rd August the Monday after Joseph McElderry appeared on the first show of this season's X Factor "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." And yes I did put my money where my mouth is and won £415 which has left me in profit for my year's gambling for once (just).



A few days ago I gave you a sneak preview of our fabulous new CT8000 boiler that we will be launching at Hotelympia in late February. Having taken the boiler to the photographers myself, I didn't look too closely at the photo as I assumed it to be a photo of what I took to him. But some eagle eyed readers said that the photo didn't look quite right. And if you look at the photos above you will see what was missing. It seems that our photographer uses layers to get the perfect image. This would never have happened in the days of negatives. It's a good job it was spotted before the photo got into the new brochure.

And speaking of photos, I'll finish today with a selection of snaps from the Instanta Xmas party held at the Floral Hall Southport on Friday. A good time was had by all. All captions left to right.
Lee Moore and Craig Mercer making shapes on the dance floor.

Our sales team Nick Neal and Peter Brindle get down and boogie.

Monsieur Brindle Operations Director Dave Wilson , Sales Director Nick Neal and morning cleaner Dave Boutle

Assembly workers Joey Jones and Rafa Kolasinski

Store keeper Tony Lowe and Service Co-ordinator Max Vidal

Store keeper Phil Joce and his wife Pat

Me and Marion
Marion and afternoon cleaner Margaret

Peter and his wife Linda

Assembly worker Andy Fyles and his cousin office assistant Lee Moore

Machine shop supervisor Mike Chubbs and welder Kirk Harrison

Factory leader Tony Mercer wih head of wiring Martin Rimmer, Andy and Lee

Machine operator Craig Mercer, with Joey Jones and assembly worker Maiusz Kiepas

Head of welding Craig Peach with sheet metalworker Gary Rodwell and Gary's partner Faye (centre)

Office manager Jenny Buckley and guest Natalie Drummond

Sales Despatch Craig Buckley and Jenny

Tony Lowe and ex employee Liz Bradshaw

Assistant Factory Leader Jason Poland and his wife Jude

Assembly worker Sean Johnson

It's Party Night

Yes, tonight's our Xmas works' party night and this year we are going to the Floral Hall in Southport for a big Abba tribute party. It should be a great night (it cost enough)and there are thirty two employees and friends who are sure to make it an unforgettable evening for the Floral Hall staff. Unfortunately me and Marion are off to London at 7a.m tomorrow so we won't be staying to the end tonight. I think we can be forgiven as we are off to see our son Paul having not seen him since last Christmas.



Last night we had a very pleasant evening at the Warehouse Brasserie in Southport. Our next door neighbour Vincent took us out together with his sister and her husband and another friend. Vincent's companions are a little older than us but we found that we had plenty to talk about. One of the party, Margaret is an MBE and it was fascinating to hear her story of her investiture at the Buckingham Palace.She won her award for her work on the Home Watch scheme and was astonished to find that the security at Buckingham Palace didn't come up to her expectations.



The Internet is a wonderful thing isn't it? A blog reader from India asked me if I could help him to get a ticket for a match at Anfield as he had won a trip to the UK and was a big Liverpool fan. So there I was on Wednesday night meeting a complete stranger who had come all the way from India. And did he turn up? Of course he did and a very nice lad he was too. That's what you call a real fan. I hope you enjoyed it Ram even though we didn't get the result. Email me a photo when you get back to India.



And on Sunday I'm taking another complete stranger to Anfield to watch Liverpool play Arsenal. I got chatting to fellow Reds fan Greg on the Harper Collins authonomy website. We're both budding authors and have uploaded our books onto the site (his is doing a lot better than mine). I mentioned that I had a spare ticket for the Arsenal game and he jumped at the chance to see the match as he moved away from Liverpool some time ago and hasn't been to a live match for some time.His book's about a psychopathic serial killer. Hmmmmm. Actually he seems like a nice bloke.

As the time counts down to the part, here's a song to put everyone in the party mood. This link was recommended to me by our good friend Amanda from City Servicing. I can see why Amanda, being an Eastender, liked this, Bob Dylan does Knees up Mother Brown.

The Times They Are A Changin'

I said on here the other day that we were treading water a little but things have moved on since then. Firstly we've got the most important job done and we have booked a party night at the Floral Hall on the promenade. We've got in for Friday 11 December and by all accounts it should be a good night with an Abba tribute band, a disco and entertainment from 8pm until 1am.There's a three course Christmas dinner thrown in as well.



Then there's the problem of the empty office. It started to feel like the Marie Celeste in here a few times lately while we were waiting for Craig to decide on his future on the road as a salesman. He's made his decision and on Monday he will be back here with us on his sales desk duties. We'll all be pleased to welcome him back. Not everyone loves being out selling but at least Craig has had the chance to give it a try. It's not all been bad for him.There have been some good times too.Now we've got to decide what to do with the sales team.



The Instanta Pool Tournament is progressing well. I just watched the match between Northern Sales Manager Peter Brindle (taking shot above) and store man Phil Joce. It was level pegging until I turned up and put Peter off by taking this photo. After that Phil potted every ball and is through to the semi final. (Sorry Pete).



On the business side the 1500lcd is selling like hot cakes and we are struggling to keep up with demand. I know that they are great but why not be green and think about the CT2000 with the ECO mode that allows you to set the water level lower during quiet periods? Just a thought.



I just took delivery of a lawn aerator and scarifier and will be having a go at using it this weekend. For the last few years we've used Green Thumb to come and do this for us but they hiked the price up this year by so much that it made more sense to buy our own machine. A classic case of price sensitivity in market economics.If they had held last year's prices they would still have the business.

We're playing Manchester united on Sunday. I somehow don't think it will be as easy as this game. The Brazilian side Viana needed to score nine goals in the last nine minutes in order to gain promotion on goal difference. Impossible.....of course!