I Survived The Stag Party

This weekend was dedicated to son Paul's stag party. The wedding is under three weeks away now and, although Paul is not particularly traditionalist, his friends wanted to follow the tradition and they organised a fun packed day. They started off with a football match at Powerleague a brilliant indoor venue beneath the railway arches in Hackney. It would be great if Instanta could find somewhere like this as it had excellent changing facilities and great astroturf pitches that were nicely fitted out. The game was a close one with Paul's Southport friends beating him and his London friends 18-16.



After a quick breakfast in a Wetherspoons pub the boys got a stretch limo down to Brighton (I drove down alone so missed the excitement of this experience). Then it was on to Komedia a comedy club. This was another great venue with two very funny comedians and a couple of so-so ones. By the end of the show the evening became a bit fuzzy but there was an hour in a pub before going into a night club for my first time in almost forty years. I was out of my comfort zone in there so was back in bed before midnight. But I heard that the young ones enjoyed themselves. I have to thank the organisers Jamie and Alex for doing such a good job. Things ran very smoothly and they put up with dragging a hobbling old codger around with them. Thanks lads.

Here are a few photos.











The factory is quiet this week as we close it for a week twice a year to accommodate holidays. So factory leader Tony Mercer had a few spare minutes this morning to bring in his lovely granddaughter, Craig's little girl Amelia. She was a bit shy to start with but she started to open up a little when Granddad told her that he was going to take her to MacDonald's and the park.






When you run a business you never switch off from work. Stuck in a traffic jam on the outskirts of London on Saturday en route to Brighton I spotted a catering equipment showroom. The name didn't sound familiar so I snapped it from the car. No doubt one of the sales team will be fully aware of the showroom but, just in case, here it is Nick and Pete.

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