Magic Numbers (Working Title). The Countdown Begins

Regular blog readers will be aware that our son Paul works in TV development for CPL Productions and excitement always mounts in our household as the launch of a new show approaches. In a couple of weeks time, Stephen Mulhearn (above) will be hosting ITV's new show "Magic Numbers"(Working Title). This entertainment based Saturday night show will give one lucky viewer each week the chance to win a big cash prize simply by matching their phone number with ones generated during the show. I know that there are some great acts lined up for the programme which will go out live and Marion and I are looking forward to an invite from Paul for us to go down to London and watch an episode or two. Paul's wife Josephine is in the same business and we are also looking forward to going to a recording of her new show in the near future. Details to follow. Our National Sales and Marketing Director Nick Neal's daughter Laura is also involved in training for a career in television and has managed to find some work experience in the industry too.



And, speaking of numbers, my head is spinning from working on the new payroll which comes into operation in August. At the moment I am running two payrolls - weekly and monthly- in preparation for the switch and I will be relieved when it is back to just one as I am getting myself mixed up some weeks and even managed to pay the P.A.Y.E late by forgetting about it. Not a good idea. It is our new year end tomorrow so we've got a big stock take to complete and a lot more numbers to work on. I'll be pleased when retirement finally arrives in November and I can forget numbers for good (apart from the pension).



And still on the subject of numbers here is the new Instanta August 2010 price list. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we are moving the time of our price changes to be in line with our parent company and these prices will come into effect on 1st August 2010 so buy now and stock up in July if you want to make some savings. Hard copies will be going out in the post early next week.

Might as well go the whole hog and have a number related topic for today's final comment. We are into our seventh week of dieting today and together Marion and I have lost 27lbs in weight and I have lost at least three inches from my waist. It is starting to become gruelling now as, the weekly weigh-ins are only recording a pound or so loss and, with another ten weeks to go I can see it becoming a real test of our will power. On a positive note at least it is working whilst on a negative, I am going to need a whole new wardrobe or get my existing wardrobe altered.

This is how it is starting to feel

Max Wins The Instanta Open

A group of Instanta staff and friends enjoyed a wonderful weekend recently at Formby Hall. They were contesting the annual Instanta Golf Tournament and here is organiser Lee Moore (right) presenting Service Manager Max Vidal with his hard won trophy. I hear that the course was a fiendish one and a number of scores topped the hundred mark but after two days and 36 holes Max came out on top, followed closely by Northern Area Sales Manager Peter Brindle and Sales Administrator Craig Buckley. A big thank you to Lee Moore for organising the event so successfully. Here are some of those who took part,(left to right) Carl (a guest) Nick Neal Sales Director,Peter Barlow from stores,Peter Brindle,Max Vidal, Craig Buckley and Mike Chubbs from our machine shop enjoying a post golf burger and chips.





It was our (almost) retirement party on Saturday evening and a group of ten of us were lucky enough to have wonderful weather for the do which went down very well. Local chef Brian Wareing came round and prepared us a lovely summer buffet and a fine selection of wines were provided by The Whalley Wine Shop - rather too many wines for me and, after six weeks of exemption from booze due to my diet, I literally fell off the wagon as the evening wore on and managed to bang my head on the ground. Fortunately the bump was a minor one or I could have ruined the evening and ended up as one of the binge drinking statistics in the local A & E. I woke up yesterday feeling like I had done a few rounds with Mike Tyson but fortunately the hangover is wearing off now although it took a lot of will power to drink the yogurt, kiwi fruit and banana smoothie prescribed by the diet this morning some thirty six hours later. Roll on the real retirement party



Our Buyer Gavin Ford was on holiday last week but found time to pop in and introduce us to his lovely little grandson Harvey. Harvey is almost two now and was a big hit in the office. He's a real little character.



Finally I would like to congratulate Gavin's mum Margaret who celebrates her sixty first birthday today. Margaret helps us out keeping the office and canteen clean and tidy. She's an animal lover and keen horsewoman who rides her own horse Max on a regular basis. When she's not looking after children (she's also a qualified child minder) and out with Max, Margaret loves listening to the music of Elvis and if there were a prize for his biggest fan, she would be well in the running. Have a wonderful day Margaret and many more to come.

We had a great soundtrack for our party on Saturday. I asked every guest to provide a list of their top ten all time favourites and we ended up with just over a hundred pop classics. I should had added this one.

My Hero

Praise and hallelujah for Landon Donovan. The USA striker's last minute winner in the World Cup yesterday stopped our party from being ruined. Marion and I are celebrating our retirement on Saturday with a few friends and, as a couple of them enjoy football, if Landon had not scored that goal we would have had the pressure of knowing that we would either spoil the evening for the footie fans or that if they watched it it would spoil the evening for the non-footie fans. Now the football followers can watch England at leisure on Sunday and leave us to enjoy the party with no pressure. You may be wondering why we are having a retirement party before we retire but we wanted a summer gathering and felt that half way through our last working year would be the best time for it and this way we can always have another in the winter. Thanks again Landon. USA all the way.



Our annual Instanta golf tournament was held recently but I have been holding back reporting on it as I am waiting for some excellent photos that I keep being told about but which have not materialised on my desk yet. Not being a golfer I didn't go to the event but I am told that a very good time was had by all and I'll be putting the results and the photos on the blog very soon.



Having lost my World Cup betting kitty (bar a few pounds whoever wins top goalscorer)due to the shock defeats of Spain and Germany in early games, I have turned my attention to Big Brother. Son Paul has tipped a rank outsider Caoimhe (or something like that)and I have put all my money on her in the hope that her odds tumble and I am able to lay the bet off to win on the others. So far the strategy is not working as, instead of the odds tumbling, they are rising and my Big Brother kitty is heading the same way as the World Cup one. But experience has shown that it's a long slog on Big Brother and the early favourites rarely win so I'll keep hanging on in the knowledge that Paul knows his BB very well and Caoimhe comes good.



I've had a good deal of admin work to do this week in preparation for the year end on Wednesday. We've got a stock take to carry out so the stores will not be open on Thursday. Jenny has things well in hand as usual. In addition I'm working on preparing a new price list for 1st August. We'll be posting this out very soon. The increases will be modest with the WA2N for example increasing by just £21.25 and still a bargain stainless steel boiler at £446.25.

I'll close today with the great Landon Donovan's goal.

Blimey Kirk You Kept That Quiet

Here's Kirk Harrison our welder, the real ale lover and beekeeper who, to every body's surprise, went and got married to girlfriend Gillian on Saturday. Kirk planned the ceremony very secretly as he wanted the minimum of fuss and arrived back at work on Tuesday as normal.He will be taking a honeymoon in the late summer when the happy couple plan to visit Italy to take in some of the culture and, of course, the wine.



Not long now before the fate of the England team is known. It seems that nobody here at Instanta is bothered. We arranged for anyone who wanted to watch the match to do so if they took a very late lunch and stayed on until six fifteen to make up the time but it seems that rumbling stomachs took the better of them and nobody could manage to wait an extra hour and three quarters without eating so I will be watching almost alone. (I'm used to going without food now that I am into the fifth week of my diet). Not sure if I can be bothered as, let's face it, their attitude to the fans and to the management is pathetic. What a load of spoilt brats. If they do come home tomorrow it certainly won't be to a heroes' welcome. I see that the French are in an even worse mess with Thiery Henry being summoned before Sarkozy to explain why the team embarrassed the nation. I would have thought it was obvious. You take a player like Annelka with his track record of petulance and fall outs with both team mates and managers with you and you are asking for trouble.



Nick and I went down to Chiswick yesterday to interview a number of candidates for our new Southern Area Sales Manager position. The interviews went fairly well and we are mulling over our decision. I have to say though that I was disappointed that a couple of the candidates did not even know what we made. You couldn't make it up.



I can here that the match is just starting on the radio. Slovenia at 9-1 to win look like a pretty good bet to me. Oh well I'll finish for now with a girl who will grow up to be a WAG.

Our Back Garden Allotment

Our daughter Sarah bought us a patio vegetable garden for Christmas and it arrived last week. We got a huge box full of young plants and Marion has been busy planting as many as possible. It will come in handy for our diet and instead of buying loads of salad ingredients and vegetables, we should soon, hopefully, be able to pop into the garden and help ourselves.



I didn't have enough time to blog yesterday and Wednesday. We are heading for our year end a couple of months early in order to fall in line with the group accounts and this involves a good deal of planning and preparation. Sales of our excellent boilers ,including the super 1500lcd (pictured), continue to grow. We need to bring our processes in line with the rest of the group and as part of this process we will be reviewing our prices earlier than usual this year and will be implementing some price changes on 1st August.Customers will be advised of the impending changes in a week or two.



I'm off down south on Monday. My recruitment process is coming to fulfillment now and Nick and I are planning to interview the top candidates for our new Southern Area Sales Manager position at our parent company Zip's offices in Chiswick. I can't invite candidates until I have the results of some tests that we sent them. I am hoping to see some good scores if I have done my initial vetting properly and am looking forward to meeting four or five of them.

I'm also looking forward to seeing England get back into winning form tonight. In case you have been out of circulation since last week, here are the highlights of their first performance...........in Lego.

Keeping It In The Family

We need to organise the office in preparation for Marion's departure in the not too distant future and, as usual, our recruitment process began at home and we asked around at Instanta if anybody was aware of someone looking for an office job. And sure enough someone was and we are delighted to welcome 19 year old Haylie to the office (yes that is the way that she spells it).Those of you who know us well will agree that her face looks familiar and it won't surprise you to hear that Haylie is our Service Manager Max Vidal's daughter. This means that, in Haylie and Tony Lowe's son Rob we now have two second generation Instanta employees in our office. Haylie is being trained in all areas of the office and we are sure that she will be a great addition to the company. She tells me that her hobby is shopping. Let's hope that we reach all our bonus targets then.



Here's a man who has hit his targets. Operations Director Dave Wilson has managed to achieve WRAS accreditation once again for our counter top and wall mounted boilers. Despite the hurdles getting ever harder to climb, Dave has climbed them and we have certificates that are valid for five years. If you need details, the DB2000 and the CT Range of boilers are covered until 8 June 2015 by certificate number 1006039. The wall mounted models including WM and WA boilers are valid to the same date under certificate 1006040. Well done Dave. I know how hard a job that was.



One position that we couldn't keep within the Instanta family is that of our new Southern Area Sales Manager. I am nearing the end of the recruitment process now and have been carrying out brief telephone interviews over the last couple of days. Almost all the candidates have phoned now and I am waiting for just a couple more. I have been impressed. They all sounded very pleasant and capable and it's going to be difficult to choose. Fortunately our HR department has a psychometric testing procedure that will assist us in drawing up a shortlist and I look forward to meeting candidates who do well in this very soon.


I have been very selective in my World Cup viewing so far and have only watched the dire England game and the lively Germany Australia match but I have to watch the Brazilians tonight. Ever since they sprang into World consciousness in Mexico and our screens exploded with colour for the first time (we had to go to the next door neighbours as we only had black and white)in 1970 I have awaited their first match with anticipation. I have to say that everything has been a let down since those halcyon days forty years ago but I still live in hope and expect to see a football masterclass tonight. My World Cup gambling fund is almost dry as New Zealand's plucky draw at lunchtime today took me by surprise. Never mind I've still got a bet on Germany and an outside bet on Chile. And as for vuvulzuelas. This blog is officially a vuvulzuela free zone. We've heard enough about them. We've heard them enough.

I'll leave to day with a song for Instanta

A Big Plus For The Samsung 8.0

When I got my new Samsung mobile phone I wrote a disparaging blog about it and compared it very unfavourably to the old Nokia. Having lived with the new phone for some time now , I still haven't found my way around its myriad of features and gimmicks but I have found the camera useful (and extremely high quality)and on Saturday I discovered another feature that I'm pretty sure that the Nokia didn't have - it's capable of surviving being dropped into a pond! Yes, whilst doing some gardening on Saturday, the phone slipped from my shirt pocket straight into the pond where it settled in the mud on the bottom. I fished around for some time before finding it and, to my total astonishment, the screen was still lit. I removed the battery quickly and dried the phone with a hair dryer and it's still working. Pretty amazing I think. Well done Samsung.



I took this photo with the phone when I was at the garden centre. When we were younger and Marion and I started doing a bit of gardening, the only ornamental things that you would see at the garden centre would be a couple of gnomes with fishing rods to put on the rockery. But not today. Crawling from the ground were these ghastly lifesize figures. Which begs the question "What was Dobbies garden centre buyer on when he ordered these?" or maybe if they have actually sold some "What was Dobbies' garden centre customer on when he bought one of these". Are they some sort of latterday scarecrow? Or maybe they are bought by people who also look at one of the following and think "Hmm, yes, three meerkats and a bright yellow fox. They would look nice sitting on the patio"





When we were very young.

Marion and I were having a bit of a tidy up around the house yesterday and came across a pile of old photos. Andy Warhol said " everyone would be famous for fifteen minutes" here is ours. We appeared with Kenneth Kendall and Wincey Willis on the TV show Treasure Hunt and successfully guided Anneka Rice to a £1000 prize in the Scottish borders. It seems like five minutes ago but it was over twenty two years in the past.

I enjoyed watching Germany in the World Cup last night. They were excellent. Which is more than can be said about England. I enjoyed the ITV HD coverage of the England game but how on earth did they manage this? After watching the Everton Liverpool derby when a Tic Tac ad popped up while Everton were scoring the winner I thought that was an unrepeatable one off freak incident but I thought wrong.