Sunday, February 27, 2005

 
So, Prince Charles feels the British have no compassion doesn't he.

I have two uncles who were in the Guards. One story to share with you.

When Charles was a boy he would inspect the troops along with his mother or grandmother. When donned up in the full regalia of a guardsman it can get pretty hot. The uniforms are heavy and the busbys are a particularly warm form of headgear, absolutely no way of bodyheat being removed via the head, the most eficient way for it to do so. Guards stood to attention on parade could become quite faint in temperatures that could it 100 degrees in summer. Guards were meant to stay at attention for the full parade and when the Royal party passed, not even to blink. New Guardsmen found this particularly difficult as they had not learned how to cope with parades. Charles's self-appointed role on these occasions was to look for any guardsman who swayed in the heat and then report them to their officers. This resulted in a week in clink for the unlucky guardsman.

Thanks Charles for your compassion on those occasions. If people don't like you, you might just have to shoulder some of the blame yourself. But be happy, your marriage is lifting the country. Not with joy as should befit a royal wedding, but with hilarity at the continual cock-ups. posted at 19:26.......link.......



Saturday, February 26, 2005

 
Our travels between Newmarket and London continue, or they did. We've got one more to do in a couple of weeks and now it's back to normal day to day living again. I have been somewhat curtailed by the fact that on the last run I got home at 3 in the morning just as the gear box on the car fell apart, literally. There's bits of debris all over the drive. At least it went in the last feww yards and not the first few. Now borrowing Kevs third string car until either this ones repaired, unlikely, or I get another one. Long term we are looking at leasing a company car so we might bring that forward. posted at 13:54.......link.......



Friday, February 18, 2005

 
A.W.O.L. again!

We've been away on an installation up in Newmarket. It will continue for the next few days but we've left our installers to get on with it. We go back next Thursday to check the finished work. It's the largest contract so far that we've had these new installers working on. 21 windows and 2 doors and they are right on top of it. Installers like these are golddust. Hope we can hang on to them. They have said that if we can keep them in work they will stick with us. Time to get selling!

In other news. The offices we were moving into have been put back for a fortnight because they are being redecorated and new alarm systems put in. Frustrating but it will be worth it.

. posted at 21:45.......link.......



Tuesday, February 08, 2005

 
Well, the big news of the moment is that we finally have an office. Hopefully we will start to move in tomorrow.

Having this office and the advantages it brings is a bit of an acid test. The lack of one has been one of our perennial excuses for why things haven't grown as quickly as they otherwise might, and also causes small mistakes to happen due to bits of paper going missing because there hasn't been a set place to keep them. NOw we find out whether we were right, or whether it was just an excuse.

The other good thing is that I'll obviously be having an internet connection so I can spend all my time online. The Kennamatic work ethic strikes again!

posted at 19:20.......link.......





 
A few months ago I helped Kev out with an activity down at the church his family belong to. For registration into the event we had the services of a young lad, mid to late teens, who has a learning difficulty, autism. There was a definite air that we shouldn't be including him in things, but not only did he manage to cope with what we expected him to do, he pretty much ran the entire registration and ran it extremely well. His father was so grateful that we had included him and that he had come out of it so well.

Presently I have been writing a script for a short play, about 10 minutes, to be part of a "roadshow". The most important part in it is that of The Narrator. One girl, Katie, asked if she could do it. There was alot of scurrying about by the leaders and eventually she was told she would have to audition by some of the leaders there. She did, and made a really good job of it. She had only seen the script some few minutes before, but had already picked up some of the gestures and nuances that I had written in. Yesterday evening she rang to say she had a couple of suggestions for the script which has to be submitted today for approval. Both were visual gags and both were really good. They've been included without a second thought. On the way back from her house Kev mentioned that he thinks she to has alearning difficulty and whatever form it takes she attends a "special" school. That would explain why once again the leaders were uncomfortable when she asked for the part.

Kev and I are going to train her for the part, although it looks like she won't need much, just the basics in controlled breathing to make sure she doesn't rush her lines and other such devices. I really hope she pulls it off. I'm convinced she will. And I'm always pleased if it's one in the eye to those who should know better.

posted at 19:19.......link.......



Thursday, February 03, 2005

 
I said I'd give an explanation for why we were at SENSE last week.

Kev is starting, nay, has started, a sponsored diet. It's called the £100lb Challenge and the idea is to lose 100lb and raise £100 per pound lost.

More details over at The £100lb Challenge website. It's only just started and I've yet to get him to make his first post so at the moment I'm just making the odd entry.

8lbs lost first week though. I'm helping by being his pace dieter. I lost 2lb last week. If I can lose 3 stone in the time he loses his 7 then I'll be more than happy.

posted at 20:45.......link.......





 
Our new installer, Matt, is proving to be a godsend. In an hour at two locations he managed to finish off two jobs that had been getting more and more behind. He's everything you need in an installer. Focussed, positive, skilled and likes a beer. I hope we can hang on to him.

posted at 20:42.......link.......



Tuesday, February 01, 2005

 
Yesterday, in a fit of rashness, we rented a lock-up to have all our deliveries kept in, rather than round Kevs or my house. We like the idea of a lock-up. Very gangsterish. We fancy going into pubs and talking about blagging (as oppose to blogging), shooters and talking in an east end accent.

Actually that isn't our only property dealing. We have been looking to rent an office imminently and just as we were about to send off the necessary papers Kev met up with an uncle who has offered the use of some of his spare space on a rent free basis. Whilst not ideally located we will go check it out as it's hard to look a gift office in the mouth, or something. Petrol usage would be a bit higher but not by so much that it equals the rent we would have paid. We still will rent the offices we have been looking at but it might be useful to have an interim arrangement for a few weeks or months. We'll see.

posted at 21:51.......link.......





 
Two rants for you to day. That's the problem with limited access to the internet, I have to save them up. Actually, the first is really just a comment.

They're talking today about how far a homeowner can go during a burglary before they have used unreasonable force. I cannot understand why they don't use the very simple concept that if you choose to break the law by breaking into someone house, you've automatically lost protection under the law. Does that not make sense?

Now the rant.

Last year my most unloved word was "craic" and it's use by non-Irish people who were getting carried away with the enthusiasm of knowing a foreign word. This years I already have my likely contender. Humbling.

Earlier this week Tony Blair was humbled at the thought of Iraquis voting for the first time in free elections. This shows a remarkable recovery of being humbled only a few weeks back by victims of the tsunami going about rebuilding their countries. In fact, there isn't any occasion on which someone doesn't feel humbled. What amazes me is that people haven't twigged that to feel humbled you have to feel pretty superior to start with. O.K., in Tony Blairs case maybe that's not surprising but not everybody else as well.

I can accept that on occasions people can feel moved, but humbled. No, it just doesn't strike me as the right word at all.

posted at 21:01.......link.......