He's a grown-up now!

Fraggle is celebrating his 36th (sorry.... 26th..)birthday today... It could be touch and go. I have the bottox and valium on hand just in case we have an 'episode' but, fingers crossed, all should go smoothly... If things go pear-shaped, I've recorded enough reality-TV programs to keep him sedated for the rest of the weekend...

Anyway, Happy Birthday Fraggle!! Have a brilliant day and stop checking the mirror for wrinkles :-)

For those of you who know George Hook from Newstalk FM!!

George Hook

Its Saturday.....

And I'm at work.... Been here since about 10.00 this morning to let some guys in to do the last bits and pieces to the office and warehouse in one big blitz this weekend. Of course, Murphy's Law kicked in and the sun's been shining all day, its been warm and basically one of the best Saturdays we've had this summer.... Spending it in an industrial estate in Walkinstown wasn't my idea of the perfect Saturday (or Sunday for that matter, because I'm here tomorrow too...) but its exciting, oddly enough...

Seeing your business coming together like that, is actually a real kick.

The guys told me they'd be here at 10ish... Oh yes! The all important unit of time measurement for the trades here.... the big 'ish'! Now this unit of time varies in definition depending on who you're dealing with. These guys for instance consider the 'ish' as being anything in the region of 1 to 1and a half hours, which by my experience of getting people in to do work, is actually considered to be punctual. I've had ish's that went from 4 hours to infinity (ie: they didn't show up at all...).

For instance, consider the worst of the Irish industry definitions of this term. Its currently held by NTL. If they tell you that they'll be there between 9.00am and 13.00, you need to take the period of time involved (ie: 4 hours), multiply it by 2 or 3 and then add a couple of extra hours in for good measure... Then add a week...That's for a scheduled appointment. Now, if you need a service or a call out and you want to get a date from them, forget it.....

Anyways, that was just a minor rant, which I'm allowed given that I'm in at the weekend and that I'm not getting overtime for it :-) Talk soon...

Burrrrminham!!

I'm in Birminghan at the moment for the Autumn Fair expo.... Really well organised, very professional, generally really good... But ( and I'm going to rant again, but hey!, are you surprised?!) I'm staying in the Holiday Inn near the airport... They've a smoke ( cig ) machine here in the lobby. Now where I come from, we think smokes are a rip-off at 7 Euro.. Here they charge GBP7.40 a pack (which is what?.. 10 or 11 Euro a pack?!..) and the worst thing is A: the exchange rate means I'm paying the best part of 10 squids for a pack..but then B: the bastards have the audacity to have just 16 smokes in a box!!! Unreal... I always thought the Irish were a bit extreme on the smoking thing but now I have to say, the Brits have beatin' us!!

So, apart from that, all is going well.. F went home this avo which kinda felt (no, actually felt..) weird and depressing...I was left all on my own, but more to the point, I felt like I'd lost the functional part of my brain... F is a really good sense-check to have around.. He knows the stuff we're meant to see and also keeps tags on how long we spend in each place. If it was up to me, we'd be flying the demo helicopters all day :-) I do love them though...... (and apart from that, I wish he was here anyway...)

So, I have one more day here and then home (TG!). I really think Christmas and the start of the New Year are going to be a bitch... but, you know what, I am having a ball... I'd prefer to be up to my goolies in stress and exhaustion doing what I'm doing now, rather than doing what I was doing before..

Right - up early in the morning.. So off to bed.

Talk to you soon -

Fred