And I forgot to mention but wanted to note that today the divvy cheque has cleared thru the bank and taken my account up to zero!!
I am so chuffed to think that when I get paid agin in a week or so, there will be an entry on a statement without a "DR" suffix for the first time in four years.
And four cards between them now total less than 5K.
Christmas 2004 it was over 11.

Amazing what an effect this has on the interest you pay each month.
And the lesson of paying early in the month makes an enormous difference to that as well, instead of waiting till the payment due day.

AND, I also forgot, that I received all my charges from the bank going back four years. They sent me data right back to 2001, so today I sent the second letter off claiming back something like £2,800!!
It's only the first stage and D has advised me to expect court fees over over £300, but that can be added to the claim and it will all be worth it.

Shame there are so many hoops, but what akes me mad is that they still make the fekking charges, even on those of us with a claim against them!

Baggins is crawling.
She hasn't gone through any commando style stuff, or bum-shuffling. Really only started to push herself backwards a couple of weeks ago and then over the weekend learned the art of turing round and round leaving her feet in the same place.
And just this evening she finally found out how to go forwards from being on her hands and knees rocking backwards and forwards.

Her mum taught her that…

Big growth spurt thing - the first tooth appeared at granddad's on Saturday - 7 and a half months.
And just like Alice - she has already decided that she won't eat baby food. Much prefers to be given things to hold and feed herself. You name it - she yams it.
breadsticks, weetabix, appples, peppers, raisins, sandwiches, cheese. Nice and messy.
Doesn't seem to like tomatoes much
LC too is growing this week - fell over twice again today trying to get used to her new feet.

They've all got to get used to the idea of being cousins.
"Uncle dave" finally became a daddy this morning!!!
baby boy, as yet un-named, born ten days overdue and weighing eight pounds. All stunned, but well.
i really feel for him having to fly back out to Bahrain on Sunday…

Babies everywhere it seems. The twins arrived last Monday and were out and about being lovingly paraded in the playground this morning. SO CUTE!!!:D And both well over five pounds - which is bigger than LC was. Carried to 37 weeks and delivered naturally.
No wonder AB is smiling so much. Fantastic news.

My diary is full to bursting over the next couple of weeks - aside from work.
Tomorrow night is cell. An oasis of calm in the bluster of it all. Then Friday its beers with MS and discuss the new photography we want him to do. Hopefully PM will join us and a couple of others to make a night of it.
Who knows what the weekend will hold?
Next week I've got to make dates with Invisible Women. Leo wants to meet up for lunch (which I suspect means she will be fishng for an invite to a Foxx gig) and I'm looking forward to that. Then I really must meet CQ from the JGI as I have promised twice this year already and failed miserably both times.
More than either of these, I have invited Sal to call me next time she is in town. Ths works out apparently once a month or so, when she is visiting Milletts to do and audit or count the mags in WHS. One of those things I just heard myself saying.
She's been creeping into my head over the past couple of weeks, moving up the consciousness from just being someone I chat to every week at Stan's swimming lesson.
You know that difficult half hour watching from the café, when there aren't quite enought tables for all the parents? She has magnetic hair and dangerous eyes. Taller than me. Perfect example of the 'long nose, long n*ps' theory I suspect.
But does she talk?? Blimey - once I'd broken the ice she set about it with a hammer!
Drifted through the corners of my week for ages, then I woke up one day and there she was. Now she's in the phonebook and getting asked out for coffee. Came about because she moaned so much about how much she struggles to carry all the boxes WHS expect her to deliver, and some of the really awkward bins for promotional items. It's literally across the "mall" from the office.
Offering to help came naturally, but now I'm nervous. Hey ho.

On top of this, Biscuit is coming down after college on Monday and staying a day or so until we go over to Reading for the University open day on Wednesday. Which just happens to coincide with the PCC AGM at which I get elected as churchwarden. There are no other nominations yet, anyway…

So if anyone has a few idle hours they could donate to help me get more time into the next week or so, I'd be very grateful

And here's my thoughts on the much-postponed "new" album from Throbbing Gristle "Part 2 - The Endless Not", recorded over two years ago.

Wow - this is the FOURTH album I've actually purchased this year…

I've read mixed reviews of this, and it really seems to have divided critics, which I guess is exactly what you would expect.

In my opinion, at the end of the 70s TG created some of the most disturbing and challenging music I have ever heard. DoA in particular seemed to exist with the sole purpose of upsetting people and dragging them off screaming into hopelessly dark and scary places. Never mind stepping outside the box - this was destruction of said box in the nastiest possible way. To shock and to jolt was very much the order of the day - the end result of course being some of the most original, clever and influential music of our generation.

Thirty years later, people have questioned whether this is still their intention when over that period the industrial genre has been there and done that time and over.

A tired bunch of androgynous old f*rts?

...
You wish…

Personally I find the clanking synths, improvised screams and noise and stomach-churning electronics that characterise the Endless Not strangely nostalgic and familiar in a horrible and uncomfortable way. P'Orridge's vocal is as grating, nauseous and impossible to digest as ever, and at times the effects are truly stomach-turning - but isn't that what you would expect??
I suppose it would be fair enough to say that this is not a hugely original album and TG are only doing here what TG do best.
But they do that far, far better than anyone, and clearly have plenty still to say. And there are hidden among the cacophonic some moments of sublime beauty, particualrly the last track After the Fall.

I think, after a handful of listens, that there is more going on here every time I play it here and my head is totally f*cked. I don't pretend to understand any of it - and its an irresistible feeling!!
If you have an addictive personality, be scared… this is defiant, deviant and dangerous stuff.

I didn't feel I had any choice but to receive this music through my ears. The word 'listen' is too pro-active and suggests you can stop whenever you like. That would be far too easy.

The line between genius and madness just got even thinner.
Tread carefully my friends - there is no net.

Just a thought that I might try to spend more time here rambling about running the business.
So yes, in response to those who wonder why, it is all very introspective and ego-stroking.
Who said what a blog has to be about.
Mine's about me.

Almost impulsively, but in response to our production meeting on Monday, I went out with JC and IW yesterday and bought two desks and a chair for the office.
This was after a long conversation with Mel discussing how best to lay out the place to accommodate more bodies. It's difficult with the Room Folders in production at the moment crammed into our 'reception', but I now have a long term plan that will allow us to have up to 8 permanent workstations in the office.
It's a nice problem to have though, seeing as 18months ago we were just two.!
Tomorrow in fact will be the first day that we have had seven people in simultaneously, so with the current layout it will be quite a challenge. Mel pointed out that in her experience (three London-based Media Buying Agencies in the last ten years, which is considerably more experience than me!) we have an overwhelming amount of space and she has never worked in a place so generous to its staff in that respect. Which pleased me. I can't be doing with all the hot-desking and clean desk policies she talked about.
My idea is to give everyone their own space, to work in as they see fit and not have to share that environment with anyone else if at all possible. But I can see this might not work with our resources and dependence on part-time staff...
She pointed out that her desk is a complete f*cking mess, which is true, but it reflects my own. D is the very opposite and clears everything away and lines up his pens before going home. I could be off for a week and it looks like I've just popped to the toilet. Mel is the same, and said that she's not used to having the space to do that. I think that's cool, because it means she is able to be relaxed and work naturally.
We seem to have really got over our initial confrontation, and now respect our differences.

Of course it was a waste of resources having 3 of us to go and buy some furniture, but IW was van-driving and leaflet dropping for us so we had the transport, and JC was dropped off at the storage unit to collect things for her leaflet run in Hamble Valley today.

Tomorrow will be a challenge. Tension is mounting with MAx's period of work experience due to end next Thursday. He has been remarkably inefficient and slow putting the Room Folders together and seems to disappear for long periods far too often. Apparently this happened last week too when he and IW worked with D to install the frames at the City Terminal.
What to do, what to do?? he responses to the reminder and a few pokes, but is want to drift off again all too soon.
So today IW has been recruited to gee him up a bit and get things going so that the first couple of hundred can be assembled and sent out on Friday. They are very cramped, but with IW around the atmosphere is vibrant and buzzy so much more things get done. Meanwhile D and Mel will be battling on trying to land the first 'national' advertising campaign for the CruiseMedia project. I do wish he would concentrate a little more on the HV Room Folder and the PageOne Events poster sales campaigns, but that is really what we need New Person to do in the summer. There simply isn't time in his day for that now, and getting someone on board for CM is vital. It's some comfort though to see the local campaigns gathering momentum and commitment now up to 30K since Macdonald and Devere hotel groups got on board. That means that costs are met, even before we get a major brand involved!! Hard work, but a really good effort.
We just have to believe in ourselves a little more. Things look so good at the terminals - it's just really a case of waiting until an advertising campaign timescale comes along for which our media is appropraite.
That's four. JC will be in as usual, and me trying to get throough the plethora of emails and files being sent this week relating to the New Forest Cycing map.
Seems the first time anyone has tried to put one together that incorporates ALL the approved routes in the Forest, not just those managed by the Forestry Commission. Another good example of us trying to get different agencies working co-operatively. Not bad so far, but there will be sparks to fly when NFDC stake their claim for New Forest branding despite insisting that it is our commercial project and landing us with all the risk. The NFDC at the FC seem to find working together quite hard, and certain people within these organisations definitley have personal agendas. Such a contrast to the easy going approachable nature of HCC and the National parks authority, for example. And Sustrans are happy to oblige with just about anything.
I also have to quote for the new timetable maps for First Group and finalise the amends on the maps for the Forest VIPs.
Finally, Michelle comes in for her regular four hours on a Thursday, chasing the increasing number of late-payers. She's VERY good, and there is clearly a correlation between her calls and cheques mysteriously turning up.
Winchester Cathedral today announced their intention to join HAG which is a snowball just gathering momentum. Never before have these individual 'attractions' worked togtehr on media and advertising campaigns and they all think it is so effective. So we need to discuss a management fee and work out precisely our role within the association.

Not to mention buying watercoolers, coatstands and Office fruit bowls. Just an idea I thought I'd run with. On a three month trial - a bowl of fruit in the office fresh at least weekly for everyone to dip into. We eat FAR too many doughnuts and fudge at the moment…