PeteB

Jest

Fun

Very trying day! Started with a couple of awkward emails and phone calls about delivery dates that were a tad long etc. I got to load and head to Hawick in The Scottish Borders. I got to take three machines, leaving two in Forfar. I get to the factory to find the half decent Sprinter beavertail has been misbehaving and nobody had bothered to get it fixed. I had to take the old nail. Loaded it and two in the trailer in the rain, dealing with more trying issues. Jobs not done, people not returning calls etc! Set off for Hawick with an ETA of approx 19:30. Got to Stafford services and the engine management light came on! I couldn't get it to go out so turned around at Stoke and went back. Parked it up, took my stuff and hauled the trailer home. Had a weeks load of myther in a day!!! Also had paid for hotel in advance! Now got to go at 05:30 to make it to Selkirk in time for first job so will be a long day. Missed a call from town so maybe my Q7 is better but I don't think I'm that lucky!

Bike

Pretty miserable weather here for the most part! The morning was a bit of a food shop, domestic stuff. Afternoon was rugby on the box - the soup I made at dinner time had a soporific effect and I missed most of the Gloucester match. Glasgow v Saracens was good, strong stuff and my heart went out to Glasgow for the effort they put in! They lost.... Roast Beef for dinner - she is having a nap after her 4 - 4 stint. She got 3 - 3 tomorrow! She tells me that she had to search a bag after the contents show a liquid bottle too big. The owner, a bearded chap was embarrassed when he stepped up, in amongst his very smelly biker get up was various aids and erm, jellies. She made a show of putting on her latex gloves to take out said items in front of everyone to remove his big tin of deodorant! Just why do they not think about what they are packing!?!

Fanfare

Palmer

Nest

Spent the morning trying to get a builder to come and quote for a wall. Seems that they don't need the work with the amount of messages left and not returned. Also spent a considerable time trying to deal with Broadband,TV,Phone package. Couldn't log on as I lost my password, unbelievably frustrating, going round and around until I got to the end of sanity. I actually had to say to one chap, "dolt, I cannot enter the password to get my account number which then allows me to change my password!". I don't think that I'll stop with Virgin, time to move to BT I think. Then off to hers to make French bread pizzas for lunch and walk the dog, the garden gate has been bust for three weeks and no one has made a worthwhile attempt at fixing it. The just step over problems and hope a tie wrap will fix it. Bang goes my dog walking and rugby watching. I spent the afternoon digging out the remainder of the old post and fitting a new one. Her Dad is a fix it with a tie wrap person! If the dog gets out through the wire fence, his remedy is to put a garden chair or bed frame in the way and myther until I turn up and do it! Even then, he has to stand there and tell me what to do.... Now back home, beer in hand, in the bean bag watching tripe TV,cshe got a 03:00 wake up again!

Mine is sat in S Line Automotive, Loughborough. I'll let you know how it goes.....

Nudge

Now sat in a big bean bag, glass of wine, Leinster v Wasps. Not a bad spot to be! She gone to bed as the alarm goes off at 03:00 again. I look forward to a decent shift change were we can spend some time together.... I had a meeting organised with a chap who I've dealt with for some 12 or 14 years and has got 5 of our top machines. I decided to take a new machine purely as a speculative measure, all noted and agreed in the office. I get there this morning to find that they need to make refinements and it cannot go! Infuriating. I had a Hungarian tell me that they want a Part Ex unit that I got, 'straight off the farm's, good people and I won't lift their leg. I have a critical look and it needs an expensive repair that I didn't bank on, got to talk to them and do some readjustments! Infuriating. I get a tetchy email from that colleague, complaining that a dealer of mine is out of order selling into his patch and undermining his dealer. Things like this do happen and it doesn't make our lives easy. I question my folk and discover that all the allegations are without base and he has further undermined his position! Infuriating. Was going to go and watch my dealers rep from Wakefield race his Clio182 at Snetterton, but, realistically, I got other duties to do to support her and her family. That's life!

Sticking

Barbarian Rugby

Sorry Chris, you failed, word association is one word!

lager

Yet another day frustrated by emails and phone calls! I started the day just thinking 'I'll bounce those two emails and get out to visit a dealer and some customers in Cheshire', and I'm still at the desk! One thing leads to another until at dinner time, I give in and start doing bits with another long term project and that is finding people abroad who may underwrite some of the 'used' kelter and I get it out of this country! Speculative emails to people in Poland, Hungary, Latvia etc - even a couple of bits to India! Trouble is - with our products, you have to look at local economies where people don't cook on open fires under a tree! You need people who do tree work to improve amenity value in public spaces, private gardens with trees in them and homeowners with money to pay for tree work and where 'wood' is to a degree a surplus product. Plus, there is local legislation to take into account. There is one or two places in the world where trailers are banned for example, Euroland has to have registration documents for trailers (a woodchipper is a fully loaded trailer), America has strict emission regs and they have to have a good supply chain to rely on too. She just back from the Airport and is due back at 02:00 - what a job! Today she ended up with an old bloke who knows it all, sat at a contractors check point, they had six people to check all morning and into the afternoon and this old soul was putting the world to rights on every subject! She was highly delighted!! Elsewhere, they had a panic on today which had big repercussions for many others. Some passengers noted that three people dodged the security aisles and got into departure without being bag checked etc. Those that noticed then has realised that this shouldn't have happened so went back to security and told them. Security then had to watch various CCTV cameras to find out who they were, where they went and then which flight. They managed to get to the plane as the door shut and stopped it from leaving. All passengers and bags had to be removed and re-checked and the flight lost its take off slot and this caused delays elsewhere too. Major FUBAR! And all because three people didn't think that they ought to be searched.....just how many people were affected by their thoughtlessness is not quantifiable! No news from S Line Automotive about my lemon Q7. The builder who promised to come a price a job still hasn't bothered to think about it! Time to call a few others...Tom got a full refund on that 3 cylinder Subaru engine which wasn't out of an STI or 2.5litres which is good but they didn't want to entertain paying for his fuel and time collecting it - blatant robdogs as they knew that it was scrap and he was a mug!

jump

Was supposed to take half a day. Appointment at eye people for new glasses and bank. But I decided to go and help another client and a dealer with a machine that isn't working right. That means I'm late back and annoyed, glasses were very expensive and bank shut when we go done. Took Q7 to specialist who says that Q7 suspension issues are tedious and complicated. He was surprised that we have no suspension screen on the MMI. Hope I ain't got me a lemon! We are looking at the buyers dynamic at work. The buyers of today are generally a lot younger than the Sales Staff. I found a parody website that will turn any webpage into street speak! What fun! Go to Gizoogle!

Peanut

She is on her way back - up at 03:00 for another shift at EMA - finishes at 10:00 tomorrow. I had a client with an issue with his machine - I notified the office that this was coming in with specific problems and they needed to look at it - was dismayed to find that the chap who is supposed to organise any changes dived into a meeting when he saw me arrive and ignored the fact that he said he would be straight on it....Office Politics.... Eventually he came out and after I pointed out a few errors that should never have happened, he took charge! Emptied the drawing office and Production Managers to show them the things that he 'had discovered and needed rectifying'. I set about fixing them and I think they were a little surprised that I could hold a spanner and told them what needed to be done and then did it! I do get annoyed when they just look at Sales as a hindrance instead of the wealth makers!, and that the Sales people don't lounge about on an expense account but actually know what they are talking about with machinery even though they aren't qualified engineers. My next week or two are in turmoil as my colleague has booked out four of our top selling demo units and goes away for another week holiday - leaving them scattered in the wind - I cannot do anything with them. Two that I have sold to Scotland along with a prototype that I was asked to get out will not be ready - even though they gave me the time frame to work with. Terribly frustrating and demoralising as I get paid on results - not on the time I spend doing it! I nearly bust a gasket at the parts people today - two people had asked me why they hadn't been contacted - I questioned the parts people and that bovine look appeared, I would love to stick people into my car and take them to my dealers and customers to make them realise that they need to be proactive/reactive! If they miss a call - phone again and again, if they promise an answer - ring back at the end of the day, even if you have nought to add, if you have to step over it on the floor, check to see if action is needed, don't keep stepping over it! If you are unsure about a part, ask an old hand if it is correct or has been superseded! Simples..... The monthly figures were published - best be better next month as we are on the bonus run to Xmas!

Pattern

A trip to a clients yard in Langley Mill first thing, good bunch of people who are good customers buying new machines then wrecking them - so parts business is good! A trip to the factory was frustrating, a decision made in a sales meeting has left me with egg on my face after I told a firm that they could use us for site service work. No they have decided that that wouldn't be good! Feel a plonker now having promised and now pulling that promise. Got loads of business on the go and some real brights leads to work on, plus a Scottish trip in the offing, but again, I make promises on info given and in the end, that falls to bits! Frustrating.... She gone home for a few days so I can watch want I want on tv for a change...

Fashion

Plane