Great day out yesterday at the Centaur Centre at Cheltenham Racecourse – the annual Utility Warehouse MAD ( Massive Action Day ) event .
Well organised meeting , some great announcements regarding improvements to the already great Services offered and some really inspiring testimonials from people going great guns in the business.
So , I guess the message for the day is ” Have a look at using Utility Warehouse for all your household utilities – you would be MAD not to! ”
Good afternoon at the Theatre of Dreams ( a.k.a. The County Ground ,Swindon) this afternoon – Swindon 1 Huddersfield 0, a really good game between two of the better teams in League One and a dramatic late headed goal from Town centre half Sean Morrison to settle the game.
After a slightly stuttering start Swindon now playing well and moving up the table so all is well – imagine my disbelief as I’m walking out of the ground when I hear from a Town fan ” Only one goal – need to score more ” !
They had the nPower League One trophy on display at the County Ground – let’s hope we see it again in May
Off to a 4N Business Networking meeting this morning but instead of my usual fortnightly trip down the A419 to the Sun Inn in Swindon I decided to use my 4N passport and try another group – this time in Chippenham.
The venue details said the event was being held at The Plough Inn at Kington Langley (nr Chippenham) – no problem I thought , I know that Kington Langley is just off the dual carriageway before you get to Chippenham so off I set leaving in plenty of time to allow for cross Swindon traffic and the M4.
Get down the M4 , off at jct 17 and turn left at the traffic lights where it says Kington Langley . Twenty minutes later after driving through Kington Langley twice and not finding The Plough I realise that I am lost !
I spot some lads waiting for their bus for school and ask them if they can direct me to The Plough Inn – one of them informs me that the pub is actually on the crossroads by the traffic lights on the dual carriageway and that you need to turn right at the lights and not left !
I duly backtrack and find the pub without problem . Meeting goes well , a friendly bunch , a good breakfast and some good one to one meetings.
But as a drove home it struck me that one schoolboy went into his class today and said “Guess what ? some bloke asked me for directions to a pub at half past seven in the morning ! , adults eh ?”
I really must buy a Satnav !
Ever had one of those weeks ? – had a ‘mare this week on the roads namely :
Monday – get to Utility Warehouse Career Opportunity Presentation at Wootton Bassett with 5 minutes to spare as I struggle to get past a car that has broken down on a single track road .
Tuesday – 5 minutes late for TrustSTFC Board meeting due to detour/chaos in Town Centre caused by closing a major route into the Town Centre because of building works
Wednesday – 30 minutes late for 4N Networking meeting at the Sun Inn due to overturned lorry on the A419 causing gridlock/chaos
Thursday – short trip to local supermarket entended by 30 minutes due to traffic light failure
Friday – I’m staying in all day !
Spent Wednesday ,Thursday,Friday and Sunday morning last week doing a Utility Warehouse Win A Mini Free Prize Draw event in a local Garden Centre .
It’s a fairly simple idea – Utility Warehouse put up a Mini as a prize for an annual prize draw , Utility Warehouse Distributors run events at local stores/fetes etc. and help people to fill in a simple form to enter the prize draw .
The entry form features several optional questions about the person’s utility usage – the idea being that if they are not happy with their current supplier the Distributor can give them information about the service offering from the Utility Warehouse .
Had a good few days , spoke to some nice people who were fed up of being overcharged by their current suppliers but as is normal nowadays some good old British cynicism reared it’s ugly head occasionally with comments such as :
” What’s the catch ?” – Answer ” You need to talk to me for 20 seconds, apart from that there isn’t one”
” Bet it’s not a real mini – it’s a toy one isn’t it ? ”
” It’s not a Mini – it’s a ( expletive deleted) BMW !”
And my favourite :
” No thanks , I might be dead by the time the draw takes place ”
Beam me up Scotty !
Had a great day out at the Cricklade Show on Bank Holiday Monday doing our Utility Warehouse Win A Mini Prize Draw stand – nice weather , met some nice people and although it was a very busy day it was very enjoyable .
The next morning however , as if to prove the old expression ” There’s no fool like an old fool “ I wake up to find that I have caught the sun – big time ! My face is red and my nose is so red that there is a good chance that Santa will have me on standby in case Rudolph doesn’t fancy it this year !
Moral of the story – next time , take the sun block as well as the food and clipboard.
So ,as the week went on the skin peeled and I looked like something out of the ” Singing Detective ” I decided to stay indoors in case I frightened the neighbours .
On the positive side staying indoors meant that I managed to catch up on a pile of work , not least finally getting around to finishing off my first attempts at writing a Squidoo lens .
Lenses ( note the plural!) now complete and published :
www.squidoo.com/how-to-build-a-virtual-real-estate-empire
Also managed to win an Ebay auction for a very good hotel key card which will be listed on www.hotelcardcentral.com in the next few minutes – a Boxing themed card from a US hotel staging the bout , good design and very collectable .
