Will it ever end?

Well that have haven't they? I have been lazy haven't I? No one really cares though do they?

Anyway, loats of stuff have happened really.

Firstly. I have had work done on a new logo. I started this because our old logo did not scale very well. It worked fine when it was large but as it got smaller the text dissapeared into the background becoming unreadable.

Other reasons for undertaking this revisions included bring the logo up to date in colour (which will fit in with another revamp of the site at a later date) and to make it match our other logo's for stairs, door frames, handles etc.

Secondly. I started walking to and from work. I went Scuba Diving again while on holiday in the Maldives. I could only manage 58 minutes dive time even using the larger 14 litre tanks. So time to get off my arse and get back into training. I didn't want to build muscle, only be able to not gasp for breath while walking to the toilet. This also has the added bonus of making sure I leave work on time. Its a 4 mile walk to work. And dependent on route, 3.25 to 4 mile journey home. I don't do it every day, about 4 times a week is all. But I also walk in the woods on a Sunday. I have been using Runkeeper for the iPhone to track my progress and improvement which is brilliant. I have already noticed a massive difference.

Thirdly. We have climbed back to Position 1 for the search term 'doors'. My god what a lot of work this took. Made some tweaks. Buffed the site. Complained to Google due to the amount of webspam showing above us on their Caffeine Sandbox. Hey Presto! Number 1. I don't know how long we will stay there but anyway whatever happens I do know that we have fantastic content and loads of info which is good for the user.

Fourthly. I am having more holidays

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And Happy Birthday to William Shakespeare too.

William Shakespeare, "King Richard II", Act 2 scene 1
Greatest English dramatist & poet (1564 - 1616)

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I have been having a 'Spidey Sense is tingling' thing all day long. It's starting to unnerve me now.

It's not just a Sixth Sense thing any more either. I have a sickly feeling in my stomach.

Maybe I'm getting a terrible illness or maybe the world is going to end in a major disaster.

Or maybe its just residual hangover. I'm thinking probably the 2nd option.

I went shopping to Meadowhall yesterday to pick up a couple of things for my daughter for her 21st birthday.

I saw this guy in a bright green vest top. He didn't have the greatest physique but was not a lard arse. But he walked about like he thought he was '10 men', arms splayed out and looking around as if to say 'look at me ladies'.

Why the hell don't people realise that they look like freaks instead of thinking 'Excuse me miss, tell me this. Am I cool? Or are you wrong?'

Last week I got back from working at the Ideal Home Exhibition at Earls Court in London. What gets to me the most is that I will never get that time back.

This show used to be the premier event for building/house renovating exhibitions and it is sometheing we had always considered doing. However the cost is phenomenal so we had always shyed away. This year one of our major suppliers Jeld Wen asked us if we would cost share. This meant that they would pay for the stand (£100,000 for the week) and put up the display but we would staff it. How could we lose?

On this stand the displayed their entire range of bi-fold patio doors including the new Smoothfold which I blogged about previously. They also had the new oak Stormsure window which they are introducing in around 8 weeks.

So when we arrived on the Thursday morning we thought that the stand looked great and that we would have a really good show. But the problem was that the exhibition itself was like a wasteland. I still do not have numbers for the visitors but they were few and far between. The interest we had in the products was great and they showed genuine interest in the products. A lot better than at the NEC which, to be quite frank, has a lot of 'Type Kickers'.

So all in all it turned out to be a waste of a week. I would have been much better off staying in Sheffield working my regular job instead of being bored all day then having to get drunk every night

Oh, but there is a bonus to this visit. I got to meet Gandalf. Or if it wasn't him then its his body double.