Brian's Blog

Well he does exist - doesn't he?

December 2008

Christmas is almost upon us and despite the gloomy outlook for businesses we haven’t cancelled Christmas at Hunter, instead we are determined to enjoy it.

Our Christmas kicked off with a pantomime for the children of our employees. Three very energetic and skilled students gave a great performance of Dick Wittington and Santa (yours truly) dished out presents during the interval. It really is a pleasure seeing children totally in awe of Santa and still believing in him. Well he does exist - doesn't he?

This Saturday is our annual dinner and dance, which is being held at the home of Charlton Athletic Football Club. A number of companies have cancelled their Christmas bash however we decided that ours would go ahead as a thank you to our employees. Given our achievements in winning the BMN award for best supplier and Investor in People Profile standard we felt it only right to celebrate these successes in style. Within two days of two hundred tickets being made available the SOLD OUT signs went up. It should be a great event.

Last weekend was very special for me as I celebrated my fiftieth birthday. On arriving at work on Friday I was greeted by numerous photographs of me in my younger years and several posters and balloons announcing my age. Beckie (my PA) had obviously been in contact with my mother who kindly agreed to send her the most embarrassing photos that she could find. I was chuffed that people had gone to so much trouble.

In the evening I shared a fantastic dinner with family. Saturday saw me and my son at the Stadium of Light, to see Sunderland record a brilliant four nil win against West Brom. There is life after Keano. The weekend was rounded of with a game of golf and a few drinks with my golfing buddies. I had a brilliant weekend.

Business in December is better than expected for some reason. I'm sure that everyone is hopeful that things will start to get better soon; however it's very difficult to see activity in the building industry increasing in the short term. All we can do is to continue to give customers the best possible service and work as skillfully as possible to manage whatever business there is.

I'm on holiday from Friday and really looking forward to the two week break ahead of me.

Thank you for continuing to read the blog and best wishes for a great Christmas and a successful 2009.