Bye Bye 2008

Well it's good bye 2008 and I'm quite glad it's over.

After a optimistic start things generally got worse. Order books at the factory were looking promising and a bumper year was forcast. I had an Assistant Technical Manager start in January with good knowledge of the business and experience to go with it. This was a long awaited appointment after many many months searching for the right candidate. But soon the orders were cancelled due to the credit crunch and optimism gave way to pessimism.

Church life was not what it was either, after 7 years as a Deacon at Grace I resigned, as I was not happy with the way the leadership was going - by August I had stopped attending altogether and was going elsewhere. This was one of the most difficult times I had experienced as a Christian.

The employment situation was also getting worse. As the year progessed so the orders began to dwindle. In august after reurning from 2 weeks holiday I had to make staff cuts in my department. I was able to keep them to a minimum as we had a large block of flats that needed designing. I resisted pressure from my Director to let my Assistant Technical Manager go and so only lost one Designer. This was mainly due to the fact that one Designer had left in the spring and one in the summer, neither of which I had replaced. Four other office staff and about 6 - 8 in the factory where also made redundant.

By the 2nd half of the year church life was beginning to move forward. The church I was attending on Sunday mornings was providing excellent ministry and fellowship. While every other Tuesday evening we have been meeting for Bible Study & prayer with a number of other people who have also felt it necessery to leave Grace. As the autumn came we began to feel that the Lord was beginning to call us to start another work in Southport. The Lord confirmed this to us at a meeting we had one Friday night in November. The Lord then opened a door for us to meet in a little chapel on Kew estate on a Sunday afternoon. Our first meeting was on 7th Dec, the preacher was David Back and we had a congreation of 37 including young & old, familes & singles. The Lord truly blessed us that day and has continued to do so.

Early in December I advised my Director at work that I should reduce the staff in my department as I was now struggling to keep them all fully employed and the prospect of enough work coming in was looking bleak. On Tuesday 16th December all the staff were called to a meeting to be told that our factory was being closed. We were all sent home on 7 days notice of redundancy. The factory would not reopen after the Christmas shutdown. I am now looking for new employment.

Beth Rowley

Over the summer Anita brought my attention to a singer she'd seen on TV called Beth Rowley. She is a Blues/gospel style, not something I'd really listened to before. She had just released her first CD called 'Little Dreamer' which we bought and I haven't stopped listening to it since.

In August I visited Beth's website and noticed that she had just announced her autumn tour dates, one of which was at the Royal Northern Collage of Music in Manchester in October. Without hesitation I booked two tickets for Anita & me. This was quite an unusual event as I have never been to a concert before, although come to think of it I did go to see Don Francisco once at the Southport Theatre many years ago.

Well, the concert was fantastic and I really enjoyed it. We were just 3 rows from the front and next to the drums!

Check out her web site at www.bethrowley.com

The Rugby Season so far..........

Well not a bad start for Sale Sharks. The season tends to divide itself up into small groups of games for different competitions starting with the Guinness Premiership - after 5 games we are in 3rd position. A top 4 place is the main aim for the season as the top 4 play off for the Premiership Final held at Twickenham in May, a top 2 place would be even better as that would ensure a home tie.

In the EDF cup (a bit like the old football league cup) we were bottom of our group and did not qualify for the semi-final, all was not lost as may top players were rested and many young hopefuls from the academy where given first team game time.

The Heineken Cup (like the Champions league in football) has only just started and so far we have played 2 games - won one & lost one - so it's all still to play for.

Next weekend sees the start of the autumn internationals so we will have several top players away on international duty for England, Wales & Scotland. With several injuries as well, we will almost certainly need to call upon the services of some of the young players in the squad. Hopefully their experience in the EDF cup will hold them in good stead.

Why not visit Sale Sharks website by clicking here

Universities

September saw us visit various Universities with Hannah. We went to Lancaster, Liverpool & Manchester on 3 consecutive Saturdays. It was hard work & we were there nearly all day on each occasion. One of the problems we have is that Hannah is undecided which subject she wants to take, so we were visiting Biology, Chemistry, Geology & Geography departments. So far Hannah has ruled out Chemistry. Lancaster, which is a campus university, is currently top of the list. We will have another look around next spring.

Hannah is going to take a year out. Hopefully she will earn some money and also do some kind of missionary work.

The Credit Crunch

Well, first week back to work in August after our holidays and I had to review the staffing in my Department. My Director asked me to make some cuts as the level of work through the business had slowed down significantly due to the down turn in the housing market. I had to assess the current & future work load & then decide how many staff I could let go. I had already had a couple of staff leave earlier in the year which I had decided not to replace, so I only needed to let one person go. For the next stage I had to conduct a review for each member of staff to be able to come to a fair decsion on who would be made redundant. I was a hard few days. The total number of staff who were made redundant was significant. But it was absolutly necesssery if the business is to survive the credit crunch.