A cloud on the horizon!

Hello again,


Ordinarily, to an irrigation company, clouds are definitely a mixed blessing. 


Waterwell is a service business, part of a sector that generates a mind boggling 3/4 of the UK gross domestic product. It is vital therefore, for the economic health of the nation, that the service sector is efficient, productive and profitable.  


Over the last six months we have gone through a complete assessment followed by a total re-organisation of Waterwell. We looked at every aspect of the business and asked the questions; how can we do this better and what more can we do for our customers?


As a result of this rather brutal, cold-blooded process, we have rebuilt the business, from the ground up, hopefully to take us through the next decade. Part of that rebuilding is that our business system will be now be cloud based. 


What is cloud computing?


Think of cloud computing as something like renting your IT over the internet; a specialist company provides the server space and the software, you provide the data and your company accesses it all over the internet - you just pay a monthly premium for the privilage. 


Why do it?

• It's quick to set up, highly effective and requires no up front capital expenditure. 
• It's flexible; if you don't like the software or the company starts to waver then vote with your feet and move to another.
• It is constantly being improved; the provider wants your business so it's in their interest to keep improving their offering.
• It's ideally suited to service businesses especially if your staff are out and about and on the road

From our point of view, it will enable us to provide better service for our customers, hopefully every time.

If this all sounds a bit alien then worry not, it isn't. You are probably already using cloud computing without realising it - think Facebook, Flickr etc

Until next time...

Pressure!

Hello again

My kids want a dog, they really want a dog, they don't want to hear excuses, they don't want to hear justifications for not getting one - they just want a dog.

I have had to resist in a grown up parent kind of way, spouting on with "who's going to take it out", "who's going to clean up after it" etc but mostly I have resisted because we don't have the right sort of car to move a dog in; I have an Audi TT and my wife has a Fiat 500, neither of which can accommodate a dog cage - what am I supposed to do?

I thought that this kind of logic would make sense and that they would "understand" the point I was making. Sadly not, all they hear when I resist is "no" followed by "blah, blah, blah" and nothing except "yes, let's go and get a cute puppy" will do.

Just to ram the point home, they went to their school Christmas Fair on Saturday and returned with a little reminder for me!!

Until next time...

Punk - a trip back in time

Hello again

The Haunch of Venison Gallery in Burlington Gardens has done it again. Their latest exhibition, Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper is fantastic.

It captures a moment in time during the seventies when Punk scene burst into the public conscience. The moment when the country first had to face up to the snarling, spitting aggression of anti-establishment, the in-your-face names of the bands, the mad hair, chains and safety pins. Punk was a new movement that took no prisoners, it didn't want to be liked, didn't want your respect and definitely didn't want your approval.

The exhibition is a collection of posters, fliers and fanzines from the early days of Punk; a fantastic mixture of uprising, anger and innocent naivety.

The style and quality of the imagery really do two things: 1) it demonstrates how Punk really did come from the underground and rose up to challenge society and 2) it demonstrates how far graphic design has come in that time.

The early posters are handmade and then photocopied using images cut out and pasted onto a master, often with hand-written instructions about where, when and how much the gigs were. In terms of quality (not content), these are the sort of posters my young children make today. These fliers & posters were really crude; both in the sense of them being graphically unsophisticated and often in the sense of being vulgar. But that is part of their charm, punk challenged everyone, it was deliberately over the top, it wanted to upset you, it wanted to get under the skin of the establishment and it succeeded.

In the (slightly) later posters, you can see how the record companies must have seen the pound signs flashing and seen the opportunity to take advantage of the situation. They instinctively brought in the professionals to promote the bands and take them to the main stream. In the sense of the punk movement and music this must have looked like "selling out" but the upside of this is that they took the graphics to a different level and produced what are now iconic images of the 1970s eg the Public Image Limited and the Sex Pistols branding .

A really interesting half hour in an excellent gallery, just off Jermyn Street. Go and see for yourself.

Until next time...

Watch out for evil Guinea Pigs!

Hello again

I need to tell you about a terrifying experience I suffered this weekend.

My daughters have a Guinea Pig each; Polo (nearest the camera) and Cookie (in the background).

On the whole, I have no issue with their existence alongside mine, the girls love them, my wife loves them and they in return love the girls and my wife. When the girls or Teresa walk past the cage, Cookie and Polo put their front paws on the cage and tweet hellos to one and all.

It's not the case with me though, I get angry chirping noises. That aside, the pigs and I get along ok and although I occasionally try to buy there affection with celery or broccoli, we all know the real truth

On Saturday, I was sitting on the sofa minding my own business, fiddling about on my iPad whilst the girls and my wife had the Guinea Pigs out for a cuddle on the same sofa (I don't cuddle the pigs, I'm not keen on all that scratchy, scrabbling they do). Then, without any notice Polo leapt from my daughter, straight onto my throat. It was terrifying, like a flying fox jumping from one tree to another or that film with the vampire bats attacking the man. Shocked and terrified, I screeched like a little girl "get it off, get it off" only to see my wife and daughters laughing hysterically at the situation. After a few moments Daisy (9) picked it off me, still laughing.

The girls believe it was "just trying to say hello" but in hindsight, I think the Guinea Pig was giving me a warning - a bit like Chukky in the Child's Play horror film.

My card is marked

Until next time.

Bowood House

Hello again,

I had the pleasure of visiting Bowood House in Wiltshire last week. It is a really good example of an English country house, garden and park and well worth the time for a visit. We had the added pleasure of being escorted round the house by Lord Lansdowne who's wonderful enthusiasm really brought the history to life.

Like a lot of country houses, it has had a very chequered past with layers of history built by the family and, to top it off the parkland was designed and built in the 18th Century by Capability Brown and contains one of the best cascades in the country, designed by Hamilton.

Go see it

Until next time...

Look up and enjoy life

Hello again,

With busy lives, distractions and a world focused on doing it, doing it, doing it, it's easy to become jaded and not see the obvious beauty around you, beauty in many different forms.

Enjoy

Until next time...

Stuff it!

Hello again,

Knowing my peculiar penchant for unusual stuffed animals, we paid a visit to the Haunch of Venison gallery on Saturday, to look at Polly Morgan's first solo exhibition of taxidermy art, called Psychopomps.

This is taxidermy at another level; no sign of glass covered wildlife in "realistic" settings. Instead you see a flock of tiny finches flying up and taking with them their cage - stunning.

Luckily, at the same time, the gallery have a big, mixed media showcase of the Portuguese artist, Joana Vasconcelos. It is stunning: a darkened room with a maze of fibre optic flowers to follow, massive textile creations of embroidery, knitting and crochet, giant sized porcelain creatures wrapped in lace, a mechanical, factory style merry-go-round with porcelain dogs hanging by their collars and classical lifesize figures encapsulated in beautiful, black, skin tight lace.

Honestly, this exhibition is well worth going out of your way for, the images simply don't do it justice. Great, thought provoking work work in a fabulous setting. Don't muck about, just get down there and see for yourself - now, go on...

Haunch of Venison is at 6 Burlington Gardens, London W1S 3ET.

Until next time...