My Wealth Creation Journey

Day 429 - Tuesday 30th June 2009

Early start this morning, making a list of tasks to do today. It is the month end at Deliver Net, well one of two month ends, they have to run certain reports for customers for the position at the end of the month, although the official month end for them has been moved back to Sunday 5th July.

Following on from the meeting in Wolverhampton yesterday I have to prepare a response for Select Hire (part of Laing O`Rourke)  on a summary of the scope of our contribution to the One Hyde Park project. At this moment in time no figures are required for the document, just a general understanding of the project and how we would feature in it.

Speaking with Eddie Dillon - Promedia Ltd (he's a website man and also a semi-pro photographer), we were working on a project for a company down in Moor Park called Andard Mount. About 6 months ago I put a proposal to sort out their IT to them, but nothing happened. They continue to be disatisfied with what is going on with their current IT provider and Eddie and I could combine (again) to help them move to a more reliable and stable platform combined with our i-Tr@der Business Platform.

Anyhow the meeting goes quite well everything seems fine, now we just have to wait and see what they are going to do next. Eddie will submit his proposal this afternoon, I have agreed to send through my recommendations and costings tomorrow morning.

Urfi ( Urban progress TTPro ) has been over this morning working with Otis on the Table Tennis Blog. This is coming together now although Urfi knows he has a fair amount of content to write for this to become the finished article.

Configuring up the application for Major Plants I realise I do not have their Bank Account set up, so I text Andras to get this over to me ASAP, perhaps we will not be able to go live on this until tomorrow, although a little later on I see Andras & Cjaba putting on an Invoice already, which I quickly put a stop to!

My Mum is home from Hospital, they released her at 1pm, then she had to wait downstairs in the 'departure lounge' for over 3 hours to be dispensed with the drugs to take home... I cannot believe how still ver innefficient we are in the Health Service after all the money that has been thrown at it!

Table Tennis again tonight, new Rubbers on the blade and raring to go. Going to be a very warm one though, about 32c today, so it will be 30c minimum in the hall playing for over 2 hours will have to take a couple of spare shirts that's for sure!

Day 428 - Monday 29th June 2009

Very early start this morning I have an 8:00am appointment in Wolverhampton! That's a 5am start followed by a 120 mile or so drive. Well the purpose of the meeting is to review our element of the reconstruction of the London Heathrow Terminal 2 building.

Many of the components for the Build task will be manufactured off site and then bolted together on site later on. The storage of these modules needs to be managed and then controlled onto site with a full audit of what has happened at every stage. Our software being web-based is a Technology currently being used for the consolidation centre (stock management for the fit out) on the One Hyde Park project in London and is working very well, so an adaption of that can be used to support this project as well.

The meeting goes well and on the way back I am passing by Margaret and Keith's in Coventry. These are ver old friends of the family and I surprise my mother (who is still in hospital) with a call from there. Handing over the phone for Marg. to speak with my mum was a pleasant surprise for her. They haven't spoken in a while and not met since last year so that was good.

Back down at the ranch, the weather is steaming, circa 30c today and very hot. This afternoon, I need to progress a few things with the side project and find out how the design registration meeting went with the product designer and the solicitors involved.

It seems like for £950 we can register the design to cover the entire EU, all 27 member states and this also provides us with protection for 6 months in the US during which time me must file officially. So the next task is Trademark Registration and protecting both the name and the logo, if we need to do both?

Table Tennis tonight... I have had no time to put onto my blade the new Table Tennis rubbers that I have purchased. I have been trying Stiga Boost as an alternative set of rubbers but it is just not the same, much less control, so I have reverted. Tonight will be the last night with the old rubbers, tomorrow will be back to my tried and tested Bryce!

Day 427 - Sunday 28th June 2009

Cooked breakfast this morning, fresh tomatoes, bacon, toast, two poached eggs... pretty good and no oil in sight ! Later than expected therefore getting started on the work. Mother was a bit tearful yesterday as progress had been slow and she asked me not to go in yesterday, but I will nip down there later on tonight and see how she is.

Finished off the update of all the servers and testing the new Quotation module. There is a missing file for this which I need to get resolved and so send an email to my colleague to get this sorted first thing tomorrow morning.

Andras arrives now from Major Plants they provide Window boxes and Hanging baskets all irrigated with their own special systems to pubs, hotels, restaurants and even councils. The owner and majority shareholder has gone back to Hungary, my friend is working the business from the UK, and so they need a system which they can interact with from anywhere hence i-Tr@der.

Andras stays until 4:45pm and then I have to get on with a few other things, preparing for tomorrow, sorting out the jobs for the week and then preparing to head off to the hospital at 6:15pm.

My mother is doing ok, just I think they are overdosing her on the blood pressure tablets as she is feeling dizzy everytime she stands up and her blood pressure drops like a stone. No one is keen to adjust anything until the doctor arrives in the morning. Being as my mother's operation was delayed due to lack of beds, the presence of now 5 empty beds appears a little strange... I guess scheduling beds is not easy either ??

More Seafood tonight, Trout with Atlantic prawns in a philadelphia cheese dressing served with a side salad dressed in delightful balsamic vinagarette!

Day 426 - Saturday 27th June 2009

A reasonably early start this morning 7:30am there are quite a few things to get done today, the most important of which is to install upgrades on all our servers to bring them into line. I spent a bit of time yesterday getting organised, this morning I'm just preparing on the USB Memory stick the directories and making sure that I have everything in place and in the right sequence to just start uploading everything.

I'm cooking seafood tonight and so have to stop my uploading for a bit to go out and get provisions. £50 worse off but a pile of food that should go through into next week!

Straight into a bit of social networking for a bit of light relief, before back into the uploading, now working my way through the second machine. Was supposed to be seeing Andras from Major Plants this afternoon as they are to start using the i-Tr@der system, but he's coming over tomorrow instead now.

6pm knocking off for the day, got quite a lot done, but I must admit it is taking longer than expected but better to be cautious and do it right than make a mess of things. The heavens open at about 6:20pm it's a pretty heavy downfall that goes on for two hours, with the full monty of Thunder and Lightening.

Very enjoyable fish food supper washed down with some white wine & red later on.... summer nights, pretty good and very warm !

Day 425 - Friday 26th June 2009

A bit of accounting work to sort out this morning. I open up the VAT return looking to sort that out and get a pleasant surprise that it's not due for another month. So no need to rush into doing all of that although I want to pay a couple of suppliers so this does need doing.

Allocation of some cash and send out some statements with covering emails. Then sort out one or two payments and then Karen Birch is over to review my new project. She loves the unit and gets quite excited about the whole project. I'm emphasising that for me the Logo and the packaging are the key things here, as the unit will be going into a retail environment and it has to look the part. After some really good ideas, a bit of brainstorming and looking at my first unit Karen is off with a brief to fire over a quote for me later on today.

Next is Ben Jennings! Ben is a gifted artist and his involvement in this project is to do the drawings for the assembly of the product. I do not want there to be any language involved so that the artwork can be universal and work in any country. Ben is suitably impressed with the product, we take lots of pictures and then Ben is away. He will do the artwork over the weekend and get back to us early next week.

In the afternoon I have to drop my prototype back over to the designer. He will be going over to the Solicitors Monday to get the Registration rolling I'm unfortunately going to be in Wolverhampton, so I have to drop it back this afternoon as he will need it for that meeting.

Back at base I'm starting to prepare a business structure for the new project and suggest to my business partner that we set up a new business to manage this as it is really nothing to do with our IPS software business except for the players involved. Meeting set for next Wednesday afternoon to review this.

Back to the hospital tonight, 6:30pm until 7:00pm as I'm off to play Table Tennis tonight wih Roger. Going to be a warm one again tonight. Mum is OK except frustrated that she cannot really get up because of this Blood pressure dropping, she is also unable to eat much, her appetite has gone with the nausea... lets see what the weekend brings !

Day 424 - Thursday 25th June 2009

Normal up and at it this morning, trying to get some basic jobs out of the way first thing. I'm sorting out the various upgrades that have to be performed on all the machines. One of our new customers Yellow Pig and also Hysen and starting to play with the Quotations module which needs a couple of amendments that they have spotted.

Now I have to combine 3 upgrades and a fourth into a sequence and then think about what is working on which server ready to do the work over the weekend. We will have to get a more systematic approach once we grow a bit, hopefully in the coming months.

Tomorrow is changing rapidly, was going to be Registered Design, followed by meeting with Ben Jennings who is going to create the Assembly instructions for the new product and then Packaging Design with Karen Birch - Velvet Designs. Now the Registration process has slipped to Monday although I can't make that and Karen wants to come in at 9:30am... so all will be ok I guess.

Otis is late in this morning another 4Networking meeting out in Aylesbury. The meeting went well he claims however we have to start seeing some return on our investment before long !

I'm ordering up some Table Tennis rubbers for Roger and myself today. I can't get on with the Stiga Boost rubber and so will revert to Bryce which I have been happy with for years.

Booked a flight to Northern Ireland for the 6th returning on the 7th, but looks like I might have to change this as well, James has people staying with him and although Bed and Breakfast is a possibility I think it would be better to come back on the same day.

Off to the hospital to see my mother, going to only stay for half an hour of so as I've got a coaching session down at Barnet in the evening at 7:30pm. Mum is still anxious that she is making a slow recovery, but at 74 following a major operation and only two days I explain she needs a little more patience!!

Day 423 - Wednesday 24th June 2009

My mother texted me at 7:05 am to tell me that she is well after the operation yesterday. A fair amount of pain between the hip and the knee but they are managing this with pain killers quite well she said.

I'm taking a few pictures of my prototype to send to various people today. Morris, Ian (colleague) and my customer Ian (Kan). Initial responses are all positive, so we are looking good to go. The only slight fly in the ointment is that the bags which just arrived are too small, for some bizarre reason I did not look at the length on the technical drawing spec and so what I have ordered won't work. Never mind we can use this for another purpose... again more on that later on.

I have a chat with my designer we will go together and register the design on Friday morning here in Watford and also transfer the copyright to my name. Just need to talk to the fabricators now to give the green light and push the button for the first 200 to be made.

Catching up with last few days blog posts this morning before working with Otis on his contacts that he has made over the past few weeks at the 4Networking meeting. The quotation module needs a couple of amendments picked up by the customers initial trials and Ian and I also discuss a few other matters relating to images.

Otis is on the the Money Gym Gold phone call this morning with Nicola and Judith. Otis chips in here and there on our new wireless mobile phone (£12) in Asda's (last of the big spenders!).

Would like to get on with th e-book today, but there are so many bits a pieces going on at the moment, that I'm struggling to get any time away to get on with book writing! Odd requests in from Deliver Net, Kan and also Hysen start to drag my time away.

Off to see my mother down at the Hospital this evening. 6:30pm till 7:30pm. She is feeling ok after her hip operation although struggling to get up as her blood pressure drops when she stands up. Hopefully this will sort itself out over the next few days.

Day 422 - Tuesday 23rd June 2009

Lots of fiddly jobs to get done this morning. Major Plants, handed over to Otis but I still need to say what needs doing. Also we have some new features to hand over to Deliver Net. This requires us to set up a new desktop and for the life of me I can't find the programs that need to be put on the desktop. In the end I have to go back to my colleague Ian and get them for the third time.

I've finished off the last job for the quotations now which is the Button images and they are all uploaded. I tell both Mittal at Hysen International and also Sean at Yellow Pig and they will now at least be able to start playing around with the programs to see how they are.

Ian (my colleague) is now working on the Image routines for the quotations which will allow us to display from a library which could be held on any machine on any server on the Internet. The whole idea when dealing with Promotional merchandising companies and large volumes of products / images is to try and make the maintenance as simple as possible.

During the morning I get a call from our Fabrication people, they have the prototype ready for inspection. So at 3pm I'm heading down to slough to check it out. The initial version doesn't work horror of horrors, but with a slight adjustment we are in business! The product is looking good. I swing back via my Design guy to show him the product and we agree it is looking good. I will instruct the fabicators to proceed with the product tomorrow and we will take delivery early next week.

My mother has had the operation this afternoon, a quick call to the hospital reveals that she has been back on the ward for around 10 minutes, but everything went according to plan, even with a very high blood pressure reading!

Now 20 minutes to get to Argos and pick up my Cheval Mirror! All done and dusted in 10 minutes and managed to sneak into the bank car park for free!

Good day so far, 15 minutes to get changed take a quick shower, then off to Table Tennis again. Has been a pretty hectic day again !

Day 421 - Monday 22nd June 2009

I've decided on my schedule for the trips in July. I will be wanting to go to Ireland week commencing the 29th June, to Kharkov over the weekend of the 10th July and then to the Orkneys probably on the 17th or perhaps the weekend after. Just got to get all the flights sorted out now !

Getting a few emails out of the way before heading out to Wembley. I am training the new subcontractors who have been brought in to do the Painting on the One-Hyde-Park project and so will be taking them through how they are to liaise with the consolidation centre and get product both in and out of the facility.

The Wembley consolidation centre is starting to get pretty busy, I have to navigate my way around 5 trucks to get into the yard! The warehouse is also filling up now. They have a fork lift truck driver who has walked out, they have the office admin lady on a two week vacation and a driver on holiday as well, so it is bedlam down there today!

The training goes well and I pop into Ikea (for the first time ever, can you believe that?) to see if they have a cheval mirror (free standing mirror) for the bedroom. Wandered around for 20 minutes couldn't find anything so decide to investigate and order via the Internet. Success a faily low cost item for Argos which has had reasonable customer feedback. Reserved... will pick up before close of play tomorrow.

Back at the ranch in the afternoon, complete uploading the remaining items for the Quotation module we have written. I have been asked for a couple of reports from Deliver Net, so I attend to these and a conversation with George to sort out the auto cash allocation process ready for when they have the spreadsheets prepared.

My polystyrene blocks have arrived for side project I am working on and it will soon be possible to reveal all. This is getting pretty exciting now! Just the labels and Double sided sellotape to go now!

Table tennis tonight, it is a very warm day, so likely to be a sweaty affair this evening !

Day 420 - Sunday 21st June 2009

A bit of a lie in this morning up at 9am. Straight onto a lot of little jobs this morning and hopefully writing some of the e-book later on this afternoon.

A bit of social networking this morning, then onto working on the Laing O`Rourke setup ready for the training on Monday morning. I speak with Craig Dealey my ex-brother inlaw who got us involved with Laing`s and gave him a quick update on how it was going. I mentioned the Terminal 2 project at Heathrow that it looks like we may get involved in. He was aware of that but also he said our name has been linked with another project as well to do with vehicle scheduling. I was aware of this although it is £20k investment or so and at the moment there is a capex expediture freeze going on. we'll see!

Finished off setting up the Major Plants system for Andras and sent Otis an email for a few things for him to finish off to complete this. He can attend to this while I am out tomorrow. Going over to Asda's now just around 2pm and will nip over to see my mother for the last time before she goes in for her operation.

Back at the ranch now, check in with Otis, he is moving into his new flat today and is painting and cleaning ready to move his furniture in on Tuesday morning. Everything is going ok although he confesses that he won't want to move house again for a very long time! Longest day of the year today so he won't forget the date he moved in !

Cooking again tonight, some Beef, Lamb and Chicken with salad and Onion rings... nice!