…grayblog…

Category: work

  • Roundup

    Very very busy and also likely to be away from my PC for much of this week, so expect quiet.
    The plant fair at Pashley was very successful – thanks to everyone who turned up. I got slightly sunburnt, which considering that the original forecast was for rain was quite an achievement.

  • PPPoE or PPPoA?

    Taking up BT on their broadband upgrade offer? I have, and now surf twice as fast as I did yesterday – if I was nearer to the exchange, I’d be going twice as fast again.
    But, if you do, please note that you need to change from PPPoE to PPPoA. If you don’t, you’ll be sitting looking at your PC all day, wondering why you have no broadband connection. Not that I know anyone who did that, of course.
    It would have been useful if BT had alerted users to that in advance.
    And I have no idea what PPPoE and PPPoA stand for. Or what it means.

  • Quiet

    It’s been quiet here lately. I promise that I’ll try to write more soon, as well as post some photos from a few recent outings.
    In the meantime, please note that this Sunday sees the twenty-second plant fair at Pashley Manor Gardens to have been organised by yours truly. Your attendance will be appreciated – there will be cake.

  • Plugin for Outlook

    Do you use Outlook? Hopeless at backing up? Then use this plugin to automate backups of your Outlook folders. How handy.

  • .eu

    .eu domains to be available by year end.
    PFE will be applying for one of these, although to be in the first wave, you must hold a trademark or some other intellectual property – a sensible move, I think, to stop cybersquatting. I’ve been thinking about trademarking my company’s name, and now seems to be the time to do that.
    There is a FAQ here about the new TLD.
    You can find out about EU trademarks here.

  • Call centre mirth

    *ring ring* *ring ring*

    PFE, good afternoon.
    Hello, can I speak to…. pppfffft *snigger* *snigger*

    *click*

    1471 – number withheld. Obviously a slow Friday in some call centre somewhere.

  • Number crunching

    I’ve spent much of the day working on PFE’s accounts for the year ending 31 December 2004, and I’ve achieved quite a lot:

    • tallied the entire year’s expenditure records and reconciled them with the bank statements, for transactions in Sterling and in euro (PFE is a dual-currency business – I leave my accountant to reconcile it all into a single financial statement suitable for the tax man and Companies House)
    • tallied the additional personal investment made by me in 2004 (not insignificant, it turns out)
    • tallied the income records for the year (again, in two currencies)

    I’ve still got several things to do, most notably to get my mileage records for 2004 into a format that is suitable for presentation to the powers-that-be (i.e. not scribbled on the back of an envelope) and compile the list of creditors and debtors at year end. In summary, performance is in line with expectations. The turnover is around twice that of the preceding year, and is expected to continue to grow in 2005. Additional revenue streams will come online in the current year and it is projected that PFE will break even in the current year, depending on trading conditions.
    Of course, the main thing is that PFE retains the confidence of its principal creditor (me). I expect that the full financial report will be ready by the end of next month when it shall be presented to the AGM of shareholder (note singular).

  • Sad loss of a horticultural hero

    I’m a week late with this, but I’ve only just heard – Alan Bloom, possibly the greatest perennial plants advocate and enthusiast of the 20th century, has died aged 98.
    Alan Bloom was a great influence on me as I came into the horticulture industry. I’ve read most of his books, including the excellent Plantsman’s Progress, which covers not only his background in horticulture, but also his relationships with parents and children, touching on Fenland life. His enthusiasm and passion for perennials, illustrated by the way he developed a large perennial-growing nursery at a time when shrubs and low-maintenance gardens were the fashion, as well as his co-founding of the Hardy Plant Society, were rewarded with an MBE as well as the two highest honours in horticulture – the Veitch Memorial Medal and the Victoria Medal of Honour.
    He cut a slightly eccentric figure. His hooped earrings and long flowing hair marked him out as slightly different from most (rather staid) horticulturalists. He had a passion for plants matched only by his passion for steam power (he collected many engines for his museum at Bressingham, Norfolk). He was also a Quaker and, judging by his autobiography, something of a rebel who was not afraid to stand up against the "perceived wisdom". He did much to popularise perennials, both through his media appearances and also through his development of the "island bed" technique of displaying them, and it is probably fair to say that I might not be doing what I am doing today if it had not been for his efforts in this field.
    There were to be special open days of his Dell Garden at Bressingham Hall this summer for the HPS. Knowing his great age, I had planned to attend in order to meet the great man before he died. Unfortunately, that opportunity is now lost. Instead, a tribute day will be held there on 21 June to celebrate his life in the garden he created, a garden which features some of the 200 or so plants that he bred and developed. Some of those plants are growing at my parents’ nursery, and I’ll be planting one or two in the garden here.

  • Poor decision?

    If I’d been advising the breeder of this new plant, I would probably have advised against selling the rights for £150,000, even though that is a good price. Sales of 30,000 in the UK alone in year one would return royalties in the order of £15,000. Add sales of probably five to ten times that volume in the United States, and the same again in the rest of the world, then, even after paying an agent’s commission, you should reach that asking price in a year or two. And then, after that, you’ll be getting similar royalties continuing for the next twenty years or so. Not bad if you can get it.
    The shame, of course, is that I’m not representing this plant. I’ll not be earning that commission. Plants with that sort of market power are very few and far between, coming along perhaps once in ten or twenty years.

  • More quiet

    Been out all day visiting clients in Norfolk. Driven lots. Tired. But a successful day, nonetheless. More exciting content tomorrow.