Time for catch-up!

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Hi!

It seems ages since I posted - I really need to make more time for this because I enjoy writing it :-)

The thing is that I also write the blog for Jigsaw School Apps now - and we have been pretty busy with that recently with all the exhibitions and education shows. The next one is in Birmingham at the NEC on 20th-22nd March.

I even tried learning how to write a press release - and was really pleased when the first one I wrote appeared on the business pages of The Sentinel! It's fun learning new things and helping out the business! :-)








Okay you've got 30 minutes - go!!!

We had a good time at Manchester at Education Innovation. It wasn't so vast as BETT - so there were not as many people exhibiting. It wasn't as far to walk to get lunch either! It was really well organised and we managed to set up our stand in 30 minutes!








Biscuits - ready!

It is a beautiful building inside - all windows and an enormous clock. It was nice to meet lots of people with Lancashire accents (it's where I was born!) There were not as many people who had come from overseas for this one.









Nathan and Darren - ready!

There was only one slight hiccup - when  we looked at the exhibition guide - that all the visitors were consulting and carrying round to plan who they wanted to visit - we discovered we were in the index - but not actually in the main body of the brochure. That meant that no-one knew we were there - or knew what we did! (Although they do pretty much what it says on the tin - heehee!)

When Darren and Nathan spoke to the organisers - they allowed us to put one of our banners in the foyer - so that people would see it on their way in as they registered and picked up their badges. They also let us put our leaflets out there too.



Our banner in the Main Entrance :-)

We had more than one person say "Oh - you are the guys that are advertising out the front!" - so it must have worked! 

Leaflets at the registration Desk :-)



Manchester Central from the outside.

Demo in full swing!

We had very nice neighbours at the show too. The people across sold staging and seating for school halls. They also had some lovely book boxes and trolleys that would have looked very nice in my library :-) Shame we don't have the budget for them right now. It would have solved my problem of where to put kids picture books that are just too big for the kinder boxes we have them in now.

View from inside the stand - looking out.






 



From big mess on the floor...

We also had the amazing Pop-Up Classroom nearby too. They arrived on the first morning and put a large deflated balloon-type object on the floor - and within minutes it blew up into an awesome classroom - complete with projectors that made the windows change from being underwater to being out in space or in the Grand Canyon! They looked really good - but it did cost around £17,000 for one!






....to Classroom!!






 

 So, we have a couple of weeks respite - then we pack up the banners and biscuits again and head off to Birmingham! They are fun to do - but very tiring!!

In health news - still no news from my scan - so I take that as good news - I think that they'll just give me the results at my next check-up at the beginning of April.

Things at the library are fine - remember when the Knit and Natter group made  all those tiny hats for Innocent Smoothies last year? It was part of their campaign to raise money for old people? Well this week a card arrived at the library addressed to them. This is what was inside:




I thought that was really nice :-)
I have been doing some overtime!! On my day off on Wednesday I went don to Stafford and worked in the Bibs department. There is a backlog of invoices - which is holding up everyone being able to put out their new books. So, it looks like I might be doing that for a few Wednesdays to come. Hopefully it won't take too long to catch up.

Last Sunday N and I were lucky enough to be invited to N's friend Ian's daughter's baptism. It took place at Wolstanton Methodist Chapel and it was really nice! I was very impressed how well it was organised - they have two big screens up at the front - so you don't have to get the hymn book out and find the right number - everything that is happening is put up on the screen.

The service even include a "Drama" - when three of the congregation got up onto the altar and performed a short play - it was very funny and there was so much laughing going on! I am not used to that in a church (being catholic!!) Then after that - the minister was putting up messages in code and we had to decode them with the code sheet we had been handed when we came in! It was very entertaining!

Baby Miriam Rebecca was very well behaved throughout! She looked a little dubious when the minister carried her down the church so that everyone could meet her - but she was fine once she was back with her mum!

The party afterwards was at Hanchurch Village Hall - which wasn't far away. The cake looked amazing - made by Miriam's grandma. It was pure white outside - and rainbow coloured inside! Everyone was very impressed.

Miriam fell asleep after a while - but we hope that she liked the book we bought her - a slip-cased edition of all Beatrix Potter's Tales.

 I think that a book is the perfect present for any occasion :-)