Beer Goggles in Birmingham

Hi!
We are back after a very busy few days in Birmingham. We were at the NEC for the Education Show 2014. We travelled down there early Thursday morning and went straight into Exhibition Hall 3 to start setting up. Darren and Nathan have got it down to a fine art now - less than 30 minutes. We had a slightly bigger stand than at Manchester - and were handily close to the café. That would mean lots of passing traffic!


Setting up for another show...

Plus our unique selling point - free biscuits went well with the coffees and teas coming past.  A great way to start chatting to someone. We did stress that each pack of luxury Borders biscuits came with a free leaflet!

The whole show was more colourful and fun than the previous ones. I don't know if there were more companies targeting primary schools but there were a lot of fun stands and lots of animals!

Playground Sheep :-)

Just hold out your hand...for the tarantula!

Not just the toy ones either. We saw dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs and The Animal Man had a snake and tarantula. He was happy to let anyone have a hold of them and get photographed doing it. I didn't have a go - would have been a bit harsh to deprive any of the bone fide visitors of a turn with them :-)




Although Nathan and I couldn't resist the Harry Potter Studio Tour stand. They had a green screen set up - with a broomstick in front of it. They let you don a cloak in the Hogwarts House of your choice and took your photo in front of the screen. Then within a few minutes produced a glossy photos of you playing Quidditch!

You can see out photos below - we really must go and check out the actual tour!

Playing Quidditch

The Snitch is over there....

I got a bit overexcited on Thursday when I saw the famous scientist Professor Brian Cox walking by our stand. All I could think of to say to him was "Would you like a leaflet?" while holding one out to him. He said "No thank-you" as he swept past on his way to the central arena for his Q&A session on how to make science more exciting in schools. Unfortunately we were all far too busy on out stand to go along and listen to him.

On Friday they had Dara O Briain - comedian and mathematician - also in the arena talking about the importance of science and maths. We missed that one too. I'm sure they were both inspirational though :-)

There were also lots of people there dressed in costume. There was a theatre group dressed in war uniforms, a Victorian lady selling costumes and some Shakespearean types selling comic (i.e. graphic novel-type versions)versions of his plays.



Just a normal day in Birmingham

Also, a random Gladiator walking around - not sure where he was from! But it was all good fun.

What we re made of...

The neighbours were pretty friendly too. We had a health education stand opposite. They had a lot of very interesting exhibits - like a series of test tubes with the amount of sugar from various fizzy drinks.

Also a lovely large chunk of body fat - right next to some lovely lean muscle. The funniest thing though was a pair of beer goggles - comedy glasses that simulated being drunk. The guys on the stand made visitors put them on and then try to walk in a straight line along the edge of the carpet. This resulted in a lot of hilarity as sober teaching types tried not to fall over in front of their giggling colleagues.

It was fun to watch.

Of course - we all worked very hard too - we had lots of people interested in the school apps and Nathan and Darren did a lot of demos. Jo and I handed out leaflets and asked every passing person if they wanted a biscuit/mint/school app. We got lots of leads and now we are back the hard work begins as Darren contacts everyone who expressed an interest in having a free trial and Nathan makes the apps for them.

The Health Education Stand

We stayed at the Novotel at the airport - which was really close to the NEC and the station. It is really convenient having it at the NEC. Everything you need is there - including a Wetherspoon's for breakfast!

Apparently Saturday was a really busy day - but sadly I wasn't able to have that day off work - so I came home on the train on Friday night all by myself. Luckily Jo and Darren's oldest son, Josh went down there to help out on the Saturday. I think he had a good time :-) Nathan said he actually held the tarantula - maybe it was a good thing I wasn't there to see that!



Me and Sid from Ice Age

 I did meet a famous film star though - and had my photo taken with him. He didn't say a lot though!


So, that is it for shows for a while. The next possible one could well be the Sunday Times Festival of Education in June. We've heard that it is held in a field and you have to go camping. I'm not sure about that!

So, before that N and I are hoping to have a little break. Maybe pop over to Jersey for a few days in May. N has been there before - for work - but I never have. It looks gorgeous - so I am looking forward to that.

Meanwhile this week sees Nathan's birthday! It is on Thursday - but I can't tell you what I have bought him until after then...

CUP Conference

Hello

It's quite exciting that this month sees the CUP Conference in London on 21st/22nd March. This year it is called The Management, Treatment & Future Perspectives of Cancer of Unknown Primary. It is an amazing achievement for the CUP Foundation to attract so many medical experts from all over the world. Let's hope it helps to bring accurate diagnosis of this baffling cancer closer. We need to know where our cancers started to make our treatment more targeted and effective.
I am still at a loss to know what kind of cancer I had - even though I have been successfully treated by the wonderful UHNS. Reading the stories on the website - not everyone with this disease has been so lucky.

It is only for medical professionals but I look forward to reading some of the presentations afterwards. It's great to know that people are getting together to share their practice and ideas. Hope it's a good one!



Just another day at Silverdale Library

On that note - the Book Group is thinking of doing the Race for Life again this year. It will be in June - so if any lady wants to join us this time - let me know :-) I will be registering soon. It will be fun and the atmosphere is so wonderful.


Had a fun week at work - mainly thanks to the poets of Keele. 

Their latest escapade ...I mean project... is Bards in the Bog. They wanted to put poems in the toilet in the library! Caroline gave them homework - to write some suitable material - then this week they presented me with the finished poems!  So, I put them in the library's smallest room. Something for customers to contemplate while they are using the facilities. :-) I came up with a sign to let people know.







Suitable reading materials?

It will be interesting to see what the reaction of my library users will be!


 Even more exciting - Caroline has also arranged for Joy Winkler, the former Cheshire Poet Laureate to bring TOWN to Silverdale.

It is a play/poem set to music and performed live. The link above shows a poster for a previous tour. I will link to our press release as soon as we have it ready!



It will be on 12th May in the library at 7.30pm. The tickets will be on sale soon for £5 - refreshments included!

It will be very exciting to have a live performance in the library. I am really looking forward to it! Let's hope we get lots of support from the community and beyond!

I have a short week at the library this week - as I am off to Education Show 2014 at the NEC in Birmingham on Thursday and Friday - with my Jigsaw School Apps Sales Executive hat on. Once again we are the stand (H83) with the free biscuits :-) So, we had a trip to Makro this weekend! Find out more about what we get up to over at the Jigsaw School Apps blog.






  

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 :-)


  





Scanned!

I went for my scan on Thursday! I was optimistic and only put 1 hour on the car parking ticket. It worked - we were in and out in no time! I didn't even get to wait in the waiting room and drink a pint (of water) I was just directed to the main area - and told to keep drinking the water I had with me. Then a nurse came to take me straight through to get undressed - I put on the gown and was called into the bright white CT scan room.

The technician said "Have you ever had a CT scan before, Bernadette?" I told him I'd had quite a few! So, he didn't go through all the explanation - just got on with it. This time I had to go through it with my arms above my head - while they scanned my torso - then put them down by my side while I was having my head and neck scanned. The only bit that hurt was when he ripped the plaster off my arm that had been holding the needle in place (for the iodine injection) Ouch!!

So, now it's just a waiting game to see what the results are. I know they have their Team meetings on Mondays - so maybe they'll look at it then. I am sure I'll hear something quickly if there's a problem - so no news will be good news!!

Tracy and Al

Had a lovely meal on Friday night with Tracy (the Lady Trucker!!) and her hubby Al (also a Mobile Library driver). It as lovely to catch up and we did get a bit tiddly. We enjoyed a meal and some wine - then the males of the party decided it would be a good idea to try some Sambuca - with coffee beans in the bottom. Apparently you are supposed to light this on fire before drinking! Since none of us had a match or lighter - two ladies from the next table lent us theirs and looked on in amusement while Al and Nathan tried to light the drinks. They just succeeded in getting the lighter sticky with the liqueur before handing it back. I don't think they were too impressed!

We just had to drink it as it was - then tried some red and black Sambuca. I was the only one who had to get up the next morning!! I did look a little bleary-eyed in the library - but luckily it wasn't too busy. :-)

Last night when we went out to meet up with Danilo, I offered to drive so I wouldn't need to drink anything! Danilo is down from Edinburgh and it was lovely to see him again. We had a very nice Thai meal and good conversation. Nathan always says that Dan is the most intelligent person he knows - so we talked about Scottish devolution, banking, how to make Pi (not the kind you eat!) We did manage to perplex him though - Nathan told him about the magic trick that Morgan and West had performed on him when we went to see them back in November. He could not work out how they did it! It was the one where they got N to pick a random Harry Potter book - go to a page chosen by the audience - pick a word somewhere in the middle. After much showmanship they had the exact word circled on the exact page - that was in an envelope in Nathan's pocket.


We still have the page - and it was definitely from the book he chose!

Nathan choosing a word..

Dan said he'd always thought that these kind of mind-reading tricks were done with a stooge from the audience who was in on it - but knowing that it had happened to Nathan - he couldn't work it out. Hope it didn't keep him awake too long in the night!

In the meantime we are getting prepared for the Education Innovation Conference and Exhibition in Manchester next week! We will be back in our Jigsaw School Apps shirts and drumming up lots of business!

I'll report back on how that goes - looking forward to it!

Scanxiety time again.....

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At last I've managed to sort out a date for my scan. There seems to have been a change in procedure since I had my last one. Usually they send you a date for the scan and then a couple of days before that day you pop into a local Vampire Sanctuary and get them to extract your blood. This is then sent off to the hospital so they can check your vital signs before they do the deed.

So, I have been hanging on to my blood envelope waiting for a date - so I know when to go to give up my blood. So I waited, and waited... and no date came through. I tried to call Appointments  - but always seemed to be 10th in the queue, so I didn't hang on. Eventually I got through and they told me they didn't need them - I should call Mr Hughes's secretary. She explained that they don't send you a date for your scan until they have received your blood! As they hadn't had any of mine - they had cancelled the scan request! She told me to get it done and then let her know right away.

So I went up to Bradwell Hospital last Wednesday to let them stick a needle in my arm and drain it off! It is obviously a very popular pastime - as there was a massive queue. Everyone wants a go! :-)

Then I let Nurse Wendy know and also called ENT.  I got a letter through - it is going to be on Thursday 20th February at 11am. So, I am pleased that is sorted. It's almost a year since the last one so fingers crossed...



Barbara and Peter

Dad likes chocolate cake!

In other news, it is my mum and dad's wedding anniversary today! We went out for lunch at The Wheatsheaf in Cheadle to celebrate  with them and Dom, Sharon and Sarah. Then back to theirs for cake and games. We played Smart Ass - which is not that easy as it seems to be very American. Still, it was fun! Sarah wanted to play the Spoons card game - which she won! Then of course no family gathering is complete without a game of Poppywally!




Back to work tomorrow. It is half-term so I guess we'll have a few more younger ones I ! In fact over the next fortnight we are doing a National Children's Survey - so I will be attempting to hand out and explain the forms to every child between 5 -11, get them to fill them in and put them in a box. Also record any refusals. Wish me luck!!

No more rain puddles!

Almost done!

The outside of the library is being improved for access. They are putting in a better ramp with handrails and trying to make the drainage work better so that the rain does not come under the door and wet the carpet. It is looking much  better already. Hopefully they'll be back to finish it tomorrow.
I was very impressed that the Poets managed to carry on their class despite the pneumatic drills and steam roller.

They are working on their Bards in the Bog project - where they are coming up with poems that I can put in the public toilet for people to read and reflect on while they are in there. It is coming up with some interesting results! More on this in a  later blog....

A little bit of Full Frontal Nerdity...

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Life is getting back to normal after Bett. I am back in my library coping with the variable weather. The other day it was beautiful and sunny - with brightness sparkling through all the windows.

Silverdale in sunshine :-)

Then a few hours later it was raining so hard there was a lake outside the door and it was raining in through the roof in the office. I had to put bins under the drips until the roofing people could get over and fix it!

I do feel quite lucky that we live here in the Midlands though - and not by the coast or near a raging river. I feel for anyone who has been flooded or had their electricity cut off. We have it easy here.

On Saturday night we went over to Stafford to the Gatehouse Theatre to see Festival of the Spoken Nerd: Full-Frontal Nerdity.

We went with Janet and Terry. Although I think Janet misheard us when we said nerdity and enthusiastically agreed to come with us before she realised the truth :-) Heehee. They both enjoyed it though!




Toroidal Vortex

 Featuring a stand-up Mathematician, Matt Parker, a scientist Steve Mould (inventor of the "Mould Effect" :-) and Helen Arney who makes up songs about science, it is a funny and quirky show - with real flashes of danger.

They plug a pickle into the mains and create a fire tornado in direct contravention of all Health and Safety laws. Nathan was keen to try that at home as we have a waste paper bin exactly like the one they used. Fortunately we don't have a Lazy Susan though - phew!

The most impressive part as where they demonstrated a Toroidal Vortex.

They filled what looked like a kiddies play tunnel with smoke and then blew smoke rings with it. They were surprisingly powerful. They tapped it from the stage and knocked a lady's hat off at the back! Amazing.

You should see them if you can!!




Back to the present though and it is pouring with rain again! Poor Nathan has a bad cold - which is not good as he has so much work to do since Bett - as the orders come in.

We are all gearing up for the Education Innovation Conference & Exhibition 2014 in Manchester at the end of the month.

New Career - Sales Executive! :-)

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Hi!

We are back from a great few days at the ExCel Centre in London's Docklands at the Bett Show 2014.
To be honest I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it. Four days of handing out leaflets and encouraging people to have a demo of the Jigsaw School Apps sounded a bit daunting for a shy librarian like myself :-) Also, sounded like hard work too!



My new job title :-)

However, I absolutely LOVED it! I met some really nice, interesting people and everyone was so lovely. Yes - our feet did hurt after four long days but it was totally worth it! I was very proud of my "sales executive" badge.



We stayed in the Ibis hotel near London City Airport so that we could walk into the ExCel each morning. Then in the evening we just about managed to hobble to the pub in between (the excellent Fox @ Connaught)  for food and a reviving drink before hobbling back to the hotel for an early night, so we'd be ready for the next day!

Nathan and his business partner Darren had gone down lunchtime on the Tuesday - so that they could set up the stand the day before it started. I met them that evening after I had finished work and caught the train down. I said "Okay - what is the plan for tomorrow then?" and they said "No plan - we'll just wing it!" It was the first time they had exhibited at such a show, In fact, none of us had been to the Bett Show before. We had no idea what to expect. They were a little worried by the size and showiness of some of the other huge stands. I think we felt we would be sad and ignored up the corner.



Our first time!

However, we nervously paced up and down the carpet as we waited for the Bett lady to announce that Bett 2014 was open at 10am on the Wednesday. Before long there were people walking towards us. It started a little hesitantly but soon there were many visitors to the stand. I discovered that if you didn't make eye contact and give them a leaflet they wouldn't necessarily stop. But as soon as they realised what they were doing - they were happy to have a demo of how great their apps could look and how easy it was to put content into the apps from the web-based control panel.




Almost ready for business!

Nathan and Darren were great at giving demos - so enthusiastic and funny. They know the products inside out as this whole concept is their baby. It really shows that they care about getting everything perfect. So many people were impressed - especially with the new feature they were launching - the translation service. It means that parents can download the app for free from their app store (and they are the only ones to include Windows phones as well) and then choose what language they would like to read the content in. Many schools have parents who do not have English as their first language and we stressed how important parent engagement was. Also the survey feature means that schools can get instant feedback from parents - another thing Ofsted are very keen on.




Okay - bring it on!

After listening to demos for four days I think I know everything about these apps now :-)

Friday was the busiest day and at one point there were queues waiting for demos! I got so used to saying "Are you interested in school apps? School to home communication?" Quite often someone would say no, then take a leaflet , start reading it- then back up and say "Actually yes we are! We were discussing this last week"

I said to one lady - "Would you like to come back later when they are not so busy?" but she said "No, I'll wait here until they are free!"




Lots of interest......

Free biscuits and mints :-)

It was lovely to see so much interest - after the months of hard work they have put into this. What we didn't realise was that there would be so many visitors from overseas. We had a member of the government of Trinidad and Tobago - responsible for 50 English-speaking schools, who was enthusiastic about the idea. A man with an awesome beard from Egypt and two principals from the International School in Vienna. All left their contacts so that we could send them more details. Altogether by the end of the show they had over 250 contact details from people who were really interested. Not bad for a tiny stand in a huge hall! We were ecstatic to see that we had far more visitors than the big shiny stand opposite. They had a staff of around 10 who were constantly on their phones looking bored!





The iWipey!

We had a staff of three - although we had four on the Thursday and Friday  when Darren's lovely wife Jo came down to help them out. It was nice to have two of us handing out leaflets - they had to give twice as many demos! It also meant we could go for more breaks to have a sit down. You could see the exhibitors in the food hall - the ones who looked in pain as they walked or stood in the food queues!

We'll have to see how many of these contacts turn into orders. We gave out almost 2500 leaflets too. As well as schools they also had interest and offers from other companies who want to work with them. -  who were also exhibiting. They have lots to think about in the next few weeks.

I also enjoyed walking around to look at some of the other exhibits. There was so much going on all the time. We were giving away iwipeys - branded to Jigsaw School Apps. To be honest N and D spent almost as much time explaining what they were and how they worked - as they did the apps! :-)





Frog!!

Lots of others were giving away pens - but the most prolific free gift were the lovely frog bags - they were shiny and big and colourful and had a frog on them. I didn't see anyone without one or two! Not sure what Frog do though!

Another stand that made us smile was the BT Global Cloud Sharing one - it was some kind of RV that had been parked in the middle of the hall. It reminded us of the RV in Breaking Bad - so Nathan just referred to it as the "meth lab". I got him to take a photo of me sitting on its steps :-)

The "mobile meth lab"

Where's it all gone?

So, after four fun, exciting, busy and tiring days we had to dismantle the stand and get out of the ExCel Hall in half an hour. That's when they started pulling the carpets up to allow the lorries and fork lift trucks in to dismantle and move the bigger stands.

We feel that Jigsaw School Apps has been successfully launched upon the world :-)
It was so great that when we got back home Nthan and Darren signed up to go to the Education Innovation Conference 2014 in Manchester on 27th and 28th of February. I enjoyed this so much I've booked two more days holiday so I can go along and hand out leaflets again!