Failure is the Key to Success

My brother and his wife had their first child this morning.

We went into Luton this afternoon to get presents for Mother’s Day next weekend. As usual, we had a look at Ashby Arts and Crafts in Luton indoor market. They are always a good place to get cards and collectables. We always used to get our Discworld figures there.

The market is being refurbished and it is total chaos in there at the moment. Sadly Ashby Arts and Crafts are closing their shop after 20 years. They do have a website www.AshbyArtsandCrafts.com and will continue trading through that.

The school’s Ofsted results were sent home today. The school achieved a 2, good overall, with 20 of the 26 graded scoring a 2 (good). During the summing up, the inspectors commented that it was a school to be really proud of.

This result is an indication of the hard work that all of the staff have put in to the school.

My car battery failed this morning. I found out when I got into the car to go to work and it wouldn’t start. It hadn’t lasted too badly; it was fitted just over 4 years ago when the previous one failed at the petrol pump in Tesco. That time the AA came out, diagnosed the problem, started the car and then took me to a local supplier where we got a battery and then the AA man fitted it.

The level of service has changed a bit in the last 4 years. The man arrived after about 45 minutes, which was quite good first thing in the morning. He quickly diagnosed the battery as faulty and needing to be replaced. He didn’t have a battery on the van and so that was the end of it. I was recommended to go to Halfords to get the battery replaced and not to stop the engine until it was replaced. Not exactly service with a smile.

I drove to Halfords and then waited for them to open at 9:00, bought a 4 year warranty battery, had it fitted and left by 9:10. Much more helpful at Halfords than the AA. I know the AA have got to be competitive and keep their costs down, but I can’t help noticing how impersonal it has become in the 19 years I have been a member.

Tags:aa,car battery,halfords

I have now finished updating the code on almost all sections of my website. My main, family and blog sites are compliant HTML and CSS. My picture gallery is compliant HTML, but not CSS due to some vendor extensions in the style sheet.

The point of doing this, is so that the pages should display cleanly in any browser that it is being used. It has also made me look at the layout of the pages to ensure they are clear.

I have taken the opportunity to update the keywords within the pages that the search engines use. The addition of my UK site, www.ijhedges.co.uk, has had the desired effect, my pages now also appear in the google.co.uk search pages.

The school’s Ofsted inspection has occured over the last 2 days. The inspection went well, a credit to all the work done at the school. The report should be published in 2 to 3 weeks.