Saturday was Office Day

The office side of our business has progressed well over the past year with more plans afoot over the coming months to improve our internal systems even further, but even with our good office staff it can be hard to keep on top of all that paperwork that us Sparkies have to fill in, especially with our workload increasing at a satisfying rate from a business perspective.

So on a beautiful sunny Saturday in Central Scotland, i sacrificed my usual ritual of watching my beloved Stirling Albion and decided it was to be a day with my head down stuck in reports, invoices and catching up with some legislation including the new Construction Industry Scheme system which comes into force on 6th April- which incidentally all the sub-contractors we use have been verified as being subby's within the new scheme - so they are not classed as employees so no extra National Insurance money to Hm Revenue and Customs, which is why HMRC have brought the new scheme into place.

So it was down to the office at 8am to start doing invoices, printing off Pat Testing reports and writing up Periodic Inspection Reports - all very boring stuff but it had to be done.

So after some 7 hours in the office, i grabbed some more paperwork and headed home - now i know you shouldn't take work home with you - but its also the end of our tax year today - so it was a good idea to get everything up to date, plus doing the paperwork at home sitting in the conservatory with a beer in hand, is so much better than sitting in an office you see almost every day.

So a couple of beers later, more paperwork was done and Stirling Albion had won 2-0, which at least eased the pain of the paperwork a bit.

Tomorrow I still have some work to do, but before that im out for a relaxing walk with the lovely wife.

Busy Time

As predicted its been a busy week so far with our team of electricians (and me) running around all over Scotland fixing this and that and trying to beat the usual Easter deadlines that customers tend to 'spring' on us at even shorter notice these days.

Its been a busy month also for our Pat Testing team who have stuck a fair few PASS labels on appliances in March - and the odd FAIL label as well. Ronnie our main PAT Testing man has done wonders in this busy month and certainly deserves his holiday next week. Lets hope he remembers to take those labels out of his pocket before he goes off on his hols as i can imagine him attaching labels to every electrical appliance with a plug on it at his hotel.

The Jamm

Well a busy Sunday comes to an end after watching The Jamm a tribute band to well er; The Jam.
The venue was The Albert Halls in Stirling and although only about half full the audience - average age about 40 were in Mod like Mood with people dancing, jumping about playing air guitars and on the stage.

A super night from a super tribute band which brings Sunday to a close - its work tomorrow and im back on the tools with a job up in Tyndrum - building scaffolding to change some lights.

Ah well back to the grindstone.

Doing stuff on a Sunday!!!

Having spent Saturday morning at the office and then the afternoon watching Scotland stumble past Georgia 2-1 at Hampden, Sunday was once again upon us, which meant I was about to be dragged up some hill or a walk through some forrest.

My lovely wife Jennifer has started to make sure i don't just laze about on a Sunday which i love doing to recharge the batteries after a hard week. This week some 2 hour walk near Callander was mentioned but after a slightly longer lie in on Sunday morning, we decided to explore the lovely village of Culross in Fife, a mere 20 minute drive from Stirling.

Culross lies east of the Kincardine Bridge in the shadow of Longannet Power Station on the banks of the River Forth, but please dont let this cloud your judgement on what this village is like.

It's cobbled street's rise up to the Abbey and leave behind a small medieval style village centre with Palace, Mercat cross and Hobbit sized cottages, which seem a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of the Longannet Power Station, the nearby main road to Dunfermline and the Grangemouth oil refinery which sits across the Forth.

The village was right in the middle of it all, but it was still secluded enough to be an excellent place for a relaxing stroll on Sunday and more importantly for some super Sunday lunch.

At lunchtime not many people seemed to be walking the streets and thats because they were all having lunch in the Red Lion Inn, a charming traditional village pub with mural paintings on the ceiling. If you visit Culross make sure you leave enough time to visit the Red Lion Inn and more importantly have enough space in your stomach to sample some of its extensive menu.

So after some grub (Pork Steak with blue cheese and smoked bacon sauce) it was time to head back to the car and then back to Stirling for a few hours rest before im out again (i know twice on a Sunday), to a tribute concert to The Jam in the Albert Halls, Stirling - by tribute band The Jamm.

So this Sunday , im certainly not "Going Underground" and seeking a rest from work, im actually doing stuff - heaven forbid. Oh and did i tell you i also changed a couple of basin sink taps as well. Jeesh I'll need a rest at work this week just to recover from the weekend.

Easter Mania

Well here we are in the run up to Easter and it's looking like the hectic past two and a half months is going to come to a head over the next two weeks. One client wanted us to do a two week job in late January and we are still there two months on after the job grew arms and legs (not that im really complaining). The cafe we refurbed opens on Wednesday as does the Steamship which we done various maintenance work on.
Work on a newly built log cabin will need to be completed within a fortnight as the owner has guests arriving on Easter Saturday, so as well as these two jobs and what feels like zillions of others(well there is a quite a few really), its going to be a busy two weeks for our team.
Im sure after all the hard work, my lovely wife may allow me an Easter Egg this year.

Welcome

Welcome to Scott's Electric Blog - a look into every day life as an electrician and owner of Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. - a fast growing electrical contracting company based in Stirling, Scotland.

Here i will discuss what's happening in our industry, Scotland, football plus lots more