YOO HOO!
I’m back!
What do you mean?
You could at least pretend you missed me.
Please yourselves.
I hope you’ve had an enjoyable and relaxed summer and I find you healthy and happy.
Given the limitations that still prevent life returning to anywhere near normal, all of us have probably not done many of the things we would have wanted to this summer.
Since my last blog I’ve had a couple of milestones.
I turned 50 and got engaged.
Don’t worry, I got all of it out of the way quickly – on two consecutive days.
We celebrated my birthday in Florence, a beautiful city I had only visited briefly once before.
With the absence of swathes of foreign tourists, we got to wander the streets at our leisure, restaurants always had tables available and we walked straight into the Accademia gallery to marvel at Michelangelo’s David at a time of year when you usually have to queue for three hours.
It was a magical few days in a romantic city – and it was either that or the negronis and Brunello di Montalcino that persuaded me to propose to Harriet.
I’ve been trying to calm down ever since.
I don’t really like excitement.
Mind you, I’ve just had my bill for the credit card I bought the engagement ring with and that’s sent my blood pressure up.
The silver lining was getting a fiver back thanks to the American Express ‘Shop Local’ campaign.
I told a friend about the £5 bonus for buying the ring.
“I bet that’s the best £20 you ever spent,” she told me.
Cheeky devil.
But the whole experience of purchasing the ring was a pleasure and reaffirmed my lockdown pledge of spending time shopping with local independent retailers.
We donned our masks and headed to Ilkley on a Saturday afternoon where we received great service and a good deal at a jewellery shop.
That continued in a local shoe shop where I bought a pair of wellies to celebrate the engagement (I don’t know why) and then in a hardware store where the gossiping between three women was like a cross between an Alan Bennett play and Last of the Summer Wine.
It made me reminisce fondly to such an extent that I nearly bought a mangle.
No dear, mangle.
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LOCKDOWN has provided the opportunity for many to evaluate where they are and what they are doing and I’m no exception.
Whether it is having more time to spend with your family, appreciating your home and garden more, exploring the great outdoors and seeing more of nature or evaluating what you do for a living, there have been positives to have come out of the unique circumstances we have all found ourselves in since March.
Although running a business focused on events and leisure and hospitality marketing is not one of them.
While there are benefits to running your own business, I’d be lying if said I hadn’t pondered the upside of being furloughed from a salaried position.
Imagine being paid to sit at home. I’m sure it might become tedious but no wonder so many employees are loath to return to the office.
My initial hopes that things would return to something close to normal are now a distant memory.
Business events are unlikely to return anytime soon.
Even if the Government gave them the go-ahead, I think companies and their staff would be reluctant to take part.
I have no doubt that they will return – there is no better way to make contacts and build relationships than face-to-face – I just don’t know when.
One thing I have noticed is that there has never been more of an appetite for positive business news stories, so I am focusing on writing, something I love and enjoy.
So if I can help you, let me know.
My Mum says I’m quite good.
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Parky’s video clip of the week
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FAREWELL Simon Rigby.
The Lancashire-born entrepreneur who made his name and his fortune in Yorkshire, died suddenly last week at the age of 58.
Rigby, who embodied the description “larger than life” in every way, was a manager at Yorkshire Electricity who spotted an opportunity to buy part of the privatised business.
He led the management buyout of the buildings and grounds maintenance services from Yorkshire Electricity to form Spice plc.
As chief executive he took Spice from 12 employees in 1996 to turnover of £400m with 4,500 staff and a place in the FTSE 250 index in 2008.
The business was purchased by private equity firm Cinven in 2010 for £450m and Simon took the chunk of cash he made out of the deal and went back to his home village of Warton, which sits on the Fylde Coast, between Morecambe and the Lake District.
Like most entrepreneurs, he wasn’t prepared to sit on his laurels and threw himself into buying and investing in a variety of entreprises, ranging from the historic Preston Guildhall, a £10m casino and hotel project in the town, a butchery chain, a nursery business, an ice cream parlour and bookmaker.
In 2017 he was awarded an MBE for services to business in the North West.
I met Simon a few times when he was running Spice and I was business editor of the Yorkshire Post.
My friends Nathan Lane and Andy Green handled his PR and Simon embraced their ideas with gusto, even when he was persuaded to climb on top of one of his company vans for a photo.
The roof of the vehicle nearly caved in and Simon was gingerly helped back down to earth.
When my colleague James Graham went to interview Simon he found him sitting behind a huge desk in an office where the walls had pictures of British bulldogs and Winston Churchill.
The entrepreneur, who was an enthusiastic and ruthless player of the board game Monopoly, explained the story of how he had built up Spice and said it was an approach that could be applied to most industries.
James said he didn’t think it probably applied to a newspaper.
Simon disagreed, saying: “You just need to create a burning platform so everyone that works there jumps off and then you rescue the ones you want to come back.”
When James returned to the office and recounted the story to me, we both decided it wasn’t an idea we would pass onto the newspaper’s management.
In a world in which we seem to have fewer characters and entrepreneurs, Simon will be much missed.
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NEWS that Sky Sports has canned the popular Sunday Supplement show came as a big disappointment.
I was a fan of the Sunday morning programme in which host Jacqui Oatley discussed the big football stories with three sports journalists.
What I liked was that all the guests had an opinion and often a really interesting take on a particular story.
And they often didn’t agree with each other which made for entertaining viewing.
We are so used to hearing vanilla comments from former players turned pundits that it was a refreshing change listening to strident opinions delivered articulately.
Sky Sports claims it has culled Sunday Supplement after more than 20 years – it began life as Jimmy Hill’s Sunday Supplement – because of the congested fixture list for the new season caused by last season overrunning due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement it said: “The huge volume of live football since the restart and a condensed season that has already begun means we must look at how best to deploy our resources for the benefit of our customers.”
If what is on offer instead is Goals on Sunday with Alex Scott and Chris Kamara, this is one customer who will be considering his subscription.
Sunday Supplement was perfect for ironing.
Because it was conversation rather than goal highlights, I could finish around a dozen shirts during one show.
To be honest I can’t remember the last time I ironed a dozen shirts.
How many times have any of us dressed up since March?
But I’m not letting my ironing skills go.
My boxer shorts have cracking knife-edge creases in them.
Have a great weekend.