This is the final milestone in preparing our Business (Ad)venture for lift off - Part 9 (step 12) of the process I have recorded for starting up my business. The previous steps and posts are given below.

Step 1 – Draw up a list rough list of what needs to be done
Step 2 – Identify any knowledge gaps
Step 3 – Identify a suitable training course
Step 4 – Attend the course T-8 – notes can be found here
Step 5 – Learning all about business accounts T-7 – notes can be found here
Step 6 – Finishing and passing the course T-6 – notes can be found here
Step 7 – Deciding the format of how the business will trade T-5 – notes can be found here
Step 8 – Finishing the Business Plan T-4
Step 9 -– Getting the Bank Account sorted T-3
Step 10 – Agreeing Business Designs T-2
Step 11 - Grant Application T-1

Actually starting trading does seem to be a slightly vague term. I took it to be the day when I actually got round to registering with HMRC http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/register.htm#4 . They take it as the day that the partnership was formed, though I do think that is a bit optimistic as one can't really do that much until the banking is all in place. What ever - we are now in business and looking towards the future.

So now got to work hard to get our business Hungry Giraffe up and trading and not enjoying the country side, and celebrating as we have our first sales lead – just need to turn it into a sale..It is a good job that the sun has gone in and the rain come back again.

So the Hungry Giraffe is finally up and running, and here’s to a long and prosperous future

This was a bit of light listening whilst doing a very boring task. The download of the audio book can be found here

The book seems to be classified as a novella (but I am not going to worry about that) and is all about the inventor Tom Swift. During the first world war and his exploits as to how to get his airship working properly as a platform for aerial guns, whilst being hindered by various enemy secret agents. What makes the book interesting is that it was written during the first world war, so is referring to real time ways of doing things and secondly the details given in how his engineering problems are solved.

I imagine that a lot of the processes described in the book are no longer used or it is even remembered how they were used now. There is quite series of these books and I will listen to more of them if I have more time consuming boring tasks to do.

So this was book 2 – week 1 – fiction 2 (1 on audio) non fiction 0

Not that I am reading these in the correct order as this is the first book in the series to mention Jeeves, but this does not seem to matter really. Bertie goes off to the country to get away from complaints about his banjo playing. He ends up as a guest of his chum Chuffy, only to find his peace shattered by the arrival of Pauline Stoker his ex fiancée.

Over the course of the story Chuffy falls in love with Pauline, and Bertie is caught hiding her. The house where he is staying gets burnt down, and the local police get in on the action, all requiring Jeeves to sort things out.

 So this was book 1 – week 1 – fiction 1 (0 on audio) non fiction 0  of my new list

This is part 8 (step 11) Grant Application results - (not all the steps have blog entries against them) of my blog recording the count down to setting up my own business. With any project it is good to have a set of milestones, and these blog entries record some of these milestones
Step 1 – Draw up a list rough list of what needs to be done
Step 2 – Identify any knowledge gaps
Step 3 – Identify a suitable training course
Step 4 – Attend the course T-8 
Step 5 – Learning all about business accounts T-7
Step 6 – Finishing and passing the course T-6 
Step 7 – Deciding the format of how the business will trade T-5
Step 8 – Finishing the Business Plan T-4
Step 9 -– Getting the Bank Account sorted T-3
Step 10 – Agreeing Business Designs T-2

This leave one final entry - Step 12 – Start Trading

Two months ago it seemed a good idea to apply for an Action Area grant from Northumberland national park as we live within one of their Action Areas towards our start up costs. More details on grants can be found here

Colin Earnshaw, Community Enterprise Officer gave me some good advice and help with completing the form, and the application was duly submitted mid April.

After a 27 day wait and having to provide some supporting documents including my business plan, I hear that a small grant has been awarded towards the start up costs, and providing samples. So now got to work hard to get our business Hungry Giraffe up and trading and not enjoying the country side

What an exciting book to have as book 52, the end of the first collection of 52 books that I have read or listened to. Having not read any Jo Nesbo before I had some concerns as to what he would be like. I know the hype had given good headlines but I have started books before that have had similar claims and they have not matched up with what has been said.

In this case it was the opposite, this is a real page turner. Maybe this is because of the unfamiliar Norwegian names, making it a requirement to concentrate just that little more on the text, what ever it is an utterly complex captivating story that spans a time frame from the 1940's to the current day.

I thought I had worked out who the killer was, before the end, but the script had a totally unexpected twist that was very clever. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series and I hope it is as good as this.

This was book book 52 – week 38 – fiction 46 (13 on audio) non fiction 6 and the end of the 2011 to 2012 book list. Next book will be starting a new book list

This is book 14 in the Jack Aubrey series, and carries on from where the last book left off which I read last September Jack and Stephen are stranded on an uninhabited island in the Dutch East Indies, having been attacked by pirates.

They manage to get off the island with the help of some bird nests, and eventually manage to find themselves in New South Wales, where Patrick provides a fascinating description of life living among the convicts who have been deported and transported to Australia. He manages to capture the vastness and untamed wilderness of the country, whilst at the same time imagine what life would be like for those who have now set up a life for themselves in Australia. He manages to have characters who range from those who are completely poverty stricken to those who seem to own most of the area.

Professional critics have said that this book was one of his finest – it certainly was a pleasure to read as book 51 – week 38 – fiction 45 (13 on audio) non fiction 6

With all the rain that we have had recently it seems hard to imagine a drought. Easier really to imagine a flood, but back in 9th Century BC, God had told Elijah to predict that there would be a drought, and there had been for three years.
The King at the time King Ahab, was getting desperate to feed his horses, which kept his army going, as all the grass had died. He had split the cavalry into two groups so that they may have a better chance of finding some food. One group was being led by the King and the other by his assistant Obadiah, who was a secret believer.

Elijah appears to Obadiah and tells him that God is going to have a show down with the King and all his false prophets. He is to get the King to meet him at the top of Mount Carmel and they will prepare for two sacrifices. One being run by the false prophets the other by Elijah

The king gets his 450 prophets of Baal and the queens 400 prophets of Asherah up to the top of the hill. Great crowds of people come along to watch.

The false prophets go first. There is a bull placed on the altar, and they start to chant calling upon their false gods to cause fire to come down and burn up the bull. Nothing much happens. After a few hours Elijah suggests to them that Baal must be asleep and they are not making enough noise, so they chant even more and start cutting themselves. Eventually they run out of steam, nothing has happened.

Elijah then says it is my turn now. He firstly rebuilds the altar, using 12 large stones, then places the bull on it. Then just to make sure that there is no trickery gets the crowd to pour lots of water all over it, so water is in the trough around the altar.

With not a cloud in the sky, and the offering soaking wet, Elijah then calls upon the true God to cause fire to come down from heaven and burn up the sacrifice. Fire comes down from heaven and burns up the offering and destroys the altar. The people are totally amazed. The drought then ends. This is just a brief summary of our second encounter with Elijah. You can read the full version of what happens in 1 kings 18  and you can read our notes on this passage here.

This is part 7 (step 10) (not all the steps have blog entries against them) of my blog recording the count down to setting up my own business. With any project it is good to have a set of milestones, and these blog entries record some of these milestones

• Step 1 – Draw up a list rough list of what needs to be done
• Step 2 – Identify any knowledge gaps
• Step 3 – Identify a suitable training course
• Step 4 – Attend the course T-8 – notes can be found here
• Step 5 – Learning all about business accounts T-7 – notes can be found here
• Step 6 – Finishing and passing the course T-6 – notes can be found here
• Step 7 – Deciding the format of how the business will trade T-5 – notes can be found here
• Step 8 – Finishing the Business Plan T-4 - notes can be found here
• Step 9 -– Getting the Bank Account sorted T-3 - notes can be found here

As we still have not heard anything about the grant other than that they want more information, we have gone through the process and agreed our business designs – step 10 on our critical path

• Step 10 – Agreeing Business Designs T-2
• Step 11 - Grant Application results T-1
• Step 12 – Start Trading
  

Initially we were going to have a series of separate businesses but on advice we decided to merge them all into one, and as such wanted a catchy name, that would allow various different brands. Also a name that would tie in with one of our wild-scape images. So we came up with the name Hungry Giraffe

As we had already come up with a series of interrelated names for the various now brands within Hungry Giraffe

• fullers FOLIO
• fullers WEB
• fullers IT

We choose a palette of colours based on the colours being used to make the Hungry Giraffe logo mainly yellows, browns and green.

Originally the Hungry Giraffe site was also going to follow this colour collection, but probably due to the enormous amount of rain (and snow) that there has been recently, it has shifted slightly.

The main home page has three images that reflect the three brands then blue for water, green grass and the dark night skies predominate the rest of the site. Hopefully giving a stunning clean clear look to it, which can be easily merged with our existing documentation.

This is a lovely Hercule Poirot mystery. He is invited to a dinner party held by Mr. Shaitana, a strange old man who informs him that four of his fellow guests are murderers who have pulled off their crime without getting caught. After dinner the criminals assemble to play bridge in a separate room with their host, and Shaitana is promptly killed. It's up to Poirot to ensure that the murderer doesn't get off a second time, which of course he does having gone round the hosues to get there.

I listened to this as an audio book and it zoomed along as book 50 – week 38 – fiction 44 (13 on audio) non fiction 6

There are novels which can only be described by a single word: epic. John le Carré's A Perfect Spy, published originally in 1986, is one of those novels to be certain.

The plot covers the latter half of the twentieth century in the form of the life of Magnus Pym, the perfect spy of the novel's title. It goes back to Magnus' life as a child and his relationship with his father. It then moves on from there tripping to and fro between the present and the past.

The detail given as in fine le Carré tradition, is a cross between the spy thriller and a human drama and is all the better for it.  I listened to this as an audio book, on longer journeys so it came a quite large long chunks, up to five or six hours at a go. This allowed me to get totally immersed in the story. At the end of it I felt as if Magnus was really alive. It was sad to get to the end.

An enjoyable story the fourth Carré audio book I have listened to helping motorway travel to pass by quickly as book 49 - week 37 – fiction 43 (12 on audio) non fiction 6