Congratulations Jo & Happy Birthday Designed-Solutions Ltd

Where has the last twelve months gone? I feel I have blinked and it’s gone, it feels like yesterday I was telling everyone that John was setting up his own company and this week we are now celebrating it’s 1^st birthday, JH Designed-Solutions Ltd is a year old. The year has not been easy striving against the economic downturn, having to do deal with VAT and London based accountants, sometimes thinking we would go bust before we ever saw it’s first year of trading, no I would not describe it as being easy at all. Would we do it again, probably, yes, John has enjoyed having more control over his contracts, and the fact that he can claim more of his expenses than he could before but I would say we are not any better of financially.

Other very exciting news is that my daughter Joanne has won a major competition; she has now become a professional blogger and part of the Center Parcs blogging team. Joanne and 11 others were chosen to form a blogging team for Center Parcs, this is something she is going to really enjoy, and she writes well and is extremely witty with it. This is particularly good for Joanne because when Paige her eldest daughter was born she had to give up what would have been a very promising management career with TK Max, she had no choice as Paige was born with several life threatening conditions, in fact they only thought she would survive 6 weeks, Joanne has nursed Paige continually for nearly fifteen years now, never mentioning all the things she gave up. Well done Jo.xxx

We have a trip to hospital on Thursday as Paige is going in for the day to have 2 or 3 procedures’ done. Which we hope will mean she is out of pain for a couple of weeks so she can go on holiday in November with us all, this is pre-major surgery later in the year. I am really looking forward to the holiday, just being with John and the family, leaving work behind us for the week. We are going to Longleat Center Parcs, nothing to do with Jo’s win, we have had this booked for a year now. John and I have a Penthouse again and will spend our evenings sat in the sauna, bliss, with a glass or two of champagne. Then spend our days with Jo, Graham and the children swimming and having family fun. Bring it on!!!