You get one of these posts once in a while. You have a number of things to say, but they’re not really big enough to expand into a quality post but you feel like you have to get them off your chest. So here we go…

Oil

Oil prices over the last couple of months slid to a rather more manageable $90 per barrel. However over the last week, due to the increasingly dangerous situation in Syria and Iran threatening to close the Straight of Hormuz, this has forced oil prices to rise again to over $107 per barrel.

Over the last few weeks we have enjoyed an easing in crushing fuel prices. But unfortunately, with these rises, I fear that prices at the pump will start to rise again quicker than is justified. And with that sentiment, I cannot believe that the recent report by the G20 which seems to indicate that the oil prices may be fixed very much like the Libor rates! For years the public has known we have been paying way more than we should. So with this report surely we have an opportunity to rip the industry apart and take a good look inside?!

With the trouble in the Middle East only getting worse, expect prices to go back up very quickly.

End Of The Conservatory?

As you will have known, I attended the Ultraframe launch of their new Loggia product to replace the standard white box, otherwise known as a conservatory. The underlying message throughout the day was that the conservatory as we have come to know it is now dead, the industry is on life support and if the biggest and best do not do something to help drive the market forward then there is going to be big trouble in the years ahead.

There are some which believe it really is the end of the conservatory, and there are those that believe they will be around for some years to come. I think that the standard white box has possibly two years left. Maximum. People are now very quickly cottoning on to the new designs and ideas that are now available and that they can have something much better than a boring white box.

Of course not everyone can afford the newer designs. But with time, and as people save more, orangeries, Living room extensions and Loggia’s will start to become the norm and the white box really will then become truly dead and buried. Hopefully not bringing down many companies in the process.

Tweet-Up

I am starting to go to more and more business meetings thanks to this blog and the contacts I have made through it. But I think it is high time for a casual meeting where a few of us can meet up somewhere, have a few drinks, bring the wives and girlfriends and generally let our hair down (for those that still have hair!) and reward our hard work so far this year. So feel free to leave suggestions in the comments box below on where we could hold this ‘Tweet-up’!

No More Jobs Page

I’ve taken down my ‘Jobs in the Industry’ page. It never really took off. People never left details for positions and people never left CV’s for potential companies to look out for, so I’ve taken it down. There are other sites with far better and well established services so I am going to leave it to them!

1000 Posts

Finally, I am approaching my 1000th post soon and I am wanting to do something quite large, fun and something that will hopefully take up a lot of your working time and glue you to your screens on my site. So, while I have one or two ideas of my own, I would like to know if any of you guys have any ideas for such a milestone. Please leave ideas as a comment in the box below!