As a keen golfer I was very interested when a company called UK Golf Signs asked me if we wanted to sponsor a hole at Reigate Hill Golf Course. So from Monday 16^th August onwards, if you happen to be playing there, have a look at Hole Number 9 (as shown above).

It’s not so easy to eat healthily when you’re out on the road, there are so many things to tempt you when you stop for fuel – mega-size hot sausage rolls, double packs of Mars bars, iced buns, the list goes on… So in an attempt to keep us more or less on the straight and narrow, I make my reasonably healthy flapjacks – reasonably healthy because, instead of using butter, I use olive spread and before you say ugh, there’s very little difference in taste but you have a nice smug feeling that you’re not taking on so much cholesterol! So here goes with my recipe for flapjacks.

Using a large saucepan, gently melt 150g of olive spread (Bertolli or supermarket own-brand), 150g of Demerara sugar and one large tablespoon of golden syrup. Once melted mix well and add 275g of coarse porage oats (I use Scott’s Old-Fashioned Porage Oats) and stir to combine. At this stage I throw in a good quantity of dried cranberries but you can leave the mixture as it is or add nuts, glace cherries or your own preferred dried fruit. Having given the flapjack mixture a final stir, tip it into a baking tin – my 22x22cms non-stick tray-bake tin is ideal – and press the oat mixture evenly across the base of the tin using the back of a metal spoon. Bake in a pre-heated oven (190C / 375F / Gas Mark 5) for 25 minutes. After the 25 minutes I turn the oven off and leave the tin of flapjack in the oven for a further 25 minutes to dry out a little. Once removed from the oven, score into pieces to suit your appetite (!) and allow to cool completely before removing from the tin.

One of the luxuries Gill and I treat ourselves to every few weeks is a reflexology treatment. We visit a lady called Georgina who lives between Godstone and Bletchingley. I went along last night and my feet felt wonderful afterwards. I am always amazed how George (as we call her) can identify what problems I’m experiencing, such as a bad back, just from massaging my feet. The treatment will also help to ease most other bodily ailments.

I must admit that before my first visit I was somewhat sceptical and also worried that having ticklish feet would be a problem. I needn’t have worried! 

My feet still feel wonderfully relaxed today and I’m already looking forward to my next visit. If you feel you’d like to give it a try let me know and I’ll happily pass over George’s details.

We saw the announcement in the Surrey Mirror last week and thought ‘That sounds interesting’. So there we were last night, outside The Pavilion restaurant in Priory Park, Reigate at about 8.30pm. We were a little early and there were only a couple of other people there, apart from myself, Gill and her sister Ali. However by 8.45 there were about fifty of us altogether and two Priory Park rangers. The wardens handed out half a dozen bat detectors and off we went towards the trees at the top of the park. This is apparently where they roost and we were told that we should see them coming out of the trees on their way to hunt. The bat detectors were tuned to 45 megahertz which most bats can be detected at. 

Anyway 9.15 came and went and still no sign of a bat. We were beginning to think this was a pointless way of spending a Thursday evening in May. We were led down to the lake and still nothing. Then, suddenly, Gill thought she saw something up above just for a split second. A few minutes later the bat detectors starting making whooshing noises and we knew we were in business. The rangers told those who had detectors to try different frequencies as each species of bat has its own particular frequency. Within a few minutes there were a huge variety of noises emanating from these machines. And then we started seeing them. 

One or two at first, darting about over the lake, hoovering up all the small insects they could find. Then there were some quite large bats which were flying more slowly and actually catching insects on the water. These are called ‘Daubenton’s Bats’ or ‘Water Bats’. There were also ‘Soprano Pipistrelles’ which are only the size of your thumb and ‘Noctule Bats’ which are much larger ( they can have a wingspan of up to 45cms ). The place was alive with bats everywhere of all shapes and sizes. Some of them came quite close to us as they were darting about. 

We’d been told not to use our torches as, contrary to public opinion, bats can actually see and they don’t like torchlight. It was amazing just how much light there still was coming up to 10 o’clock at night. Our eyes had grown accustomed to the twilight and the spectacle of watching these bats was truly mesmerising. Anyway we thought we’d better call it a night but we’ll definitely be back to have another look.

Why not go and see for yourselves? To find out more about bats visit The Bat Conservation Trust website.

In the day to day business of delivering parcels you have to be extremely careful when lifting goods onto and off the van. ‘Keep your back straight, bend your knees’ is something we’ve all been told time and time again. But there’s more to it than that. When loading things onto and off vehicles you shouldn’t twist and turn which is the easiest thing to forget. Always lift the goods with your knees bent and back straight, return to an upright position and then turn to face the vehicle before putting the goods on board. Keep the item close in to your body and not at arms’ length. Also remember what the human body is capable of and what is recommended. The government’s health and safety booklets recommend that a typical male should lift a maximum of 25kgs, but remember that you may not be a typical male (whatever one of those is!). I limit myself to 20kgs.

You’ve probably guessed why I’m telling you all this. On Sunday, working away in the garden and therefore not in work mode, I made a stupid move and the result is a prolapsed disc in my spine. I did this before several years ago, also gardening related, so I should have been more careful. I’m now paying the price both painwise and moneywise as a trip to the chiropractor is required later today, and quite probably another one or two before I’m back to full mobility again. So be warned! 

As I drive around doing my postal run and collecting overnights I listen to our local radio station, BBC Radio Surrey. Its weather and traffic reports were invaluable to us during the bad weather and I would be found listening in from before breakfast until suppertime!

The other day I listened to an interesting debate on customer service, or the lack of it. Research has shown that, for the majority of us, it is not necessarily the complaint but the way in which a company deals with its customer’s complaint that causes us so much anger and frustration.

I couldn’t agree more.

Frank and I are currently popping blood vessels at the behaviour of our former accountants. Perhaps we were wrong to appoint them but we were swayed by their seeming professionalism. I can remember at our initial meeting being offered, and then drinking, a bottle of sparkling water. Later that day I wrote in my journal that I thought it was probably going to be the most expensive bottle of water I had drunk.

To cut a long and miserable story short, we delivered our year’s set of books and some weeks later a draft set of accounts were produced, although no questions at all had been asked. A second meeting, another bottle of sparkling water, we asked the innocent and, as we now realise, fateful question as to why our turnover figure for the year differed from theirs. Our accountant, a charming man, said he didn’t know but he would ask a colleague to contact us. A few days later we were emailed by his colleague with her definitive explanation for the difference – a calculation which took our turnover figure, scrambled it and came up with theirs. I went hot and cold and my stomach churned as I unpicked the logic of the calculation to reveal their mistakes.

A final meeting, our charming accountant didn’t offer me a bottle of sparkling water this time or anything else, as he agreed that they had indeed used a gross figure in their calculation when it should have been a net figure, another figure no-one could explain where it had come from or why. And, as for Sundry Differences, a figure presumably introduced into the calculation to make it work, well they were explained by three typographical errors made whilst transferring my figures to theirs, plus a little something else that couldn’t be explained.

Now at this point I expect you think we received an apology, not a bit of it. We recently wrote a 3-page letter to the senior partner detailing our grievances and all the mistakes (there were more, including a spreadsheet that didn’t crosscast). In reply we received a short, dismissive letter referring to ‘shortcomings’ that had been ‘comparatively minor’ – surely for his sake, and that of his other clients, he must have meant ‘relatively minor’ but that’s just the pedantic puzzle magazine editor in me coming out! On reading the letter I said to Frank that the senior partner hadn’t had the courtesy to address or dispute any of the issues described in our letter – presumably by default he must have accepted everything – and that this was disrespectful. Frank merely said quietly that we had been treated with contempt.

It has always been our belief, and we apply it whole-heartedly in Frank Brown Delivers that, if we make mistakes, as is inevitable from time to time, we immediately hold up our hands and apologise unreservedly and, in addition, we make amends in some appropriate way. This approach to our clients, along with quality of service, has shown enormous dividends as our young business grows from strength to strength.

It has been suggested to us that we were small fry in the eyes of our former accountants but, for us, being small is our strength. It means we can listen to our clients, understand what they need of us and DELIVER!

On one occasion Frank drove through the night to Cumbria, at our own expense, in order to resolve a problem with one of our client’s important overnight deliveries. And we hope that our client would agree that this was all done with the minimum of fuss and without demur.

Yes, the radio discussion hit the nail on the head, the complaint is bad enough but it truly is the manner in which the complaint is dealt with that leaves us seething, or not.

The radio discussion finished by saying that the latest way for people who have received bad service to complain these days is to start a page on Facebook – now, there’s a thought….

We will not enter into discussion concerning our former accountants with third parties, or reveal their name, however, any local (Redhill and Reigate) accountants who wish to disassociate themselves with our former accountants should contact us, we will be happy to publish the names of any accountants, confirming that they were not our former accountants. Please email info@frankbrowndelivers.com

Well, it’s Tuesday morning 0830 and still minus 2 degrees out there. I’ve just driven to the local shop to see what conditions are like out.

Yesterday, we decided that we just couldn’t get anywhere and it looks like today is going to be much the same. On the plus side at least the sun is shining and it all looks very much like a Christmas card scene. For the first time that I’m aware of, in over 20 years, our overnight supplier TNT suspended their service last night. We’re waiting to see if they’re back today but somehow I doubt it.

My road in particular is worse than yesterday because the snow has been compacted down into a sheet of ice – grit what grit? Anyway being ever an optimist at least yesterday we got some decorating done!