The Friday Joke 3rd March 2023 - The Love Machine and a few random Friday thoughts and a tweet from my most lovely and famous follower!

I am endebted to Robert Wilkinson once more for the Friday Joke. Todays most certainly gave me a chortle

Girls call me 'the love machine '.

I think it refers to my tennis skills.

— Robert Wilkinson (@robertwlk) March 2, 2023

This week has been an interesting week for me. A rather good rehearsal with the False Dots on Wednesday. A nice quiet beer with the Thursday Five a Side Alumni last night. Best of all my business made a proper weekly profit for the first time since March 2020 when lockdown was declared. 

It is strange to think that only three years ago today, the pandemic and lockdown was something none of us even considered. On 3rd of March 2020, I wrote a blog entitled "What has changed since 2002?" - Here's a few things I highlighted

These include watching Barnet FC at Underhill and Hendon FC at Clitterhouse Lane, go Diving at Copthall swimming Pool, go for a drink at the Mill Pub in Mill Hill East, buy CD's and Pick and Mix at your local Woolworths, watch live music at The Torrington, view newspapers in Colindale at The National Newspaper library. The average property in Barnet was under £200,000, still vaguely affordable for ordinary working couples.

I think that we've all completely changed the way we think since 2020. No one I know is making long term plans in the way we were. We switch off lights when we leave the room, war and deaths in Afghanistan is not in the news, but Ukraine is everywhere. We see shortages everywhere in our high streets.  In March 2020, Boris Johnson's position seemed unassailable, now he's not even the last Prime Minister. Labour looked completely at sea, now it is the Tories who seem to be dead in the water. Donald Trump departed and Joe Biden took over. Both seem to be relics from a bygone era. It seems to me that we have all become far more cynical and many of us are completely jaded.

I have to confess, my own personal journey has ground me down. The business has survived on loans, grants, running down of stock levels, disposal of assetts and savage cost cutting since lockdown kicked in. This week, we saw an income that was well above what is required to cover costs, whilst paying down repayments on loans etc. We are not out of the woods yet, but having a week where we have not had to juggle finances to get through has been a pleasant experience. Up until lockdown, the studio worked on a serious of six month, one year, two year and five year plans. We'd set ourselves targets and work out how to achieve them. Most of the time we beat them. 

Since March 2020, we've had to suspend all equipment upgrades, which is the lifeblood of our industry. Much of our spare resources was spent making our operation covid compliant. Whilst better ventilation is no bad thing, it brings no cash in, whereas the latest recording software or hardware attracts customers. We were lucky to inherit a stack of amazing equipment from Survival studios when they closed. Some of it we have sold and some we used to upgrade studios, selling older gear. 

Things like rising energy prices do not help. We had to raise our prices by 10% in January, which was a hefty hike, but was the only way we could keep the business viable. Much to my surprise, not one of our customers complained. Everyone seems to recognise the stress the business has been under. I do wonder how on earth anyone is surviving. We are in a lucky position. We entered lockdown in a cash rich position and we have a loyal, long established client base. 

But things are changing. My band has been gigging again since last summer. There have been great audiences. If you look at the concerts in London this year, there are some brilliant shows coming up. We eat out quite regularly and it seems that restaurants are getting to be quite busy. The businesses on the industrial estate where we have our site all seem busy. There is an optimum time to start up new businesses. When the economy has been through a dip and is starting to pick up, there are plenty of opportunities. In Mill Hill, there are several wonderful sites which would make fantastic locations for new businesses. Several have opened in the last year and are a good additions to the Broadway. Joice, Turcuisine and the Moroccan cafe are wonderful. The old site of Leyla's is available and I'd love to see a fish and chip shop return. It was loss when Cannons closed during lockdown. 

Which brings us back to Robert's joke. Like all good jokes, it works because you read something and the punch line turns it on its head. The pandemic has turned us all on our heads. Maybe the punchline is that when all is done and dusted, what didn't kill us will have made us stronger. Maybe being forced to put lights off, source food locally and watch the pennies will sort out a few of the problems that the government have been far too cowardly to do anything about previously. It's not exactly a silver lining, but maybe the sandwich doesn't have quite as much shit in it as we thought.

But let's leave on a happy note. My favourite and most famous Twitter follower is the amazing Nancy Sinatra. She posted this on Wednesday, it is the perfect tweet for a Friday Evening. Have a great weekend

👇👇 https://t.co/SXDBYNWsI4

— Nancy Sinatra (@NancySinatra) March 1, 2023