Welcome one and all to the Meerkat Muse.

Big Openings

Well, it wasn’t exactly big, but after four years of stop-start progress, disruption from pandemics, war and corporate failure, the cinema in the centre of town has finally opened. It has been a challenging genesis for the cinema!

When work began at the start of 2020, the covid pandemic immediately put a spanner in the works.From memory there was also a problem with the company hired to carry out construction duties, and from there the issues piled up. The site did gradually transform from abandoned postal facility (among other things) to something that looked more like a modern cinema site, and slowly but surely the retail outlets attached to it began to open, with a couple of restaurants eagerly occupying them. Hope kept them in place, as the cinema continued to take shape, but problems with the screens arose when Russia invaded Ukraine. It turns out that the screens were being sourced or produced via Ukraine, so with the supply chain now disrupted, the project was delayed still further.

Just as things looked to be moving forward, Empire Cinemas, the company that would run the site, fell into financial chaos. They ceased operating as a company in 2023. Cineworld (who run a cinema complex on the local leisure park) were not able (even if interested) to take over the site, due to financial problems of their own. The local council, which had invested a lot of time and effort into this project, now looked for anyone willing to take it on, and that led us to Vue Cinemas. Vue have the advantage of being cheap compared to Cineworld, and the prime location of the cinema in the town centre might serve them well.

For the opening trip, my wife, daughter and I saw Despicable Me 4. It was alright, but if I am being brutally honest, the formula feels over-cooked now, and I found the villain dull. This particular series peaked (if you ask me) with the second movie.

Honour Among Salespeople

I referred to something along these lines in my previous Muse, and the topic has returned – in a roundabout way – this time around. In my line of work, it is not unusual to develop good working relationships with local traders. Sometimes those traders will have a preference as to which salesperson they deal with. In my case, there’s a trader who likes to deal with me, which is great from a personal perspective, but there are occasions where I am off work, and on those occasions it is quite right that my colleagues take care of the trader’s request. My manager – who boasts more experience in this field than I do – is fully capable of looking after jobs via this trader, so it came as a surprise to me that the trader wanted me to switch a quote from her name to mine. I am dead-set against this, because we have a rule: the salesperson who quotes, or does a design, gets the sale.

It’s slightly awkward, because as a store we cannot afford to risk alienating our trade base. They bring a fair bit of business our way, and my manager herself has said she would rather give the sale to me, than see the traders go elsewhere. I feel bad about this, because she would lose a sale from her figures, and also her commission (though to be fair, the commission would not amount to a lot).

In the end, I will do as I am told, for the good of the showroom.

Bad Nights

Lately, I’ve had a tough time sleeping. I don’t know why, but even when tired, I cannot switch my brain off. I can’t fall asleep, and no sooner do I finally nod off then the alarm goes off. I’m not exactly wired – my caffeine intake has gone down of late – but something is impeding my ability to sleep. I’ve even resorted to herbal sleeping pills to try and push me over the edge, but to no avail. It goes without saying that this is a frustrating experience. It could be that it’s quite warm, and this is making it more difficult to drop off. Whatever the reason, I really, really need it to go away. Speaking of warm…

The Mercury Rises…

Last week saw some of the hottest days of the year so far. Typically I was at work for them. Had I been at home, I might have gone as far as to sit in the garden and enjoy the sun, but alas, no such joy for me.

Broken Hearts

As a parent, it is unfathomable to imagine my daughter going out to a club or a show, and never returning home. I cannot even consider the concept. It is therefore utterly heart-breaking to read the news, and read of children being killed, be they killed in Gaza, Israel, or right here, in the UK. The other day, someone best describe as a lunatic went on a stabbing spree in the town of Southport, and killed three young girls. The victims are aged 6, 7 and 9. Five children remain critically wounded, as do two adults.

At the time of writing this, the motive is not clear. Police have arrested a 17 year-old boy, but have released no further details, other than to say this is not an act of terror. The children had been at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, and the singer has personally issued a statement, expressing her shock and sorrow.

The UK needs to address the issue of knife crime in a serious way. We also need to address the reaction from the wannabe neo-Nazis of the English Defence League, who showed up in Southport and triggered rioting overnight. There has been a rush to blame the attack on immigrants, but it turns out the suspect was born in the UK. It goes to show how ignorant, racist idiots are so quick to judge a situation, and how they will try to turn an horrific tragedy into part of their ‘quest’.

The Meerkat Q&A

I want to move away from the bleak topics in the news, so let us return to a new venture. The Meerkat Q&A is an effort to encourage inter-blog relationships, through a variety of questions, both light-hearted and thought-provoking. I’ve not had much traction so far, but what, if anything, goes from 0 to 100 overnight? With luck, people will start to take a gander at the questions, and offer up some interesting answers.

Seeking a Tan

Last Thursday was, in theory, meant to be a stormy day. Instead, it managed to remain scorching, and thus I took myself into the garden for a short while. I figured I’d try to take advantage of a brief opportunity to sunbathe. It’s generally a pleasant experience for me, just one that doesn’t come around very often. There was rain overnight that cooled things down a bit, though the promised thunderstorm did not materialise. This is slightly disappointing. The Friday remained hot, even though it didn’t start out that way. It did see a visit from an ice cream van, and a brief sprint to catch up to it!

I certainly prefer the hot weather to cold weather, but there are times when it gets a bit much. I guess it’s different when you can chill out on a beach or by a pool. I don’t often have that luxury.

The Random Motorcycle Dream

I have never ridden a motorbike. I am quite certain my mother hasn’t either, yet I had a peculiar dream (do I have any other kind?!) where my brother was getting married, and my mum took me to the venue on a motorbike! I felt incredibly nervous the entire time, because, well, it was a motorbike! Neither of us are acquainted with them, and thus, racing around to this venue was a hair-raising experience!

Things continued to be weird. We arrived at the venue late in the evening, which appeared to be some kind of farm. Others began to arrive, including my brother, and we started to sort out rooms, only to discover the ‘rooms’ were nothing more than a bathtub with a toilet next to it. I don’t think my brain properly computed what a hotel room is supposed to be.

At the Death

On Saturday, that timeless and annoying tendency of customers to arrive right before closing time reared its ugly head once again. Granted, we are open till 5pm, so technically anyone is welcome until then. However, ours is not an environment where you can rush in, grab something off the shelf, and go. The customers who came in had a quote, and wanted to convert it, which is fine, but why leave it until we’re pretty-much ready to leave to come in?! In many respects, I consider this to be quite rude. Those of us who work in showrooms and retail have lives outside of work, people we wish to get home to, and things we want to enjoy outside of our jobs. Given that opening hours of shops are easy to find out, why leave it until the last minute to arrive?!

I do understand that sometimes, circumstances make it impossible to get the showroom before a certain time. However, too many people show up too late in the day for this to be anything other than poor planning from most arrivals. This is immensely frustrating.

Ten Years of Meerkat Musings

I’m not going to rehash the entirety of the Ten Year Anniversary Post in this Muse, but suffice to say, yesterday marked an incredible personal milestone! It is quite remarkable to think that this site has been going for so long, and it has been quite the adventure! Here’s to the next ten years, and thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey!

With that, I draw this Muse to a close!