rufus

As you may or may not know, this weekend a national institution takes place… it’s The Grand National. The excitement has reached fever pitch in our office, as we have all pulled three horses each out of a hat and are all standing with our tickets clenched in fist, waiting for the tape to rise! We will all be glued to the box on Saturday, willing our horse to cross the line first, so we can gloat and watch the cash come tumbling into our sky rockets. From past experience though, all my dreams are usually dashed within seconds, as my horse never makes it over the third or fourth fence! But this year I have a dream… this year, my horse is going to rise above the challenge, this year my horse is going to puff out its chest, flare out its nostrils and give a whinney that will shake the other horses right down to their hooves! This year my horse will probably fall at the first fence, but hey ho, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Big news! Ian, our MD, has had a knee operation! He came back to work the very next day, proudly grasping the photo’s and bandaged up like a scene out of the Mummy. The photo’s have had us all squirming, grimacing and writhing around like we were playing a major game of twister. The end results have been a success and he is now jumping around like a young gazelle after eating a full bag of skittles. The only problem is, he may have had the wrong knee done, as he persists in dressing up as Rolf Harris’s alter ego, ‘Jake the Peg’, with his extra carry on! Let’s hope not!

The other week we reported that our Graeme (the mad one) Madden, was turning into John the Baptist. This is no longer the case, as it’s actually the mountaineer, Chris Bonington! (Same beard though). Quietly going on with our business, Vince shouted up with ‘Did anyone see the celebrities climb Mount Kilimanjaro the other night for Comic Relief?’ to which our Graeme said proudly, ‘I’ve done that!’ Our response was the typical… ‘Shhhhuuuuurrrruuuuupppp man and get out of town!’. But seriously he has! Scrambling, we all visited http://www.flickr.com/photos/gmadden/2564480219/in/set-72157605518904902/ for proof and WOW, to our astonishment, there he is, proud as punch, at the summit! We can now truly re-word the lyrics: ‘As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti’ (once warbled by the 80s band Toto in the song Africa) to our very own version: ‘As sure as our Graeme rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.’ Impressed, you should be. Top notch Graeme, well done!

Over the last few days a transformation has been happening before our very eyes like a glorious manifestation. Graeme (the mad one) Madden, is turning into John the Baptist! It’s official. Due to the rapid growth of facial and head hair the transformation is virtually complete. We believe we truly are in the presence of something fab. Not only is he a wizard on the web front but we are half expecting a set of 10 new Rufus commandments to be set in stone. We will confirm this over the next few days if he starts wearing a robe, sandals, brandishing a staff around and starts to dunk us under the water cooler.