2012-01-24T20:41:04+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:41:04 +0000] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 4143 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:41:14+00:00 app[web.1]: 

2012-01-24T20:41:14+00:00 app[web.1]: Started GET "/" for 86.30.164.41 at 2012-01-24 12:41:14 -0800

2012-01-24T20:41:14+00:00 app[web.1]: 

2012-01-24T20:41:15+00:00 app[web.1]: [LocomotiveCMS] [fetch site] host = eightyone.heroku.com / eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:41:15+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:16+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:17+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:17+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:18+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:18+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:19+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:19+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:20+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:20+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:21+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:21+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:22+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:25+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/ dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=10790ms status=200 bytes=13126

2012-01-24T20:41:30+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:41:30 +0000] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 4137 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:41:51+00:00 app[web.1]: 

2012-01-24T20:41:51+00:00 app[web.1]: 

2012-01-24T20:41:51+00:00 app[web.1]: Started GET "/" for 86.30.164.41 at 2012-01-24 12:41:51 -0800

2012-01-24T20:41:51+00:00 app[web.1]: [LocomotiveCMS] [fetch site] host = eightyone.heroku.com / eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:41:51+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:52+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:53+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:55+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:55+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:56+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:56+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:57+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:41:58+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:42:00+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:42:01+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:42:01+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:42:02+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:42:10+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:42:10 +0000] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 4137 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:44:18+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/admin dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=60ms status=200 bytes=2286

2012-01-24T20:44:18+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:44:18 +0000] "GET /admin HTTP/1.1" 200 1102 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:44:31+00:00 heroku[router]: POST eightyone.heroku.com/admin/sign_in dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=132ms status=200 bytes=1734

2012-01-24T20:44:31+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:44:31 +0000] "POST /admin/sign_in HTTP/1.1" 200 848 "http://eightyone.heroku.com/admin" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:44:57+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=250ms status=200 bytes=8303

2012-01-24T20:44:56+00:00 heroku[router]: POST eightyone.heroku.com/admin/sign_in dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=27ms status=302 bytes=105

2012-01-24T20:44:56+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:44:56 +0000] "POST /admin/sign_in HTTP/1.1" 302 116 "http://eightyone.heroku.com/admin/sign_in" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:44:57+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:44:57 +0000] "GET /admin/pages HTTP/1.1" 200 2242 "http://eightyone.heroku.com/admin/sign_in" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:45:18+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages/new dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=273ms status=200 bytes=12447

2012-01-24T20:45:18+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:45:18 +0000] "GET /admin/pages/new HTTP/1.1" 200 3448 "http://eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:45:20+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages/get_path dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=28ms status=200 bytes=58

2012-01-24T20:45:23+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages/get_path dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=29ms status=200 bytes=64

2012-01-24T20:45:23+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:45:23 +0000] "GET /admin/pages/get_path?parent_id=4f1c2e1153fee9000100000b&slug=weddings HTTP/1.1" 200 64 "http://eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages/new" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:46:24+00:00 app[web.1]: 

2012-01-24T20:46:24+00:00 app[web.1]: 

2012-01-24T20:46:24+00:00 app[web.1]: Started POST "/admin/pages" for 86.30.164.41 at 2012-01-24 12:46:24 -0800

2012-01-24T20:46:24+00:00 app[web.1]: [LocomotiveCMS] [fetch site] host = eightyone.heroku.com / eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:46:24+00:00 heroku[router]: POST eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=149ms status=302 bytes=135

2012-01-24T20:46:25+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:46:25 +0000] "POST /admin/pages HTTP/1.1" 302 146 "http://eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages/new" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:46:25+00:00 app[web.1]: 

2012-01-24T20:46:25+00:00 app[web.1]: 

2012-01-24T20:46:25+00:00 app[web.1]: Started GET "/admin/pages/4f1f18a06e9a620001000d69/edit" for 86.30.164.41 at 2012-01-24 12:46:25 -0800

2012-01-24T20:46:25+00:00 app[web.1]: [LocomotiveCMS] [fetch site] host = eightyone.heroku.com / eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:46:25+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages/4f1f18a06e9a620001000d69/edit dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=365ms status=200 bytes=15903

2012-01-24T20:46:26+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:46:26 +0000] "GET /admin/pages/4f1f18a06e9a620001000d69/edit HTTP/1.1" 200 4262 "http://eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages/new" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:46:30+00:00 app[web.1]: 

2012-01-24T20:46:30+00:00 app[web.1]: 

2012-01-24T20:46:30+00:00 app[web.1]: Started GET "/" for 86.30.164.41 at 2012-01-24 12:46:30 -0800

2012-01-24T20:46:30+00:00 app[web.1]: [LocomotiveCMS] [fetch site] host = eightyone.heroku.com / eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:46:30+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:46:31+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:46:32+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:46:33+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:46:33+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:46:34+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:46:34+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:46:35+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:46:35+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:46:36+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:46:36+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:46:37+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:46:37+00:00 app[web.1]:   [WARN] fog: followed redirect to eightyone.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com, connecting to the matching region will be more performant

2012-01-24T20:46:38+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/ dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=7580ms status=200 bytes=13199

2012-01-24T20:46:38+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:46:38 +0000] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 4109 "http://eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages/4f1f18a06e9a620001000d69/edit" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:47:06+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/weddings dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=255ms status=404 bytes=4651

2012-01-24T20:47:06+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:47:06 +0000] "GET /weddings HTTP/1.1" 404 2096 "http://eightyone.heroku.com/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:47:29+00:00 heroku[router]: POST eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages/4f1f18a06e9a620001000d69 dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=53ms status=302 bytes=135

2012-01-24T20:47:30+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:47:30 +0000] "POST /admin/pages/4f1f18a06e9a620001000d69 HTTP/1.1" 302 146 "http://eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages/4f1f18a06e9a620001000d69/edit" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:47:30+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages/4f1f18a06e9a620001000d69/edit dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=248ms status=200 bytes=15900

2012-01-24T20:47:30+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:47:30 +0000] "GET /admin/pages/4f1f18a06e9a620001000d69/edit HTTP/1.1" 200 4260 "http://eightyone.heroku.com/admin/pages/4f1f18a06e9a620001000d69/edit" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:47:41+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/weddings dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=174ms status=404 bytes=4577

2012-01-24T20:47:41+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:47:41 +0000] "GET /weddings HTTP/1.1" 404 2073 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:47:43+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/weddings dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=66ms status=404 bytes=4577

2012-01-24T20:47:43+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:47:43 +0000] "GET /weddings HTTP/1.1" 404 2082 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:47:44+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:47:44 +0000] "GET /weddings HTTP/1.1" 404 2084 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:47:45+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/weddings dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=43ms status=404 bytes=4577

2012-01-24T20:47:46+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:47:46 +0000] "GET /weddings HTTP/1.1" 404 2082 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:47:44+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/weddings dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=134ms status=404 bytes=4577

2012-01-24T20:47:47+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/weddings dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=41ms status=404 bytes=4577

2012-01-24T20:47:48+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:47:48 +0000] "GET /weddings HTTP/1.1" 404 2084 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

2012-01-24T20:47:49+00:00 heroku[router]: GET eightyone.heroku.com/weddings dyno=web.1 queue=0 wait=0ms service=54ms status=404 bytes=4577

2012-01-24T20:47:49+00:00 heroku[nginx]: 86.30.164.41 - - [24/Jan/2012:20:47:49 +0000] "GET /weddings HTTP/1.1" 404 2074 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7" eightyone.heroku.com

Over the new year break, our Border Collie went to stay with a pack of other dogs on Adrian Melrose's farm. Condiment had recently launched a new site for Melrose & Mutt (Adrian's sister's business), and she very kindly gave young Baxter this beautiful handmade dog collar. Baxter has only ever had the run-of-the-mill collars and harnesses in the past, but he'll wear this posh new luxury leather dog collar one on special days out. Lucky pup.

In case you're wondering. The bird is a Pacific Loon.

When I moved my site over to Posterous, I – somewhat loosely – promised myself that I'd regularly add new posts and publish thoughts about what I'm currently working on. 

Best laid plans, and all that. 

The studio at Condiment and The First 65 has gone from strength to strength in the last few months. What was originally a company that comprised of just two people (Chris and I, sat in a wonky studio, above a wigmakers), has now become a larger team of incredibly talented people with beautiful studio space. It's ace.

Every week at the studio, there's a new technical or creative challenge and everyone on the team takes every challenge head-on. I've never been in a studio that's so able to meet such a wide gamut of requirements. I'm incredibly proud of what everyone has acheived so far. We're only just over 6 months into the new company structure, and the next six months are going to be even more amazing.

Here's to what 2012 brings.

via baubauhaus.com

Those of you who know me will know that I tend to have a good bullshit radar, until it comes to Estate Agents, then it fails miserably. Recently my wife and I found a lovely new home just around the corner from our current place.

It was for sale through Palmer and Partners in Ipswich and we'd seen quite a few of their signs up in our area. So, to try and expedite the sale of our house, we also went with Palmer & Partners as we thought it would be good reason for them to make the sale of both properties as smooth as possible.

How wrong we were.

Original email sent to Palmer & Partners:

Having recently instructed Palmer & Partners to sell my house (XXXXXXXXXXXX) and buy a house through Palmer & Partners (XXXXXXXXXXXX), I am writing to express my disbelief at your poor customer service and lack of clarity during the sales process. Let me make it clear now that I am not prepared to pay the full fee for the following reasons:

1. When expressing interest in (XXXXXXXXXXXX), we were told that there was no chain in the sale and the completion would be quick.
2. Following our offer being agreed, we were told that the completion would take up to 18 weeks, because of the amount of time the solicitors need. This was not the case. We asked P&P why you thought it would take so long, no valid reason was given. After about a month, we and our buyer (following a considerable amount of chasing) were told that completion would have to be the end of September, due to early repayment fees on our sellers mortgage. We accepted this and mooted a completion date of 1 October. Only 2 days ago did we learn that the sellers could not complete until the 24th October due to early repayment fees on their mortgage. Following much confusion between our sellers and the solicitors involved, it became clear that there has been a massive breakdown of communication from Palmer & Partners to us and the buyer of our house.
3. Despite the fact that you should be acting in the best interests of (XXXXXXXXXXXX), we are also a client of P&P, and instructed you to sell our property with the thought it would expedite and simplify the sales process. This has not been the case. We have heard nothing from P&P since the sale of our house, and when chased, any correspondence has been vague, at best.
4. Because of this unbelievably poor lack of communication from P&P our buyer now faces the threat of being homeless from the start of October because she is in rented accommodation. While we understand that no action should be taken until the date is settled in the exchange of contracts, your complete lack of customer communication has resulted in the buying parties completely in the dark.

Please could you call me first thing tomorrow morning. I would like these matters to be resolved immediately.

Heard nothing. So emailed them a link to my blog. 5 minutes later I received a phone call from Simon at Palmer and Partners in Ipswich, clearly stating they knew nothing about the 24th October and it must be down to the solicitors. They expressed disappointed about my post (I bet, screwed their SEO completely!), so I agreed to take it down and replace it with this:

Yesterday I posted a rather angry email that had been sent to Palmer & Partners in Ipswich. Following a lengthy phone call, the blame clearly lies somewhere between the sellers and their solicitor.

What I got from the call.

1. Palmer & Partners were under the impression (based on original communication with our sellers) that the 1st October would be the exchange date, and they had heard nothing to the contrary.
2. Our sellers only learned of their early repayment fee after accepting our offer. Naughty. And unprepared. Not our problem, really. This is what originally changed the completion date to the 1st October.
3. Palmer and Partners really need to be aware of their online strategy. Their website has no contact email addresses only a sales enquiry form, no space for customer support. Massive fail. They were also unaware that they had an active Facebook group, which features an email address that is no longer active. Oh dear.

So, time to start winding up the rant-o-meter to fire a few shots at the seller's solicitor.

After stewing on it for the evening I was ready to call the solicitor and get super-shouty, but then I got a call from the seller, and everything became brutally clear. Palmer and Partners were lying. Here's what I sent them after my conversation with the seller.

We are happy to proceed on this basis, and have notified our solicitors. However, this morning I had a long conversation with the seller of XXXXXXXXXXXX. I have it on good authority from XXXXX that you have known about the 24th October since the house went on the market. Considering the phone call I had with you yesterday, it makes this situation even more unbelievable. This is not only mis-representive, it is nigh on fraudulent behaviour to knowingly stall the sale of a house and not provide any information about a delay to the sale of a house when questioned by the buyer. It is trading on the withholding of information for financial gain. Based on the information that has come to light, I would ask that you re-consider your fee for the sale of our house to match the level of service we have received from you. May I suggest a figure of £800 is a suitable amount considering the level of disruption that Palmer & Partners have caused us. Please respond by email or letter as I would prefer there to be written record of correspondence from this point onward.

Palmer & Partners - response

I am sorry to hear that you still feel unhappy with the service you have received to date with palmer & partners. Can I just start by expressing that under no circumstances at all that as a professional company we are not in the business to stall any sale of a house. Moving homes can be a stress full time for everyone involved especially when there is chain of houses relying upon different circumstances and peoples choices of dates to coincide with each other. I know I have been there myself, however as your estate agents we are here to take most of that stress and negotiations away from you to make the sale process smoother. I've taken great care in looking into this matter for you, and given the current state of the Market in general I strongly believe that in these hard times, to sell your property in a reasonably quick time is a job well done. When both property's were sold the solicitors acting on your behalf should then take over for most of the work to follow, including exchange dates and completion dates. The average house sale takes around 16 weeks from agreeing a price to the final stages. Of course as your agents we are happy to guide you through any turbulent times you should face but unfortunately as we have no power in the legal process, this is where your solicitor should earn the fee you will be paying them on completion. After checking the sales progression notes I can see that in July you were made aware that October would be the completion month. However I fully understand that there is a big difference between the 1st and the 24th of the month. When speaking to hayward moon they advised me that they were aware from the start of the sale process of the completion date, Why this was never passed onto yourself I can only apologise. After checking the original contract which you signed I can clearly see that we have reduced your fee already to the lowest amount possible. With the amount of money we spent on advertising and office time I am unable to consider a reduced amount. I must make clear that under no impression should you feel you have been misguided in anyway at all. I hope that we can moved toward in this matter and concentrate on getting you moved into your new home. If I can be of any more assistance please don't hesitate to contact me.

My Response

Sorry, but this really isn't good enough. The only stress that has been caused has come solely from P&P, nowhere else. You are right, one month is a massive difference in completion dates. And P&P's poor communication still happens: I've just heard from the buyer of our house, and having just spoken to someone at your office, Palmer & Partners still maintain know nothing about the 24th of October, despite me having raised this issue with you and you looking into the notes. I have it in writing from the sellers of XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX that Palmer and Partners have known about the early repayment fee (and therefore the completion being no earlier than the end of Oct) since the house went on the market, despite you telling me last week that P&P had only just found out about it. Yes, we were told that completion would be in October in July. However, our offer was agreed over a month before. If you knew that completion was the end of October, why was none of this communicated? From my point of view, the management of this sale has been terrible, and I'm not prepared to pay the fee (which I know is your standard sale fee) that is on the contract. I agreed to that fee for a professional service to be provided, which is not what I have received. This has been a particularly straightforward sale in terms of marketing. From the one viewing we had, a sale was agreed quickly, and the house was only on the market for a few weeks. Based on advertising spend (I know the rate card and the reductions available down to working in advertising) over that period of time, and the cost of advertising on RightMove (plus any aggregators), I'd estimate advertising my property over that period of time to be £500 (when taking into account the space on the page it received). Adding in any administrative work and the valuation, along with having the guy who puts up the sign, I think my original offer is suitable considering how poorly this has all been handled.

Palmer & Partners (made aware of these dates the day after contract had been signed by the Sellers)

As part of the sale process the vendors of XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX filled out a property information form. This was sent on the 26th July via Hayward moon solicitors, (a copy of this is attached) which in respect was received by your solicitor a day or two later. On the sellers information form there is a question asking of any preferred completion dates of which Mr. and Mrs. Allinson answered... Completion can not take place before the 25th October. As standard practice your solicitor would have seen this and passed this document onto yourself and also would have made your buyer’s solicitor aware. As discussed already we are unable to reduce the fee any further. Our standard fee is 1.89%+vat; it has been reduced already to 1.5%+vat. This is clearly visible on the contract. We have tried to resolve this matter as best as possible but I would ask if you wish to pursue your complaint you now seek advice from the property ombudsman of which we are a member. I have provided the necessary numbers below. The Property Ombudsman Telephone 01722 333306 Membership H0023. Once again I hope we can now move forward and complete the final stages of the house sale. I must bring to your attention, Any reduction that has been made from the 1.89%+vat standard fee is dependent on payment being made in full within 10 days of legal completion of the sale. After the 10 days of legal completion if no payment in full has not been received, an additional charge of 3% interest of the prevailing Barclays base rate as our contract states.

My Response

This still doesn't explain why Palmer and Partners told us, and our buyer the 1st October, and why during our telephone conversation you told me you knew nothing about the 25th October. The only party in this scenario that could have come up with 1st October is Palmer and Partners. I will be taking my complaint to the Ombudsman and requesting statements from XXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXX along with a log of the conversations we have had by email and telephone. They feel the same way about how P&P have acted and I'm sure XXXXX will have something to say about the conversations she has had with James in the past.

No reply. So thought it was time to get the Estate Agent Ombudsman involved (as they suggested). Having sent all the information across, their response was lacking to say the least. All they could suggest was that I write to their head office!

So, now I face a bill of over £2k for a service that has been shoddy, dis-honest and amateur. If I had charged someone £2k for a shoddy piece of work, I'd expect some legal recourse. And so, that's where I'm headed.

--------

Further note: Having attempted to go down the legal route, Palmer & Partners have ignored my grievance, and stuck their head in the sand. So, I created Estate Agent Review

Thanks for everything, Steve.

Wireframes done for the new ecommerce site Condiment are building. Now onto code! Marked these out while listening to Scroobious Pip's new album. Brilliant stuff.

Originally posted on the First 65 Blog

Our hotel booking system, 65 Winks is currently in testing. It’s incredibly exciting to be testing all the features we’ve spent so long planning. Along with the functionality testing, we’re also making the final tweaks to the user interface and adding in the graphics and code that handle 404 and 500 errors. There are loads of great error page designs out there on the internet already, we thought we’d join in the fun with 65 Winks. Here’s a preview of what the 404 and 500 pages are going to look like.

(download)

Click here to download:

for-those-little-disturbances-cfiBlGyffbajtsIqCaCa.zip (405 KB)

On Wednesday I was one of the lucky few thousand people to see Marc Benioff present his 2011 Cloudforce Keynote speech in London. It was brilliant.

A lot of what Benioff had to say tied into what 37 Signals talk about in Rework (yes, that again, just read it, get it over with). For a business to succeed, it must have the ability to adapt quickly to an ever-changing business environnent. Long-term political dictatorships are being overthrown by social media, what's stopping it from happening to corporate entities? Time will tell. (Take a look at News International, social media allowed for flows of data to pour through cracks that could have been traditionally stemmed by super-injunctions and so on).

Looking at what KLM, Coca Cola, Disney and Burberry are doing with their Salesforce systems is awe-inspiring. One customer record, tracked across multiple channels. When a problem arises (or they want to do something a little bit stalky - looking at you there, KLM), they can be incredibly agile. Whether it's in the sales process, customer support or just doing great things with Facebook apps, Salesforce sits at the centre, managing workflows and allowing the top brass to see a brilliant snapshot of the business.

Of course, this principle should apply to the small business, too. The integration of these reactive principles is a must. It doesn't have to be with Salesforce (though 9/10, it should), but small businesses need to be as aware to what their customers are saying as the mulit-nationals,

Adapt or die.

Ok. Quick Update.

Yesterday I posted a rather angry email that had been sent to Palmer & Partners in Ipswich. Following a lengthy phone call, the blame clearly lies somewhere between the sellers and their solicitor.

What I got from the call.

1. Palmer & Partners were under the impression (based on original communication with our sellers) that the 1st October would be the exchange date, and they had heard nothing to the contrary.
2. Our sellers only learned of their early repayment fee after accepting our offer. Naughty. And unprepared. Not our problem, really. This is what originally changed the completion date to the 1st October.
3. Palmer and Partners really need to be aware of their online strategy. Their website has no contact email addresses only a sales enquiry form, no space for customer support. Massive fail. They were also unaware that they had an active Facebook group, which features an email address that is no longer active. Oh dear.

So, time to start winding up the rant-o-meter to fire a few shots at the seller's solicitor.

I'll keep you posted.

PS - If you're wondering where the original email went. I've agreed to take it down based on the resolution of the situation with P&P. They were actually quite helpful... for an estate agent.

Another Friday happened last week. So we tucked into a spot of bizarre and mischevious song-linking on Spotify. Here's what happened.

Taking the decision to make a dramatic change in your career can be terrifying. Especially if you think about it for too long.

Just over two years ago, Chris and I were rather drunkedly discussing the idea of breaking away from our current agency and going it alone. Down to the sheer amount of alcohol, bravado was high and we felt convinced it would be a great idea. So great, we even thought our bosses would applaud our decision. Ahem.

Some time later, in the cold light of day, it was terrifying.

All the 'what-if' vultures started circling overhead and if we didn't press on with the idea, its bones would be picked dry in no time.

So, that's exactly what we did. Over the next three months, we sourced capital, found office space and had a brand in place. Once that was all in place, we quit our jobs and Condiment was up and running.

Anyway, enough with the history lesson. 

What this post is actually about conviction. Making the decision to do something and running with it. If you spend too long thinking about it, you'll never do it. If the idea has merit, it will feel right. Follow that feeling, if at any time it starts feeling wrong, step back, evaluate and move forward.

The timing might seem odd, the barriers may seem to great, but you might never find yourself in this position ever again. What's the absolute worst that can happen? (Don't dwell on that)

There's a fantastic chapter in Rework called Ideas are Perishable. It perfectly captures what needs to be done when a good idea arrives. Be reactive, run with it. Momentum can be easily lost while it it still just an idea. Create something that realises your idea then run with it.

That's how the First65's hotel booking system reached this stage. Momentum, it's not rocket science.

So, the first few months of The First 65 have been hectic.

Brilliantly hectic.

We've also been rather secretive about what we've been up to. Some companies tend to do the sort of "we're really busy" or "some amazing stuff..." guff when they're trying to puff up their chests and do a bit of struttin' about. Not us. No-sireee.

The First 65 is an ideas company. Similar to what we've been doing for clients over the last 18 months or so at Condiment. Only this time, we're creating products for lots of businesses, rather than single bespoke solutions for clients.

What sort of ideas? Well, try this one for starters.

65winks.

65Winks is a new cloud-based booking engine for small hotels and bed and breakfasts.

Using the latest cloud-based technology, our team have created one of the easiest to use, low-cost hotel booking systems ever seen online. There are no setup fees, monthly subscriptions or contracts, you'll be up and running in no time at all.

Get up and running, for free.

No tiresome forms to fill in. No tech-guy coming out to install a bewildering array of tools onto your PC. We'll just need a few details about you, and you'll be ready to manage your room bookings in no time. What's more, we're dedicated a UK-based team, and always happy to help with any questions.  

Baffle-free bookings.

65Winks is built specifically for you and your guests, not someone with a degree in computer boffinry. We want to ensure it's as easy for you to manage your accommodation as it is for your guests to book online. Even the reporting tools are simple to use!

Real-time updates, wherever you are.

Manage telephone bookings and online room bookings through 65Winks. The system automatically prevents double-bookings. The best bit? You can be away from your hotel or B&B with a laptop, monitoring bookings and making plans. No more being stuck in your office having to manage your diary. Phew.

Love what you use.

We want you to use the 65Winks hotel booking system because you love to use it, not because of a bulky inescapable contract that makes you use it because you have no way out. No one likes being locked into something they don’t want anymore. 65Winks customers can cancel at any time, no questions asked. No setup/termination fees either.

Dedicated payment gateway, just for you.

We've built our own, super secure payment gateway to handle all payments from 65Winks into your bank account. We take a small percentage fee for each transaction and give you a fortnightly statement to let you know what's been paid into your account and how much commission we're taking. No hidden costs, no nasty surprises. Just pay for what you use.

65Winks will be in final testing throughout September and officially launch in October 2011. There's no sign-up fee and the commission rate is a highly competitive 6.5%.

The tech bit.

65Winks has been built using Ruby on Rails.

Ruby on Rails was extracted by David Heinemeier Hansson from his work on Basecamp, a project management tool by 37signals.

Like many web frameworks, Ruby on Rails uses the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture pattern to organize application programming.

Ruby on Rails includes tools that make common development tasks easier "out of the box", such as scaffolding that can automatically construct some of the models and views needed for a basic website.^[15] Also included are WEBrick, a simple Ruby web server that is distributed with Ruby, and Rake, a build system, distributed as a gem. Together with Ruby on Rails these tools provide a basic development environment.

If you really want to know how awesome Ruby and RoR is (rathen than just see me lift bits from Wikipedia to make me look clever), follow our incredibly talented resident Lead Developer @mrjaba, or read his Ruby Roundup blog.