Greystones Printing

dissertation distress!

Sometimes, I feel like I am a real hero, rescuing distressed damsels with dissertation stress! A week ago, a student called me from Holland, she had been studying in Sheffield. I was going to have the files sent via e mail, print, bind and deliver to the Uni. To cut a long story short, the file eventually arrived at 11.30 am, just 2 and a half hours before the deadline for handing them in. Two copies printed and bound were delivered by me to the University at 12.30! A good job done, I think! Incidentally, the department I delivered to is next door to the site of the company I started to work with way back in the 1970s, but is now a building site, the company long gone I fear.

moving on with the times

Or so it should be, but it seems to get harder! Two weeks ago, the second of my computers died, leaving me to resurrect an old one, last used about 6 years ago! The upside is that I found a file with some old jokes in, but the thing was so unbelievably slow, it has had to go into retirement again,  the downside is that I am trying to get to grips with a new keyboard, new operating system and a higher seating position as the new computer is a laptop. Still, one day I will get used to it all!

an all-time first!

Well, I suppose just about every job is an all-time first, as dates change, prices alter, phone numbers are changed etcetera, but I mean that the job I have just completed is one I have never been called on before: a Pedigree Certificate for a litter of puppies!

The parents, grand parents, great-grandparents and even great-great grandparents are all listed, some of them are Field Trial Champions, and are printed in red, some are Field Trial Winners, and are printed in blue. Jobs like this are ideal for my printer, the quantities of these certificates were 4 male, 3 female.

well-deserved break!

First, a huge thank you to all of our clients who keep me so busy. The company will be on annual shut-down from Monday September 20th until Friday Sept 24th, I hope this causes no inconvenience. We start our UK tour in Llansanfraid-ym-Mechain on Saturday 21st, then on to Cardigan, Minehead, Lyme Regis, and collecting the works van from its nuts&bolts check in Semley. Look out for us and give us a cheery wave as we go by!

ring ring…..ring ring

“hello, Greystones Printing”

“Hi, can you print a Powerpoint presentation?”

“Yep, no problems”

“Oh, great, I will call in. I am at Scotch Corner at the moment”

“OK, you live near here then?”

“No, I live in Sunderland, I am on my way to Surrey for a job interview, went on to Google maps, and you were on my route”

“Right, see you in an hour and a half or so”

Click brrrrrrrrr.

Two hours later

Ding Dong,

“Hi, I called earlier, here’s my disc”

Ten minutes later, two copies of the presentation printed and wiro-bound with a card back and clear acetate front cover

“Thanks very much, good luck with your interview”

“Thanks, Bye”

helping to relieve stress!

This time of the year can be stressful for some, in particular students, who have been slaving away for years, and now find that the deadline for handing in dissertations is maybe only hours away. We try our best to help, and reassure those in this position that we will not let them down.

Let me give you an example. A true story, but to save embarassment, I will call this particular student Dionne. Ok, it is her real name! Dionne called here a week or so back to discuss the various binding methods we can use, deciding on a hard-cover, channel bound, gold foil blocked text on the cover. Her deadline was noon, 1st September, and she would call in 31st August. Plenty of time! However, fate struck her a blow, when at the last minute, she realised she’d a couple of omissions. Could she call in first thing 1st September? Of course she could. So, first thing today, a frantic phone call “Help, I am lost” Dionne had got off the bus at the wrong stop. She knew we were near a pub with an equine theme, but the Coach and Horses is a long way from The Horse and Jockey! I told her to stay where she was, and I drove to collect her.

The previous night had been horrendous for the poor girl, last-minute panic printing in the Uni computer room, she awoke under the computer ‘with a sugar puff stuck on my arm’ - her energy giving staple food for the last few days.

The happy outcome was that she now has three copies of her dissertation and she was driven back to Sheffield to hand her dissertation in with time to spare!

I wish her well, and hope that the stress levels have dropped back to normal. Let us know how you got on!

this weeks jobs…

We started the week with a request for Orders of Service for a funeral. A sad time for the family involved, but I like to think we play an important part in the occasion, with our sympathetic but constructive help. Also going through the system as I have mentioned in earlier posts, stationery for no less than three weddings! On the press as I write is a musical score… are there no limits?

Nearing the end of another month…..

And still no signs of summer! We are in the silly season, where sometimes we think the phone lines are broken! No lack of orders though: which is partly why I haven’t updated lately. I currently have two weddings in progress, for which the stationery of both is going to be quite stunning! Obviously, I can’t go into too many details, but gerberas are involved in one of them: I am having a hundred gerbera shapes laser cut by a company in Scotland which will end up being the place cards at the tables. Dr Tait has just ordered a reprint of his book ‘Letters to Jack Tait’ which are now at the print finishers being bound, and I have a couple of clients for whom I am producing prints of their original water colour paintings, which is quite a challenging job. Meanwhile, stationery for a client in Saskatchewan is winging its way over the Atlantic. Toodlepip!

The art of proofreading

and it is an art! Sod’s Law dictates that if the client does not check the artwork and typesetting, but just tells you to print, what can go wrong will! I remember a few years back, I had taken a piece of masonic gubbins to be engraved, and the engraver spelled one of the words wrong. “Well, it’s done now” he said. I was quite philosophical about this, after all, it could not be undone. Today, I collected a fleece jacket as a sample for the bowling club of which I am a member. So I could claim it as a legitimate business expense, I asked for one of my websites to be woven onto the garment, it turned out to be “morgpix.com” instead of “mogpix.com”

Well, life is too short to get uptight about this, so I have simply got a new website now: www.morgpix.com

Keep your eye out for this new site when it is launched!

another holiday?

‘fraid so! Thank you all for keeping me so busy lately. I am away though, from Wednesday 7th July until Tuesday 13th, my son James and I are off to Classic Le Mans. Will be busy for you until then though, I won’t even be playing golf on Thursday!