Dear friends,

We are aiming to raise awareness of, and money for the Ovacome charity during August.

Our Tina has been having treatment for the past 20 months and the invaluable support she’s received from this wonderful charity has been amazing.

We’d like to say thank you to them.

As a result, we’ve decided to take on a challenge to show our support.

Our Harlow branch manager has said that he will match the mileage our 3 vans do on average day, he will cover those miles through out August, On average the daily mileage of our delivery vans is 450 miles!

So he is going to split this across 3 activities Rowing, Running & Cycling, he’s decided to row 45 miles, run 90 miles and cycle 315 miles in August. This works out to 15Miles per day for 31days!!

I’m not quite that crazy but I’ve committed to walking 100 miles in Epping Forest too & our general manager matt has also said he will cycle 350miles aswell.

We have Ovacome charity boxes on our counters and Paul has set up a just giving page:

https://www.justgiving.com/page/gc-johnson3032?utm_source=copyLink&utm_medium=one_page&utm_content=page/gc-johnson3032&utm_campaign=pfp-share&utm_term=c4bc4614f7b0400c835c900ec3660229

If you’re able to donate, no matter how small, we’d be very grateful.

Once we’ve completed this, Paul, Jason and myself have decided to do a one off walk of 20 miles in Epping Forest starting at 5:00am on Sunday 3rd September.. If anyone would like to join us… ?

Our target is £1000.00.

Please help if you can!

Once completed, we’ll publish our hospital ward and bed numbers for you to come along and laugh at us.

Best wishes folks.

So, it’s the most wonderful time of the year again.

If we’re lucky enough to get some time off (and we don’t have power cuts!), we’ll all, no doubt, have a gather round the TV and re watch our favourite festive films! 

Mine will be Home Alone and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.

One of the things I always notice is that the houses the action is based in, in both films, are fabulous and it’s got me thinking about the decoration in what are now over 30 year old movies…

For the time they were no doubt the absolute height of home decor haute couture…

I still remember selling the New England style wallpaper in the late 80’s!

But how have they aged?

Well, for me, at least, they get more cosy and lovely the older they get.

I suppose for a while they just looked out of date and old fashioned but like, for example, an old car which was last years banger, gets to about 30 years old and becomes a sort of classic, the decorating now seems classic, and I begin to wonder if we’ll see a resurgence of this cosy, big pattern, colour rich type of style again soon?

I think, in its way, it’s already here!

I feel like I’d call it maximalist!

We’ve had many years of minimalist design, much on the grey theme but nearly every paper we now sell has an explosion of colour, pattern and design on it…

Not quite the 30 year old Christmas movie theme but the closest thing we’ve seen since…and I love it!

Tropical, Steampunk, Art Deco, Vintage, Murals and big, bold florals are all on display in our Buckhurst Hill showroom, and as the days get shorter and the lights are on, it makes it such a nice place to work… cosy and warm!

So, if your last minute gift to yourself is to be a beautifully decorated room, pop in, the ladies would love to help you get cosy and up to date, and maybe a little bit back in time just in time for Christmas!

Speaking of which…Merry Christmas to you all, we all wish everyone of you the best of times and everything you could wish for for your loved ones too.

We will be closing for our Christmas holidays at 12:00pm on Friday the 23rd December 2022 and we’ll reopen at 7:30am on Tuesday 3rd January 2023.

Be well.

Ho ho ho.

Pat.