My mum and a guilt trip

[bubble99]

It has been a particularly crappy week. Our son's cremation on Monday, a newborn baby who has taken to partying at 4am and two lively DS's excited at the prospect of two weeks away from school. Add to this a new business (children's day nursery) with two new premises. Staff who, despite being specifically asked to switch it off, left on Thursday afternoon with the heating on full blast (and as a result, if we hadn't discovered this on Friday morning, heating 150sqm of empty building for the whole of the bank holiday) - also leaving dirty floors and porridge oats all over the 'home corner' and surrounding area. Step this way vermin and we've even left food out for you

Should say at this point that we are resonable employers. The nursery has just opened and we have only got 5 children in at the moment. The staff are paid for 40 hours and at present, with our blessing, they are working about 20. We said we were happy for them to 'make hay while the sun shines' as long as the nursery was properly run. That is why we were so pissed off to walk in and see this on Friday.

I am covering the albeit small amount of cooking at the moment as our chef pulled as he was offered his own franchise, completely understandable but shit timing for us.

And to top it all I've had my mum leaving messages saying " Where are you? I can't believe you're not there" - No mum, I'm fast asleep as I was up all night with party boy. And "I'll 'phone tomorrow at 09.30am" - But mum, I might not even be here!
I know she's just being a mum and she's worried about me but I really resent the tone and expectation that I should be there when she wants me too. I tried to 'phone just now and got the answerphone with a sad little message on it no doubt recorded especially to make me feel bad. Well mum, it's working.

Okay. That's it and thanks for listening.

bubbbbbbbbble.... you must be so scary and mean to make all those little childddddddren so cold.

hub2dee. Here's our link.

bubbbbbbbbble - there are people out there you need to speak to !!!!

The content of the Web site is fine. (Phew... that's the hardest bit to get right), however the use of text as a big image file needs a spanked botty. Big time no no.

Also, the link to the two nursery info pages is broken.

Open the text in Word, and save as HTML. You will get a better looking result that scales up in people's browsers.

May I whisper: Did you do this or did you get a Web designer ?

morningpaper does small, fairly priced sites.

I am happy to help you with saving the text as HTML. Even with no additional metapage info for searching, even with no style sheet, etc. we can get this to look 100% better v. quickly.

I know you have one thousand things on your plate at the mo, and if the Web site is secondary to your other marketing, then perhaps it's no big deal, but a veg patch and fair-traded organic food sound like you are a TOP TIER facility, but your Web site lets you down.

The hub with the mouth the size of the Dartford tunnel,

hub2dee.

Cheers hub and no offence taken. Link to nursery pages is working at the mo for us (just checked)and it is in HTML.

For us the content is all. We have been so deeply unimpressed with the slick marketing and crap quality offered by the big boys that we have deliberately gone for the home made look.
We are, as it says on the tin, a small operator and we want people to feel that they are leaving their children in the local home grown nursery.
There is something IMO, very yucky about the shiny corporate websites that the big boys use. Yes, we are a business but children are so much more than commodities and most of them forget that.
Our parents who have signed up so far are an ecologically aware bunch who have given us positive feedback about the site because it is and does look homemade. Our site may be as unflash as the local allotment society but that is what we are aiming for.

BTW I also hate the corporate nursery webcam thing. If you don't feel happy leaving your child there then your child shouldn't be there. Looking in for 15 minutes a day is counterproductive. You may happen to look in on the 15 minutes when your child is tired and crying and get completely the wrong opinion and hence more stress.

Bubble, you're lovely. And amazing. And very funny. And if I lived in London and needed a nursery I would send ds2 to yours like a shot. Best of luck with it - I hope it's a rip roaring success.

One Million Apologies, bubble.

I chcked on Safari (and Internet Explorer) on the Mac, and the pages are NOT NICE, text is displayed as on big image, and links are broken.

I ran upstairs to a (yuck) Windows PC, and the text is fine, and the images work.

Is this (nasty) frontpage output ? That would be typically microsoft - to cripple the site for Apple Mac users.

FWIW, I totally agree with your approach - and also with the light / personal / NOT big-boy-corporate approach. It works for what you are doing.

Hope you are able to make it cross platform one day - I cannot abide using my Windows PC fo very long... but will do, for a few more minutes, to properly read your content !

Bigmouthhub2dee.

Hub2dee - Mac and Safari rule
Sorry - to hijack....

Sorry to hijack... yes they do, pupuce, don't they. Tabbed browsing, ultra-stable with dozens upon dozens of open Windows...

I take it bubble's site looked odd for you too ?

Yes but the content is there....
Bubble - I have my own small business but a website can look very nice wihout looking corporate if you know what I mean...

Bubble, please open a nursery near me Seriously, your business looks fantastic - you're amazing. Hope your staff appreciate how lucky they are (and stop fearing the boiler soon!) xxxxxx

Do many people have Mac? If it's the person looking for a nursery it matters. Thanks for pointing the fault out. Will have to cross platform asap. Hi pupuce, HM

Pleased you all like the content anyway.

Actually, having read every word on your website, I'm not kidding. Please open a nursery near me. I wish there were more like your nurseries - that's what it should be like.

Lots of people use Macs. And their market share is growing. I expect though, any non-Windows user (Macs / Linux etc.) will have a hard time viewing the site.

Historically, there tended to be a creatives > Apple, suits > Windows mentality, but this is not so clear cut these days.

It may well be possible to configure your HTML authoring application to export to a simpler standard - there is no Javascript wackiness that I can see, no insanely complicated table positioning etc. so outputting to cross-platform might be possible.

I think a lot of people who think 'outside of the box' or who have used PCs for a very long time have migrated to Macs, and I advise anyone who is sick of spyware / scumware / pop ups / diallers / viruses / reboots / crashes to do the same.

You say "If it's the person looking for a nursery it matters" - I reckon that there is a greater-than-expected chance (based on market share), that viewers of your site use a Mac. You can actually view the access logs for your site and it should tell you Operating System / Browser stats, and that would answer your question. NB - some browsers 'hide' that they're Opera, or on a Mac, or whatever for extra privacy and because some sites are designed to be broken for Apple Macs / non Internet Explorer browsers etc.

Hub. No not in Frontpage just in Word. We're going to redo using Dreamweaver when we can. Not too high on the list of priorities at the mo but should improve things dramatically. I still want that "Handknitted" look though.

Anyway. This all far too technical for moi I'll pass all of your help onto Mr B. I'm off to have a lie down, press some wild flowers or some such other "ladies" pursuit.

Actually I've just heard the call of the Elijah looking for boobs and some company - very much, I imagine what he will spend his teenage years looking for.

Night night all

Bubble XXXX

Rather he spend his teenage years hunting for boobs than attacking people with paintball guns or driking cans of Strongbow behind the bubbles' backs in the old Scout Hut. Everyone knows boob is better than bottle.

Hope the tea, scones, fresh fresias and tapestry work rewarded your lady-sensibilities.

I think there are sites on the Net for Mr. bub to see how his HTML is rendered by different browsers. It might be worth checking out.... I must admit the way it was rendered on my Mac was the strangest looking thing I've encountered in my browsing for quite some time. but I can see the content is all good and the idea behind the nurseries is obviously totally fab.

Apple also had a reputation in the educational market. Perhaps it has been surpassed by Windows in this space, but lots of teachers perhaps continue to use Macs and they might be seeking the personal, intelligent approach your business is about. Also journalists who I guess you will be approaching about The New Nursery might be on Macs and you'd want them to get a decent experience of the site.

Do you have a pile of postcards about the nursery to hand out to potential customers when crusing the streets of Richmond / Kew / wherever your catchment area is ? There always seems to be, for example, large groups of buggy pushers in Kew Gardens coffee shop. There are online printshops that make this quite affordable.

just wanted to echo HunkerMunker's sentiments - PLEASE come and open a nursery near me

I hope you get loads more kids in soon and the places really take off - they sound great

and I agree with the others who've said it - bubble you are one amazing ladie (even down to the flower pressing )

Yipee! Our wandering chef has now returned, change of plan and wants his job. I am so relieved. I spent yesterday chopping onions with Elijah in his baby carrier on my front. I am now relieved of kitchen duties and can, as hub2dee suggests, go and beat the staff with my big capitalist stick.

bubble99,

Your most humble,

Your main pimp,

bubble99: Do hope text below was taken as a joke. No offence was intended. Sorry if you felt it was !

Hope Chef and Staff are making you smile breezily !

Wotcha hub. No offence taken at all

Cool.

Seems Pinot wasn't alone in thinking your product offering sounded fab.

Next time you're in town, check out the Apple store in Regent Street. You'll see all the latest bits of shiny loveliness and you'll fall head over heels for a box of brilliance and take it home and all your digital photos will be easy to import, and any video you have recorded can be made into a DVD easy peasy and then you can rip all your CDs so you can put your music onto an iPod and take it to your nursery and you'll then have Staff, Chef and IT all in order and you will be one swell chick.

Reading about your nursery, bubble, makes me almost, (note almost) wish I had a toddler to send along to you.

FWIW, as a total non computer type of person, I really liked your website - just for the reasons you state (not too corporate and slick).