And this week's lucky number is...

...15699!   Yes, that is the latest order number we have cast, packed and sent out this week.   As usual, there is the rider that some later numbers have actually gone out and some earlier numbers have not.  However, 15699 is a good place to measure the progress.  If anyone hasn't bothered to do the maths yet, that is just shy of eighty orders processed which isn't too bad given our much-reduced capacity at the moment.

Joy of Six 2021 is cancelled

Sad news folks.  After long discussions with the events team at Sheffield Hallam University  we have made the very painful decision to cancel the Joy of Six for a second year.   We are as gutted as any of you reading this will be, but in the end we didn't have choice.     For a start, the main room used for the show is now a Covid testing centre for students and is likely to remain so for the rest of the year, and there is no alternative suitable space.    We also had to consider that the proposed lifting of the UK lockdown is just two weeks prior to the date of the show.  A small glitch in that timetable would see the event in trouble.   There were a number of other factors at play, including safety concerns for University staff, so all in all, the decision was inevitable.

This week's update.

I will be restarting the weekly order updates for those of you waiting.   Today, we have shipped order number 15620.  Because of the arcane and mystical processes utilised by our 'despatch department' (a wise and cautious man meddles not in the affairs of Packers) there will be a few orders in advance of this number that have been sent, and a few below it that have not.   Those in the latter section will be on their way next week.

We are currently restricting the size of orders to £50...

...and to one order at a time from any one customer/household.   Most of you will already know this, but my email inbox is telling me repeatedly that the message has not got through to everyone.  

The next stage...

It’s all been a bit quiet on the News front from us for the last couple of weeks.  We’ve been concentrating on the getting the last batch of orders from November on their way, and then dealing with what turned out to be another Tsunami of paperwork following the recent re-opening.

We're back....

Well, the cart has re-opened, and don't we just know it!  The volume of orders has been far beyond our expectations, so thank you one and all for your patience in waiting all this time and then sticking to the order limitations. 

The Time is nigh...

After careful deliberation a suitable result from the auguries, and a rather pleasant picture in the tealeaves, I am happy to announce that we will be reopening for business on Friday 19th February.

We are getting there...

...honest we are!   This week's magic number is 15401.   Some of you with order numbers prior to this will actually be going out next week due to our internal quarantine system.  Don't panic - you have not been forgotten or overlooked.

Yet another order update

We are still chipping away at the order pile, and this week have got as far as 15342.   Once again, progress is slow because of having to deal with some very large orders, which can tie down a whole day's output.   The good news is that there are fewer of those ahead of us now.  

Order update

We've managed to get up to order 15328.  It looks like relatively slow progress, but we are coming across a lot of the larger orders left to us, so the total amount of metal cast and packed this week is pretty much the same as usual, but it looks a lot less impressive when you just compare number of orders processed.