We secured a great deal with Oxfam at the back end of 2010…wooooo!

Im telling you this because the order needs to be delivered this week and I thought it was quite funny how we actually packed the order up, compared to how we usually do it! I decided to give the packers a well earned rest over the coldest part of the year and do the order myself. Its actually quite nice to do something repetitive as you forget about everything else going on at the time!

Normal Order Process:

Right, so, a normal order would be packed up by some of our packers (thanks packers!!!) in our warehouse which is about 45 minutes drive from my house. They would take, on avarage, around 4 hours to pack up an order the size of Oxfam’s if they were really going for it. It would be palletised and shrink wrapped (biodegradable of course), then put in the Goods Out section to be picked up a day before the order would be due for delivery.

My Christmas Order Process:

My way of packing up was slightly less ‘slick’ but has achieved the same outcome! I brought home the required stock from the Warehouse to my home just after Christmas. I then spent 3 days over the holiday period unpacking boxes for the order, making new boxes up and repacking the items into boxes. All in front of the television and the fire! I know its not the most cost effective way of packing up an order but it was a great deal better than asking the packers to come in over the holiday to the cold warehouse and pack up the order!

Anyway, it was good to get back to the roots of the business, even if it was in my living room and the order is now ready to go to Oxfam stores across the UK.

We all know the snow is here, Right?

Just before I start this post, I must say this. We have been working hard to get the orders out before Christmas and have currently got everything out to everyone, fingers crossed for the last few pre-Xmas orders going out today!

Now that’s done…

I thought it would be great to use the down time over the weekend to have some fun with my friends in the snow. I would advise all of you to do the same when you get the chance. I know the snow has caused real problems to travel, work and countless personal plans, but I think the snow can be great fun too.

So, on Saturday my friend came over and we went out with two body-boards to find a nice hill to slide down. After all, I run EcoCharlie but I am still only 20 years old and hope to be going and playing in the snow when I am 80 years old! We found a nice big hill and ended up making a rather large jump to fling ourselves off of. After a few hours of throwing ourselves down the hill we thought it was time for a break. We came back and got warmed up with some homemade soup and then set about traveling to my other mates house to go to a larger hill for the next day to play on some snowboards!

On Sunday we woke up and got straight up to a hill in Surrey called Newlands Corner. It is the place to go when is snows in my area! Like Saturday, we built a nice ramp to jump off of and even a rail (a plank of wood) to grind along on the snowboards.What a great day!!

Overall, my idea of getting out and enjoying the snow (rather than mumbling on about how awful it is and giving up on plans) worked a treat, I had had two great adventurous days messing about in the white stuff! It shows, even business people can work aand play around this countries eccentric weather! Now, back to getting everything ready for next year online! I can’t wait for 2011 now!

Hello,

I am Callum, founder of EcoCharlie Ltd. I started this blog to let you into the world of EcoCharlie and what goes on here!

I will be blogging about day to day things to do with EcoCharlie, things I have seen and like, basically anything I class as good blogging material. It is NOT going to be about gardening and gardening only! I don’t like to take myself too seriously, so this blog is not going to be serious either, I think its better that way. I hope you like it.

oh, I called it Brain Food because that’s exactly what it is…food for your brain!!

Right, lets get to it…