Clouds

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All Work No Tea

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The second half of 2010

Mid of last year we started the design and development of the new Sunderland College, one of the largest colleges in the UK, offering many courses for further and higher education, a website which was a fantastic project to work on. As 2010 progressed we completed projects for the Sunderland Scuba Centre, an ecommerce website offering a large range of Scuba Diving and Snorkelling Equipment, plus providing access to PADI diving courses up to and beyond diving instructor level and Love Lilly, a website to showcase bespoke and made to order cakes, the range including wedding cakes, birthday cakes, novelty cakes, christening cakes, cupcakes and individual cakes.

Other websites we completed in 2010 include:

• AC Commercial Finance – Business loans and commercial finance
• Accident Dummy – Accident and Personal injury claims
• Sweeney Miller Solicitors – Friendly, professional and personally tailored legal advice and solutions for business, property, accident and family law.
• DGA Safety – Safety, health and environmental support including IOSH training
• Chameleon Music – Wedding and Function Band. Providing professional, live music and entertainment for weddings and corporate events in Yorkshire and the North East

The first quarter of 2011

This year we’ve already designed and developed the Mussel Club website, providing a range of networking and social events to help develop successful businesses throughout the North East.

A new desktop all for you….you are beautiful. It’s been a while (we know) but better late than never.

There’s creativity in all of us….some more than others but download this for your desktop / phone / iPad and get creative.

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A new desktop for Christmas.

It’s of a lovely Christmas scene to celebrate a wonderful time of the year. We’ve got a variety of sizes for you to download including ones for the iPhone and iPad.

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Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

A great night was had by all, with guest speaker Barry Norman entertaining the audience with numerous stories of A list celebrities, including Mel Gibson, Richard Burton and Bob Hoskins.

“Barry Norman is a living legend and I could have listened to him for hours. Congratulations to all those that won and to everyone else, keep trying, never give up, eye of the tiger.”

– Lee

Unfortunately for ourselves, we were unsuccessful in winning however we’d like to congratulate both Olivers Dental Studio and Deborah Batey of Little Learners as well as all the other successful companies and individuals.

Although we didn’t win, we’ll still keep smiling.

We’ve been short-listed for Marketing Campaign of the Year for the work we did on the successful World Cup Host City Bid for Sunderland Council and Accounts Manager Ang McGwin is short-listed for Employee of the Year.

“We’re so excited that Lee has even bought a suit and Grabbins may even try and wear a purple tie with matching trainers……with a suit, it’s like Hollywood at Rufus HQ. I’ve even heard rumours that Chris and Richard have joined forces to create a drum roll which will haunt your soul for eternity.”

– Ian

The winners will be announced at tonight’s ceremony at the Stadium of Light…we’ll let you know how we got on tomorrow!!

Fingers crossed.

Our very own Graeme2 (aka Grabbins) took on the cream of the crop of the North East’s graphic designers in ‘The Battle’, an event organised by Codeworks Connect and held at Newcastle College.

“I used everything I could to get through each round, my life experience, my loves, my hates and I thought of all the good times I’ve had plus all the lives I’ve touched”

– Grabbins

Grabbins and seven others battled through three rounds until the winner was announced. A panel of industry experts selected each graphic designer to progress through each round with Grabbins making it to the final where he faced his graphic nemesis, Stephane Stamb of AtomHawk Design. With many describing this as a battle of epic proportions, the 150 professionals and students that gathered, ‘oooooohh’d’ and ‘aaaaaaah’d’ as every pixel was delicately placed on screen.

Following the final video game-themed design face off, the winner was declared, with Grabbins taking the trophy and winning the prize of a Wacom Tablet Intuos 4 plus the admiration of the adorning crowd (especially the ladies).

“Taking part was an amazing experience and I met some fantastic designers. There was some really tough competition, and I still can’t believe I won!”

– Grabbins

Well done Grabbins, we salute you.

After a training regime that included runs on the beach and chips on the beach, the now two strong Rufus contingent of Ang McChin and Vince Moron joined the many thousands of professional runners and kind hearted souls for the 30th Great North Run. Madden had decided to leave Rufus and pursue other interests, however reports that he was unhappy with ‘chips on the beach’ are wide of the mark.

It was difficult, a blister attack for Moron and Lycra stopping the blood circulation for McChin meant a world class time was way beyond their reach. We finished the race, just before the guy dressed as a donkey and one chap in a mankini.

“I’m not gonna lie, I hit a brick wall at mile 3 and spent 10 miles eating ice lollies, biscuits and jelly babies”

– Vince Moran

The good news is, with the help of Lauratron Smith, we managed to raise £470 for Cancer Research. If you want to see who has donated to us or be kind enough to donate yourself, please see our Just Giving page at http://www.justgiving.com/team-rufus.

“I can’t beleve he ate so many ice lollies, biscuits and jelly babies….it was like a fat kid breaking into a sweet shop”

– Ang McChin

We’re all healthy now and look forward to running next year.

There’s been loads of changes at Rufus HQ with people leaving and arriving…..a bit like a bus depot or a busy McDonalds.

We’ve said goodbye to Marie (fancied a change), Gareth (off to Dubai to top up his tan), Elaine (off to America to live!!) and Graeme (gone back to hairdressing) but have welcomed Joni (actually short for Jonifer!!), Richard (he’s got tattoos), Chris (he’s got his own Wikipedia page), Lauren (she always wears hats) and Simon (he has a very deep voice and should be operating an adult phone line).

“I came in one day and they were just gone…….it was like a cross between Lost and America’s Next Top Model”

– Vince

We wish everyone who has left all the very best and those who have joined……welcome on the roller coaster.

Rufus are support Anne Ganley, MD of Thompson Building Centres in her quest in trekking all the way to the base camp of Mt Everest. For updates on Anne’s trek, please visit www.anneganley.co.uk/ or if you would like to make a donation please visit www.everyclick.com/anneganley.

We recently received the following letter from Anne:

As you may know over the last 30 years I have given and supported many charities through my business and personally, and so far over that time we have given approx a million pounds to many various charities, however the hard part is now I am asking everyone to help me with my fundraising effort.

Most of us over the last 18 months have had a massive mountain to climb, with the state of the economy and now we appear to be in calmer waters but not quite at the end of the storm, I have decided to take on a challenge of literally climbing a mountain by trekking to the base camp of Mt Everest, the world’s highest mountain on 30th April for charity.

Although the thought of 17 days out of the office is a challenge in itself, I can feel the adrenalin of anticipation already and I am so excited but at the same time a bit scared, and as this is a life changing challenge I thought what could be more fitting than for me to take this opportunity to raise some funds and support some charities who have been a part of my past, present and of the future.

Thankfully, I’ll be surrounded on the trek by 20 friends and colleagues who I know will provide inspiration and support, but my real inspiration and motivation is raising as much as I can for 7 charities (for the purposes of this fundraising page the lead charity is Show Racism The Red Card, but all money raised will be distributed evenly between my 7 chosen charities)

The Present

St Benedict’s Hospice, St Oswald’s Hospice & Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Care Centre

St Benedicts & St Oswald Hospice

Many of you will know that I helped nurse my mam before we lost her to cancer and those last precious years with her would not have been filled with happy memories if it were not for the help and support from those at the hospice for my mam and me and my family.

Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Care Centre

Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Care Centre is an iconic, space age, super cancer centre, that is already making an impact despite having only been open a short time. Many of my friends, family and staff have benefited from it and people travel from far afield to come to the centre. I was also privileged to meet Sir Bobby Robson who took time out to come and open our TAPS branch in Newcastle. Despite being extremely ill himself, he showed amazing courage and good humour and talked endlessly to staff, builders & plumbers.

He did so much for so many.

The Past

The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army have been next door to us for 35 years and in that time I have always supported them. This gallant organisation works tirelessly to help people who have fallen on hard times.

The Future

Grace House Children’s Hospice Appeal

We have as a company supported this appeal since the founder Kathy Secker first dreamed of building the first children’s hospice in Sunderland for children who are not expected to reach adulthood and their families. The charity was launched when it was realised that the North East of England had the lowest number of hospice beds in the UK for children.

Brothers in Arms

The dream of the Brothers in Arms is to build a memorial wall adjacent to the existing war memorial in Sunderland which will be dedicated to the fallen of our area who have paid the ultimate sacrifice while serving for Queen and country. This new memorial will allow families, the forces and the general public to pay their respects and ensure all brave servicemen and women from the North East are never forgotten.

I do appreciate that times are very tough and fully understand if you cannot help on this occasion. I am funding my trip myself so you can be safe in the knowledge that any donation, no matter how small – would be gratefully received and a tremendous thank you for your kindness and generosity if you are able to support.

If you would like to support, you can do it via my everyclick page www.everyclick.com/anneganley or by sending a cheque made payable to Anne Ganley’s Charity Challenge to Thompson Building Centres, Commercial Road, Hendon, Sunderland, SR2 8QR.

I would just like to say thank you for taking the time to read this letter and if you wish to follow me on my trekking challenge you can do, just like that, on Twitter and Facebook, only 6 weeks to go!

Kindest Regards

Anne

 

Visit Anne Ganley’s Website here.