The time has come for another exciting entry in The Balloon Market Blog! Who will we talk to? What will they say? Only time will tell… so come and have a read!

After a few weeks of the warehouse team, I think it’s time we talk the person in charge of keeping everything and everyone under control… and that person is our Warehouse Operations Manager: Andy! Overseeing a wide variety of tasks around BM HQ, Andy works hard to make sure each day runs smoothly… even with his seemingly endless supply of dad jokes! Let’s hear from the man himself!

On the Meet the Team page, you’ve listed a fun fact about yourself. Tell us more about that!

I am a Level 1 Football Coach! I’ve coached kid’s football for… probably getting on 15 years now. I haven’t done it recently as I decided to take a break from it. I’ve always been into football and I played it for about 25 years all told. Then I decided to go and coach kids, which is where I attained my Level 1 Coaching badge. I wouldn’t go back to it at the moment, as now that my boys are grown up, I think it’s good to have my own time.

What do you enjoy most about working at Balloon Market?

The variety of the role, as I don’t just oversee the Warehouse: I also do quite a lot of admin work behind the scenes that I quite enjoy. And the people too! I think there’s truly a lot of great characters in this building, which makes every day a fun one.

Do you have a favourite product that we stock?

The one product would have to be the litte beagle foil, because I have a beagle myself… he’s called Donny! That’s my go-to product, he’s really cute. (See Donny’s adventures at BMTV HQ here!)

What DIY skill would you most like to have?

Carpentry. I’ve always been keen on it; at school there used to be C.D.T. which was ‘Craft Design Technology’, so woodwork was part of that. Since I’ve left school, I’ve never really continued to do anything carpentry-wise, and now I get quite frustrated because if I wanted to put a new door up, lay floors, do some architraves… I wouldn’t have a clue about how to do any of it. I’d have to call in my brother-in-law who’s a carpenter.

What’s the No.1 thing on your bucket list?

To visit Singapore! We’d like to go there because I’ve seen so many amazing pictures and videos of it. We’ve been to many places around the world, it’s just one place we haven’t been to yet. It’s getting very high on our bucket list.

What’s your favourite kind of food? Is there a restaurant that you love to go to?

Indian food is my favourite, and my go-to place it Kuti’s. Very good food there; I’ll try anything really. I quite like a Biryani and I don’t mind a Rogan Josh either… I wouldn’t go as far as a Vindaloo. I don’t mind spice, but I wouldn’t go so hot that I couldn’t enjoy the food itself.

If money no longer existed, what would you like to be paid with?

Indian food and water, of course! As long as I’ve got some survival skills and those two things, I’ll think I’ll be ok. Probably end up being 30st. though.

Is there something that most people like that you don’t?

Celery: I class it as the devil’s food. More effort goes into eating it than what you actually get out of it. It reminds me of getting the stem of a stinging nettle, breaking it in half then chomping on that, I don’t know why. My Mrs. will sit there and get a nice length of celery, fill it all up with salad cream and just munch on it. Horrible. Thing is, I probably eat it all the time in stuff but don’t realise it!

Do you have any good recommendations?

I recommend Ozark, it’s excellent. It just captures you and you can’t wait for the next episode. I think there’s four seasons of it so I do fully recommend the whole thing.

Do you have a question for the readers?

‘Where would you refuse to go alone?’

Cheers for the chat, Andy! As for this week’s question, one type of place springs to mind. See, I’m REALLY not fond of scare mazes: the idea of people jumping out at you in close quarters isn’t exactly my idea of fun. You won’t be seeing me at any Fright Nights, that’s for sure. So doing that ALONE? I think I’d just about die… ok, perhaps that’s a bit extreme. But I wouldn’t enjoy myself one bit!

Let us know your answers to this week’s question below! See you all next time!

James
Blogologist