Double booked before Christmas

Well with just six and a half working days to go before the long Christmas break, it’s time to relax and chill out a little. I mentioned it somewhere – on the Beer & Pubs Forum, now I think about it, that the past fortnight had been pretty intense on the work front, with two back-to-back audits to contend with.

We’d been expecting one of these audits, and in fact actually welcomed it when a date was proposed. This was despite the event clashing with our works' Christmas buffet. I won’t go into too much detail, but a little background information might help to emphasise the importance of this audit.

My company manufactures dental materials. These are classed as Medical Devices, primarily because fillings, used to repair a partially decayed tooth, tend to remain in the body for a substantial amount of time. The same applies to dental cements, used to secure crowns and bridges in place.

All our products carry a CE Mark, which enables them to be exported and sold all over the world. To obtain this accreditation we have to be assessed by a “notified body”, who are in effect organisations with the wherewithal to inspect and verify that companies like ours, conform to internationally recognised standards. In our case, that standard is ISO 13485, which covers Medical Devices.

Back in February, our NB gave just four weeks notice that they were withdrawing support for Medical Devices; a move which left dozens of companies, like us, without cover. Fortunately the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which is the government agency responsible for regulating all medicines and medical devices, stepped in and threw us a lifeline, by endorsing our continued CE accreditation.

This was only a temporary measure, and the onus was on us, and other affected companies, to secure accreditation with another recognised notified body. We sourced and approached a suitable replacement, but after a promising start, earlier in the year, things went very quiet. You can imagine then our relief when we received notice on the Monday, that our new NB proposed carrying out our re-certification audit on the Thursday and Friday of the same week.

As alluded to earlier, we jumped at this offer, despite it clashing with our Friday afternoon Christmas bun-feast. Preparations for what we knew would be an intensive process, were well underway when who should turn up, un-announced on the Wednesday, but two auditors, from a different NB, who’d come to conduct an audit on behalf of one of our European customers.

We had no choice but to let them in to conduct their investigation, even though our QA and regulatory resource were already heavily involved preparing for our all important “re-certification audit” at the end of the week.

Fortunately we emerged relatively unscathed from both inspections but, as you can imagine, they were pretty intense and also rather tiring. Both audits involved two inspectors, who operated along the lines of “good cop, bad cop.” So with a constant stream of questions to answer, or various supporting paperwork requested, it really was a case of constantly thinking on ones feet, and making sure you kept all you wits about you.

Our staff Christmas “do” took place at the Greyhound in Charcott, just over ten minutes walk away from the factory. It was a buffet affair, and the pub put on a really good spread for us. The event was in full swing when a colleague and I arrived shortly after 2.30pm, having been “excused” by the auditors. Fortunately there was still plenty of food remaining, and the home-made sausage rolls, plus hot scotch eggs, with runny yolks, were particularly enjoyable.

There were four cask ales on tap from the likes of Ballard’s, Brumaison, Three Legs and Titsey. The latter are yet another new brewery that has popped up recently in this corner of Kent, the name coming from Titsey House, a posh country retreat that I’d never heard of, until last year.

I deliberately asked for two pints of Leveson Buck, which still didn’t prevent the barman’s  rather silly, schoolboy quip of, “I thought you were going to ask for two Titseys!” as he pulled up a couple of pints for us late arrivals. There were shades here of last month’s great Shifnall mix-up, which occurred over what constitutes a pint of bitter

Neither of us were impressed with the Leveson Buck, so we moved onto the Brumaison BB. It was perfectly drinkable and in good condition, but somehow it too didn’t hit the spot. I don’t think I tried the Ballard’s, although I perhaps should have done, given the brewery’s longevity. Founded  in 1980, Ballard’s beers are now brewed at the Greyhound Brewery, in West Chiltington, Sussex, following the retirement of the company's original founders.

The 4.5% Oatmeal Stout, from the Three Legs Brewing Co, was the best of the cask beers I tried that afternoon, although perhaps a little heavy for a lengthy session.  Back in February, Retired Martin and I called in at the brewery tap, which is situated on the edge of the village of Broad Oak, to the west of Rye. This was the first time since our visit that I’ve seen Three Legs beers on sale, anywhere.

Later in the evening, I moved onto Hofmeister, clean, refreshing and with just the right balance of malt and hops, this Bavarian-brewed Helles, was the most enjoyable beer of the session, taken as a whole.

This year was the first time our Christmas party has not involved a sit-down meal. There was a feeling that the less formal approach of a help-yourself buffet worked well, as it allowed people to mingle and socialise. As in previous years, the company paid for the food and ran a tab behind the bar. There was though, the strict proviso of no shots!

I left just before 8pm, walking back across the former Penshurst airfield, to the station, and the train home to Tonbridge. Despite the late start, it was an enjoyable Christmas “do,” and it was good for us to be supporting a local, family-owned enterprise.