Posts filed under 'Personal'
December 23rd, 2009
… blows directly off the Atlantic. (Hey you try finding something to rhyme with Madeira!)
Back again to the island I visited this time last year, but it seems I’m not so lucky with the weather this time. Apparently it’s been raining and stormy for the previous two weeks at least, but last night was particularly bad with thunderstorms and horizontal rain pummelling the palm trees. Still, at least it’s warm if rather humid, and much better than what I left behind in Scotland.
The trip here was eventful – the initial flight from Edinburgh cancelled due to the airline going bust, valiant efforts from dad and his travel agent secured a replacement flight from Manchester. A 3.5 hour train journey turned into a 6 hour one, not helped by a distinct lack of heating, and assisted by the decision not to proceed to the advertised destination of the airport but to terminate at the main Manchester station where allegedly a train was being held for us to reach the airport. Said train was neither held not even appeared to have existed. The next one was 30 minutes late. Frozen, we eventually arrived near 10pm and were lucky to get a much needed meal. Meanwhile the airport was itself swathed in frozen snow and many flights that day had been cancelled.
Check-in the next morning was perhaps the most inefficient I have ever experienced – a single queue for all 19 Thomas Cook desks had a stream of people winding interminably back on itself round the concourse with no information or staff to assist. Had the 9.30 departure been on time I would have missed it, having not even got as far as security by the time it was due to take off. It was not on time, we were promised more information at 11.30, then 12.30 then told the plane was stuck at Stanstead. That was a lie. It transpired that our original plane had arrived from Stanstead that morning and was given to to a flight delayed from the previous day – a reasonable enough decision so why the deception? Our replacement was frozen into a hanger at Manchester and could not be pulled out until later.
We boarded it at 2pm, being exhorted by the crew to move as swiftly as possible to avoid delay. At 2.30 we were told by the captain that the luggage had not yet been put on board! We eventually took off at 3.30 and the captain told us it was a bit breezy at Madeira. As any seasoned traveller will know that is pilot-speak for blowing a gale, and so it proved. Descending though turbulence we attempted unsuccessfully to land due to strong winds and then stayed in a holding pattern for a further period until it was safe to try again. We landed successfully, to rapturous applause from a somewhat tense flock of passengers, but I suspect the engineers will have had cause to check the shock absorbers on the landing gear rather carefully afterwards.
I ventured out once yesterday, and was caught in a squall 200 yards from the hotel and soaked in moments. The sea is slate grey except nearer the rocks where the sand is being churned up. But at least the hotel is comfortable and I can unwind. The local wines are again good and the seafood excellent.
November 2nd, 2009
Don’t you just love banks? Not content with blackmailing our governments into bailing them out for their idiocy and incompetence then complaining because they are asked to pay some of it back since we “own” most of their establishments now (and that “own” must be the most meaningless phrase in commercial history) they now add insult to injury.
Like, no doubt, many others, I received a letter telling me one of my banks was changing the name of my account. From a High Interest Current Account to just a Current Account. Have you guessed the reason yet? Yep, got it in one, they’re not going to be paying any interest on it any more. And of course in the alternative “upgraded” version there’s a monthly charge. How stupid do they think we are?
Sadly there will be plenty of people who will bin the letters as being just another one of those endless streams of mind-numbing conditions documents that require three years free time, a masters degree in legal obfuscation, and a microscope to decipher.
Me, I’ll be finding a new home for my current account money, and probably for my savings and isas as well, since they’ve also had their interest rates cut to microdecimals – so much so that the tax benefits have almost dissappeared. Pity I didn’t buy gold a few months ago, I’d be well in now.
March 15th, 2009
A mild Edinburgh day – I was able to wash the windows today without freezing to death – has made me realise that Spring is finally here. And yet is seems the last three months have flown by. My last post was in December and it seems I’ve had no time whatever to do any of the routine things that I would expect. The SpiderWriting SEO blog was last updated in August, the Dunnett blog in November; people I care about I’ve hardly been in touch with. What is it about Winter that seems to soak up the available hours? In some ways I feel as if I’ve hibernated since returning from Madeira and yet in other ways I’ve never stopped dashing about solving problems.
Madeiran review
The week I spent in that delightfully mild climate was a ideal rest that was badly needed. I’d intended to do some walking in the highland areas using the astonishing range of Levadas – the irrigation channels that bring the water from the cloud-covered hills to the farming areas and villages of the coast. In the event I found the whole atmosphere of the island so relaxed that I just leant back and enjoyed the unaccustomed lack of stress. I can see why so many people from stressed out Britain love this island so much. Nearly everyone from the UK that I spoke to was on at least their 8th visit and some had made arrangements to retire there. With an average temperature of between 18 and 24 degrees all year round it’s an ideal environment for anyone who can’t take the extremes of heat that are liable to be found in Spain or the Mediterranean. If I didn’t have my eyes on retiring to Slovenia I might well consider it.
I was particularly looking forward to the food and wine, and it didn’t disappoint. The seafood in particular was excellent and the restaurants wonderfully friendly. The Madeiran and Portuguese wine went down very well indeed – quite different from my normal preferences but matching the food very well.
Sadly the friend I referred to in the last posting succumbed to the cancer she’d fought for so long in the early hours of New Years Day. It made a sombre start to the year, the only blessing being that she was no longer suffering. The only other downer of the week was the return home. The plane we were due to be on had apparently been in an accident with a ground vehicle and a new plane had to be summoned. A long delay meant that instead of arriving in Glasgow at tea-time I only just got back in time to get the last train back to Edinburgh at 11.30pm. Not the return I’d hoped for.
By the time I’d become re-accustomed to the freezing Scottish conditions I had realised how empty the flat seemed without my flatmate, particularly when it proved impossible for her to come back for our friend’s funeral. In fact it she has still not returned but is due back next week. In the meantime I’ve been knocking the flat into shape – styling it to my own preferences while keeping an eye on what she might prefer. It still needs some painting in the living room and that will have to be done now that the light is improving but
it’s a lot more like a home than it was. Though she’s only back for a short time I’m hoping it’ll meet with her approval.
December 30th, 2008
Am starting this blog entry on the way to Glasgow for the flight to Madeira. I’m greatly looking forward to it but in other ways I’m leaving with a heavy heart.
We’ve only been in the new flat for three weeks but already it has become home, a place I’m delighted to be and where I can relax in a way I haven’t been able to do for a long time. My flatmate is also away, but for her it’s three and a half weeks of new experiences and hard work, and a lot of uncertainty, with the possibility that she will be away for 4 weeks out of every 6 for some time. She was hyper for the last few days, yet still looking after me before herself. She is looking forward as she always does but hates to leave her new home so soon. I pray she’ll be ok and be back safe and sound; the flat will be very empty without her.
I’m also going away at a time when a friend is seriously ill and I fear for her and for her husband. I wish I could be there for them but have to remember to look after myself, and this holiday is badly needed. Thankfully they have many other good friends to support them.
So, what will Madeira be like I wonder? From the guidebooks it seems much more green than Malta was last year, and that has to be good. Here’s hoping for a comfortable hotel, good food, good light and no storms. And the odd bottle of Madeiran wine should be interesting too!
December 18th, 2008
It’s been an eventful couple of weeks to put it mildly. A move of house, a change of habit, perhaps even a change of lifestyle. A second and this time final separation to end a marriage of 26 years. A chance to live a little again after 3 years of virtual hibernation in a work-centred existence.
It all happened a bit suddenly in the end. Only a couple of weeks after the idea was first mooted, payments rushed through, keys collected, and van organised, we were moving vast quantities of stuff out of my new flatmate’s old place and rather less out of mine. My not-quite as youthful as they were muscles complaining bitterly the next morning. Though ostensibly a furnished flat there were various things missing that were deemed essential by my new companion and we spent a tidy sum in the second-hand shops rectifying the omissions. Of course that meant endless rearrangements once we’d finally squeezed it all in. A massive shop on Sunday morning while we still had the van and then a dash across town to return it. Such was our state of exhaustion that we both slept for 4 hours in the afternoon before attacking the furniture arrangements one last time to get the place the way we wanted.
Routines are now altered, a different time to wake up, a different kitchen, a longer trip to a different railway station to go to work. Initially it was hard to break the automatic return to the old marital home, especially when so much of my books and music is still there for now until I can arrange storage. But already that life has gone, replaced by a more relaxed evening environment and a new style of cooking which my flatmate insists on doing for me. She’s been a revelation and a delight, and has really made our place into a home in a very short time. I can’t thank her enough for suggesting the move and her energy in making it happen. If the next year is as good as the first two weeks then it’ll be a very good move indeed.
November 6th, 2008
So it seems that a recession is upon us. It must be true if the astoundingly cautious Bank of England cuts interest rates by 1.5%. Funny how just a few weeks ago everything was fine, the economy was sailing along without any really major problems, all that was wrong was a soaring oil price that was supposedly causing a knock on to gas and electricity prices and a suggestion that the housing boom was over. The problem taxing everyone’s mind was global warming. There was a small difficulty about “sub-prime” mortgages in the USA, nothing to worry about.
Now our banking system is in ruins; HBOS, which was a combination of one of the most conservative banks and the largest building society in the UK has lost over 90% of its stock market value and is apparently so short of liquidity that it needs to be taken over by Lloyds-TSB, and all the other major banks need shedloads of public money to carry on. So the man in the street is seeing his savings and investments reduce in value and his taxes going to prop up banks that seems unable to handle money despite giving us a poor service and high charges.
Meanwhile those gas prices that went up are noticeably not coming down despite a major fall in the oil prices that they were supposed to be connected to. Ever get the feeling you’ve been had?
The fact IMHO is that the people who run the money markets are generally pretty clueless apart from the speculators and the occasional guy like George Soros who can see trends before they happen. Most of them are there because of who they know rather than what they know. How many times have we seen competitions where a bunch of schoolkids manage to outperform the advice of all the “best” financial pundits and advisors. And as was shown some time ago the financial system is an almost perfect example of Chaos Theory in action. With the modern inter-connectedness that has been built into the international trading systems chaotic behaviour is a predictable (if that isn’t a contradiction in terms) outcome. A downward trend once started is almost impossible to stop. (As I write this I’m looking at the stock markets continuing to fall despite the 1.5.% cut)
Unfortunately the banks and building societies, once the bastions of safe conservative advice, have been sucked into the constant drive for more and more growth and as a result they have tended to dive into markets that would previously have been seen as far too dangerous, simply because to be seen to be lagging behind had become unacceptable when others were forging ahead, no matter how ill-advised such sectors might be.
Sadly there is very little indication that governments are willing to impose any real constraints on the banks or the markets. Maybe they’ve become so international as to be unmanageable, yet if so how come it’s national funds that are bailing them out? Maybe neither politicians or civil servants have the experience to operate in this field. Or maybe the theory of economics and monetary matters just showed once again how incomplete a theory it really is and no-one dares tinker with something that they’ve realised they don’t understand.
(The link at the top of this post is to a post on Robert Peston’s excellent BBC blog which is becoming a must-read for market watchers.)
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