29/07/2009 by paul.

Well, the weatherman definately said, earlier this year..”it will be a summer of BBQs”, now we learn that it will be wet and unsettled for the near future and that they didn’t really mean we would have a good summer !!
Definition of an expert…someone (often with an exagerated sense of self importance…maybe a politician) who is marginally less ignorant than the rest of us…but non-the-less, ignorant.  Weather men fall into that category…and so do financial “experts”

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29/06/2009 by paul.

It is no good, I cannot ignore the MP expenses issue any longer.
Every year, we get invited to the local Tory party garden party (sort of do). It is a good do…loads of wine, good food and good company (if you ignore the obvious political messages).  We are not political and only go for the food and wine, and the tickets are not that expensive.
We have just received this year’s invitation…..but…our local MP (who attends the do and makes a little speech) is one of those who has claimed to the maximum and has loads of other jobs (about 10).  So, on balance, I feel that I cannot attend. I just cannot let anyone, even think that I can support such an MP (regardless of whether I do or not….in fact, I think that I am now a floating voter ).
So, this guy has doubly pi##ed me off.  Not only is he up there with the rest of them, taking the pi## out of us all (and they still have not got the message…or don’t want to), but he is stopping me from enjoying a decent evening out…      

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10/06/2009 by paul.

Just seen a report that stated the government was going to withdraw the requirements for shops to display “sell by” and “best before” dates on food, on the basis that this encourages households to throw away their food prematurely. The thinking being, that too much food is thrown away because people are worried about food poisoning…hells bells !  That is when I buy the food because it is reduced.  I also hear that sales of pork in some markets has reduced because people are worried about catching “swine flu”……durr
Then, whilst waiting in the queue at the local post office, I notice all the tobacco packets with “smoking kills” and “smoking kills everyone else around you” etc. in large letters.  But that does not seem to effect the sales…most wierd
Actually, just thought about the premature throwing away of food……must be all the MPs throwing away their old food, since they can alway buy more, and claim it on expenses 

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25/02/2009 by paul.

I often catch up on the (somewhat USA orientated) blog view on events, on “You are Dumb” and I think that yesterday’s post on the current financial “crisis” is a lot more accurate than most (if not all) of the many more academic views on offer elsewhere.
See here   http://www.youaredumb.net/archive/2009/2/24
brilliant !

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30/11/2008 by paul.

I have been working in the electronics industry for 40 years and 2 months…I know that because I have just seen it on the redundancy settlement that I have received.            Now I am not shedding any tears over this, since I have seen it coming for a couple of years..and I stress that it has nothing to do with the ‘highly spun’ current recession.  What is weird, is the reaction of others to the news (of my redundancy, not the global self inflicted recession).     As soon a I tell anyone that I am being made redundant, they immediately adopt a sympathetic posture and voice a high degree of concern …., so I immediately have to re-assure them that it is no real deal to me.         In fact I have just been to the hairdressers and as part of that often forced convesation that takes place as ones hair is being cut, the young girl asked by if “I was on holiday today”, “just popped out of the office”  and whether” I would be leaving the office early today” (being a friday).      So, I just said “no” “yes”  and “probably” in that order, rather than saying that today was the last day of 40 years working for a multinational company and that today was the last day that I would be driving 100 miles on the motorway to get to/from the office. Also the last time that I would frequent that particular hairdressers.                                  So for the first time in a long, long time, I have just had to buy myself a car and a mobile phone (the later being a lot more complicated than the former), and on Monday …..well, I am not quite sure what happens from Monday.

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11/11/2008 by paul.

It could have been written for a sitcom.    Here in Solihull, at the 11th. hour, of the 11th. month etc. the girls in the office decided that we should all observe the 2 minutes of silence.
So, to mark the beginning and the end of the 2 minutes, they sounded the fire alarm.  Within a few moments of the sounding of the alarm for the beginning of the 2 minutes, the main switchboard phone rang. Of course, it was not answered, due to the silence.
Immediately after the 2 minutes, it was discovered that the unanswered phone call, was from the fire brigade. Receiving no answer, they rushed round to put out the fire…..making a lot of noise

Doh !    

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07/08/2008 by paul.

Visited Mum the other day and my visit happened to coincided with meal time
The hospital trolly dolly delivered a tray with a pre-packaged meal, plus knife, fork and ’soup’ spoon, neatly wrapped in a knapkin.  With due consideration to Mum’s condition, the meal was a pre-mashed selection of meat and 3 veg. 
The tray containing the meal was left on the table in front of Mum. Now I know, that the nurse who looks after Mum (and she is a very attentive young lady…the nurse, that is) would have come along soon to feed Mum, but I thought that I would give it a go, and help Mum have her meal.
The food was pre-mashed, so it was clear which was the veg. (orange for carrots, green for …greens etc.), so goodness why they thought she needed a fork and knife.  Mum can hardly feed herself and the knife was certainly not needed, to say nothing of the fork, which wouldhave been downright dangerous. And, why I wondered, was a Soup spoon supplied. Mum’s mouth is not wide enough for the use of a Soup spoon, a tea spoon would have been more appropriate. 
Having had an attempt at feeding the mash with a soup spoon, we tried the pudding (fruit Yoghurt)…..with the Soup spoon.   Now, I don’t know about most people, but when I get a yoghurt out of the fridge, my preffered method of delivery of yoghurt to the mouth, is definately not a Soup spoon.  You do not have to be a rocket scientist to notice that a Soup spoon does not easily fit into a yoghurt pot.
Aaaaagh!
So how about this for a proposal………..I recall that when Elizabeth first started working for Waitrose, she had to spend time working at various stores, in a variety of roles, getting to understand some of the core “realities” of the business.
Ok, all you health administrators, it is now part of your training, and compulsurory for you to spend 2 days in a hospital bed. You will be bed bound and restricted in movement. You will suffer the indignaties of toilet and food training.
I will bet, upon completion of the training programme, you will put some changes in place          

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11/07/2008 by paul.

Having been somewhat bored at the office, the other day. I took a visit to one of my favourite sites………”Bad science” (see the link on this blog).

There I found an article entitled “All time classic creationalist pwnage”. This is a quite an entertaining article and through this article, I followed a link to “Conservapedia”, which promotes itself as a “trustworthy encyclopedia” and an alternative to Wikipedia. Now, clearly (to my moderate view point) Conservapedia is promoting a somewhat fundamentalist  view on life, but I found an entry in Conservapedia on Wikipedia. Since Conservapedia’s views on Wikipedia appear to be a bit on the extreme side, I thought I would check Wikipedia’s views on Conservapedia.

The Wikipedia view on Conservapedia is a little more restrained, but somehow, through the Wikipedia article, I found myself at another  Wiki site, by the name of RationalWiki.

Now Rationalwiki , whose aim is to “refuting anti-science….refuting…crank ideas..authoritarianism…fundamentalism”  is almost an alternative to Conservapedia.

Brilliant….another hard day at the office over     

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05/06/2008 by paul.

Mum has been banking with the same bank (highstreet bank beginning with the letter ‘B’) for all her life. So we recently decided to move her to an internet bank, since the new bank offers a level of interest on current accounts, that is well in excess of 10 times that offered by Bank ‘B’ to their loyal customers.
Having opened the new account and moved all her direct debits and pension payments to her new bank, she wrote to bank ‘B’, asking them to close her account and move the balances to her new bank.  Of course bank ‘B’ subscribes to the “code of banking”, so we anticipated that all would happen smoothly and quickly…..Hmmmmm!
Bank ‘B’ wrote back, informing Mum that they could not comply with her request, due to the fact that they were unable to verify her signature on her instructions. And, asking her to visit her local branch.  Of course, in her current state, she can hardly walk a few yards and no way can visit her local branch of ‘B’.
So she wrote herself a cheque for many thousands of pounds, drawn on bank ‘B’ and paid it into her new bank. The cheque went straight through without any problem. So, bank ‘B’, how come you cannot verify the signature on her letter asking you to close the account, but seem able to pay cheques (in fact many of them), without the slightest problem.  Do you operate some sort of  “selective” signature verifcation proceedure ? 
Well OK then, you can keep the account, if that makes you happy, but there will be nothing in it……Bankers ! (or should be spelt with a ‘W’ )  

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29/04/2008 by paul.

I was a bit upset at the beginning of the year, when I paid £1.11 for a litre of diesel, but now I have just paid £1.20 and just heard that the price is expected to rise to £1.50, by the end of the year.    Aaaaaagh!
I am sure that an economist could correct me, but I an equally sure that i recall, many years ago, being told that the cost of fuel was rising due to the (then) strong $. OK, so now the $ is weak, why is it not offsetting the other fuel inflation factors…..Those factors being - excessive tax (thank you Gordon), excessive profits - “BP and Shell profits jump”, and industrial action by a bunch of workers that wish to retain a type of pension scheme that most of us lost many years ago. All further aggrevated by the Chineese discovering the motor car and our cousins in the New World, continuing to enjoy the use of low cost fuel in some very inefficient motor cars.
I did recently read that fuel consumption on motorways can be reduced significantly, by keeping to the 70mph limit. Since most of my driving is on the motorway network, I have tried to save fueld by setting the cruise control to just under 70. I have to say that it is quite effective and I have certainly noticed a difference in my fuel consumption….but…most lorries seem to travel at speeds between 60 and 70, whilst most cars travel at sppeds in excess of 80. This means that driving at 70 is a real pain. You slowly catch up on the lorries, but get stuck because of all the cars that are wizzing past at 80+. It may well be more fuel efficient, but it is certainly a lot more dangerous   

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