Thoughts On Credit Cards
I have recently been trying to buy something on IKEA using my John Lewis Partnership Card, which is managed by HSBC.
Twice it has gone through IKEA’s site, but then HSBC have deemed the transaction to be fraudulent and have cancelled it. In one case I waited in all day for a non-existent delivery.
My other preferred on-line card is American Express, which seems to have developed a clever way of card checking. They ask if they can look up your location using your connection, as obviously, if that corresponds to the card and delivery addresses, there is a high chance that the transaction is genuine.
But IKEA doesn’t take Amex and as I don’t use my Visa card on-line because of the dreaded Verified-by-Visa waste of time and space, I was a bit stumped on how to order the next phase of my kitchen.
Then this morning, I tried the Visa and guess what? The Verified-by-Visa didn’t kick in. So perhaps, Nationwide and IKEA have come to my conclusion, that it is a hindrance to business against their joint interest.
Let’s hope the delivery gets through this time!
Another Bloody Sunday
I don’t often rant on this blog, but it’s Sunday and I hate them!
I’m not religious, and never have been, so I object that a minority of the population stop most of the shops from opening. At least if I could go to Waitrose now, that would solve my meal problem for today.
Today, there is only one Premier League football match on the box and that is Newcastle against Norwich. So I won’t watch that!
I hate going to the cinema or theatre alone, so I shall probably waste time all day, in endless pointless pursuits.
Why can’t Sundays be like any other day?
To make matters worse today, I felt that I’d like to go for a walk around Camden.
But the North London Line didn’t start running until an hour after I arrived.
Also today, the headline across the Sunday Times reads – Legoland and Thorpe Park – Treat the kids – 2 for 1 entry.
That is seriously funny! Especially, as I’ve never been to a Theme Park in my life!
My Kind Of Energy Company
I found this article on edie.net entitled Ovo Shuns Coal And Nuclear.
I am very much against using coal as a fuel for various reasons, but as I get older and hopefully wiser, I feel that nuclear energy is non-viable economically.
The cost of the new station at Hinkley Point doesn’t look good value for money, when compared to some of the new developments in the pipeline.
Tidal, such as the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon, personal solar and linking the UK to Iceland with an undersea cable, might well prove to be better long term investments.
So I applaud OVO for their stance and will continue to use them as my energy supplier.
The Tate Modern Extension
The Tate Modern Extension is coming on.
There does seem a lot of work to do for opening next year!
Abraham Cruzvillegas At The Tate Modern
I took these pictures at the new Abraham Cruzvillegas installation in the turbine hall at the Tate Modern. It is called Empty Lot
I quite like it and it’ll be interesting to see if it grows on the visitors!
I shall be going back!
Her Majesty’s Most Disloyal Opposition
The term Her Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition was first used in 1826 according to Wikipedia. They say this about the terms origins.
The phrase His Majesty’s Opposition was coined in 1826, before the advent of the modern two-party system, when Parliament consisted more of interests, relationships and factions rather than the highly coherent political parties of today (although the Whigs and Tories were the two main parties). The phrase was originally coined in jest; in attacking Foreign Secretary, George Canning, in the House of Commons, John Hobhouse said jokingly, “It is said to be hard on His Majesty’s Ministers to raise objections of this character but it is more hard on His Majesty’s Opposition to compel them to take this course.”
The phrase was widely welcomed and has been in use ever since.
In my over fifty years of watching politics, I can’t remember an opposition, that to which the term Most Loyal Opposition can be least applied.
Led by one of their most-rebellious MPs, if they can’t even be loyal to each other, how can they agree on and stick to policies that might be better for the country or win them an election.
I don’t even think that the current Labour Party has enough combined loyalty to mount a challenge to any of the Government’s policies.
So can it be described as a true opposition or is it just a bunch of mal-contents, who disagree on principle waving banners and shouting tired and outdated slogans?
It is a sad day for the United Kingdom, when the term Most Loyal Opposition applies most to a party, that is only interested in one part of the country.
Do The English, Scots And Welsh Work Better Together Than The Belgians, Dutch And Germans?
If we take these two groups of three countries, they all have different railway companies, but do they illustrate a problem in the relations between various EU countries.
I know my experience of travelling between these six countries is mainly on the trains, but to travel between England, Scotland and Wales by train, is a lot easier than travelling between Belgium and The Netherlands and the Netherlands and Germany is full of little difficulties.
Strangely if you add France into the mix, that is generally as easy as the three home nations.
Judging by my experience in Europe, there are many ways that the Scots and Welsh could make the English unwelcome. But they don’t, except for the Seniors Bus Pass, although the same Senior Railcard is valid everywhere in the UK.
I know we’re all part of the same country, but I think where something has to be agreed across a border, we generally find a solution that is acceptable enough!
In the important area of rail ticketing, there seems little agreement on common standards between Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany.
Imagine how difficult it would be if ScotRail had different ticketing rules to say Virgin.
Surely, if Europe can’t get its act together in something like rail ticketing, how can it get something important like dealing with migrants working?
Keep This Door Closed
I like this witty sign.
Shut Happens
It was in a cafe at Willesden Junction station.
The Tailor Of Bexley
When I had my family traced, the earliest ancestor of mine that could be found was Robert Miller, who was a tailor in Bexley in 1837.
He was found to have had one son; Edward, who was born about 1816 in Bexley, Kent and died in 1871 at Shoreditch.
Linking backwards from the modern day.
My father was Wilfred Ewart born in 1904
My paternal grandfather was Herbert born in 1878 and died in 1929
My paternal great-grandfather was William born in 1853 and died in 1911.
My paternal great-great-grandfather was Edward born in 1816 and died in 1871.
So the tailor of Bexley was my paternal great-great-great grandfather.
My father once told me, that his grandfather, who must have been William, once told him, of a first hand account of Robert the tailor of Bexley, who was his grandfather.
He said that he was German and that he didn’t speak any English. Because of my coeliac disease, which is quite common in East European Jews and his profession, we can probably assume that Robert; the tailor of Bexley was Jewish. My father also told me that the family name was Müller, which had been Anglicised.
Robert Winder in his excellent book; Bloody Foreigners, talks about how many poor Germans came over to London in the early days of the nineteenth century and lived in terrible conditions in the East End of London.
So was Robert one of those poor Germans?
When you dig into your family history, you find professions that are no longer PC. Some of my ancestors were ivory turners and skin dressers in the fur trade.
Museum de Cruquius
The Museum de Cruquius is just up the road from The Hague near Haarlem, although our journey up wasn’t the easiest, because the motorway was closed.
It is well worth a visit as it shows a tremendous amount about how the Dutch have kept water at bay.
The enormous steam engine, which sadly doesn’t work, was actually built in Cornwall.
When I see a museum and engine like this, I do think it sad that London’s massive sewage engines at Crossness were just filled with sand and abandoned in the 1960s.
Both sites incidentally, are about the same age!
The Anonymous Widower 