A Flypast Over London
I took these pictures as the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flew over the City of London today.
The fourth picture shows the area where I was standing on the walkway across the Barbican.
It is a good place to see any flypast that is going over Buckingham Palace, as the pilots use the three distinctive towers to line up for their trip across London. This Google Map shows Central London.
Flypast Route Over London
The Barbican is illustrated by the red arrow and Buckingham Palace is at the bottom left hand corner.
The procedure used by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight was explained, when one of the pilots was the guest of Test Match Special on BBC Radio.
When asked what you do if there is an engine failure, the pilot stated that there is only the Thames.
I Thought Couriers Like This Had Reformed
I knew that today, I would be getting my new cooker hood delivered. The delivery company confirmed yesterday that it would be coming today and that they would tell me today, in what four hour slot it would come.
The message yesterday was just an automated voice one, with no instructions on where to phone, text or e-mail if there was any problems.
This morning, I got the delivery slot as any time between 15:00 and 19:00. This is very inconvenient as I have an important appointment, I booked some time ago, at 18:00.
It doesn’t matter to me, if I don’t get the hood delivered today, as it won’t be installed until next week or even the week after.
I have no means to contact the couriers to say this time is inconvenient.
Also judging by this courier company’s attitude of we deliver it when we decide and don’t tell you who we are and how to contact us, I suspect it would be a difficult process to get the item redelivered.
So it is wait here until it is delivered and hope that it turns up.
Incidntally, I actually ordered the hood from the John Lewis web site, so for a start they will be getting a complaint to say the least.
But I did think that couriers with these sort of attitudes had reformed.
Are There Secondary Effects In The Budget?
I have a feeling that there could be some secondary effects from the budget and particularly the announcement of a National Living Wage.
Nowhere will this measure be felt more than at the bottom end of the employers. If you read the tabloids, you get the impression that dodgy low-quality businesses are the big employers of illegal immigrants, keeping them in squalor and paying them in cash, if they’re lucky.
With a solidly enforced living wage, will this make it more difficult for these companies and operators to survive, so this country might be less of a magnet for illegal immigrants. I don’t know, but a higher level of living wage gives the Tax Authorities a good reason to investigate the sort of businesses who rely on no-questions-asked labour.
I very much watch innovation in the media and also have been in touch several times with universities in the last few years. I think we’ll see companies using their local innovators to make sure they support their now more highly-paid employees. I know several universities are giving students real projects in local companies.
So will we be pushing our employment up-market? I think we will!
As an example, an industry that we all seem to use more these days are couriers to deliver the goods we’ve bought on-line. They have got so much better over the last few years and that is just not the delivery reliability, but the staff as well, who seem to be polite and very much on-the-ball. Incidentally, most staff who’ve delivered to me lately seem to have been British born and educated.
I don’t know what will happen in the next few years, but I have a feeling that the Chancellor’s announcements may be helping to move the country on from a low-wage, low-skilled and badly-supported work force to one where a job, where you work hard and efficiently gives you a real living wage.
Of course Labour think that the restructuring of Tax Credits will mean many will lose out. But then Labour’s solution to a low-wage, low-skill economy was to pay people at the low-end to do nothing or crap jobs.
The other thing the Chancellor must do to help, is make sure that our transport links are improved. It’s one thing to get a job and often it’s a much more difficult thing to get to that job every day. You just have to see what the Overground and the fleets of new buses have done for Hackney and the surrounding boroughs, here in London, over the past few years.
That’s Better!
The old cooker hood is now down and the hole has been properly covered.
Note the scar in the brickwork, where Jerry ran the cable.
I’ll probably have to fit a splash-back to cover it up. A pity, as I like exposed well-laid bricks.
London Just Carried On
Ten years ago today, I published a post on my old blog entitled Carry On London, as a reflection after the bombings earlier in the day.
I make no apologies for repeating it today.
Tuesday, I went to the funeral of a friend. Alex died young at 48. Life is cruel. But even the funeral was not a sad affair! Alex wouldn’t have wanted it so and stated it probably many times before she died!
Wednesday, I was in Trafalgar Square, when my fair and beloved city, London, was announced as the winner of the 2012 Olympic Games. Life can be so sweet.
But then we have the bombings of today!
Thousands of times, I’ve travelled through the tunnels under London. Many times, I’ve done the stretch between Kings Cross and Russell Square, where most of the casualties occurred. Occassionally, I’ve used the two parts of the Circle Line, where the other two bombs went off.
Am I bitter? Angry? Sad? Vindictive?
Not sure!
Sad yes! As why would anybody want to do such a thing! How would I feel if one of my sons did that? I would know I had failed. How would I feel if one of my sons had got caught in the blasts. I don’t know! But thankfully they didn’t.
So it has to be sadness at the moment. Vindictiveness only follows the old eye for an eye maxim, which means that we all go blind!
But perhaps, the greatest thing we can do is just carry on, remembering those that died and vowing to be more vigilant so that it won’t happen again.
Fay would have done that. She worked for my father and during the Second World War, the shy girl from North London, worked as a conductor on the buses. One day, the bus she should have been on, was hit directly by a German bomb. Everybody died! She just remembered the tragedy, I suspect she cried long and hard, and then she carried on.
A few crackpots, who take the good name of Islam in vain, should never be able to bring London to its knees, when the evil Hitler and the Luftwaffe failed.
A last point for Bush and all those who think that the death penalty is a deterrent in these sort of cases. I’ll ignore the fact that the London atrocities may well have been suicide bombers, which are usually pretty difficult to execute. But as I am someone who has no belief in any religious being at all, I do believe that we should do all we can to preserve reasonable life here, as there is nothing more to come. So if we ever execute anybody, then we are losing our own humanity and descending below their level.
Carry on London.
A lot has happened to me since that fateful day of the 7th July, 2005.
My wife of nearly forty years and our youngest son, both died of cancer. I then had a stroke, which left me unable to drive. So I’ve moved back to London and almost ironically, I now live close to the route of the number 30 bus, one of which was destroyed with the loss of thirteen lives in the bombings.
But London has looked after me, as only one of the world’s great cities can.
And London has carried on, just as Fay believed you should.
The Greek Finance Minister Had The Crash Helmet
What made me laugh yesterday was a picture of the now-resigned Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, riding away from the problems on his motocycle.
He was wearing a crash helmet and his bimbo-on-the-back had to make do without!
A Greek metaphor on the lines of I’m alright, Jack!
I think the video is on this page in the Guardian.
The Mail says the lady is his wife!
Do Politicians Make Too Much Fuss About Currencies?
The Needs Of People
I travel extensively across Europe and after trips like my Home Run From Krakow or my Home Run From Stockholm, I end up with a walletful of assorted zlotys, crowns etc.
But it won’t always be like that, as increasingly contactless cards and smartphones will take over from cash. How long will it be before a lot of public transport in the world uses the London model, where you just touch and go?
So I suspect cash will become very much a method of payment that will not bother visitors.
Other developments will also help.
1. Using Coins
Vending machines, toilets, left luggage lockers and other places that need small cash payments will get intelligent and probably respond to the local currency and a selection of others, like one and two euros, pound coins and dollar quarters.
So a visitor to Europe, would just make sure they topped up their one euro coins.
2. No-Commission on Credit Cards When Used Abroad
The credit card I use abroad, is a Nationwide Select Credit Card and this page on their web site, describes its use abroad. And so far, they’ve done what it says on the tin.
As the card was recommended by one of the Personal Finance Experts on the BBC, it can’t be that much of a con.
All credit cards should be like this!
3. Late Rooms et al.
On my trip to Poland, I used lateroom.com to book accomodation and some of the hotels were paid in zlotys. But I paid in advance in Pounds Sterling.
All of these systems are giving both the seller and the purchaser a bill in the currency they want.
Summing Up The Needs Of People
All people want is a system that buys that drink, meal or rents that room or sun lounger giving them a good rate with no hassle.
The Needs of Business
When it comes to business, I’ve just paid two overseas bills using SWIFT from my Nationwide account. I got charged £20 for each one, which was a bit steep in my view, but these days you can transfer money pretty easily.
The Greedy Bankers
So I come to the conclusion, that on a small transaction basis and that probably means anything under a couple of grand, transactions should be possible on what we have today.
Just look at what you can do with PayPal and an eMail address.
But would greedy bankers and their friends in Central Banks allow multi-currency transactions to become the norm for money transfer between consenting adults or companies?
The Innovators
Just look at how finance has changed in the last few years.
Nothing is cast in stone and who’s to say what will be the financial flavour of 2016.
Every problem is an opportunity for an innovator. And this type of disruptive innovation often hurts established players!
Summing Up The Needs Of Business
A business just wants money transferred to a client or supplier at the best rate instantly, for the lowest possible commission.
So Who Needs A Single Currency?
The only advantage of a single currency like the euro or the dollar, is that you know easily what you are paying and that accounts and paperwork are simpler.
Politicians also say it creates jobs as it encourages industries like tourism.
It may do, but the UK gets masses of tourists and not being in the Eurozone doesn’t seem to be a problem. Visitors are happy to use their credit cards or prepay for everything in their own currency, so it probably illustrates that if you have a good product, then the tourists and money will roll in.
I think it is probably true to say that politicians also like a single currency as it’s a big idea, with which they might leave their mark on history.
I was probably in favour of a single currency for Europe at one time, but I think now, that so many innovations will get round the rules and create lots of jobs, that it is rather an outdated concept.
I much prefer a simple process that allows me to spend pounds everywhere with the best exchange rate and no commission.
In some ways this will be an unrealistic idea, as politicians will protect their useless banks.
But they will have to legislate a ban to stop it.
Remember that politicians don’t understand new technology. Look at the mess they;re all in over Uber.
The Dreadful Wall Cabinets Are Down
This morning I took the dreadful cabinets off the wall in my kitchen, with some help from a friend.
Now it is time to start phase two.
Note the crude hole in the wall on the right. Luckily the house is too new to find asbestos.
Where’s The 33cl. Bottles?
I generally carry a 33cl. bottle of water in my shoulder bag, as this is the smallest size I can buy that is useful. I should say that I don’t believe in carrying excess weight either on, in or about my body. It’s usually Evian, as that is the only small one readily available. So I was surprised to see this promotional display in Sainsbury didn’t feature the small bottle.
Evian Promotion In Sainsburys
I would have thought that in this hot weather, a promotion based on small bottles would have been a good idea.
At least I can buy small bottles in dozens in Waitrose and probably other places, whereas in Europe, there was nothing smaller than the half litre anywhere.
A Police Car With 330,000 Miles On The Clock
At the commemoration for Prederick Parslowe the police brought along a couple of old police cars.
The Morris Minor was immaculate and had a genuine 330,000 miles on the clock. Apparently they own half-a-dozen, which get brought out for public relations purposes. One officer told me, that they’ve also got a couple of preserved Velocette LE‘s.
The Anonymous Widower 