What Are The Retail Implications Of Crossrail?
The title of this post is from an article in Retail Week.
This article is typical of what we will see in the coming months, as commentators and analysts realise what effects Crossrail is going to have on London and the South East.
The enormity of the project is summed up by this paragraph in the article in Retail Week.
There are 40 construction sites in total and 1,700 companies involved – all the major developers are in on the act, and Transport for London is leading. London will be the greatest beneficiary, but the potential value of the Crossrail project to the wider UK economy is estimated at £42bn.
I think that most Londoners don’t know the effect that Crossrail will have on the city.
If you compare the figures with the Olympics, this article on the BBC says the 2012 Olympics cost £9bn and the UK economy received a boost in trade and investment of £9.9bn. For comparison purposes, the budget for Crossrail is £14.8bn.
It will be interesting to see what the true audited figures for Crossrail are in about 2020.
If they are this good, then we should be looking for more projects like this, all over the country.
A Letter In The Times On Widowhood
On Friday in The Times, I had a letter published entitled The Widowed.
Sir, As a widower (letter, May 20), I feel that modern life may be making the word redundant.
Widowhood is no respecter of gender or sexual orientation, and all widowed are in the same possibly dark and unhappy place; so should we not just use the female form of the word?
After all lots of other words like actor, doctor and other professions are becoming applicable to all.
I wonder if there’s a language, where widower and widow are the same.
On a brief look using Google Translate, it would appear that in Finnish, Turkish and Welsh, the word is the same for both sexes.
You’re Always Close To A Rat In London
It is always said, that in London you’re never far away from a rat. This article on the BBC asks if we’re never more than six feet away from a rat.
Six feet is a large distance compared to the close encounter, I’ve just had during my bath.
My bathroom isn’t completed yet, despite being started nearly two years ago. The bath works, but the toilet hasn’t been fitted yet and there is just a hole into the drains.
As I sat up in the bath, something brown and moving caught my eye on the floor.
It wasn’t a very large example, but I know a rat when I see one. In fact, it looked pretty healthy compared to some that my cats brought in, whilst I was living in Suffolk.
But it was probably less than a metre away from my eyes.
I was just on the point of thinking I should get out of my bath, so I pulled the plug and my only slightly dirty bathwater went down the drain, hopefully showing the rat where to go.
I suspect I should turn myself into the RSPCA, as I’ve probably been guilty of inflicting pain and suffering on an animal.
At least if he or she does come back, they”ll have had a good bath in reasonably warm water!
Are Small Energy Companies Struggling?
I’ve just read this article on Blue and Green Tomorrow entitle ‘Unprecedented’ growth forces small energy suppliers to battle customer service issues. The first paragraph summarises the article well.
While dissatisfied energy customers are turning their back on the ‘big six’ suppliers, smaller firms are increasing their number of customers, but their exponential growth is also leading to higher complaints.
I have no current customer services issues with Ovo, who I switched to in December. Although earlier, I did have some issues with their login system.
I would expect that just like any new industry, these small energy companies will have customer service issues in their infancy, as more customers join before the staff are recruited and trained to deal with any problems.
A Memorial To Lee Rigby
There has been discussion on the BBC and an article on their web site about a memorial to Lee Rigby.
The only real memorial will be for something like his murder never to happen again.
All parties should work for that aim.
Annoyances In My InBox
Every day, I get at least two e-mails asking me to register PDF Suite 2014. I’ve never used it or bothered with this company before.
I also get something every day from IT Brief.
How do we stop spam coming from these companies? All the unsubscribe requests have failed and of course spam like this from across the pond is impossible to stop.
Is This The House Of The Future?
All over the world we have a problem of affordable, quality housing.
So when I saw this £30,000 house for one on the BBC web site, called a Y-Cube I had to investigate.
It has a good pedigree in being designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour and backed by the YMCA. There’s a lot more about the concept here.
This design may not succeed, but others will!
We are all too ambitious (or is it greedy?) about the type of property we want to live in.
And the tax system encourages well-off single people like myself to live by ourselves in larger houses. Why should I get a Council Tax rebate because I live alone?
Sometimes, I think I’d prefer a minimalist luxury two-bedroom flat high in a tower block with spectacular views of the river. One of the reasons, I don’t move, is that I’d probably be the only person, actually living in a flat they owned.
Perhaps, Councils should publish the occupancy statistics for every street and block in their area. Possible incomers would then see the areas with the right mix of population for their choice of dwelling.
Putting The Grim Into Grimaldi
That is part of the comment in The Times about the new biopic about Grace Kelly.
With a plot that is risible and a dialogue lost in translation, poor Nicole Kidman puts the grim into Grimaldi
That is one film, I’ll be missing.
Cats For Protection
The BBC is showing a video of a cat saving a young boy from a dog. It’s here on the Daily Mail.
But cats are strange animals and often behave in ways to get what they want.
Years ago, I often used to walk round the stables by the house to check the horses. One night, I shone a torch into the stable and saw that the horse was sitting curled up by the back wall. But the torch picked out two eyes just under his shoulder and I could see one of our ginger cats snuggled in the warmth. It wasn’t the only time I saw this and one day mentioned it to an old horse-coper, who explained it like this.
Horses don’t like mice and rats scrambling through the straw, as being flight animals small noises may make them want to flee and of course they can’t. So the horse had encouraged the cat in, to protect him from the savage rodents. He said that over the years, he’d seen several strong friendships between horses or ponies and cats.
The Harrods Of The East End
I’d never heard of Wickham’s Department Store known in East End folklore as the Harrods of the East End, until I read about the building and its troubles in Private Eye.
Note how the two parts of the building are different sizes, with an off-centre tower. All caused because the jewellers in the middle wouldn’t sell out.
If you need to know more, there’s an excellent article here.
The Anonymous Widower 