Taking The Prison Bus
I have joked that the 274 bus, is the prison bus for Pentonville a few times, as it always seems to drop of and pick up unfortunate wives, partners and girl-friends in the vicinity of the prison.
I took the bus back to The Angel, so I could get some shopping before coming home.
What surprised me was outside the prison, I was getting a rather strong Wi-fi signal. Was it escaping?
Glum Faces
Judging by the glum faces on the buses this morning, we’ve all got fed up with this weather.
Respect At Highbury Cormer
This morning I was at Highbury Corner, waiting for a bus.
A funeral cortège passed and several of the men present took off their hats.
Tips For New Zopa Users
When you start using Zopa, you’re obviously going to go down a few blind alleys or do things wrong.
Here’s a few tips.
I always keep a record of the interest rates I have set and how much money, I lend out on particular days. Thus, if I find that money is sticking and not being lent, I can drop my rates slightly to see the effect. Zopa’s information helps in this way, but your own records are invaluable. I keep my records in Excel, but there is nothing wrong with an old-fashioned notebook or as my mate, Brian, would say, the back of an old envelope or fag packet. But then he was a real accountant!
I’d also check the minimum amount you are prepared to lend to each borrower. My limit is £100 and I’ve generally found that to be good and fairly safe.
I also don’t have AutoLend switched on. I just transfer the money to the offer, when it comes in. I have in the past found that sometimes having a few hundred pounds in Zopa is faster to get into my bill paying account, than waiting for my pension to come in. With money, timing is everything!
Make sure you have Rapid Return switched on, so that you can accept loans, that other lenders want to cash in. I’ve got seventy loans that way and not one has gone belly up on me. You may not pick up many loans that way, but they’ll generally be good ones.
Doing A Favour For A Friend
Last night, I renewed my friend’s domain name, as I’d originally registered it and it’s easier for me to do.
He then needed to pay me twenty four pounds, so late last night, he sent me a direct transfer to my bank account.
it was duly there this morning, when I checked my bank account.
But all the statement said, was that it was a credit of the requisite amount, labelled as just a credit.
As it was, I obviously knew what it was, so there was no problem. But surely in this day and age of good computer systems, that the banks could add a bit more detail to the statement, as soon as the money arrives.
The banks could actually use fully annotated statements as a marketing and selling point for their services.
But they don’t! No wonder people don’t like banks.
What a wunch of bankers!
I’m With Guy De Maupassant
Will Self has written an article about the Shard for the BBC web site. I liked this bit.
It was said of the French writer Guy de Maupassant that he ate dinner in the restaurant of the Eiffel Tower every night of the week, and when asked why, replied, “Because it’s the only place in Paris from where you can’t see the Eiffel Tower.”
I wonder if Guy De Maupassant would agree with me on Europe’s tallest building. It is just too easy to see, as I showed in this article.
On the other hand, I’ve no desire to eat dinner every night in the building, as it will only encourage someone to build something even more intrusive.
Deaths From Asthma
The previous post on asthma got me thinking, so I looked up if there was a site, that gave asthma deaths by country.
There is and it’s here.
The site is interesting , as it gives an awful lot of ways you can die. just select and click go.
For example, one of the sections is falling from trees. No-one actually died that way in the statistics they show.
Personal Taxation – Italian Style
This article from the BBC’s web site, describes how the Italian tax man is getting to grips with the country’s tax avoidance.
The Italians are finding it all a bit intrusive and with an election coming up, the tactics of the taxmen are an election issue.
According to the article, the United States uses a similar system, which links the amount of expenditure you have, with the income you need to sustain that lifestyle.
I’ve met many people over the years, who seemed to live very well, with no visible means of support.
So perhaps we need that sort of system here!
The Internet For Timely Information
I generally look each morning, at the list of the ten most read pages on the BBC’s web site.
This morning, only one of the ten is not about the weather and seven are concerning school closures. In order they are Notts, Essex, England, Leicester, Kent and Shropshire.
In pre-Internet days, parents would have listened to local radio.
Sending People To Coventry
This very English phrase has been used in a comment on my post about Lance Armstrong, by one of my Australian followers.
I would have thought the Australians would have used an appropriate Australian town.
We also have a few other geographical phrases like.
Carrying coals to Newcastle
So what do other countries use?
Wikipedia has an interesting explanation of the phrase Sending to Coventry. They cite the origin as.
It is believed that the city of Coventry in the United Kingdom had one of the strictest monasteries, where monks that misbehaved were sent and given the punishment of a vow of silence. therefore being “sent to Coventry” means not being spoken to or communicated with.
So it is a lot older than industrial relations.
Perhaps, we should bring it back as a legal punishment.
