I’ve Now Got the One and Other Book
I received Anthony Gormley’s One and Other
This is the video I took, whilst I was on the Fourth Plinth.
Expensive Council Number Plates
The BBC is running an item this morning about how councils have very expensive number plates on official cars.
Apparently, Essex has already sold F1 for £375,000, but it may now be worth up to £5,000,000, so it would appear they may have been short changed.
Northampton would appear to have the most valuable one and that is NH1, which could be worth £400,000. But as they say, once sold you can’t cash in next year.
On the other hand, one person’s asset could satisfy another’s ego. So would it not be possible to lease the number plate for an appropriate amount of money?
Now, whilst we’re talking about number plates, could the lease apply to other council assets?
- How many expensive works of art are languishing in public hands, that people would pay to hire for a year, months or even a day?
- Councils have some desirable houses in valuable positions, that might be better rented than sold.
- Councils have some of the best car parking in the centre of towns. It should all be rented to those who can afford to pay!
- The list probably goes on!
Returning to number plates, I always remember that when I lived in the Barbican BP had the plate BPO 1L on a corporate limousine. Later I saw it on a transit mini-bus in the company’s colours. Do they still own it? It probably wouldn’t be a good idea after the Gulf Oil Spill.
Lucky Gordon
Lucky Gordon is mentioned in the Sunday Times magazine today, as there is an article about a new exhibition concerning Christine Keeler.
I never met either, but years ago I used to drink with the musician, Danny Thompson, in the Clopton Crown. He related how on some of his recording session, Lucky was the chef. Danny did make a comment about how Lucky served too much rice and peas.
At the time, I seem to remember he was working on the music for a documentary, where a film-maker was taking some elephants over the Alps in a reenactment of Hannibal’s famous expedition.
Explosive Power
I’ve just watched an interesting program on BBC4 called Explosions: How we shook the world. It was interesting and reminds me of something I was involved in, in the early 1970s.
The British government had done a deal with Iran to sell them a factory to make Chieftain tanks. I would have been involved in providing the project mangement software. All I can find on the Internet is this extract from the piece in Wikipedia about the Chieftain tank.
The largest foreign sale was to Iran, which took delivery of 707 Mk-3P and Mk-5P, 125–189 FV-4030-1, 41 ARV and 14 AVLB before the 1979 revolution.[4] Further planned deliveries of the more capable 4030 series were cancelled at that point. The tank’s main combat experience was in the Iran–Iraq War of 1980-88.
But the thing I remember most about the project is a Scot telling me that the Russians had done a lot of experiments on explosives and found that the reason Scottish explosive was so good, was exactly the same reason as the whisky is best. It’s all down to the water!
I’ll go along with that!
Choosing A Lawyer
I’m always being asked how I choose a lawyer or a solicitor and as I’m clearing out some old web sites, that I no longer need, I thought might be worth repeating what C and I wrote together a few years ago on choosing a lawyer. Note lawyer, not solicitor, as C was a barrister.
The trouble with choosing a lawyer is that many people never do it more than a few times in their lives. Some never do at all! And when they do, it’s usually for something like the purchase of a house or a flat.
But what do you do if you have a debt to recover, your marriage has fallen apart and you are getting divorced or you need to make a will?
Often the solicitor you dealt with when you purchased your last house, may not be the person to deal with for something completely different. But if you were satisfied with them, you could always start by giving them a call. If it’s not their company’s field, they will usually recommend a suitable alternative.
But what if you don’t have a solicitor for your problem and need one urgently.
• The first thing to do is to collect all the information you think you will need. If say you are collecting a debt, make sure you all the paperwork and copies of all the letters and e-mails you have sent and received. With a divorce, try and collect as much of the details of your mortgage or rent agreements, financial arrangements, salaries and anything else that might be useful. With a good solicitor just doing this will save you money.
• Think too about the type of solicitor you want to deal with. Do you want an agressive Alpha male or a sympathetic woman? Do you want to deal with them through e-mail? Do you want a solicitor who is close to where you live or work?
• If you type “solicitor Your Town” into Google, you will find quite a lot of solicitors.Not all will be the ones for you!.
• Now look at each individual web site and see if they fit your criteria. Some can be immediately removed as say they don’t handle your type of problem, they appear to be far too grand or small, or in some cases they handle Legal Aid, which you may need.
• Look too at the specialist legal bodies they belong to. For instance, organisations like Resolution and the Family Mediators Association are groups of lawyers, who specialist in family law and mediation. Check out the web sites of any organisations named on the web site.
• Many firms of solicitors have web pages that describe in detail how they would handle your problem. They also give brief biographies of the lawyers who might handle your case. If this helps, put them on your short list.
• If the firms on your list have e-mail and that is one way you want to deal with them, then send them a properly constructed message describing your problem. And don’t forget to ask for an estimate as to costs! If they don’t reply promptly and sensibly, then perhaps they shouldn’t be on your list.
But remember as in all purchases, don’t just use the first solicitor you talk to. Try a couple and see if any are better suited to your problem and your pocket.
So be very careful, as a bad lawyer might cost you more than you expect.
My Public Catalogue for Suffolk Came Today
My catalogue of publicly-held oil, acrylic and tempera paintings in Suffolk from the Public Catalogue Foundation arrived in the post today. And what a beautiful example of the printer’s art it is too! It was £15 well spent and over the next few weeks I’ll explore some of the galleries.
As most counties now have a catalogue, they make would good presents for those who have everything!
The Public Catalogue Foundation
I found a link to this organisation, when I was looking for more details on the art held by various councils, art galleries and museums in Suffolk.
This is their mission statement from their web site.
The Public Catalogue Foundation is a registered charity based in Covent Garden, London. It was set up to photograph and record all oil, acrylic and tempera paintings in publicly owned collections in the UK. This includes works in museums (both on display and in store) as well as paintings in council buildings, universities, hospitals, police stations and fire stations. It is estimated that there are some 200,000 such paintings in the UK. However, at any one time some 80% of these are hidden from public view, being either in storerooms or public buildings in official use.
The aim of The Foundation is to improve public access to these paintings by producing a series of affordable colour catalogues on a county-by-county basis. These will later go online allowing the public free access to the works they own. The benefits to the collections are considerable and include free digital images, improved records, an income stream for painting conservation and education, and improved publicity. These benefits come at no cost to the collections, many of which face severe financial constraints.
They have produced catalogues for most counties in the UK. And they are selling the catalogues for just £15, so that they are affordable.
What a good idea!
Suffolk Art
Suffolk is a county that has been either the birthplace or home to numerous artists; John Constable, John Duval, Thomas Gainsborough, Alfred Munnings, Philip Wilson Steer and George Stubbs, to name some of the more famous. In the present day there is Maggi Hambling. But she is not the only successful woman artist to come from the county. There was the sculptor, Elizabeth Frink and in the seventeenth century, the successful Mary Beale, who was born near Bury St. Edmunds.
There is more on Suffolks public collection of art here.
Pamela’s Odds Are Coming Down!
I got 50-1, but now after tonight’s performance, she’s down to 22-1.
I think I got value!
The Anonymous Widower 