Are Some Cars More Disabled-Friendly Than Others?
I’m not driving obviously, but the Jaguar did need its little check on oil, water and windscreen washer fluid.
I did it with ease and all the locks, levers and caps came to hand and were easily released with one hand. So has one car manufacturer thought about design for everybody, who might use their vehicles? Some of the new electronic systems I’ve seen in new cars, seem to have been designed by computer gamers, who have no idea how those over fifty think and behave! In any designs I have created, I have hopefully always taken the profile of the user into account. It’s rule one in design.
Lord Heseltine
Lord Heseltine is on Radio 5 at the moment. What a sensible man! I did like his comment about Labour being good in opposition, but hopeless in government. How true? He also said they will be pumping scare stories about the Budget like mad and the media will dance to their tune.
Is Lord Heseltine the best Prime Minister we never had? Possibly, but his views may well come to the fore. He’s just been taling so sensibly about how we reinvigorate our great cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and others.
He’s just giving very sensible views on Iraq and Afghanistan.
Woody Allen Resigns From The NRA
I doubt that Woody Allen would ever want to join, just as I wouldn’t join any such violently pro-gun organisation as the NRA, but after seeing his latest film, Whatever Works, they certainly wouldn’t welcome him now.
Three of us went and saw the film in Cambridge, this afternoon and we all enjoyed it immensely.
I was very pleased with the film, but then does it fit my mood at present after the stroke? Many of the one-liners also hit the same targets that I like to attack. The reviews of the film were actually not very positive, but then I doubt many reviewers have the right experience of life to appeciate it. But this guy does think it a very good film.
An Advantage for the Zopa Borrower
I recently had an e-mail from Zopa, asking if I’d mind if one of my borrowers could change their repayment day, as they had changed jobs and now got their salary on a different day of the month.
How civilised? And of course I had no reason at all to object.
I wonder how Big Bank plc would have responded to the same request! They would probably have charged you for the privilege!
It all illustrates how banking will change in the next few years, driven by innovators like Zopa.
The Car Park at the End of the World
Or should I say the end of Suffolk?
To many it would be an odd place to go for a walk. But the beach is pleasantly part-sand, you have lot of birds, including kittiwakes nesting on the rigs, interesting plants and protection from the wind because of the dunes. There is also a nice cafe and toilets.
Who would have expected it all, in the shadow of two nuclear power stations?
In the 1980s, I went over Sizewell A, which is the square station in the front. It is a Magnox station, was built in the 1960s and will soon be completely decommisioned. To plan their annual shutdown, they had one of the best planning systems, I have ever seen. It was a long white perspex wall, where the critical path network was drawn and updated. Different colours meant different things and through the months before the shutdown, all information was added in the correct place. Like everything I saw on that visit, it was all very professional.
I must relate a hunting story about Sizewell. We were hunting from Knodishall Butchers Arms and were about a couple of kilometres from the sea with Sizewell A in the distance. You might think that we were all against the station with its environmental implications. But being on the whole practical people we realised that you have to get electricity from somewhere and that the plant was a large local employer in an area of the country, that had suffered large job losses with the closure of Garretts of Leiston. But what really annoyed us, was the fact that the local farmer had grubbed out all of the trees and hedges. It was like riding in a lifeless desert.
I feel that we must build more nuclear power stations, but perhaps more importantly, we should be more economical with our energy use. Incidentally, as Sizewell is well connected to the electricity grid, from works we saw yesterday, it is being used as a ditribution point for the electricity generated by offshore wind farms. But I for one would not mind seeing Sizewell C and possibly D added to the Suffolk coast
The Kettleburgh Chequers
Yesterday, we went for a trip to East Suffolk, an area I know well, as I used to live at Debach. It was also an area, in which I followed hounds for seventeen seasons with The Easton Harriers. If you want to read more about those days in the 1970s and 1980s, read Tony Harvey’s book, Not a Penny in the Post. Hunting in that part of Suffolk, was as much about the community as it was about the hunting. Everybody, and I do mean everybody was totally welcome. It has to said that in those yeas, I learned more about the countryside, famring and wildlife, than at any other time in my life.
We passed the Kettleburgh Chequers.
The Kettleburgh Chequers
On the 10th of February in 1981, we held a gentlemen’s day in this pub to raise money for hunt funds. We met at the Kettleburgh Chequers at eleven and started hunting at about three, after quite a few drinks. C had dropped me and my horse at the meet and in the end, I hacked home to Debach, so there was no danger of drinking and driving. But when you hunted, it wasn’t always like that, but I can’t ever remember anyone getting into trouble, except from falling off a horse.
That day for a bet before hunting, Jimmy Wickham, the kennel-huntsman, actually brought the hounds into the bar.
As Tony says in the book, it wasn’t the best days hunting, but after a meal at Snape in the evening, it will be one of those days I’ll always remember.
For those who criticise hunting remember this. The hunts in those days used to collect and often humanely destroy all those animals that had died or needed to be put down in the countryside. We all come to our time in the end.
I always remember Tony Harvey once saying after a day, when we had hunted three packs of hare hounds in one day; harriers on horseback before breakfast, bassets in the morning on foot and beagles, again on foot, in the afternoon, the following. “We’ve had a very good day, but we haven’t caught anything. Ask a shooting man, if he’s had a good day, when he hasn’t shot anything.” That is the difference between hunting and shooting. I am passionately anti-anything to do with guns, as they kill people. It needs skill and in some cases courage to ride to hounds.
The last epitaph on hunting, is that on my stud since the hunting ban, I never see or even smell a fox. The ban has done nothing for the fox. All sorts of things can be postulated, but remember our foxes are rabies free, so have they been trapped by those who don’t value the countryside for their fur. I don’t know, but they have all disappeared. Or perhaps they’ve all gone to London, where they are a true menace.
Note that in Suffolk, you always name a pub with both the village and it’s actual name. This avoids mistakes, as there are numerous White Horses for example.
A Suite of Planets
On Tuesday night, I noticed a planet in the western sky. It could have been Venus, but looking at the Internet, it possibly could have been Saturn. A bad star chart in a newspaper, indicated that it could have been Saturn.
So last night, I checked and got my Meade telescope out. I also found this entry on the Internet, which showed that the planet was indeed Venus. The chart shows that Saturn is above the moon, but also that Mars should be visible to the naked eye.
According to the entry about the planets, the rings of Saturn are not particularly spectacular at present, as we are looking at them almost side on. But you’ll still see one of the most unusual and spectacular sites in the sky. Even a good pair of binoculars will reveal them!
So keep checking where the planets are on the Internet and take a look regularly, when the sky is clear.
The Phone Finally Arrives
It was finally delivered at 14:45, by a pleasant driver, who hadn’t been the one, who had ytied to deliver it on Monday.
The Samsung B2100 is now working and I’m trying to find all the features. It didn’t come with a cable to link it to my computer, so this may be a problem, as I like to update the contacts from the computer, rather than by typing them in on the small keypad.
Is 20% VAT Fair?
There has been a lot of fuss about raising VAT to 20%. I‘m in favour though
- Most countries in Europe have a rate of 20% or over.
- There is no VAT on food, so perhaps instead of eating out all te time, it’s time to learn to cook. After all, there are masses of books and programs on the television. There is no VAT on books.
- There is VAT on fuel, so change your driving hsbits and use less. This a good thing as we will cut carbon emmissions. Osborne should have raised fuel taxes substantially, though!
- There is VAT On building work, so perhaps it’s the time to learn to do things yourself.
- There is VAT on consumer goods, such as telvisions, but then do you really need a four metre screen. I suppose it goves a better picture for those who watch Royle Family style with endless cans of lager. As large screen TVs use a lot of energy, there is a special case for taxing the larger screens heavily. But you can always buy one before next January. It could be argued that as virtually all consumer goods are imported , that a drop in demand would be a good thing.
- But my main reason for liking VAT is that everybody pays a bit. Remember that because of pension and income tax changes, many people will have a little bit more to spend.
Why We All Hate Couriers – 3
The saga of the non-delivery of my mobile phone continues. The courier was slated to deliver it between 16:55 and 17:55 yewsterday. I cancelled going out and stayed in, as I didn’t want to miss them this time.
And guess what?
They didn’t turn up. So I still haven’t got my phone. O2 have told them to deliver it today and there are rumours that it will be here by 12:00. It’s not shown on the courier’s web site though! I probably won’t be as I have a physio appointment. I’ll have to hurry back. But my secretary manager will be here.
