The Anonymous Widower

I’m Now on Lasix

Or a generic form of furosemide, which is the drug known as Lasix.  As it helps stop racehorses from nose-bleeding, I wonder if it will affect my nose-bleeds.  But then I haven’t had any in the last week or so.

Lasix is banned for racehorses in the UK, but it is allowed freely in a lot of states in the US.

Let’s hope it helps me go a bit faster and further.

 

March 27, 2012 Posted by | Sport, World | , | Leave a comment

Spurs Don’t Seem to be Lucky

I watched Spurs play Chelski on Sunday and they didn’t get any luck in the goalless draw.

That pattern seems to be continuing against Bolton.

Perhaps it’s Harry’s problem and he isn’t lucky. What was it Benjamin Franklin said?

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

So let’s choose an England manager who makes his luck!

March 27, 2012 Posted by | Sport | , | Leave a comment

Doric Nimrod Air Two

A small article in The Times today entitled Investors queue up for aviation’s double-deckers,  caught my eye. It talks about a company called Doric Nimrod Air Two, that will buy and lease out Airbus A380 double-deck airliners, giving investors upwards of a nine-percent return on capital.

Would I invest, if I was as rich as Croesus?

You have to admire their innovation, but the aircraft are leased to Emirates, which is a Middle East airline. In that troubled region, there are more nutcases, than on all the peanut farms in Georgia.  You don’t have to actually shoot a plane down, just hit it with something very explosive on the ground.

After all, the share price of the company dipped, when the A380 developed wing cracks.

So it may work, but it is not an investment that appeals to me.

I’d prefer to put my money in Zopa and get around six percent.

March 27, 2012 Posted by | Finance & Investment, Transport/Travel | , | Leave a comment

Decimalisation

On Drive on BBC Radio 5 Live, they got talking about decimalisation. I sent them my four pennies-worth

My eldest son was in the births in The Times for the 20th July 1969, the day Apollo 11  landed on the moon.  Incidentally, that day the paper carried a report on decimalisation, which would happen on February 15th 1971 and metrication, which was to be completed by 1984. The first happened on time and I’m still waiting for the second.

I suspect I’ll be long dead before we do the sane and sensible thing and metricate.

March 27, 2012 Posted by | News, World | , | Leave a comment

Camden Road: A Destination Station on the North London Line

Obviously stations like Stratford and Richmond are destination stations on the North London line, where there is a lot to do and are ideal places to meet a friend or someone on business. Hampstead Heath station is probably another, but it is not really an interchange.

Today, I went to buy a new jacket and found myself at Camden Road station, which is being updated by the addition of lifts. I got the jacket and then proceeded to have a coffee in the restaurant under the station called the Meribel Brasserie & Coffee House. The coffee was very good and although they didn’t specifically do gluten-free, there were a few items on the menu, that were. For instance, their breakfast menu included scrambled eggs and smoked salmon at a reasonable £7, to include some accompaniments like tomatoes and a bit of salad. I checked the dinner menu with the Russian chef and I certainly wouldn’t starve there. He knew his stuff and even knew that skate were not kosher fish.

You certainly have a better choice of gluten-free food at Camden Road station, than in the whole of Eastfield.

I also drank my coffee on a pleasant terrace in the sun watching the traffic. Unfortunately,that unusual clothes shop, Swanky Modes, which used to be opposite has now gone. C always wondered, whether they actually sold any of their way out designs.

March 27, 2012 Posted by | Food, Transport/Travel | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Watching the Tube

They’re showing how they vacuum out the tube tunnels.  Strangely, a few years ago those that did this job were women, now they are men.  Can there be many jobs these days, where men have taken over from women?

Soon these men will be succeeded by a new Tunnel Cleaning Train made up of two old Victoria line power cars, with some carriages turned into a giant vacuum cleaner in between.

It was strange too, that the two aerial cleaners, who did the roof at Canary Wharf came from Suffolk.  Strange as there aren’t many mountains in that part of England to practise on.

March 26, 2012 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | 2 Comments

The Moon and the Planets

I was standing outside Carluccio’s in Upper Street tonight, watching a glorious moon with the planet Venus alongside.

A few minutes later, I was outside my house and they had been joined by Jupiter lower down.

Never in my life have I seen all of these heavenly bodies together.

March 26, 2012 Posted by | World | | 1 Comment

Bank Transfers Not Happening

I tried a couple of times make a couple of on-line payments this morning and my son also tried to send me something.  But nothing went through.

My only thoughts is that they are setting up so many ISAs, that the system is creaking.

March 26, 2012 Posted by | Finance & Investment, World | | Leave a comment

Sir Roger Bannister and the Affect of Heat and Humidity

I didn’t realise that one of the first papers that Sir Roger produced was about the affect of heat and humidity on people. He did his research in Aden in 1957.

I couldn’t find the paper, but I did find him quoted in a Powerpoint presentation on the subject, written Col. John Gardner, MD for the United States Army or Marines.

The notion that courage and esprit de corps can somehow defeat the principles of physiology is not only wrong but dangerously wrong. 

I don’t know what the temperatures and humidity are like in Afghanistan are like, but do the British and American forces take note of the doctor.

March 26, 2012 Posted by | Health, World | , , | Leave a comment

If You Can’t Get a Seat on the Train Try Holyhead to Cardiff

In the South-East and many other areas of England, trains may be overcrowded, but not if you want to go from or to North Wales and Cardiff. According to the April 2012 edition of Modern Railways, some trains only carry an average of eight First Class passengers and a chef to cook the free meals. This is subsidised at a rate of £1.7million by the Welsh Assembly. They also subsidise air passengers to the tune of £160 a journey.  There’s more of it here.

March 25, 2012 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , | Leave a comment