I am hardly a technophobe, but I don't find myself leaping at the new technologies or the new internet trends. I was a pretty slow adopter of eBay, for example, and highly skeptical of their business idea. Likewise, I did not see the big deal about yet another search engine (google).
It took a while before I decided to give facebook a try, and the same for LinkedIn.
I have quite consciously avoided taking on any more of these networking services - they just eat up time, I think.
This specifically applied to Twitter. I really struggled to see the point of it. 140 characters - why ?
However, I am on the point of caving in.
With a trip to Vegas just around the corner, it seems like it would be the ideal way of keeping friends (those also in Vegas, those about to come, those staying at home or already back) informed of my progress at the tournaments and indeed to share the news of others among the "community" (I do find that UK poker players in Vegas constitute a real community).
I may soon be learning Twitterese.
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Time is Money
After a dentist's appointment in Bedford this morning, I drove to the station much later than normal. This meant I had to drive all the way to the far end of the car park to find a free space.
It's actually quite a long way from one end to the other !
As I approached these far off lands, I noticed (along with many cars) large groups of people congregating around the pay&display machines.
At first I thought they were all marvelling at the large number of pound coins you need to make up the daily rate. Then I noticed they were studying the machines intently, perhaps with some annoyance, as if it were broken.
The same groups were surrounding several machines. They couldn't all be broken, surely ?
They appeared to be waiting for something to happen. A software upgrade ? I know all these machines have microchips inside, but that seemed a bit odd.
They couldn't all have agreed to "meet at the parking meter" ?
Then, as I pulled into my space, the "pips" went on my radio and I realised that it was just striking 10am - the start of off-peak parking.
My spending a little time waiting at the machine, they saved 2/3rd off the parking price !
It's actually quite a long way from one end to the other !
As I approached these far off lands, I noticed (along with many cars) large groups of people congregating around the pay&display machines.
At first I thought they were all marvelling at the large number of pound coins you need to make up the daily rate. Then I noticed they were studying the machines intently, perhaps with some annoyance, as if it were broken.
The same groups were surrounding several machines. They couldn't all be broken, surely ?
They appeared to be waiting for something to happen. A software upgrade ? I know all these machines have microchips inside, but that seemed a bit odd.
They couldn't all have agreed to "meet at the parking meter" ?
Then, as I pulled into my space, the "pips" went on my radio and I realised that it was just striking 10am - the start of off-peak parking.
My spending a little time waiting at the machine, they saved 2/3rd off the parking price !
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Claim derailed
We have been very fortunate to avoid complications from the recent ash-induced travel chaos. We travelled a week or so before the travel "ban" and are due to travel in a few weeks, but we missed this problem entirely.
The severity of this event makes the snow disruptions seem minor even though, at the time, these seemed to be quite significant especially on the "Thameslink" line (now First Capital Connect).
There were also severe non-weather problems on this line. I was affected when I started daily commuting to London again at the beginning of this year.
However, I had pretty much forgotten about the problems until I saw the recent compensation offer from FCC. 50% reduction off monthly season tickets - which is what I have been using [the season-ticket sweet-spot for value occurs at one month. The extra discounts for quarterly and annual tickets due not really make up for the lack of flexibility].
I had not personally been too badly affected as I only started regularly using the service on 11th January but the window for compensation ran to 15th January. This meant I was covered and could pick up a handy £300 or so discount.
It was a bit of a coup that I had just sneaked inside the timeframe. But then I checked my records and discovered that on the first occasion, I actually opted for a weekly ticket for just the first week ! I bought my first monthly ticket on the 17th.
Before I knew about the compensation, I didn't feel too put out but now I feel like I have missed out !
The severity of this event makes the snow disruptions seem minor even though, at the time, these seemed to be quite significant especially on the "Thameslink" line (now First Capital Connect).
There were also severe non-weather problems on this line. I was affected when I started daily commuting to London again at the beginning of this year.
However, I had pretty much forgotten about the problems until I saw the recent compensation offer from FCC. 50% reduction off monthly season tickets - which is what I have been using [the season-ticket sweet-spot for value occurs at one month. The extra discounts for quarterly and annual tickets due not really make up for the lack of flexibility].
I had not personally been too badly affected as I only started regularly using the service on 11th January but the window for compensation ran to 15th January. This meant I was covered and could pick up a handy £300 or so discount.
It was a bit of a coup that I had just sneaked inside the timeframe. But then I checked my records and discovered that on the first occasion, I actually opted for a weekly ticket for just the first week ! I bought my first monthly ticket on the 17th.
Before I knew about the compensation, I didn't feel too put out but now I feel like I have missed out !
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Spanish Over Fishing
Back in July 2008, I wrote a blog about the bureaucracy involved in acquiring a sea-fishing license in Spain. In that case, I did eventually obtain the license with local help from Hazel & Roger.
It was not entirely clear that this was worthwhile as Harry & I only succeeded in catching a couple of fish in several attempts.
This time, Roger had located an inland fishing lake (stocked and maintained specifically for fishing) and a license was not required, according to his lead.
Harry & I made our way there early one morning and the place certainly looked the part.
The license situation was not so clear, however. The owner had information prepared on the subject to help make it "clear".
Apparently, the region of Andalucia has lumped together fishing with hunting and come up with a fantastically complex system.
The usual method is to take a course and exam which takes 40 days. Applications for the course must be made at specific times of the year, and the exam can be taken only on particular days. Both the course, the exam and then the license require payment of fees and filling of forms.
Luckily, there is a "simpler" method in case you have a UK license (which obviously we do).
All you have to do is ...
i) Take your UK license and UK passport, in person, to the British Consulate and pay €41 for them to fill in a form to acknowledge that you have a UK license.
ii) Take this to another agency to obtain an identification number
iii) Obtain fishing insurance (!?)
iv) Take all this to another place and pay some more fees, fill in some more forms etc and they will issue a license.
Probably.
The good news is that now we know that the Spanish seem to be really intent on making tourist fishing impossible, it will save on packing and transporting the fishing equipment - we will simply not bother !
It was not entirely clear that this was worthwhile as Harry & I only succeeded in catching a couple of fish in several attempts.
This time, Roger had located an inland fishing lake (stocked and maintained specifically for fishing) and a license was not required, according to his lead.
Harry & I made our way there early one morning and the place certainly looked the part.
The license situation was not so clear, however. The owner had information prepared on the subject to help make it "clear".
Apparently, the region of Andalucia has lumped together fishing with hunting and come up with a fantastically complex system.
The usual method is to take a course and exam which takes 40 days. Applications for the course must be made at specific times of the year, and the exam can be taken only on particular days. Both the course, the exam and then the license require payment of fees and filling of forms.
Luckily, there is a "simpler" method in case you have a UK license (which obviously we do).
All you have to do is ...
i) Take your UK license and UK passport, in person, to the British Consulate and pay €41 for them to fill in a form to acknowledge that you have a UK license.
ii) Take this to another agency to obtain an identification number
iii) Obtain fishing insurance (!?)
iv) Take all this to another place and pay some more fees, fill in some more forms etc and they will issue a license.
Probably.
The good news is that now we know that the Spanish seem to be really intent on making tourist fishing impossible, it will save on packing and transporting the fishing equipment - we will simply not bother !
Monday, 4 January 2010
U-S-A part2
What else does USA stand for ?
2. Ugly Stupid Automobile
The queue at the Dollar car rental was pretty short, albeit still slow and somewhat irritating, but there was no major hitch. As usual, they tried to suggest we upgrade from our already large vehicle and as always we declined.
Our vehicle was a "full size saloon". This turned out to be a Mercury Grand Marquis. I have to assume that this model was manufactured specifically to sell to hire companies so that they could benefit from stupendous discounts for buying up cars that no one else would buy.
The thing is astonishingly unattractive. It is easy to understand why European or Japanese cars are seen as so stylish by the more sophisticated US buyer.
The car was undoubtedly modern in some respects, but in looks and layout it made you wonder if it can been deliberately designed to be bad. On the plus side, it was indeed comfortable (as you would expect when sitting in seats the size of a sofa).
We did grow used to it, and if one didn't know better then it would seem perfectly normal for the "gas" to be guzzled at a rate so fast that the needle moved towards empty at a speed that was discernible to the naked eye.
As for the chioce of colour - no doubt dreary beige was specified by Dollar to achieve maximum price discounts.
3. Unusual: Service Absent
Something that one can usually count on in America is excellent service (even if it is a little sickly). Disappointingly, we were let down time after time in restaurants (with just a couple of welcome exceptions).
We're at a bit of a loss to explain this, except for the fact that it must be difficult to find enough good quality staff for the vast number of places where they're needed.
4. Upcoming: Scary Action
Harry loves rollercoasters and is now big enough to try any that he wants to. Even he balked at one or two of them - especially the one in Busch Gardens with two vertical drops.
One that seemed scary last time but felt more benign, now that we have been immunised by trips to Alton Towers and previous visits to Orlando, was Return to Atlantis at Seaworld.
This is a log-flume type of ride and is unusual in that instead of having one large drop, it actually has one large drop on display and another one hidden on the blind side.
In a log flume, the usual set-up is that there are lots of fake drops along the way - Disney's Splash Mountain is the classic. By the time we come to the real drop we've had some extra fun along the way.
Well in Return to Atlantis, there won't so many false alarms but the real peculiarity was that before each slide there was LITERALLY a big sign warning us of the upcoming drop and in case we had our eyes closed, there was a voice recording to the same effect !
I am perplexed by this. Why would they do it ? There can't be a law requiring it (such a law would really spoil a lot of rides) and if there were, then such notices would be in place on all the other rides surely ?
5. Unhelpfully Signposted Attraction
Dollar offered us a SatNav ($13 a day, plus tax). This would have been spectactularly unnecessary - partly because we had brought our own TomTom but also because the roads around the Disney/Universal/I-Drive area are really easy to work with. Not only are they quite logical, but the signposting to the attractions is so thorough that any wrong turns are easily corrected by following the next sign.
So, I was surprised by the completely different scenario when Harry and I drove to Tampa to visit Busch Gardens (highly recommended by the way). I had a look on the map and could see it should be very easy - drive South on the I4 for about 80 miles then follow signs.
Well, this was basically correct but the signs took me completely by surprise - there were hardly any !
There was one sign about 12 miles from the Jct between the I4 and the I75 indicating that I need to take the I75 North. There was no repeater sign, not even right at the junction, nor when I turned off. On the I75 itself, there was no indication that we were going in the right direction until there was just one small sign at the required junction. Even on the final approach roads, there was one sign and one only for each turning.
Luckily we had been before a few years ago so I was somewhat prepared.
I am puzzled by this, given the size and economic importance of the attraction. I can only assume there must be local by-laws preventing them from "advertising" with roadsigns.
Meanwhile the signage inside the park was first rate. If the poor directions kept a few people away, then I guess we benefitted from that !
2. Ugly Stupid Automobile
The queue at the Dollar car rental was pretty short, albeit still slow and somewhat irritating, but there was no major hitch. As usual, they tried to suggest we upgrade from our already large vehicle and as always we declined.
Our vehicle was a "full size saloon". This turned out to be a Mercury Grand Marquis. I have to assume that this model was manufactured specifically to sell to hire companies so that they could benefit from stupendous discounts for buying up cars that no one else would buy.
The thing is astonishingly unattractive. It is easy to understand why European or Japanese cars are seen as so stylish by the more sophisticated US buyer.
The car was undoubtedly modern in some respects, but in looks and layout it made you wonder if it can been deliberately designed to be bad. On the plus side, it was indeed comfortable (as you would expect when sitting in seats the size of a sofa).
We did grow used to it, and if one didn't know better then it would seem perfectly normal for the "gas" to be guzzled at a rate so fast that the needle moved towards empty at a speed that was discernible to the naked eye.
As for the chioce of colour - no doubt dreary beige was specified by Dollar to achieve maximum price discounts.
3. Unusual: Service Absent
Something that one can usually count on in America is excellent service (even if it is a little sickly). Disappointingly, we were let down time after time in restaurants (with just a couple of welcome exceptions).
We're at a bit of a loss to explain this, except for the fact that it must be difficult to find enough good quality staff for the vast number of places where they're needed.
4. Upcoming: Scary Action
Harry loves rollercoasters and is now big enough to try any that he wants to. Even he balked at one or two of them - especially the one in Busch Gardens with two vertical drops.
One that seemed scary last time but felt more benign, now that we have been immunised by trips to Alton Towers and previous visits to Orlando, was Return to Atlantis at Seaworld.
This is a log-flume type of ride and is unusual in that instead of having one large drop, it actually has one large drop on display and another one hidden on the blind side.
In a log flume, the usual set-up is that there are lots of fake drops along the way - Disney's Splash Mountain is the classic. By the time we come to the real drop we've had some extra fun along the way.
Well in Return to Atlantis, there won't so many false alarms but the real peculiarity was that before each slide there was LITERALLY a big sign warning us of the upcoming drop and in case we had our eyes closed, there was a voice recording to the same effect !
I am perplexed by this. Why would they do it ? There can't be a law requiring it (such a law would really spoil a lot of rides) and if there were, then such notices would be in place on all the other rides surely ?
5. Unhelpfully Signposted Attraction
Dollar offered us a SatNav ($13 a day, plus tax). This would have been spectactularly unnecessary - partly because we had brought our own TomTom but also because the roads around the Disney/Universal/I-Drive area are really easy to work with. Not only are they quite logical, but the signposting to the attractions is so thorough that any wrong turns are easily corrected by following the next sign.
So, I was surprised by the completely different scenario when Harry and I drove to Tampa to visit Busch Gardens (highly recommended by the way). I had a look on the map and could see it should be very easy - drive South on the I4 for about 80 miles then follow signs.
Well, this was basically correct but the signs took me completely by surprise - there were hardly any !
There was one sign about 12 miles from the Jct between the I4 and the I75 indicating that I need to take the I75 North. There was no repeater sign, not even right at the junction, nor when I turned off. On the I75 itself, there was no indication that we were going in the right direction until there was just one small sign at the required junction. Even on the final approach roads, there was one sign and one only for each turning.
Luckily we had been before a few years ago so I was somewhat prepared.
I am puzzled by this, given the size and economic importance of the attraction. I can only assume there must be local by-laws preventing them from "advertising" with roadsigns.
Meanwhile the signage inside the park was first rate. If the poor directions kept a few people away, then I guess we benefitted from that !
Friday, 1 January 2010
Happy Binary Day !
The 1st January 2010, and I couldn't help noticing that the date 01/01/10 can be written with just ones and zeros - a binary date of a sort.
It's quite a while since this happened before - November 2001. After November next year, it will be a very long time until it happens again (another 90 years or so).
11:11 on Armistice Day this year will be a pretty significant moment numerologically speaking, I suppose.
Of course, we could argue that this year and (20)00 and (20)01 etc don't really count if we want to use the full year. In that case we need to go back to around the time of the Battle of Hastings - the start of the 2nd millennium was of course rich in binary dates. And we will have to wait another 8,000 years or so to get the next occurrences.
I wondered whether anyone else was having these thoughts and a quick web search revealed that apparently there is much chatter about it in the Twittersphere. Likewise there's the debate about what to call this new decade. My vote would go to "the twenty tens".
Happy Twenty Ten !
It's quite a while since this happened before - November 2001. After November next year, it will be a very long time until it happens again (another 90 years or so).
11:11 on Armistice Day this year will be a pretty significant moment numerologically speaking, I suppose.
Of course, we could argue that this year and (20)00 and (20)01 etc don't really count if we want to use the full year. In that case we need to go back to around the time of the Battle of Hastings - the start of the 2nd millennium was of course rich in binary dates. And we will have to wait another 8,000 years or so to get the next occurrences.
I wondered whether anyone else was having these thoughts and a quick web search revealed that apparently there is much chatter about it in the Twittersphere. Likewise there's the debate about what to call this new decade. My vote would go to "the twenty tens".
Happy Twenty Ten !
Monday, 28 December 2009
U-S-A part1
We were in Florida for 2 weeks up to and just after Christmas. We had a good time (it's hard not to in Orlando) but a few things about the US of A struck as as odd, irritating or downright bizarre. So what does USA stand for ?
1. Unbelievably Slow Admission
When we arrived at Orlando International, we were quick off the plane and so faced only a short queue at immigration. Officials at the holiday airports always seem friendlier than those I remember at JFK. Or maybe it's just that I was exposed to a very fierce agent once in the past and they all seem benign by comparison.
In any case, with just 2 groups ahead of us (and one of those groups only had 1 person), I assumed we would be through in no time.
Not so. The official in our line ("Colon" was his name) was quite outstandingly slow. It actually took us just short of an hour to emerge. Truly remarkable.
Mind you, the US have their entry procedures in quite a pickle in my opinion. It seems to me they are actually pretty disorganized.
I assume that behind it all, the CIA/NSA/FBI are actually doing a good job tracking those who really need to be tracked and traced but for the average traveller their procedures look a mess.
I have been to the US dozens of times, and the green I94 visa waiver form is still with us, but they have added to it without ever streamlining it.
So now we have to fill in our vacation address before we leave the UK and the airline have to provide that to the US authorities in electronic form but we STILL have to write it on the form (and all this despite the fact that they can't very well check we have given a genuine address).
They added finger printing (which they keep a record of, but which we still have to complete from scratch each time) and then they introduced electronic visa waivers (ESTA) BUT they did not phase out any of the paper forms. You need to do both, for further duplication, so the paperwork just grows and grows.
Not that they have left the I-94W totally un-updated. No, they have now added fields for phone number and email - neither of which they are conceivably going to use. You would think that when they modify the form (understandably they so not wish to do so too often) they would correct the more obvious failings and inconsistencies.
For example: they use a grid format on the form despite the fact that many names, addresses and even country names will not fit in the number of spaces provided. But on the back of the form, they don't. And on the customs forms, they don't.
On the I-94W itself, there are 4 places to put your country - all the fields have different lengths. There is little enough room for names that many people will have an issue, but they allow 6 spaces to denote sex (M/F).
The new and pointless email field is ridiculously short - if you allow 11 or 12 spaces for "@hotmail.com" (hardly the longest domain name) there are 7 spaces left for the rest of the address. It would not take a genius to realise that this will be sufficient for almost no-one.
The entry procedure itself consists of presumably high-tech finger-printing and photo-recognition with an extraordinary amount of stapling and rubber-stamping.
In fact, on reflection, one hour wasn't bad just based on the number of staples and stamps that our agent had to process.
Unhelpful, Stupid, Annoying
1. Unbelievably Slow Admission
When we arrived at Orlando International, we were quick off the plane and so faced only a short queue at immigration. Officials at the holiday airports always seem friendlier than those I remember at JFK. Or maybe it's just that I was exposed to a very fierce agent once in the past and they all seem benign by comparison.
In any case, with just 2 groups ahead of us (and one of those groups only had 1 person), I assumed we would be through in no time.
Not so. The official in our line ("Colon" was his name) was quite outstandingly slow. It actually took us just short of an hour to emerge. Truly remarkable.
Mind you, the US have their entry procedures in quite a pickle in my opinion. It seems to me they are actually pretty disorganized.
I assume that behind it all, the CIA/NSA/FBI are actually doing a good job tracking those who really need to be tracked and traced but for the average traveller their procedures look a mess.
I have been to the US dozens of times, and the green I94 visa waiver form is still with us, but they have added to it without ever streamlining it.
So now we have to fill in our vacation address before we leave the UK and the airline have to provide that to the US authorities in electronic form but we STILL have to write it on the form (and all this despite the fact that they can't very well check we have given a genuine address).
They added finger printing (which they keep a record of, but which we still have to complete from scratch each time) and then they introduced electronic visa waivers (ESTA) BUT they did not phase out any of the paper forms. You need to do both, for further duplication, so the paperwork just grows and grows.
Not that they have left the I-94W totally un-updated. No, they have now added fields for phone number and email - neither of which they are conceivably going to use. You would think that when they modify the form (understandably they so not wish to do so too often) they would correct the more obvious failings and inconsistencies.
For example: they use a grid format on the form despite the fact that many names, addresses and even country names will not fit in the number of spaces provided. But on the back of the form, they don't. And on the customs forms, they don't.
On the I-94W itself, there are 4 places to put your country - all the fields have different lengths. There is little enough room for names that many people will have an issue, but they allow 6 spaces to denote sex (M/F).
The new and pointless email field is ridiculously short - if you allow 11 or 12 spaces for "@hotmail.com" (hardly the longest domain name) there are 7 spaces left for the rest of the address. It would not take a genius to realise that this will be sufficient for almost no-one.
The entry procedure itself consists of presumably high-tech finger-printing and photo-recognition with an extraordinary amount of stapling and rubber-stamping.
In fact, on reflection, one hour wasn't bad just based on the number of staples and stamps that our agent had to process.
Unhelpful, Stupid, Annoying
Monday, 30 November 2009
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
A bid of fun
Ever since I came back from the local auction house with tales of "Guitar Hero: Rock Band" selling for £20, the boys have said they wanted to go and pick up such legendary bargains.
This Friday, I remembered to go to the viewing. Matt was away at a friend's and Karen didn't fancy the outing. Harry also wasn't keen but once he got there he was very taken with ... many things, mostly entirely impractical.
Amongst more realistic options, I decided we could look out for a toaster for Matt (apparently the boathouse needs one), a backpack for Harry and perhaps a new breadmaker for Karen.
On the morning of the auction, we all went down although the boys lacked patience to stand around and wait for the auction to reach the required stage.
Karen agreed to keep me company. For the most part we were simply watching. Over time, you understand the protocols and the subtleties of the format.
We were a bit reluctant to bid for anything, and of course were careful not to scratch our noses or point at things !
Eventually, the sale came around to the section where our target items were on display but before we could get to that, we suddenly found ourselves bidding for some BT cordless phones. Karen is always on the lookout for the perfect handsets.
£18 seemed a relative bargain. In fact I decided to bid and buy a second set of phones although, when some other phone lots went for as little as £6, they didn't seem quite as cheap.
Having overcome the initial anxiety about bidding, it seemed rather easier to get involved with other lots.
In due course, we landed a huge glass vase, a hoover, a juicer, 2 breadmakers and a draining board ! We failed to secure any of the toasters or the bag that we came for.
Although we started tentatively, by the end the auctioneer knew our bidding number and we were known as "in the hat". Our bidding signals - very bold in the early rounds - became more subtle as we were acknowledged as serial buyers !
So, in the end we had committed to about £100 of hammer-price items and had of course mentally forgotten about 15%+VAT premium and 15% of VAT.
Still, the checkout process was very efficient: we couldn't even remember what we'd bought but 10 minutes after we had left the floor we had an itemised bill and were all sorted.
Of course I had to go and get the car and a boy to help with the loading. The roads were somewhat chaotic around the auction site - we took the safe option of parking a distance away so as not to add a £60 parking ticket to the auction costs.
On the face of it, our items were bargains. £135 all in for face-value of about £500+ and it all looked in good order.
We have become more aware of what caveat emptor means though as most of the boxed items that looked new have revealed themselves to be probably returned stock with some faults.
In the case of the juicer, the fault is remedied by a quick tweak here and there. In the case of the £12 hoover (RRP: £99) it seems it may be going straight to the tip - no signs of life in it !
Karen is cooking test loaves today in the breadmakers and the phones are on charge. The vase definitely works although it turns out to be more of a bargain than we bargained for: it is HUGE !
The Simple Human draining system was probably the biggest disappointment: they retail at over £50 and Karen wants a new one. This one was ours for just £4 (plus 15% and 15% of 15% and another 15% of course !) but on purchase it turns out to be a well-used one in a brand new box - a bit sneaky that one.
Perhaps we should stick to towels, flowers and chairs next time but it was good fun I think !
This Friday, I remembered to go to the viewing. Matt was away at a friend's and Karen didn't fancy the outing. Harry also wasn't keen but once he got there he was very taken with ... many things, mostly entirely impractical.
Amongst more realistic options, I decided we could look out for a toaster for Matt (apparently the boathouse needs one), a backpack for Harry and perhaps a new breadmaker for Karen.
On the morning of the auction, we all went down although the boys lacked patience to stand around and wait for the auction to reach the required stage.
Karen agreed to keep me company. For the most part we were simply watching. Over time, you understand the protocols and the subtleties of the format.
We were a bit reluctant to bid for anything, and of course were careful not to scratch our noses or point at things !
Eventually, the sale came around to the section where our target items were on display but before we could get to that, we suddenly found ourselves bidding for some BT cordless phones. Karen is always on the lookout for the perfect handsets.
£18 seemed a relative bargain. In fact I decided to bid and buy a second set of phones although, when some other phone lots went for as little as £6, they didn't seem quite as cheap.
Having overcome the initial anxiety about bidding, it seemed rather easier to get involved with other lots.
In due course, we landed a huge glass vase, a hoover, a juicer, 2 breadmakers and a draining board ! We failed to secure any of the toasters or the bag that we came for.
Although we started tentatively, by the end the auctioneer knew our bidding number and we were known as "in the hat". Our bidding signals - very bold in the early rounds - became more subtle as we were acknowledged as serial buyers !
So, in the end we had committed to about £100 of hammer-price items and had of course mentally forgotten about 15%+VAT premium and 15% of VAT.
Still, the checkout process was very efficient: we couldn't even remember what we'd bought but 10 minutes after we had left the floor we had an itemised bill and were all sorted.
Of course I had to go and get the car and a boy to help with the loading. The roads were somewhat chaotic around the auction site - we took the safe option of parking a distance away so as not to add a £60 parking ticket to the auction costs.
On the face of it, our items were bargains. £135 all in for face-value of about £500+ and it all looked in good order.
We have become more aware of what caveat emptor means though as most of the boxed items that looked new have revealed themselves to be probably returned stock with some faults.
In the case of the juicer, the fault is remedied by a quick tweak here and there. In the case of the £12 hoover (RRP: £99) it seems it may be going straight to the tip - no signs of life in it !
Karen is cooking test loaves today in the breadmakers and the phones are on charge. The vase definitely works although it turns out to be more of a bargain than we bargained for: it is HUGE !
The Simple Human draining system was probably the biggest disappointment: they retail at over £50 and Karen wants a new one. This one was ours for just £4 (plus 15% and 15% of 15% and another 15% of course !) but on purchase it turns out to be a well-used one in a brand new box - a bit sneaky that one.
Perhaps we should stick to towels, flowers and chairs next time but it was good fun I think !
Thursday, 1 October 2009
The eX-files
Recently I have been sorting out paperwork in my office. This can be quite a big task, as I like to do a very thorough job – looking at every piece of paper in each file to see if it should be kept. I keep all kinds of documents, and “paperwork” in this sense also includes the folders full of instructions manuals, and boxes of “memories”.
I try to be reasonable about what I hold onto, but a lot would fail the “if you haven’t used/needed it for X years” test. Of course some has to be kept by law (for tax), and some other material is plainly useful or sensible to retain.
But a lot of it is just “interesting” – like documents for the sale & purchase of our 3-ago house, statements for accounts closed in 2001, University notes, O-level papers, or someone else’s school tie.
We’re not short of space, so I could keep even more stuff in theory but I enjoy the actual process of sifting through the files. On each round of processing (every couple of years, maybe) each file is reduced a little more. What I retain becomes more and more the “core” documents even though some interesting context is lost each time.
The process of checking through each file also reminds me of what’s there, and brings back memories.
Sometimes I do think it would be interesting to keep EVERYTHING. Yesterday for example, I threw out notebooks from my time on sabbatical from Bear. This was the period when I was still employed, but was taking a 3-month break. As we now know, this time was the start of the credit crisis and there were some rocky times for the business.
I had to make some calls during that time and my notes were scrawled in these books. They were not much more than phone doodles to be fair although there was enough there (names, dates, specifics of deals and so on) for me to recall the events. Actually finding the notes (in this case, at the back of what looked like an empty notebook) was in reality more interesting than the notes themselves. No one else would have been able to make anything of them.
It’s also good in these filing exercises to check that certain “important” items are still in my possession. I was able to find my 23-day plan for example. This was a single page of A4 notepad on which my revision plan for degree finals was scrawled. 23 days was all there was left by the time I realised that I was really running out of time to get the work done. It turned out to be just enough, history tells us.
The files themselves are interesting in some cases. Most of the actual documents have been re-filed a few times over the years and original envelopes, say, have for the most part been dispensed with at some point. But many of folders are still Oxford University folders that I vividly remember buying at the student union shop.
I seem to have retained exam papers from all the important milestones. I have most of the O level, A level and degree papers as well as scholarship exams for Oakham and Oxford entrance papers. I even have the ones from the banking exams. In all these cases I can recall the events of those times fairly clearly. In some cases, I still remember some of the questions (although not the answers).
Looking through them made me recall very fondly my time at school and University. Clearly these items are not “necessary” in any way but I could never get rid of them now.
Some other documents from that time are even less important, yet more interesting. I have, for example, a TELEX exchange between me and Jack Sakkab from Oakham (he’d gone back to Jordan by then) in which we let each other know our A-level results. Hard for the iPhone generation to understand that !
I wonder if the TELEX network still operates ? Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised. There was a TELEX machine chattering away at Bear Stearns for years after it was really needed for anything.
Also from the TELEX era, I have a timestamped page from the TELEX room to prove that I made it onto the FX trading floor at Natwest earlier than anyone else after a late night out other dealers, leading to a bet that I couldn’t do it. “Tweedie” still hasn’t paid up. 18 years later I haven’t forgotten (although I have written the £50 off !).
Looking through does also make me think of a number of items that I wish I had kept but I will need to be satisfied with just the memories of those !
I try to be reasonable about what I hold onto, but a lot would fail the “if you haven’t used/needed it for X years” test. Of course some has to be kept by law (for tax), and some other material is plainly useful or sensible to retain.
But a lot of it is just “interesting” – like documents for the sale & purchase of our 3-ago house, statements for accounts closed in 2001, University notes, O-level papers, or someone else’s school tie.
We’re not short of space, so I could keep even more stuff in theory but I enjoy the actual process of sifting through the files. On each round of processing (every couple of years, maybe) each file is reduced a little more. What I retain becomes more and more the “core” documents even though some interesting context is lost each time.
The process of checking through each file also reminds me of what’s there, and brings back memories.
Sometimes I do think it would be interesting to keep EVERYTHING. Yesterday for example, I threw out notebooks from my time on sabbatical from Bear. This was the period when I was still employed, but was taking a 3-month break. As we now know, this time was the start of the credit crisis and there were some rocky times for the business.
I had to make some calls during that time and my notes were scrawled in these books. They were not much more than phone doodles to be fair although there was enough there (names, dates, specifics of deals and so on) for me to recall the events. Actually finding the notes (in this case, at the back of what looked like an empty notebook) was in reality more interesting than the notes themselves. No one else would have been able to make anything of them.
It’s also good in these filing exercises to check that certain “important” items are still in my possession. I was able to find my 23-day plan for example. This was a single page of A4 notepad on which my revision plan for degree finals was scrawled. 23 days was all there was left by the time I realised that I was really running out of time to get the work done. It turned out to be just enough, history tells us.
The files themselves are interesting in some cases. Most of the actual documents have been re-filed a few times over the years and original envelopes, say, have for the most part been dispensed with at some point. But many of folders are still Oxford University folders that I vividly remember buying at the student union shop.
I seem to have retained exam papers from all the important milestones. I have most of the O level, A level and degree papers as well as scholarship exams for Oakham and Oxford entrance papers. I even have the ones from the banking exams. In all these cases I can recall the events of those times fairly clearly. In some cases, I still remember some of the questions (although not the answers).
Looking through them made me recall very fondly my time at school and University. Clearly these items are not “necessary” in any way but I could never get rid of them now.
Some other documents from that time are even less important, yet more interesting. I have, for example, a TELEX exchange between me and Jack Sakkab from Oakham (he’d gone back to Jordan by then) in which we let each other know our A-level results. Hard for the iPhone generation to understand that !
I wonder if the TELEX network still operates ? Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised. There was a TELEX machine chattering away at Bear Stearns for years after it was really needed for anything.
Also from the TELEX era, I have a timestamped page from the TELEX room to prove that I made it onto the FX trading floor at Natwest earlier than anyone else after a late night out other dealers, leading to a bet that I couldn’t do it. “Tweedie” still hasn’t paid up. 18 years later I haven’t forgotten (although I have written the £50 off !).
Looking through does also make me think of a number of items that I wish I had kept but I will need to be satisfied with just the memories of those !
Friday, 4 September 2009
Boot Drive
During a long-overdue sort-out in my office, I turned up some items that seemed too good to throw away, too large to eBay, too obscure to keep and equally unlikely to find a home with immediate neighbours or friends.
For some reason, my thoughts turned to a car boot sale. I have literally never been to one, either as buyer or seller. I always felt I could understand why so many people apparently enjoy these events but I had never personally felt a great urge to give it a try.
However, with Harry as a willing accomplice, I decided to give it a whirl. Starting with literally two or three items, I soon found that we had a whole car full. Once you start looking, car boot fodder is everywhere.
A quick google revealed a venue at Bedford hospital. However, when I called the organizer I discovered they were not running till September. Next stop, the local newspaper (I rarely read it, but I found plenty of sites). We settled on one near Barton.
Up at 6 on Saturday morning, we ventured out and found ourselves in a queue at the gate for the opening at 7am.
Before making the trip, I had done a little research online and picked up some advice from those with more care boot experience (that is, everyone).
We were warned about the dangers of being swarmed by expert buyers, and the risk of theft and so on.
In the event, the site at Barton turned out to be quite a small affair. There were only 25 cars or so selling, and almost all the buyers consisted of other sellers ! Chatting with our neighbouring booters, it seemed that this particular event was very new on the circuit and not established with the regulars.
Still, this was possibly a good thing as it gave us an easy ride for our first outing. Despite the lack of customers, we actually had a very good day, taking over £120. I think we may have sold more than all of the other pitches combined !
I’ve heard it said many times that “it’s incredible what sells at a car boot” and now I believe it ! There was literally rubbish for sale on many of the stalls.
We had the benefit of having a lot of high quality items to shift. The regulars, one feels, will find it tough to continuously source desirable items for low enough cost.
As far as pricing goes, I think I benefitted from having extremely low expectations. We had padded our stall with lots of books (which usually we send straight to the charity shops) and also over 100 DVDs that the boys never watch. Books, in particular, I did not expect to sell at all given the ubiquity of second hand booksellers.
So, each time we actually sold a book for 50p, I was quite pleasantly surprised !
We really did not have any “tat” on offer but it was surprising what items created interest, and which did not merit a first look.
Pricing wise, I can see that there are norms that operate. DVDs, for example, have a market-clearing price that is probably quite well established. However, even for such commodities and especially for other items, the real skill (I suspect) is to “play the player”.
One tip I picked up before going was NOT to put price labels on. This allows you to engage the potential buyer who has to enquire about price. It also allows you to change pricing according to time of day and other conditions.
The fact seems to be that many items will not sell at any price until you find the right buyer.
The right buyer, however, can be fairly indifferent to price (within reason). We also came to see that certain types of buyer are particularly valuable. For example, children who have been given £5 to shut them up feel a great need to spend it all as soon as possible !
Harry was a natural. He was genuinely helpful in seeking out “stock” at home, setting up the stall and in dealing with the customers. This was pleasing since he can be quite shy.
I was comfortable leaving him on his own at the stall for a while. I came back after a survey of the site to find Harry pointing out a couple of sales he had made. He also joked that he was sorry he had sold my stereo (one of our best items) for £3 by mistake. I knew he was joking (a) because even at a car boot it was obviously worth a lot more and (b) it was still sitting there on the table.
Five minutes later, the buyers came back to collect it as agreed !
Oh well. I was as guilty as Harry for under-selling over the weekend. And a happy customer is a valuable asset. Maybe the buyer felt bad about her coup, and she bought another £15 of stuff as much fuller prices.
We seemed to sell a good amount of stuff, but still had ¾ of a car full at the end. We decided to try again the next morning. We had been tipped off about a much busier site near Leighton Buzzard.
Our experience on the first day taught us that anything is worth trying to sell, so we easily used up the spare space in the car with more books, more toys and some highly speculative items: I filled up a box with left over mobile phone chargers, obsolete computer mice and freebie headphones etc. On Day 2, nearly all of these sold !
Billington car boot was more like what I imagined – well over 200 cars. We still did not suffer too much from vulture-experts or thieves. The only mishap we experienced was taking in a counterfeit £2 coin. It was a poor copy (obviously fake) so I have to suspect it was knowingly used. Still, one more lesson learned, quite cheaply.
After a second successful day (over £250 taken over the weekend), Harry and I are sufficiently hooked to want to try again in a few weeks. Now, I see bootable items everywhere. Nail it down, or else I am likely to try to sell it !
For some reason, my thoughts turned to a car boot sale. I have literally never been to one, either as buyer or seller. I always felt I could understand why so many people apparently enjoy these events but I had never personally felt a great urge to give it a try.
However, with Harry as a willing accomplice, I decided to give it a whirl. Starting with literally two or three items, I soon found that we had a whole car full. Once you start looking, car boot fodder is everywhere.
A quick google revealed a venue at Bedford hospital. However, when I called the organizer I discovered they were not running till September. Next stop, the local newspaper (I rarely read it, but I found plenty of sites). We settled on one near Barton.
Up at 6 on Saturday morning, we ventured out and found ourselves in a queue at the gate for the opening at 7am.
Before making the trip, I had done a little research online and picked up some advice from those with more care boot experience (that is, everyone).
We were warned about the dangers of being swarmed by expert buyers, and the risk of theft and so on.
In the event, the site at Barton turned out to be quite a small affair. There were only 25 cars or so selling, and almost all the buyers consisted of other sellers ! Chatting with our neighbouring booters, it seemed that this particular event was very new on the circuit and not established with the regulars.
Still, this was possibly a good thing as it gave us an easy ride for our first outing. Despite the lack of customers, we actually had a very good day, taking over £120. I think we may have sold more than all of the other pitches combined !
I’ve heard it said many times that “it’s incredible what sells at a car boot” and now I believe it ! There was literally rubbish for sale on many of the stalls.
We had the benefit of having a lot of high quality items to shift. The regulars, one feels, will find it tough to continuously source desirable items for low enough cost.
As far as pricing goes, I think I benefitted from having extremely low expectations. We had padded our stall with lots of books (which usually we send straight to the charity shops) and also over 100 DVDs that the boys never watch. Books, in particular, I did not expect to sell at all given the ubiquity of second hand booksellers.
So, each time we actually sold a book for 50p, I was quite pleasantly surprised !
We really did not have any “tat” on offer but it was surprising what items created interest, and which did not merit a first look.
Pricing wise, I can see that there are norms that operate. DVDs, for example, have a market-clearing price that is probably quite well established. However, even for such commodities and especially for other items, the real skill (I suspect) is to “play the player”.
One tip I picked up before going was NOT to put price labels on. This allows you to engage the potential buyer who has to enquire about price. It also allows you to change pricing according to time of day and other conditions.
The fact seems to be that many items will not sell at any price until you find the right buyer.
The right buyer, however, can be fairly indifferent to price (within reason). We also came to see that certain types of buyer are particularly valuable. For example, children who have been given £5 to shut them up feel a great need to spend it all as soon as possible !
Harry was a natural. He was genuinely helpful in seeking out “stock” at home, setting up the stall and in dealing with the customers. This was pleasing since he can be quite shy.
I was comfortable leaving him on his own at the stall for a while. I came back after a survey of the site to find Harry pointing out a couple of sales he had made. He also joked that he was sorry he had sold my stereo (one of our best items) for £3 by mistake. I knew he was joking (a) because even at a car boot it was obviously worth a lot more and (b) it was still sitting there on the table.
Five minutes later, the buyers came back to collect it as agreed !
Oh well. I was as guilty as Harry for under-selling over the weekend. And a happy customer is a valuable asset. Maybe the buyer felt bad about her coup, and she bought another £15 of stuff as much fuller prices.
We seemed to sell a good amount of stuff, but still had ¾ of a car full at the end. We decided to try again the next morning. We had been tipped off about a much busier site near Leighton Buzzard.
Our experience on the first day taught us that anything is worth trying to sell, so we easily used up the spare space in the car with more books, more toys and some highly speculative items: I filled up a box with left over mobile phone chargers, obsolete computer mice and freebie headphones etc. On Day 2, nearly all of these sold !
Billington car boot was more like what I imagined – well over 200 cars. We still did not suffer too much from vulture-experts or thieves. The only mishap we experienced was taking in a counterfeit £2 coin. It was a poor copy (obviously fake) so I have to suspect it was knowingly used. Still, one more lesson learned, quite cheaply.
After a second successful day (over £250 taken over the weekend), Harry and I are sufficiently hooked to want to try again in a few weeks. Now, I see bootable items everywhere. Nail it down, or else I am likely to try to sell it !
Monday, 17 August 2009
Boil in the Bag Meal
Back in May, Karen & I made a token effort at vegetable gardening with the planting of seed potatos and carrot seeds in some grow-bags on the patio.
Today we hauled in our harvest and for tonight at least we shall be able to eat our own.
The crop was rather modest ! The carrots in particular suffered from chronic overcrowding:
However, they were at least recognisably potatos and carrots:
Today we hauled in our harvest and for tonight at least we shall be able to eat our own.
The crop was rather modest ! The carrots in particular suffered from chronic overcrowding:
However, they were at least recognisably potatos and carrots:
Friday, 14 August 2009
A Raft of Problems
Last stop on the cruise itinerary was Vigo in Spain. Vigo is in that bit of Spain on top of Portugal, and the border seems to be the Minho river.
Matt, Harry and I were booked on "Rafting in Vigo" as our last tour, and the Minho river was the destination. "in Vigo" was a bit of a stretch as our journey was over an hour and took us very nearly out of Spain entirely.
Before we got underway with the long bus trip, we had a long unexplained delay in our departure. After some time sitting on the dock, the tour supervisor advised that one of the rafts had broken. Six volunteers to take a different excursion were needed. A full refund was offered, which prompted one group to take this option.
This was the first glitch, and next there was the shambles when we arrived at the river. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the allocation of people to boats and we nearly did not find a boat at all.
Plenty of other people also struggled with the "organization" and by the time our boat was put in the water, we had to take some stray passengers who otherwise may not have launched at all.
This seemed to take the number of rafters from six (which I assumed) to eight (the number that our first boat guide was calling for ) to ten (this is what our second guide went for) then twelve that we set off with.
Our guides were insistent that the overcrowding was down to a significant overbooking by the cruiseline.
This heavy load did appear to cause us some difficulties, especially with many of the passengers being less than enthusiastic paddlers.
Still, the river was beautiful and the mixture of short whitewater sections and longer flat stretches seemed pretty ideal for this kind of excursion.
Some of the rafters complained it was not exciting enough - slightly at odds with their rather lame paddling efforts. Matt of course was among the "more whitewater" group.
As far as I could see, it was challenging enough considering almost all participants were first-timers and that we had undergone precisely zero minutes of tuition on rafting technique. Safety instructions were likewise almost non-existent.
The element of (mild) risk was obvious when (about 1 hour in), we approached a particularly vigorous section and our boat (quite possibly in part due to the overloading) flipped entirely on its side and we had little chance to stay aboard.
Harry & I were on the submerged side, on which no one survived a ducking. Matt was one of only two hangers-on. All the other 10 passengers and the guide were dunked in the river.
At this point, I lost my prescription sunglasses which I only recently replaced having lost the previous pair in the waves on Santa Monica beach last year at about this time. Harry miraculously managed to pick his out of the water before they disappeared.
My wallet of course was fully submerged, but by now I know that cards and banknotes can easily survive this kind of experience. Likewise I knew my phone would have no chance. Even momentary drowning seems to kill phones instantly.
I was not able to catch up with our raft. Another raft picked me up and I had to assume that Matt and Harry had likewise been rescued. Without my glasses I couldn't identify the occupants of other boats at the distances involved.
We were reunited 15minutes later when I was able to reboard the original raft in a calm section.
It was a long paddle to the end - nearly 3 hours of rafting (value for money anyway !) - but none of the subsequent rapids led to a repeat soaking.
The late start and slow passage (exacerbated by overloaded boats I feel) meant that by the time we unloaded, we were only 30minutes away from "all-aboard" time, with a 1 hour bus journey to come.
Our guide reasonably advised us to grab a drink / change / visit the facilities ASAP but unaccountably we waited over 30minutes after we had done all this and so by the time we arrived back in Vigo it was 90minutes past sailing time.
I speculated that Karen would probably have tried to contact me on my defunct phone but I did feel pretty confident that the boat would not leave without 120 rafters and I am sure Karen also was not too concerned despite our obvious delay.
We arrived back at the gangway to a loud and ironic cheer from hundreds of passengers watching and waiting on the dock-facing decks. The boat was sufficiently primed for departure that it was away from the dock in the it took us to ascend i the lift from deck 2 (gangway) to deck 11 (for a welcome cup of tea) !
Matt, Harry and I were booked on "Rafting in Vigo" as our last tour, and the Minho river was the destination. "in Vigo" was a bit of a stretch as our journey was over an hour and took us very nearly out of Spain entirely.
Before we got underway with the long bus trip, we had a long unexplained delay in our departure. After some time sitting on the dock, the tour supervisor advised that one of the rafts had broken. Six volunteers to take a different excursion were needed. A full refund was offered, which prompted one group to take this option.
This was the first glitch, and next there was the shambles when we arrived at the river. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the allocation of people to boats and we nearly did not find a boat at all.
Plenty of other people also struggled with the "organization" and by the time our boat was put in the water, we had to take some stray passengers who otherwise may not have launched at all.
This seemed to take the number of rafters from six (which I assumed) to eight (the number that our first boat guide was calling for ) to ten (this is what our second guide went for) then twelve that we set off with.
Our guides were insistent that the overcrowding was down to a significant overbooking by the cruiseline.
This heavy load did appear to cause us some difficulties, especially with many of the passengers being less than enthusiastic paddlers.
Still, the river was beautiful and the mixture of short whitewater sections and longer flat stretches seemed pretty ideal for this kind of excursion.
Some of the rafters complained it was not exciting enough - slightly at odds with their rather lame paddling efforts. Matt of course was among the "more whitewater" group.
As far as I could see, it was challenging enough considering almost all participants were first-timers and that we had undergone precisely zero minutes of tuition on rafting technique. Safety instructions were likewise almost non-existent.
The element of (mild) risk was obvious when (about 1 hour in), we approached a particularly vigorous section and our boat (quite possibly in part due to the overloading) flipped entirely on its side and we had little chance to stay aboard.
Harry & I were on the submerged side, on which no one survived a ducking. Matt was one of only two hangers-on. All the other 10 passengers and the guide were dunked in the river.
At this point, I lost my prescription sunglasses which I only recently replaced having lost the previous pair in the waves on Santa Monica beach last year at about this time. Harry miraculously managed to pick his out of the water before they disappeared.
My wallet of course was fully submerged, but by now I know that cards and banknotes can easily survive this kind of experience. Likewise I knew my phone would have no chance. Even momentary drowning seems to kill phones instantly.
I was not able to catch up with our raft. Another raft picked me up and I had to assume that Matt and Harry had likewise been rescued. Without my glasses I couldn't identify the occupants of other boats at the distances involved.
We were reunited 15minutes later when I was able to reboard the original raft in a calm section.
It was a long paddle to the end - nearly 3 hours of rafting (value for money anyway !) - but none of the subsequent rapids led to a repeat soaking.
The late start and slow passage (exacerbated by overloaded boats I feel) meant that by the time we unloaded, we were only 30minutes away from "all-aboard" time, with a 1 hour bus journey to come.
Our guide reasonably advised us to grab a drink / change / visit the facilities ASAP but unaccountably we waited over 30minutes after we had done all this and so by the time we arrived back in Vigo it was 90minutes past sailing time.
I speculated that Karen would probably have tried to contact me on my defunct phone but I did feel pretty confident that the boat would not leave without 120 rafters and I am sure Karen also was not too concerned despite our obvious delay.
We arrived back at the gangway to a loud and ironic cheer from hundreds of passengers watching and waiting on the dock-facing decks. The boat was sufficiently primed for departure that it was away from the dock in the it took us to ascend i the lift from deck 2 (gangway) to deck 11 (for a welcome cup of tea) !
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Clueless in Cadiz
I have been very impressed with the standard of the tours on our Mediterranean cruise. On our cruising debut last year we did not participate in any of the organized tours and in fact we only left the boat once, for less than an hour.
I don’t think that getting off the boat is an essential ingredient for a successful cruise, but with two weeks at sea it made sense to make a few stops. Karen waded through the enormous brochure.
We visited Monaco/Monte Carlo, Pisa and Cagliari. The boys and I went to a water park at the Rome stop.
On all of those I was struck by the high level of organization and the precise timings. I thought the tour guides did an excellent job in all respects (exceeding my expectations significantly). You might say it’s not a difficult job, but in my opinion it’s not easy to do it really well.
Today’s trip to the Cadiz water park Aqualand fell far short. Since all the tour escort had to do was get us on the bus, give us our tickets and arrange to get us all back on time, you might say it was hard to go far wrong.
However, although he did meet the low bar of not losing anyone, it was a seriously unimpressive performance !
Even before we left port he managed to be off by 4 on the headcount and the supervisor had to sort it out. He didn’t really speak English and met all questions with no answer beyond a shrug of the shoulders.
Our trip was not billed as a guided tour but his total silence on the 40minute trip was a weak performance. Our escort to the Rome park took the opportunity to tell us something “for free” about our surroundings, and also explained very clearly where we were going, what would happen etc. This makes a good deal of difference to the feeling that everything is under control.
The contrast was total.
On arrival, our escort today made a good effort to lose people on the way to the gate. He did state the time and place for our rendezvous at the end of the day. However, when we came back later he was not there to greet us, and eventually he showed up late at a different location. After he made no apparent effort to consolidate those who had found him and those who had duly arrived at the meeting point, most of us made our own way to the bus.
It wasn’t that we felt there was a serious chance of us being left behind, but it was clearly badly organized and “clueless” was the unanimous verdict among those on the trip.
Now, the waterpark itself was a nice facility: in good condition and well laid out.
However, “clueless” applied very well to the business running the park.
For a start, I seriously question the wisdom of opening the park at 11am in high season. It’s already very warm at 9am (say).
The enormous queues for tickets and entrance tell me very clearly that they could and should have got people in much earlier. Thankfully we did escape the main queues with our “group” tickets but I would have been furious that it wasn’t possible to arrive early to get any kind of jump on the queues inside.
Once inside, it was a 45minute queue to get a key for a locker. Just 2 people serving the entire mass of people. I estimate the 45 minutes, as I gave up waiting. Instead, we went to find a seat and shade.
Now, there was a charge for the sunloungers. I’m not delighted about that but if the business decision is to have lowish entrance prices and charge for everything else, then they should at least collect the fees. We saw no one taking the money all day.
When I went back to rent a locker after waiting 30 minutes, the queues were as long as ever.
Crazy to have so few staff at that key bottleneck.
We abandoned the locker mission and just hoped for the best. We now discovered that queue management was not a strong suit. The over-riding impression of the slides was that no one was on them. This was not for lack of people queuing up to ride, but somehow they contrived to have a 3 minute gap between each actual rider. Even allowing for the fact they need to ensure absolute safety, the fact is that it was poor ride control that massively exacerbated the problem.
We managed to get one ride on a relatively fast-loading ride (6 lanes). But still the method of sequencing the queue must have added at least 50% to the gap between rides.
We decided it was time for a drink. Could we find a drink? We could not. There were no signs for bars or cafes, no bars or cafes in sight. Our seats were actually next to a pizzeria – shut. At 1pm with the park packed. The bar next to the locker queue was shut.
There were so many places where they could and should have had a drinks stall or a vending machine or a mobile drinks seller.
Eventually we found they did have one cafe open. Two people were attending to a queue that was already growing fast. Apparently one person fulfilling orders in the back.
The food was nice, in fact, but the queue got only worse from then and later it was inconceivable to try to buy another drink. This has to be a classic lose-lose.
Later they did open one of the closed bars – with one staff member doing everything.
Simply incredible. The good news was that the few staff on duty were friendly and relatively efficient, and the customers were fairly placid although obviously frustrated.
There were more people taking the inevitable photographs of visitors (does anyone ever buy them ?) than employed in the entire food & beverage business in the park.
One place where we can give full marks was for plenty of bins for depositing rubbish, but since the availability of food & drink was so strictly rationed, there wasn’t much call for rubbish bins !
Still, thankfully we had had a good dose of water rides in Rome so we had a splash around in the pools and amused ourselves marvelling at the spectacle of bad management. Perhaps the park was supposed to double as an exhibit of Spanish business efficiency. It reminded me very much of some experiences in Spain last year (see the fishing licence and banking fiasco blogs !)
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Badminton Trials
The point of no return appears to have passed whereby I cannot beat the boys at anything (poker, hopefully, being a significant and possibly unique exception).
This is especially true of sports of all types, although video games of all genres are now also included. That’s rather concerning, although they do have tremendous opportunities to practice hand-eye co-ordination for video sports that I never had.
Their total superiority in video games was brought home on the cruise. The Independence of The Seas has an impressive arcade with many good quality games of all types. I was only able to beat Harry on one game of motorcycle racing (no idea why – he crushed me on the car racing games of various formats) and at Sinistar [on a very good multi-games console].
In the Sinistar, since I scored only 1/60th of my world record mark from the 1986-9 era, I wasn’t that impressed with my own efforts.
Back in real sports, it was not so long ago that I had to give considerable concessions to Matt and Harry at all racquet sports in order to make a game of it. Now, both can beat me and Matt is now capable of soft-playing to give me the appearance of having a chance (then powering over the line). Harry is not yet as strong, but soon will also leave me far behind.
Actually, Harry is probably just at the level where it’s a genuinely close game in some sports.
We played badminton just before we came away. We are both pretty bad in absolute terms, but I find badminton between somewhat-matched opponents is enjoyable at a poor standard in the way that tennis or squash is not.
The first set went close, with Harry eventually prevailing 15-13. In the second set, I got off to a flying start and held on to win 15-13 myself. Now in the 3rd set, I fell 12-2 behind before making a massive surge to actually have the first match point at 15-14 up following a prolonged “deuce” at 14-14.
Did I “let” Harry get so far ahead to begin with in the 3rd set ? Did Harry “let” me catch up?
Who knows but the battle at 14-14 and beyond was genuinely close. After I failed to close out several match points at 15-14 and 16-15, Harry eventually came through to steal the match 15-13, 13-15, 18-16 with just a minute or so to spare before we would have run out of court-time.
I will have to try hard to pull off any victories before it is too late.
This is especially true of sports of all types, although video games of all genres are now also included. That’s rather concerning, although they do have tremendous opportunities to practice hand-eye co-ordination for video sports that I never had.
Their total superiority in video games was brought home on the cruise. The Independence of The Seas has an impressive arcade with many good quality games of all types. I was only able to beat Harry on one game of motorcycle racing (no idea why – he crushed me on the car racing games of various formats) and at Sinistar [on a very good multi-games console].
In the Sinistar, since I scored only 1/60th of my world record mark from the 1986-9 era, I wasn’t that impressed with my own efforts.
Back in real sports, it was not so long ago that I had to give considerable concessions to Matt and Harry at all racquet sports in order to make a game of it. Now, both can beat me and Matt is now capable of soft-playing to give me the appearance of having a chance (then powering over the line). Harry is not yet as strong, but soon will also leave me far behind.
Actually, Harry is probably just at the level where it’s a genuinely close game in some sports.
We played badminton just before we came away. We are both pretty bad in absolute terms, but I find badminton between somewhat-matched opponents is enjoyable at a poor standard in the way that tennis or squash is not.
The first set went close, with Harry eventually prevailing 15-13. In the second set, I got off to a flying start and held on to win 15-13 myself. Now in the 3rd set, I fell 12-2 behind before making a massive surge to actually have the first match point at 15-14 up following a prolonged “deuce” at 14-14.
Did I “let” Harry get so far ahead to begin with in the 3rd set ? Did Harry “let” me catch up?
Who knows but the battle at 14-14 and beyond was genuinely close. After I failed to close out several match points at 15-14 and 16-15, Harry eventually came through to steal the match 15-13, 13-15, 18-16 with just a minute or so to spare before we would have run out of court-time.
I will have to try hard to pull off any victories before it is too late.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
A - Z
My A - Z of poker is available (in supposedly daily instalments) on poker actually and also on my gutshot.com blog.
I am planning to blog from Vegas itself of course.
I am planning to blog from Vegas itself of course.
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
Karma Chameleon
I had made my plans for Vegas well in advance this year.
My plans were to NOT play the $10,000 world championship main event. Instead, I booked a mid-June trip for 7 nights. My aim was to play in 2 or 3 of the side events and play some cash.
However, fate intervened. A friend qualified for the main event in a "double shootout" event. To succeed in this, one must win two consecutive 1-table tournaments, effectively beating 80 other players who each put up $200 or so.
As I didn't have $200 in my account, I played a double shootout to qualify for the double shootout.
To cut a long story short, I won 4 consecutive single-table tournaments to turn an $8 investment into a $12,000 WSOP package ! The long story is on my poker blog.
With the karma running this well, I certainly had to change my plans. It was possible to take a cash alternative but of course I chose to play the event.
Last year I qualified for an investment of $5. This year, $8.
This doesn't quite tell the whole picture, but it's going to be a pretty amazing story if I go on to win $10million in July !
More realistically, I do hope to make the money places this year - a tough but achievable goal.
My plans were to NOT play the $10,000 world championship main event. Instead, I booked a mid-June trip for 7 nights. My aim was to play in 2 or 3 of the side events and play some cash.
However, fate intervened. A friend qualified for the main event in a "double shootout" event. To succeed in this, one must win two consecutive 1-table tournaments, effectively beating 80 other players who each put up $200 or so.
As I didn't have $200 in my account, I played a double shootout to qualify for the double shootout.
To cut a long story short, I won 4 consecutive single-table tournaments to turn an $8 investment into a $12,000 WSOP package ! The long story is on my poker blog.
With the karma running this well, I certainly had to change my plans. It was possible to take a cash alternative but of course I chose to play the event.
Last year I qualified for an investment of $5. This year, $8.
This doesn't quite tell the whole picture, but it's going to be a pretty amazing story if I go on to win $10million in July !
More realistically, I do hope to make the money places this year - a tough but achievable goal.
Friday, 29 May 2009
Eggs Marks The Spot
Friday 29th May, Central London
Lights, Camera, Action !
Rather unbelievably I am here to audition for the BBC2 quiz show "Eggheads".
I can safely say that I have no ambitions to be famous for 15 minutes, or indeed any number of minutes. I did not apply to be on the show. In fact I don't want to be on it at all, so why am I here ?
I had reluctantly agreed to be a 2nd-sub for a team that was put together by members of the Gutshot forum. It seemed a distant prospect that I would actually need to take part.
For a start, it wasn't certain that a new series of the show would be commissioned. Then, our team might not be selected even to audition. If the team were called up, then at least I would be a reserve reserve.
Well .... of course the 11th series was given the go-ahead, and "Team Gutshot" was selected to audition. It then turned out that I was first reserve (6th of 5, rather than 6th of 4) and that the team captain had (unbeknownst to me) promoted me to the front bench on account of one member being noticeably unreliable.
To be fair, this was still an audition. I can still hope that we do not get to appear on the real show!
The nuts and bolts of the reality of TV is pretty mundane. We had to fill our names & other details for the umpteenth time, and then we actually answered some general knowledge questions. Next, a practice quiz against another auditioning team.
I actually won my round on science which included the poser: "What tiny ocean creature makes up the main diet of Wales ?". Once I realised that Lauren was talking about "whales" I was able to find the right answer.
Finally, we were filmed talking about the team and chorusing "Hello, We're Team Gutshot And We're From London".
It was all pretty low key. The "Green Room" was more of a "Green Kitchen" really. Actually it was a kitchen and it wasn't green although the chairs were a pale lime colour. The coffee machine didn't work. We stars shouldn't be treated like this !
After our turn on camera we were not given the results of our written general knowledge quiz, we weren't shown the footage which was for the eyes of the producers only, and we were told "we'll call you". The "don't call us" was of course understood.
Lights, Camera, Action !
Rather unbelievably I am here to audition for the BBC2 quiz show "Eggheads".
I can safely say that I have no ambitions to be famous for 15 minutes, or indeed any number of minutes. I did not apply to be on the show. In fact I don't want to be on it at all, so why am I here ?
I had reluctantly agreed to be a 2nd-sub for a team that was put together by members of the Gutshot forum. It seemed a distant prospect that I would actually need to take part.
For a start, it wasn't certain that a new series of the show would be commissioned. Then, our team might not be selected even to audition. If the team were called up, then at least I would be a reserve reserve.
Well .... of course the 11th series was given the go-ahead, and "Team Gutshot" was selected to audition. It then turned out that I was first reserve (6th of 5, rather than 6th of 4) and that the team captain had (unbeknownst to me) promoted me to the front bench on account of one member being noticeably unreliable.
To be fair, this was still an audition. I can still hope that we do not get to appear on the real show!
The nuts and bolts of the reality of TV is pretty mundane. We had to fill our names & other details for the umpteenth time, and then we actually answered some general knowledge questions. Next, a practice quiz against another auditioning team.
I actually won my round on science which included the poser: "What tiny ocean creature makes up the main diet of Wales ?". Once I realised that Lauren was talking about "whales" I was able to find the right answer.
Finally, we were filmed talking about the team and chorusing "Hello, We're Team Gutshot And We're From London".
It was all pretty low key. The "Green Room" was more of a "Green Kitchen" really. Actually it was a kitchen and it wasn't green although the chairs were a pale lime colour. The coffee machine didn't work. We stars shouldn't be treated like this !
After our turn on camera we were not given the results of our written general knowledge quiz, we weren't shown the footage which was for the eyes of the producers only, and we were told "we'll call you". The "don't call us" was of course understood.
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Luck Of The Oar
Friday 22nd May, National Schools Regatta at Nottingham.
A full day of racing starting at 10:00, up until 18:27. BMS had crews potentially rowing in both the first and last races, so a long day's spectating in prospect.
First off at 10:00, the girls J14 Quad missed out on qualification in the time trials by a second or so.
Matt's first outing was at 11:30; 17 B-class boats took part in a "processional" along the short course (1km) on Holme Pierrepoint's specialist rowing lake (2km is the full distance). The top 12 crews (racing against the clock) qualify for the semis, which are raced side-by-side.
They seemed to put in a good row, but we didn't get to find out the result for an hour or so (when they duly had qualified).
The A boat, in their processional, overtook the boat in front so they were fairly clear qualifiers. 18 from 30 to progress to their semis.
In the "B semi, windy conditions meant the crews had a "free start" when the officials judged the 6 boats were in line. As it was, BMS were over a length down when they went off and they struggled to catch up. They finished 6th of 6, with the top 3 to go through. However, their time would have been enough to put them in the top 3 in the second semi. So, a very tough draw finished off their regatta.
Meanwhile, the A boat easily finished in the top 2 in their semi (3 semis with top 2 only to qualify). They ought to have a good chance in the 6-boat final - the last race of the day.
However, luck intervened. The #6 in the boat cut with hand in the semi, lost a fair amount of blood and went into shock. He had to be substituted. As the crew rowed up to the start, one of the gates holding the blades broke. The boys had to row back the length of the course to replace the part. On the way back they collided with Hampton and this resulted in another crew member sustaining a race-ending injury (and a trip to hospital).
The race start was delayed for up to 20mins under the regulations and a 2nd substitution was made. The re-organised crew rowed back to the start line again and having already covered about an extra 1500metres of water they finally lined up.
The final was close, and the crew put in a valiant effort to finish a solid 5th only a couple of lengths behind the leading boats. The winning crew from King's Chester may have been too strong in any case but mishaps definitely cost them a medal.
A full day of racing starting at 10:00, up until 18:27. BMS had crews potentially rowing in both the first and last races, so a long day's spectating in prospect.
First off at 10:00, the girls J14 Quad missed out on qualification in the time trials by a second or so.
Matt's first outing was at 11:30; 17 B-class boats took part in a "processional" along the short course (1km) on Holme Pierrepoint's specialist rowing lake (2km is the full distance). The top 12 crews (racing against the clock) qualify for the semis, which are raced side-by-side.
They seemed to put in a good row, but we didn't get to find out the result for an hour or so (when they duly had qualified).
The A boat, in their processional, overtook the boat in front so they were fairly clear qualifiers. 18 from 30 to progress to their semis.
In the "B semi, windy conditions meant the crews had a "free start" when the officials judged the 6 boats were in line. As it was, BMS were over a length down when they went off and they struggled to catch up. They finished 6th of 6, with the top 3 to go through. However, their time would have been enough to put them in the top 3 in the second semi. So, a very tough draw finished off their regatta.
Meanwhile, the A boat easily finished in the top 2 in their semi (3 semis with top 2 only to qualify). They ought to have a good chance in the 6-boat final - the last race of the day.
However, luck intervened. The #6 in the boat cut with hand in the semi, lost a fair amount of blood and went into shock. He had to be substituted. As the crew rowed up to the start, one of the gates holding the blades broke. The boys had to row back the length of the course to replace the part. On the way back they collided with Hampton and this resulted in another crew member sustaining a race-ending injury (and a trip to hospital).
The race start was delayed for up to 20mins under the regulations and a 2nd substitution was made. The re-organised crew rowed back to the start line again and having already covered about an extra 1500metres of water they finally lined up.
The final was close, and the crew put in a valiant effort to finish a solid 5th only a couple of lengths behind the leading boats. The winning crew from King's Chester may have been too strong in any case but mishaps definitely cost them a medal.
Friday, 15 May 2009
Magic Marker
Recently one year elapsed since my departure from Bear Stearns.
All the anniversaries have now passed: one year since (i) I decided to resign, (ii) I actually tendered my resignation, (iii) my resignation was accepted, (iv) my actual last day in the office, (v) the day that would have been my last day (had the firm not collapsed), and finally (vi) my official last day of employment.
The anniversary tournament "BSPT9" was a great success: 104 people turned up (90% of whom were Bear alumni).
Somehow, passing the magic one year mark has caused me to reconsider my decision to leave the markets. My original plan was to leave "indefinitely" and 1 year away was certainly a minimum.
I am now looking actively. We do know that I won't be returning to Bear Stearns, which formally ceased to exist sometime in June last year. However, with former colleagues scattered in dozens of firms now, there are obviously rather better chances that I end up working with some of the same people.
All the anniversaries have now passed: one year since (i) I decided to resign, (ii) I actually tendered my resignation, (iii) my resignation was accepted, (iv) my actual last day in the office, (v) the day that would have been my last day (had the firm not collapsed), and finally (vi) my official last day of employment.
The anniversary tournament "BSPT9" was a great success: 104 people turned up (90% of whom were Bear alumni).
Somehow, passing the magic one year mark has caused me to reconsider my decision to leave the markets. My original plan was to leave "indefinitely" and 1 year away was certainly a minimum.
I am now looking actively. We do know that I won't be returning to Bear Stearns, which formally ceased to exist sometime in June last year. However, with former colleagues scattered in dozens of firms now, there are obviously rather better chances that I end up working with some of the same people.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)