I am not usually one to moan about the banks.
On the whole, I tend to think that banks are fully entitled to their usually large profits and I think they provide a great many services, most of which I think are surprisingly cheap.
I am always surprised that they offer free banking, for example, and free cash withdrawals. These services must cost plenty of money to provide. I also find it hard to be sympathetic to those who complain about being charged for unauthorised overdrafts and so on. What do people expect ?
Anyway, this post is not really about the usual complaints.
It's just going to be a rant about Nationwide Building Society and their online banking product.
We have Nationwide accounts because they provide fee-free overseas transactions. Use their debit or credit card abroad and get the market exchange rate with no loading. This compares to a pretty much uniform 2.75% on the hundreds of other accounts.
Until recently, Nationwide was completely alone in offering this. Even now they are almost entirely out of step with all the rest of the banks.
To us, this is a genuinely useful and money-saving feature.
But, wow, do you have to put up with a lot.
For a start, to open the accounts in the first place was a trial-by-paperwork. Considering I wanted to open internet-only accounts, the amount of paper and the clumsiness of it all was remarkable. It really seems like they never want you to actually be able to get to the end of it.
Eventually it was done and all was fairly smooth until today when I wanted to make a money transfer.
I had placed funds in my flex account expressly in anticipation of making the transfer, and now was the time.
OK.
I had expected to be able to go online, supply the payee details and off you go.
Well, no.
Various ridiculous restrictions applied to regular BACS transfers but anyway I wanted to do an instant CHAPS transfer. Of course I expect to pay a fee for this, possibly to need to call and answer some security questions (although, really, I simply expect to be able to get on with it).
Well, no, the procedure with Nationwide is that you fill in, print and sign the form and MAIL IT to them.
The two reasons you use a CHAPS transfer are (i) security and integrity and (ii) speed. You might use a CHAPS transfer to settle a time-critical and large-value transaction such as completing on a house purchase, for example.
And to meet these objectives? Send the form off in the post ..... 0/10 might be a little generous I feel.
The good news is that I feel our money is probably very safe in Nationwide. The trouble banks got themselves into lately has been mainly to do with doing things too BIG, too FAST and too NEW. Since very little CDO-squared business was done by post with per-day maximum of £10k, I think Nationwide are unlikely to have got too much in harm's way.
Friday, 11 July 2008
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Fried Fish
On Thursday, Matt had once again disappeared off to a friend's house for an impromptu mini-holiday. Harry meanwhile announced he would like to go fishing.
There seemed no reason not to go apart from the obvious likelihood of being unsuccessful in catching anything. So, we assembled what kit we have - recently bolstered by a Christmas present from Colin & Kathleen - and stopped to pick up a pint of multi-coloured maggots on the way to Priory marina.
We headed in the opposite direction to last time and, having rejected a spot on the river, we opted for the well-marked swims on the shore of the lake.
Conditions were certainly good for fishermen (if not necessarily for actually catching fish). Sunny, calm, and the fishing locations are very well prepared with good access and a firm, flat base at each spot. Room for two, just about, which was useful as Harry needed some help with the basics.
However, he was a quick learner and very patient too.
We were rather slow off the mark with all the setting-up but, to our surprise, with less than an hour gone Harry got a solid bite and achieved his first UK fish !
We did catch a total of 3 (2-1 in Harry's favour). It's a start ! We will tackle up with smaller hooks and lighter line next time.
When we got home, via picking Matt up, we realised we had caught something else too - the sun ! Both of us had bright red arms !
There seemed no reason not to go apart from the obvious likelihood of being unsuccessful in catching anything. So, we assembled what kit we have - recently bolstered by a Christmas present from Colin & Kathleen - and stopped to pick up a pint of multi-coloured maggots on the way to Priory marina.
We headed in the opposite direction to last time and, having rejected a spot on the river, we opted for the well-marked swims on the shore of the lake.
Conditions were certainly good for fishermen (if not necessarily for actually catching fish). Sunny, calm, and the fishing locations are very well prepared with good access and a firm, flat base at each spot. Room for two, just about, which was useful as Harry needed some help with the basics.
However, he was a quick learner and very patient too.
We were rather slow off the mark with all the setting-up but, to our surprise, with less than an hour gone Harry got a solid bite and achieved his first UK fish !
We did catch a total of 3 (2-1 in Harry's favour). It's a start ! We will tackle up with smaller hooks and lighter line next time.
When we got home, via picking Matt up, we realised we had caught something else too - the sun ! Both of us had bright red arms !
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Undo My Umbrella
Heavy winds in Bedford (and elsewhere) at the weekend. The weather did not look too bad because of the sunshine and blue skies. But the winds were real enough, and caused the marquee in the back garden of our neighbours-but-one to perform a high-jump over the wall, where it belly-flopped.
Meanwhile, in our garden, the table-umbrella was in the opened position and took the full force of some mighty gusts. The pole - previously jammed into the base due to post-rain swelling - snapped and the rest of the umbrella took off before landing in a heap some way distant.
It was beyond repair, certainly. Instead, Harry and I set about dismantling it in order to make it ready for recycling. Nowadays, we can recycle all kinds of things at the tidy tip.
In this case, it was a matter of stripping off the metal parts, then snapping, sawing or chopping up the rest of the wooden pieces. Harry learned about the various means of separating one thing from another when preserving it for re-use is not a concern. The axe was his favourite implement but the hammer & screwdriver combo was the most effective.
The swing-seat, which has a matching green cover, looked like it could also attract the attentions of the wind. It had escaped apparently unscathed during the worst of it when I took the seat off to finish cleaning it. This made the thing a good deal lighter, of course, and a change in direction of the wind meant that it now was lifted backwards and crashed into the flower bed, breaking one of the uprights. Repairing that was the next day's amusement.
Meanwhile, in our garden, the table-umbrella was in the opened position and took the full force of some mighty gusts. The pole - previously jammed into the base due to post-rain swelling - snapped and the rest of the umbrella took off before landing in a heap some way distant.
It was beyond repair, certainly. Instead, Harry and I set about dismantling it in order to make it ready for recycling. Nowadays, we can recycle all kinds of things at the tidy tip.
In this case, it was a matter of stripping off the metal parts, then snapping, sawing or chopping up the rest of the wooden pieces. Harry learned about the various means of separating one thing from another when preserving it for re-use is not a concern. The axe was his favourite implement but the hammer & screwdriver combo was the most effective.
The swing-seat, which has a matching green cover, looked like it could also attract the attentions of the wind. It had escaped apparently unscathed during the worst of it when I took the seat off to finish cleaning it. This made the thing a good deal lighter, of course, and a change in direction of the wind meant that it now was lifted backwards and crashed into the flower bed, breaking one of the uprights. Repairing that was the next day's amusement.
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
By The Numbers
Harry is showing some signs of mathematical awareness. This morning he proposed a "negative win" bet on Euro2008 - he would wager minus £100 on Croatia.
Whilst not a fully-formed idea, this showed some appreciation of the concepts of laying bets (as opposed to backing) and/or of odds-on events or of "The Field" as a betting principle. Of course, since he wanted to do this bet at even money he simultaneously showed an interest in +EV situations and of course a lack of concrete knowledge of betting mechanics.
By later modifying his bet-proposal to -£35 he showed that he understood the concept of bankroll management.
He also sought information on who was the weakest remaining team and enquired about who had already qualified - thereby indicating an understanding of the importance of good research.
Last week, when Harry was banned from playing on his PC or XBOX we played card games - he beat me in first-to-100 at contract whist and also at "finders keepers" which was a more elaborate version of "pairs". That game was in a book of card games for children which was good in that it contained a lot of games I had not come across before, but it did suffer from poor elucidation of the rules. In particular, it appeared that some of the games had not been well-trialled for "what if ..." situations.
The Monopoly rules, I think, are a good example of what a solid set of game rules should be - they clearly cover all plausible game-play situations with clear and sesnsible outcomes.
Anyway, in the case of finders-keepers, when we reached a game-state not contemplated by the book, we invented a new game to play out from there, which is often more fun than the original game.
Whilst not a fully-formed idea, this showed some appreciation of the concepts of laying bets (as opposed to backing) and/or of odds-on events or of "The Field" as a betting principle. Of course, since he wanted to do this bet at even money he simultaneously showed an interest in +EV situations and of course a lack of concrete knowledge of betting mechanics.
By later modifying his bet-proposal to -£35 he showed that he understood the concept of bankroll management.
He also sought information on who was the weakest remaining team and enquired about who had already qualified - thereby indicating an understanding of the importance of good research.
Last week, when Harry was banned from playing on his PC or XBOX we played card games - he beat me in first-to-100 at contract whist and also at "finders keepers" which was a more elaborate version of "pairs". That game was in a book of card games for children which was good in that it contained a lot of games I had not come across before, but it did suffer from poor elucidation of the rules. In particular, it appeared that some of the games had not been well-trialled for "what if ..." situations.
The Monopoly rules, I think, are a good example of what a solid set of game rules should be - they clearly cover all plausible game-play situations with clear and sesnsible outcomes.
Anyway, in the case of finders-keepers, when we reached a game-state not contemplated by the book, we invented a new game to play out from there, which is often more fun than the original game.
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
The Knowledge
It is a little over 3 months since I stopped work in London. My plan/expectation was that with poker and other reasons to visit, I would probably travel in about once a week in the post-job era.
It has worked out a little less - maybe once every 2-3 weeks. Recently we have been without a 2nd car, also, which tends to mean I favour taking the train. This in turn (when combined with poker plans) tends to imply staying overnight. I can tell you that hotel rooms in central London are in short supply.
What I also notice is that not being in a regular commuting routine means that one is lacking an important weapon - detailed tactical knowledge of the rail network.
This leads to weaknesses and critical errors in the travel game.
For example, on Monday, I was due to travel to Mill Hill for a lunch meeting, then onto Central London for an afternoon appointment.
I checked the timetable ahead of time and found a good one-change route (change at Luton Airport Parkway).
Things went slightly awry when I arrived at the station in good time for the 10:51. The board showed this running late. Alas, without my commuting knowledge, I did not know whether 9mins late was enough to make me miss my connection. I also did not know whether the 10:40 - which I might just make - would stop at Luton Airport. Neither did I know if my connection could be picked up at an alternate interchange.
Whilst I wavered, an update meant the 10:51 was now 12 minutes late. Had I been properly in training (pun alert) I would know whether 12 minutes was in the "change" window. I know generically that East Midlands trains are faster than FCC and I know my originally time-tabled change at L.A.P. would have at least 5 minutes grace.
I was seriously short of data. I also should have been able to evaluate whether a 9min to 12min re-calibration was likely to foreshadow a further slippage or whether we were already in the accurate-forecast horizon.
Anyway, I now decided to take the 10:55 on-time departure by FCC which I knew stopped at Parkway. I had missed the 10:40 anyway by dint of needing to buy a ticket - a disruptive event.
In my state of knowledge-starvation, I had inadvertently purchased a ticket to Parkway instead of my actual destination of Mill Hill Broadway. This meant facing a ticket-buying delay at the interchange point which could potentially see me miss an otherwise catchable connection. This would be a tremendous faux-pas.
Fortunately, I missed the connection by 2 full minutes anyway but I also saw the East Midlands train overtake us so I know that if I had opted to stick with that, I would have been able to miss the connection whilst buying the 2nd part of my ticket.
Arriving at Mill Hill 27minutes late (the interval between services departing Parkway to this non-prime stop), I failed to purchase my Mill Hill to St Pancras ticket on LEAVING the station on the way to lunch - a straightforward safety play.
This allowed me to miss my post-lunch train by <40 seconds which a real benchmark for disappointing results especially since the platform was < 50 metres from the ticket machine.
So, an aggregate of 1 hour late into St Pancras caused by basic knowledge deficit.
This was partly compensated by the knowledge that I wasn't in any real hurry.
It has worked out a little less - maybe once every 2-3 weeks. Recently we have been without a 2nd car, also, which tends to mean I favour taking the train. This in turn (when combined with poker plans) tends to imply staying overnight. I can tell you that hotel rooms in central London are in short supply.
What I also notice is that not being in a regular commuting routine means that one is lacking an important weapon - detailed tactical knowledge of the rail network.
This leads to weaknesses and critical errors in the travel game.
For example, on Monday, I was due to travel to Mill Hill for a lunch meeting, then onto Central London for an afternoon appointment.
I checked the timetable ahead of time and found a good one-change route (change at Luton Airport Parkway).
Things went slightly awry when I arrived at the station in good time for the 10:51. The board showed this running late. Alas, without my commuting knowledge, I did not know whether 9mins late was enough to make me miss my connection. I also did not know whether the 10:40 - which I might just make - would stop at Luton Airport. Neither did I know if my connection could be picked up at an alternate interchange.
Whilst I wavered, an update meant the 10:51 was now 12 minutes late. Had I been properly in training (pun alert) I would know whether 12 minutes was in the "change" window. I know generically that East Midlands trains are faster than FCC and I know my originally time-tabled change at L.A.P. would have at least 5 minutes grace.
I was seriously short of data. I also should have been able to evaluate whether a 9min to 12min re-calibration was likely to foreshadow a further slippage or whether we were already in the accurate-forecast horizon.
Anyway, I now decided to take the 10:55 on-time departure by FCC which I knew stopped at Parkway. I had missed the 10:40 anyway by dint of needing to buy a ticket - a disruptive event.
In my state of knowledge-starvation, I had inadvertently purchased a ticket to Parkway instead of my actual destination of Mill Hill Broadway. This meant facing a ticket-buying delay at the interchange point which could potentially see me miss an otherwise catchable connection. This would be a tremendous faux-pas.
Fortunately, I missed the connection by 2 full minutes anyway but I also saw the East Midlands train overtake us so I know that if I had opted to stick with that, I would have been able to miss the connection whilst buying the 2nd part of my ticket.
Arriving at Mill Hill 27minutes late (the interval between services departing Parkway to this non-prime stop), I failed to purchase my Mill Hill to St Pancras ticket on LEAVING the station on the way to lunch - a straightforward safety play.
This allowed me to miss my post-lunch train by <40 seconds which a real benchmark for disappointing results especially since the platform was < 50 metres from the ticket machine.
So, an aggregate of 1 hour late into St Pancras caused by basic knowledge deficit.
This was partly compensated by the knowledge that I wasn't in any real hurry.
Monday, 16 June 2008
Games People Play
As Summer is here (Summer is clearly here in my opinion: I do not accept that Summer begins on 21st June. How could it begin on the longest day of the year?) the boys are playing more in the garden (which is looking lovely, despite football damage to the borders).
They are still playing more on bloodthirsty internet games, but at least they do go outside. Likewise, I am playing more on internet poker games (mind you, that is generally when it's dark).
In any case, the top-rated game at the moment is table-tennis - the "new" table is still a bit of a novelty. Wins by Dad are now a rarity. The competition between Matt and Harry is quite even.
But there are other games on the roster - there is ping-pong (yes, that is different to table-tennis: I only discovered this recently) and badminpong (in which, we use the table tennis bats, ball, net and table but the rally consists entirely of volleys: 116 is the record).
Then there is TABLE table tennis. In this, one half of the folding table is folded up into the vertical position as if one were playing in one-player practice mode. However, the vertical section is manned by the other player who manipulates it slightly to create speed and direction cues for the ball.
In other words, one player uses a standard bat and plays the ball onto the upright half-table but the second player actually PLAYS the table and conducts the rally in this way. After a while you find that the natural flex of the table and the ability to modulate the speed and amplitude of the nudges allows quite a nuanced game.
This week, on the way back from the bottom of the garden, Matt and I invented swing-cricket.
The equipment needed is a football, and a 2-seater garden swing seat. One player (the bowler) has the football and the other (batter) sits in the seat leaving half of the chair open. The bowler kicks the ball towards the empty part of the seat.
Depending on the speed and height of the shot, and the skill of the batter, many results are possible. The most resounding effect is if the seat is swung in such a way as to make a sweet connection with the incoming ball producing a strong rebound which may travel for 4 (rolls onto the patio) or even 6 (lands beyond the gravel path without bouncing).
Of course, such a shot may be caught.
A yorker can strike the cross-beam below the seat and result in a clean-bowl. Other rules are quite complex depending on the way the ball hits and interacts with the various parts of the seat.
A full set of rules for an international match have not yet been agreed at the governing body, but a $200MM series to be funded by a secretive billionaire is being discussed.
They are still playing more on bloodthirsty internet games, but at least they do go outside. Likewise, I am playing more on internet poker games (mind you, that is generally when it's dark).
In any case, the top-rated game at the moment is table-tennis - the "new" table is still a bit of a novelty. Wins by Dad are now a rarity. The competition between Matt and Harry is quite even.
But there are other games on the roster - there is ping-pong (yes, that is different to table-tennis: I only discovered this recently) and badminpong (in which, we use the table tennis bats, ball, net and table but the rally consists entirely of volleys: 116 is the record).
Then there is TABLE table tennis. In this, one half of the folding table is folded up into the vertical position as if one were playing in one-player practice mode. However, the vertical section is manned by the other player who manipulates it slightly to create speed and direction cues for the ball.
In other words, one player uses a standard bat and plays the ball onto the upright half-table but the second player actually PLAYS the table and conducts the rally in this way. After a while you find that the natural flex of the table and the ability to modulate the speed and amplitude of the nudges allows quite a nuanced game.
This week, on the way back from the bottom of the garden, Matt and I invented swing-cricket.
The equipment needed is a football, and a 2-seater garden swing seat. One player (the bowler) has the football and the other (batter) sits in the seat leaving half of the chair open. The bowler kicks the ball towards the empty part of the seat.
Depending on the speed and height of the shot, and the skill of the batter, many results are possible. The most resounding effect is if the seat is swung in such a way as to make a sweet connection with the incoming ball producing a strong rebound which may travel for 4 (rolls onto the patio) or even 6 (lands beyond the gravel path without bouncing).
Of course, such a shot may be caught.
A yorker can strike the cross-beam below the seat and result in a clean-bowl. Other rules are quite complex depending on the way the ball hits and interacts with the various parts of the seat.
A full set of rules for an international match have not yet been agreed at the governing body, but a $200MM series to be funded by a secretive billionaire is being discussed.
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