We have our new cars. After quite a long wait when we heard nothing at all from Ford (the salesperson left the company and there was apparently some mix up in communication) they seemed to arrive quite suddenly.
Meanwhile, selling the BMW was not quite as straightforward as I imagined, with no dealers really wanting to buy it. Each time that I managed to actually speak with a trade buyer, they were increasingly bearish about the market to the point that my expectations were rock botom.
I was close to selling it even at their depressed bid level when a genuine private buyer showed up on the scene. He obviously could spot a bargain when he saw one, so although he paid more than the dealers were offering, there is little doubt who got the better deal.
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Monday, 1 September 2008
Getting It
As a recent user of facebook, I must say I am remain impressed and am probably hooked on it. Seeing first hand how my own community of friends has rapidly evolved in the space of a few days, it is so easy to see how the network grew exponentially. In fact, I see today that they just passed 100 Milion members.
As well as the rapid growth in my own network, I can actually see how my “friends” are linking up with each other so there is a huge multiplier effect going on as well.
Facebook is one of those applications that you have to use to “get it”. It’s been around for a while and it’s not like I haven’t heard of it before. I just did not understand why it would be interesting. And, remember, I am not exactly a technophobe and I am already an active user of SMS, IM and indeed online forums. But, still, it was only when I actually got started that I saw the attraction.
It’s a bit like eBay in that way. When eBay came into existence (at around the same time as Yahoo and Amazon) I thought it was the least plausible of all of them. Online carboot sale ? Who cares ? Once we tried it out, we were converts!
My friends list has grown from 1 to 55 (and still rising) in 5 days. I have been fairly strict about adding Friends. Obviously I realise that the test for what constitutes a “friend” is not as strong as in the real world although I certainly know all my “friends” personally and I haven’t invited anyone as a friend whom I don’t know reasonably well. I suppose my test is something like whether I would actively accost them in a crowded room to say hello and catch up (even if superficially). It’s not as strong as would I invite them to a party.
It’s clear, though, that most people must use a still weaker test – something approximately equivalent to a passing acquaintance or “friend of a friend”. I have been more willing to accept a request FROM someone than to initiate the request. I would not be at all surprised if I migrate towards the common standard over time. If I did so, I can easily see how I would have 200+
As well as the rapid growth in my own network, I can actually see how my “friends” are linking up with each other so there is a huge multiplier effect going on as well.
Facebook is one of those applications that you have to use to “get it”. It’s been around for a while and it’s not like I haven’t heard of it before. I just did not understand why it would be interesting. And, remember, I am not exactly a technophobe and I am already an active user of SMS, IM and indeed online forums. But, still, it was only when I actually got started that I saw the attraction.
It’s a bit like eBay in that way. When eBay came into existence (at around the same time as Yahoo and Amazon) I thought it was the least plausible of all of them. Online carboot sale ? Who cares ? Once we tried it out, we were converts!
My friends list has grown from 1 to 55 (and still rising) in 5 days. I have been fairly strict about adding Friends. Obviously I realise that the test for what constitutes a “friend” is not as strong as in the real world although I certainly know all my “friends” personally and I haven’t invited anyone as a friend whom I don’t know reasonably well. I suppose my test is something like whether I would actively accost them in a crowded room to say hello and catch up (even if superficially). It’s not as strong as would I invite them to a party.
It’s clear, though, that most people must use a still weaker test – something approximately equivalent to a passing acquaintance or “friend of a friend”. I have been more willing to accept a request FROM someone than to initiate the request. I would not be at all surprised if I migrate towards the common standard over time. If I did so, I can easily see how I would have 200+
Sunday, 31 August 2008
And The Winner Is ...
What is the most annoying thing ? I think on the whole I am quite easy going and accepting of the status quo. As a counterbalance, when I find something annoying, I usually find it doubly so (or more).
Recent contenders have been TomTom’s online service, or the difficulty of finding anything to actually buy with Airline frequent flyer miles, or crashing PCs.
But at the moment it has to be franchised car dealerships.
We need to sell my BMW as our Fords are arriving shortly. One of the merits of a BMW is supposed to be strong residual values. In my case, I purchased it new from the local main dealer, had it serviced and repaired there throughout and been their “valued customer” apparently.
I’m not necessarily looking to squeeze the last ounce of value out of the car, so I’d be happy enough to see them earn their bid-offer spread. So, I call them.
They won’t even entertain buying it.
In fact, the switchboard won’t even put me through to the buyer. It makes me furious. How meaningless is “strong residuals” if they won’t buy it at any price ?
It’s enough to make me say “I’d never buy a BMW again” and to mentally pen a strong letter of indignation to their managing director.
I probably will fire off a “furious of Bedford” but the reality is that they’re all as bad as each other. Mercedes, I find, are just as hard of hearing when it comes to the S-word on an S-class and after I rang every BMW dealer within 40 miles of Bedford, I found that Elms were actually not alone in being sellers only.
I find it somewhat ironic that when I was in the business of selling complex financial products, we would not have dreamt of leaving buyers without a buyback price, but such an everyday item as a BMW is apparently unsellable to a dealer in, um, BMWs.
Recent contenders have been TomTom’s online service, or the difficulty of finding anything to actually buy with Airline frequent flyer miles, or crashing PCs.
But at the moment it has to be franchised car dealerships.
We need to sell my BMW as our Fords are arriving shortly. One of the merits of a BMW is supposed to be strong residual values. In my case, I purchased it new from the local main dealer, had it serviced and repaired there throughout and been their “valued customer” apparently.
I’m not necessarily looking to squeeze the last ounce of value out of the car, so I’d be happy enough to see them earn their bid-offer spread. So, I call them.
They won’t even entertain buying it.
In fact, the switchboard won’t even put me through to the buyer. It makes me furious. How meaningless is “strong residuals” if they won’t buy it at any price ?
It’s enough to make me say “I’d never buy a BMW again” and to mentally pen a strong letter of indignation to their managing director.
I probably will fire off a “furious of Bedford” but the reality is that they’re all as bad as each other. Mercedes, I find, are just as hard of hearing when it comes to the S-word on an S-class and after I rang every BMW dealer within 40 miles of Bedford, I found that Elms were actually not alone in being sellers only.
I find it somewhat ironic that when I was in the business of selling complex financial products, we would not have dreamt of leaving buyers without a buyback price, but such an everyday item as a BMW is apparently unsellable to a dealer in, um, BMWs.
Saturday, 30 August 2008
Money Laundering
It finally happened. Apparently, according to Karen, I am a terror for leaving hankerchiefs in my pockets. This time, dumping my wet and muddy jeans (we’d been fishing you see) in the basket, I neglected to remove my wallet.
Powder, softener, water, 1200rpm spin and a tumble-dry later, the black thing emerged just before it was subjected to ironing.
My “H-bomb” business cards and the more sobre “Howard V. Smith” versions were reduced to black and white sludge respectively. The £10 and £20 notes held up reasonably well although they had taken on new darker hues and looked like high quality fakes now. My driving license came through quite well, as did my Spanish fishing license (good to see it is long lasting having taken so much effort to acquire).
The credit cards, our flexible friends, proved indeed “flexible”. They had been moulded into the more rounded shape of my well-worn wallet. My guthot gold card was the worst-off – caked in a paper mache of washed and dried business cards, and a bit shrivelled. But I feared the worst for the rest of them – hard to believe the magnetic identities would survive wash & blow-dry.
However, I tried them all in the ATMs and they seem to be OK. I swapped the slightly damp notes in the bank for new ones and we’re good to go. Apparently I can get a new driving license online easily enough if it seems necessary.
In passing, I would mention that I was impressed with the NatWest branch. Obviously not a difficult transaction but I observed as I queued up that the staff there seemed to handle all the transactions for those in front confidently. In my case, the cashier knew how to handle defaced notes and I luckily knew enough about modern money laundering concerns to have ID with me.
So, impressed with NatWest – I always have a soft spot for them of course having worked there way back when. That, and the fact that the comparisons with Nationwide (not a bank, and it shows) and BBVA In Spain (Spanish, heaven help us) are pretty easy ones !
Powder, softener, water, 1200rpm spin and a tumble-dry later, the black thing emerged just before it was subjected to ironing.
My “H-bomb” business cards and the more sobre “Howard V. Smith” versions were reduced to black and white sludge respectively. The £10 and £20 notes held up reasonably well although they had taken on new darker hues and looked like high quality fakes now. My driving license came through quite well, as did my Spanish fishing license (good to see it is long lasting having taken so much effort to acquire).
The credit cards, our flexible friends, proved indeed “flexible”. They had been moulded into the more rounded shape of my well-worn wallet. My guthot gold card was the worst-off – caked in a paper mache of washed and dried business cards, and a bit shrivelled. But I feared the worst for the rest of them – hard to believe the magnetic identities would survive wash & blow-dry.
However, I tried them all in the ATMs and they seem to be OK. I swapped the slightly damp notes in the bank for new ones and we’re good to go. Apparently I can get a new driving license online easily enough if it seems necessary.
In passing, I would mention that I was impressed with the NatWest branch. Obviously not a difficult transaction but I observed as I queued up that the staff there seemed to handle all the transactions for those in front confidently. In my case, the cashier knew how to handle defaced notes and I luckily knew enough about modern money laundering concerns to have ID with me.
So, impressed with NatWest – I always have a soft spot for them of course having worked there way back when. That, and the fact that the comparisons with Nationwide (not a bank, and it shows) and BBVA In Spain (Spanish, heaven help us) are pretty easy ones !
Friday, 29 August 2008
Aliens Have Landed
Peace is shattered at #54 as a UFO (Unscheduled Friends Onslaught) arrives on the doorstep.
Peace breaks out again as the visitors from Outer Bedfordshire take Matt away from his noisy games and into the unusual activities of talking and playing in the garden.
It turns out the unexpected and unfamiliar visitors are in fact a related species called Girls.
The 3 girls (plus accompanying boys) stay a few hours before disappearing as quickly as they came.
Are we alone ? In fact we rarely are these days as the boys' friends become ever more mobile.
Peace breaks out again as the visitors from Outer Bedfordshire take Matt away from his noisy games and into the unusual activities of talking and playing in the garden.
It turns out the unexpected and unfamiliar visitors are in fact a related species called Girls.
The 3 girls (plus accompanying boys) stay a few hours before disappearing as quickly as they came.
Are we alone ? In fact we rarely are these days as the boys' friends become ever more mobile.
Saturday, 23 August 2008
On the face of it
Back in the UK now after what seems like a very long holiday in LA. Actually, it really was quite a long holiday by usual standards - 17 nights plus travelling.
No real poker to speak of in that period. I played a bit of limit hold'em as per my previous post and whereas my initial thoughts that Limit Poker is better than nothing, my revised opinion is that No Limit Hold'em >> No Hold'em >> Limit Hold'em.
I am sure that Limit Poker is a very interesting and skilful game in theory but a combination of inexperienced dealers, low stakes, slow play and high rake made it a really painful thing. I did win on the first night (the players were awful, which certainly helped). I lost on the second night and by the third time I played it was pretty clear that I had lost the required patience and in fact I moved over to the Blackjack table where at least I could move "all in" so to speak.
I didn't play online at all whilst I was away. I could have, in principle. Gutshot is open in the States, as is pokerstars of course. However, I didn't even try.
I was relatively out of touch with the gutshot forum as well - which is unusual for me.
Today, though, will be a super-charged shot of poker. I am going into London to the club to play in the £500 main event of this week's"GSOP" (Gutshot Series of Poker). As the name implies, it is modelled on its lesser-known cousin, the WSOP.
What this means in practice is a very good structure - I think it is 20,000 chips with a 90 minute clock and the same blinds structure as the WSOP main event. So the main differences are - 90mins instead of 2hr clock (a small concession to practicality !), 100 players instead of 6,000 (!!) and of course a much higher standard !
I have to expect the field to be stuffed full of high quality players. It is generally recognised that the gutshot events attract a lot of good players, and in these high buy-in events (£500 is high for the venue and of course not exactly low by any meaure) there is a real fish shortage.
Usually in a gutshot tourney I rate myself slightly above average (say 60th percentile). In this field, I think I am solidly in the bottom 1/3rd, probably towards the very bottom. Will have to see what I can do. The hope is that the occasion will bring out my best game !
Being out of the country for nearly 3 weeks means I have some catching up to do on things - I had about 50 emails (I had email access whilst I was away - I just didn't deal with any but obviously urgent things). One was a facebook invitation from someone I know at the club.
I only have a facebook account becuase #1 son (Matt) asked me to try something out on there. I had no intention of joining the facebook world. I strongly suspect I could waste a lot of time on there.
Still, I knew the person and thought it not unreasonable that they add me as a friend, so I duly clicked. Less than 24 hours later, I have over 20 friends and rising fast. I have not really taken any positive action, but already I have a front page burtsing with activity !
So far I must say I am very impressed with the look & feel and the usability of the site. I can easily see why it is so popular.
Unsurprisingly, 90% of my "friends" so far are poker players I know from the club. I have a few requests from people I don't know (friends of friends, literally). So far I am resisiting the temptation to just add all and sundry ! I believe there is an option to befriend all friends of friends automatically (they still have to agree of course). I reckon if I did this, I could have 1,000 friends before the weekend is out !
So back to the poker. As I mentioned, I have not played for a month or so. I am not sure quite how this will affect my game. I hope it does not make m impatient for action because one certainty is that patience will be a minimum requirement for success this weekend. It's a 3-day event, so my first objective is to give myself the best possible chance to make day2 for the first time ever.
I have booked 2 nights in my hotel - I hope the poker gods see this as good karma rather than hubris ! It's mainly just practicality of course.
Wish me luck !
No real poker to speak of in that period. I played a bit of limit hold'em as per my previous post and whereas my initial thoughts that Limit Poker is better than nothing, my revised opinion is that No Limit Hold'em >> No Hold'em >> Limit Hold'em.
I am sure that Limit Poker is a very interesting and skilful game in theory but a combination of inexperienced dealers, low stakes, slow play and high rake made it a really painful thing. I did win on the first night (the players were awful, which certainly helped). I lost on the second night and by the third time I played it was pretty clear that I had lost the required patience and in fact I moved over to the Blackjack table where at least I could move "all in" so to speak.
I didn't play online at all whilst I was away. I could have, in principle. Gutshot is open in the States, as is pokerstars of course. However, I didn't even try.
I was relatively out of touch with the gutshot forum as well - which is unusual for me.
Today, though, will be a super-charged shot of poker. I am going into London to the club to play in the £500 main event of this week's"GSOP" (Gutshot Series of Poker). As the name implies, it is modelled on its lesser-known cousin, the WSOP.
What this means in practice is a very good structure - I think it is 20,000 chips with a 90 minute clock and the same blinds structure as the WSOP main event. So the main differences are - 90mins instead of 2hr clock (a small concession to practicality !), 100 players instead of 6,000 (!!) and of course a much higher standard !
I have to expect the field to be stuffed full of high quality players. It is generally recognised that the gutshot events attract a lot of good players, and in these high buy-in events (£500 is high for the venue and of course not exactly low by any meaure) there is a real fish shortage.
Usually in a gutshot tourney I rate myself slightly above average (say 60th percentile). In this field, I think I am solidly in the bottom 1/3rd, probably towards the very bottom. Will have to see what I can do. The hope is that the occasion will bring out my best game !
Being out of the country for nearly 3 weeks means I have some catching up to do on things - I had about 50 emails (I had email access whilst I was away - I just didn't deal with any but obviously urgent things). One was a facebook invitation from someone I know at the club.
I only have a facebook account becuase #1 son (Matt) asked me to try something out on there. I had no intention of joining the facebook world. I strongly suspect I could waste a lot of time on there.
Still, I knew the person and thought it not unreasonable that they add me as a friend, so I duly clicked. Less than 24 hours later, I have over 20 friends and rising fast. I have not really taken any positive action, but already I have a front page burtsing with activity !
So far I must say I am very impressed with the look & feel and the usability of the site. I can easily see why it is so popular.
Unsurprisingly, 90% of my "friends" so far are poker players I know from the club. I have a few requests from people I don't know (friends of friends, literally). So far I am resisiting the temptation to just add all and sundry ! I believe there is an option to befriend all friends of friends automatically (they still have to agree of course). I reckon if I did this, I could have 1,000 friends before the weekend is out !
So back to the poker. As I mentioned, I have not played for a month or so. I am not sure quite how this will affect my game. I hope it does not make m impatient for action because one certainty is that patience will be a minimum requirement for success this weekend. It's a 3-day event, so my first objective is to give myself the best possible chance to make day2 for the first time ever.
I have booked 2 nights in my hotel - I hope the poker gods see this as good karma rather than hubris ! It's mainly just practicality of course.
Wish me luck !
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Surfing USA
Time really flies, and no sooner had Harry turned 12 – ensuring he qualified for adult airline fares – than we were at BA’s new Terminal 5 and onto Los Angeles.
A long but trouble-free journey later, we picked up our rental car. We had chosen a “large” car to accommodate all our luggage. This turned out to be a Ford Crown Victoria – a vehicle designed in the era that style forgot. Quite astoundingly ugly. Why did Avis stock this model ? I imagine, in practical terms, if they didn’t buy them then no one would.
Nevertheless, it went forwards, backwards, left and right and after a while was comfortingly quiet and homely. We negotiated a head-on conflict between what our sat-nav said and what common sense and road-signs said, and found our beach-house with only minor amounts of wrong-way turns and no actual traffic offences.
The house – one street back from the main Santa Monica beach – was a bit haphazard in layout, but large and well appointed. Some of the contents were very popular – for example the working vintage pinball machine and the 60” plasma TV.
The owners had stocked the property up with pretty much everything one wants or needs, but some things American still puzzle me greatly. The nation that put a man on the moon does not seem to have grasped the usefulness of an electric kettle or – even more bizarrely – the electric toaster. A gas kettle is – to my mind – massively inferior to its electric cousin. And the peculiar toast-enabled table-top “oven” thingy was just ridiculous.
And why is it that the main appliances are always so big and clunky ? The oven, dishwasher and washing machines were clearly styled (like most American models it seems) by Fisher Price. Definitely Europe 1 – USA 0 in the style stakes.
Three Men and One Wheel
On the first full day, Matt, Harry and I took out some bikes. Well, after discussion, Harry and I set out on a tandem whilst Matt opted for a skateboard.
Matt held on to the tandem to get a tow, and I did most or all of the actual pedalling. Something was not quite right, though! After some process of elimination, the cause was found. The front wheel was so loose that it was on the point of actually falling off. A pit-stop later, we resumed on a one man/one bike basis and enjoyed the 5-mile bike path in the Malibu direction.
Later all four of us checked out the pier. We saw one person fishing and wondered if that was allowed. We proceeded further along and ran into a hundred fishermen. Clearly, yes. We opted to buy rather than catch, though, and dined at the Mexican restaurant at the end of the pier which featured decidedly Mexican rather than classically American levels of service!
Rather better service was to be found at Shoop’s – a “European” deli on our doorstep, which we visited several times for breakfast during our 1-week stay.
Seal the Real Deal
We persuaded two reluctant children to get in the car for an open-ended drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. After an hour or so, we pulled over in a non-descript layby. Fifty feet away was a hidden jewel – a beautiful small beach of beautiful sand, chunky exciting rocks and fabulous waves. And only 4 other people (plus 2 dogs !)
Harry crept closer and closer to the waves and soon was fully submerged and nearly 2 hours of wave-chasing began. Some way through we spotted one of the dogs, or something, in the sea. A second sighting confirmed the swimmer as a dolphin!
In fact, several dolphins. Later, we saw seals just a few feet from the shore. The final score: Dolphins 5 – Seals 4.
We had spent so long at the unscheduled beach party that we had to hurry back across town to make it to Burbank in time for the Warner Brothers studio tour. You’d have to give them 10/10 (or an Oscar) for organization and quality throughout.
The following day, from the sublime to the ridiculous. We were booked on an LA city tour, which looked good on paper but which went wrong in so many ways that it would be tedious to recount them all. We were glad when it ended, although the distance of time since makes it seem not quite so bad in hindsight!
One bad idea, in hindsight, was roller-blading. I am not sure it was harder than I expected because I expected it to be nearly impossible anyway. I could stand up so long as I didn’t move. Once moving, however, it was just a matter of time before I hit the ground hard. Matt and Harry persevered a little longer but in the end we all gave up!
On the last full day, Harry and I finally tried out the beach proper. Santa Monica beach, it turns out, is a real class act. Beautifully smooth sand underfoot all the way out and a shallow slope so that one can get miles out to try all the waves. The only downside was that I was knocked over by a one-two, and lost my hat and sunglasses. The hat came back, but the glasses were lost to the sea forever !
We bid farewell to Santa Monica and made our way via Long Beach to the Royal Caribbean cruise terminal for part 2 ....
A long but trouble-free journey later, we picked up our rental car. We had chosen a “large” car to accommodate all our luggage. This turned out to be a Ford Crown Victoria – a vehicle designed in the era that style forgot. Quite astoundingly ugly. Why did Avis stock this model ? I imagine, in practical terms, if they didn’t buy them then no one would.
Nevertheless, it went forwards, backwards, left and right and after a while was comfortingly quiet and homely. We negotiated a head-on conflict between what our sat-nav said and what common sense and road-signs said, and found our beach-house with only minor amounts of wrong-way turns and no actual traffic offences.
The house – one street back from the main Santa Monica beach – was a bit haphazard in layout, but large and well appointed. Some of the contents were very popular – for example the working vintage pinball machine and the 60” plasma TV.
The owners had stocked the property up with pretty much everything one wants or needs, but some things American still puzzle me greatly. The nation that put a man on the moon does not seem to have grasped the usefulness of an electric kettle or – even more bizarrely – the electric toaster. A gas kettle is – to my mind – massively inferior to its electric cousin. And the peculiar toast-enabled table-top “oven” thingy was just ridiculous.
And why is it that the main appliances are always so big and clunky ? The oven, dishwasher and washing machines were clearly styled (like most American models it seems) by Fisher Price. Definitely Europe 1 – USA 0 in the style stakes.
Three Men and One Wheel
On the first full day, Matt, Harry and I took out some bikes. Well, after discussion, Harry and I set out on a tandem whilst Matt opted for a skateboard.
Matt held on to the tandem to get a tow, and I did most or all of the actual pedalling. Something was not quite right, though! After some process of elimination, the cause was found. The front wheel was so loose that it was on the point of actually falling off. A pit-stop later, we resumed on a one man/one bike basis and enjoyed the 5-mile bike path in the Malibu direction.
Later all four of us checked out the pier. We saw one person fishing and wondered if that was allowed. We proceeded further along and ran into a hundred fishermen. Clearly, yes. We opted to buy rather than catch, though, and dined at the Mexican restaurant at the end of the pier which featured decidedly Mexican rather than classically American levels of service!
Rather better service was to be found at Shoop’s – a “European” deli on our doorstep, which we visited several times for breakfast during our 1-week stay.
Seal the Real Deal
We persuaded two reluctant children to get in the car for an open-ended drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. After an hour or so, we pulled over in a non-descript layby. Fifty feet away was a hidden jewel – a beautiful small beach of beautiful sand, chunky exciting rocks and fabulous waves. And only 4 other people (plus 2 dogs !)
Harry crept closer and closer to the waves and soon was fully submerged and nearly 2 hours of wave-chasing began. Some way through we spotted one of the dogs, or something, in the sea. A second sighting confirmed the swimmer as a dolphin!
In fact, several dolphins. Later, we saw seals just a few feet from the shore. The final score: Dolphins 5 – Seals 4.
We had spent so long at the unscheduled beach party that we had to hurry back across town to make it to Burbank in time for the Warner Brothers studio tour. You’d have to give them 10/10 (or an Oscar) for organization and quality throughout.
The following day, from the sublime to the ridiculous. We were booked on an LA city tour, which looked good on paper but which went wrong in so many ways that it would be tedious to recount them all. We were glad when it ended, although the distance of time since makes it seem not quite so bad in hindsight!
One bad idea, in hindsight, was roller-blading. I am not sure it was harder than I expected because I expected it to be nearly impossible anyway. I could stand up so long as I didn’t move. Once moving, however, it was just a matter of time before I hit the ground hard. Matt and Harry persevered a little longer but in the end we all gave up!
On the last full day, Harry and I finally tried out the beach proper. Santa Monica beach, it turns out, is a real class act. Beautifully smooth sand underfoot all the way out and a shallow slope so that one can get miles out to try all the waves. The only downside was that I was knocked over by a one-two, and lost my hat and sunglasses. The hat came back, but the glasses were lost to the sea forever !
We bid farewell to Santa Monica and made our way via Long Beach to the Royal Caribbean cruise terminal for part 2 ....
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