Early Risers.

[Horsetan]

......We crave choice for telephone providers, supermarkets, hardware stores etc .....

 

What we increasingly crave is the cheapest possible. The business that can do this (and convinces us consumers of it) becomes a chain and then - all other things being equal - a dominant organisation. See also Amazon, Google, etc....

[The Stationmaster]

I wonder if it's owned through offshore companies and trusts?

 

According to this source - which is very interesting all round - none of the Padstein empire property is owned by an offshore company

 

http://map.whoownsengland.org

 

The site can turn up some interesting stuff including some which might well be of use to Ivan when advising clients.  For example according to that site the terraced house shown below (phoyo from Google Maps) belongs to a company registered in the British Virgin Islands - maybe to avoid Death Duties or Capital Gains Tax, why else would the ownership of a terraced house which sold for £615,000 in 2014 be registered to a company based in a tax haven?    Goes back to the point about incomers and weekend cottages - many of the houses in the street where this house is situated used to be rented out and were occupied by folk in manual jobs working locally.  Now they're occupied by people who bought them and probably don't work within 30 miles of the town, local manual workers can no longer afford to rent, let alone buy, property here.

 

Edited May 23, 2018 by The Stationmaster

[Horsetan]

According to this source - which is very interesting all round - none of the Padstein empire property is owned by an offshore company

 

http://map.whoownsengland.org

 

The site can turn up some interesting stuff including some which might well be of use to Ivan when advising clients.  For example according to that site the terraced house shown below (phoyo from Google Maps) belongs to a company registered in the British Virgin Islands - maybe to avoid Death Duties or Capital Gains Tax, why else would the ownership of a terraced house which sold for £615,000 in 2014 be registered to a company based in a tax haven?

This is equally interesting....

 

The two properties more or less next door to me (which are going to be demolished and replaced by a humongous block of flats in the next couple of years) are owned by a Gibraltar-based company which has form for building eyesores in quiet residential streets.

 

....Goes back to the point about incomers and weekend cottages - many of the houses in the street where this house is situated used to be rented out and were occupied by folk in manual jobs working locally.  Now they're occupied by people who bought them and probably don't work within 30 miles of the town, local manual workers can no longer afford to rent, let alone buy, property here.

 

Kings Road.jpg

In a good many cases, the properties are not occupied as such except for weekends and holidays. The effect is still the same; they are not available to those who work locally.

 

Over in Ireland, I think Clare County Council did look at restricting planning permission for new buildings to locals only, but don't know if this type of provision ever became widespread.

[jamie92208]

Afternoon from a village that's now sunny.    The day has gone partially as planned.   The air con was fixed then I boarded an omnibus to Leeds and tried to cancel my various contracts at the Virgin Media shop.  I explained carefully what I needed and one young assistant then asked me three time who had told me to do that.   As the info had come from my son who works for another part of Virgin media and had arranged for their shop phone lines to be installed, I gave him the info the first time.   I was then told that no, they couldn't do anything for me but I had to do it on the phone.  When the irritating eejit asked me the same question for the 3rd time he was very lucky that I didn't separate his head from his shoulders.   I quietly told him that he ought to learn listening skills and actually try giving customer service.   I then had a good walk round Leeds, a coffee and then browsed in HMV before meeting my mate in the pub.  We had a good natter for an hour while consuming some brown liquid with foam on top.  

 

Then it was back home via Leeds Station where I bought the requisite tickets to travel to Manchester to see the Stones in June.  A very pleasant customer service assistant restored my faith in human nature.  

 

On returning home I then had an hour and twenty minutes on the phone to various call centres in at least two continents but have now transferred our mobiles to No 1 son's staff account and have cancelled our landline/broadband account from the 8th June.   I managed not to get annoyed when asked the date we were leaving 3 times.  It got frustrating when they told me that the only way they could give me a refund for what they now owe us, was by a cheque sent to this address in 30 days.    Words were had and it is now being sent to darling daughters address.

 

After that I managed to wrap up the first two parts of the grandfather clock and now a chicken korma is being prepared before we set off for eye tests.

 

One very good thing about the GDPR regulations is that I am now getting emails from all sorts of organisations wanting to keep in touch with me.  I'm unsubscribing about 3 or 4 per day.  

 

Anyway I hope that Tony and Aditi have a great time on their cruise, they deserve it.

 

Jamie

[Purley Oaks]

Afternoon all

 

Sunny here now but still on the chilly side; warmth expected tomorrow and over the weekend, I hear.

 

Spent the morning in court offering support to a pal who's up before the sheriff; the two witnesses failed to turn-up so the whole shebang has been postponed until mid-August. If it's a no-show again the hearing is cancelled. And they say the system is a mess! Just wasting time and money imho. Rant over.

 

Tony and Aditi, am sure your cruise in the Med will be a good tonic for you both.

 

There's some second-home syndrome here in Scotland, but not so extreme as Dorset/Devon/Cornwall or Wales. Here it's mainly cottages in the highlands, unconnected to mains water or drainage so perhaps not quite so appealing... I believe the Royals have a few places here, though, such as Balmoral and the Castle of May (now a charitable trust); both have mains water and drainage.

 

Some parts of Edinburgh are pricey but nothing like central London.

 

Hope your evenings are warm and dry

 

Mal

[Ian Abel]

 

One very good thing about the GDPR regulations is that I am now getting emails from all sorts of organisations wanting to keep in touch with me.  I'm unsubscribing about 3 or 4 per day.  

 

Agreed, there are quite a few popping up that I didn't even quite realize I had a connection with, a good deal all round as I can now knowingly dispose of the connection

[Simon G]

Still beautiful here today, so I did manage a walk out this afternoon at low tide. SWMBO came as well, as we stopped for an ice cream at the Beach Cafe, only to be given the smallest ice cream I have seen in many years. While sitting on the prom eating the ice cream, we were aware of a rather unpleasant smell, which turned out to be caused by a field of oilseed rape, a quarter of a mile upwind. It might look nice, but does smell pretty awful.

 

Walk completed without me getting too knackered, so some more light gardening also done. I definitely feel much better than in the past few days. Long may it continue!

[andyram]

Afternoon all with generic greetings and good wishes where appropriate. Thoughts remain with Debs. I do hope that Tony and Aditi have an enjoyable break - they certainly deserve it. 

 

 Today has been one of those days. Yesterday I visited the doctors for an appointment in order to find out whether I will get an extension to the sick note. The guardian behind the desk checked my notes and stated that, because I had not yet had my occupational health appointment, the doctor would likely sign me off again and so offered to just send a request for a new note rather than make an appointment. I agreed to this.

 This morning I phoned the surgery to check the note had been done. It hadn't! In fact the request had not been issued. There was a note there, but it was the one they had lost previously. I now have to wait until tomorrow now the request has been reissued. Today was the last day of the certificate - and I am off with a stress related illness!!!!

 

 This morning I had driven over to the auction house to view some model railway lots. The auction should have started at 10am - I was told the train lots would not be until 2pm. I did venture back. The room was like a sauna and I started feeling very wobbly again. Fortunately I sugary drink and finding somewhere to sit helped me shake off the feeling and I was able to remain.

 

 I feel very tired now though.

 

Best wishes

 

Andy

[BoD]

p.s. I find nearly all the TV chefs have - at best - irritating screen personas: Jamie Oliver being one of the worst (knows his food, great recipes [for the most part], heart in the right place, appalling "mocknee" public persona). Monica Galetti, Michel Roux Jr and Marcus Wareing are the only chefs that appear on TV that don't seem to be the end product of "stylsts", "focus groups" etc. They come across as both knowledeable and "real"

Bring back Graham Kerr - The Galloping Gourmet.

 

"Just another little slurp"

[The Stationmaster]

Agreed, there are quite a few popping up that I didn't even quite realize I had a connection with, a good deal all round as I can now knowingly dispose of the connection

 

The only one I've had, apart from aol, has been from the NEC - and it didn't give me a clue of how to get rid of it (and I didn't even l know that I had it anyway!)

[TheQ]

Great joy, at the big orange shed, an Audi tity was parked 2 ft into the next bay, a landrover being an old vehicle, is quite narrow. So by parking an inch from his door mirror I was able to park in the next bay.( Just)

 

Gdpr is both usefull and a pain. I've got rid of a lot of unwanted connections, but the Open University sent a full A4 sheet of paper and I had to fill in all the information again.

Whereas a sailing association just sent me a letter that said do you agree to... Please sign here, and they included a stamped addressed envelope.

 

That who owns what map, shows that old school loo and the school I mentioned a few days ago are now replaced by houses owned by a Guernsey company.

 

Years ago, (1100s) Much of the land round here in Norfolk was owned by Hugh Bigod 1st earl of Norfolk, by Henry VIIIs time, it was mostly the church, and then transferred to Cambridge university.

 

Now much of it is national trust/ Norfolk wildlife trust/ rspb. None have an entirely good reputation round here, as they have tunnel vision for their purpose, to the detriment of the local people and way of life. As does the Broads Authority but they don't own much, they just try to tell everyone what to do.

Edited May 23, 2018 by TheQ

[laurenceb]

Hope the holiday does what is needed for Tony & Aditi

[Gwiwer]

Evening all.

 

Not being food snobs but appreciating reasonable cuisine at fair prices we consider Jamie Oliver to be well-intentioned but presented by his image-mongers as a pretentious w****r. Rick Stein by contrast is presented as a grumpy old fart but who in conversation - the two I have had with him, both in Padstow - comes across as passionate, quiet and a hard worker. He is aware of some bad feeling his empire-building has generated but counters that with the number of year-round jobs he has brought to the area. He omitted to mention that the skilled posts are, in the main, not held by locals.

 

We have followed Masterchef Australia over its several years. The two chefs on the judging panel are both personable but hard-nosed businessmen as well. Gary Meaghan is a passionate and quiet person while his Greek counterpart George Calombares is short, round and very loud. On the show they are perfect. Meeting them at their respective establishments both seemed driven, personable and not at all about big-noting themselves.

 

Speaking of chefs this one has a roasting cluckbird to attend to. I’ll look in again later.

[trisonic]

 

 

Say no more.

 

Best, Pete.

[grandadbob]

Well I seem to have upset one or two people because I expressed an opinion.

I don't really need a lecture so I won't bother in future!

[New Haven Neil]

Evenin'

 

Scorchio here again, that's the whole week.  It won't last, the motorbikes start this weekend!

 

Another quick onw I'm afraid but a wave from Debs on FB was nice this morning.  Good wishes and cheer pass to all in need.

 

Second home ownership is massive here, houses are cheap by Sarf standards but expensive by northern - the tax rate helps of course.  There's a lot to be said for the Channel Islands system of 'closed' and 'open' housing sales.  Of course if the incomers want to work here they need work permits, so there is some control, but may are of the sort that no longer need to work.

[Tony_S]

We had a quiet drive down to Southampton. We checked into the hotel and then wandered over to a nearby shopping centre. Aditi wanted a new brush for her electric toothbrush and only John Lewis seemed to stock them. After that purchase she also bought a pair of sandals, not sure why!

The hotel is very nice, it gets very mixed reviews on review sites but our room isn't "tired and dated " which seems to be a common criticism. Also the reception staff were pleasant and efficient, not as described online.

We will eat here tonight. Allegedly Marco Pierre White has some connection with the restaurant. We did eat once on one of his cruise ship eateries. To be honest the supplement to eat there wasn't much but the service wasn't as good as in the main restaurant and the food wasn't that special either. We haven't bothered since with the special dining options on further cruises. The one on our soon to be joined ship is modern French cuisine. I will read the menu and be open minded but ...

As there are quite a few sea days just in case I run out of books I thought I would see what the lectures were going to be. Choice of international terrorism, aviation or forensic science. So ex journo, Biggles, and CSI Birmingham. We will probably scan the horizon for interesting looking container ships. I found out binoculars before we left home. They were hiding on a coat peg (I then remembered carefully putting them there.)

I did notice that a storm may follow us out of Southampton but we have crossed Biscay in a storm on a similar sized ship and it wasn't a problem. Certain areas were closed to passengers but it wasn't uncomfortable.

We will do our best to be positive in this holiday. It should be a good rest. Aditi originally booked this as I was recovering from pneumonia last year. That seems such a long time ago now.

Tony

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. A quick look in as I'm off to the club shortly, be back later.

[Ozexpatriate]

Well I seem to have upset one or two people because I expressed an opinion.

Please don't worry about it. Everyone has one.

[Horsetan]

 

Well I seem to have upset one or two people because I expressed an opinion.

I don't really need a lecture so I won't bother in future!

  Please don't worry about it. Everyone has one.

Opinions are like farts. Everybody prefers their own....

[Ohmisterporter]

where was the monopolies commission when he started buying up other businesses? I

 

 

Why is there only one monopolies commission?

[JohnDMJ]

Opine all you want, Dear Mr DMJ, but you will never convince me that steak, roast meat, pasta, pies and single malt whiskeys are not needs!

 

I am sûr le point de grilling a steak; whilst I do not need it (c/w poached egg), I crave it!

 

To an extent breathing is to autonomic; you don't need to think about it most of the time, it just happens. Obviously you can take control and hold your breath. But if you passed out, unless you were on string mind bending drugs, you would breathe again. If you were underwater at that stage, you might drown!

It depends on your ulterior motive!

[Ozexpatriate]

Opinions are like farts. Everybody prefers their own....

"Everyone has one" is from a ruder analogy in a similar vein.

[Barry O]

Cricket umpired, good game, club visited - one or two items need some modification but heartened by the level of success had this week.

 

We have some friends around for a holiday photo show tomorrow.

 

I have to go and collect some items for sale and some nibbles etc for our visitors.

 

Hope the cruise goes well Tony and Aditi!

 

Sleep well all!

 

Baz

[laurenceb]

Night awl