My dear family & friends, 13 October
I couldn’t help but watch with a wry smile as global markets tanked last week. Most of you will have had to endure me rambling and ranting on about the extent of global indebtedness since about 2001. I’ve been put down and, worse still, ignored. I was, after all, just some freelance hack in shorts and a T-shirt walking his dogs to the nearest coffee shop every morning as opposed to some smartly dressed investment banker, fund manager, financial analyst or the CEO of a multinational company. But to me it was just so obvious. I’ve always loved history – reading about and learning what happened before. One of my favourite quotes is: “Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it.” That history told me that we were in the middle of a speculative boom driven by easy credit that would end in an almighty crash. The evidence was plain to see. What stuns me is how people didn’t see it. I fear that there may be some way to go yet. Now Gordon Brown wants the world to follow his example for sorting out the crisis without a hint of embarrassment or recognition that it was the sort of policies he propounded which led us to this point in the first place. Watch this space.
Talking of history, our dinner last Tuesday for Lucia’s team from work appeared to be a roaring success. I had initially been told to expect 21 people, but that was whittled down to 16 on the evening. I had several requests for the recipe of my Portuguese chicken and rice dish, and one of Lucia’s Spanish colleagues said it was the best dish she had eaten here in the UK. My chicken pasta dish didn’t do as well, but I suspect that was because I was a bit over generous with the use of Mrs Ball’s chutney. Leftovers were donated to the dogs. Edgar and Hazel love pasta.
I’ll leap from there to the weekend. I’d seen posters about for a “Steam & Vintage Rally” at the Cheltenham Racecourse. I did my best to convince Lucia that it would be a great day out. It only occurred to me afterwards that Lucia may not have seen it quite that way when she said that she had enjoyed herself far much more than she had expected to. (You can see the pics at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/llewellynijones.) We arrived soon after the gates opened on Saturday morning and spent three or four hours strolling around the exhibits swathed in a haze of steam and smoke. It was the sort of thing that I can place a tick in the box next to it to say that I’ve done that and feel much richer for the experience. We were also lucky in that it was the most gorgeous autumn day with the changing colours of the leaves and gentle breeze providing a picturesque backdrop.
Afterwards we drove into Cheltenham to look around. It’s a lot bigger than Leamington and Warwick and more “sophisticated”. The town centre was all the busier for The Times Literature Festival which started on Friday and carries on all this week. We just walked around for a bit taking in the sights and sounds, and ended up drinking cold drinks in a park before driving home. On the outskirts of Cheltenham we drove past GCHQ (General Communications Headquarters), the big government listening centre that eavesdrops on telephone calls from spy satellites crisscrossing the earth. I somehow expected the location to be far more secret, not perched right next to the A40 between Cheltenham and Gloucester for all to see.
On Sunday, we watched the Japanese F1 Grand Prix early in the morning and then walked up along the canal to the coffee shop at the top Hatton Locks. Again it turned out to be the most glorious autumn day much to our delight. In the afternoon I mowed the lawn and prepared a late afternoon braai (barbecue) for the two of us. Life here is so focussed indoors and inwards that it feels like a special treat to be outdoors when a good day comes along. Afterwards we walked to the Portuguese pub, the Lock, Dock & Barrell, for coffees and bagaçeira (Portuguese fire water), and then back through the park.
Along the way home a car came speeding past us, careened around the next corner with squealing tyres and was followed by the sickening thump of metal on metal as it collided with several other vehicles. Lucia and I dashed up the road to see what had happened and were met with quite some scene of destruction. There were six or seven cars caught up in the melee with varying levels of damage; airbags had deployed in at least two of the vehicles. Lucia and I debated/argued about whether we should hang around to tell the police what we saw. Lucia pointed out that we didn’t actually see anything, only heard it. There were also plenty of other people around who had seen what happened, so we went home. I was just disappointed not to see the speeding (and probably inebriated) maniac get locked up.
Love, light & peace
Llewellyn
I couldn’t help but watch with a wry smile as global markets tanked last week. Most of you will have had to endure me rambling and ranting on about the extent of global indebtedness since about 2001. I’ve been put down and, worse still, ignored. I was, after all, just some freelance hack in shorts and a T-shirt walking his dogs to the nearest coffee shop every morning as opposed to some smartly dressed investment banker, fund manager, financial analyst or the CEO of a multinational company. But to me it was just so obvious. I’ve always loved history – reading about and learning what happened before. One of my favourite quotes is: “Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it.” That history told me that we were in the middle of a speculative boom driven by easy credit that would end in an almighty crash. The evidence was plain to see. What stuns me is how people didn’t see it. I fear that there may be some way to go yet. Now Gordon Brown wants the world to follow his example for sorting out the crisis without a hint of embarrassment or recognition that it was the sort of policies he propounded which led us to this point in the first place. Watch this space.
Talking of history, our dinner last Tuesday for Lucia’s team from work appeared to be a roaring success. I had initially been told to expect 21 people, but that was whittled down to 16 on the evening. I had several requests for the recipe of my Portuguese chicken and rice dish, and one of Lucia’s Spanish colleagues said it was the best dish she had eaten here in the UK. My chicken pasta dish didn’t do as well, but I suspect that was because I was a bit over generous with the use of Mrs Ball’s chutney. Leftovers were donated to the dogs. Edgar and Hazel love pasta.
I’ll leap from there to the weekend. I’d seen posters about for a “Steam & Vintage Rally” at the Cheltenham Racecourse. I did my best to convince Lucia that it would be a great day out. It only occurred to me afterwards that Lucia may not have seen it quite that way when she said that she had enjoyed herself far much more than she had expected to. (You can see the pics at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/llewellynijones.) We arrived soon after the gates opened on Saturday morning and spent three or four hours strolling around the exhibits swathed in a haze of steam and smoke. It was the sort of thing that I can place a tick in the box next to it to say that I’ve done that and feel much richer for the experience. We were also lucky in that it was the most gorgeous autumn day with the changing colours of the leaves and gentle breeze providing a picturesque backdrop.
Afterwards we drove into Cheltenham to look around. It’s a lot bigger than Leamington and Warwick and more “sophisticated”. The town centre was all the busier for The Times Literature Festival which started on Friday and carries on all this week. We just walked around for a bit taking in the sights and sounds, and ended up drinking cold drinks in a park before driving home. On the outskirts of Cheltenham we drove past GCHQ (General Communications Headquarters), the big government listening centre that eavesdrops on telephone calls from spy satellites crisscrossing the earth. I somehow expected the location to be far more secret, not perched right next to the A40 between Cheltenham and Gloucester for all to see.
On Sunday, we watched the Japanese F1 Grand Prix early in the morning and then walked up along the canal to the coffee shop at the top Hatton Locks. Again it turned out to be the most glorious autumn day much to our delight. In the afternoon I mowed the lawn and prepared a late afternoon braai (barbecue) for the two of us. Life here is so focussed indoors and inwards that it feels like a special treat to be outdoors when a good day comes along. Afterwards we walked to the Portuguese pub, the Lock, Dock & Barrell, for coffees and bagaçeira (Portuguese fire water), and then back through the park.
Along the way home a car came speeding past us, careened around the next corner with squealing tyres and was followed by the sickening thump of metal on metal as it collided with several other vehicles. Lucia and I dashed up the road to see what had happened and were met with quite some scene of destruction. There were six or seven cars caught up in the melee with varying levels of damage; airbags had deployed in at least two of the vehicles. Lucia and I debated/argued about whether we should hang around to tell the police what we saw. Lucia pointed out that we didn’t actually see anything, only heard it. There were also plenty of other people around who had seen what happened, so we went home. I was just disappointed not to see the speeding (and probably inebriated) maniac get locked up.
Love, light & peace
Llewellyn
