My dear Family & Friends
The ground is so wet that every footstep is a squelch. It’s quite difficult to keep the house clean. I understand why guests immediately offer to remove their footwear as they pass the threshold. I have to hose down the dogs’ paws and legs and then dry them off every time we go out. We’ve even had to take up the rug in the downstairs hallway; it was just getting to grubby. The ground can’t absorb any more water and The Leam and The Avon are full to bursting. I’m sure both rivers will burst their banks if we get much more rain in the next few days. It seems like the sky has been grey and overcast forever. I did see a little bit of sun on Friday when I went to Hull.
I went to Hull (full name Kinston-on-Hull) because I wanted to see the Humber Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humber_Bridge). It’s the fifth longest single-span suspension bridge in the world. I’ve got a thing for big bridges; they are such marvels of engineering and technology while at the same time displaying such aesthetic beauty to my eye. On the way there, I followed the motorways to Nottingham and then the A-roads to Lincoln which owns a most beautiful medieval cathedral and castle, and whose ancient streets are a big draw card for tourists. I strolled around for an hour-or-so and made a note to return with Lucia sometime soon.
From Lincoln I followed the A15 to the bridge and carried on in to Hull. The effect of the Credit Crunch and deepening recession is plainly visible in the city. The Waterfront facing on to the River Humber is almost a ghost town. Bars, clubs, coffee shops and the remnants of a fruit market have all shut down. Windows are shuttered with steel. Business looked much better in the city centre, but I would have expected more activity for lunchtime on Friday. At The Quays, a shopping centre in the middle of town, the Burger King had shut down for good as had the shops next door. It just had a vacant feel to it. The upper floors of the centre still appeared to be trading as normal, but there weren’t that many people about. I had a hotdog for lunch, filled the CRV with petrol and followed the highways all the way home. An accident on the M1 outside Nottingham backed up the traffic for 20 miles (36km) and added more than an hour to my expected journey.
And talking about economic meltdown, there was an article in The Times last week that really caught my funny bone (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5093545.ece). The reason I found it so funny was because people have been threatened with fines for not sorting their waste correctly. So here we’ve all been sorting through our waste to make sure it goes into the correct recycling box, bin or bag, and nobody wants it. It appears to have no economic value whatsoever. They want to store it on disused military bases in the hope that somebody will want it in the future. The do-gooders were so focused on correctness, they forgot about value. They’re the sort of people that think commanding you to make a profit is all that it takes to ensure business success. What also really struck me was that all this waste was being shipped to China for recycling there. Why? They couldn’t do it here? Really? They had to export all our old wine and beer bottles to China so that they can be turned into new wine and beer bottles for export straight back to Europe. That means the cost of labour in China must be so low that it more than compensated for the cost of transport. Pure logic says there’s something wrong with that picture.
One of the coffee shops I used to visit in Leamington, the Cafe St Jacques, also went bust last week. The owner blamed the demise of the business in the local newspaper on the fact that custom had dropped by more than 30 percent in the last two months. He didn’t mention the crap service and barely adequate cappuccinos. When you are right next door to Starbucks, you’d better make sure that you do everything better than they do on every level. He didn’t.
Having painted this picture of general gloom, you may perhaps understand that I was a little concerned when we received a letter on Saturday from the County Court addressed to our landlord “AND ALL OTHER OCCUPIERS” giving “Notice of Eviction” in two weeks time. There was a handwritten note that it referred to a property where old landlord (our new landlord’s brother) lives. But that additional stipulation referring to “all other occupiers” had us a bit worried. I had images of us trying to find a new rental in two weeks that would accept pets. I spoke to the lawyers listed in the eviction notice, as well as the new landlord’s property manager this morning, and both assured me that the eviction notice does not refer to our home. I bloody hope so.
Our weekend adventure was a drive to Gloucester on Sunday. It’s about an hour’s drive; the city is 10 miles from Cheltenham which, you may recall, we visited a couple of weeks ago when we went to the steam and vintage rally at the Cheltenham Racecourse. Gloucester’s two main attractions are its Cathedral and waterfront on the River Severn. The city’s importance as a trading port declined with the development of the railways, leaving the waterfront to decay until some clever property developers figured they could make a bundle redeveloping the old warehouses into offices, apartments and shops. The shopping complex isn’t finished yet and I’m wondering how the developers are feeling about the economic climate. Gloucester is certainly interesting, but not necessarily worth visiting again in a hurry.
That’s it for another week.
Love, light & peace
Llewellyn
Pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/llewellynijones
The ground is so wet that every footstep is a squelch. It’s quite difficult to keep the house clean. I understand why guests immediately offer to remove their footwear as they pass the threshold. I have to hose down the dogs’ paws and legs and then dry them off every time we go out. We’ve even had to take up the rug in the downstairs hallway; it was just getting to grubby. The ground can’t absorb any more water and The Leam and The Avon are full to bursting. I’m sure both rivers will burst their banks if we get much more rain in the next few days. It seems like the sky has been grey and overcast forever. I did see a little bit of sun on Friday when I went to Hull.
I went to Hull (full name Kinston-on-Hull) because I wanted to see the Humber Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humber_Bridge). It’s the fifth longest single-span suspension bridge in the world. I’ve got a thing for big bridges; they are such marvels of engineering and technology while at the same time displaying such aesthetic beauty to my eye. On the way there, I followed the motorways to Nottingham and then the A-roads to Lincoln which owns a most beautiful medieval cathedral and castle, and whose ancient streets are a big draw card for tourists. I strolled around for an hour-or-so and made a note to return with Lucia sometime soon.
From Lincoln I followed the A15 to the bridge and carried on in to Hull. The effect of the Credit Crunch and deepening recession is plainly visible in the city. The Waterfront facing on to the River Humber is almost a ghost town. Bars, clubs, coffee shops and the remnants of a fruit market have all shut down. Windows are shuttered with steel. Business looked much better in the city centre, but I would have expected more activity for lunchtime on Friday. At The Quays, a shopping centre in the middle of town, the Burger King had shut down for good as had the shops next door. It just had a vacant feel to it. The upper floors of the centre still appeared to be trading as normal, but there weren’t that many people about. I had a hotdog for lunch, filled the CRV with petrol and followed the highways all the way home. An accident on the M1 outside Nottingham backed up the traffic for 20 miles (36km) and added more than an hour to my expected journey.
And talking about economic meltdown, there was an article in The Times last week that really caught my funny bone (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5093545.ece). The reason I found it so funny was because people have been threatened with fines for not sorting their waste correctly. So here we’ve all been sorting through our waste to make sure it goes into the correct recycling box, bin or bag, and nobody wants it. It appears to have no economic value whatsoever. They want to store it on disused military bases in the hope that somebody will want it in the future. The do-gooders were so focused on correctness, they forgot about value. They’re the sort of people that think commanding you to make a profit is all that it takes to ensure business success. What also really struck me was that all this waste was being shipped to China for recycling there. Why? They couldn’t do it here? Really? They had to export all our old wine and beer bottles to China so that they can be turned into new wine and beer bottles for export straight back to Europe. That means the cost of labour in China must be so low that it more than compensated for the cost of transport. Pure logic says there’s something wrong with that picture.
One of the coffee shops I used to visit in Leamington, the Cafe St Jacques, also went bust last week. The owner blamed the demise of the business in the local newspaper on the fact that custom had dropped by more than 30 percent in the last two months. He didn’t mention the crap service and barely adequate cappuccinos. When you are right next door to Starbucks, you’d better make sure that you do everything better than they do on every level. He didn’t.
Having painted this picture of general gloom, you may perhaps understand that I was a little concerned when we received a letter on Saturday from the County Court addressed to our landlord “AND ALL OTHER OCCUPIERS” giving “Notice of Eviction” in two weeks time. There was a handwritten note that it referred to a property where old landlord (our new landlord’s brother) lives. But that additional stipulation referring to “all other occupiers” had us a bit worried. I had images of us trying to find a new rental in two weeks that would accept pets. I spoke to the lawyers listed in the eviction notice, as well as the new landlord’s property manager this morning, and both assured me that the eviction notice does not refer to our home. I bloody hope so.
Our weekend adventure was a drive to Gloucester on Sunday. It’s about an hour’s drive; the city is 10 miles from Cheltenham which, you may recall, we visited a couple of weeks ago when we went to the steam and vintage rally at the Cheltenham Racecourse. Gloucester’s two main attractions are its Cathedral and waterfront on the River Severn. The city’s importance as a trading port declined with the development of the railways, leaving the waterfront to decay until some clever property developers figured they could make a bundle redeveloping the old warehouses into offices, apartments and shops. The shopping complex isn’t finished yet and I’m wondering how the developers are feeling about the economic climate. Gloucester is certainly interesting, but not necessarily worth visiting again in a hurry.
That’s it for another week.
Love, light & peace
Llewellyn
Pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/llewellynijones
