My dear Family & Friends
I came across this quote from Mark Twain which, I think, quite encapsulates the business and political bumbling that chivvied the world along to this parlous state of economic affairs: “Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.”
I’ve been shopping around for a new, bigger LCD television with the particular bells and whistles that I want. It struck me last week that there must be bargains around given the distress in the retail sector, and I wasn’t wrong. (The second largest electronics retailer in the US filed for bankruptcy last week.) Prices are down by nearly a third in the range that I’m looking at. I’m betting that the discounting will get even keener as we approach Xmas. I remember watching Sky News last year and being astounded by the fact that the after xmas sales started on xmas day here in the UK. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started before xmas this year.
I know Edgar would appreciate it if we bought a new TV. He joined us on the sofa last week to watch a programme on cheetahs on the National Geographic Channel. He watched the screen intently as the cheetahs hunted down a warthog for dinner. He stood up and walked over to the TV and sniffed at it curiously. He stood back, looked at the screen again, and then peered behind the screen and seemed a bit surprised to find Tigger huddling down on the (warm) satellite decoder. Then he took his place next to us on the sofa again and watched the rest of the programme; his eyes never left the screen. I remember someone (who shall remain nameless) once alleging that Ridgebacks were fairly stupid dogs; well, not mine bru, not mine.
Our adventure this weekend was a trip to Nottingham on Sunday. Nottingham had always been high on my list of places to visit for three reasons: 1) The stories of Robin Hood; 2) It has a (ruined) castle which played a major role in the English Civil War; 3) Nottingham Forrest was one of the leading soccer teams when I first became interested in English soccer about 30 years ago. It also has some really beautiful Victorian and pre-war architecture. But then it also has some fairly crap post-war architecture too. I blame it on the Americans for not writing off British war debt and introducing Britain to American architecture.
But there’s one thing I really don’t understand about the Brits though: why is there so little leisure activity focussed on their rivers? The River Trent, for instance, runs through the middle of Nottingham; if this were anywhere else in Europe there would be dozens of cafés and kiosks lining the riverside, but we certainly didn’t find any in Nottingham and I was really looking. You just don’t find that here, and I don’t know why. Perhaps somebody would like to enlighten me. The Leam and the Avon run right through the heart of the area we live, and I guarantee that I would be a permanent feature at a riverside café if it existed.
Love, light & peace
Llewellyn
Pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/llewellynijones
I came across this quote from Mark Twain which, I think, quite encapsulates the business and political bumbling that chivvied the world along to this parlous state of economic affairs: “Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.”
I’ve been shopping around for a new, bigger LCD television with the particular bells and whistles that I want. It struck me last week that there must be bargains around given the distress in the retail sector, and I wasn’t wrong. (The second largest electronics retailer in the US filed for bankruptcy last week.) Prices are down by nearly a third in the range that I’m looking at. I’m betting that the discounting will get even keener as we approach Xmas. I remember watching Sky News last year and being astounded by the fact that the after xmas sales started on xmas day here in the UK. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started before xmas this year.
I know Edgar would appreciate it if we bought a new TV. He joined us on the sofa last week to watch a programme on cheetahs on the National Geographic Channel. He watched the screen intently as the cheetahs hunted down a warthog for dinner. He stood up and walked over to the TV and sniffed at it curiously. He stood back, looked at the screen again, and then peered behind the screen and seemed a bit surprised to find Tigger huddling down on the (warm) satellite decoder. Then he took his place next to us on the sofa again and watched the rest of the programme; his eyes never left the screen. I remember someone (who shall remain nameless) once alleging that Ridgebacks were fairly stupid dogs; well, not mine bru, not mine.
Our adventure this weekend was a trip to Nottingham on Sunday. Nottingham had always been high on my list of places to visit for three reasons: 1) The stories of Robin Hood; 2) It has a (ruined) castle which played a major role in the English Civil War; 3) Nottingham Forrest was one of the leading soccer teams when I first became interested in English soccer about 30 years ago. It also has some really beautiful Victorian and pre-war architecture. But then it also has some fairly crap post-war architecture too. I blame it on the Americans for not writing off British war debt and introducing Britain to American architecture.
But there’s one thing I really don’t understand about the Brits though: why is there so little leisure activity focussed on their rivers? The River Trent, for instance, runs through the middle of Nottingham; if this were anywhere else in Europe there would be dozens of cafés and kiosks lining the riverside, but we certainly didn’t find any in Nottingham and I was really looking. You just don’t find that here, and I don’t know why. Perhaps somebody would like to enlighten me. The Leam and the Avon run right through the heart of the area we live, and I guarantee that I would be a permanent feature at a riverside café if it existed.
Love, light & peace
Llewellyn
Pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/llewellynijones
