london
it is great entertainment to observe others and what they get up to.

There is one group of people, the majority it would seem if the statistics have anything to say, who go shopping. This they do online, in increasing numbers it seems, or hit the shops during boxing day and the following days.

I enjoy seeing what they buy. the daily mail purports to show what the bargains are here. But i have known winter sales where £700 items are reduced to £10 as a one off, and in those days people queue up for days, camping outside the store.

Those days are gone now and even after reductions i think they are still expensive. like an umbrella selling for £120 reduced to £50. who would buy it at the original price? and who will be fooled to buy it even at the reduced price which to me is highly inflated.

i find it very amusing that these are supposed to be bargains.
Added 27.12.11 it seems many of the shoppers are tourists, from china, nigeria, middle east. Only they will think it a bargain , as the £ has dropped so low, they must feel rich after converting their currency. they can also reclaim the 20% vat so why shouldn't they feel it is all a great bargain. !!?


What is a bargain is this evening at the sainsburys, when they were reducing loaves of bread to 10p, and turkey crowns to £2.
I bought one, supposedly £33 to £2, 3.5kg. 

There is a lot of meat in there and all very lean. anyway i cut it up and split into two pots to cook. one I made into a curry,(i added some curry leaves which i found in the freezer. i forgot i still got them.) the other tomato based. 

it should keep me in meat for a long time haha. 

i bought another 3loaves of multi seeded warburton loaves. Cant go wrong, at 10p each .haha.

We all know that turkey will be reduced today. once christmas is over turkey becomes very cheap. 

it is always the case, even in malaysia, the food prices before chinese new year or any festivities are always inflated. 

£2 turkey and 10p loaves.

Perhaps you visited people, parents or friends. Or even been working over the christmas. You get double pay and day off as well.

Pubs were opened during christmas day. It surprised me , but the driver of the car who took the charity run told me he will be going to a pub afterwards. and during our ride, we saw plenty of pubs with lots of people in them. it seems they close at about 3pm and are full of local people who can walk there and so can drink without worrying about drinking and driving.

it seems the convention is that the men folk go to a pub, to meet their friends, whilst the wife cooks the christmas dinner and that gets rid of the men whilst the lunch is cooking.

then they all return after drinking to eat christmas lunch at home. i suppose there are plenty of people living on their own who will go to a pub and have their christmas lunch there.

The prices are inflated of course. Tourists in knightsbridge are paying £5.50 for coffee.

What a nice thing about living in a big city... lots of people buying and eating and keeping businesses open even on a public holiday like christmas.

I did my bit for charity, by doing the food run. there was left over food and i got a roast chicken dinner and a pitta bread with salad which filled me up and saved me having to cook lunch when i got back. we got the full complement of helpers , 5drivers and 5navigators as well as the kitchen helpers.

I told some of those who parked their bikes on the raillings outside the building to bring it in as my bike had one of the brake wires cut and the brake pads of the back wheel stolen when i was there about 2 wks ago.

so now i bring the bike inside.

it is not that crucial, as the front brakes works and i use the front brakes, so that i did not even realise the back brakes were gone till i used it this sunday.

But i think it is a nasty person to cut the bike brakes. fortunately he or she only cut one set of brakes.

Another joy about this time is watching tv. haha. there have been a surfeit of jane austen .

i have got lots of books to read as well.

there is madagascar 2 on now. so i shall sign off and watch it.

london

well, christmas is coming and though i dont celebrate it, i thought i shall put up this wreath on my door, just for the  fun of it.
I found it and it looked kind of festive.

sunrise 8:04 AM  GMT  sunset 3:54 PM  GMT
high 8.2C low 5.9C

Added. 21.12.11 as usual, the Daily mail is providing our daily laugh about the weather. Today they are saying it is a heat wave when only a few days ago they said it will be the big freeze. I have to say i enjoy these talk of the weather. it is because the changes make a lot of impact on our daily life. you can really notice the changes of temperature, and in a short time too, in this country.

a new banksy art on an abandoned building in mayfair. it is well executed and very topical. what surprised me is that there is an abandoned building in mayfair. is the debt crisis so bad that it has come to affect even mayfair?

Added 21.12.11 i have often wondered why the winter solstice, moves about. sometimes it is on 22.12.11 which is what is happeningthis year.
something to do with the fact that the calendar year is not exactly tallying with the earth's movements. that is why we have a leap year, and next year is a leap year so that this year is at the end of the 4 yr cycle. hence the winter solstice this year has got later and later, and got kicked into next day.
This article explained it v well.
dates of winter solstice (i dont understand the time shown. it is not the time of sunrise or sunset. i think it is the time when the sun is directly over the tropic of capricorn? ah well, i suppose i shall never know .
2011: 22 December at 5:30am GMT

2012: 21 December at 11:12am GMT
2013: 21 December at 5:11pm GMT
2014: 21 December at 11:03pm GMT
2015: 22 December at 4:48am GMT
It also explains why the sun continues to rise later,(and presumably the sun sets even later too if the days start to lengthen) even after the shortest day. something to do with the earth's orbit being elliptical. i have noticed this later sunrise, but even after reading the explanation i still dont understand how  the elliptical orbit makes the sun appear to rise later.

Added. 22.12.11 thurs
this is the shortest day.

sunrise 8:05 AM GMT sunset 3:55 PM GMT
length of day 7h 49m
but let me point out that the sunrise on 20.12.11 is 8.04am sunset 3.54pm. so the same length of day right??? ah well, maths has never been my strongpoint. I am wondering if the weather website i use has made a mistake , and sunset today should be 3.53pm instead...

Added. 9.54pm it does not seem to matter when it set, because the sky was still very light half hour after . Not surprising that people celebrate today, because after this day, the days will get longer and nights shorter.

Added 23.12.11

Sunrise 8:05 AM GMT sunset 3:55 PM GMT
length of day 7h 50m tomorrow will be 11s longer.
now tell me why when sunrise and sunset are the same time as yesterday, but length of day is longer by 1min. by rights it should remain the same as only hours and minutes are shown. not seconds, and the day lengthens in seconds.

1 year ago

london
I happened to see a post i made on 15dec 2010 and saw i got some real good beef bargains, and my kettle which i am still using. i thought i had it for longer time than only 1 year.

I am glad i write a blog so i can see what happened before. i tend to forget the time i had things, thinking i had it for longer than actually. 

It is rather sad that i dont get any more of those beef bargains anymore. it is the east europeans ... some of them are very rapacious. there is an old man now who just buys everything in sight.

Ah well, lets hope he tires of it and stops.

Also, i noticed the price they are reducing it by. i had a peek at the price of meat he bought, and it was £2.20 for quite a small piece of beef. so it seems the supermarket has got wise to him and not reducing it as much knowing he will buy it.

I think , to be fair, not all the blame for this lack of bargain beef should be laid at the eastern europeans' door. i think the supermarkets are getting better or stricter about buying the meat. there is not so much surplus, they seem to be controlling it better, and matching supply and demand more accurately.

so most meats are sold out. i noticed there dont seem to be that much more meat nowadays ... the shelves can sometimes appear rather empty.

i read today that the supermarkets are resisting a call by the EU to reduce the temperature of the chilling cabinets to 2C,siting the fact that customers will not come if the place is too cold.

as it is, i noticed it is so cold in summer in the supermarket you have to put on a sweater to go in.

In winter, we are allready wrapped up warm so it means we are not sweating away in our winter clothes when we go into the supermarket.
Added. 19.12.11.
 I went to the sainsburys yesterday and was surprised to see no mince beef expiring on 19.12.11. you may ask what is so surprising about that?

Well, i was waiting to go there on today  so that such a lot of mince beef will be reduced. that is why. haha.
Instead what i saw was two for £6. it looks like all the 19.12.11 minced beef have been repackaged  from 575mg packs £4 ;  to 875mg packs and bound in pairs £6.  so it has effectively been reduced and a new expiry date put in 23.12.11.

My first thought was surely they cannot do that and this must be a new batch of beef. But, being such a cynical old goat that i am, i wont put it past them to do it.

i have seen them slice up the old bread and repackage them and stick a new expiry date on. If they can do that , they can do it to the minced beef.

Added. 7.49am I just have a thought, there had been very little of the roast beef reduced... i said it is due to their better stock taking, but what if they mince them and resell them as minced beef??? and stick another expiry date on extending their life?

beef actually can be kept in store for a long time to age. in fact, simon tells me aged beef tastes better. so aged mince beef should be tastier and it is only rules that makes it illegal to over sell the sell by date.

i won £50 in the premium bond draw

london
Every month there is this draw. this month i won 2prizes of £25 each. its not that often i win, so it can be rather nice  to win two.

i dont spend anything for christmas because i dont celebrate it, so this money will just go into my bank account. haha.

it is really one of the joys of my life that i dont do anything different for christmas, and so have no stress about christmas and so i can really enjoy it.

there was a report of a survey of men which conclude that if left to men, christmas would not be so stressful, there will be no turkey, more takeaways, no christmas cards and it will be a lot less expensive. it seems it is the women who make it such a big deal.

well, as a man, i would agree with that survey. As proof, i can point to myself because my christmas is absolutely stress free. I wonder if there is a woman around,say if i were married, whether christmas would be so easy. if i have a wife and kids would it be so easy? i doubt it, because the wife will overrule the husband everytime.


today i read in the papers that snow is here in south uk. but in london, where is it? i dont see it. So those who are thinking of holidaying here , dont be deterred by these stories of storms and blizzards. if u are only coming to london, there is no snow, or strong winds causing trees to fall.

Added. 16.12.11 today's paper says there has been snow in london itself. Well, i live in the centre of london and i dont see any. so where is it? london is spread over a vast area and some outlying areas can be open countryside and can be colder than the centre. one chap who lives in wallingford says it is still considered to be in london.
Added. i just googled wallingford and found out it is near Reading. so why did that guy say it is considered london? unless i heard him wrong and it is some place that sounds like wallingford. he says it is nearer london than croydon. so it must be somewhere in the south. i guess i shall never know what place he really meant, as i have forgotten who it was who told me. it was one of the guys in the coffee chat group that meets up in soho once a week that i go to occasionally.
it will be nice to have snow in london but i dont think we shall have as much snow as we had the last two winters.

added 7.1.12 i dont bother to check if i won, relying on them to send me the cheque. so i dont know who won the £1million prize. however, i saw this article today about it. interesting reading to see where in uk the winners live.
link

can you manage on £40,000 a year?

london
You hear often in uk from people on £40,000 a year saying they cannot cope.
that is the average wage for a family with both parent working. of course, if it is before tax, than the after tax pay will be only £34,000 which is not as much as it seems at first glance.

it surprised me that they cannot cope even on the lower figure. i think there is something they are not doing right. well, tonight, there is a tv program which asks these people what they spend it on and i shall find out where they went wrong.

I find it fascinating to see how people budget because i want to spot where they do it wrong. haha.

i have a theory that everyone can save no matter how small their income. if they cannot , then somewhere they are doing something wrong.
to be continued ...

Added. Well, i have seen the program and everyone interviewed seemed to be very sensible about their spending. They all earn about £40.000 after tax.
If they find it difficult to cope it is because of their unusual circumstances, like a filipino couple who had one child and then 3months later found she was pregnant with triplets. a naturally conceived event that is 1 in 200million chance. They find it difficult to cope but that is not surprising and they are not typical .  it is one of the reasons why i am so glad to be gay and have no kids.
The other couples are also in a happy state and no debt and they have no kids, or one only. Kids... they are the main cause of poverty.

or another couple who have a child with cerebral palsy with all the costs involved in looking after it and the cost of a future operation in america. He is a police sergeant, she works also. but from what they say they are in some debt.

and a couple who are putting their daughter through private school.

There was only one couple who spend freely, they are unmarried with no kids and she spends a lot on clothes, shoes and every two years changes her car ; but they still remain within their means and are not in debt.



there was one couple who were declared bankrupt about 3yrs ago, and now paying a mortgage of £1300 a month on a house that is in negative equity, 2 daughters, and seem to be rather more poorer than the other couples featured; even though earning the same amount, made up of his salary and child credit and benefits plus having a lodger. She described her situation as draining.

their food bill is about £100-£150 a week or so. some of them buy organic food.

There was a single guy, in scotland, who is quite big in the university; who lives quite a frugal life, his only vice is buying expensive electric guitars and single malt whisky.

there was a retired couple, he is 73, she 61. before retirement their combined income was double what they have now. they should be comfortably off but they do worry if their investment will last if they both live long...
though if their income is made up from pensions, than that money should last as long as they lived.

it is interesting that circumstances that are out of their control affect their finances. both of those difficult cases involve kids.
I know i am biased, but what is the point of them i wonder? who in their right minds will have kids? I am sure many a parent must have this run through their mind in some dark night of the soul. haha.

it is a deep deep sacrifice for any parent to have kids. but the kids will never appreciate their sacrifice.

And do you know why that is so? i think in the past it is not like this, because there was the extended family and that takes a lot of the load off being a parent.

now no family has that extended family of grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, even older brothers or sisters to support them anymore.

do you still do this?

london
An interesting survey of 3000 people asking them 50 tasks that is made redundant because of technology.
I still do the following from the list.

3, record things using VHS.
16, use an address book.
17, check a map before or during a car journey.
25, look up something in the dictionary
26, have a phone book
27, watch videos
35, watch programs at the time they are shown.
36, dial 1471 when i get home
48, hang washing out in winter.
49 keep printed bills or bank statements.

I am really surprised that i did so many things in the list. Those are things that many dont do anymore.

Full list here.

for those who dont know, 1471 is the number u press to retrieve any phone messages stored on a landline phone in the phone providers message system. I guess nowadays people use their mobile phones now.

living with a smoker

london
Simon has been smoking in the living room. usually he smokes in the kitchen, but it has been getting cold, so he smokes in the living room with the window open.

But of course, the cigarette smells linger on. Especially when the ashes falls behind the sofa. I dont know why cigarette smokers are so careless with where they put their ashes. it gets everywhere but they dont seem to mind it. ah well, their fxxking soul wants it. haha.

I have to move my clothes that i hang indoors in the living room into the spare room now when he returns from his mum's. my clothes smells of cigarette. another reason to tell him not to smoke in the living room.

Smokers! it is near impossible to keep a clean smelling flat when u are living with a smoker and i have resigned myself to it. usually in summer i can leave the windows open but it is getting cold now. so i think i shall have to ask him to limit his smoking in the kitchen which is allready full of cooking smells so the cigarette smell will just be lost in it.

Anyway, i opened the windows tonight to get rid of the smell, and was surprised that  it isn't very cold. i checked the temperature in the weather website and found out it is about 7C. And it is 11pm. What a strange weather we are having.
only yesterday, it was 0.1C.

I dont know what is going on with the weather but rather glad that it is warm tonight. (I cannot imagine i am saying it is warm!!! in the past i would have the heating on just because it is night, and nightime is supposed to be colder than day time. but this 7C is like daytime temperature.)

But it shows to me that it is not necessary to switch on the heating. but tell that to people, and they wont believe you. people automatically switch on the heating even though they dont really feel the cold, but they are afraid of being cold. Why??? it is one of the brainwashing that people are subjected to. They think cold will kill them. not in these temperatures we get in london, it wont.

if it is -40C i can say that will kill you but even then only if u are silly enough not to wear proper clothing.

Anyway, enough of me ranting on about silly people switching on their heating. their souls wants to pay the heating cost and serves them right if their heating bills shoot sky high.

I think people get what they deserve...

There is another depressing tv program tonight about the debt crisis, this one is about how the west went bust. it says for the last 10yrs the uk had been borrowing 5times its gdp every year. I never knew there was that much money in the world but of course, paper money is all made up . it is just created out of thin air whenever you create debt.



yesterday, it was all about the veto by cameron, the first veto by the british with regard to the EU.

I think it is a historic moment.

maybe now the british will realise that the Europeans dont really want them, just wants their money. the british contribute the second highest , after the germans. link to a chart of uk contribution.it shows the uk pays more than it gets back from eu. but it maynot be the 2nd biggest contributor,  because after the rebates, uk is 4th biggest contributor, below germany, france and italy.

people say the british will lose trade if uk is out of the EU. but i was surprised to read that actually the uk buys more from europe than the other way round. so europe sells more to the uk than uk sells to europe. it is in europe's interest to keep the trade going.
chart to show uk exports.

Exports	£428.6 billion (2010)[8]

Main export partners	United States 14.3%, Germany 10.5%, Netherlands 8.0%, France 7.2%, Ireland 6.0%, Belgium and Luxembourg 5.1%, Spain 3.7%, Italy 3.3%, China 3.2% (2010, not including services)[8]

Imports £477.9 billion (2010)[8]


Import goods manufactured goods, machinery, fuels; foodstuffs

Main import partners Germany 12.5%, China 8.4%, United States 7.6%, Netherlands 7.3%, France 6.0%, Norway 5.7%, Belgium and Luxembourg 5.0%, Italy 3.9%, Ireland 3.4% (2010, not including services)[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom

These figures dont show that we export more to europe than it to us.

for all the money the uk contributes to the eu, there dont seem to be any influence we have with them when it comes to treaties and laws affecting the uk. so why bother to stay in when we have no voice?

anyway it seems the underlying problem with the debt crisis is not resolved and people are saying it is a matter of time before greece defaults. and if it brings down italy, it will be the end.
next year, a huge tranch of  debt comes up for repayment,  and people expect them to default as no one wants to lend them money, or if they do, they want 7% or more interest.

Interesting times indeed.

I have one consolation for every reader. it wont really affect you if you have a job. and if you are like me, who is not working, it wont affect people like me either. If like me, u are not in debt, it wont affect you.

if u r in debt, then tough shit. haha.

add 12.11.11 Saw a  article about 1 in 3 will be in debt for christmas. At first i thought must be parents buying expensive presents for their children. but 25-34 yrs olds are the majority of debtors. they cannot have children yet , can they?

couples different attitudes to money

london
I am watching a tv program about money , where different couples, for eg a gay couple, a couple both of them on benefits,  newly weds, a black couple who earns equally, a couple where the husband is happy in his job, but wife wants him to change job and be a lawyer so he can earn more so she can send the 2children to private school. During the course of the interviews, their different attitude to money and handling of it start appearing and they admit it leads to arguements.
Usually this takes the form of one being spendthrift and the other being miserly.

I found the biggest common denominator is that they pool their finances and that i think is the biggest mistake.

from my own experience with simon, we keep our finances separate and so there is no arguements between us about finances.

his money is his to do with and so it does not  bother me when he spends on something i dont like. i figured it is his money to waste and he can do what he likes with it.
I also have the philosophy that it is only money and not important. you cannot take it with you when you die, so might as well do what you like with it.

this is crucial, because he and i are very different with regard to money.

he spends, without any savings.

And if u have been following my blog, u will know that i am a saver and am very careful to get value for money...

you may ask how do we split the daily expenses such as food and household things.

well, we dont haha.
that takes all the arguements out of the equation.

i do my own shopping buying what i like, and so does he.


then i cook what i want, and so does he.
and we eat what each cooks... and share.
in my case, i like to cook huge amounts and put them in containers and freeze them. And we then use them up over the following days or weeks. I can buy lots of meat very cheaply when the supermarkets reduce the price on their sell by date.

and both of us are easy about who eats what and how much. i was brought up in a big family where we all share so it is not alien to me.
in our family, food is available to any one who wants it to eat as much as they want. though we have been taught to not eat everything and leave nothing for the others. we have been taught by my mother to share and not hog everything.

that is why in chinese families eating a meal together, each picks up food from the communal dishes only that amount enough to eat , and after that has been eaten then only to go back and pick some more.
unlike the western ways where a person piles up the food on the plate as much as they can manage and brings it away, and invariably they overestimate their appetite and take more food than they can eat and so waste it.

There is a lot of waste in the western way of eating. many a time i have looked on in envy at some person leaving their food on their plate, uneaten when i am hungry and i had not enough in my portion allocated to me and i would love to eat their share...or they leave behind a succulent portion , usually gizzard which they dont like; (though they still pick it up indiscriminately) but of course taking food off someone else's plate is not done in their polite society.

Anyway, that is why simon and i never argue about money. haha.

even the way we spread jam and butter on our bread is different. simon would pile it on in huge dollops... and use the food up very quick.
i dont.
so if i buy apricot jam, which i like, it is soon finished by him.
but i eat so little of it, i dont notice it is finished and next thing i see is him buying jam. so it seems to naturally work itself out so that not any one of us buy the things all the time. That would lead to resentment i guess, but neither of us seem to notice it... perhaps both of us are not too bothered to keep tag of whose turn it is to buy it.
We are both quite easy going that way. i dont know whether he is naturally like that or he sees me generous about sharing, and so he does the same.

Many times the way u treat others can make them take the cue from you and return the favour.

my mother is very generous with food in our house. there is always plenty of it available, even though we are not rich. i dont know how she does it but we never want for food in our house. (i think we eat a lot of rice. or rather I eat a lot of rice.i remember, i was called a 'fan tung' , meaning a rice bin. haha. because i like rice so much).

Rice is such a good stomach filler. and it is cheap too, so my mother always makes sure she cooks a lot of it. left over rice has many users so there is no way uneaten excess rice gets wasted. and there is always more than enough rice to accommodate another mouth if a visitor comes and is invariably invited to have a meal with us.

maybe that is why i buy so much rice and is stocking so much of it.

today, i see the tesco selling salaam basmati rice 10kg , buy 2 for £16, £4 for each 5kg. even cheaper than the kohinoor i bought. haha.

but i think the salaam brand is not so good quality as the kohinoor.

well a good chance to stock up on rice, seeing it is so cheap.

Added. 8.1.12 if u had not bought the rice it is too late now. tesco has raised the kohinoor rice to £7 for 5kg and not offering the 2 for £10.

money saving

london
there is a tv program tonight about how to penny pinch, and i taped it but i have lost the recording.
My original plan was to go out and buy bargain meats in the supermarket rather than stay in to watch it.
i prefer to be getting the bargains rather than watch tv programs about it. I have no guarantees that i will get the bargains, but if i go there, it opens me out to be able to grab the opportunities if they are there. And it turned out exactly that.

It was a good haul tonight. There was no competition from others, so was able to get 6packs of mince pork, 5 of which are sainsbury's 'be good to yourself' series, costing £3 for 500mg. reduced to 50p each.

Added. 2.12.11 yesterday whilst i was at the tesco i saw they are selling 10kg basmati for £11. and 5kg for £6. Today, when i went there to buy the 10kg pack bringing with me my trusty shopping trolley that i found in the recycling bins on the day of kate and william's royal wedding early this year,  i saw they have a new batch of koh-i-noor basmati 5kg for £7, but 2for £10. so i bought that instead. the prices are like last year.
Added 2.12.11 10.18pm. actually, i just saw a post i made on 1.12.10 headed tesco selling 5kg basmati for £9, and buyone get one free. So it was £1 cheaper 1yr ago. but i read it further, and realised that the brand i got now, koh-i-noor was about 50p more expensive a year ago. so prices have dropped. of course the contents could have changed and poorer quality rice mixed in with the better quality ones. Certainly the ones i got dont smell so fragrant as i seem to remember of basmati rice i bought years ago; though memory can play me false and we do tend to fool ourselves that the past is better. In fact if not for this blog and going back to my past posts, i too would have forgotten what it was even as short a time as 1 yr ago.
it appears that tesco tend to buy cheap basmati rice and sell it at about this time. i suppose i should stock up rice now enough to last a year. if later on the prices drop further, as it can happen, i shall buy more.
A cheaper pack of mince pork, originally  £2 for 500mg, I bought for 40p. Not as good a bargain as the others but still cheap.



I am glad i did not miss those bargains, even at the expense of that tv program. for some reason my tape recorder did not tape it, yet when i left i can see it was taping. ah well, one of those things. i am sure it is hidden somewhere in the tape.
Added 2.12.11 i realised i have taped the wrong program. but i read the review of it in the telegraph today, and it mentioned a woman who used coupons and showed her with a lot of processed stuff, breakfast cereals and not reallly that good for you... to much suger and salt in them; and another guy who drives for hours using expensive petrol, looking for road kill. i think all these people just like the fun of it, not so much saving money.

I have been watching the news, with its warning of the euro collapsing and forecasting dire disaster for britain.

there was an interview where the presenter said britain is not in the eu, yet its actions affect us and yet not being in it, we have no influence on it. we seem to have got the worst of both worlds.  the interviewer said that it is not the way to look at it. it is good for both them and us that we are not in it, he said if uk were in it, the euro would have collapsed long ago.  

Frankly i dont think a recession will affect me. After all, there was a recession in 2008, though i did not know of it till much later when they tell me. during that time, things went on as normal for me.

There were still meat bargains at the supermarket throughout 2008/9 and my life was very pleasant.
i can confidently predict it will be the same for me in this coming recession, if it comes.

The pundits seem to expect the euro to collapse, but i dont think it will. i think it will force the 17 eu members to get closer political and economic union which is something that will prove to be a blessing in disguise, even though everyone says it will negate democracy.

I predict europe will be a fully integrated union and will be a formidable power and will rival china and usa and take top spot and the euro will prove to be the currency of trade replacing the dollar.

usa and britain will have cause to fear such an entity. but will have to support its closer union of all its 17members, even though it will produce a formidable rival,  or their own economies will tank if the euro collapse.

So take heart, u people in europe, the best is yet to come. There will be a flood of reform throughout europe and it will be very painful before it gets better, but it will clear out a lot of wasteful practises and it will emerge fully transformed into the biggest economy in the world.

On the other hand, if it collapsed,I think britain and usa will gain in the long run. their economic power will not be challenged. take for eg, the financial transaction tax. a strong united europe can bring it in , in defiance of britain and usa. i think it is a good tax, and britain and usa should embrace it. but then i like a flat tax, and that is not going to happen. haha.

I was chatting to david, who lives near brighton and it occurred to me that it is much easier to budget for a single person than for a country.

Take me for eg, if ever i go into the red,(not that it will happen, haha; but just supposing i do)I just have to not spending for one month will quickly bring me back to the black. and that applies to most people i should think.

I have a friend who eats out 1x or 2x a week, spending about £100 for two, each time. he just have to eat in for a month, and he will have saved £400-£800 that month. Such an easy way to save money , dont you think?

added. 6.12.11 i bought another 2 packs of kohinoor basmati rice from the same tesco. There were only 3 bags remaining. it is a good bargain,at £5 for 5kg.  and i had a chance to open the first batch i bought and ate the rice and know  it is quite good quality. after last time, when i bought  5kg pack of tilda rice from the same supermarket for £6, and found that it is not basmati rice at all,i am wary of committing myself. interestingly enough i did not return with the opened bag to get my money back. i bought that rice with a free £5 tesco voucher which i got from the dailymail. i suppose i got to think easy come easy go. if i had bought it with my own cash i would certainly hotfoot back with it to get my money back. it took some time to finish that pack because it was very poor quality rice. 

it just goes to show more expensive need not necessarily be better. In this case, it was a pirate counterfeit bag. the tilda brand is an expensive brand and the rice is high quality so that  i think the one i bought is a pirate counterfeit. the bag had no transparent window for me to see the contents unlike this kohinoor bag. it makes me wary of buying any bag of rice where i cannot see its contents.

things i witness when walking around my area

london
I was walking this morning to my library,when i saw a council truck which collects used furniture ,back to back with a garbage truck which has a big grabber and they were feeding it with sofas and stuff and it was crunching it into smithereens before gulping it down into its innards.
so that is what they do with old furniture , now i know. i thought they recycled them but these are old battered sofas, and cheap looking cabinets. I had a momentary thought that maybe they should have saved it and give to families who might want it, but then i was reminded that when furniture is too old, or battered or not of good quality, it is better to pulverise them.

i went to the library to read the telegraph and to get the voucher for freebies that they are giving out everyday this week.
yesterday i got a calendar, featuring cats.
today it was a diary. they are easily redeemed from any Marks and Spencer shop. There is one near my gym and i go there first thing in the morning to get it before it runs out. it is quite fun , tomorrow they are giving away gift wrappings. not sure if i want it as i dont have gifts. perhaps simon might find it useful, as he buys gifts for his mum.

Near the library, i saw a large fir tree with fairy lights that the council must have set up. it was rather nice. There is something about a tree with its greenery that is a sight for sore eyes when you consider that every tree around here have lost their leaves and look bare.


But the funny thing is when i passed this tree later in the afternoon, i saw it toppled over. it was only supported by a 3 pronged steel stand, and one of the prongs was snapped. there were some workmen there , one of them taking out a electric chainsaw, and i asked him 'did the wind broke that stand?' he confirmed it.

it did not last long that tree, as it was not there yesterday, so must have been put up this morning, and by the afternoon it was toppled over. makes you wonder about the root system of that tree , it must have a very strong root system to withstand the wind when it was alive.These coniferous trees present a solid mass, providing a wall of resistence to any wind... with its solid conical mass of leaves, with no spaces for the wind to blow throgh. 

now that christmas is coming the stores are putting up their christmas tree and it makes for a very festive feel.

Talking of trees, there is a gingko biloba tree, one of 3 in this spot in pimlico that is bearing lots of fruits. very unusual, it is the only tree amongst so many gingko biloba roadside trees in this area that bears fruits. and the fruits are falling on the ground and getting squashed and fermenting , thus smelling the place up. It does it every year.




i wonder if the fruit can be eaten, or preserved or made into jam. it seems such a waste.

heavily laden branches with the gingko fruits

gingko biloba tree in pimlico

My area is having its tree branches trimmed,(used to be with a chainsaw, but now they climb up and are manually sawing it instead, so no noise there but there is a constant noise of the machinery on the ground which chews up the branches into pieces.

Added. i have often wondered how to make tea out of the gingko leaves. and i found it in this website.
. How can I make tea from the leaves?







After picking the green leaves (late summer/early fall), shade-dry them on a screen, allowing good air circulation from the bottom and the top. Best condition is one that will dry the leaves quickly but not overheat them. Never dry leaves in the sun. To test that the leaves are thoroughly dried, "snap" a leaf stem to make sure.


You may also dry them in your microwave. Put some leaves between two paper towels and microwave for 60 seconds on high. If crisp, the leaves are dry, otherwise microwave further at 15 seconds intervals.


When the leaves are dried, put them in a paper bag inside a plastic bag, and store them in a cool, dark place - in a tinted glass jar is best.

how would u reacte if you have been burgled?

london

There had been two reactions to burglery in the news recently.
One is a letter supposedly of apology by a young thief to his victims, but instead of being sorry he told them they were stupid and proceeded to tell them why.
Then there is a school teacher who wrote a letter to the burgler and posted copies of it  in her neighbourhood.
link to both
Most of the comments sympathise with the victims. Not surprising as that his expected of us.

Though, I am saying that the young thief in his letter is giving some very useful feedback to how not to be burgled next time.

i never would have suspected that keeping the curtains open is not wise. locking the downstairs windows i know is obvious advise, but not the curtains. but now that he pointed it out, it is obvious. Another bit of advise is maybe not to leave valuable things in full view instead of keeping them inside drawers. though videos , ipads etc is impossible to always keep hidden. so perhaps in the end his advise about drawing your curtains is still the best advise.
Of course, if you live in a flat on the first floor, none of that applies. haha. you can get rid of a lot of bother about being burgled if u live in a first floor flat instead of a house. maybe that is why i live in a first floor flat.

instead of preventing his letter  reaching his victims,(to save them anguish according to the authorities) maybe the authorities should show them the letter.
they might then fully understand why they get robbed whilst the next door neighbours escape.

everyone seems to condemn the kid for not being contrite. but i think he did a better service to his victims by telling them where they went wrong.

he should be hired to give lectures on the subject if u ask me. haha.


as for the family who were robbed, i was thinking if i were them that it would remind me not to care so much for my possessions. to change their perception of things and stop imbueing them with sentiment. 
 i am allready not so bothered with possessions and if i were to be robbed, it is the inconvenience having to replace them that will irk me more than anything.

I  once had a car radio stolen from my room by a visitor and because i never use it, i did not know it was stolen until years later.haha.
as is usual, it was a very expensive car radio, bought when i had a car. It is a truth universally known, that cheap stuff never get stolen, haha. that is why i dont bother to buy expensive stuff but get them at the charity shops or recycling bins, where if anyone wants to steal them, they are welcome to it as i figured they must be even more in need of it than i am if they want to steal it.

sometimes they do u a favour when they steal your stuff in that i now dont have to bother to get rid of it and it is not around cluttering up my room.

i dont have any sentimental affection for stuff. and that seems to be what bothers these people who have things stolen. they say those things mean a lot to them. i m glad i dont imbue things with sentiment. i dont think i would want myself to be so attached to things . i dont get sentimental about them, and that helps me not mind if my things get lost or stolen. i keep them for how much they are useful to me. so if they get stolen or lost, if they are not useful to me anymore, i am glad to be rid of them. and if they are useful , i can always get them replaced.


so either way, their loss do not grieve me. and it is a liberating thing not to be so attached to stuff.

added.
CHECK LIST



A dog or a sign warning of a dog: Burglars will not risk entry if there is even a 'hint of a pet pooch


Pebble drives or shingled patios: These make it difficult when approaching a house because of the noise


Alarms: Even if the alarm box is a fake, Reid told police he never raided a home with a burglar alarm box


CCTV: Reid said burglars avoided homes with cameras






Wire on gates and anti-climb paint: They make it difficult and 'messy' for burglars


Well-lit: Reid said if there were any lights on he avoided the home


Motion sensor lighting: Lights outside which could go one as soon as anyone walked by was a major deterrent for Reid





Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066504/How-burgled-Serial-criminal-jailed-5-years-draws-check-list-home-owners.html#ixzz1epwZTBi4

musings

london
written on 21.11.11 nighttime, and posted on 22.11.11
Fog in the mornings now. But still quite mild temperatures. about 12C-9C. this must be the longest indian summer for some time. as usual the dailymail start making panic headlines but the fog is really of quite short duration. i know u will say but 50 flights were cancelled. but it is just a measure of how full heathrow is , that it just cannot reschedule those flights that were delayed. 
well, i am feeling quite smug seeing all those accounts of travellers stranded in heathrow. another reason why i dont bother to fly anywhere these days.

for those of us who are not flying, this is what makes living in uk, especially london, so interesting... the changing weather.

I still enjoy this, the changing weather, in fact more so now than when i first came here. Then i just felt cold and i disliked it.   Whilst so many of the other reasons which makes london good to live in which looms large in my life then, have , for me at least, receded into the background.

the culture, (so much of it , it is quite difficult to choose. at least i am glad i dont have to choose nowadays as i have stopped going to them. If you like seeing things, like the da vinci exhibition to take just one eg, you will be spoilt for choice.)
added. just as well i dont bother to see the da vinci exhibition. all advance time slot tickets sold out and only 500 tickets available on the day itself. even so, black market tickets are available for up to 15times the £16 ticket price. who are that desperate to buy them??(actually the official ticket price will come to about £19 once u add the sales commission etc. my life is so much easier because i just could not be bothered to see it. its so crowded it is difficult to see and there are only 9 pictures. overhyped do u think???)

What people may not know is that there is lots more drama happening day to day in the changing weather. And this drama is not life threatening either.

Planes being diverted from heathrow and the other airports is the big bother for those flying. Fog is making it so difficult to see, flights  have to be suspended. but interestingly enough , only the short haul flights. the long hauls still are able to fly off. i thought with all the modern technology that they would have it all computer controlled and the planes can be guided down without visual support; but it seems that is not so.
one would think there is no danger in flying off. it is the arriving flights that must be in danger. but maybe it is not as simple as that. nothing is because we humans do want to complicate things.

For all our technology, a little bit of fog can still stop these big planes . hahahaha.

There is talk of a new £40billion airport in the thames estuary. at first people ridiculed it, but i think they are beginning to come round to it. the fear that london will lose its premier position as the most important hub airport as heathrow becomes too full, is causing a rethink.

They can recoup some of the cost of the new airport by selling off the land that heathrow is now on. That is real prime estate.

one thing though, the new airport will have problems with birds migrating there for winter roosting.

it might make it dangerous when the migrating birds get sucked into the engine and brings a plane down. no one knows how bad it will get. but i think there are ways to frighten off the birds. the presence of the planes making so much noise will be enough maybe. but there are lots of birds go there for the winter.
the birds will not stand in the way of a new airport. the fear of losing london as no 1 airport hub for europe will spur them to building it.

i  think there is so much push for a fast rail linking london to the north is because if there is one, it will make it easier to make a case for siting a new big hub airport up north.  but i dont think it will happen as a completely new train line will have to be built and too many people will be affected.

I wonder what the next 20yrs will bring. it will bring us to 2030. we will all be 20yrs older that is for sure if we live.haha. will we still have flights cancelled because of fog?

One thing i know will happen , the £ will at least halve its value. if inflation averages 5% each year, it will halve its value in 15yrs. (to calculate, just divide 70 by the rate of inflation.)

20yrs ago i bought my flat for £85,000. now it is worth 4.5x. i doubt u can get such bargains now, so it is unlikely that you will get such an increase for what u buy now. but it should easily double in 20yrs time. maybe even in 15yrs time. but the £ would only buy half what it can now so really it would only have kept its value. in a time of inflation that is a big achievement, to stay still.

But owning a flat in london  is even better than just its increasing in value. the flat or a spareroom can be rented out and earn money which can keep in pace with inflation and you can get a good income from it. It is good to have that option of gaining income from it. An asset that u can have without having to put a huge outlay, (its called leveraging)can get tax deductions for your mortgage interest and spending on it , can get capital gains, and also income. how not to like this kind of investment. oh, a place to stay as well.


All in all, at least for london, u cannot lose if u have got a flat that you own in london.

I am hearing the news now where it says the govt wants new homes built and the tax payer to guarantee the first timer deposit so that the banks dont have to ask for 25% deposit.

 they will run out of land in desireable areas. unless they start building sky scrappers like in new york usa. it might well happen one day that london is as full of high rise as new york.
You might be wondering why all this fuss about helping people buy their own homes. Well, follow the money. buying and selling homes make money for a lot of people. the estate agents, lawyers handling the sale, the builders if new build, the govt via the stamp duty,the banks from the mortgage payments; then there is  the buying of furnishings, white goods etc benefit a whole lot of retailers, and then the owner can use the flat to get credit to spend on other things thus stimulating the economy. Whilst renting only makes the landlords money, and no one else. no wonder the govt wants to encourage buyers instead of renters.

the govt is finding ways to make money, and is now trying to get people off sickness benefit. but what actually happens is that even though the medical test says the person is fit to work and so the benefit is removed, the  person appeals and the tribunal reinstate them. there is a lot of money wasted on this. it takes time and by the time they get reinstated, 2yrs have gone and it is time for the next medical reassessment. and they can fail that and have to start an appeal again.

that is what happens when you give people money for doing nothing. it is laudable that there is a cushion but how to avoid people replacing work? the trouble is there is no mechanism to let people earn more and still keep the benefit. or to allow the benefit to reduce gradually as they earn more. instead what happens now is that the moment they earn up to the benefit , the benefit is removed. effectively a 100%tax. they should allow a gradual decrease. either that have a small basic amount, and let people top that up till they earn up to the tax threshold which is currantly about £7,200 a year. Somehow i think people know it is not right that people can continue to get the benefit right up to the threshhold where income tax is payable. 

perhaps the whole concept of paying people unemployment benefit and not link it to some kind of work, charitable or otherwise is wrong.
 i think in america they are linking it to work. or make it a fixed term. If people know it will last only a year, they will try to find work when it comes close to expiring.
If u let them, humans will be human and will want to keep getting free money for nothing.

Added. I have come back from the supermarket forage, amazing how easy it is to keep warm just by walking. not much bargains on a monday night. only tesco reducing mince beef less than 12% to 87p. i did not buy any as i wanted it reduced to 40p and i could not be bothered to hang around for them to reduce it. amazing that only a few years ago, reductions would be £1 and such a price would be considered a bargain reduction. maybe it will be in the future as prices go up and 40p reductions become rarer. even now i suspect it will be not possible to get 40p reductions anymore. these were 12% fat, so i suppose it is a good reduction. i shall tell you a secret, i prefer more fat. i think there is more flavour in fatty beef. that is why i prefer to pay 60p or 40p for 20% mince beef than 87p for 12% mince beef.

ah well, we all have our idiosyncracies, and this thing about fat content of mince beef is mine. just exercise or walk off the fat instead. that is my solution to avoid growing fat.

instead i bought tangerines reduced from £1 to 65p because i fancy eating some.
to be honest, i cannot tell the difference between tangerines, clementines, mandarin oranges, satsumas, etc. they all taste the same to me.I have a feeling they are just marketing ploys.

there was hovis granary bread 800mg reduced to 35p. and i bought one.
i have too much bread allready as i recently, a few days ago, bought 2 loaves of white bread800mg for 10p each.

earlier in the day i went to Marks and Spencer to use my £5 voucher that i got from the dailymail. they said it should be used within 3months. so i asked at the cash desk when it expires and they told me it has no expiry date.

well, that was rather nice as i was not quite ready to buy a chicken from them. they have fresh chicken 1.8kg for £7, and  ready to roast chicken(allready basted)1.4kg for about £4.50. i was going to buy the ready basted chicken, but the machine tills wont allow me to pay using the voucher and the queue for the human cashtill was too long. so i decided not to buy it and went to the cash till at the clothes area to ask when my voucher expires.

it is rather nice to know it wont expire after all and i can take my time to redeem it. next time i fancy free chicken i shall use it.

well, such is my life... so free and carefree and not much to worry about.

anther panic fall in the stock market at news that US congress cannot agree on a budget. it is the same old problem of how to bring down the deficit, republicans want to cut spending on welfare to bring that about, democrats want to increase income tax on the rich to pay for it. why dont they agree to do both?? that must surely be the solution so neither have to take a bigger hit than if taken alone.

what is surprising to me is why the uk stockmarket should fall, and the £fall against the $ when it is the US debt that is the problem.
truly when america sneezes, europe catches cold.

republicans seem to be the party of the rich, or wannabee rich.

i found another bike today

london
I pass by this bike everyday as i walk from my gym to the library. normally i ignore it, however yesterday i noticed that it was not locked to the fence. there was a broken wire lock dangling from it. there was also another wire lock but it was not connected to the fence.

Well, i walked on as i figured the owner will soon get back to retrieve it or someone else will take it away.

This morning, i passed it again. it was still there. I debated with myself whether i should take it or not. why no one took it away is a mystery. maybe because it was a very old looking mountain bike.

I took it as it seemed unloved with no one thinking it worthwhile to take. it needs some maintainance and oiling as the gears were a bit stiff and being a mountain bike it had no suspension and the tires were hard. the tires were wide rimmed which are normal for a mountain bike; and the front tire was cracked, but it was still rock hard.

i wonder what is its history and who owned it and why it was just left there. it was on a busy road leading to the victoria bus station. I would have thought the council would remove it.

i wonder nowadays with so many boris' bikes to hire, no one wants the bother of owning a bike especially one like that which is not in the best condition, rusty in places and splattered with bird dropping.


I rode it back and it rides well. First time i have ridden a mountain bike. it feels hard on the road as there was no suspension to cushion it. or rather there  is front wheel suspension, which i only noticed when i was looking at the mountain bikes featured in evans cycle. When i was riding the bike i did not notice that feature on my bike and there was no cushioning of the front wheel, but i think it only comes on when u are pounding an off road trail going up and down hills. i shall have another look at the bike to see if it has this cushion feature.

I wonder if what i found is a bmx bike. i saw it in the website and it has the same fat tires but no cushioning of the front wheel. but maybe not, as bmx bikes have no gears and the one i found have gears and its seat is normal height unlike bmx seats which seems to me to be very low.

it just goes to show how unobservant i am.To me a bike is a bike but it seems there are any number of specialist bikes for specific purposes.
the one i found have a bike kickstand which is unusual.

my bike shed is now full, it can only take 3bikes.
i googled mountain bike and saw those selling in evans cycle website. they are quite expensive ranging from £200-£1000 . 
(I dont know about you but i think they are expensive. why bother to buy new when u can find them around the place, unlocked and for the taking? Granted they are not in the best of conditions, but they are rideable.)

 There is actually a evans cycle shop in victoria and i pass by it everyday. think i shall pop in to see what mountain bikes they have. even though the website has a zoom feature the view is quite static. nothing like seeing the real thing.

I just had a thought. someone cycling on a mountain bike in the city is like driving a 4x4 in the city ... pretentious or what!

Added. 18.11.11 I had a look at the bike and it is just an ordinary bike. not a mountain bike. i was fooled into thinking it was a mountain bike by the handlebar. but of course ordinary bikes have that kind of handle bar too. from the evans cycle website I realise it is a hybrid. and the kickstand is an accessory that you can buy to fix to your bike.

now i have two bikes to lend to guys if they want to join me for the naked bike ride (june 9th) next year.

next year will be a busy summer for london. it will be hosting the world gaypride too(july8th) as well as it being the queen's 50th (golden jubilee) anniversary of her reign (june3rdweekend) and then there is the hosting of the olympics in august.