I spent a few hours recently organising my collection of cables, adaptors, plugs etc. Ones for computers , mobile phones and other devices, (some of which I no longer own), audio visual, lots of stuff to charge things in a car.........and surprised myself with what I had.
I now have 4 mains charger for Nokia Phones, not counting the two I already had out in active use. I found various mains adaptors, some for countries I cannot identify and every variety of USB, mini USB, Micro USB (apart from the one I will need next). Clearly some standardisation would be helpful but I suppose it keeps people in business making these, usually in China, and selling them usually on Ebay. Its so easy to find what you want for very cheap prices, apart from Apple connectors of course, so it was often easier to just buy new cables without thinking that I may have it already.
Now they are in a series of cardboard or plastic boxes and reside all together in my office so I can access them whenever required, I have however resisted the temptation to label each one or make a printed inventory to go in each box, but I have mused that the collection of recycled boxes might be best replaced with a series of uniform plastic containers.
That started the thought about tidiness. Have you every visited someone's office or home and been surprised, maybe even incredulous that they can manage their clutter that way .......that is they don't appear to manage it, it just exists. Every surface is covered in books, magazines and stuff but this may be logical and organised to them but unfathomable to others who have, what I propose to call the tidy gene.
Then of course there are those with an extreme version of the tidy gene who cannot stand to have anything out of place and will rearrange the ornaments, the kitchen cupboards etc until it makes sense to them. I once know a business colleague who had a completely empty desk, every night every single paper was put away, you could enter his empty office and assume that it was indeed unoccupied completely.
Now the question is does it matter, well not if you are living on your own, provided you don't worry about what visitors might think, or discourage any visitors at all or take a certain pride in being eccentric. Not perhaps if you are the boss or run your own business but if you live with others or work with others or in a place where the ethos is tidy, it could be an issue.
Do people from untidy families carry on being untidy when they move out ? or do they react and become very organised ? Nature vs Nurture in the raw, some sociologist could perhaps investigate. Here's the title for free - "Reaction to Clutter in home and work places - A Study"
Perhaps it doesn't matter, though people have fallen out for less, is there a test that those on line dating/matching services do that identifies tidiness? is tidying an excuse not to do anything new or does being tidy lift some people's minds and souls and for others do they rise above the triviality of sorting to have the time for greater thoughts and deeds ?
So many questions, so little time, I've still got cupboards to delve into and identify stuff that is broken, obsolete or surplus,.................oh happy day...........when I get around to it. I think my tidy gene has a time out in it, sometimes it works, sometime it doesn't, oh well...............
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Monday, 14 February 2011
BUSY........QUIET............BUSY...........QUIET
One of the key changes from being employed to retired, but still doing things, is your time management changes. As the tile of this musing indicates, it seems to go through rapid swings and diary management becomes actually more of an issue than when at work.
Most workers, even senior executives have some standard pattern, times when they are available and times in meetings........I used to sometimes complain at the number of meetings I attended in my last real job with Derbyshire Constabulary, but I guess I have as many now.
The difference is that I am balancing demands, from in my case at least three separate and unconnected organisations, as well as the domestic and personal stuff of Doctors, Hospitals, car services, going out etc
So unlike having one employer to whom you can say “I can’t make your meeting because I’m already booked with MrX (if Mr X is superior to the requestor, you know who has to adapt and change.) .........................Oh come on you didn’t think that its anything to do with how important the subject of the meeting is, do you ?
But with a volunteering portfolio, the separate organisations do not connect, so I have to make my own decisions............. Do I agree to extra Magistrates sittings, or do some work with the Credit Union on staffing structures or train some more over 55 beginners in computers ?
Well its a call I make but then something else pops up elsewhere that may be more important or time critical but can I really drop one set of people for another.............the stress of time management has become more complex. Thank goodness for electronic diaries and calendars but make sure you are synchronised and don’t make a commitment from one diary which hasn’t been updated yet !
I think I have cracked that one, using the home computer and the ”must have it with me at all times” IPAD, I can access emails and reply from any email account I have, including an Exchange server one, just remembering to change the signature as necessary. (Well worth checking these very regularly, and just before you agree or decline something............. because another item may have been canceled or switched).
Via ITunes I can sync the calendar, and using bluetooth, the to do lists. An "in the Cloud" solution might be even more effective but costs money ( I am a poor pensioner don’t forget) and none of my organisations are going to pay for it, but then maybe I can create the illusion of busyness by spending time, managing my time, rather than watching the telly.
I’m not complaining though, the ‘sort of routine’ is good, the days when there is nothing on means I need to do things like do the washing, take the bins out etc which whilst necessary are not mentally exerting.
The other problem is what you promised to do, or need to do before the next formal or informal appearance, but hey I can write a proposal on a Sunday or read minutes and agendas at 2 o’clock in the morning.
I guess if I really want to, I can stop doing some or all of my activities or of course even take up more ! So perhaps some time management juggling is worthwhile.
Just don’t anyway tell you that it must be easier now you are retired. Now I have to plan in my holidays, when can they all spare me for two weeks ??????????
Friday, 21 January 2011
RITES OF PASSAGE
I was prompted to write this piece after attending my daughter’s graduation where she received her Masters Degree in Human Resource Management.
As an event it was well organised, well attended by families and friends of the graduates and had a ceremonial feel. Present on the platform, which they reached and after left via a procession (recession is the proper going out word) accompanied by organ music, were The Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire, the Queens’s representative in Derbyshire complete with his uniform and spurs, in contrast to the Duke of Devonshire in the very ornate, gold braided robes of the Chancellor of the University. (Some people may be confused that the actual running of the University is done by the Vice Chancellor in other walks of life he would be the Chief Executive.) The others were a selection of the academic great and good, the chairs of various University bodies, professors, heads of departments etc all in traditional academic costume with caps and gowns, but differing in various ways by colour etc.... it quite put the other people there, a brace or two of Mayors and Councillors, to shame, a business suit or smart dress even with a gold chain really didn’t cut it !
Handing over a certificate takes seconds, but the point of this musing was that the event, its costumes, well choreographed movements of people, speeches etc all gave an additional air of importance to the event and so I believe is the case with other significant life events, events which anthropologists call ‘rites of passage’ and delight in discovering new ones in obscure societies.
The most common are of course birth, coming of age, (no consensus when that is) marriage and death. These are traditionally accompanied by ceremony and the calling of people together to celebrate or mourn. Others less so might include first day at school, last day at work and the abundance of award presentations and events held by ........well almost anyone, various trade and other bodies, TV and Radio and film have a good collection etc
Again ritual and costumes play a major part, even a funeral has the expectation of black clothing, apart from the Chinese who I believe use white. Many have religious connotation such as baptisms, some religions doing this at the baby stage, others wait until an adult stage and despite the declining population of those who regularly attend church or similar on other days...........weddings seem, to some, to be ‘better’ in a white gown with page boys and a few hymns and of course vows to a God who the attendees may not even believe in.
Likewise funerals, in this case the leading lady or man does not play any part being ......well ...dead and thus we might conclude that many of the rites are not for the main characters but for others left behind.
Why therefore is there this part of the human condition that needs to share events, to be comforted or more relaxed with set rituals? Of course some buck the trend, at the Graduation I counted two people who came to collect the degree but who had not chosen to wear the gown and cap. I cannot know why they felt that way but still wished to attend, rather than get the certificate in the post.
It may just be the social nature of mankind who like company and wish to share good and bad with others. It could be that we all like to dress up occasionally, it may be that we believe, maybe even unconsciously, that life’s progress is so difficult and fraught with danger, that we need to celebrate the good times and mark the bad in special ways. It could just be hope trying to overturn reality (oh sorry getting a bit pessimistic here).
Anyway next time you are invited to a rite of passage event think about why you are there and how important it is not just to the main actors, but also to the others attending..........and if at all possible get yourself in a role where you get the brightest and most sumptuous costume available, as they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Have a nice ritual soon.
Sunday, 19 December 2010
BACK TO MUSIC
Well actually I never left it, but a this is a musing on my history with music and how a new piece of kit has changed my habits again.
Like others of a certain age, I started in music with records, vinyl mainly, though my grandfather had some old shellac 78s which I used to play on his radiogram. For the benefit of younger readers, a radio gram was a huge piece of furniture like a sideboard, containing a radio with exotic names on its dial like Hilversum, and a turntable with actual needles used in the tracking arm to play.
Anyway, I actually never had a record player, so never bought 45 rpm singles, in the days when the top twenty was a Sunday religious experience on the radio, rather I had a tape recorder, with reels of tape, this was long before cassettes, and I used to record the top twenty and other music off the radio or TV, often by sticking the microphone against the speaker ..........hifi this wasn’t.
I progressed via a proper hifi a very expensive at the time, Bang and Olfusen, (still with record deck but much slicker than Granddad’s) an early CD player and various makes and models of hifi separates. I made the transition from LPs to Cassettes, especially in the car and then to CDs. As I recall I spent most of my music listening using the car equipment, even back in the 70s and 80s, car audio systems were better than home ones a lot of the time, and the enclosed space made it all sound finer anyway.
At home my late wife used CDs for her music teaching, but we gradually seemed to not just sit down and listen for pleasure. Around this time of course the artistes of popular music gradually became unknown to me and after “top of the pops” on TV, finished I never really kept up.
Then came digital, I was given an IPOD by my daughter and converted my CDs to this new format, the sheer disbelief that you could have on a small metal device, days worth of music, gave way to regular use, again mainly through connectivity in the car or via headphones. Though an IPOD dock was added, it didn’t take mainstream place in the lounge for some reason.
Several generations of IPOD later and with a reasonable mastery of ITunes, I had also now bought both old and new music. Its so easy, one click and its yours there and then. No trotting down to the record shop and listening to a track in a sound proofed booth then.
What I bought was old stuff I had lost over the years but also new artistes on a fairly random basis but chosen because I just liked them. The ITunes ‘most popular’ section is not and never will be the same as the Top Twenty.
Another little piece of technology of aid to the music buyer, is an IOS app called Soundhound. You hear some music on the TV or on someone else's system, you kick in Soundhound which samples it and then tells you with reasonable accuracy what the track and artist is.......... and of course then offers a direct link to ITunes to buy it.
What Digital does especially, as well as quality, is however, to free you from playing albums, on records you couldn’t, on tapes, it was only fast forward, on CD you could skip or repeat tracks, but on a digital device you can construct your own playlist and mix up a selection to suit your mood or occasion.
In car use, via IPOD connectivity to the car system, continued to be my predominant channel though adding podcasts to the audio mix as well as music..........but then I bought myself an early Christmas present and invested in a Sonos digital music streaming system. (http://www.sonos.com/).
This connects the music on my computer, which already has some amplified monitor speakers so music can be played whilst doing other computery things but Sonos takes the music on the computer and streams it via wireless to, in my case two, Sonos units, ............many others can be added dependent on the size of your house.
Cleverly controlled from the computer and by a free app which runs on the IPad, (also working on IPhone and IPod Touch and I believe Android phones) , means I now listen to music and radio in the lounge and in the bedroom. The system can play the same on both units or on one only or different things in every location. I can set up a list, set the sleep timer and drift off with personally selected music or I can sit in comfort in the lounge and listen to an album or two or a podcast as I desire.
The sound is clear, bright and powerful even from a relatively small box containing amplifier, software and 5 speakers. However this is not an advert for Sonos, though I do recommend it, but merely to show how technological change makes things different, sometimes better, sometimes not, but music is something most people value, whether you are a folk, rock, jazz or classical aficionado, its about choice what you want where you want it. I’m glad I have rediscovered actually listening to music as well as just having it as a soundtrack to driving, cooking or cleaning.
The next steps are to further explore Internet Radio, there is something tantalisingly exotic in listening to a South American oe even Antarctica station.......... I wonder if Hilversum is still there ? ..........and to experiment with services like Spotify which means you don’t actually have the music on any device in your home or car, it just gets pushed down via the Internet to a computer, smart phone or IPad, you effectively rent it and have access to millions of tracks 24/7.
I just wonder whether not ‘owning’ music is a concept that I will have to learn, unlike the racks of LPs you can’t actually see and touch it...........who knows.
Like others of a certain age, I started in music with records, vinyl mainly, though my grandfather had some old shellac 78s which I used to play on his radiogram. For the benefit of younger readers, a radio gram was a huge piece of furniture like a sideboard, containing a radio with exotic names on its dial like Hilversum, and a turntable with actual needles used in the tracking arm to play.
Anyway, I actually never had a record player, so never bought 45 rpm singles, in the days when the top twenty was a Sunday religious experience on the radio, rather I had a tape recorder, with reels of tape, this was long before cassettes, and I used to record the top twenty and other music off the radio or TV, often by sticking the microphone against the speaker ..........hifi this wasn’t.
I progressed via a proper hifi a very expensive at the time, Bang and Olfusen, (still with record deck but much slicker than Granddad’s) an early CD player and various makes and models of hifi separates. I made the transition from LPs to Cassettes, especially in the car and then to CDs. As I recall I spent most of my music listening using the car equipment, even back in the 70s and 80s, car audio systems were better than home ones a lot of the time, and the enclosed space made it all sound finer anyway.
At home my late wife used CDs for her music teaching, but we gradually seemed to not just sit down and listen for pleasure. Around this time of course the artistes of popular music gradually became unknown to me and after “top of the pops” on TV, finished I never really kept up.
Then came digital, I was given an IPOD by my daughter and converted my CDs to this new format, the sheer disbelief that you could have on a small metal device, days worth of music, gave way to regular use, again mainly through connectivity in the car or via headphones. Though an IPOD dock was added, it didn’t take mainstream place in the lounge for some reason.
Several generations of IPOD later and with a reasonable mastery of ITunes, I had also now bought both old and new music. Its so easy, one click and its yours there and then. No trotting down to the record shop and listening to a track in a sound proofed booth then.
What I bought was old stuff I had lost over the years but also new artistes on a fairly random basis but chosen because I just liked them. The ITunes ‘most popular’ section is not and never will be the same as the Top Twenty.
Another little piece of technology of aid to the music buyer, is an IOS app called Soundhound. You hear some music on the TV or on someone else's system, you kick in Soundhound which samples it and then tells you with reasonable accuracy what the track and artist is.......... and of course then offers a direct link to ITunes to buy it.
What Digital does especially, as well as quality, is however, to free you from playing albums, on records you couldn’t, on tapes, it was only fast forward, on CD you could skip or repeat tracks, but on a digital device you can construct your own playlist and mix up a selection to suit your mood or occasion.
In car use, via IPOD connectivity to the car system, continued to be my predominant channel though adding podcasts to the audio mix as well as music..........but then I bought myself an early Christmas present and invested in a Sonos digital music streaming system. (http://www.sonos.com/).
This connects the music on my computer, which already has some amplified monitor speakers so music can be played whilst doing other computery things but Sonos takes the music on the computer and streams it via wireless to, in my case two, Sonos units, ............many others can be added dependent on the size of your house.
Cleverly controlled from the computer and by a free app which runs on the IPad, (also working on IPhone and IPod Touch and I believe Android phones) , means I now listen to music and radio in the lounge and in the bedroom. The system can play the same on both units or on one only or different things in every location. I can set up a list, set the sleep timer and drift off with personally selected music or I can sit in comfort in the lounge and listen to an album or two or a podcast as I desire.
The sound is clear, bright and powerful even from a relatively small box containing amplifier, software and 5 speakers. However this is not an advert for Sonos, though I do recommend it, but merely to show how technological change makes things different, sometimes better, sometimes not, but music is something most people value, whether you are a folk, rock, jazz or classical aficionado, its about choice what you want where you want it. I’m glad I have rediscovered actually listening to music as well as just having it as a soundtrack to driving, cooking or cleaning.
The next steps are to further explore Internet Radio, there is something tantalisingly exotic in listening to a South American oe even Antarctica station.......... I wonder if Hilversum is still there ? ..........and to experiment with services like Spotify which means you don’t actually have the music on any device in your home or car, it just gets pushed down via the Internet to a computer, smart phone or IPad, you effectively rent it and have access to millions of tracks 24/7.
I just wonder whether not ‘owning’ music is a concept that I will have to learn, unlike the racks of LPs you can’t actually see and touch it...........who knows.
Sunday, 28 November 2010
DRUGS, CRIME & ECONOMICS
A bit less trivial this time and possibly a bit more controversial.
Lets jump right in............why don’t Governments legalise drugs ? I refer of course to those ones not currently controlled, except for being illegal that is, thus Cannabis, Heroin, Cocaine, LSD and all their variants.
Now I am not the first to suggest it but it came to mind recently after sitting in Court where most of the cases are related to drugs, through including in that alcohol, which is of course legal.
The crimes divide into two main camps, acquisitive eg theft, shoplifting, burglary, mugging, pickpocketing and violence eg public disorder, affray, assault, threatening behaviours, affray.......the distinction however brings in the third word in the heading ........ economics...........
Most human endeavors are subject to the rules of demand and supply, so forgive my readers who are well versed in this area for a basic.... and I mean very basic guide.
The price that a commodity attracts is where demand and supply meet. As a consumer I would like things to be as cheap as possible and when its cheaper I am more likely to buy and even buy more of it. As a supplier I want maximum returns for lowest costs, so want to have a price that fits that model, though this might be, sell a few at a very high price, Rolls Royces, or a lot at a small price, newspapers. When equilibrium is attained then the price stabilises and buyers and sellers are happy, at least in theory.
Drugs however include further variables and bring in the idea of elasticity of demand and supply. Drug takers are less price sensitive ie they will pay whatever the price is within reason, because being a drug addict means you stop acting as a rationale economic being which the theory requires. You just need the next fix. The suppliers know this and manipulate supply and price to suit their profit maximisation goals, they are rational economic beings. Hence tactics like free or low cost samples until the user is hooked and then the price hike.
For illegal and addictive drugs this explains why many addicts unless they are rich and don’t depend on a job or business for income, are unemployed and become thieves, they have to keep finding some money to feed their addiction and stealing is the most common. Shops and businesses suffer, so do individuals, often family, friends or neighbours whose property is misappropriated and sold on, creating another set of crimes in handling, fencing etc
Alcohol is different, it is legal, well look at what happened in the USA when they tried to prohibit it, organised crime just moved in and took over the market, it didn’t stop drinking, its just made it profitable.
Despite government trying to use economics by raising the price through taxes, it is still affordable and easily available at every corner shop, pub, club, supermarket, indeed some great deals, and if you really object to paying the Government more tax, how about a quick trip to France and stock up there, although exchange rates have made this less attractive.
So acquisitive crime is less prevalent in alcohol, excepting the chronic, destitute, probably homeless alcoholic, whose situation is the same as the illegal drug takers and it seems many of those do both ! (There is a project for some economist or sociologist to explain that)
Most of the alcohol based crime is violence as referred to above. Not that this isn’t equally reprehensible. Governments are at a loss to deal with this and no one thinks of prohibiting it, so makes policies and decisions at the margins and tries to prevent the worst effects on others but time and time again fails.
What in my humble opinion differs is that with alcohol we do need to keep trying to prevent damage to other, innocent people, leaving aside that many assaults are against friends also equally drunk, ............... with drugs the aim is not the same, most drug takers are not violent perhaps some, in the commission of the theft, but when ‘high’ are mostly harmless to others.
So why not legalise drugs and let Boots and other pharmacies sell them, maybe its too early to let Tesco and Asda stock them, though the idea of premium brand drugs "Tesco Finest" , "Asda Choosen by You" etc, is intriguing....... the price would be ‘fair’, the quality would be assured, so less health issues, and accidental overdoses, the drug dealers would be out of business (new charity to retrain ex drug dealers ?) and the acquisitive crime would surely reduce.
Of course, being cynical, this means knock on effects on police....... courts.........social workers...... health service........ and could result in reduced demand for those functions, hence reduced employment .........so vested interests there then. But Government could put a tax on or at least charge VAT so they would get a new revenue stream and in these financially challenged times that might be attractive.
Mr Cameron, you heard it here and I am available to be a Government Advisor at economical rates !
Lets jump right in............why don’t Governments legalise drugs ? I refer of course to those ones not currently controlled, except for being illegal that is, thus Cannabis, Heroin, Cocaine, LSD and all their variants.
Now I am not the first to suggest it but it came to mind recently after sitting in Court where most of the cases are related to drugs, through including in that alcohol, which is of course legal.
The crimes divide into two main camps, acquisitive eg theft, shoplifting, burglary, mugging, pickpocketing and violence eg public disorder, affray, assault, threatening behaviours, affray.......the distinction however brings in the third word in the heading ........ economics...........
Most human endeavors are subject to the rules of demand and supply, so forgive my readers who are well versed in this area for a basic.... and I mean very basic guide.
The price that a commodity attracts is where demand and supply meet. As a consumer I would like things to be as cheap as possible and when its cheaper I am more likely to buy and even buy more of it. As a supplier I want maximum returns for lowest costs, so want to have a price that fits that model, though this might be, sell a few at a very high price, Rolls Royces, or a lot at a small price, newspapers. When equilibrium is attained then the price stabilises and buyers and sellers are happy, at least in theory.
Drugs however include further variables and bring in the idea of elasticity of demand and supply. Drug takers are less price sensitive ie they will pay whatever the price is within reason, because being a drug addict means you stop acting as a rationale economic being which the theory requires. You just need the next fix. The suppliers know this and manipulate supply and price to suit their profit maximisation goals, they are rational economic beings. Hence tactics like free or low cost samples until the user is hooked and then the price hike.
For illegal and addictive drugs this explains why many addicts unless they are rich and don’t depend on a job or business for income, are unemployed and become thieves, they have to keep finding some money to feed their addiction and stealing is the most common. Shops and businesses suffer, so do individuals, often family, friends or neighbours whose property is misappropriated and sold on, creating another set of crimes in handling, fencing etc
Alcohol is different, it is legal, well look at what happened in the USA when they tried to prohibit it, organised crime just moved in and took over the market, it didn’t stop drinking, its just made it profitable.
Despite government trying to use economics by raising the price through taxes, it is still affordable and easily available at every corner shop, pub, club, supermarket, indeed some great deals, and if you really object to paying the Government more tax, how about a quick trip to France and stock up there, although exchange rates have made this less attractive.
So acquisitive crime is less prevalent in alcohol, excepting the chronic, destitute, probably homeless alcoholic, whose situation is the same as the illegal drug takers and it seems many of those do both ! (There is a project for some economist or sociologist to explain that)
Most of the alcohol based crime is violence as referred to above. Not that this isn’t equally reprehensible. Governments are at a loss to deal with this and no one thinks of prohibiting it, so makes policies and decisions at the margins and tries to prevent the worst effects on others but time and time again fails.
What in my humble opinion differs is that with alcohol we do need to keep trying to prevent damage to other, innocent people, leaving aside that many assaults are against friends also equally drunk, ............... with drugs the aim is not the same, most drug takers are not violent perhaps some, in the commission of the theft, but when ‘high’ are mostly harmless to others.
So why not legalise drugs and let Boots and other pharmacies sell them, maybe its too early to let Tesco and Asda stock them, though the idea of premium brand drugs "Tesco Finest" , "Asda Choosen by You" etc, is intriguing....... the price would be ‘fair’, the quality would be assured, so less health issues, and accidental overdoses, the drug dealers would be out of business (new charity to retrain ex drug dealers ?) and the acquisitive crime would surely reduce.
Of course, being cynical, this means knock on effects on police....... courts.........social workers...... health service........ and could result in reduced demand for those functions, hence reduced employment .........so vested interests there then. But Government could put a tax on or at least charge VAT so they would get a new revenue stream and in these financially challenged times that might be attractive.
Mr Cameron, you heard it here and I am available to be a Government Advisor at economical rates !
Friday, 12 November 2010
TRAINS and BOATS and PLANES .................BUSES and CARS and TRAMS
This latest musings is about public transport or at least some aspects of it, as usual written from a purely personal viewpoint, errors and inaccuracies are subordinated to opinions and beliefs !
Had I been doing this blog a few years ago, then this is probably not an area I would be prompted to deal with. In fact I can probably account for 20 plus years when I rarely used public transport, with the exception of the train to London.
Of course when I was young....a long long time ago........ buses were a regular feature, I went to school and back on a bus, I went to work on a bus but............ then I bought a car. The story of my car ownership may wait until another day, but the freedom of your own personal transport was not to be underplayed. When I lived in more rural areas like North Yorkshire and Derbyshire, then the frequency and journey times of buses and the local trains meant they were not a reliable method of going anywhere where you had a time to be there.
Now I have discovered buses and trams in particular, both of which Nottingham has. Three main reasons, one whilst once upon a time you could park in Nottingham City, it like many conurbations, is discouraging you from driving in and charges very handsomely if you dare to do so and that applies to Council Carparks as well as private ones. (I shall not repeat my moan about NHS carparks previously made in another posting.) The second reason is that by surviving to the age of 60 I qualified for a free bus pass, so the cost becomes irrelevant (see later for the counter argument) and the third was that my post retirement activities have evolved to some of them requiring attendance in the City Centre.
So does the public transport option prove viable ? Well in part, I have to drive to a car park at a shopping centre about 2 miles away, from where I can catch a direct bus. This is actually fairly convenient, though limits the opportunity to have drink or two because you are still driving albeit a short distance. So I am on the bus and it travels to Nottingham, though in common with most buses via a roundabout route thus taking 45 minutes compared to 25-30 by car, excluding rush hour, more of which later. I have now mastered the stops and know where to alight and mount but for those who don’t know Nottingham has two main bus termini, one at the South end and one at the North end of the City Centre.
One place I visit I get deposited only 300 metres away from my venue, others, using the same bus, are however a 10-15 minutes walk. Given my bad knee I try and reduce the walking so now have to consult various timetables and find ways of starting at the same place but ending up in different places. Gone of course are the days of monopolies there are now multiple operators offered diverse routes and frequencies. If readers have a similar issue then I recommend http://www.traveline.org.uk/ which allows you to find the routes and times from anywhere in the UK to anywhere else, by train, bus, coach, cycle and walking or a combination of them all.
This multiplicity of operators can also cause confusion on using the bus pass. On Trent Barton you show the pass to the driver, tell him or her, where you are going and you get a ticket printed with £0.00. On Nottingham City Transport you need to swipe the pass on a machine, the drivers don’t talk and no ticket is forthcoming, on My Bus you wave the bus pass in the general direction of the driver and then just sit down. Once you learn all the rituals its all right, I still have to test the methods on other routes and operators, it could be the coffee table book of “101 ways to use your bus pass”, watch the best seller list next year.
However back to changing buses mid journey and taking pleasure in small victories I have now cracked getting from home to the North end of Nottingham City Centre (Victoria Centre/Milton St/Trinity Square for those with local knowledge) by Trent Barton and swapping over at Beeston Bus Station to NCT or My Bus, and the same on the way back.
But here we also uncover the flaws with public transport.
1. standing in the cold and rain waiting.......and sometimes waiting and waiting
2. seeing the connecting bus pull away just as you enter the bus station
3. Trying to travel in rush hour and having buses stuck in traffic, despite bus lanes which are often blocked by cars collecting chinese take aways or taxis just waiting and
4. buses filled to the gunwales with people and all their luggage
5. Buses running late or in bunches because of people volume and traffic congestion (why does everyone - lots of them anyway - go to work and come home at the same time ?)
6. Buses with seats designed for small people less than 5’3” I appreciate that they want to get the most people on but coming from cars with adjustable, comfortable leather, powered seats ............. maybe buses should be like airlines have a business or first class.
Clearly one answer is to travel off peak though this is not always possible. I recently did the return from Nottingham on the two bus connection plan as described before and part one was OK, but then the second bus came through packed solid, it went off and there was within minutes an even longer queue. Hating queues at the best of time but when tired, weary and hungry, I stopped queuing and went to the nearby Wetherspoons and had a drink and a steak, when I returned to the Bus Station the next bus was delightfully only a quarter full. Of course including the price of the meal and beer as compared to the free bus travel, changes the cost - benefit equation a bit and in total it took me 3.5 hours to get home, luckily no one cares when I get in and I can still watch Coronation Street on catch up TV !
Enough of the logistics, overall the travel is OK in the spring and summer, my main bus route has air-conditioned buses with leather seats, though non adjustable and still short of leg room, but I have had to buy a new coat and hat for the rain and cold. I had taken for granted that in a car you can take everything with you just in case, hat, gloves, umbrella, waterproof coats, fleece, parka etc on public transport you have to make the decision on clothing before you leave the house.
Lastly a small observation on who are the fellow travelers on public transport. Well out of peak hours, I have noted that a good percentage are all using bus passes of various types and the bus can resemble an OAP outing. Throughout the day you get students, lots of students, many of whom are Chinese, not that this is in any way a problem but I suspect that if the Chinese stopped going to Nottingham University their income might be cut rather drastically. Also traveling are, (by stereotyping on appearances and overheard conversations only), the more disadvantaged of society, who appear to represent a greater percentage than in other gatherings of the general population.
Being a British bus, people generally do not talk to even the person sitting next to you and actually avoid eye contact, I bet its rather different on a Spanish or French bus !
Finally it seems that the bus is the place, to listen to music, sometimes through leaky headphones, and especially to make and receive telephone calls, it is not unusual to hear people talking away for over 30 minutes and continuing to talk as they struggle with bags and or babies to get off at the right stop ! Well at least Orange, O2 etc get a benefit from bus travel.
I guess until I can afford a chauffeur to drop me off and pick me up, or someone invents Star Trek style 'beaming' from place to place, in this crowded Isle then public transport as well as cars will be necessary..................what I really hate is the thought that one day I cannot drive and thus I only have the bus, tram or train. On that depressing thought I shall go and do something else, until the next time happy reading and tell your friends to visit me via the internet of course, not by bus !
Had I been doing this blog a few years ago, then this is probably not an area I would be prompted to deal with. In fact I can probably account for 20 plus years when I rarely used public transport, with the exception of the train to London.
Of course when I was young....a long long time ago........ buses were a regular feature, I went to school and back on a bus, I went to work on a bus but............ then I bought a car. The story of my car ownership may wait until another day, but the freedom of your own personal transport was not to be underplayed. When I lived in more rural areas like North Yorkshire and Derbyshire, then the frequency and journey times of buses and the local trains meant they were not a reliable method of going anywhere where you had a time to be there.
Now I have discovered buses and trams in particular, both of which Nottingham has. Three main reasons, one whilst once upon a time you could park in Nottingham City, it like many conurbations, is discouraging you from driving in and charges very handsomely if you dare to do so and that applies to Council Carparks as well as private ones. (I shall not repeat my moan about NHS carparks previously made in another posting.) The second reason is that by surviving to the age of 60 I qualified for a free bus pass, so the cost becomes irrelevant (see later for the counter argument) and the third was that my post retirement activities have evolved to some of them requiring attendance in the City Centre.
So does the public transport option prove viable ? Well in part, I have to drive to a car park at a shopping centre about 2 miles away, from where I can catch a direct bus. This is actually fairly convenient, though limits the opportunity to have drink or two because you are still driving albeit a short distance. So I am on the bus and it travels to Nottingham, though in common with most buses via a roundabout route thus taking 45 minutes compared to 25-30 by car, excluding rush hour, more of which later. I have now mastered the stops and know where to alight and mount but for those who don’t know Nottingham has two main bus termini, one at the South end and one at the North end of the City Centre.
One place I visit I get deposited only 300 metres away from my venue, others, using the same bus, are however a 10-15 minutes walk. Given my bad knee I try and reduce the walking so now have to consult various timetables and find ways of starting at the same place but ending up in different places. Gone of course are the days of monopolies there are now multiple operators offered diverse routes and frequencies. If readers have a similar issue then I recommend http://www.traveline.org.uk/ which allows you to find the routes and times from anywhere in the UK to anywhere else, by train, bus, coach, cycle and walking or a combination of them all.
This multiplicity of operators can also cause confusion on using the bus pass. On Trent Barton you show the pass to the driver, tell him or her, where you are going and you get a ticket printed with £0.00. On Nottingham City Transport you need to swipe the pass on a machine, the drivers don’t talk and no ticket is forthcoming, on My Bus you wave the bus pass in the general direction of the driver and then just sit down. Once you learn all the rituals its all right, I still have to test the methods on other routes and operators, it could be the coffee table book of “101 ways to use your bus pass”, watch the best seller list next year.
However back to changing buses mid journey and taking pleasure in small victories I have now cracked getting from home to the North end of Nottingham City Centre (Victoria Centre/Milton St/Trinity Square for those with local knowledge) by Trent Barton and swapping over at Beeston Bus Station to NCT or My Bus, and the same on the way back.
But here we also uncover the flaws with public transport.
1. standing in the cold and rain waiting.......and sometimes waiting and waiting
2. seeing the connecting bus pull away just as you enter the bus station
3. Trying to travel in rush hour and having buses stuck in traffic, despite bus lanes which are often blocked by cars collecting chinese take aways or taxis just waiting and
4. buses filled to the gunwales with people and all their luggage
5. Buses running late or in bunches because of people volume and traffic congestion (why does everyone - lots of them anyway - go to work and come home at the same time ?)
6. Buses with seats designed for small people less than 5’3” I appreciate that they want to get the most people on but coming from cars with adjustable, comfortable leather, powered seats ............. maybe buses should be like airlines have a business or first class.
Clearly one answer is to travel off peak though this is not always possible. I recently did the return from Nottingham on the two bus connection plan as described before and part one was OK, but then the second bus came through packed solid, it went off and there was within minutes an even longer queue. Hating queues at the best of time but when tired, weary and hungry, I stopped queuing and went to the nearby Wetherspoons and had a drink and a steak, when I returned to the Bus Station the next bus was delightfully only a quarter full. Of course including the price of the meal and beer as compared to the free bus travel, changes the cost - benefit equation a bit and in total it took me 3.5 hours to get home, luckily no one cares when I get in and I can still watch Coronation Street on catch up TV !
Enough of the logistics, overall the travel is OK in the spring and summer, my main bus route has air-conditioned buses with leather seats, though non adjustable and still short of leg room, but I have had to buy a new coat and hat for the rain and cold. I had taken for granted that in a car you can take everything with you just in case, hat, gloves, umbrella, waterproof coats, fleece, parka etc on public transport you have to make the decision on clothing before you leave the house.
Lastly a small observation on who are the fellow travelers on public transport. Well out of peak hours, I have noted that a good percentage are all using bus passes of various types and the bus can resemble an OAP outing. Throughout the day you get students, lots of students, many of whom are Chinese, not that this is in any way a problem but I suspect that if the Chinese stopped going to Nottingham University their income might be cut rather drastically. Also traveling are, (by stereotyping on appearances and overheard conversations only), the more disadvantaged of society, who appear to represent a greater percentage than in other gatherings of the general population.
Being a British bus, people generally do not talk to even the person sitting next to you and actually avoid eye contact, I bet its rather different on a Spanish or French bus !
Finally it seems that the bus is the place, to listen to music, sometimes through leaky headphones, and especially to make and receive telephone calls, it is not unusual to hear people talking away for over 30 minutes and continuing to talk as they struggle with bags and or babies to get off at the right stop ! Well at least Orange, O2 etc get a benefit from bus travel.
I guess until I can afford a chauffeur to drop me off and pick me up, or someone invents Star Trek style 'beaming' from place to place, in this crowded Isle then public transport as well as cars will be necessary..................what I really hate is the thought that one day I cannot drive and thus I only have the bus, tram or train. On that depressing thought I shall go and do something else, until the next time happy reading and tell your friends to visit me via the internet of course, not by bus !
Monday, 1 November 2010
Money and Value
Don’t panic ... this isn’t an economic essay, nor a treatise on the price of gold, rather its a musing as a result of various things I have been involved in, including budget planning for the Nottingham Credit Union (www.nottinghamcu.co.uk) some personal reflections on spending and just possibility a small influence from the current UK and Global predictions on growth, recessions, unemployment etc.
Lets start with a very brief history lesson. Money was invented by people in ancient times, (blame the Chinese, they seem to have done things like this well before the West) as an answer to the ineffectiveness of the barter system. Its all well to trade three chickens for a goat but what if you want a sheep but the sheep owner wants hay ? or if you only want one chicken, how do you divide the goat and what bits are worth a chicken..............the exchange rate of chickens, goats, hay and sheep would trouble the Bank of England or other financial authorities as much as today’s system, so money was invented.
At its basis is a way of trying to measure what very different things are worth or VALUED. This is where we start to see flaws in the relationship between money, which has numbers attached to it................. in the old days we used to say pounds, shillings and pence, but what the coins and notes are called doesn’t matter to my argument............... what is important is how the numbers become measure of value in their own right, when they patently should not.
If you have £1000 and I have £5000, I have five times as much, but your £1000 may in fact be worth more to you than my £5K to me. You have more value or can purchase what is valued more by you for your £1000.
Value is therefore personal, people and business enterprises, for profit or non profit alike, all see value differently.
We can go all philosophical and talk about love, loyalty, integrity, power, praise etc that is things that cannot be readily measured in money terms, though it must be admitted that many have tried. The Insurance industry can tell you what a life, or loss of a limb or an eye is worth but their figures tell us nothing about the person affected or in the case of death, those connected with the deceased, what was that life really worth ?
However lets not get too morbid, the dilemma applies to any situation where people need to be valued, like my budget planning. The Accountants, also called the ‘moneymen’ or by some less respectful people, ‘bean counters’ have little problem, the cost of employing people is easily calculated and is easily reduced by shedding staff. What is lost is the value that these people deliver to their organisation, never mind the value they may make to the future.
On a more personal level, I might value a nice car more than a neighbour who is happy with an old runabout and who would rather spend their money on home improvements. That's fine, he would not pay my definition of a reasonable price for a car and I would not pay so much as he would for a new kitchen.
I might value control over my time, against working for someone who takes those decisions for me and people do become self employed for that sort of reason and maybe sacrifice money and perks for the personal freedom.
If I am starving in the desert and someone has food and water, then I might be very happy to pay rather more than the Asda Price for it. Staying alive is valued more in money terms than the money itself.
If I were rich and famous (maybe one day, we can still dream), I could easily become adjusted to the wealth so I may be happy to spend £50,000 on an expensive Swiss Timepiece, rather than £20 on one from China which is just as accurate. The argument there is of course that if I were rich, then I need to look like I am rich, so conspicuous consumption is necessary. (Apologies to all modest multimillionaires driving 1999 model Ford Escorts and wearing Hong Kong Digital watches.)
On a more mundane level, maybe as we get older our priorities change, for some this may mean choosing between eating or heating, .......... for others more fortunate, enjoyment in the twilight years has a value which means you spend the money on things, on trips and whatever else you fancy, as otherwise you would only leave it to your children. Others may of course have a sense of value in maximising the inheritance to their heirs and that is their right.
Conscious that I am rambling a bit, I will end with saying that a past boss of mine was fond of saying. He applied it to all the situations where the ‘bean counters’ got excited over small expenditures and really excited when the budget was overspent on one line and underspent on another and to the numerous requests to show the value of a project or course of action, a value expressed in money of course.......the phrase was and I quote
“You don’t fatten the pig by keep weighing it”
Money measures things, its people who create and add value.
Lets start with a very brief history lesson. Money was invented by people in ancient times, (blame the Chinese, they seem to have done things like this well before the West) as an answer to the ineffectiveness of the barter system. Its all well to trade three chickens for a goat but what if you want a sheep but the sheep owner wants hay ? or if you only want one chicken, how do you divide the goat and what bits are worth a chicken..............the exchange rate of chickens, goats, hay and sheep would trouble the Bank of England or other financial authorities as much as today’s system, so money was invented.
At its basis is a way of trying to measure what very different things are worth or VALUED. This is where we start to see flaws in the relationship between money, which has numbers attached to it................. in the old days we used to say pounds, shillings and pence, but what the coins and notes are called doesn’t matter to my argument............... what is important is how the numbers become measure of value in their own right, when they patently should not.
If you have £1000 and I have £5000, I have five times as much, but your £1000 may in fact be worth more to you than my £5K to me. You have more value or can purchase what is valued more by you for your £1000.
Value is therefore personal, people and business enterprises, for profit or non profit alike, all see value differently.
We can go all philosophical and talk about love, loyalty, integrity, power, praise etc that is things that cannot be readily measured in money terms, though it must be admitted that many have tried. The Insurance industry can tell you what a life, or loss of a limb or an eye is worth but their figures tell us nothing about the person affected or in the case of death, those connected with the deceased, what was that life really worth ?
However lets not get too morbid, the dilemma applies to any situation where people need to be valued, like my budget planning. The Accountants, also called the ‘moneymen’ or by some less respectful people, ‘bean counters’ have little problem, the cost of employing people is easily calculated and is easily reduced by shedding staff. What is lost is the value that these people deliver to their organisation, never mind the value they may make to the future.
On a more personal level, I might value a nice car more than a neighbour who is happy with an old runabout and who would rather spend their money on home improvements. That's fine, he would not pay my definition of a reasonable price for a car and I would not pay so much as he would for a new kitchen.
I might value control over my time, against working for someone who takes those decisions for me and people do become self employed for that sort of reason and maybe sacrifice money and perks for the personal freedom.
If I am starving in the desert and someone has food and water, then I might be very happy to pay rather more than the Asda Price for it. Staying alive is valued more in money terms than the money itself.
If I were rich and famous (maybe one day, we can still dream), I could easily become adjusted to the wealth so I may be happy to spend £50,000 on an expensive Swiss Timepiece, rather than £20 on one from China which is just as accurate. The argument there is of course that if I were rich, then I need to look like I am rich, so conspicuous consumption is necessary. (Apologies to all modest multimillionaires driving 1999 model Ford Escorts and wearing Hong Kong Digital watches.)
On a more mundane level, maybe as we get older our priorities change, for some this may mean choosing between eating or heating, .......... for others more fortunate, enjoyment in the twilight years has a value which means you spend the money on things, on trips and whatever else you fancy, as otherwise you would only leave it to your children. Others may of course have a sense of value in maximising the inheritance to their heirs and that is their right.
Conscious that I am rambling a bit, I will end with saying that a past boss of mine was fond of saying. He applied it to all the situations where the ‘bean counters’ got excited over small expenditures and really excited when the budget was overspent on one line and underspent on another and to the numerous requests to show the value of a project or course of action, a value expressed in money of course.......the phrase was and I quote
“You don’t fatten the pig by keep weighing it”
Money measures things, its people who create and add value.
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