Eating out

For our wedding anniversary we went out for a meal to a nice restaurant. Although it was Tuesday evening, most tables were taken and I think most (if not all) of the people had booked.

My wife had read an article about how people can't be without their mobile phones, even when eating out. So we looked around, and there they were. Quite a number of people had sat down, taken out their phones and placed them on the table next to the cutlery. What is this "I can't be without sight of my mobile phone for a minute" complex that so many of us seem to have? I'm sure they weren't all "doctors on call" or afraid the babysitter couldn't cope.

I must confess that we did have our phones in our pockets, but we had no contact with them during the meal at all - honest!

By the way, the chef is clearly taking the mickey on this wonderful county. Obviously he has seen The Only Way is Essex on the tele. On the dessert menu was

Essex rhubarb fool tart

Every word an insult!

Simple shopping made complicated

This shopping business is too much for us to understand!

My wife went into our local 99p shop, which has huge posters saying (not surprisingly) everything is 99p. So she bought two items and went to the till to be told the bill was £1.88.

How does that work? Confused, she asked for the receipt, and that's what it says, £1.88. It also says it was one item (which it wasn't, it was two) and she was served by a girl, which doesn't quite tie up with the man's name on the receipt!

But never mind, mustn't complain about a bargain!

Wedding anniversary

It's our forty second wedding anniversary today. After my wife's brilliant birthday card to me last month ( see www.ericgreymatters.blogspot.com/2011/07/birthday.html ), she
triumphed again with my anniversary card. I could have kicked myself that I didn't think of it ...

Here's the outside:

And here's the inside:

(Of course, you have to be a Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy fan to understand. If you're not, too bad!)

First of all, I must say that there's no justification for the riots that happened a fortnight or so ago. And the courts are right to come down hard on those arrested and found guilty. But people are now asking why it happened. Do the poor have a reason to at least protest in our country's current situation?

We are told by the Prime Minister that we must all "tighten our belts". But on the other hand, the government want to abolish the 50% income tax rate on income over £150,000 a year. Most (if not all) of those who caused the banking crisis were in that income bracket. The poor, who had nothing to do with the crash are suffering all kinds of cutbacks in welfare, benefits and so on.

Even for the young who are fortunate enough to be in work, mortgages are near impossible to get unless you have a whacking great deposit saved up, rents are hitting new highs, commuter costs (petrol and rail fares) just keep rising and let's not even start to talk about escalating fuel bills. Those who leave university are being saddled with great debts which are likely to hang over them for many years.

Patrick Collinson, the editor of the Guardian's Money section, wrote on Saturday that he would be the last person to condone the mindless destruction that we've seen recently, but adds,
if we step back a few paces, and we consider how we are abandoning that far larger, law-abiding, younger generation, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

============================

Meanwhile, in America ...

Warren Buffet, one of America's richest people, wrote in the New York Times last week about how little tax he pays. He said about his tax bill last year,

what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens averaged 36 percent.

He concludes,

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

Is it any different in the UK? I fear not. Those who are struggling to survive have many reasons to feel aggrieved. The question is this, will the government listen to them before there are more riots?

Compelling Reason for Cutting carbon

They say it's the "silly season" in August concerning the news; i.e. nothing much is happening so news stories bordering on the ridiculous get 'aired'. However, with what's happened in the UK recently and what's happening now in places like Libya and Syria, one can't say there's little news around.

Even so, I read last Friday that there's a new compelling reason for cutting our carbon emissions and this is from a report from no less than Nasa.

And the reason is - to lessen the danger of alien attack!

They surmise that as global warming on our planet can be observed from outer space, there just could be alien races out there looking at what's happening to our planet, and they just may be ecologically aware and decide to destroy us before we destroy our planet.

So, two things to learn from this:

1. Cut down your carbon footprint;

2. Learn to say "I'll take you to our leader" in as many languages as possible.

Flying too fast?

It was billed as the world's fastest plane, the Falcon HTV-2, which could fly from London to Sydney in less than an hour (just think, it wouldn't matter if you hadn't paid for an in-flight meal - not long enough to eat it anyway!). HTV stands for Hypersonic Technology Vehicle and it's been developed by the USA.

The first test flight in April last year was aborted after nine minutes. It reached a speed of mach 22 then "the onboard computer detected an anomaly" & it ditched the plane into the ocean "for safety reasons". I've heard of 'anomalies', they encounter them in Star Trek, and they can be very nasty!

A couple of weeks back they were ready to for the second test flight. But apparently they lost contact with the plane and they say they assume it ditched into the sea again.

But I don't believe that. I reckon when it reached full 'hypersonic' speed it crossed to another dimension - probably through one of those anomalies. Or maybe it shot into the future and one day it will appear again ...

How to waste £11bn. It's easy really, just ask the NHS!

The £11bn NHS computer system to create and make available all patients' records has been a failure, so a report from MPs says. £6.4bn has already been spent on what turns out to be an unworkable system.

What on earth have they been doing? It's not that they have to do anything complex with the information - just collect it and make it available. No complicated maths or manipulation of the data, it beggars belief! How many extra operations could have been paid for with the money they've wasted ?

I worked in "information technology" thirty years ago (although it wasn't known as IT then). In those days a systems analyst investigated the systems being used and how they could be transformed by a computerised system. To do this, you had to "get your hands dirty" by investigating what people actually did, and what system they actually needed. Sometimes people didn't do that step rigorously, as they thought they knew best what the customer needed. It was those computer systems that turned out to be disasters.

But that was, as I said, 30 years ago. Surely the industry has learned that basic lesson by now? Apparently not. The committee of MPs said, "the department could have avoided some of the pitfalls and waste if they had consulted at the start with health professionals."

In other words, highly paid managers think they know what's best without bothering at ask the people who will actually work the system.

Sadly, lessons are never learnt. And the same story will be told in the future about some other massively costly computer system. And it's our money that's being poured down the drain.

Holiday Drinking

As we sat on the beach, I said to my wife, “I need to hydrate.” What I meant was, “I’m thirsty.” The reason for the comment was the news that much of the nonsense told us by companies that sell bottled water is just that – nonsense. You don’t need to drink umpteen litres of water a day in order to stay ‘hydrated’. Our bodies have been telling us for thousands of year when we need to drink – we get thirsty.

Other nonsense about tea and coffee not counting has also been debunked. What’s more, there’s water in fruit and vegetables, so eating your five a day is also helping your fluid intake. Coupled with the price of most bottles of water, it’s quite a relief! Although I find that the thing by the sink provides a good, cheap, drinking source, even if you’re on a meter!

But just one point – Hooray for Euro Shopper’s bottle of water purchased in the Isle of Wight – 29p for half a litre! Less than half the price you norally pay. And a sell by date of a year’s time. Well, you know how water can go off!