Dust, dust and more dust

My B-i-L has just completed his first month of the six month tour of Afghanistan, and has seen the best and worst the theatre has to offer.

There have been three vigils while he has been there, a time when the whole base turns out to see of the coffins of the fallen prior to their repatriation, there have been seven such fatalities so far. There is a religious farewell followed by a mates eulogy, then the minutes silence and the salvo of gun fire. Even reading about it, and transcribing it here sends a chill through the blood.

The medical facilities for the wounded sound first rate, and it is often the seriously maimed who survive, but do not get the press and publicity at our end, who face the hardest battle as they struggle to re-establish themselves outside of the force. Thankfully charities like 'Help for Hero's' and others are starting to make a difference as they strive to help both the personnel and places like Headley Hall where the rehabilitation process begins.

On the more positive side of his tour, he seems to have found a batman, in old speak, who is a bit like Radar in Mash, and can acquire a wide and varied selection of items, both military and civilian , all of which make like a little bit more bearable. He also now has access passes to the Swedish and American compounds giving him a wider choice of restaurants to visit....steak and lobster tails in the US base, and the best coffee in the area from the Swedes.

Communication with the outside world seems good, and we regularly exchange e-mails. He has shoe box size parcels which arrive periodically with malt loaf and maltesers being amongst his requested treats. He also has something called an e-bluey, but I think I will save the explanation of that for another blog entry.

Wheeler dealer

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has been featured in the tabloids recently for his alleged dalliances with members of the fairer sex, usually of the blond persuasion. This may well be getting him the nickname 'Boris the Bike'

Boris has, however, lent his name to another closely related colloquialism which is springing up around London, namely Boris Bikes. These contraptions are traditional sit up and beg style cycles positioned at docking stations around London and are designed to collect and drop at various places as you make your way around town. They are sponsored by Barclays who must be somewhat disappointed that they are not referred to as Barclay bikes.

The first 30 minutes of a hire is free, there on after a sliding charge applies . Some local authorities are reluctant to embrace the scheme, and a few well to do suburbs are resisting the planning applications for their streets, however the ones I have seen do not appear intrusive in the slightest, and with bike storage and security, a problem for flat owners I would have thought this is a great addition to the capitols transport system.

I am about to register for my dongle and may then try the system on the more quiet back lanes of London as my cycling skills are equivalent to those of a 6 or 7 year old, given I never owned one as a kid. The scheme does not supply helmets either, so we will see how I go.

As an aside, I have noticed an increase in privately owned sit up and beg bikes, mostly used by good looking women, maybe Boris is on some sort of alternative scheme with them too!!

Jaws IV

I have become a loan shark. I have ventured into it for a bit of fun and to see if there is an easy way to make money. It's through a web site called Zopa. You tell them how much you want to invest and give them a target rate of return and they do the rest.

I have stipulated a maximum loan of £30 per person and Zopa put together thousands of people to meet the requirement of a borrower. This is designed to minimise your risk. So at the moment I have interest in about twenty loans and am awaiting the interest rolling . You can also look at specific requests and loan as much or as little as you want against it. Most borrowers are looking for loan consolidation, a new car or some business venture funding and interest rates they are prepared to pay range from 5 to 15%. The borrowers are graded like A levels, from A* to C, and the lower the rating the more likely there will be some bad debt associated with them.

So I am up and running and all my borrowers are in the A* bracket, it will be interesting to see how it maps out. Find out more here http://uk.zopa.com/member/witherspoons you may fancy a dabble. I notice it featured in today's Daily telegraph, and with commercial rates lower that 3% it should be of interest !

Bob.....

Its the demolition and construction season up North. The house has had a leaky roof since we have owned it, and a series of patch ups has finally proved insufficient. So the decision was taken to do some major gully and leading work.

The roof is a mile high and surrounded by trees so it proved to be a challenge for the scaffolders. They managed to get access for the roofers, but these hardy chaps had to work in the wind and the rain for the most part.

Still it has been completed and only ran one day over schedule. That was in no small part due to them working long hours to get the job done.

Now compare that with project II, the kitchen. After several weeks of planning, the work started two weeks ago, when the old kitchen was ripped out. These lads though are from the school of short days. A 10am start and a 3pm finish has not been unusual, and they have popped off to do other snagging elsewhere on occasions.

That's all very well except that we are living out of take-away boxes, with a kettle and microwave as back-up, and yesterday SWMBO got upset over it all. not a good idea.

So, today there are workmen everywhere. The new units are almost completed, the tiler is around wanting to know which ones we want, the plumber has been and the sparks will be here tomorrow. SWMBO now revelling in her Cruella De Vil role, nobody is safe, but then we know that already!!

How!

A blast from the past landed on my desk at the weekend, an i-Spy book. It was presented free in the Daily Mail, and is sponsored by Michelin.

I grew up surrounded by i-Spy books. Each book covered a subject such as i-Spy Cars, on the Pavement, Churches, on a Train Journey, and so on. They were particularly successful in the 1950s and 1960s.

There were roughly forty small volumes that sold in hundreds of thousands. As we children spotted objects such as coal hole covers, oak trees, semaphore signals, fire engines, whelks, and so on, they were recorded in the relevant book, and gained points. Once the book was complete, it could be sent to Big Chief i-Spy for a feather and order of merit.

I can't remember sending any off myself, although I know friends did, and some had quite a collection of feathers.

The particular volume I received was 'on a car journey' and I have just missed the ideal opportunity to test drive it, so to speak. Yesterday I picked up my nephew, Matthew, from Swindon and we drove up to Scouseland. Once we had caught up on news and exhausted our other conversation he settled into his i-Pod and I listened to a bit of the cricket. It was only as we slowed down due to weight of Sunday traffic that I suggested we might play a car game, but with a lack of yellow cars and pub signs, nothing came of it.

As we approached Southport there was a queue of vintage and custom kit cars leaving the annual WoodVale car show. I notice there is and i-Spy book on vintage cars, so we might have ticked a few of those off.

The i-Spy book, I now have, however, would have been ideal for the longer journey as we could have searched out roadworks signs, police cars, flags, planes and a lot more. It seems as if they have combined many of the older categories into the one volume but is seems to work, so we might give it a go on the return journey next week.

Toot toot!