I've just read that we, the British taxpayers, are to bail out all the cretins that put more than £50,000 into that dodgy foreign bank (Icesave) that was paying an excessive rate of interest. How stupid is that? In future should we move all our savings from the UK banks and put them with whichever minor, previously unheard of, foreign bank is paying a better rate of interest? Why be content with 6% when the Bank of Timbuktu may pay us 7%+. After all there will be no risk - our Labour Government would come to our rescue with taxpayers' money! Unbelieveable!
POSTSCRIPT : It now appears that 20 local councils in the UK have deposited hundreds of millions of pounds with these Icelandic banks. Heads should roll in these councils and the "responsible" officials who put public money at risk in these Icelandic Casinos should be named and shamed. UPDATE : Ipswich Borough Council have £5million deposited in Icelandic banks. That's the annual Council Tax of 4,000 hard working Ipswich families.
UPDATE - FRIDAY 10TH : The country of Iceland is now for sale on ebay. Hopefully this link will work
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
Friday, 3 October 2008
SOME MUSINGS ON THE CURRENT CRISIS
The news is full of doom and gloom – with banks having to be rescued and shares plunging. However this week I’ve attended two interesting auctions and the results from these do show that some people certainly have money to invest. On Tuesday in Colchester four hand written letters from the late Diana, Princess of Wales, to her childhood nanny sold for nearly £25,000 and a three page letter written in 1937 by the Duchess of Windsor sold for over £13,000.
On Wednesday I went to the Spink auction in central London where a banknote sold for over £78,000. In a hushed room the bidding increased firstly in one thousand pound increments then in two thousand pound increments. The only other existing similar note had sold years ago for £8,000. Some other banknotes in the auction went for nearly £45,000, for £35,000 and £27,000 to mention just three more examples (all these prices include buyer’s premium and VAT). Several expensive ones sold to a gentleman sitting directly behind me which was a little disconcerting as the auctioneer appeared to be looking directly at me as he took the bids. So I was sitting there wondering whether I had blinked or rubbed my nose!
Of equal interest (well to me at least, as Mrs Troy yawns) was the price realised on Tuesday in Colchester for some run-of-the-mill gold Sovereigns. These had been estimated at £92 - £115 (including buyer’s premium). As you probably know (?) each sovereign contains 0.2354 troy ounces of gold – so their intrinsic value at that date was about £115. They sold for an average of £156 with the cheapest at £138! Dealers this week were offering £110 to buy sovereigns so several bidders were happy to pay well over the odds for gold. (If you do want to buy gold for a sensible price and which is safely kept in a secure vault I recommend the BullionVault.com website).
Finally, I read today that 100oz pure silver (99.9%) bars are selling on eBay (US) for in excess of $1,500 whilst the “market” price for silver is under $12 an ounce. More than a 25% premium is being paid for just a lump of the metal (no craftwork or aesthetic content).
So people in these times of crisis are putting their wealth into alternative investments and real money (gold and silver – not government issued promises) whilst others struggle to pay their utility bills or to stave off repossession of their homes – it’s a strange old world! What do you think?
On Wednesday I went to the Spink auction in central London where a banknote sold for over £78,000. In a hushed room the bidding increased firstly in one thousand pound increments then in two thousand pound increments. The only other existing similar note had sold years ago for £8,000. Some other banknotes in the auction went for nearly £45,000, for £35,000 and £27,000 to mention just three more examples (all these prices include buyer’s premium and VAT). Several expensive ones sold to a gentleman sitting directly behind me which was a little disconcerting as the auctioneer appeared to be looking directly at me as he took the bids. So I was sitting there wondering whether I had blinked or rubbed my nose!
Of equal interest (well to me at least, as Mrs Troy yawns) was the price realised on Tuesday in Colchester for some run-of-the-mill gold Sovereigns. These had been estimated at £92 - £115 (including buyer’s premium). As you probably know (?) each sovereign contains 0.2354 troy ounces of gold – so their intrinsic value at that date was about £115. They sold for an average of £156 with the cheapest at £138! Dealers this week were offering £110 to buy sovereigns so several bidders were happy to pay well over the odds for gold. (If you do want to buy gold for a sensible price and which is safely kept in a secure vault I recommend the BullionVault.com website).
Finally, I read today that 100oz pure silver (99.9%) bars are selling on eBay (US) for in excess of $1,500 whilst the “market” price for silver is under $12 an ounce. More than a 25% premium is being paid for just a lump of the metal (no craftwork or aesthetic content).
So people in these times of crisis are putting their wealth into alternative investments and real money (gold and silver – not government issued promises) whilst others struggle to pay their utility bills or to stave off repossession of their homes – it’s a strange old world! What do you think?
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
TROY TO BE UNMASKED?
There is a vote this Thursday in the European Parliament that seeks to regulate blogs and stop people blogging, like Troy, anonymously. Typically, it a centre-left politician who wants to interfere. They can’t abide the idea that people want to criticise the European integration movement. A British Conservative MEP rejects such regulation and points out that blogs have become the life blood of a vibrant democracy.
Apparently a European Commission report found that the EU was losing the battle for hearts and minds online. Big Brother is not happy! You MUST learn to love Big Brother! Expressing thoughts of your own, especially anonymously, is dangerous.
Troy supported the “Common Market” when it was put to the vote all those years ago. However I am vehemently opposed to the concept of a European Union run on continental socialist ideology by primarily unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats spending unaudited billions on their pet integration projects.
Troy fears he may have to end his days as a geriatric freedom fighter in the English Independence Army. Let’s hope it doesn’t have to come to that and instead I can enjoy my old age on the beach, in a deckchair, with a good book and my Daily Telegraph!
Apparently a European Commission report found that the EU was losing the battle for hearts and minds online. Big Brother is not happy! You MUST learn to love Big Brother! Expressing thoughts of your own, especially anonymously, is dangerous.
Troy supported the “Common Market” when it was put to the vote all those years ago. However I am vehemently opposed to the concept of a European Union run on continental socialist ideology by primarily unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats spending unaudited billions on their pet integration projects.
Troy fears he may have to end his days as a geriatric freedom fighter in the English Independence Army. Let’s hope it doesn’t have to come to that and instead I can enjoy my old age on the beach, in a deckchair, with a good book and my Daily Telegraph!
Friday, 19 September 2008
GORDON BROWN - A NEW TAX CALCULATOR GAME
I hope you enjoy playing this Gordon Brown Tax Calculator which comes from The Tax Payers' Alliance. I would also recommend their blog - a link to them is shown on right hand side of my blog.
I couldn't get the image above to quite fit my blog. It is too large - a bit like Gordon's public sector!
Although I loathe Gordon Brown intensely I do sincerely hope he is still the leader of the Labour Party at the time of the next General Election.
Monday, 15 September 2008
ONE OF THOSE DAYS
Today is turning out to be “One Of Those Days”. They are so, SO frustrating. The problem started at about 8am but I had to take Troy Junior to school so I left home just hoping for the best. I collected my newspaper from the village store and walked back home in the sunshine. How was the morning going to turn out? A quick nervous look on my return home confirmed the worse!
I phoned my wife at her office – “We’ve got a complete disaster here at home”
“What’s the matter, what’s happened?” she responded, full of concern.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do – I can’t seem to fix it”
“Tell me what’s wrong!” she demanded.
I couldn’t hold back, I had to give it to her straight - “The internet is down, it’s been down since 8am!”
East Anglian Troy is a man of habit. That habit is seriously tested when the internet is down. And today of all days; with Lehman Bros. going into bankruptcy protection and stockmarkets around the world going into freefall. It’s no time to be cut off from the information superhighway. Had I been a little calmer I suppose I could have looked on Teletext, but that now seems so 20th Century.
I fiddled around rebooting the BT Hub – nothing. I unplugged the mains lead – nothing. I just need that one particular light to be green – it isn’t. It’s completely ungreen.
Then it turned green. I hurried off an e-mail to Mrs Troy at her office. Subject heading – “Life Just Got Better”. She should be the first to know I’m back online. It’s sent, it went!.
Then that truly awful click sound – and all the lights are flashing on the BT Hub, and then they all go out. Spoke too soon. Yes, it is going to be “One Of Those Days”. I left my study, went over to the Hi-Fi and put on Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” CD, closed my eyes and enjoyed her melodic voice (Mrs Troy calls it a screech). Several times I checked back into my study – no internet – so I rebooted or unplugged/replugged the box. Quickly between each CD track.
The relevant light finally came back on. I’m no longer alone – I’m reconnected. Quick check on my e-mails. Mrs Troy has replied to mine. It reads:-
“Oh thank God for that. I was very close to calling 999, but wasn't sure whether to ask for an ambulance for you...or the police to investigate the matter!”
And so, dear readers and fellow bloggers, it seems I must turn to you for a little sympathy…….
I phoned my wife at her office – “We’ve got a complete disaster here at home”
“What’s the matter, what’s happened?” she responded, full of concern.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do – I can’t seem to fix it”
“Tell me what’s wrong!” she demanded.
I couldn’t hold back, I had to give it to her straight - “The internet is down, it’s been down since 8am!”
East Anglian Troy is a man of habit. That habit is seriously tested when the internet is down. And today of all days; with Lehman Bros. going into bankruptcy protection and stockmarkets around the world going into freefall. It’s no time to be cut off from the information superhighway. Had I been a little calmer I suppose I could have looked on Teletext, but that now seems so 20th Century.
I fiddled around rebooting the BT Hub – nothing. I unplugged the mains lead – nothing. I just need that one particular light to be green – it isn’t. It’s completely ungreen.
Then it turned green. I hurried off an e-mail to Mrs Troy at her office. Subject heading – “Life Just Got Better”. She should be the first to know I’m back online. It’s sent, it went!.
Then that truly awful click sound – and all the lights are flashing on the BT Hub, and then they all go out. Spoke too soon. Yes, it is going to be “One Of Those Days”. I left my study, went over to the Hi-Fi and put on Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” CD, closed my eyes and enjoyed her melodic voice (Mrs Troy calls it a screech). Several times I checked back into my study – no internet – so I rebooted or unplugged/replugged the box. Quickly between each CD track.
The relevant light finally came back on. I’m no longer alone – I’m reconnected. Quick check on my e-mails. Mrs Troy has replied to mine. It reads:-
“Oh thank God for that. I was very close to calling 999, but wasn't sure whether to ask for an ambulance for you...or the police to investigate the matter!”
And so, dear readers and fellow bloggers, it seems I must turn to you for a little sympathy…….
Friday, 12 September 2008
CLEARING UP A MISCONCEPTION
Mrs Troy is spitting blood. It appears that some of you may have mistaken her e-mail (which I reproduced in my last blog) which read “You don't fancy doing some ironing instead of pissing around with blogs all day!!!!!” as suggesting that I'm the one who does the ironing in the Troy household. In all my life since I’ve lived with Mrs Troy I think I’ve only ironed three shirts and one pair of trousers. In fact every time I do get the iron out I find it is a different and more complicated model to the one I used previously and I don’t know how to use it! So that must be about once ever six or seven years at best (or worse, depending on your viewpoint).
In a feeble attempt to redeem myself with my female readers I should like to point out that I do enjoy vacuum cleaning. I do the vacuum cleaning in the Troy household. Me and my Dyson are like Fred and Ginger. We waltz around our rooms in perfect harmony. (Just to avoid any more confusion – Fred and Ginger have never waltzed around our rooms – it’s just either a metaphor or simile, don’t ask me which). I also wash up our breakfast items after Mrs Troy has gone to work and walk Troy Junior to school.
After all that excitement I then just like to spend a few minutes at my computer screen to catch up on the world events, see how my investments are performing (usually woefully) and explore the “wonderful world of blogland”. And surely I’m allowed a few minutes to compose witty, winning captions for DJ’s Wordless Wednesdays? Mrs Troy should be proud to be living with a two-times award winner. I mean when was the last time Hugh Grant or Pierce Brosnan (her heartthrobs) got such an award?
And do WE seriously think THEY do the ironing in the Grant and Brosnan households?????????
In a feeble attempt to redeem myself with my female readers I should like to point out that I do enjoy vacuum cleaning. I do the vacuum cleaning in the Troy household. Me and my Dyson are like Fred and Ginger. We waltz around our rooms in perfect harmony. (Just to avoid any more confusion – Fred and Ginger have never waltzed around our rooms – it’s just either a metaphor or simile, don’t ask me which). I also wash up our breakfast items after Mrs Troy has gone to work and walk Troy Junior to school.
After all that excitement I then just like to spend a few minutes at my computer screen to catch up on the world events, see how my investments are performing (usually woefully) and explore the “wonderful world of blogland”. And surely I’m allowed a few minutes to compose witty, winning captions for DJ’s Wordless Wednesdays? Mrs Troy should be proud to be living with a two-times award winner. I mean when was the last time Hugh Grant or Pierce Brosnan (her heartthrobs) got such an award?
And do WE seriously think THEY do the ironing in the Grant and Brosnan households?????????
Sunday, 7 September 2008
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF "BLOGLAND"
Over the last few weeks my eyes have been opened to a wonderful world out there in “blogland”. I’m indebted to my good friend, John Woodman of “Thoughts from the North” for introducing me to the concept of blogging. His earlier blog, charting his attempts to roll back the yellow peril in Northumberland, inspired me to start up my own blog. However my real joy has been in meandering from blog to blog and discovering a whole new world out there.
In the space of a few weeks I’ve learnt about :-
- Falling off ladders and wind farms
- Kissograms, Morris dancing and handbag contents
- Blackberry jamming and the challenge of writing photo captions
- Spirits visiting a Northumberland farmhouse
- Learning Latin at home
- Mothers’ thoughts about children returning to school
- Front doors and heroic levels of volunteering
- A love letter from a secret French admirer
- Elliot Cowan being divine (from a female perspective)
- States of Emergencies in Thailand
- Home selling adventures in France
- Demolishing cooling towers
- Sandcastles on the Yorkshire moors
Hopefully you’ll recognise yourselves somewhere among that list. I think I've got most of your links shown on my sidebar. Thanks for being out there, and for being both entertaining and educational. And thanks to everyone who has dropped by here and left comments – it is nice to know some people are out there and finding my musings are of interest. I hope you’ll keep returning.
One thing that has struck me – just an observation not a scientific study – is that the ratio of female bloggers to male bloggers out there in “blogland” seems to be about 7 : 1. I’m wondering why that is? Mrs Troy, who works part-time, reckons it is because so many women are at home all day and have time on their hands!! She even sent me an e-mail from her office last Thursday - quote “You don't fancy doing some ironing instead of pissing around with blogs all day!!!!!” What do you ladies (and gentlemen) think about Mrs Troy’s point of view?
In the space of a few weeks I’ve learnt about :-
- Falling off ladders and wind farms
- Kissograms, Morris dancing and handbag contents
- Blackberry jamming and the challenge of writing photo captions
- Spirits visiting a Northumberland farmhouse
- Learning Latin at home
- Mothers’ thoughts about children returning to school
- Front doors and heroic levels of volunteering
- A love letter from a secret French admirer
- Elliot Cowan being divine (from a female perspective)
- States of Emergencies in Thailand
- Home selling adventures in France
- Demolishing cooling towers
- Sandcastles on the Yorkshire moors
Hopefully you’ll recognise yourselves somewhere among that list. I think I've got most of your links shown on my sidebar. Thanks for being out there, and for being both entertaining and educational. And thanks to everyone who has dropped by here and left comments – it is nice to know some people are out there and finding my musings are of interest. I hope you’ll keep returning.
One thing that has struck me – just an observation not a scientific study – is that the ratio of female bloggers to male bloggers out there in “blogland” seems to be about 7 : 1. I’m wondering why that is? Mrs Troy, who works part-time, reckons it is because so many women are at home all day and have time on their hands!! She even sent me an e-mail from her office last Thursday - quote “You don't fancy doing some ironing instead of pissing around with blogs all day!!!!!” What do you ladies (and gentlemen) think about Mrs Troy’s point of view?
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