Saturday, August 25, 2007
Googled PS
Inspection of the house and its vicinity revealed that my recollection of it was rather poorer than I had thought - although I am not sure that I would have been successful at finding it on the aerial photograph even if it had not been. No wonder the police get so many false positives when they ask for sightings of this or that.
Been having various ponderous thoughts about how we might better fund getting old. Given that there are a growing number of us and that care for the old is expensive, something better than the current lottery as to who pays is called for. A first step might be to buy care for life at the point that one comes to need it. With a life expectancy of say 10 years at £1,000 a week, maybe £300,000 (I think there is a function in Excel which does this sum but I am too lazy on this rather hot afternoon to find it)? That would remove the worry of outliving one's dosh and finding oneself on the steps of the town hall. A next step might be for a basic total care package to come out of general taxation which one could top up if one wanted one's own room, flowers or other trimmings. One could choose when one wanted to enter care - and given that most people are in no hurry, I don't think there would be enough abuse to make problems. And the knowledge that such provision was available when one needed it would mean that one could soldier on at home for rather longer than might be prudent now. I hope the nannies are beavering away at this, in between the banning - which they so love- of things which other people love.
Various interesting happening in parts West. One of which was the sight of a lady of a certain age watering the flat roof of her fine, new, and very arty, house on what was a landslip. And the second was a demonstration of the class plumber service which pertains in some parts of the countryside. That is to say, BH phones for a plumber and before she puts the phone down he is pulling into the drive. To attend to something which I have never seen before - that is to say a perforated U-bend. It seems that in my unsuccessful attempts to do something about the rotten washer, I disturbed the fixing of the access hatch to the U-bend - with the result that it now has a small hole in it. Plumber cheerfully explains that he had not seen a U-bend of this sort since his apprentice days (which probably says something about how old he is); no you couldn't get a replacement washer; no you couldn't get a replacement U-bend; but yes, you could get a plastic one. But it would not fit. Time to move the hole in the wall. Why doesn't sir buy a nice new sink unit which I can fit for you? In the meantime he squirts a bit of white goo at it which does not quite do the job. But it does it well enough for a bucket to suffice for the time being while we review the situation. BH will be giving a presentation to the family shortly.
While she is prepping, I wonder whether Putin is going to wangle an extension. It seems the constitution says he is supposed to stand down in a few months. So is all this pecturising a prelude to the well travelled road of strong men who convert their legitimately obtained term appointments into appointments for life? Usually with unhappy endings. Although that early exemplar, Augustus, did not do bad for his time.
Been having various ponderous thoughts about how we might better fund getting old. Given that there are a growing number of us and that care for the old is expensive, something better than the current lottery as to who pays is called for. A first step might be to buy care for life at the point that one comes to need it. With a life expectancy of say 10 years at £1,000 a week, maybe £300,000 (I think there is a function in Excel which does this sum but I am too lazy on this rather hot afternoon to find it)? That would remove the worry of outliving one's dosh and finding oneself on the steps of the town hall. A next step might be for a basic total care package to come out of general taxation which one could top up if one wanted one's own room, flowers or other trimmings. One could choose when one wanted to enter care - and given that most people are in no hurry, I don't think there would be enough abuse to make problems. And the knowledge that such provision was available when one needed it would mean that one could soldier on at home for rather longer than might be prudent now. I hope the nannies are beavering away at this, in between the banning - which they so love- of things which other people love.
Various interesting happening in parts West. One of which was the sight of a lady of a certain age watering the flat roof of her fine, new, and very arty, house on what was a landslip. And the second was a demonstration of the class plumber service which pertains in some parts of the countryside. That is to say, BH phones for a plumber and before she puts the phone down he is pulling into the drive. To attend to something which I have never seen before - that is to say a perforated U-bend. It seems that in my unsuccessful attempts to do something about the rotten washer, I disturbed the fixing of the access hatch to the U-bend - with the result that it now has a small hole in it. Plumber cheerfully explains that he had not seen a U-bend of this sort since his apprentice days (which probably says something about how old he is); no you couldn't get a replacement washer; no you couldn't get a replacement U-bend; but yes, you could get a plastic one. But it would not fit. Time to move the hole in the wall. Why doesn't sir buy a nice new sink unit which I can fit for you? In the meantime he squirts a bit of white goo at it which does not quite do the job. But it does it well enough for a bucket to suffice for the time being while we review the situation. BH will be giving a presentation to the family shortly.
While she is prepping, I wonder whether Putin is going to wangle an extension. It seems the constitution says he is supposed to stand down in a few months. So is all this pecturising a prelude to the well travelled road of strong men who convert their legitimately obtained term appointments into appointments for life? Usually with unhappy endings. Although that early exemplar, Augustus, did not do bad for his time.
# posted by Jim @ 5:58 AM 
