pumpkinstrokemarrow

Prior to that had been happily reading 'Prospero's Cell', a memoir of 1937 Corfu, acquired on a bank holiday car booter (3 May) and which I have now got around to looking at. Well worth what I had thought was the exorbitant sum of £1.49 I paid for it. Oddly, his better known brother (the animal lover, Gerald Durrell) and the rest of his family, apart from his wife (although even her only known as N.) have been air-brushed out of the story, despite, as far as I can make out, having been there at roughly the same time. Book itself quite a glossy production from the US, but would have been improved by a decent map.

I learn something about the Greeks. Including, for example, the fact that their olives were harvested in the spring, without the aid or sticks or mechanical contraptions, at a time when the weather could be pretty grotty and when the next lot of flowers were trying to come out. Bit of a strain on the tree which has a tendency to bear well only every other year in consequence. Harvesting hard work for the women; not at all like the jolly, sun lit occasions of the margarine adds on ITV3.

Moving on to breakfast, not thinking it proper to read a book over a meal, even when by myself, I move onto the 'Epsom Guardian'. For some reason this is OK. First stop is a full page advertisement which has been taken by a chiropractor in Worcester Park with a fancy sounding qualification from somewhere in Canada. As well as chiropracting in general he is also punting a fancy sounding machine which will sort all manner of back problems out. I wonder if he is really a franchise for the machine rather than a free standing practise? What does a full page advertisement cost? Presumably not all that much given all the pages devoted to advertisements for personal services, houses and cars. I have never spotted a rates card; perhaps rates are a closely guarded commercial secret and negotiable on the day. £1,000?

Moving onto the houses, intrigued by a small ad. offering a building plot, enough for 4-5 bedroom house, garage and garden for £27,000. Sought after Surrey village. Road frontage. Houses all about. Plenty of villagey facilities. So what is the catch? Sounds like quite a good investment to me. Buy plot, build house. Spend maybe £400,000. Sell house for maybe £600,000. Perhaps viewing would reveal all. But I didn't pick up the phone to get a reveal. Started to think that owning a plot in some village some miles away was all a bit of a bother. Given that I would not want to build right this minute, how would one keep squatters and rubbish off of it? Would one gets lots of bother from the council about this untidy bit of land?

Eye drifting up the page, there was an ad. from some gang who would buy one's house, more or less over the phone. Any condition, any status. Reading the small print, it looks as if this gang is into buying up the houses of people who are about to be repossessed. You then pay them rent to stay in your house. They pay off your mortgage and go on to make a good living out of your wreckage. But I guess there are takers for services of this sort so who am I to say that we ought to have a rule which says they shouldn't exist?

Talking of rules, slightly puzzled by the Germans banning short selling. Which I understand to be a bet that the price of something is going to fall. The actual format being that you borrow the something from someone for a fee, then you sell it at today's price, wait, then buy it back some time later when the price has fallen and give it back to the owner. Now while one might not care for people who have the market muscle to move the market around with bets of this sort, not at all clear how you make it illegal. You can't make an unpleasant idea or intention illegal, you have to make an actual format illegal. Then the legal eagles just dream up a new format for another fee, which does the same thing but which is not covered by the illegality. And so it goes on. All very puzzling but I doubt if I am going to give quality time to sorting it out. Retired to get away from serious brain sort work.