Sunday, January 04, 2009
Deep in the grip of winter
Hardest frost so far last night. Very white world when we emerged at 0830 or so. BH tells me that the weather forecast tells her that this part of Southern England was down to -9C last night. I wonder if it drove Franklin back in through his cat flap?
It was not as cold as that yesterday morning, but I did, prompted by BH, try some sartorial innovation for cycling to Cheam. Forty years ago, when I used to cycle from Hambledon to Titchfield and back every day, it was enough in the winter to wear a cotton shirt (office variety), a good wool sweater and wool gloves, not getting on with the leather variety. Used to warm up OK after a few minutes. Then when the Cheam business started, moved up to thick cotton shirt (casual, if not smart, variety), acryllic sweater and a cotton overgarment of the sort that used to be called a windcheater. But one does not seem to hear the word these days. Plus home made gloves, or at least Exminster made. This works well enough but it takes most of the way to Cheam to warm up on a cold say. So BH sez, sezshe, why not try the ski jacket you bought for visiting a ski resort (not to ski however. Far too old for games of that sort). First thought was that it would be far too hot, being a puffy red affair branded 'Animal'. But second thought was give it a go, without the acryllic. And it was fine. Does what is says on the tin and kept me a reasonable temperature throughout. Only starting to get a bit hot by the time I got back to Epsom. Spent a portion of the intervening period wondering what colour the thing was. Basically red, but not crimson, vermillion, scarlet or carmine. The best I could do was deep pink which seems a bit naff.
A few days ago reminded of the power of capital. That is to say I thought it would be a good wheeze to mark the visit of sprog 1.1 by making a stair gate, this being the sort of thing that one can buy from Argos, in any one of ten varieties, from £17.99 to £39.99. Now it took most of the day to make such a thing and fit it, not glued or as well finished as I would have liked, given that I only thought to do this before the day of the visit. So, if I was to make a living at this, using the quite decent hand tools I have already, I would have to charge around £100 a pop. Which given that the average mother is going to prefer the job from Argos, never mind the price, is not going to sell. The power of capital being the fact that if I spend out on some workshop machinery, I can knock out stair gates for hugely less than I can knock them out by hand. The same, I am told is true of small cranes. £1,000 might sound a lot to hire a small crane for the morning, but it can move the RSJ from the back of the lorry onto its' piers a lot quicker and safer than the expensive gang of ten men it would take otherwise.
Which reminds me in turn of the contradictions of capitals mentioned a few days ago. I find it very odd that at a time when we are very rich, awash with refridgerators and hair dryers, that we are told that the world as we know it is coming to an end because we might actually make 1% less refridgerators and hair dryers this year than last year - as opposed to making 1% more, which is the more usual story in the recent past. One would not have thought, given the glut of such things, that 1% one way or the other ought to make all that much differance.
Perhaps it is all related to the way the prices of things like oil and bacon futures swing around alarmingly, when the consumption and production of such things is really quite steady.
It was not as cold as that yesterday morning, but I did, prompted by BH, try some sartorial innovation for cycling to Cheam. Forty years ago, when I used to cycle from Hambledon to Titchfield and back every day, it was enough in the winter to wear a cotton shirt (office variety), a good wool sweater and wool gloves, not getting on with the leather variety. Used to warm up OK after a few minutes. Then when the Cheam business started, moved up to thick cotton shirt (casual, if not smart, variety), acryllic sweater and a cotton overgarment of the sort that used to be called a windcheater. But one does not seem to hear the word these days. Plus home made gloves, or at least Exminster made. This works well enough but it takes most of the way to Cheam to warm up on a cold say. So BH sez, sezshe, why not try the ski jacket you bought for visiting a ski resort (not to ski however. Far too old for games of that sort). First thought was that it would be far too hot, being a puffy red affair branded 'Animal'. But second thought was give it a go, without the acryllic. And it was fine. Does what is says on the tin and kept me a reasonable temperature throughout. Only starting to get a bit hot by the time I got back to Epsom. Spent a portion of the intervening period wondering what colour the thing was. Basically red, but not crimson, vermillion, scarlet or carmine. The best I could do was deep pink which seems a bit naff.
A few days ago reminded of the power of capital. That is to say I thought it would be a good wheeze to mark the visit of sprog 1.1 by making a stair gate, this being the sort of thing that one can buy from Argos, in any one of ten varieties, from £17.99 to £39.99. Now it took most of the day to make such a thing and fit it, not glued or as well finished as I would have liked, given that I only thought to do this before the day of the visit. So, if I was to make a living at this, using the quite decent hand tools I have already, I would have to charge around £100 a pop. Which given that the average mother is going to prefer the job from Argos, never mind the price, is not going to sell. The power of capital being the fact that if I spend out on some workshop machinery, I can knock out stair gates for hugely less than I can knock them out by hand. The same, I am told is true of small cranes. £1,000 might sound a lot to hire a small crane for the morning, but it can move the RSJ from the back of the lorry onto its' piers a lot quicker and safer than the expensive gang of ten men it would take otherwise.
Which reminds me in turn of the contradictions of capitals mentioned a few days ago. I find it very odd that at a time when we are very rich, awash with refridgerators and hair dryers, that we are told that the world as we know it is coming to an end because we might actually make 1% less refridgerators and hair dryers this year than last year - as opposed to making 1% more, which is the more usual story in the recent past. One would not have thought, given the glut of such things, that 1% one way or the other ought to make all that much differance.
Perhaps it is all related to the way the prices of things like oil and bacon futures swing around alarmingly, when the consumption and production of such things is really quite steady.
# posted by Jim @ 12:39 AM 
