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Looking for store-bought bones
Jan. 12th, 2007 03:33 pmIn the words of the late great Fanny Craddock, Lawks-a-ladies, I've been busy tidying up.
Last night about 20 burned CDs were consigned to proper cased homes with printed lables, and this morning a further 20 DVDs were privileged enough to benefit from the same destiny. And I hoovered and washed and ironed and, well, I feel right productive. This not worrying about "getting the hands in" has beneficial side-effects.
I nearly telephoned Nissan at Penge and arranged a test drive, but apathy set in. And I haven't been to Tesco yet. I fear that succumbation to the chocolate biscuit menace might ensue if I do. I wonder if they'll have those cooked spare ribs? Usually the hot meats section (as opposed to Dom's favourite part of Tesco, the hot meets section) just has fifteen different versions of chicken, plus the occasional hock of bacon. But every so often they have a rack of ribs, which is doomed, doomed.
I also popped into Maplin's on the way home last night and bought a couple of CRV/3 lithium batteries for the Camera. Bliney. a tenner apiece! I hope that the rechargeable NI-Mhs will function most of the time. Batteries are one of life's great mysteries to me -- involving as they do the electrickery. Why are Ni-MHs okay, but not Nickel cadmiums? They both push out 1.5 volts. Where do alkalines and lithiums come into it? Why does it all matter (apart from the lifetime of the battery and the voltage generated)? And what's a 'tagged' battery (Maplin's sold those for vast sums apiece. Do they do a song and dance? Do they last forever?) I just want to put the batteries in and see things run. But these days even Maplin's has a "specialist battery corner".
Equally annoyingly, the Pentax USB connection is a smaller size than the standard link (not the USB end, the camera end), so my universal Rio, Citizen, Jena Camera, etc link doesn't fit.
At work I have one of those "universal chargers" (six different voltage settings and more connectors than you can shake a fist at). It's very useful for charging the Rio. But the voltages never seem to match anything that's available commercially. So I just set it to the next voltage down (4.5v for 5v, for example). The Pentax doesn't come with its own rechargeable batery, but there is a mains connection if you want to link it to the PC or TV for a long time. Unfortunately this is also an "optional extra" (as is the remote control thingy for taking photos of yourself). This sounds like standard American fare, where no price as quoted in the adverts is ever what you actually pay. Do shops not realize that this just pisses off customers?
I remember the American sales star who came over to sell cars in Wolverhampton for a TV show. He was hopeless. The Wolverhampton car lot (which had a far higher rate of sales per sales staff than did this guy's lot in Las Vegas) seemed to use the technique of leaving customers completely alone until they came up to the desk and said "we'd like that one, please". The American guy just couldn't cope with this concept, where the first rule of sales is for someone to approach you within 30 seconds of entering the store (or car lot) and to say "can I help you with anything?"
Still no date for the arrival of the piano, either. In preparation for its arrival I'm trying to generate some space. I really must take some TVs down to the dump tomorrow.
+++++++
The increase in interest rates yesterday made things even more precarious on the flat-buying front. If I don't complete by February 28, this guy dying is likely to cost me something like £12,000 over the life of the mortgage. In fact, I might well dump the mortgage offer I currently have and go for another one if we pass that deadline and nothing has happened. 5.58% fixed for seven years had a lot of positive EV, while 6.08% fixed for seven years does not. Indeed, it's so marginal that I might write off the fee for that mortgage and go for the short-term cheapness. Tough call to make (unlike the call in November, which was a no-brainer) and one that I really would like to get right.
The hike in rates caught the entire market by surprise, but they failed to take politics into account. The last thing that the BoE wants to do is hike rates (even if it's the right thing to do) in the immediate aftermath of Brown succeeding Blair. So they are giving themselves a comfort zone. There might well be another 25bp increase in March (to 5.5%) in preparation for Brown's coronation in May. Then they can either leave rates the same or cut them by 25bp in June/July. Obvious, really. Fucking analysts, what do they know?
Last night about 20 burned CDs were consigned to proper cased homes with printed lables, and this morning a further 20 DVDs were privileged enough to benefit from the same destiny. And I hoovered and washed and ironed and, well, I feel right productive. This not worrying about "getting the hands in" has beneficial side-effects.
I nearly telephoned Nissan at Penge and arranged a test drive, but apathy set in. And I haven't been to Tesco yet. I fear that succumbation to the chocolate biscuit menace might ensue if I do. I wonder if they'll have those cooked spare ribs? Usually the hot meats section (as opposed to Dom's favourite part of Tesco, the hot meets section) just has fifteen different versions of chicken, plus the occasional hock of bacon. But every so often they have a rack of ribs, which is doomed, doomed.
I also popped into Maplin's on the way home last night and bought a couple of CRV/3 lithium batteries for the Camera. Bliney. a tenner apiece! I hope that the rechargeable NI-Mhs will function most of the time. Batteries are one of life's great mysteries to me -- involving as they do the electrickery. Why are Ni-MHs okay, but not Nickel cadmiums? They both push out 1.5 volts. Where do alkalines and lithiums come into it? Why does it all matter (apart from the lifetime of the battery and the voltage generated)? And what's a 'tagged' battery (Maplin's sold those for vast sums apiece. Do they do a song and dance? Do they last forever?) I just want to put the batteries in and see things run. But these days even Maplin's has a "specialist battery corner".
Equally annoyingly, the Pentax USB connection is a smaller size than the standard link (not the USB end, the camera end), so my universal Rio, Citizen, Jena Camera, etc link doesn't fit.
At work I have one of those "universal chargers" (six different voltage settings and more connectors than you can shake a fist at). It's very useful for charging the Rio. But the voltages never seem to match anything that's available commercially. So I just set it to the next voltage down (4.5v for 5v, for example). The Pentax doesn't come with its own rechargeable batery, but there is a mains connection if you want to link it to the PC or TV for a long time. Unfortunately this is also an "optional extra" (as is the remote control thingy for taking photos of yourself). This sounds like standard American fare, where no price as quoted in the adverts is ever what you actually pay. Do shops not realize that this just pisses off customers?
I remember the American sales star who came over to sell cars in Wolverhampton for a TV show. He was hopeless. The Wolverhampton car lot (which had a far higher rate of sales per sales staff than did this guy's lot in Las Vegas) seemed to use the technique of leaving customers completely alone until they came up to the desk and said "we'd like that one, please". The American guy just couldn't cope with this concept, where the first rule of sales is for someone to approach you within 30 seconds of entering the store (or car lot) and to say "can I help you with anything?"
Still no date for the arrival of the piano, either. In preparation for its arrival I'm trying to generate some space. I really must take some TVs down to the dump tomorrow.
+++++++
The increase in interest rates yesterday made things even more precarious on the flat-buying front. If I don't complete by February 28, this guy dying is likely to cost me something like £12,000 over the life of the mortgage. In fact, I might well dump the mortgage offer I currently have and go for another one if we pass that deadline and nothing has happened. 5.58% fixed for seven years had a lot of positive EV, while 6.08% fixed for seven years does not. Indeed, it's so marginal that I might write off the fee for that mortgage and go for the short-term cheapness. Tough call to make (unlike the call in November, which was a no-brainer) and one that I really would like to get right.
The hike in rates caught the entire market by surprise, but they failed to take politics into account. The last thing that the BoE wants to do is hike rates (even if it's the right thing to do) in the immediate aftermath of Brown succeeding Blair. So they are giving themselves a comfort zone. There might well be another 25bp increase in March (to 5.5%) in preparation for Brown's coronation in May. Then they can either leave rates the same or cut them by 25bp in June/July. Obvious, really. Fucking analysts, what do they know?
