There is one well known travel writer on PB. Whether he is any good, I do not know, I have only read his "Millions of women..." and Telegraph blogs
My travels were lower budget, I quite like an element of of discomfort, and to not be insulated by 5 star hotels and armies of flunkies. Interpreting ticket machines on the Budapest Metro is all part of the immersion that makes travel interesting. Limos are no fun at all.
I was impressed by Poland and Prague, and Budapest looks as if it will catch up with them in time. Berlin though was entrancing, A city once again taking its rightful place at the centre of Europe, and with much building going on. A surprisingly green, good humoured and relaxed place. I could enjoy living there.
All along the journey we could see the ghosts of Europes missing culture, the East European Jews whose culture was so much a part of pre war life. It brings home that it was not just people who were lost, but an entire culture.
I am planning to work my way through the remaining accession countries, My new Transylvanian colleague has convinced me that Romania is worth a visit, and the Baltic states appeal also.
but not till next year...
The pleasure of independent travel is threefold, the enjoyment of planning and anticipation, the enjoyment of the actual travel, and the enjoyment of reminiscing about it and reflecting upon it. It is important to not squander the triple pleasure by repeating it too soon, that way lies the boredom, hyper-stimulation and ennui of so many travellers.
Have you already been to Budapest and I assume Berlin, Krakow and Prague if going by train?
We need your review. Not enough good travel writers on PB.
I am planning to work my way through the remaining accession countries, My new Transylvanian colleague has convinced me that Romania is worth a visit, and the Baltic states appeal also.
but not till next year...
Just returned from Bratislava (flights from numerous UK airports). Quite a pleasant, compact old city, cruise up the Danube to Devin Castle, which dates back to Roman times.
Then a few days in the pleasant Spa town of Piestany, for Stage 2 of dental treatment with an absolutely brilliant, pain-free dentist [Implant, including crown just £891 (!)]
I noticed Jews and Arabs sharing the same hotel in harmony. They come to take the healing waters of the spa.
Buying a ticket to visit the Hungarian Parliament was the most bizarre and complex transaction I have encountered with very helpful staff whose methods were incomprehensible and incompatible with a rapid queue. But they also provided free chilled mineral water to the queue. Similtaneously helpful and obstructive at the same time.
There will be a new visitors centre next year, but a this insight into Hungarian life will probablydisappear!
My travels were lower budget, I quite like an element of of discomfort, and to not be insulated by 5 star hotels and armies of flunkies. Interpreting ticket machines on the Budapest Metro is all part of the immersion that makes travel interesting. Limos are no fun at all.
I was impressed by Poland and Prague, and Budapest looks as if it will catch up with them in time. Berlin though was entrancing, A city once again taking its rightful place at the centre of Europe, and with much building going on. A surprisingly green, good humoured and relaxed place. I could enjoy living there.
All along the journey we could see the ghosts of Europes missing culture, the East European Jews whose culture was so much a part of pre war life. It brings home that it was not just people who were lost, but an entire culture.
I am planning to work my way through the remaining accession countries, My new Transylvanian colleague has convinced me that Romania is worth a visit, and the Baltic states appeal also.
but not till next year...
Thanks for the evocative post. I went to Warsaw with some prejudices (reactionary government at the time, and my Russian mother disliked pre-war Warsaw for all the usual tribal reasons) and was charmed by it. Budapest was more mixed but fun. My favourite surreal experience was going to the station information office and approaching the counter. The woman behind the counter pointed to a ticket machine to generate a number to take my place in a queue. The machine whirred and eventually spat out a ticket saying in three languages: "The information office is closed". Kafka lives.
I seem to recall a phenomenon whereby a small but key group of right-leaning German electors have been prepared to prop up the FDP in the past, even if they substantially prefer the CDU/CSU, in state or federal elections where the FDP look like missing the 5% threshold. NP will be able to judge this better than me, but I think that the FDP hovering on a knife-edge may be more likely to survive than they look at first sight...
Agreed - the main risk for the FDP is that they look safe and just miss.
Fox: I've raised the Chinese wealth gap with my seminar groups (I do about 4 talks a month to different groups of managers and politicians) - they freely admit that the gulf between rich and poor is bigger there than it is here and that Chinese urban society has become fixated on getting rich: if you don't own your home, you'll apparently struggle to find a girl willing to go out with you. When I tell them that in Britain it's thought inappropriate to appear too wealthy, and my friends would laugh at me if I drove around in a Rolls and lived in a mansion, they eye me with tolerant bemusement, as one might listen to a primitive tribesman explaining strange cultural inhibitions.
That said, the gap is mostly down to Industrial Revolution style migration to the cities. The people who make it do very well and are approaching Western levels of wealth. The mass of people tolerated on the fringes of cities without formal residence rights have an uneasy existence but are better off than the third group, the ones stuck in remote provincial villages. They recognise the problem and a lot of money is being funnelled into the latter, but as we know in Britain just throwing money at an underdeveloped area doesn't always work as expected. I'm reasonably hopeful that they're on top of the problem, but it's a race against time before dissatisfaction spreads.
My guess is that will turn out to be Telegraph spin rather than anything Osborne has said. He has been quite cautious and it is in his interests to argue we have a long way to go yet, no time for the son of Brown, etc. etc.
He is in the very happy situation where at least at present the numbers speak more clearly and loudly than he could himself. Given the drag factors in growth explained by others on here recently much faster annual growth is pretty much built in now in the run up to the election.
Next year will be a good year for the UK economy barring some major international dislocation. How we go from there will very much depend on the success of the rebalancing exercise.
He said: "I see little prospect that this growth rate will be sustained into the future, despite what George Osborne says. There is scant evidence that any of the four components of growth – investment, consumption, trade or government are at blast-off stage. And net business lending continues to fall."
About as accurate as his predictions of 5m unemployed in 2009. But it is nice he can still get paid for his opinions.
The smaller towns of central and eastern Europe should not be overlooked. There are some gems. Sopron, Győr, Kosice and Veszprém are all barely heard of in Britain and all well worth seeing.
I am planning to work my way through the remaining accession countries, My new Transylvanian colleague has convinced me that Romania is worth a visit, and the Baltic states appeal also.
but not till next year...
Just returned from Bratislava (flights from numerous UK airports). Quite a pleasant, compact old city, cruise up the Danube to Devin Castle, which dates back to Roman times.
Then a few days in the pleasant Spa town of Piestany, for Stage 2 of dental treatment with an absolutely brilliant, pain-free dentist [Implant, including crown just £891 (!)]
I noticed Jews and Arabs sharing the same hotel in harmony. They come to take the healing waters of the spa.
The smaller towns of central and eastern Europe should not be overlooked. There are some gems. Sopron, Győr, Kosice and Veszprém are all barely heard of in Britain and all well worth seeing.
Also renowned for dental tourism.
But I can heartily recommend my guy. Techniques and materials superior to the UK, for half or less the price of the UK. Panoramic X-rays and CT scan + consultation gratis...
End to end service, including pick-up drop off at airport, accommodation etc.
There was one young English patient there who had been quoted £24k in England. £8k in Piestany...
Marginal costing has its uses but it can be very dangerous to rely on it in businesses which have a high fixed cost base, especially if the fixed costs are distributed through the delivery chain.
Many such businesses have sunk following the principle of "lose a little bit on each transaction and make it up in volume".
That's only a problem if (a) you are selling at a negative gross margin or (b) capacity is meaningfully limited.
I don't believe (a) could ever be the case in Royal Mail (what does a stamp cost?) and although (b) could in theory be an issue, in an environment of falling volumes I doubt it is in practice
Marginal costing is dangerous (but not necessary wrong if it is being used as an additional tool) when the fixed cost is not being recovered. What I guess you mean by "selling at a negative gross margin" on a fully recovered cost basis.
Fixed, or inflexible, capacity is a determinant. But more often the problems come with the fixed and marginal costs of acquiring new volume.
Fixed cost recovery only becomes an issue if capacity is limited though. If it is not a constraint then any contribution to overhead is a positive.
The smaller towns of central and eastern Europe should not be overlooked. There are some gems. Sopron, Győr, Kosice and Veszprém are all barely heard of in Britain and all well worth seeing.
Košice (given antifrank's Hungarian connections am slightly surprised he didn't call it "Kassa"!) is basically the Slovak equivalent of Birmingham, and people who've lived there seem capable of being quite derogatory about it. Plenty enough pretty places to visit, mind you, just don't go there in search of cheap accommodation and a new life in the more crumbling estates.
Prešov is smaller and prettier but with less to do.
Actually I've known more people visit Slovakia for the countryside than the towns - lots of nice walking holidays in the mountains, that kind of thing. But none of my Western friends have visited what my Slovak friends reckon is the best, a national park in central Slovakia rather ostentatiously called the Slovenský raj ("Slovak paradise"). It's clearly beautiful, at least if you're into that wilderness aesthetic with quaint villages, but I'm reliably informed you can get more out of it if you're fit and spritely and not afraid of ladders.
"Dopey Prime Minister David Cameron leaves official red box alone on train - to nip to buffet car 8 Sep 2013 21:30 Mr Cameron, who once left his daughter Nancy down the pub, strolled off down the aisle without the crucial briefcase."
Can't imagine there was much left in the buffet car after Hungry Dave had filled up. Googling Dave's red box will probably set off the As A Father filter soon.
So, just to understand, in the busy train each of the sets of 4 chairs around the PM's table were empty except for one person sitting in them? And these people weren't security guards? Really?
Kevan Jones, the former Labour minister, hasn't been on a train for a while, I guess. Not easy to open the in-carriage windows wide enough to throw a red box out of them
Oh, look, there's a statement from No.10 "The box was not left unattended. The Prime Minister’s security detail was there at all times."
You need to up your game, tim. Perhaps you are getting a little tired? It must be tough sticking up for Ed Miliband the whole time
The Milband/Union plotline is I think the funniest one yet in the comic series which is the modern Labour Party.
The latest twist in the plot - witnesses 'withdrawing' evidence, just when you thought it was all clear as crystal - is a classic, and whoever cast Karie Murphy is a genius.
This disparity is one reason that we get so any EU applicants for our medical posts here, while the Indians doctors on whom the NHS depended in the previous decades can no longer get visas.
But the costs of practice here are much higher, with staff costs, rent and indemnity insurance all going up rapidly. It is not just dentists salaries that are much higher here!
In time things will equalise, though medical and dental tourism has its own risks.
I also saw the dark side of the new Europe. I was shocked to see, when visiting the magnificent Synagogue in Budapest, that this rally happened this year:
The smaller towns of central and eastern Europe should not be overlooked. There are some gems. Sopron, Győr, Kosice and Veszprém are all barely heard of in Britain and all well worth seeing.
Also renowned for dental tourism.
But I can heartily recommend my guy. Techniques and materials superior to the UK, for half or less the price of the UK. Panoramic X-rays and CT scan + consultation gratis...
End to end service, including pick-up drop off at airport, accommodation etc.
There was one young English patient there who had been quoted £24k in England. £8k in Piestany...
"Dopey Prime Minister David Cameron leaves official red box alone on train - to nip to buffet car 8 Sep 2013 21:30 Mr Cameron, who once left his daughter Nancy down the pub, strolled off down the aisle without the crucial briefcase."
Can't imagine there was much left in the buffet car after Hungry Dave had filled up. Googling Dave's red box will probably set off the As A Father filter soon.
So, just to understand, in the busy train each of the sets of 4 chairs around the PM's table were empty except for one person sitting in them? And these people weren't security guards? Really?
Kevan Jones, the former Labour minister, hasn't been on a train for a while, I guess. Not easy to open the in-carriage windows wide enough to throw a red box out of them
Oh, look, there's a statement from No.10 "The box was not left unattended. The Prime Minister’s security detail was there at all times."
You need to up your game, tim. Perhaps you are getting a little tired? It must be tough sticking up for Ed Miliband the whole time
Taking a cue from The Mirror is really scraping the barrel.
"Voltaire, who loathed the Catholic church, once remarked that he wanted his cook, his accountant and his barber to be Catholics: that way, he said, he'd be less likely to be poisoned or robbed or have his throat cut."
Not for the squeamish, but my post-operative x-ray... one extraction, two implants in the upper right maxilla, done last Monday. The dentist said I had the densest bone he had ever encountered! Lol...
The left is a bit of a mess (right side on the x-ray), and will be the next target for treatment. Then 10 crowns in the upper, plus 1 in the lower. 5 implants in total and 11 crowns. Bill around £7k (plus flight & accommodation costs, which are very reasonable.) It feels like a holiday... Great food and beer in Slovakia (local Zlatý Bažant lager £1 per pint!)
Another feature of Slovakia that locals are very positive about, but I'm not sure has permeated to foreign tourists, are the pamiatkové rezervácie ľudovej architektúry - preserved, or in some places reconstructed, historical villages. Some have been recognised by UNICEF, all are picturesque, and the vernacular architecture is of clear interest even to people as uninformed as I in matters edificatory. Čičmany claims to be the first such preserved village in the world.
I have received a very strong personal recommendation to visit Vlkolínec in the Carpathians, known for its wooden buildings, which I shall pass on to PBers. The mining village of Špania Dolina is also quite central, near the very pretty town of Banská Bystrica (which I should have mentioned in my last post along with Prešov) and has an interesting fortified church. Near to Bratislava is Veľké Leváre, with the preserved communal houses of an anabaptist sect called the Habans, a distant cousin of the Amish and Mennonites. For antifrank or others over the border in Hungary, in the region of the southern city (more of a small town really!) of Nitra is the village of Brhlovce, whose troglodyte inhabitants hacked their homes out of volcanic rock to hide from the Turks.
The Slovak National Museum also maintains an ethnographic Múzeum slovenskej dediny ("Museum of the Slovak village") near the northern city of Martin, which might be more suitable if you are visiting from the eastern Czech Republic or south of Poland. Folk architecture from all corners of Slovakia has been shipped into one convenient place!
Despite the Scottish Parliament being in existence for 14 years, only 14 per cent of Scots said they had a “very good idea” of its roles and responsibilities. The poll found that 40 per cent had “very little idea” about which areas were devolved to Holyrood and 44 per cent had “some idea”.
Incidentally, have any PBers been to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Sussex? It's a long-standing member of my "list of places to see at some unspecified point in time"; they also seem to have imported dozens of historic buildings from all around England.
"Norway, which goes to the polls tomorrow, faces a strange problem: too much money.
The Nordic country, an island of prosperity in ailing Europe, faces an embarrassment of riches as it tries to figure out how to spend its huge pile of oil money without damaging the economy in the long run.
"All countries around us are forced to reduce their spending," Oeystein Doerum, chief economist at Norway's largest bank DNB, said.
"Our biggest challenge is that our oil wealth is so huge we run the risk of wasting it on substandard projects that are not profitable enough."
The dilemma is all the more real because the populist right gathered in the Progress Party, which wants to abandon the cautious policies espoused by other parties, is likely to form a government with the Conservatives after the election."
Syria Updates: War Games, Evacuations and Secret Proposals?
Interesting that Syrian aircraft reportedly decided on an attempt at buzzing Cyprus during the week. Will it happen again? Likely. Certainly the Russians in particular are bulking up in the Med for reasons deterrent as well as the practicality of monitoring US actions. They do believe the US administration is weak of heart. They may just have missed though that the main thrust of a US strike may not come for the Med at all.
Russian continues a drip drip evacuation from Syria. Fairly regular flights have been transiting in and out of Latakkia
Most significantly of all, there is the sniff of a plan to blur lines and cloud circumstances, conjured up by who is unclear, to avoid US strikes. Assad's interview should be listened to carefully. He was big on saying what he did and didn't do. This will run on the convenient idea that Assad himself didn't order any chemical weapons attack, then his regime infrastructure shouldn't be targeted. Who or what would he sacrifice to avoid a strike or will they sit and assume the US will bottle it?
"Norway, which goes to the polls tomorrow, faces a strange problem: too much money.
The Nordic country, an island of prosperity in ailing Europe, faces an embarrassment of riches as it tries to figure out how to spend its huge pile of oil money without damaging the economy in the long run.
"All countries around us are forced to reduce their spending," Oeystein Doerum, chief economist at Norway's largest bank DNB, said.
"Our biggest challenge is that our oil wealth is so huge we run the risk of wasting it on substandard projects that are not profitable enough."
The dilemma is all the more real because the populist right gathered in the Progress Party, which wants to abandon the cautious policies espoused by other parties, is likely to form a government with the Conservatives after the election."
The clue to what is really going on in Norway comes later in the article: "The fund invests mainly in stocks, bonds and real estate, placing the money outside Norway to avoid overheating."
The Norwegian establishment have been trying to dodge the resource curse, with a particular emphasis on avoiding the delightfully named "Dutch Disease", which afflicted the Netherlands when the North Sea gas boom strengthened their currency and made the manufacturing sector uncompetitive. This is the reason the wealth fund is kept well away from the Norwegian Krone - better to keep it abroad and in foreign currency.
For a better explanation of the nuances than I can offer, this is very good:
"Researchers also found voters believe the Scottish Government cares more about independence than issues such as jobs, the economy and the NHS, and say this priority is wrong."
"The uncertainty about Holyrood’s existing powers, apparent lack of serious alternative leaders, concern about its priorities and reluctance to trust it fully with the purse strings also help explain why 65% opposed Scottish independence. Besides, as one of our participants put it, Alex Salmond has quite enough power as it is."
"The uncertainty about Holyrood’s existing powers, apparent lack of serious alternative leaders, concern about its priorities and reluctance to trust it fully with the purse strings also help explain why 65% opposed Scottish independence. Besides, as one of our participants put it, Alex Salmond has quite enough power as it is."
A real mixed bag on Holyrood in this poll. And all to play for at the next Scottish Elections if the parties actually pause and focus on bread and butter issues that concern the electorate.
"Labour leader Johann Lamont has also overtaken Alex Salmond in the popularity stakes, according to the bigger 10,000 cohort of Scots polled in the latest research. Ms Lamont has an overall favourable/unfavourable rating of +3, with Mr Salmond on -4, although 40 per cent of Scots had not heard of the Labour leader, compared with just 6 per cent who had not heard of Mr Salmond.
The poll is also a blow for the so called “devo-max” campaign, which is pressing for Holyrood to be given control over all areas, apart from defence and foreign affairs.
Most Scots (59 per cent) believe this would result in tax rises north of the Border, while two thirds (67 per cent) say that public services would either not improve or deteriorate.
A majority (53 per cent) also see the elections to Holyrood and Westminster as having equal importance, but a further 27 per cent say the UK is the more important of the two elections, compared with 18 per cent for the Scottish Parliament."
'Not for the squeamish, but my post-operative x-ray... one extraction, two implants in the upper right maxilla, done last Monday. The dentist said I had the densest bone he had ever encountered! Lol...'
How many times will you have to return for checks on the implants,once a month for the next 6 months?
'Not for the squeamish, but my post-operative x-ray... one extraction, two implants in the upper right maxilla, done last Monday. The dentist said I had the densest bone he had ever encountered! Lol...'
How many times will you have to return for checks on the implants,once a month for the next 6 months?
The guy is a genius. Around two months before loading is his tecnique. I will probably leave it a little longer. I've met about a dozen English patients there over my 2 trips so far. All have had no problems, and are coming back for annual check-ups now, some 4 years after implantation. No issues, and a lifetime guarantee...
Mandible (lower jaw) implants are a doddle. I had one last December, and it took around 20 minutes. Zero pain (they use an advanced Quicksleeper local anaesthetic). Maxilla implants are a bit more complicated, take about an hour. I had two on Monday. A slight ache later, but that was mostly soft tissue (gum) pain, as he did some surgery there at the same time... A really nice guy.
Incidentally, have any PBers been to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Sussex? It's a long-standing member of my "list of places to see at some unspecified point in time"; they also seem to have imported dozens of historic buildings from all around England.
Yes @MyBurningEars, but it was between 25 and 30 years ago. I've just spent some time browsing their website and it's brought back some misty childhood memories, for which I sincerely thank you.
Incidentally, have any PBers been to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Sussex? It's a long-standing member of my "list of places to see at some unspecified point in time"; they also seem to have imported dozens of historic buildings from all around England.
Yes @MyBurningEars, but it was between 25 and 30 years ago. I've just spent some time browsing their website and it's brought back some misty childhood memories, for which I sincerely thank you.
That's great Geoff. I'll find someone else who can rate my Slovak mini-tourist brochure next!
Syria Updates: War Games, Evacuations and Secret Proposals?
Interesting that Syrian aircraft reportedly decided on an attempt at buzzing Cyprus during the week. Will it happen again? Likely. Certainly the Russians in particular are bulking up in the Med for reasons deterrent as well as the practicality of monitoring US actions. They do believe the US administration is weak of heart. They may just have missed though that the main thrust of a US strike may not come for the Med at all.
Russian continues a drip drip evacuation from Syria. Fairly regular flights have been transiting in and out of Latakkia
Most significantly of all, there is the sniff of a plan to blur lines and cloud circumstances, conjured up by who is unclear, to avoid US strikes. Assad's interview should be listened to carefully. He was big on saying what he did and didn't do. This will run on the convenient idea that Assad himself didn't order any chemical weapons attack, then his regime infrastructure shouldn't be targeted. Who or what would he sacrifice to avoid a strike or will they sit and assume the US will bottle it?
That's great Geoff. I'll find someone else who can rate my Slovak mini-tourist brochure next!
I'm actually more interested in this Eastern European mini-thread than you might expect. My last business trip a few weeks ago was to Prague and I'm off to Vienna soon but, again, only to the city for meetings. I'll gratefully take advice on where to go for relaxation and look to extend my future visits for an extra week or so.
Broadband in this country is still in the dark ages for tens of millions of people. It should be a doddle to roll it out in a small island like Britain in comparison to somewhere like Australia.
The size/scale thing does help. Jersey claim to be achieving the "fastest residential network in the Western world" ( www.gigabitjersey.com ) but you'd imagine that would be a slightly harder project across, say, the UK.
"Norway's anti-immigration party likely to enter government this week
Survivors of the Utøya island massacre in 2011, perpetrated by an anti-immigration extremist, are concerned this will lead to a rise in social hostility"
The Battle of Falkirk in 1298 was won by a cunning tactical retreat on the part of Edward I. In the latest skirmish at Falkirk our own Ed, staging a feeble investigation into allegations of vote-rigging by trade unions, has done the opposite. He charged into battle only to order his bowmen to run for the hills when he realised the unions were serious about cancelling their donations to the Labour Party.
Few would have guessed in the early days of Tony Blair’s leadership that nearly 20 years later it would be the unions who remained mighty and the party that stood on the edge of financial meltdown.
Labour finds itself in the position it is, pathetically dependent on union money, because its attempt to remodel itself only ever appealed to the relatively well-off. It has become a party of solidarity for middle-class, metropolitan types. In the Blair-Brown years we had employment and equality regulations galore, but aside from the national minimum wage, almost all of this activity has favoured the better-off.
The Blair Government looked at zero-hours contracts and decided they were fine. Gordon Brown kicked away the 10 per cent tax rate for low-earners that he had himself introduced. Labour stood by while house prices and rents went through the roof. Labour encouraged immigration, in spite of evidence that low-paid workers suffered while the better-off benefited from cheaper domestic staff and the like.
The best that could come out of Falkirk is that an insolvent Labour Party will be forced out of its Westminster HQ and forced to seek digs in Peckham. In doing so, it will find itself rather closer to those who should be its natural supporters.
If it is any consolation, the house I now live in had a max broadband speed of 2meg a couple of years ago.
Then in the last 18 months they got fibre optic and I now get 55meg plus speeds all the time.
I would love to get 2meg all the time. Most of the time its around 1meg and often falls below that so my wireless signal drops for hours at a time. It looks as though the high speed broadband BT is rolling out across the Highlands will literally just pass me by. I don't even have a mobile signal in most of the house and have to wander around in the garden until I can get one long enough to make a phone call on my mobile. As for 3G, just fantasy and I live only 5 miles from the A9 as the crow flies.
"Norway's anti-immigration party likely to enter government this week
Survivors of the Utøya island massacre in 2011, perpetrated by an anti-immigration extremist, are concerned this will lead to a rise in social hostility"
The article bears the signs of being written some weeks ago. As I posted yesterday, it is no longer true that Labour and Conservatives are expected to get slightly under 30% (the current averages are 30.4 and 24.5), and as a result it is no longer true that the Progress Party is likely to be able to form a majority government with the Conservatives, though they are likely to be involved as a supporting party, similar to the position in Denmark. The Conservatives will clearly be part of the new govermnent with a choice of a weak broad coalition or a minority government to the centre or the right. See charts here (Ap=Labour, H=Conservaitves, Frp=Progress, Krf and V are centre-right, Sp is centre=left, SV is far left).
I would love to get 2meg all the time. Most of the time its around 1meg and often falls below that so my wireless signal drops for hours at a time. It looks as though the high speed broadband BT is rolling out across the Highlands will literally just pass me by. I don't even have a mobile signal in most of the house and have to wander around in the garden until I can get one long enough to make a phone call on my mobile. As for 3G, just fantasy and I live only 5 miles from the A9 as the crow flies.
Friends in the countryside near Nottingham have given up on getting BT broadband - BT simply won't run a cable out there. But they've signed up for satellite broadband and say it's very good. An elderly couple, they are by no means well off, but say the cost is now affordable. Worth investigating?
Incidentally, have any PBers been to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Sussex? It's a long-standing member of my "list of places to see at some unspecified point in time"; they also seem to have imported dozens of historic buildings from all around England.
Another Sussex place worth seeing if you're remotely interested in literature and the arts is
- I'm a bit uncultured and only vaguely interested in the theme, but the house is charming and both house and garden are packed with the explosion of creative talent that lived there. And politics nuts can at least console themselves with checking out evidence of Maynard Keynes' visits while their spouses enjoy the sculptues and writings on the walls...
Cautious so far? He declared growth established recovery on track out of the danger zone and the UK AAA status secure in 2010-11. Three years of no growth, £240 extra borrowing and the loss of AAA status later and he's claiming vindication?
Just shows how bad Labour's economic record is that he can get away with it.
Comments
Very BoHo, very Notting Hill Gate.
No wonder another richard has been fuming all day.
We need your review. Not enough good travel writers on PB.
Then a few days in the pleasant Spa town of Piestany, for Stage 2 of dental treatment with an absolutely brilliant, pain-free dentist [Implant, including crown just £891 (!)]
I noticed Jews and Arabs sharing the same hotel in harmony. They come to take the healing waters of the spa.
I like Slovakia...
Buying a ticket to visit the Hungarian Parliament was the most bizarre and complex transaction I have encountered with very helpful staff whose methods were incomprehensible and incompatible with a rapid queue. But they also provided free chilled mineral water to the queue. Similtaneously helpful and obstructive at the same time.
There will be a new visitors centre next year, but a this insight into Hungarian life will probablydisappear!
Fox: I've raised the Chinese wealth gap with my seminar groups (I do about 4 talks a month to different groups of managers and politicians) - they freely admit that the gulf between rich and poor is bigger there than it is here and that Chinese urban society has become fixated on getting rich: if you don't own your home, you'll apparently struggle to find a girl willing to go out with you. When I tell them that in Britain it's thought inappropriate to appear too wealthy, and my friends would laugh at me if I drove around in a Rolls and lived in a mansion, they eye me with tolerant bemusement, as one might listen to a primitive tribesman explaining strange cultural inhibitions.
That said, the gap is mostly down to Industrial Revolution style migration to the cities. The people who make it do very well and are approaching Western levels of wealth. The mass of people tolerated on the fringes of cities without formal residence rights have an uneasy existence but are better off than the third group, the ones stuck in remote provincial villages.
They recognise the problem and a lot of money is being funnelled into the latter, but as we know in Britain just throwing money at an underdeveloped area doesn't always work as expected. I'm reasonably hopeful that they're on top of the problem, but it's a race against time before dissatisfaction spreads.
He is in the very happy situation where at least at present the numbers speak more clearly and loudly than he could himself. Given the drag factors in growth explained by others on here recently much faster annual growth is pretty much built in now in the run up to the election.
Next year will be a good year for the UK economy barring some major international dislocation. How we go from there will very much depend on the success of the rebalancing exercise.
Meanwhile, if you want a laugh have a look at David Blanchflower's comments in late July in the Indy: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/david-blanchflower-hold-off-on-the-bunting--06-per-cent-growth-does-not-a-recovery-make-8732623.html
He said:
"I see little prospect that this growth rate will be sustained into the future, despite what George Osborne says. There is scant evidence that any of the four components of growth – investment, consumption, trade or government are at blast-off stage. And net business lending continues to fall."
About as accurate as his predictions of 5m unemployed in 2009. But it is nice he can still get paid for his opinions.
But I can heartily recommend my guy. Techniques and materials superior to the UK, for half or less the price of the UK. Panoramic X-rays and CT scan + consultation gratis...
End to end service, including pick-up drop off at airport, accommodation etc.
There was one young English patient there who had been quoted £24k in England. £8k in Piestany...
Prešov is smaller and prettier but with less to do.
Actually I've known more people visit Slovakia for the countryside than the towns - lots of nice walking holidays in the mountains, that kind of thing. But none of my Western friends have visited what my Slovak friends reckon is the best, a national park in central Slovakia rather ostentatiously called the Slovenský raj ("Slovak paradise"). It's clearly beautiful, at least if you're into that wilderness aesthetic with quaint villages, but I'm reliably informed you can get more out of it if you're fit and spritely and not afraid of ladders.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Slovensky_raj-Stratenska_pila.jpg
Kevan Jones, the former Labour minister, hasn't been on a train for a while, I guess. Not easy to open the in-carriage windows wide enough to throw a red box out of them
Oh, look, there's a statement from No.10 "The box was not left unattended. The Prime Minister’s security detail was there at all times."
You need to up your game, tim. Perhaps you are getting a little tired? It must be tough sticking up for Ed Miliband the whole time
The latest twist in the plot - witnesses 'withdrawing' evidence, just when you thought it was all clear as crystal - is a classic, and whoever cast Karie Murphy is a genius.
I can't wait for the next episode.
But the costs of practice here are much higher, with staff costs, rent and indemnity insurance all going up rapidly. It is not just dentists salaries that are much higher here!
In time things will equalise, though medical and dental tourism has its own risks.
I also saw the dark side of the new Europe. I was shocked to see, when visiting the magnificent Synagogue in Budapest, that this rally happened this year:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22413301
I believe there are direct flights beginning from Luton next week. My Slovakian driver rated it higher than Bratislava...
http://www.news.com.au/national-news/federal-election/lnp-prepares-for-threat-posed-by-clive-palmer8217s-palmer-united-party/story-fnho52ip-1226714834704
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/upset-results-rock-abbotts-senate-plan/story-fn9qr68y-1226714490345
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/clive-palmer-says-he-secured-abbotts-election-win/story-fn9qr68y-1226714604464
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100234883/tony-abbott-won-because-australians-trust-him/
Yes to Independence 26%
No 65%
DK 10%
Couple of notes
Sample size 10,000
Fieldwork was between February and August of this year
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13331381/xray.jpg
The left is a bit of a mess (right side on the x-ray), and will be the next target for treatment. Then 10 crowns in the upper, plus 1 in the lower. 5 implants in total and 11 crowns. Bill around £7k (plus flight & accommodation costs, which are very reasonable.) It feels like a holiday... Great food and beer in Slovakia (local Zlatý Bažant lager £1 per pint!)
I have received a very strong personal recommendation to visit Vlkolínec in the Carpathians, known for its wooden buildings, which I shall pass on to PBers. The mining village of Špania Dolina is also quite central, near the very pretty town of Banská Bystrica (which I should have mentioned in my last post along with Prešov) and has an interesting fortified church. Near to Bratislava is Veľké Leváre, with the preserved communal houses of an anabaptist sect called the Habans, a distant cousin of the Amish and Mennonites. For antifrank or others over the border in Hungary, in the region of the southern city (more of a small town really!) of Nitra is the village of Brhlovce, whose troglodyte inhabitants hacked their homes out of volcanic rock to hide from the Turks.
The Slovak National Museum also maintains an ethnographic Múzeum slovenskej dediny ("Museum of the Slovak village") near the northern city of Martin, which might be more suitable if you are visiting from the eastern Czech Republic or south of Poland. Folk architecture from all corners of Slovakia has been shipped into one convenient place!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At91c3wX1Wu5dERmb2NsbmpUNmlyOHplOTNOTE9iZVE#gid=0
SNP 40%
SLAB 35%
Con 15%
LD 5%
The Nordic country, an island of prosperity in ailing Europe, faces an embarrassment of riches as it tries to figure out how to spend its huge pile of oil money without damaging the economy in the long run.
"All countries around us are forced to reduce their spending," Oeystein Doerum, chief economist at Norway's largest bank DNB, said.
"Our biggest challenge is that our oil wealth is so huge we run the risk of wasting it on substandard projects that are not profitable enough."
The dilemma is all the more real because the populist right gathered in the Progress Party, which wants to abandon the cautious policies espoused by other parties, is likely to form a government with the Conservatives after the election."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-08/norway-has-problem-of-too-much-money-ahead-of-elections/4944326
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-08/107-year-old-man-killed-in-swat-shoot-out/4944664
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/poll-scots-to-reject-independence-re-elect-snp-1-3082139
Interesting that Syrian aircraft reportedly decided on an attempt at buzzing Cyprus during the week. Will it happen again? Likely. Certainly the Russians in particular are bulking up in the Med for reasons deterrent as well as the practicality of monitoring US actions. They do believe the US administration is weak of heart. They may just have missed though that the main thrust of a US strike may not come for the Med at all.
Russian continues a drip drip evacuation from Syria. Fairly regular flights have been transiting in and out of Latakkia
Most significantly of all, there is the sniff of a plan to blur lines and cloud circumstances, conjured up by who is unclear, to avoid US strikes. Assad's interview should be listened to carefully. He was big on saying what he did and didn't do. This will run on the convenient idea that Assad himself didn't order any chemical weapons attack, then his regime infrastructure shouldn't be targeted. Who or what would he sacrifice to avoid a strike or will they sit and assume the US will bottle it?
The clue to what is really going on in Norway comes later in the article: "The fund invests mainly in stocks, bonds and real estate, placing the money outside Norway to avoid overheating."
The Norwegian establishment have been trying to dodge the resource curse, with a particular emphasis on avoiding the delightfully named "Dutch Disease", which afflicted the Netherlands when the North Sea gas boom strengthened their currency and made the manufacturing sector uncompetitive. This is the reason the wealth fund is kept well away from the Norwegian Krone - better to keep it abroad and in foreign currency.
For a better explanation of the nuances than I can offer, this is very good:
http://www.ssb.no/a/publikasjoner/pdf/DP/dp377.pdf
http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2013/09/how-many-scots-know-what-the-scottish-parliament-does/#more-2474
Priceless.
"Labour leader Johann Lamont has also overtaken Alex Salmond in the popularity stakes, according to the bigger 10,000 cohort of Scots polled in the latest research. Ms Lamont has an overall favourable/unfavourable rating of +3, with Mr Salmond on -4, although 40 per cent of Scots had not heard of the Labour leader, compared with just 6 per cent who had not heard of Mr Salmond.
The poll is also a blow for the so called “devo-max” campaign, which is pressing for Holyrood to be given control over all areas, apart from defence and foreign affairs.
Most Scots (59 per cent) believe this would result in tax rises north of the Border, while two thirds (67 per cent) say that public services would either not improve or deteriorate.
A majority (53 per cent) also see the elections to Holyrood and Westminster as having equal importance, but a further 27 per cent say the UK is the more important of the two elections, compared with 18 per cent for the Scottish Parliament."
You can do it...
http://www.dentalholiday.co.uk/dental-clinic-abroad/
and your wallet will love you...
'Not for the squeamish, but my post-operative x-ray... one extraction, two implants in the upper right maxilla, done last Monday. The dentist said I had the densest bone he had ever encountered! Lol...'
How many times will you have to return for checks on the implants,once a month for the next 6 months?
Results:
Download: 0.63 mb/s
Upload: 0.32 mb/s
Mandible (lower jaw) implants are a doddle. I had one last December, and it took around 20 minutes. Zero pain (they use an advanced Quicksleeper local anaesthetic). Maxilla implants are a bit more complicated, take about an hour. I had two on Monday. A slight ache later, but that was mostly soft tissue (gum) pain, as he did some surgery there at the same time... A really nice guy.
This is what I get
TSEofPB @TSEofPB 9s
I love my BT Infinity 2
pic.twitter.com/mLN8YwBEk3
Down: 3.42 Mb/s
Up: 0.482 Mb/s
..which is slow for today. Should have turned off the torrents first
It should be a doddle to roll it out in a small island like Britain in comparison to somewhere like Australia.
TSEofPB @TSEofPB now
Then again I love 4g
pic.twitter.com/XlqScgdwih
I think broadband is actually slower now than when I first got it in 2005.
Why? Because the number of people using it has hugely expanded since then but the infrastructure is exactly the same.
The local phone exchange was opened in 1973 and I don't think it's been upgraded in any way since.
The amazing thing is that iPlayer actually works okay with 1.5 mbs.
And I was able to plug my iPad into the TV and watch ABC's election programme yesterday with no problems.
If it is any consolation, the house I now live in had a max broadband speed of 2meg a couple of years ago.
Then in the last 18 months they got fibre optic and I now get 55meg plus speeds all the time.
'Do you think Royal Mail should be nationalised?' sixty per cent would say 'No'.
Sigh.
Survivors of the Utøya island massacre in 2011, perpetrated by an anti-immigration extremist, are concerned this will lead to a rise in social hostility"
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/08/norway-anti-immigration-party-coalition-election
http://politisk.tv2.no/spesial/partibarometeret/
http://www.charleston.org.uk/
- I'm a bit uncultured and only vaguely interested in the theme, but the house is charming and both house and garden are packed with the explosion of creative talent that lived there. And politics nuts can at least console themselves with checking out evidence of Maynard Keynes' visits while their spouses enjoy the sculptues and writings on the walls...