The Philanderer
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Banking on a sale
Welcome news from the Bank of England today as they reduced the base rate by a quarter of one percent to use the official jargon. Whether that is enough to encourage somebody to buy my house remains tobe seen, but I suspect not.
Things are quite quiet at the moment. There are occasional viewings, and the odd silly offer by a developer who has noted the house has been on the market a while and wanted to test how desperate I am to sell. I am happy to bide my time at the moment, although would be tempted to take a lower offer if I can see the price of flats dropping. At the moment though they are holding up pretty well in Chis.
I had to laugh last week . One of the houses over the road which was sold in June last year for £1,075,000 has just been offered again for, wait for it, £1,550,000. Now I known the Polish workforce are competitive, but that is one hell of a margin to be seeking in less than a year and in a depressed market. Its also on for almost twice what I am hoping for. It will be interesting to see if it gets shifted.
I am considering changing agents, or even going dual, but I need to see what they can offer me in incentives . It may even be time to consider Foxtons as an option, but I suspect they would want an arm and a leg in commission.
So with the warm weather just round the corner and May being the start of the viewing season, it will be interesting to see if I can accept an offer within twelve months of it going on the market.
Things are quite quiet at the moment. There are occasional viewings, and the odd silly offer by a developer who has noted the house has been on the market a while and wanted to test how desperate I am to sell. I am happy to bide my time at the moment, although would be tempted to take a lower offer if I can see the price of flats dropping. At the moment though they are holding up pretty well in Chis.
I had to laugh last week . One of the houses over the road which was sold in June last year for £1,075,000 has just been offered again for, wait for it, £1,550,000. Now I known the Polish workforce are competitive, but that is one hell of a margin to be seeking in less than a year and in a depressed market. Its also on for almost twice what I am hoping for. It will be interesting to see if it gets shifted.
I am considering changing agents, or even going dual, but I need to see what they can offer me in incentives . It may even be time to consider Foxtons as an option, but I suspect they would want an arm and a leg in commission.
So with the warm weather just round the corner and May being the start of the viewing season, it will be interesting to see if I can accept an offer within twelve months of it going on the market.
Labels: bank of england, Foxtons, interest rates, polish
¶ 12:49 PM 0 Comments
Friday, July 27, 2007
Genesis 2:1-3
I notice the second test between England and India is delayed by the rain. I find it strange that a test match in England is scheduled for a Friday start anyway, although I am told it is because players need three days rest between back to back test matches. Once again it seems players needs are put before those of the paying public.
I remember the uproar which occurred when the traditional rest day, Sunday, was abolished for test matches. The players would rather play right through was the reason given, although I suspect it was something to do with the TCCB feeling they could get a bigger crowd on the Sunday than on the following day. What of course got overlooked in all this was the fact that the rest day was really for the spectators who had spend three days on the lash and welcomed a day of rest to prepare them for work on the following Monday. But hey, the players have to come first, right?
Another aspect to bear in mind is the hospitality business. The Thursday and Friday are the traditional biggies, with fewer people wanting to go on the weekend. Well that's our own time isn't it, not work time when hospitality always feels that much better. This weeks Friday start has diluted that marketing opportunity as well.
Cricket is not alone in turning a blind eye to the needs of the spectators. The 'old farts' at the RFU and elsewhere modified the Five/Six Nations format a few years ago to do three things, all for the benefit of players and television. Some games are now played on consecutive weekends so making attendance, particularly away from home, less achievable. The fortnightly schedule at least gave some weekend time at home with the family.
Next, they have introduced Sunday games, the drawback of which mirrors the cricket problems above. After attending a game, home or away, the thought of having to go to work on the Monday is a real turn off and is starting to force many long term supporters to select their fixtures more carefully.
Finally there comes the question of kick-off times, with usually only one game of the three kicking off anywhere near 3pm. Just don't bring this matter up with supporters of premier league football teams, who only get to see their team kick off at 3pm in pre-season friendlies.
I remember the uproar which occurred when the traditional rest day, Sunday, was abolished for test matches. The players would rather play right through was the reason given, although I suspect it was something to do with the TCCB feeling they could get a bigger crowd on the Sunday than on the following day. What of course got overlooked in all this was the fact that the rest day was really for the spectators who had spend three days on the lash and welcomed a day of rest to prepare them for work on the following Monday. But hey, the players have to come first, right?
Another aspect to bear in mind is the hospitality business. The Thursday and Friday are the traditional biggies, with fewer people wanting to go on the weekend. Well that's our own time isn't it, not work time when hospitality always feels that much better. This weeks Friday start has diluted that marketing opportunity as well.
Cricket is not alone in turning a blind eye to the needs of the spectators. The 'old farts' at the RFU and elsewhere modified the Five/Six Nations format a few years ago to do three things, all for the benefit of players and television. Some games are now played on consecutive weekends so making attendance, particularly away from home, less achievable. The fortnightly schedule at least gave some weekend time at home with the family.
Next, they have introduced Sunday games, the drawback of which mirrors the cricket problems above. After attending a game, home or away, the thought of having to go to work on the Monday is a real turn off and is starting to force many long term supporters to select their fixtures more carefully.
Finally there comes the question of kick-off times, with usually only one game of the three kicking off anywhere near 3pm. Just don't bring this matter up with supporters of premier league football teams, who only get to see their team kick off at 3pm in pre-season friendlies.
Labels: bank of england, cricket, india, six nations, tccb
¶ 1:48 PM 0 Comments
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Calling a spade a spade
I notice that Big Brother has removed a contestant for using a racist word in conversation with another member of the house.
I have no reason to judge the decision to remove her, but it does raise this whole area of political correctness once again.
I am reminded of Mike Newell, the Luton football manager, indicating the use of a female linesman was , quote, "tokenism - for the politically-correct idiots, we have a problem in this country with political correctness and bringing women into the game is not the way to improve refereeing and officialdom.
In this case had he referred to the situation as positive discrimination, rather than political correctness, he may well have found more support for his tirade.
With regard to language, however, I feel we old 'uns are discriminated against, as many of the words we traditionally used , have been deemed as potentially offensive or been given alternative meanings.......nobody ever sits on a poof anymore, and 'gay day' now represents a festival for the pink pound brigade. I remember getting a serious ticking off from the RFU for referring to the Bank of England rugby team, which was largely populated with South Africans, as Kaffirs. In my day Kaffirs was the term used in the City to refer to Krugerrands, so I thought it quite apt. Apparently the word is now banned in South Africa as it is highly offensive.
It is also interesting that youngsters are regularly inventing new language which is often community or age group specific and is considered part of the natural evolution of communication. The flowery language of the 50's and 60's is now consigned to Wikipedia and other such language repositories.
Plus ca change
I have no reason to judge the decision to remove her, but it does raise this whole area of political correctness once again.
I am reminded of Mike Newell, the Luton football manager, indicating the use of a female linesman was , quote, "tokenism - for the politically-correct idiots, we have a problem in this country with political correctness and bringing women into the game is not the way to improve refereeing and officialdom.
In this case had he referred to the situation as positive discrimination, rather than political correctness, he may well have found more support for his tirade.
With regard to language, however, I feel we old 'uns are discriminated against, as many of the words we traditionally used , have been deemed as potentially offensive or been given alternative meanings.......nobody ever sits on a poof anymore, and 'gay day' now represents a festival for the pink pound brigade. I remember getting a serious ticking off from the RFU for referring to the Bank of England rugby team, which was largely populated with South Africans, as Kaffirs. In my day Kaffirs was the term used in the City to refer to Krugerrands, so I thought it quite apt. Apparently the word is now banned in South Africa as it is highly offensive.
It is also interesting that youngsters are regularly inventing new language which is often community or age group specific and is considered part of the natural evolution of communication. The flowery language of the 50's and 60's is now consigned to Wikipedia and other such language repositories.
Plus ca change
Labels: bank of england, big brother, kaffir, krugerrands, political correctness, positive discrimination, wikipedia
¶ 11:12 AM 0 Comments
