Nige here. Apologies for my absence, in case anyone noticed - I was queuing outside Nothern Rock to open an account. Okay actually I wasn't, but the canny investor could probably do a lot worse - rates will go higher and higher, the company can't go under because the government can't afford to let it, and it will be bought up by Johnny Foreigner (who has a better grasp of money matters than we do in the Age of Gordon), which could mean bonuses all round for the half dozen account holders left standing. I'd also recommend buying NR shares - come on bloggers, fill your boots!
Meanwhile, predictable news on the double-decker train front. This was always one of those eminently sensible ideas that was never going to work over here. Whenever I travel on one, I think What a good idea, why don't they introduce these back in Britain? Then I begin to picture the scenes of chaos and carnage that would ensue on our uncivil, yob-dominated, low-security trains - two levels! with stairs!! - and realise just why. Anyway, it seems we're too big and fat - we'd get wedged on the stairs, sweating profusely. (But have we really grown an inch and a half in height since the 70s? Surely not...)
Sunday, September 16, 2007
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Well, you have, obviously. What is it now 9 feet? Yes the Mujis are for people with delicate feet like mine. They are so fine they were once used in a photograph of a pop star. But those were different times when poets studied rules of verse....
ReplyDeletesome of us have grown a lot more than that since the 70s, nige.
ReplyDelete*I* missed you, Nige. The boys are more fractious when you're not here. Or I annoy them more. Or something.
ReplyDeleteThere is, I think, a much cheaper solution than double-deckers: go to the Indian approach (pre-industrialisation), allow passengers to sit on top of a train as well as in it. You could probably get 3000 on the 10.00am Euston - Manchester Piccadilly service (2000 if they're all 'fatties'); big money for Virgin Trains and happy travellers fresh and ready for their business meetings. So low bridges might knock a few off; so what? They will have paid up-front; we really must think of the convenience and comfort of the majority.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone else having a problem connecting to the Telegraph website? Since yesterday, it has become the only place I have been consistently unable to visit. Never had this happen for this long. Even after disabled the pop-up blockers and internet security software, it has been a no-go. (I can get in the back door via blogs.telegraph.co.uk but go nowhere else on the website once there.)
ReplyDeleteApologies for the off-topic comment, but I really wanted to read that double-decker train story. That said, I think jontyh's solution is the best. Certainly would be the most interesting.
Thank you Nige for actually mentioning the Northern Rock melt-down. I would have thought that- as an ex-financial journalist- the other fellow might have devoted a thought or two to the subject- but I suppose there is some masonry of the Apples going on. They probably spit a pip into eachothers hands when they meet.
ReplyDelete