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Know the Rules Of The Game

May 19th, 2017

Just imagine you've had enough. Had enough of getting up early in the morning, getting washed and dressed, gulping down some carb filled 'not good for you' cereal and spending a good portion of your unpaid time, commuting to some place where you spend your day dealing with irate customers, grumpy colleagues, unreasonable demands from superiors only to face that commute back again. That is it! You up sticks, find a wide open space that suits your soul and down sticks. How long you think you got before someone lets you know, you cannot stay there? Lets you know that you can't drink water from the clear stream that runs past nor eat the fruits from the trees around you? Other people have done it, so why can't you?

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The Forgotten Raison D'être

May 18th, 2017

Something sinister is happening to the Social Benefit Services in the UK. As Government officials' rhetoric and public opinion guided by sensational tabloid newspaper headlines and 'benefit' porn on television has vilified and even criminalised those who find themselves at the bottom of the social system, the services have lost the reason for their existence. Instead of helping, the system seems now geared to stopping as many people accessing help, a lot of times in a cruel and uncaring manner.

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Taxing Lies

May 16th, 2017

Have you been worried about all the tax policies of the potential new Labour Government? Well, for most of us, we don't need to be. For example, the truth is that if you are now nowhere near earning £80K a year, you are very unlikely to join ever join the 5% of the population that earns more than that and that includes the millionaires and billionaires! If you are a student, look at the salaries for your chosen profession on job sites to see just how you would fare getting to the salary.

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The 'Tell It Like It Is' Brigade - Liars

March 15th, 2017

There they are, the memes, the statuses and the quotes; “Only the truth comes out my mouth”, “I tell it like it is”, “You can't handle the truth” and all that other mambo jumbo. Here is a truth, most of those people are lying. I'll tell you why.

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Buddhism – the gentle religion?

March 6th, 2017

The most famous Buddhist, His Holiness the Dalai Lama whose famous quotes litter social media time lines, is the public face of the peacefulness of Buddhism. If you were looking to 'find yourself', you might have considered following the thousands of people from the West who head for Buddhist monasteries in the Far East particularly Nepal, Thailand and even Myanmar (formerly Burma). If you were to be converted, if such a thing exists in Buddhism, you would be joining the hundreds of famous people who have become Buddhists.

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Capita – Symbol Of What Is Wrong With Capitalism?

March 2nd, 2017

Capita, somewhat unlovingly called C*apita by mostly ex-employees of whom I am one (ex-employee that is), reports a 33 per cent drop in pre-tax profits as it loses its chief executive Andy Parker. After 3 years in charge, Mr Parker joins the additional 2,000 job losses announced in December after the second profits warning. To further cut Capita’s 69,000 staff headcount by about 3 per cent, plans are afoot to send some jobs to India - not the 1st time – and “introduce robotics and automation to parts of the business” amid another restructure.

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Love is not enough.

March 1st, 2017

♫♪♫♪♫Bitter-sweet memories, that's all I have, and all I'm taking with me. Good-bye, oh, please don't cry, cause we both know that I'm not what you need and … I will always love you...♫♪♫♪♫

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Customer Care - British Style.

February 27th, 2017

Since I am now over the age of 50, I am now part of the army of grumpy old men and bear my responsibility to complain with all that great British fortitude. Several incidents in the last few weeks have left me feeling that I need to have have a word about British customer care, so don't scroll past. I know that dealing with the public can be trying at the best of times – see this post Nightmare Clients And Customers about the matter but I digress.

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Is Our Bank Being Setup for A Cheap Takeover?

February 26th, 2017

Politicians are good at deflection – when they want us to get mad, they tell us its our money – as in immigrants are claiming your money – and when they want us not to take notice they say the government's money – as in the 'government' owned bank RBS – Royal Bank of Scotland. Working as a civil servant many years ago in Zimbabwe, one lesson I learnt was that the government does not have any money, we, the people or specifically the tax payers, trust the government to spend our money.

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Somehow, I Lost My Religion.

February 24th, 2017

Well that is not exactly true. Religion, as most know it, that I lost many, many years ago. What I am actually talking about is my spirituality. Confused? I will elaborate.

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That Time Again

February 6th, 2017

No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently. - Agnes de Mille (1909 – 1993)

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A Mexican Lesson Of 'All Eggs in one basket' For Us.

January 27th, 2017

One of the hardest lessons my colleagues and I learnt when we were running our small business was that it was a mistake to have one of your customers provide most of your income. This meant that we bent over backwards, sometimes to our own detriment, to ensure we kept their business.

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Plastic Carrier Bag Charge – Wasted Opportunity (#5p2recycle)

January 22nd, 2017

My local Tesco supermarket in their wisdom no longer provide plastic carrier bag recycling facilities. Facilities were removed 'since the 5 pence bag charge was introduced'. Following the example of many other countries, on 5th October 2015, England introduced 5 pence charges for single-use plastic carrier bags. Now maybe I should have taken more notice when the the charge was introduced but I assumed that the charge would go into 'plastic carrier bag' recycling facilities considering that only retailers with more than 250 employees are obliged to charge for bags. This leaves tens of thousands of shops – many in inner city areas – that still do not charge for carrier bags.

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Why I Fear Writing Again

January 20th, 2017

Isn't funny that societies that historically measured the level of their 'civilisation' based on their artistic appreciation and artistic creation, that in this day and age most all types of artists in the developed world have to hold down day jobs to make ends meet? Only a small fraction actually make any real money. The picture is what my second eldest child and daughter bought me as my present for my 50th birthday. I'm not sure but I may have inspired her choice of present by discussing my writing and other artistic issues at some point.

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Universal Basic Income

January 19th, 2017

This week's big new story is Oxfam's report on how the eight people own same wealth as half the world. Last year it was 62 people! The principle of 'Universal Basic Income' appears to be the idea that appears to be able to provide a workable solution against widespread poverty especially in countries where the 'extended family' support structures, important in poorer societies, have been eroded over the recent past generations.

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Expectations and Disappointments

January 3rd, 2017

"That's it, I'm done, from now on I will look after number one, me and mine."

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Resolutions resolved.

January 1st, 2017

Many years ago, at least over 25 years ago, my mother who was a 60 a day smoker at the time decided to stop smoking on New Year's day. I had never known my Mum to make a resolution before nor I cannot remember her doing it since. Many people will discourage you from making resolutions by saying why wait for New Year's day to make a change that you should make at the time you decide you need the change. I would argue that there is something memorable about the date – the 1st of January - that makes it special.

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