Stoupa 2013

Another wonderful holiday in Stoupa - places we'd recommend include:

• Stoupa Restaurant - we went four times, each better than the preceding.  The last time we were early enough to order the pot-roast goat. Fantastic.  As was the bifteki stuffed with feta.
• Akrogiali -  went three times for dinner and twice for lunch.  The view from the restaurant at night is pretty but in daylight, it's awesome.  Really liked their saganaki prawns, totally delicious with great fresh tomato sauce, and will try and recreate this at home.  Mixed grill, moussaka and bifteki were highlights here too.
• Ta Pende Adelphia (also known as The White Trees) - great for lunch (five times) or dinner (three). Rabbit stifado, calamari, stuffed peppers, excellent souvlakia and moussaka.
• To Steki - lunch and late drinks. Sometimes very late drinks, with a Stekiburger or two to sustain us.
• The Butcher - this seemed to be a more expensive evening than most, but that's probably because we stayed more than two hours after we'd finished our food. The reason: rembetiki music every night, with Andonis Ainitis starring on bouzouki, a girl with a lovely voice who sang and played the guitar, and some really good dancing. A good night out.  

Here's Andonis Ainitis on YouTube:

Good job

The New Year's Honours List is always a topic for controversy, and the 2013 edition was just the same. Some people argued that Paralympians weren't honoured to the same degree as Olympians, some people who should have had honours didn't. I wish Danny Boyle had accepted a knighthood as the nation's thanks for a fantastic opening to London 2012 - it was richly deserved.

Nearer to home, it was great to see the front page of the Haslemere Herald report three local honours.

	Colin Wagstaff founded the King's World Trust for Children, an educational charity that's doing fantastic work in India, and receives an OBE.
	Hamish Donaldson is chairman of the Haslemere Festival, and receives an MBE.
	Carl Tantum has given years of service to local charities including Bordon Liphook Haslemere Charity which runs the Care charity shops.  He also receives an MBE.

Kiva - an invitation

I just realised that Kiva wasn't among my blog tags. It should be. It's a US-based organisation that allows you to contribute to small loans made by microcredit institutions across the world. It allows people who don't normally have access to credit to develop businesses or personal opportunities that can change their lives.

Some people are worried by microcredit because the institutions that arrange loans and collect the repayments make a profit from doing so. To me, so long as the lending terms are fair and not usurious, I have no problem with that at all. It's all part of the development of an entrepreneurial business culture, and I think it should be applauded.

The process is fairly simple. The lending screens enable you to see the headlines of (usually) the thousand or so loans that are currently fund-raising, and filter them or order them by country, duration, purpose, male/female, individual or group, and so on. Then click through to see full details and make a loan. You can fund your account through PayPal which in turn can be funded from a debit or credit card, or a bank account.  The minimum loan amount is USD 25.00, about GBP 15.77 at current rates, less than a few beers at my local pub.

When you make a loan, the process allows you to make a donation to Kiva's running costs. This is deductible in some way that I don't understand for US taxpayers, but there's no Gift Aid deduction for UK taxpayers and so I decline the opportunity. When I eventually stop doing this, I'll simply donate my whole balance instead.

My experience has been pretty good. Two loans out of 79 so far have ended with a loss, one of USD8.70 when the borrower defaulted, and the other a currency exchange loss of USD0.10. Two more are delinquent, very late with payments but both have paid back more than 80% of their loans.

 I don't know of any equivalent that's Gift Aid-efficient in the UK, but I'd recommend this as a relatively low cost way to make a real difference to people that are doing their best to improve their lives and the prospects for their families. Here's a personal invitation link.

Rugby World Cup 2011 thoughts

I think it was a fantastically exciting Rugby World Cup and the All Blacks were worthy winners in the end.  The second half of the final was real edge-of-the-seat stuff, even for a neutral.  The hangovers in all parts of New Zealand today must have been monumental. 

Although Craig Joubert is a fine referee, I didn't think he had a good first half in the final.  Front row dynamics are difficult and sometimes it's wrong to give a penalty - when it isn't clear who (if anyone) has committed an offence.  He also seemed to be pressured by the crowd, playing poor advantages to France and then calling advantage over, but in contrast awarding decisions quickly to New Zealand.  He appeared much more even-handed after half time.  In fact I hardly noticed him in the second half, which is a good sign that he was doing an excellent job. 

There was lots to talk about at every round: there were some fantastic matches, and unexpected results including Ireland's defeat of Australia which pretty much guaranteed that there would be a Northern Hemisphere v Southern Hemisphere final.  The way that some of the smaller countries are progressing is great for the game, and Georgia, for such a tiny country, were magnificent.  The inclusion of Sevens in the Olympics in 2016 is already making countries like Russia and China take Rugby much more seriously, so we could see some powerful newcomers in the later rounds of future World Cups.

Sadly the UK audience were denied the chance to see or hear the opening ceremony because the ITV producers couldn't allow Steve Ryder and his experts to be quiet for a few minutes.  I thought it rude to the organisers to ignore the NZ culture that was featured.  I thought it was a real shame that IBM didn't come up with a few more varied ads for the later stages of the competition.  We've all seen the old dears on the mobility scooters, the barber and the pizza takeaway about 48 times.  Enough is enough.  Audi seemed to change their ads as the weeks went on, which was much more interesting for the audience, but they could have done more too.

We didn't like music played in the stadia during injury stoppages.  I'm sure that Rugby crowds in New Zealand aren't so moronic that they need Sweet Caroline or something else from Neil Diamond's greatest hits to be played when the medics are treating a potentially serious injury.

Didn't the new all-indoor Otago Stadium in Dunedin look fantastic?

England were very disappointing, and really seem to have lost their way discipline-wise.  Wales lost shape after Rhys Priestland was injured, and although Warburton's red card looked crucial at the time, more important was the failure to kick from the tee. They lost three matches by a total of five points, and missed out on 40 points in penalties and conversions.  They also missed six attempted drop goals.

All sides seemed to have problems with place kicks; maybe there is more to be discovered about the aerodynamics of the new ball, particularly when painted up for the test matches, wet, and used in real play for half a game or more.
 
I thought the persistent booing of Quade Cooper was an absolute disgrace - nothing to do with Rugby, and a surprise that the Rugby-mad crowds in New Zealand would treat one of the world's great talents in such a disgusting way.  In contrast, I bet McCaw won't be booed for his knee to the eye of Morgan Parra during the final.

Picture from Official RWC2011 site

Every referee seemed to have difficulties at times, but sometimes the criticism was unfair.  Francois Pienaar slammed Wayne Barnes on ITV saying that Contepomi was offside in the Scot v Arg match when Parkes missed a poor drop goal attempt.  The Official RWC2011 match video has a view from behind the posts at the critical moment (about 5 minutes 50 seconds into the recording), and you can see that Contepomi was at the back of the ruck and onside when the ball was already being passed to Parkes. 

He also claimed Alain Rolland was wrong to give a red card to Warburton, but even Welsh referees applaud him for not chickening out, and applying the right sanction for the tackle. 

But all in all, congratulations to New Zealand on hosting a tremendous World Cup.  England will have to do extremely well to match this in 2015.

Beach Books 2011

This is the collection of books that I finished on holiday this summer:

1. Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett	2. Jigs & Reels, Joanne Harris	3. Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4. Shakespeare, Bill Bryson	5. The Social Animal: A Story of How Success Happens, David Brooks	6. Fury, Salman Rushdie
7. Notwithstanding, Louis de Bernieres	8. Paradise Lost - Smyrna 1922, Giles Milton	9. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson

I read a couple of these on an Amazon Kindle 3G and can report that it's perfectly legible in bright sunlight such as is found on the beach in Greece:
 
Commission received on Amazon sales using the links above will benefit
Petersfield Curry Club

Andy Millar

from Andy's Facebook

Maybe it's a sign of the times, but I first got a hint that something was wrong through Facebook.  Then the tributes started rolling in, then the confirmation by e-mail.  Andy died on Friday night, 4th March 2011 and by early Saturday morning many of his Rugby friends knew the shocking news. 

He and Celia pitched up one Saturday afternoon (spring of 1984?)  at Petersfield and said they were planning to move to the area from Milton Keynes, and were looking for a friendly Rugby Club that offered Mini Rugby.  We didn't, but I told Andy that we were looking for someone to organise it.  Sure enough, they did move to Petersfield, and instantly got involved.  Andy played prop for the third XV, absolutely solid and the foundation of a tight-knit unit that included the colonel and me in the second row.  And the promise was honoured: he got the Mini and Junior section of the Club up and running.  It quickly became a huge success, with hundreds of boys and girls taking part in Rugby on Sunday mornings at Penn's Place.  Something soon became clear and has become increasingly important over the years: the parents of Mini and Junior players, with their greater life experience, were often much better organisers than the players, who formed the majority of the Club Committee at the time (I was Hon. Sec).  Many parents have gone on to help in the overall administration of the Club, which has made a huge contribution to its development over the years.


from Andy's Facebook


When the roof of the old Clubhouse was blown off in the Great Storm of 1987, Andy was one of the members of the Clubhouse Organising Committee (CHOC).  He insisted on the construction of the balcony for the new Clubhouse which opened in 1990.  He's pictured right as he could often be seen, offering advice to players and referees.

Andy made another huge contribution as match reporter and author of match programmes.  He made sure that the local press was supplied with high quality reports during the season, and even a trickle of stories during the summer months to keep the Club in the public eye.  When he didn't have the team list from the opposition, sometimes he'd substitute one based on his wide knowledge and wit.  I was delighted to see that Tostig, Godwin and Sweyn were still playing for Winchester.  A few years ago he was rumbled by a former sport sub-editor of the Petersfield Post - when 'Field played Old Paulines, he got a bollocking for Philip and Felix.  Eric Bloodaxe was pushing things a bit far too, and one week I only found through the Hazy Herald that Al Eric, Hunery and Geiser were representing Weybridge Vandals.   But normal service was soon resumed.  About a year ago he excelled himself, with Black, Gang, Chine, Ryde, Pier and Neadle all playing their part for Sandown and Shanklin. 

We'll all miss him, his humour and the passion for the game that he loved.  All our sympathy and thoughts are with Celia and their boys, Alasdair, Iain and Jimmy.

{Update 16/03/2011] Andy's funeral was at St Lawrence's Church, Petersfield, on Wednesday 16th March.  A tremendous number showed up to say goodbye to the big man, family, team mates, friends from far and near; I counted ten referees as well as friends from many other Hampshire Rugby clubs.  Stuart Barden gave a great tribute and the music included two of the great Rugby hymns: Bread of Heaven and Jerusalem.   The wake, back at the Rugby Club, was one of those meetings of old friends that unfortunately is only brought about by the saddest of events.  But it was one you'd be sorry to have missed.

BBC: George VI: The Reluctant King

As the Academy Awards approach, and The King's Speech is thought likely to do quite well, the BBC broadcast a very timely re-showing of the 1999 documentary George VI: The Reluctant King.    It was amazing, inspiring stuff and a great story.  The story was supported by a tremendous array of contributors (some no longer with us), many of whom participated in the actual events.  Only one key witness was missing, and I hope that she didn't find the interpretation of her father's story too inaccurate or distressing.

For me: I thoroughly enjoyed it, BBC at its best.  Sadly it doesn't appear to be available on BBC iPlayer, but it's worth keeping an eye open for another showing.

Bland's Law and the Big Society

"Good intentions are not enough to make a difference", wrote Sathnam Sanghera in the Business Life column of The Times on 26th July.   The author makes a good case for scepticism about the Prime Minister's 'Big Society' initiative.  

The article argues that voluntary bodies are inefficient, mismanaged, unrepresentative and crippled by backbiting. Sir Christopher Bland, the former chairman of BT, was quoted in support of the latter issue, as saying that in his experience “the amount of backbiting, infighting and general skulduggery in an organisation is in direct proportion to the nobility of its goals”. 

This deserves wider coverage - maybe it should be dubbed "Bland's Law" - and many people will be able to give examples of situations that wouldn't be allowed to occur in a professional or profit-led organisation.    

I'll concede the point on the unrepresentative nature of voluntary organisations.  Inevitably, the decision to participate involves self-selection and, vitally, having time to do it.  Don't forget though, that such work can be a great way to improve the CV and employability for people in all sorts of different parts of society.  


But aside from this, and Bland's Law, many voluntary organisations do a fantastic job, and have good processes and management practices.  I think the article is too pessimistic, but very thought-provoking.

BBC - The History of British Music pt 1

I missed this four part series on its previous showings, but it's started magnificently, with the first truly great British composer, Henry Purcell. It's the BBC at its phenomenal best. Conductor Charles Hazlewood takes us through the music, palaces, and even pubs, with some brilliant performances.  The programme started with familiar works, but then Sir John Tomlinson sang a piece I'd never heard "They that go down to the sea in ships" and later "Cold Genius" from King Arthur.  He was superb, as was Elin Manahan Thomas, who performed Dido's Lament, and later "Fairest Isle", also from King Arthur.  And thank you to the Band of the Grenadier Guards, for their dramatic performance of the Funeral Music for Queen Mary (and for Purcell himself).

This wonderful programme was first shown on BBC4 on Saturday 9th May 2009, most recently on 26th June at 03:00 and now is only available on BBC iPlayer until 20:59 pm Friday 2nd July 2010. Link here. Catch it if you can!

Reasons to be cheerful

Now that we've left behind the mess of last weekend, I'm feeling optimistic.  It looked as if there was a real possibility (as seen from outside) that a Lib-Lab pact could be formed, keeping Brown in power for months or years.  The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats seemed to be struggling to reach an agreement, and various die-hards in both parties were telling us all about red lines.

In important ways, the components of the new Government fit my views perfectly.  I'm an economic conservative, strongly so; I believe in markets, opportunity, rewards for enterprise and penalties for failure, and having been a borrower, I hate uncontrolled debt and spending money that can't be paid back.  Socially, many of my views are liberal; some views expressed by readers of some of the more right-wing papers make me sick, and I think that we should fight hard to maintain the tolerance for which this country is renowned. This Government can steer a middle path, leaving extremists behind - the best of all worlds.

I think that both party leaders have played a blinder.  Clegg has achieved more for the Lib-Dems than could have been thought possible last weekend, and Cameron has gone further too.  Maybe Brown's death-bed conversion to the faith of electoral reform was the catalyst, but never mind.

The combined parties have offered Cameron a much larger pool of talent from which to fill the roles in the new Government.  His appointment of more Lib-Dems than demanded by the coalition agreement is a master stroke, money in the bank when decision-making gets tough in the fight against Labour's legacy of debt.

All in all, it's been a great start.  I'm concerned about electoral reform; I don't want to see BNP MPs at Westminster. The horse trading that we saw in the last week could have allowed a cynical Lib-Lab pact to deny the people the change of Government that we so badly needed; 'first past the post' elections usually allow the electorate to choose.  I'm nervous about the consequences of fixed term Parliaments that stop the country from voting when a vote might be the best solution.  But these questions can at least be addressed with careful consideration rather than as the sort of stitch-up deal that could have happened.  Reasons to be cheerful...

Absolute joy - a week's holiday

I thoroughly enjoyed my week's holiday, though it was busy from finishing work on Friday night until going back ten days later. Two trips (one overnight) to my late father's house to continue with the preparations to put it on the market and to meet an estate agent, three full length Rugby matches refereed, together with about two dozen 7s matches over four days at the National Schools Sevens, nine items sold on Ebay, a curry evening with Ruth's colleagues from the maths department, a pretty exciting Grand Prix and a trip to Broadcasting House to watch the recording of The Now Show for BBC Radio 4.

Almost all of these were an absolute joy. Even the house clearing effort progressed well, and apart from poor weather and lots of mud on the Thursday, the Sevens were great; talent, speed, skills and some really close,exciting games, and the chance to referee some fantastic teams.

The event in the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House was fascinating too, not least for the contrasts with a TV recording. Last autumn, we saw BBC2's Mock The Week at Television Centre. The studio was completely rammed with lights and cameras - over 100 gantries above our heads, and I may have counted ten cameras used during the show, each with its own cameraman. We were in our seats for a full three hours to produce a sub 30 minute programme, plus a few segments for the Christmas show. This was in the end exhausting and I'm sure that the cast struggled to raise many laughs after the two hour mark.

The Now Show seemed much lighter on its feet, though maybe more of it was scripted. Just a microphone each (one set lower for John Holmes), and we were out within 90 minutes - less than an hour's recording, and could easily have taken more.

The Radio Theatre is worth a closer look. Art deco, with bas relief sculptures round the sides at floor level - the floor has clearly been raised by some six feet. Wikipedia says that the sculptures are by Gilbert Bayes, though much else around the building is by Eric Gill. Sadly there is no mention, let alone photographs, of this work in the National Archives article, which however does show his work at Lords Cricket Ground, amongst others.

Follow-up on 'Administrative Cruelty'

After my original post on 12th November, I've had an exchange of e-mails with the manager for Customer Services at Wiltshire County Council.

In his initial e-mail, he made a good and acceptable apology and then continued, "we have put measures in place to improve the service for those people, like you, who need to register a death. Salisbury now have a dedicated line for death enquiries which is given priority. This will ensure that Customer Services can help customers to reach the right person much more efficiently. We have also reminded Customer Service staff that, whilst there is a general agreement that calls will be returned in 24 hours (if there is nobody available at the time), in the case of death enquiries, these calls are given priority and will be returned as soon as possible. In the context of your call, it was insensitive to give you the impression that you may have to wait 24 hours as it would have almost certainly been picked up and dealt with immediately. I apologise for this."

I replied that "I think there is still some distance to go to make the process as simple as it once was.

"As a general principle, it’s good to answer the phone immediately but it’s much more important that the right service should be answering the phone. This is particularly important in the case of a death, where emotions can be raised, timescales to organise funerals can be tricky, and the process should be as seamless as possible. If the call centre had actually been able to make the appointment rather than just quiz me to establish what I knew already – that I should register the death at Salisbury – then it would have been the right service. As an alternative, technology-wise, it should be a trivial matter to arrange for the call centre to pick up calls that couldn’t be answered at Salisbury, rather than make all calls pass through the call centre...

"A Customer Services call centre has a role for people that don’t know what to do, or whose relatives didn’t die in hospital. But the bereaved are given a useful booklet at Salisbury District Hospital. It sets out the requirement very clearly. It should have the direct number for the Registration Service. Anything else, any different number, any other mandatory step in the process, is an unfair and insensitive imposition on the bereaved, and not without cost for the council tax payer. I hope that the council will make the process as simple as possible for future customers."

He then responded "I have to say that I totally agree with the points made and I know that the current process is by no means perfect.

"It is a knotty problem to untangle as the previous process of being able to ‘direct dial’ into the Registration team worked well when Customers got through but there were a lot of complaints from customers not being able to get through.

"That said, now that the Registration Team in Salisbury have released another line specifically for death enquiries, it seems to me to be a sensible next step to start making that number available to the public. This is a proposal I am going to put to the Registration Operational Managers. "

I think that's a very fair response, and would like to thank Wiltshire CC for the consideration given to the points I raised. I hope that the right decisions are made - and that I don't have a reason to use the service again. Of course, any feedback is most welcome.

Jenson Button and Ross Brawn

Congratulations to Jenson Button and Ross Brawn, and their team, on winning the Formula 1 drivers' and constructors' championships. It was a hell of an achievement, and a great story. I enjoyed this article from The Times.

Another thing that I admired was Ross Brawn - in an interview at his moment of victory, not mentioned in the newspaper - paying tribute to the members of the team who had to leave when it was downsized at the beginning of this year to save costs - but had done so much to develop the cars to a winning design.

Well done, everyone.

Southampton Boat Show 2009

Wonderful day at the Southampton Boat Show yesterday. I'd never been to one before, but it was a fascinating day out. I knew that boating and yachting are big industries, and that they make a big contribution to the economy, particularly in the South and West of England. Despite that, I was still gob-smacked by the sheer range of boats, equipment and related goods and services on offer.

All of the big luxury boat suppliers seemed to be there - Sunseeker, Princess, Fairline, to name three - with boats that ranged from the lottery winner's dream up to the billionaire's mini-liner. Even at the smaller end of the market, these are seriously expensive to buy and run. I saw a Princess V62 (if I remember correctly) - beautiful boat, elegant design, tasteful bling-free interior. This has a fuel tank of 3400 litres and a range of some 300 nautical miles. But the price tag was in seven figures. Someone told me that luxury power boats typically cost up to half of their capital cost to run and fuel every year. Over 3000 litres for 300 miles suggests this may not be too much of an exaggeration.

There were huge numbers of yachts, either on dry land or in the water, and we particularly liked the Lagoon 620 catamaran, moored next to the some of the Princess boats: vast internal space in the main cabin - you could play table tennis on a full-sized table in there - and clever use of the hulls for accommodation, galley and so on.

The exhibition halls had masses of chandlery, clothing, advanced electronics, engines - just about anything the boating enthusiast could imagine.

But as a contrast to the bling palaces, the Jubilee Sailing Trust was showing people round the Lord Nelson, a three-masted sails training ship which takes 40 blind and disabled people at a time, with their buddies, on ocean trips. I think you'd learn more about yourself on one of their voyages than on one of the power boats. In fact, the cost of running one of the big luxury boats for a week could pay for a voyage for 40 blind or disabled people. Now, that's worth a thought.

I'm not a boat junkie, and never felt that I needed a boat. Not so sure now - some really impressed me. The show's last day is Sunday 20th September and if you're within reach, it's well worth a visit.

EDF Energy AngloWelsh Cup

After the excitement of the semi-finals, the final was one-sided. Gloucester never managed to raise their game in the way that had seen off Ospreys. They never looked as though they would win the collisions. It almost seemed as though the confidence that had allowed them to put extra firepower against Ospreys into the breakdown had evaporated against Cardiff. The half time score was 22-5 to Cardiff, and maybe they'd had one or two lucky breaks to be so far ahead. By the end, the result of 50-12 was fully justified, and they were worthy winners.

What a shame that this competition, in this format, won't be around next year. It's a fantastic opportunity for the best teams of the two countries to test themselves against each other, and to give great entertainment and thrills to their fans.

EDFEnergy Anglo-Welsh Cup

I've now finished catching up on recordings of the two semi-finals in this year's Anglo-Welsh Cup. Magnificent! Gloucester beat Ospreys by 17-0, with an 80 metre interception try by Balshaw at the death to seal an intense match. This showed Dean Ryan's coaching and direction of the team at its magnificent best - committing more men to the tackle area and literally blasting Ospreys off the ball. Ospreys, despite the brilliance of their attacking resources, never managed to compete against the sheer commitment shown by Tindall's team.

Northampton stayed in touch but never led against Cardiff Blues in the other match. In the first half, their defence was awesome but they rarely left their own end of the pitch. Cardiff pressure brought a deserved try by scrum half Spice, following an early penalty, to lead 8-0 at half time. Northampton came back strongly after half time with an early try by Ansbro, created by Myler (8-5). Northampton had the lion's share of territory and possession for the remainder of the match, but were unable to break through. A penalty for Blair, with 10 minutes remaining, gave Cardiff a wider margin at 11-5, but the match remained on the knife edge until the last play. It was a strange game, with both kickers misfiring and odd tactical choices made, but the intensity of the physical confrontation was wonderful to watch.

Sadly the future of the competition is undecided - the RFU and Premier Rugby seem unable to agree, and this excellent link with the top Welsh sides could be lost. That would be a shame. At least we still have this year's final to look forward to, on Saturday 18th April at Twickenham.

Barclaycard on the ball... and then not

Barclaycard contacted me on Saturday morning (7th) to ask if I'd just done a transaction for £1,000 with a mortgage provider on my business credit card. No! Then did you do £2,000 with an energy utility on Friday? No! What about all the other transactions? One other was fraudulent, a Pay As You Go phone top-up - I don't have a PAYG phone. Top marks for picking up the untypical transactions, two of which weren't what I would consider as suitable items for a business account.

The disclaimer form arrived today - and included a number to which it could be faxed after completion. And guess what - no answer (multiple times), number busy, no answer. Less than top marks for that.