Socks in Seville

We had a jaunt to Seville, despite wall-to-wall rain.   El jefe's shoes let in water, we had no umbrellas nor protective clothing......disaster.    So, new shoes for el jefe, lovely Spanish leather boat shoes.   But the socks had to be dumped - they were soaking.

We were in a very posh area and the only shop (apart from MaxMara and Loewe's) was Carolina Herrera, haute couture, and the only place for socks: yes, they had them.....lovely silky black ones with red toes and heels 15€.  We could probably have bought 6 or 10 pairs for that in M & S!

The hilarious thing was the packaging - presented to us in a beautiful monogrammed red box, ditto small designer carrier bag and the receipt looked like a flyer for the fashion house with the name of our server printed at the bottom.     All very tasteful, elaborate - and expensive.   But who cares:   his feet were dry!

Take a look at this

    

"Vaping"

I write so infrequently on here that I'm half ashamed to return to this blog to write about stopping smoking tobacco.   Ah, to hell with it - it's quite a milestone for me so why not share it with everyone.   I say everyone, but I think anyone who did stumble across this blog quickly faded away because of my lack of input.

Anyway, back to the point of all this post.    I am 72 today and apart from an 18 month tobacco abstinence period back when I was 54 or so, I have been a dedicated smoker since I was 14.   It was the thing to do then, it was normal.  Go and see your doctor and he'd be sitting there, smoking.    Spend the evening nursing a glass cup of Expresso in the new coffee bars back in the 50s, everyone was smoking.    Cinema, ditto; same for department stores.....anywhere and everywhere.  Bachelors  (the brand of ciggies!) were my poison of choice,  with a short period of those elegant Du Maurier in the red flat flip up box; short-lived because they were more expensive.  

In my latter years I've stuck to Silk Cut Silver, the very lowest tar and nicotine that you can buy and as I used to say to anyone who wanted to try one, "don't give yourself a hernia inhaling - there's nothing there".

Last month I went on a rare visit to UK for my niece's wedding.  It was freezing and I spent a great deal of time outdoors in the wind and rain having my ciggies (no-one else smokes and I was banished from the house).   Everyone was either just getting over or just acquiring a vicious cold and bronchitic-type cough and there was no escape for me.    That was nearly a month ago and I'm still wrestling with the aftermath.   I gave my germs to D, el jefe, and he gave them back.....and so it goes on.    Last week, el jefe wondered if I should not smoke and try to get rid of this whooping-type cough.   It was obvious he was worried.  

I saw an ad in our local internet forum for vaporised electronic ciggies so gave the guy a call and he visited that evening with all his wares.    I chose the psychadelic-looking one in the picture above.   It's light, neat and does the business.   I get a nicotine hit (there's a choice of strengths from 6-24 mg) a cloud of vapour that looks like smoke but isn't, and a lovely vanilla smell as that's the ejuice I've chosen.   I've got a standby of cherry, also very fragrant.   I just have a puff now and again, rather than light up and smoke (or let go out while I'm busy) a whole ciggie.   I've removed the ashtrays from my desk and side tables so the areas are now clean - so is my keyboard that used to get silted up with ash, along with the front of my clothes!  

And I don't want a real fag.   Aint that amazin'! 

No, I don't know the long-term effects of using ejuice and I don't care at the moment as I'm breaking the tobacco habit.   I'll keep you posted.

The Purpose of LIfe

So this is what it's all about



Hope this comes out o.k.  

Have not written on here for aeons.   Have been very bogged down with visits to northern Spain for a sick friend, getting involved with volunteering with Age Concern and continuing to enjoy gardening, reading and cooking.  Aand am still pretty obsessional about keeping up with world news.

Just not enough hours in the day these days.

Impromptu performances:

This was the scene in the shopping mall at Area Sur, Jerez....an elderly Spanish guy, dressed as a pirate - complete with treasure chest - doing a story-telling session for the children.  And how they loved it.   Some people can have children spellbound without even trying.

I love coming across these impromptu things in supermarkets and malls.   I'm still waiting to experience my first mob flash........one day.  

Mediterranean sandwich

We couldn't wait to leave the hearty soups and stews of winter behind and get into salads and Med sarnies.    I saw a programme on t.v. aeons ago with an Italian chef baking his bread then halving it  horizontally, drizzling with oil and pesto and filling with whatever took his fancy.   He wrapped it all up in foil and weighted it down with bricks  for a couple of hours so that all the flavours mingled. 

Our fabulous machine made some bread with olives and sundried tomatoes so I thought I'd have a go with our own version:   It makes a light, filling and delicious evening snack/meal, which I serve with naughty crisps (potato chips in the U.S.?)



Lightly toast thick slices of bread, score, drizzle with olive oil and pesto sauce.   Add in layers whatever you fancy:   tomatoes, onion, slivers of garlic, sliced olives, gherkins, cheese slices, ham, tuna, chicken slices, chorizo, garlic sausage.  

Wrap the final sandwich(es) in foil, place a bread board on top and press hard down.  If you have a brick, place this on top.

Really yummy. 

Antequera with the I.W.A.

This is our Autumn trip - a 3 and a half bus trip to Antequera, north of Malaga.   Lunch was at 3 p.m. so we had only 3 hours to have a guided tour.   A beautiful city which needs longer time spent there.  Enjoy the small slide show.

Antequera with the IWA - create a slideshow

Credit Ratings Agencies, Part 2.

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I discovered that John Moody & Company was founded in 1900 but did not survive the stock market crash of 1907. In 1909, Moody's was started and they initially published Analyses of Railroad Investments and then went on to extend coverage to US municipal bonds. In the 70s, Moody's expanded into commercial debt and began charging bond issuers for ratings, as well as charging investors. From 3 countries in 1975, its analyses covered over 100 countries in 2000. Announcements by Moody's of possible or actual downgrades of a country's bond rating can have a major political and economic impact, as we have seen. The irony is that until they went bankrupt in 2008, companies such as Lehman Brothers and AIG had AAA and AA rating.

In the publication “Business Insider”, a former senior analyst William J. Harrington, says that the ratings agency is rotten to the core with conflicts. See here for a full report http://www.businessinsider.com/moodys-analyst-conflicts-corruption-and-greed-2011-8 He describes a culture of conflict that is so pervasive that if often renders Moody's' ratings useless at best and harmful at worst as the management and “compliance” officers do everything possible to make issuer clients happy. Of course they do......they are paying the agency

Here is a telling story about the German insurer Hannover R, who were offered a free rating by Moody's. The insurer refused. Moody's continued with the free ratings but over time lowered its rating of the company. Still refusing Moody's services, Moody's lowered Hannover's debts to junk and the company in a few hours lost $175 million in market value.

Furthermore, as the housing market collapsed in late 2007, Moody's Investors Services, whose investment ratings were widely trusted, responded by purging analysts and executives who warned of trouble and promoting those who helped Wall Street plunge the USA into its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. A McClatchy investigation has found that Moody's punished executives who questioned why the company was risking its reputation by putting its profits ahead of proving trustworthy ratings for investment offerings.

I see there is a warning on the source of the previous and the following paragraph to the effect that the neutrality of these sections is disputed.

Portugal's foreign debt downgrade to the category Ba2 (junk) has infuriated the European Union and Portugal alike. Moody's has been accused of fuelling speculation and bias towards European assets.

Standard & Poor do not come out any better on closer examination. Credit ratings of AAA were given to large portions of even the riskiest pools of loans. Investors who trusted the low risk profile , purchased large amounts of collateralised debt obligations that later became unsaleable. Those that could be sold often took staggering losses. Companies pay S & P to rate their debt issues and some critics have contended that S & P are beholden to these issuers and its ratings are not as objective as they ought to be. A “paying to play” model makes their ratings meaningless.

“Time” magazine wrote “when both S & P and Moody's granted AAA ratings to collateralised debt obligations that were chock-full- of- crap mortgages, thereby helping to precipitate the 2008 financial collapse. The Washington Post said that Standard & Poor didn't just miss the bubble, they helped cause it”.

When the US was downgraded, some have accused S & P of causing further damage for its own agenda. S&P acknowledged making a USD$2 trillion error in its justification for downgrading the US credit rating but stated that it “had no impact on the rating decision”. “A judgement flawed by a $2 trillion error speaks for itself” said a spokesman for the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury.

Finally, this is the bit that leaves me feeling as if I'm living in a global cesspit: an S&P rating, e.g. of the US government or any other national government can have – and has had – a distinct effect on a truly global scale. But the decisions on these ratings are made by the company's employees who are not elected by the public , and are not accountable for their decision-making process. There is no appeals process against a credit-rating decision.

William Harrington's story here bears further reading to discover what goes on behind the scenes.