2012 — 5 April: Thursday
My evening treat today is going to be a return visit to "The Anvil" to see Dara O'Briain. Before that, however, it occurs to me that it might be smart to lay in a spot of food1 to tide me over the long Easter weekend, what with Bank Holidays and such-like.
How about a cuppa, Mrs Landingham? Oh, and hide that hose-pipe while you're at it. (A lady on the BBC has just warned me of a £1,000 fine for "flouting" [you can tell it was Radio 3 from that choice of verb] the ban imposed hereabouts after such a dry winter — nothing to do with leaky pipes, of course.2 Oh, no.) A bizarre exemption clause allows me to use a hose-pipe to fill a home birthing pool.
Grrr.
In earlier...
... and, if I'm honest, happier times, Christa and I would take the midnight ferry from Dover to Ostend, and then drive down through Gent, Brussels, Namur, Luxembourg, Trier, Idar-Oberstein, arriving in Meisenheim in the late afternoon. We would invariably stop in Luxembourg for coffee and croissants, and always promised ourselves that, one day, we'd explore it more thoroughly. (Of course, we never did.)
Whenever I buy stuff from Amazon UK, I'm actually dealing with an "order fulfilment" business based in Luxembourg. The word "fulfilment" is vital:
Amazon.co.uk was passed in February 2006 by Amazon.com International Sales Inc to Amazon Europe Holding Technologies SCS, which owned it for a day before selling
it to Amazon EU Sarl for €62m (£52m). Amazon.com Inc, the US master company, had already withdrawn its interest in the UK operation when it transferred its holding
in December 2005.
The practical effect ... was to reduce the UK business to little more than a delivery service. From 2006, sales made in Britain were billed from Luxembourg and any
profits from those sales were taxed not in Britain but in Luxembourg.
Isn't capitalism wonderful?
I stand(pipe) corrected. Tom tells me the water restrictions have yet to impinge on this dripping wet part of Hampshire. (Link.)
Browsium? Never even heard of them!
The story here reflects very poorly on the IT skills on display, not least within Brenda's gang of thieves. But 'twas (probably) ever thus. Meanwhile, Mother Hubbard's cupboard is once again unbare. It's 11:44 and perfect time for lemonses.
Silly me. What was I doing, thinking it was Spring? It feels freezing out there despite all the blossom and new buds.
Spring or not, it's time to set sail for the even more frozen North... [Pause] And back again, at 23:22 after a good couple of hours of 'craic'.