Remembrance and Reflection

Family commitments meant that we did not attend the Mass for the war dead at the Beaumont war memorial this year. However the prevalence today of many ceremonies honouring the dead coupled with the further tragic deaths in Afganistan did provide much food for reflection.

I have posted before about the pros and cons of the UK's involvement with the war in Afganistan. That so many more have fallen since then including some seven more British soldiers this week together with many more civilians caused me to reconsider.

The key to my reconsideration lies not so much in the fighting and dying but in the purpose of all those sacrifices. The outcome of the Afgan election process is deeply saddening and my thoughts began to revert to the let the locals get on with it type scenario as the idea that what happens in a far off country will affect UK security in significant way does not ring true.

However the subjugation of the female half the population and many of the ordinary men I still feel transcends political national and parochial issues. What is the point of such grandiose concepts as a universal declaration of human rights if those who have subscribed to them stand back and allow millions of individual humans to be denied virtually any of those alleged rights, simply because they were born female?

On the other hand if local regimes carry on in the same vein even after huge attempts are made involving deaths of many British soldiers, to ensure that such rights prevail, are we not simply wasting time and losing many more lives in so doing?

Last week, events in the law courts made me consider that the soldiers' efforts should continue. Trafigura a British company had been persuaded after dint of court actions to pay £ms in compensation to many ordinary people of the ivory Coats in Africa consequent on Trafigura's alleged (but denied) responsbility for causing major pollution. So far so good but then the local regime appeared to act to prevent the monies reaching the pockets of the ordinary people who had suffered. At that point I wondered if the West's concept of human rights is but a pipe dream if local regimes remain corrupt and power hungry despite the West's involvement. However last week the local courts ruled out the attempt to place power over the Trafigura £ms in the hands of one man's organisation and as the BBC reported:

People danced, cheered and hugged each other as those who'd made it inside the court building gave their verdict

It is early days yet but the outcome so far appears to be that constant pressures for good can bring benefits for the common good. The comparison with Afaganistan only goes so far though as the initial Ivory Coast defendant was anyway a Western company and the pressure was placed on the local power hungry through the courts rather than by guns. Still patience even in the face of murderous adversity may yet pay even in the most hostile of lands. It would begood to see local Afgans dancing in their streets too.

An Education

HMV, the CD/DVD/Music people, having decided to use the otherwise wasted space on the top floor of their Wimbledon branch, as a cafe and cinema area and having launched this with half price ticket vouchers, we went to watch the new British film "An Education" there last week. The bar manager/ticket vendor told me that business was slowly picking up. As this is so far a one off by HMV, advertsing is apparantly largely by word of mouth only. The bar anyway had a more grown up feel to it than more commercial cinema bars though we eschewed the beer/wine for chocolat chaud.

The cinema was cosily intimate and so new was pervaded by a scent akin to that of the interior of a brand new car. The 'word of mouth' comment of the barman was borne out by the presence for the afternoon showing, of only a few patrons, four of whom by coincidence were well known to us. The wife of one remarked before the film began on how most of the audience seemed of a certain age and on the absence of 'chavs'.

I knew what she meant but her comments probably owed more to the type of film and the time of day than anything else. As for the film itself:

An Education was set in the '60s. A really bright intelligent private school educated teenage school girl Carey Mulligan falls for and is seduced by spiv con man Peter Saarsgard twice her age. At first the drama and fun of the actions leading up to the seduction seemed to be glmourising the whole affair to such an extent that I felt increasingly uneasy as today such actions by the older man would be understood as unpleasant 'grooming'. The rigid but typical 1960's stance taken by the private school headmistress Emma Thompson, added to the that kind of bleakness if not blackness. However the superficially unattractive form mistress Olivia Williams, provided some early signs of possible redemption.
The girl's father and mother were portrayed as somewhat po-faced middle class parents overly concerned with money and status which they seemed complicit in securing vicariously so to speak, through their daughter's naivity.

The inevitable death in the moral sense occurred but redemption again in the moral sense ultimately prevailed and extended in my view to her dad as well as to his daughter who having been expelled from school and failed her Oxford uni entry went on, helped by Ms Williams, to learn some lessons of life and also got to Oxford.

A fine film imho.

Money Talks - BBC 2 Evan Davis and Warren Buffett

Many thanks to fellow BU blogger Barnaby Capel-Dunn http://capeldunn.blogspot.com/ for suggesting that the Evan Davis interview of Warren Buffet on BBC 2 might make for some interesting viewing. It did and provided a fascinating insight into the life not only of the man with his mega wealth but also that of family members.

I have always believed and to some extant had that belief supported by occasional real life meetings with very wealthy people, that much wealth like much cigarette smoking risks damaging the health and lives of those involved and the lives of others. Matthew in the New Testament records:

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God

However quite what that means is not certain. Many people in the West of average wealth are immensely wealthy when compared with millions in impoverished parts of the world. Further more I can leave the tap running away copious amounts of water whilst brushing my teeth whereas some women in Gaza have to queue for hours to fill water bottles from infrequent well standpipes. As regards water we in Britain are rich indeed...

Reverting to Warren Buffett the impression he made was positive and I would be surprised if there isn't somewhere a needle's eye large enough for him to slip through.

Snippetts from the programme that made a large impact are in no particular order:

His Berkshire Hathaway company's website is simple and devoid of images - quite the reverse of the received wisdom that a company website to be effective needs to have all the latest bells and whistles.

His daughter recalled a time when she needed some $19,000 to extend her kitchen at home but her dad refused to lend her the money - presumably as he felt that the easy loan would not be good for her character.

His son seems to eschew dad's business and instead concentrates on making and playing music.

Warren Buffett accepted that he had a talent for making money but modestly signified that he was so far from perfect at spending it that he was giving much of it (ie untold $bns) to Bill Gates' already mega bucks charitable foundation, to spend on charities and aid where most needed rather than attempt to maintain control of the spending himself.

He left the control of companies that he bought largely with the local management.

The control freak element often associated with the very powerful or wealthy did not seem to be to the fore of his life. Interesting that he'd rather trust fellow billionaire Bill Gates with the philanthropic side of his wealth than governments or quangos. This is perhaps more a sad reflection of the state of international politics, leaders, the UN, governance and bureaucracy, than of any reluctance to let go and give freely of Mr Buffet.

Daily Commute - Hapazard Pictures

Thames Drilling Rig

Autumnal sun, yellows orange and greens abound on the trees around the Thames path to the West of the North side of Vauxhall Bridge making the final stretch of the daily commute to the office actully quite enjoyable. The atmosphere is especially attractive when the tide is in and the Thames is still flowing backwards upstream as a result.

A novel feature of late is a large brilliant red drilling rig situated in the river just upstream of the MI5/6 building. The rig seems packed with many wonders of modern science incuding a number of aerials and satellite dishes etc. For a time its presence made for much speculation as to its purpose. An acquatic extension for the MI5 spies to practice upon perhaps; the government searchingfor oil maybe to make a start on paying down the huge national debt they have created but the reality turned out to be a more prosaic machine for facilitating the buiding of systems to reduce outfalls into the river during heavy rainstorms. Still James Bond always used to spin a yarn about his being an import/export line of business so who knows.

I'll try to post a picture later.

Hopefully the picture has downloaded. The current location of the drill is about a mile upstream of the Houses of Parliament Near to the Thames footpath at Rivermill.

EDIT Current 25th October 2009 view is now posted above

Naive and Sentimental Investor

The above title was probably the apt desription of yours truly in 2002 when I first started looking at personal shares investing seriously - so seriously in fact that I joined up to Sharecrazy then as well - and have enjoyed using that investment bulletin board ever since.

In 2002 I followed much of the accepted wisdom of investing in the stock market like 'buy and hold', 'think long term', 'only invest in what you know', 'sell in May and go away', 'do as Warren Buffet does' etc etc. I broke a few rules too such as 'never fall in love with a share', 'stick to FTSE100 dividend earning shares' and 'avoid AIM resources stocks'. Like many private investors then and since, especially immediately following the slump in share prices that was part of the global recssion fallout, I saw the value of many of my share holdings fall.

This experience has made me hopefully less naive, more cynical and at least of late, the outcome appears to be that possibly some profits are in sight. Whether the sighting proves to be but a mirage more time will tell but really the only rules I try to stick to now are to avoid investing in companies the ethics of which or of their products or serviecs are patently questionable and to avoid shorting ie selling shares I don't own although the UK government encourages that kind of gaming by taxing the buying of shares with real money and any profits made therefrom but not taxing the selling of other people's shares nor any profits made from that practice.

Although I still harbour the belief that paying ready money for real shares in companies is investing rather than gambling, the distinction between the two is looking increasingly blurred so much so that some recent shares purchases are proving more of a gamble than investments. Sadly too they appear to be proving more profitable than maytrees minor's recent foray into the stock market. Take two examples:

Maytrees minor invested recently in some TESCO shares. Tesco is a FTSE100 co. of good repute with some international presence and paying divis on its shares. He paid around £4 each for his shares and their price is now around £3.75p Shortly afterwards I was looking at an attractively named company - Nostra Terra Oil and Gas Company plc - the shares of which were at that time priced at about 0.35p each and quoted as one of those dreaded resource stocks on AIM. Last week Nostra Terra announced for one of its motley collection of oil/gas hopes that:

Nostra Terra is pleased to announce a hydrocarbon discovery
on the Boxberger property in Kansas, USA.

IE that it had found two gas resevoirs not in some dangerous (for investors anyway) part of the globe but in the USA that moreover have never been produced before.

Despite there being no clue as to amount of gas etc investors piled into NTOG's shares and their price has now soared to 0.86p ie over 100% gain for the early birds and still a tidy gain though less so for those who like myself 'invested' later.

Obviously I'm pleased to have made a gain on paper at least with this share but it saddens me that by the traditional investing yardstick at least, it is more of a gamble than an investment. I wonder if this type of 'investing' will prove more fitting for personal private investors in C21 than the traditional FTSE100 type.

Time will tell.

Leadership - Wimbledon Bookfest Talks

Two absorbing talks on Leadership during Wimbledon Bookfest week were given by two very different leaders in Donhead's gym on Friday. The first by Colonel Bob Stewart DSO former commander of British troops in Bosnia and the second by Father Peter Gallagher SJ a lecturer at London University's Heythrop College and Rector (leader) of the Society of Jesus in Wimbledon.

Colonel Bob's talk coincided with the launch of his book "Leadership under Pressure". He spoke of his times in Bosnia and the UN efforts to contain the atrocities being perpetrated there. He spoke of the effects of having to kill a fellow human being - which returns to haunt you years later - and responded with dignity and obvious respect for the human spirit, to some tough questions about whether soldiers "want to kill the enemy". He said that true professional soldiers seek to reduce killing but that the lesser of the two evils principle does mean that killing of enemy soldiers cannot be avoided. He outlined the quite restrictive rules of engagement that apply in UN situations. He also talked of times when he had to decide to ignore rules in order to save civilians and harked back to the atrocities that occurred when Bosnian Serbs captured the eastern Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica and other UNs troops stuck to the letter of the rules which lead to disaster. His interpreter in Bosnia, who attended the talk as she later became Mrs Stewart was a young French UN woman responsible for setting up a large refugee camp there and seemed to me to be quite a courageous leader herself.

Lateral thinking seemed to play quite a part in Col Bob's view of leadership. EG the British MoD denied his request for helicopters from Ark Royal to help civilians outside his area so he borrowed a couple from the friendly French, then spoke about this to the BBC's reporter on the spot. Soon after she reported the reliance on French helicopters on the BBC news at 6pm, the British MoD hurried over some British helicopters to his battalion. Convoys of lorries too were used to save civilians but even then babies died on the exhausting long journies as people were crammed into these army trucks - still many other people were saved.

Father Peter spoke of the four pillars of heroic leadersip which are i. self awareness ii. ingenuity
iii. Love and iv. Heroism. Some questions put to him too were quite tough verging eg on the thorny (for some) issue of celibacy. His quiet sensitive approach to leadership and people impressed. His talk was perforce rather shorter as Col Bob overan his time but was in some ways even more thought provoking.

Col. Bob's book contains a dedication to Donhead's head whose leadership style is based on back row substantive understanding rather than bluff and bluster from front row.

The popularity of the evening and the bar is expected to benefit HCPT Group 35's fundraising for our Easter 2010 pilgrimage so a large thank you to everyone who contributed.

Why Irish Ayes are Crying

In the 14th June 2008 my post entitled "Why Irish Noes are smiling" opened:

The result of the Irish referendum on whether or not to
ratify the EU Lisbon treaty was a resounding "no" to more big government and
"yes" to more national democracy.

The mandarins of Brussels dsapproved so the citizens of Ireland were urged to vote again and come up with what Brussels deemed should be the 'right' result ie a 'yes'; which alas they have just done.

My own enthusiasm some years back, about joining the EC and the Euro has been diminishing in proportion to the increased involvement of the EC in individual private and professional lives.
A couple of years ago after many interesting discussions with a British FO friend his arguments against the UK joining the Eurozone prevailed in my own thinking and I switched from being pro to being agin the Euro. Now I'm fast reflecting on whether UK membership EC itself should be brought to an end. By all means let us have a club of nations with the common aim of exchanging and developing trade, education, arts and charity links with each other and the world at large but let not that club spawn huge bureaucracies and out of touch big government.

If the EC delusions of grandeur begin to manifest themselves in a highly paid pointless post
such an EU president, for some former political grandee, then the time will have come for dissolution or at least a graceful withdrawal by the UK.

EDIT: Post title altered to mirror "Irish Noes..." post of June 2008.

Also to add that a good yardstick for measuring meaningful more mandarin free democracy in the EC, would be whether any EU President is appointed undemocratically or elected democratically after an EU-wide poll.

Food for Sorrow

Change can bring much sorrow and not a little heartache but ultimately can bring about huge improvements in the quality of life. The trouble is that clinging on to the known usually seems more comforting than leaping into the abyss of the unknown change. An example is the way in which the British government skews our economy's support systems in favour of entrenched businesses like weapons manufacturers and car sellers rather than say favouring wind turbine makers on the Isle of Wight. This partnership between government which seeks to be re-elected which panders to popular opinion and people who seek to retain their home comforts, risks making many complacent and maybe even morally blinkered. This can have unintended consequence elsewhere perhaps on the other side of the planet. Whereas making the effort deliberately to change from the familar and cosy negative, to the less well tried, unfamiliar but possibly positive, could greatly enhance life at home and abroad.

Take arms sales: Many in the UK are employed by arms manufacturers and those companies also provide much needed facilities for research and scientific advancement. Clearly we have the right to defend ourselves but relegating that part of the economy from say the first to the third division would be a painful change not least for the nation's tax take and superficially at least prestige. However the fallacy is to omit to understand that the people and resources released by such relegation are not simply going to become moribund. Given the intelligence and energy of many of the people involved, new enterprises not concentrated so much on how to kill explosively and with massive consumption of oil, would be bound to be created - in time.

Resisting the need to change in this area risks other dark immorality eg of corruption. The Independent newspaper had an important piece on this yesterday which also highlighted how the Church ought to have a leadership role to play in steering the nation to change:

The cardinal could stand it no longer. Conducting the funeral service for a
prominent bishop in front of pews packed with his nation's top politicians and
business leaders, Polycarp Pengo, the head of the Catholic Church in Tanzania,
raged against the cancer of corruption eating away at his country. He urged all
decent people to join a crusade against the 'vices' of bribery and embezzlement.
He was right to be annoyed. A series of scandals have highlighted the growth
of graft in Tanzania. There have been calls for Benjamin Mkapa, the
globally-respected former president who was among those mourners a month ago, to
be prosecuted. And in a land where more than a third of people live on less than
£1 a day...

The costs of and payments associated with the supply of the
unneeded sophisticated radar system could have been used instead to provide food
for those on the verge of starvation in that country. Of course had change been
initiated miles away in the UK maybe the food would have been
provided. Before New Labour swept to power a few years
back, the
electorate was promised a changed emphasis for ethical foreign
policy especially
in the field of arms sales. As one who did not relish the
prospect of New Labour
generally, that was their main promise which caused
me to welcome the then new
Tony Blair government's arrival. Neither that nor
the current New Labour
government, has delivered on that major promise.

As the French might say:

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Democracy and Saving the Planet

The democratic Western way is not perfect. Thus the Irish having with considerable insight, voted "no" to the proposed European Union constitution, gave the answer which was not regarded by the mandarins of Brussels as being the correct answer. So the Irish are being requested to vote again. This re-run of the Yes or No question when the electorate has already voted no, smacks not only of patronising the voters but is also indicative of a major imbalance in the democratic system. If those who vote no are given another chance so that they can think about voting yes this time round, why should those who voted yes last time not now be given another opportunity to vote no?

Some political leaders were pragmatic (possibly patronising in a different way?) enough to conclude that their electorates could not be expected to understand the complexities involved so went ahead without offering peoples chances to vote on the matter at all.

There are issues so fundamental to human life that they should not be decided simply by the will of the majority. Capital punishment is a good example . Revenge and retribution by killing killers may seem attractive to a majority of voters but should not such an issue be decided by informed leadership? The New Testament answer would be a resounding no to answering death by death so the Scottish decision re the Lockerbie killings, if truly made out of compassion, was a New Testament response albeit doubtless contrary to the majority opinion. Revenge however can seem sufficiently 'sweet' to many to yield a "yes" answer in a popular referendum on the issue. It is noteworthy in the Lockerbie context that Scotland's Cardinal O'Brien
was in the fore of those seeking to pressure world's leaders to take action about mankind's tragic actions in polluting the planet.

Major Green issues likewise require great and informed leadership to determine rather than simply relying on the majority view. How many car drivers for example would vote for making private car ownership almost if not actually impossible? Yet if the ability to own and drive private vehicles at will continues to go unchecked, we may all drive ourselves and the planet to destruction; likewise a few other aspects of personal lifestyles.

Calling for referenda on such issues may be truely democratic but alas such may also be the actions of truly weak leaders.

The Catholic Church here on the planet is full of weaknesses but its reliance on leadership rather than democratic/popular opinions, is one of its strengths. The Scottish Cardinal O'Brien's stance on green issues is a hallmark of a good leader. The BBC reported lst week:

Scotland's leading Roman Catholic has warned the international community that "political wrangling" over climate change is putting the poor at risk.

A Sense of Humour

Humour often passes me by. Yet others obviously receive and givemuch pleasure from humour. Re reading many of my blog posts on occasion illustrates a lack in the jokes department. Another BU Blogger has a great blog interspersed with good humour see the Subliminal Mr Dunn at:
http://capeldunn.blogspot.com/

Often a good joke seems to be at someone else's expense and sometimes it is said that in the New Testament Jesus did not display a sense of humour. The latter view is I feel wrong - take the case of the Woman at the Well :

Go call your husband and both of you come back here.
The woman answered:
I
do not have a husband.
Jesus said to her:
You have answered correctly
that you do not have a husband, for you have had five husbands and the man your
now living with is not your husband. You have told the truth.

Fawlty Towers humour too I find side splittingly funny on occasion eg when Basil Fawlty's old British Leyland car breaks down in a scene which at the time long suffering BL ownersmust themselves have experienced, berates God for letting him suffer in that way. Jokes at God's expense I have always assumed are fine - his shoulders as our creater are bound to be broad enough to take our attempts at jokes at his expense.

Still jocular levity can be good for the heart as well as the soul - I could do with some more.

Citzens - Sea Changes Ahead!

The sharecrazy shares' investing site often provokes thought on non-investing topics. Mdtrader's thread: "Proof that the world has gone mad, just 6 months"; is one such.
Often posters myself included, gripe about, berate or worse;
"government" "insitutions" etc and a recent riposte to my comment that perhaps we get governments we deserve was "Nobody deserves a government like what we got".
That top down approach tends to peter out before reaching the bottom of the apex occupied by ordinary individuals such as yours truely, which is a shame as consideration of personal failings financial or otherwise is likely to result in more improvements than general political action.

Take borrowing; many say that they have overborrowed. Government responses are largely geared to demonising banks and bankers and may be then nationalising them. Yet is not a part of the problem caused by individuals offered cheap loans with few questions asked, acting like children faced with a heap of sweets being unable to resist tucking in?

The counterpoint to over borrowing is overspending. Larger loans were often taken out to buy new motor cars with govt. encouragement. Cars add to the quality of life in many obvious ways but at what a cost? Cars tend to be imported into the UK. The UK has a huge trade deficit; cars pollute and are intrusive. Despite all that and in London at least an extensive public transportation system, individuals' obsession with the private motor car continues.

Having dispensed with a personal motor car and opted for a Streetcar club membership instead
the benefits of dispensing with an individually owned car become increasingly obvious. They are illustrated daily by the sight of suburban and city streets strewn with cars mostly parked for most of the time depreciating and taking up valuable space. So far at least the decision to opt out of car ownership is yielding sizeable runing cost and capital financial benfits too. Such changes are obviously not possible for all to consider but presumably those who commute daily into work by public transport leave their cars gathering dust on most days. It's of course much easier to describe an hopefully positive personal action already taken than to dwell on others which could be but have not been taken (yet?) such as in my case too frequent flying as a low cost airline passenger...

Until ordinary adults take individual responsibility for their individual actions, community actions eg by government for the underprivileged and the greater good risk being forever hamstrung. A yardstick for determining whether individuals are accepting personal responsibily for their borrowing spending and climate change, may be how if at all their/our attitudes towards private transport change in the years ahead - I see sea changes (and in the air) ahead being somewhat of a challenge in both private and public life.

Political Expediency

The current debate about the Phoenix Four and their profit from their Rover take over and that company's subsequent collapse is typically misleading. Historically management, unions and government were always short sighted about Rover and its predecessor companies. EG the Morris Minor could surely have been developed and marketed around the like the old VW Beatle was. Likewise it has taken a German company to capitalise on the design and cachet of the Austin Mini.

The Unions at British Leyland under Red Robbo kept that company in a semi permanent state of civil war bewteen workers and management with the result that the company was almost beynd rescuing when BMW stepped in. Following the decsion of BMW to step out other possible rescuers came forward including Alchemy. Alchemy hoped to base the company for the future on its MG type sportscar heritage. This would have meant a smaller and as the saying goes leaner company which would have a reasonable niche in the marketplace. The problem was that Alchemy's paln would involve definite quite large job losses. the Unions whose actions over many years had contributed to British Leyland's sad predicament were agin Alchemy.

The Labour
govt was heavily union influenced, then fell for the charms of the Phoenix 4 and beguiled by the chimera of keeping most of the jobs going whereas proper objective analysis even at the time, favoured the Alchemy plan. After all if BMW a hard nosed car maker which still goes from strength to strength, was unable to keep the whole show on the road how should any body else realistically expect to do so?

The Conservatives too were hardly maintaining an objective approach at the time (Spring 2000)as they appeared to concentrate more on making political capital out the immediate job losses issue which would almost certainly have been part of the Alchemy plan, than on saving a good part of the business and jobs in the longer term that the Alchemists could well have achieved. However all this happened on Labour's watch and it is sadly typical of many of today's politicians that responsibility is not accepted.

Seminar Conference and Meeting

Last week was a busy one as regards personal and professional community activities. Interesting to compare the way in which networking took place. The first activity was an evening seminar for employment lawyers. This took place in one of the attractive sets of chambers in London's Temple. Packed - not a single seat available even for ready money. Possibly this was more a reflection of the huge volume of legal red tape being generated for employers by Europe and Westminster, than that of widespread concern for workers although to be fair the legal profession does attract many who do fight for the society's down trodden. The networking was facilitated after the event by generous glasses of wine being provided as one chatted with colleagues.

The next was a day Conference of Religious at a London University College. Again not a spare seat available which is especially encouraging as the fading importance of the Church and inexorable decline in numbers are often portrayed as givens but a conference like this makes one optimistic. The theme there was of care for the elderly encompassing not only aged parents but also aging members of communities for the Common Good. The mark of a civilised society being apparent from the ways it treated those in its margins was emphasised. 'Networking' seems too secular a word to apply to the spirit of this conference where there was no wine but much thought provoking prayer and other good nourishment in the form of coffee (plus lunch).

The third was a Saturday morning governors' meeting held away from the School at a local convent. Networking there arose not only from the common good but also the specific common
aim of enhancing the School's excellence. The theme was appropriately enough for an academic institution, succinctly described in Latin as, Cura personalis which signifies a concern for each individual. Normally a jog over Wimbledon Common on a Saturday is quite gruelling as a result of tiredness following a week at work in London but the uplifting nature of the Cura Personalis based meeting was manifest in a great run not beset by normal Saturday weariness.

Overall all three activities were well worthwhile. Committee meetings and other similar gatherings can sometimes be more of a drudge than a boon but where there is a good point to be discussed and where good will abounds, outcomes which refresh and reinvigorate are more likely.

Summer Holidays North Wales/South Cornwall?

The question mark in this post's title signifies the incredulity about whether staying in Britain this summer would feel like a holiday. Mrs maytrees being of the view that these days, airports and hot climes do not necessarily a brilliant vacation make, the decision to avoid both for summer 2009 was as some might say, 'a no brainer'.

The attic of a former boarding school house in Dolgellau made for a spacious holiday home. The town's best coffee shop (Roberts') was a converted drapery and linen store in which the huge original linen measuring bench was used as a table to sprawl over with maps and coffee. A walk from there ten miles along a disused railway track to Barmouth took one passed the old but packed Charlie pub, along an estuary teeming with birds and wildlife and ended with the foot crossing over the still used (just)rickety wooden and iron railway viaduct towards the beaches. A more energetic but frightening climb a few days later up and over the Roman Steps at Cwm Bychan was beset by heavy rain, wind, marshy bogs and absent a compass our heading for miles due East rather than West a Snowdon Ranger's mum whose house we chanced upon, amusedly offered us tea pending the arrival of a taxi to take us miles and miles back to the start point.

Cornwall was equally exciting. By contrast to the huge Dolgellau loft rooms, our Gunwalloe abode was a tiny cabin on the edge of the cliffs near to Chuch Cove. Torrential rain and gale force winds made the cliff edge site which was beautiful on sunny days seem very precarious at night. The Maori restaurant, Kota, at the tiny nearby harbour village of Portleven provided fare every bit as good as that we have enjoyed in Southern Europe and far less expensively than elsewhere.

No airports, good food, comparative isolation, sea, walks, mountains, bracing weather and time out together made for a vintage break, as good as any abroad.