Odds 'n Ends

A few weeks ago I reported that I have an occasional job as a fish & game van driver. After a few deliveries with a white van I am now allowed to drive with a properly marked van.

This is part of the design on the side of the van. It is of course an angler fish, which is better known as monkfish on the fish counter.

I have also had much better success in programming the satnav. Found I liked km/m more than miles/yards and have finally got the thing to stick to the windscreen. Visiting customers for the second and third time also means that I am knowing the route rather than blindly following the satnav.

This will almost certainly be my last post this year as I will be offline in the Netherlands for the coming week.

Happy New Year to all!

After a month without work I got a job as a relief driver last week delivering fish for a local wholesaler. I spent a day delivering fish to restaurants, pubs and hotels in Winchester and Portsmouth.

I turned up at the warehouse at 07:30 and was duly assigned a white Mercedes Vito. I have never driven one before but have always been impressed by Mercedes vehicles. When I asked about how I was to find my way to the different customers I was given a Tom Tom satnav device, but the boss couldn't tell me how to use it.

The first two hours were a bit of a nightmare. Firstly I could not get it to stick to the dashboard so ended up putting it on a flat surface in the middle of the car above the dashboard. I managed to work out how to program the device for the first customer using the postcode and set off. Unfortunately the Tom Tom slid around the flat area and it was not possible to read the display. Worse still when I grabbed the device the touch screen was triggered and it went into a menu mode! Also I found it very hard to get use to a display showing tenths of a mile then yards; I simply do not think in multiples of 176 yards - what is 0.4 miles in yards? I actually really missed the simplicity of driving with kilometres that I had in my decade in Germany - you know without thinking that 0.4 km is 400 metres.

I made the first delivery to a village pub. I had taken quite a roundabout route to get to the village which I had never previously visited. Later in the day I realise that the village was off a B road that I know well and I could have taken a much shorter route. The third drop was to a hotel in a former stately home. I was suspicious when the satnav device indicated that I should drive past the main entrance; but I assumed that the tradesman's entrance had a separate driveway. It then showed that I should turn right into a single track lane, which after 500 metres was completely flooded with a 20 metre long puddle. Finally it took me almost back to the main road I had started on and suggested that I turn through 315 degrees right. This was a tree-lined avenue leading to the house - perhaps formerly the main entrance - but now a muddy bridle path.

Although I have occasionally done sightseeing in Winchester I know none of the hotel and restaurant locations. I duly managed to go round the circulatory system about 4-5 times trying to find customers. In two cases I drove right past them before realising I had to turn off the road.

All this time I had not got the Tom Tom to speak to me. I duly checked the preferences and ensured that the sound was on maximum volume but it still refused to speak to me.

So off to Portsmouth...at least I could find my way there on the M3 and M27 without satnav. It was a clear day with great views so an enjoyable drive. Two customers were in Old Portsmouth on the harbourside or near the old defences. It is a quiet and attractive area that I have not visited for 3 decades. Then for the last deliveries I was again at the mercy of satnav - I totally lost my sense of direction in Southsea. The problem with these devices is that they do not help you to learn to drive round the town you are visiting. It is like having tunnel vision! The last two restaurants both complained - one that I had not found the tradesman's entrance and had delivered fish via the restaurant and the other that I had found the tradesman's entrance when I should have come through the restaurant. Ho humm!

Then back to base...this time thankfully navigating with my brain rather than a GPS device. Technology seems to take us two steps forward and simultaneously one backward! At least the return journey had great views and no snarlups.

Recent behaviour of our banks has reminded me a lot of the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:23-30. I planned to write this a few weeks ago but did not get round to it.

Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accunts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and all that he had should be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him, 'Be patient with me', he begged, 'and I will pay back everything'. The servant's master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.

But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow-servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!'. He demanded. His fellow-servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back'.

But he refused. Instead he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

The excesses of the banking industry have made joyless reading. However, isn't it galling to see the behaviour of some of the newly-nationalised banks? A year or so ago they were offering mortgages (e.g. 125% or 6x salary) that were quite irresponsible as a small setback (e.g. uptick in interest rates) would make the mortgage payments unaffordable. Northern Rock was one of the leaders of this with them raising money on wholesale markets. Then banks hit trouble and the state has to bail them out. With us entering a recession you would think that they would show some flexibility towards their debtors; yet Northern Rock has been reported as being one of the most aggressive reposessors! Indeed responsible for 10% of repossessions.

Of course, banks need to recapitalise and really bad debts need to be dealt with. However, I suspect that many of these reposessions are either a result of people being encouraged to over-borrow or due to short-term payment difficulties. It behoves the banks who invested so much in persuading the public to get into debt to invest time in helping customers replan their finances to remain solvent.

I was encouraged to see yesterday that the Royal Bank of Scotland is postponing the process of reposession to 6 months in arrears. Let's hope that this is not simply a marketing gimmick and that banks proactively engage with their customers to help them replan their finances.