Good luck with Faniya and Fatima. I have been communicating with a couple of ladies here with the authorities. They are nice, but sound a little more condescending albeit kinder than the last time l tried to claim benefits. They must hear a lot of very frustrated citizens today. The paperwork drives me nuts. What they give with one hand they take away with another in someone else’s job creation scheme.

The two biggest red herrings we have been fed are ; the rich pay a disproportionate amount of income tax. Hardly. Now most of Hmg income is from National Insurance and indirect taxation from the likes of you and me to the extent of probably half our incomes. I now pay more in fuel duty than income tax. As an old git I am one of the lucky ones in only having to work 3 days a week at most to get by......if l can find any work now that is. Doing a 4th or 5th day hardly seems worth the extra sweat as the NI stoppages kick in over my personal allowance. The crunch question for me now is can early retirement work with my puny pension pots in the current climate?

And therein lies the second red herring; Hmg’s boast about bringing more low paid out of taxation. The high cost of living in relation to lower wages just means that a high personal tax allowance is now irrelevant. In my line of work l am surrounded by younger people who have to work 5 or 6 days just to get by, but who see diminishing returns on their long hours. They have no choice because the hourly rates have not kept up with inflation, but market forces are not going to increase rates any time soon.

The truth is that our government and the HMRC as an entity are now to weak to stand up to big business and the energy cartels. Devolved government and management just means that executives in local authorities, health trusts and schools can pay themselves and their wives 6 figure salaries plus benefits or share options, while their cleaners can barely afford to turn on their heating!

Of course ( A’s has been said 50 or more million times) this will all end in tears for UK plc as people can afford less and less to support a goods retail industry, a thriving high street, or a healthy community if most of the money just keeps going upwards. That’s just bad government. Think l’ll start up a wrap and bone trade!

sorry to hear
after taking voluntary redundancy 10 years ago, I only work or attend for 2 days a week and that gets in the way at times, only 3 more years to go and at 60 pension, will be available from previous job,( 22 years’ service), might just drop it down to only working one day a week then, so as not to pay too much tax and end up working for half pay per hour

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Buell Ulysses XB12X 06/08
CCM R30 (650cc) 02
Norton Dominators

You are luckier then! I got screwed by the system due to time off sick and constructive dismissal for being ill. To think that my company once asked me to go to Hong Kong to help set up a highways unit, but 18 months later were trying to force me out due to health issues. You were only as good as the last job you did.
With my experience l later helped a female friend who was burnt out then got bullied out of a job. She got 60k, l got minus 95k all things considered. I had all the same psychological bullying as well, but l ignored that at the time because being a more resilient male those tactics don’t work with me. Although with hindsight l should have feigned insanity and claimed.

I actually don’t regret where l am as l got my Buell eventually and l’ve seen many things and met many people l wouldn’t have.

from Boris and his friends
https://youtu.be/xjG_VB-la7o

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Buell Ulysses XB12X 06/08
CCM R30 (650cc) 02
Norton Dominators

Brilliant.

So good to be back in the city.......or north circular regions everywhere from Watford to Ilford for the last two days. Mad as ever traffic and nice people to deliver to......most with no masks!

James O’brien of LBC was on form again! Maybe l’ll forward that link to him! He’ll love it.

Not watching the news very much, reading papers or having a smart device l am often just confused about local Covid rules and who is on what tier. I also tend to avoid even discussing it very much unless someone asks me to do something that would obviously overstep a safety line. I just try to avoid places and getting too close to people who look like a carrier/spreader risk to me. Our local supermarket is well managed and ‘Covidwise’ so we have all we need.

My father has cancelled the usual Christmas Day family gathering from the three households until they are vaccinated. Why take risks until we are all vaccinated? We will all just carry on as usual exchanging gifts a day or two before at a safe distance, but spending Christmas Day in each of our own homes. It’s just another date in the calendar. At least we won’t argue about what TV to watch. However, we are planning a family video meeting at some stage so technology could make the day!

I feel sorry for pub business owners, but l can’t help thinking that with the uncertainty of the second wave of infections such bookings were a risk anyway. I hope everyone here finds suitable arrangements. Just don’t expect too much and you’ll never be disappointed!

Well so much for the ‘great conjunction’. After weeks of bagging Saturn and Jupiter through my telescope the main event was a big miss!

The views of the two big planets were always compromised by their being too low in the atmosphere to get great resolution, but at least the position of the two together would have made up for a lack of detail.......if only.

On the 20th while out on an errand we spotted the two planets low in the sky in the early evening. Saturn was sitting just above Jupiter in what would have been a great sight with the right FOV lens in the focus of my telescope. However, before we got home to view them the sky had completely clouded over. Then we had a few wet and cloudy days to follow.

Oh well! Only another 800 years before we get a chance to see the same spectacle. As a friend wryly observed; “it’ll probably be raining then!”.

No clouds here. Wasn't as spectacular as advertised, but my son managed to photograph Saturn's moons with his mobile phone

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Travelling through time at the speed of light

miracles pah , not as good as they used to be in my day

Bloody necromancers! Well l plan to watch the 2816 event!

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Dusty 001

Well I must be practicing most of those already, but like many we are about to go up (or is it down?) to Tier 4 from midnight.

I have been reading up on 'The Arrow of Time', laws of thermodynamics, and non locality of quantum consciousness, among many other related threads. Now might be a good time to design a time machine!

Here's a travel ticket for the New year's Eve entertainment on me

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Last year I joined a group for anti-social people
We haven't met yet.

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I hate being strapped for cash....but it pays the bills

Back on trade again. I’m not sure if this is down to Covid or Brexit, but most of my recent deliveries have been bulk drops far and wide to one customer or another building up their stock prior to expected price rises. I heard that this may be down to shipping companies declaring a shortage of containers and hence higher costs. Profiteering?

Whatever, get it while you can! Today l did London again, but south of the river and was thankful it was just a bulk drop to a spacious warehouse loading bay in a modern trading estate. Mask and gloves, Chuck it all off the back and leave quickly!
On the way there I was pleased to see that Spectre didn’t in fact blow up MI6 towers, and that there is life in Peckham! ‘Brutiful’!

Obviously l was a bit wary of going into the city, but......it’s the London radio channels on FM that keep you sane, or is that insane. On the M4 run in near Heathrow I got Asian Star, which put out Indian harmonies to drum and bass, a sort of Exotic Marigold Hotel on acid! I get the urge to swerve the van gently from side to side as l roll to the tunes. By Glaxo Smith K you can usually pick up some good trancey Ganga dub from 2 or 3 pirate stations which frequently change names. By Hammersmith Odeon you can get Flex FM and You can indulge in a good head banging session! Then further into the city you’ve progressed to Full trance and the traffic seems to flow better! Well it passes the time and spares you the ‘astonishing sanctimonious ramblings’ of Mr O’brien On LBC.