Jersey Weekend

Last weekend, there being no dancing, I flew off to the island of Jersey to see a friend. It was easy. A short drive to the local airport that I still call Staverton but nowadays prefers to call itself "Gloucestershire M5". The plane has real propellers and just 20 seats - all by a window. We walk across the tarmac and up a proper set of steps into the fuselage like they do on old newsreel footage of politicians. The captain himself does the safety drill then says "Now, the interesting stuff - Sweeties!" and hands round boiled sweets. I look at the wrapper wondering if this largesse is sponsored by a local dentist but no, it's Lloyds TSB. Odd.

It's disconcerting to fly over a beach and half an hour later to walk on it but its got to be done. Jersey beaches are surprisingly big for a small island - that is, until the tide comes in and then they don't exist at all. I started wondering where thousands of summer visitors moved to twice a day when the sea reclaimed the sand.

I found a possible answer later - there are a lot of pubs. Do good food too. Fortunately, my visit coincided with "Tennerfest" when loads of places offer three courses for ten pounds.

I wondered if I might see some giant Jersey Cabbage but my friend thought the practice of growing them might have died out although she'd cultivated them herself in the past. They did have some giant Echiums although not as big as mine!

It's a modern financial centre yet pound notes are still used. The roads all have French names but they speak English. They are not part of the UK yet they drive their many cars on the correct side of the road. House prices are astronomical and still rising, It does both urban and rural. The national animal is a toad.

Jersey is a "island nation" to a degree that was a shock to me. Nowhere is more than about 9 miles from anywhere else. The sea is always closer. People want to escape but they are drawn back as well.

Finally, a thank you to the lady who saw me standing by the side of the road and mistakenly thought I needed a lift into town. It's good that there are still places where that can happen.

Links
Jersey
Gloucestershire M5  Airport
Jersey Cabbage and Echiums
Tennerfest

Damn

I was at the Ceroc jive dance class tonight. As usual, we were changing partners every few minutes. A woman I'd never seen before came to be my partner in turn. She was unremarkable in appearance and dress. But how she could dance! Not only was it good, it was different!

As the freestyle dancing session started, I looked out for her to ask for a dance but some guy handed her a coat and they both left. Damn!

Overloaded Variables

You know those coloured twisted ribbon things people wear to show allegiance to a cause? Friend showed me her latest one last night in the form of a yellow metal badge. She did tell me the cause but, erm, I forget which one it was. There's probably several dozen causes using the colour yellow anyway which is classic example of what a software person would call an "overloaded variable" which is as bad as it sounds.

This morning, I logged onto Facebook and saw that a friend had joined the cause "Autism Advocacy" I clicked through and spotted their ribbon

That's cool!

How I'm hoping to avoid a personal credit crunch

I started worrying about my bank. The place I get cash for immediate necessities like beer and dancing. Suppose they went down? No problem! The government compensation scheme will sort it out! Then I wondered just how quickly it would operate - If the bank crashed on Wednesday, would they make it so I still have cash to drink on Thursday and go dancing on Saturday?

I don't think so.

What finally got me moving was seeing a small queue outside a local bank. Maybe it was because the door had got stuck but it was enough.

So I dusted off some dormant accounts and checked their parentage with Wikipedia. Fortunately, some of them come from completely different banking groups. So I've transferred a lump of cash into them.

Then I looked up my main credit card. Fortunately, it comes from yet another group.

Paranoid? Just think about how far an Icelandic credit card goes today.

Link

Wikipedia UK Bank index