Forgive me Father.....

.....for I have not blogged in a while. That said I did state at the oustet that I would blog when I found things that interested me. Well like buses interesting things come together and I now have a few on draft form. that said I thought It better to break myself back in with this a sort compendium of items. If you can discern a pattern then I salute you.

In no particular order here they are:

Portfolio Employment

I seem to be running into more and more people who seem to be considering a working life that may have two or three components running together. This seems to be a practical response to the employment situation where finding a significant role that one likes seems to be more difficult. It is also a pragmatic response to the pension debacle we face. Many of us will have to supplement meagre pensions with additional income from earnings that may have to stretch into out seventies.

I sense it may also have something to do with how even companies who say they care for their staff are no treating most of us as commodities, offering no real security and little care; so we look after ourselves and spread the risk.

Now I am not sure if this is a true trend or a measure of the different circles I am starting to circulate in as I consider a number of interesting possibilities.

I had long realized that our children's generation would be the first to be worse off than their parents. What I had not realized was that it would affect me, but for many of us who have lost final salary pensions we find ourselves on that cusp. Our retirement will be less comfortable than our parents.

Parents have no musical taste

As father to a teenager I have been increasingly ridiculed should I show any appreciation for modern music. I have always had a fairly eclectic taste in music so why not enjoy elements of today's music?

Last year my daughter almost fell off her chair when I knew that Scouting For Girls sang "she's so luvverly". She just about coped this year on as our family holiday songs became "Billionaire" by Travie Mccoy feat. Bruno Mars and "California Girls" by Katy Perry (..... daisy dukes, bikini on top....), but when I start talking about the Sky 1 series "Must be the music" it is all too much! She is horrified I like a Brit Pop band from Braintree called Missing Andy - just search on Youtube.

For an unsigned band they have some great songs and some very professional videos. They wow'ed the TV judges with "Made this way (Made in England)" and the video is very clever. The video for "Call to Arms" is also very well made, but I found it rather disturbing. On the face of it the video is something of a gorefest, but I sense an undercurrent. I will leave you make your own judgement, but I wonder if the band will come to rue releasing that video. As it is now on the Internet it will always be available somewhere, but it is likely to spook any record company with even a modicum of risk aversion.

Marmite XO

I am probably behind the times again, but in the supermarket today I found(!) Marmite XO. It claims to be a longer matured and stronger version of Marmite. I just had to buy some.

I have long been in the 'love it' camp in regards to Marmite and struggle to think how you can improve it. The sad side of me will come out when I run a comparative taste test in the next few days - watch out for the results.


Well that is probably enough - I do have three more posts forming plus a Marmite feedback so maybe the next week will be a little more productive.


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