Monthly Archives: January 2020

Banknotes, banknotes, banknotes…

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We have, as I noted in the last post, been putting banknotes on eBay.

There are a lot of notes in the shops, ranging from serious notes for collectors to cheap and cheerful bulk lots.

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Austro-Hungarian Empire – early 20th entury

I work with two keen banknote collectors. I always admire enthusiasts, and respect their immense knowledge on the subject, but really can’t get enthused by talk of serial numbers, replacements and security printing. If I was going to collect notes I’d probably collect them by theme, such as notes with pictures of birds on them. I like birds.

However, I prefer burgers, and that would be a very small collecting field.

Republic of Biafra 1967-70 - a short and tragic story

Republic of Biafra 1967-70 – a short and tragic story

Some notes are spectacular, either because of the quality of design, or the history of the note or country. Others are very dull. You will probably see several of each sort in the pictures, though it has to be said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

It’s a very simple way of touring the world and it has one advantage over many other forms of collecting in that you can, when handling circulated notes, get a fairly strong whiff of foreign bazaars and sweaty hands.

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Guyana

Years ago I had a delivery of foreign notes in an antique centre and as soon as the wrapping paper came off several neighbouring dealers turned green and ran off spluttering.

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Atmospheric selection of notes from Ghana

So, for atmosphere , circulated notes are the thing to collect. But if you are looking for beauty, collect uncirculated notes.

Bhutan - nice and clean, with dragons

Bhutan – nice and clean, with dragons

Yes, I’m Moaning Again

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I’ve decided to adopt a single resolution for this year. I am going to fill my time by doing more things.

While we were on the farm, I thought about taking qualifications in Fund Raising, as it seemed a decent career, and something worth doing. For various reasons, including laziness, I didn’t do it. Two years later, after we were ejected from the farm, I regretted not having anything to fall back on.

My career trajectory has been somewhat downward in the last few years, and had been level rather than upward for many years previously. Though I managed over 25 years of being self-employed, a lot of that time was spent in a variety of pursuits which included “getting by” and “surviving”. These do not look as good on a job application as being a highly motivated self-starter with a degree and a range of expertise in things I’ve never heard of.

I also thought that blogging would be a good thing to do, and would add to my range of  digital skills. I’ve just been looking at the job requirements for a Communication Officer, and find that writing a blog about age, idleness and life in a shop, does not really qualify me for the job. What they seem to be looking for is a PR Professional or journalist who has a great personality, stellar track record and financial skills (because the jobs seems to include finance too) and is prepared to work for an hourly rate which is probably the same as my current one. I would admittedly get more hours but I would have to drive further to get to work.

I fear that life, employment and the modern world have all passed me by.

Those of you who have read the blog for a while will know all this and may have picked up a hint in the last paragraph but one. Yes, I have been thinking of applying for another job. It would be full time so I’d be paid more and it’s with an organisation that I admire, but it sems like a lot of hassle to go through just to be rejected in favour of a young person with better qualifications.

Yes, I know I’m being negative, but being negative doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

And that’s why I’m going to work harder. It won’t get me a job, but it will go some way to redressing my 61 wasted years.

Photographs today are banknotes. We did a lot of banknotes today. I will probably write more about banknotes later. And then I will go to bed and dream about them.

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Banknotes of Bhutan

A Diversion, an Early Start and Some Sarcasm

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On Mondays Julia works at the main site instead of being in the garden. This means driving through town rather than round the ring road. Really, I suppose, it ought to entail using  a bus but as it takes an hour longer, involves two buses and would mean getting up at 6.00 I have cynically suggested we should be selfish and use the car.

I haven’t flown at all in the last 32 years (and that was for work, not pleasure) and she has flown just once in that time. I think we can allow ourselves a few car trips.

As British Gas is digging up the road on our normal route we used a different route today, and allowed a little extra time as I suspected there would be other people doing the same thing. It appeared not to be the case and, after a swift and uneventful trip through the centre of town, I got her to work 20 minutes early.

When we start off at the normal time we have been anything from ten minutes early to twenty minutes late. I can’t wait to see how things progress.

Work is scheduled to end on 29th May.

Last time there was major work done round here they over-ran by two weeks on a six week project. If they do the same again, in percentage terms, they won’t finish until August.

My cup, as they say, runneth over…

A £1 Saved…

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I am very tempted not to post tonight. I can’t think of anything interesting to write and I can’t concentrate on finishing several posts I am halfway through.

Sorry about that. I’ve tempted you in and now revealed there’s nothing here for you. It’s bit like those sites on the internet where they tempt you in with promises of being surprised by what a housewife from Sheffield found in her back garden. You click and you end up clicking 25 more windows, by which time you are bored, annoyed and becoming suspicious that you have been lied to.

I’m not even convinced she has a back garden.

The best event of the day happened when I went to fill up the car and pump up the tyres. The air pump was still running when the man in front finished doing his, and carried on running till I did all four of mine. It normally costs me £1, so that’s a whole pound saved. I’m going to put it in a pot and save it towards our round the world cruise.

The round the world cruise fund is a new innovation for this year. So far it contains £1. We need a bit more to make this dream into reality.

And that is about all the good stuff that happened today.

 

 

Only 51 weeks until Christmas!

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Yesterday, one of the customers told me the fact I have used in the title. It makes the year seem rather short.

This, in turn, lead me to calculate the length of time before Spring starts. Just 56 days. That, of course, is only half the story. Meteorological Spring may start on 1st March according to the scientists, but the weather doesn’t always agree.

My parents were married at the end of March and, as they told me for 60 years, it snowed.

One thing you can rely on is the daylength. It’s already feeling longer than it did (and it is actually ten minutes longer than it was on the shortest day). This means that it is lighter when we leave the shop, which makes a big psychological difference. On 29th February, in Nottingham, the day will be over three hours longer than it is now. Even the thought of it is enough to cheer me up.

It’s a sobering insight into the shortness of life. The days of wine and roses are indeed not long…

deer3

I was watching the Christmas University Challenge Final tonight and found myself doing quite well against a number of people with high-powered jobs and multiple degrees. The main difference between us, apart from my lack of degree and a job as a shop assistant, is that I suspect they all had confidence, plans ambition and productive work habits. I’ve just spent Christmas watching TV and playing Candy Crush when I should have been writing a best-seller and running an eBay business.

Ah well…

I did manage to get the outline of my presentation done. I have quite a lot of material on 1919 and went through it, with suitable reference to mutinies, Russia, Ireland, strikes, riots, war memorials and the Baltic.

Happy at the breadth and depth of my knowledge, and my grasp of the subject matter, I was alerted to the fact that this feeling was not universal by a gentle snore from Julia’s direction.

It looks like I’m going to have to do some editing.

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UK £5 2017

Today’s pictures are all recycled, with vague links to Christmas and 1919.

Once bitten…

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I have just been watching Dracula on TV. It has been, to put it mildly, a patchy experience. The story has been spread over three nights, which is one of its weak points as there was only enough story, I felt, to fill half that time. Or less.

The first episode was drawn out and dull. The second episode was tedious and lacked grip. It finally came to life in the closing moments. The third episode was quite good and I could have watched more of it. So, could do better, and if anything similar comes along I’ll probably give it a miss.

Once bitten, twice shy.

Just a short post tonight, as I’ve got to go and make tomorrow’s sandwiches.

I finished the Christmas Chutney today. It has been very good, and reminded me of the Christmas Chutney I used to make in my farm kitchen days. It’s good and fruity and packing plenty of Christmas spice. Mine used to have cranberries in but was much the same flavour.

All went well until I chewed down on my final cheese sandwich and found half a plum stone. They clearly hadn’t skimmed it properly, which was one of the reasons I preferred to de-stone the fruit before using it. It’s quicker to boil and skim, but there’s always the risk of a broken tooth. Fortunately there was no dental damage from this episode, just a bit of a shock.

Not the Worst Day I’ve Ever Had

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Today I packed parcels. I wrote eight slips out and remembered, after the sixth, that it was no longer 2019.

I moved on to load a gold 50p piece on eBay (it was Paddington Bear at St Paul’s Cathedral). I won’t trouble you with my views on “collectable” coins or the debasement of national character that accompanies cartoon animals being depicted on coins. However, I will let you imagine what these views are.

Then, just in case the excitement of being back at work became too much, I photographed some 1930s auction catalogues. That calmed me down.

A number of people rang me for advice on “rare” coins. On even rang me twice. I thought about telling him he was an idiot but customer service training prevented this.

Paddington Bear at St Paul’s Obverse
Paddington Bear at St Paul’s in box etc

You can tell how well everything went from the fact that I spent the whole day thinking it was Friday. It was only when Julia informed me that tomorrow was not Saturday, as I thought, that I realised my mistake.

We had vegetable stew for tea. Then we had cheese. It was very relaxing.

Now I’m writing a short post and I’m going to have tea and biscuits before going to bed.

As days go, I’ve had worse.

Some Photos

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I have noticed, when looking at my photos, that although I often don’t have a photo to go with a post, I also have photos I never get round to using. With that in mind I’m going to publish some of the photos I took on Monday. They aren’t very good as I’m a bit rusty after months of only photographing coins, but I’m going to make an effort with photography again this year.

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Tree – Tagg Lane Dairy

The header picture shows a stand of trees across the road from the dairy. The light was going and it almost came out as black and white. The other is in the garden of the farmhouse, which is intruding slightly into the shot. I’m using the old, small camera, which makes it tricky to frame as there’s a black spot in the picture, which increases with zooming, and which needs to be cropped out.

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View from Tagg Lane Dairy – Derbyshire

This was a view across the fields. The sun was just catching the stone wall, but it didn’t add as much colour as I thought it would.

Finally, on the way home, we found a place where sky colour, foreground interest (I use the term loosely) and parking coincided. I know a bad workman always blames his tools, but I’m sure they would have been better with one of the better cameras. Unfortunately I still haven’t learned to use the new one, and the other Olympus has flat batteries.

Sunset December 2019

Sunset December 2019

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Sunset – Langley Mill – December 2019

Sunset Dec 2019 Langley Mill

Sunset Dec 2019 Langley Mill

Scone Chronicles XXVIII – Tagg Lane Dairy

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We’ve been here once before, though on that visit we just bought raw milk, as we’d already had tea and cake at the bookshop down the road.

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Coffee and Walnut Cake

 

Although there’s no scientific basis for believing raw milk is good for you, I did feel a bit better after drinking the last lot and thought I’d have some more. When reading up on it I was surprised to find that it’s completely banned in Scotland, and many other countries.

Strange how you can buy cigarettes or alcohol from the supermarket but raw milk is heavily controlled.

Anyway, back to the review.

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Tea, cake and milk in a proper bottle

Tagg Lane Dairy is a working farm in the Derbyshire countryside and has a slightly stronger smell of cows than is normal at a tourist destination. Apart from fresh air it has raw milk, organic burgers and a very nice cafe.

The cafe is quite new and is very clean and unfussy. It avoids the modern curse  of being cluttered with tables made from floorboards and various industrial surplus and is far better for that. I don’t want to eat in a workshop I want to eat in a cafe.

The menu seemed to be a bit limited, though I didn’t look too hard at the time. It seemed to offer three sorts of cake and mince pies, but it may do more. It had Victoria sponge, Lemon Drizzle cake and Coffee and Walnut cake. To be honest, you really don’t need more.

They also have plenty of ice cream, or maybe gelato. I’m not quite sure of the difference, but it was too cold for either of them.

Tagg Lane Dairy
Tagg Lane Dairy
Tagg Lane Dairy

To be honest, the best bit wasn’t the excellent cake or the nice clean cafe. It wasn’t even the view (we sat outside so I could take some photos of the views). It was the staff. They were cheerful, efficient and more besides. I’m going to have to use the word “lovely” here. It’s a high praise, and in danger of being gushing, but they deserve it.

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Julia says the blank spot in the middle reminds her of something off CSI – the murder of an innocent cake

So, to sum up, a nice simple stop for tea, cake, ice cream and raw milk. Lovely staff, a pleasant experience and something to look forward to next time I take a trip to Derbyshire.