This morning I rolled my eyes as I peered into the
Internet. There was a story on social media about a little shop in Cheriton
closing after having been in business for twenty-five years.
Apparently they couldn’t compete with the on-line market. It strikes me that if
you can’t beat them, join them. Several little specialist shops that used to
operate locally have closed up and gone to internet sales only; why don’t these
people do the same?
And another Facebook friend was posting about how all the
school leavers should try running their own business. I sighed. Running your
own business is all very well all the time it is a success. At the risk of sounding negative over half fail within three years. Ending up
owing thousands of pounds or going bankrupt isn’t something to be taken on
lightly.
Many years ago (forty-five) I had a couple of offers
for businesses in which I might like to invest my time and money. Both were
going concerns in Hastings Old Town. Both have long since gone bust.
During the week I listened to a radio interview with Bill
Gates who was talking about how when he set up Microsoft a lot of other people
were doing much the same sort of thing. Nowadays everyone knows of Bill Gates;
no one knows of his competitors from the early days. He said that none of them
did anything any different to what he was doing, but he was lucky and they were
not.
Being Saturday we went round to Repton for Dog Club.
Despite the rain. As expected the turn-out wasn’t what it might have been. Last
week in the sunshine we had over twenty dogs along. Today in the rain we had
eight. And one went home in a serious sulk.
Some woman who was on their second week was along. Morgan
and Pogo had been being boisterous so we took them off for a little walk. As we
walked we saw Sue and Chris in the car park talking with the newbie who was going
home. Apparently this woman claimed that “two black dogs” wouldn’t stop
bothering her dog and she wasn’t coming back. Presumably the “two black dogs”
were Morgan and Pogo. But as for bothering her dog… I somehow got the distinct impression that
this woman wanted to make a fuss. Ironically this woman’s smallest child had
been rather preciously screaming in terror whenever her own dog came close, and
flatly refusing the suggestions of her older sister to go and stand away from
that dog. Clearly this child wanted a fuss rather than a solution. Was this
woman in the same vein?
I suppose it takes a certain mindset to understand Dog
Club. The whole idea is that dogs socialize. They do this by being left to get
on with it, albeit under supervision. It’s not going to work if you keep making
a fuss every time your dog finds itself within a mile of another.
We made the most of it, but the dogs were soaked by going
home time. As we drove home Steve was doing the mystery year on the radio.
Immediately I knew it was 1972… but after a few more clues I changed my mind.
What gave it away for me was the TV series “Ripping Yarns” – 1976.
Once home. I popped to the corner shop. Almond croissant.
Oh yus.
With the rain showing no sign of letting up I thought I
might make the most of it being wet. If I were to pressure-wash the front yard
the rain water would wash away the muck. In theory a brilliant idea; in
practice the rain was too heavy and I was soaked within ten minutes.
I came in and with nothing much else I could do I did the
monthly accounts. As always I am far better off than I once was, but as always
I’d like to have far too much money.
I then looked at Ryobi power tools. The other day I whinged
about how the things were misleading in that the price quoted didn’t include
battery or charger. Did they hear me whinging? They’ve been advertising a new deal in which if
you buy a battery and charger you get a free power tool. Sadly you can get
pretty much any tool except the long-handled hedge trimmer I want.
And with the rain showing no signs of stopping I set about
solving geo-puzzles which are where we’re going in holiday next month. There
weren’t many, and quite a few of those that are there say you need a NATO ID
card to be allowed anywhere near them.
We then turned the telly on and dozed through Catherine
Tate in “The Nan Movie”, then I
wrote up a little CPD. By late
afternoon the weather had gone from continuous heavy rain through to bright
sunshine which every fifteen minutes was interrupted by a torrential downpour
lasting less than a minute.
Compare that to last Saturday afternoon when we sat in the
sunshine drinking beer and scoffing ice cream.
“er indoors TM” boiled up fish
and chips which we scoffed whilst watching episodes of “Below Deck”. With
everyone living and working on the same yacht I was rather reminded of
somewhere I used to work in that hardly anyone working there had any friends
who weren’t also work colleagues and so people lived seemingly constantly in
each other’s pockets.
Hopefully this rain will stop soon.
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