Home Accounts

This afternoon, my wife asked me to find out how much money we spent on groceries for the last two years. This is quite an easy task as I have a Home accounts programme that I have been using for years.

I first started using an accounts programme back in the 1980's when I had a Commodore Amiga. When I eventually bought a PC, I started to use the Quicken accounts program.

Over the years I upgraded the program until 2003 when Quicken no longer supported the British market and just concentrated on their own American market. I then gave Microsoft Money a try, but having got used to the Quicken layout, I struggled to adapt to the Microsoft version. One aspect in particular was the facility to have the account show exactly how much money I would have in my account on any particular day in the future. Extremely useful if you get paid every 4 weeks and have standing orders spread throughout the month.

I could check this with ease using Quicken. All I had to do was check the scheduled transaction page and the information I wanted was immediately visible. The Microsoft version had a more complicated process to obtain this information. Consequently I have continued to use the Quicken program.

What I did discover today though is that it is not a good idea to delete old accounts that have been closed. I discovered hundreds of transactions from my live accounts that had originally gone to another account, such as credit card payments or mortgage payments, suddenly had no account to send the money to, so the transactions were no longer categorised as they had originally been.

I just spent the last 4 hours re categorising these transactions so that I can now produce accurate reports of where I've actually spent my money!

In case your wondering, our grocery bill increased by nearly £1000 between 2008 and 2009!
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Cherry Tree

This afternoon, we purchased a Cherry Tree. Not the ornamental flowering kind, but the type that will produce juicy red cherries to eat! Now all I have to do is hope that it survives my ministrations and bears fruit one day! Admittedly, I was ably assisted in the planting by my wife and daughter.

I freely admit that I do not have any green fingers! 9 times out of 10 whatever I try to grow just wilts and dies. Though on the odd occasion something flourishes, despite what I do to it!

Gardening is not something I enjoy doing. I consider it a necessary chore that must be done. Maybe one day I will be in a position to pay someone else to do my gardening for me! Or better yet, leave it for my wife and daughter to do instead!

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Easter is not going to be fun this year!

When I came home from work today, I discovered I had a letter from my doctors! Now last week I had gone for a blood test to check that I was still healthy. The doctors letter stated

"Please could you contact the surgery at your earliest convenience to discuss a message which has been left on the computer system for you".

Receiving a letter like this basically scared the living daylights out of me! Visions of me having some major health scare looming, crossed my mind. When I got through to the receptionist and asked what it was all about, she told me the doctor wants to see me about my cholesterol. There is no hurry, I can make the appointment in the next 2-3 weeks!

When I told my wife, she immediately told me that I will have to cut back on fatty foods. For some reason she has decided that it includes fizzy drinks and chocolate. So the nice Easter egg I was looking forward to eat on Sunday will now sit forlornly in the cupboard, while its mates get greedily consumed by the girls!

Upgrades to my local Station

For the past eight years the Station where I work has been a partial building site, where we are supposed to get a new entrance with lift access from street level to platform level.

Originally, we were supposed to have lift access to both platforms before the Olympics come to London in 2012. Now we will only have access to one side of the Station, and only one platform.

The delays are a direct result of the Governments wonderful idea of instigating PPP (Public, Private Partnership) to London Underground. They decided to foist this scheme only on the maintenance and repair sections, leaving the operational side alone.

Ten years later, the private contractors have paid their shareholders massive dividends, and the directors have syphoned off money into their bonus accounts. Suddenly they realise that they don't have enough finance available to deliver the maintenance they were contracted to do. So they have the audacity to ask the Government and London Underground for more money to do the work!

When their request was refused, they craftily decided to go Bankrupt! They left millions of pounds of debt and forced London Underground to pay off their debts with money that was to be used in refurbishing the Stations in time for the Olympics.

That was one of the maintenance companies. The other has just failed a court action to get more money from the Government/Underground. No guesses as to what they are likely to do next! This time when the maintenance company goes bankrupt, London Underground will not be able to pay off the debts and being the maintenance back under its own umbrella. They have no money left!

Unless the Government dig deep into their coffers and pour more money into this fiasco (with all parties claiming massive cutbacks, this seems unlikely), you can expect a rapid decline in the reliability and safety of the underground through lack of maintenance.

I have been at my present Station for over 8 years. For the last 7 years a new exit has very slowly been built. Even now we still have no idea if and when it will ever be completed! During those 7 years the gas been built a massive office block above the station, and they have completely rebuilt the Hospital next door!

I managed to have a little look around the building site and took a couple of pictures. I apologise for the poor quality of them as they were taken on my mobile phone which doesn't have a high powered camera feature.
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The Mortician

Nearly two years ago, I was approached to invest in a movie called the Mortician. Just before Christmas they commenced filming in 3D over in New Orleans. They also did a documentary "The Making of" program that will be included on the DVD release later. I was sent a link to a few clips uploaded onto YouTube. It doesn't show very much about the plot, just some of the actors and production crew. You can see the clips below -




Sometime in the summer the film will be premiered on London, and I will be invited to attend, and meet all the actors! I may have to hire a dinner jacket and bow tie for the occasion! I think I had better have a word with my wife, as she will also need to have a special dress for the occasion!

Just had one fantastic motivational day!

This year, I have set myself some targets to achieve in one of my business ventures. It is a business I joined a few years ago, but I have never treated it seriously enough. I have always lacked the motivation to put in the effort to build the business rapidly, as others have done since I joined.

I have noticed that I am more focused and enthusiastic after I have attended one of the company meetings, as I get to meet so many positive, happy people. Some of it rubs off on me!

Today was the second major meeting I have gone to this year. The seminar was an all day event, but what really made me sit up and think that I make too many excuses why I fail was this video clip that was shown at the end :-



Nick Vujicic, Inspirational - The most amazing bloopers are here

I have been given a whole raft of ideas and skills to develop my abilities, to push forward my business at a far greater rate than I have ever done before.

There was one section of the seminar that made me smile. It was because it is also used in my main employment for London Underground.

In both aspects they use a mnemonic (S.M.A.R.T.) which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Tangible. This is the benchmark to assess your progress.

I now have to put an enormous amount of effort to build up a daily habit of working consistently on freedom from the Rat Race ticket! It is this part time business venture that will eventually give me the financial security and time freedom that all of us wish we had long before we become aware that that is what we subconsciously have craved all our working lives.

As one speaker said today - "Don't wait to dig your well until you are thirsty!" And as his wife chipped in "He dug the well, but I drink from it!"

All you need is to focus on your destination, the journey will take care of itself! I hope 2010 will be a more fulfilling and profitable year for you than last year. I know it will be for me!

European Laws are sometimes more hindrance than help.

Yesterday, I had a Seminar to go to for my business. It was called a FAB Seminar (Focus, Action, Belief), it was about two and a half hours journey time away. I was excited about going to this Seminar as it would help increase my motivation to do more with my business.

To achieve my goal of attending this meeting, I had to work for 16 hours the day before, to enable me to obtain the day off I required. I felt a sense of achievement in the efforts I had made to realise my goal.

So the day started off well. First I picked up my colleague 6 miles away. Then we travelled to another part of town to collect another colleague, only he was not motivated enough to get up at 6 am to go to the seminar. So at 7 am only 2 of us travelled in my car to Runcorn, in Cheshire (142 miles, 229 km away).

Everything was fine until I came off the motorway onto the side roads on the approach to our venue, that was when the problems began. When I changed gear, I noticed the gear lever was very stiff and sluggish. I could also smell the aroma of hot gearbox oil. Then I discovered I no longer had 5th gear!

Five minutes later I managed to lump in to the car park of our venue. I had to negotiate a very tight corner that involved me having to reverse the car, that was when I discovered that my reverse gear no longer worked either. I then called the breakdown service (RAC) for assistance.

They arrived just as the seminar started, and very quickly diagnosed that one of the shafts inside the gearbox had broken (the one with 5th and reverse) and I would need to have the car towed back home. I arranged to have the recovery vehicle arrive at 5 pm after the seminar had finished (I might as well enjoy the meeting I had come all this way to see).

After the seminar finished, I had to wait I until 17:30 before the recovery vehicle arrived and loaded it up onto its back. That was when I discovered that the Brussels bureaucrats had changed the laws concerning the working practice of the breakdown and recovery service vehicles hours and conditions.

When I first joined a motoring organisation 26 years ago, my choice between either the AA (Automobile Association), and the RAC (Royal Automobile Association) was down to only one different point. The RAC would transport your vehicle from A to B with one vehicle, no matter the distance. Whereas, the AA would only do it in stages, greatly increasing the time and inconvenience to me.

I discovered that 2 years ago, the recovery drivers are not allowed to drive outside a 100km radius of their base. So my journey home would involve at least one change of vehicle to get me home.

Because of the cold weather over Christmas, the breakdown services were at full stretch. Consequently instead of having only one transfer change, I had to endure 4 of them! Each time a transfer took place, there was a further delay of at least 30 minutes before the next vehicle arrived to carry my car on the next part of my journey home. So what should have been a simple two 2 hour 30 minute journey, ended up as an 8 hour nightmare!

Tomorrow, I will discover the painful cost of repairing the car. Then I will have to make a choice of either selling the car quickly, and hope that the next car doesn't come with new and unknown problems. Or having fixed this problem, keep the car, knowing that this kind of problem should not happen again for a very long time.

My wife will have a few choice words to say about my ability to choose a problem free car! Having had this setback so early in the year, bodes well for me, as things can only get better!
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