Scales of greed...
1. Given the news about Bradford and Bingley's meltdown, I was surprised to see ads for their 'min. deposit £1,000 savings account' on one of the minor itv channels the night before last. It was really late, and I was willing to let it go as an oversight. But I was left with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth when I saw the same ad last night on itv1 at 9.10pm. I know Santander has bought out the savings arm of B&B, and all signs point to them being a solid company (they can surely spot a bargain), but to be advertising for savers on the same day you go splat just seems wrong, somehow. Who are they aiming for? Stupid people? Seems greedy and a bit immoral, imo. Or are they really just encouraging the 'head-in-the-sand' point of view that seems so prevalent? ('Oh, something will happen and it'll all be fine again, right?')
While I'm at it, I'd just like to say that banks need to be more transparent about how they do business. Who knew B&B was so deeply into the buy-to-let market? As opposed to, say, Britannia? Or any other bank or building society? I thought they were all pretty much-of-a-muchness in the way they handled money up the chain. Equally safe, dependable. Did you know that to get a mortgage in some places, you can simply say you earn a certain amount p.a. and no-one bothers to check? Did Northern Rock's investors know NR was renowned for being a high-risk investor? Is my bank? Is yours? Anyone who knows anything about finance is probably laughing their heads off at how naive I am. I don't care. I just would really rather prefer it if I could know any money I put in will be available to me to get out again. But how am I supposed to make a judgement on that if I have no idea how thrill-seeking the bank is?
Just now, it seems like a slow, painful game of roulette, waiting to see which bank will stumble next. I feel so uninformed, like there are machinations happening that I have no say in. I feel like I should know about these things, but no-one's saying which banks are weak and which are stronger. It's just like a random, nasty surprise, even, apparently, to the experts. I'm not moneyed at all, but I don't like the secrecy of it all either.
I'm also fairly sickened that we seem to be holding our breath to see which way America is going to jump (or not). I hate the perception that Britain, Europe, and, presumably the rest of the world is dependent on the US to hold together the world economy. I don't even know if it's true. An integral part, yes. The sub-prime fiasco has shown that. But the foundations, or even the glue that holds it all together? I'm really not sure. Market seems okayish right now, and everyone seems a bit surprised. But again, I don't know much about these matters. I guess we'll see.
2. It's apple season! There's a gigantic cooking apple tree in the garden that's loaded. They are enormous sour monsters that have been distributed to those who want them.
Within five minutes walk of here (excluding people's gardens) there are 4 eating apple trees, around 5 crab apple and 2 cooking apple trees. I'm not interested in the cookers - got plenty. I have been known to make crab apple jelly, but it's a lot of work (involving washing baskets, teatowels, upside down chairs and all sorts of other gear) for not much outcome; combined with the fact that the kitchen's still a mess, those crabapples will most likely fall and rot, which is fine by me.
It was the eating apple trees I was most interested in. One of them is inaccessible this year because of brambles; doesn't seem to be very well-loaded, anyway. Another has apples which seem to be smallish, mainly core, and a little bit sour; I seem to remember I had a stomach ache from them last year, and I suspect they may be some weird half-crabapple variety. (Incidentally, I have no idea of the apple type of any of these - I've always assumed they're mongrel apples...or whatever you'd call them). Tree No.3 involves loitering in a field which belongs to some great big pigs. You know how it's said you can eat every bit of a pig except the squeak? From news story 'mysteries' and other bits of myth and legend, I feel the reverse is also true: that a pig can eat every part of you. They jostle, and they have massive grindy teeth. I'm not chancing it.
So there's this one tree left. I've been keeping my eye on it. Fully laden, and just ripe on Friday. Just down the bank from the roadside. Not remotely near any houses or people. It's been pretty good at producing for the last seven or eight years. Nice big juicy apples. I've been, in past years, happy to go every few days and collect three or four apples. I'm not the only one who knows about it, either. I have no idea who they are, but other people do the same thing. You get fairly intimately acquainted with the apples on a tree, oddly enough, so when a branchful disappears, you notice. It's all been great - plenty for all. There's a hazlenut tree on the same stretch, and the same thing happens a little later on in the year. There's an unspoken code that everyone knows with stuff you find on common ground and in hedges - apples, blackberries, sloes, elderberries etc. - you don't take 'em all (unless you're confident no-one else will want them). You take some and leave the rest. Keep watch a bit if you want - if no-one else is taking them take some more. (Unless they're near your house - then you've got weird 'rights' but you normally check with your neighbours).
So I went yesterday to pick my apples for the next few days. Some git has completely stripped the tree. Not just like a carrier bag full. More like ten or twelve. They are all gone. Well, except for two malformed, pecked, manky things. Even the ones that are out of your average person's reach are gone. It would have taken some time. You can see underneath and around where the grass has all been flattened. They've been totally harvested. It's not private land or anything like that, so I suppose I can't complain, and yet, I'm unaccountably upset about it. See, there's no way one person can eat all of those. There's not even a chance a whole family could get through them. They're not suitable for selling, I don't think, as they grow to all different shapes and sizes (it'd be pretty low to sell them, actually). They're not suitable for cooking/freezing - they're exceptionally white, almost translucent, juicy things that grate away to nothing and yellow really fast. They go off quickly - two days and they're blackening up under the skin. So I'd say at least three quarters of those apples are going to be wasted. That's what narks me off the most. That person, or people, loaded up with all of those out of greed. I feel like they only took them all to stop anyone else having them, although that's probably a bit strong. I won't starve without those apples, but still.
So today, greedy people are making me grumpy. There's just no need. I also have a cold, which doesn't help my mood. Oh, I had a really memorable dream as well, but I'll put that in another post, later, probably.
PS. Yay for the Gurkhas. Why did this take so long? It seems such a straightforward thing to fix.