7th October '8:  "You don't have to be paranoid to think that someone is trying to kill you", went the old quote but paranoia is driving the prices of some shares.  An active market (going up or going down) is much better for the brokers who make commission from the sale and purchase of stocks and bonds.  These days when I see someone driving a  4 x 4 or flash expensive car I am very grateful for them.  They are assisting the economy  with the provision of the VAT on purchases from the original vehicle through to petrol and servicing and putting loads of tax into the system.  Do please keep up the good work.

About half an hour ago a friend rang me.  Yes, thank you, I do have the odd friend but this chap is travelling at present as he is "on tour".  The purpose of his telephone call was to say that he was about to pass my office and if I wanted to see the tour bus to peer out onto the A23.  A very flash green vehicle and I gather he was waving to me through the blacked out windows.  There he is sitting in his room within the bus as someone shifts him and the band around the country and continent.  I just found myself wondering where he was playing tonight and the oracle (alias the internet) tells me that he is playing at Fairfield Halls this evening and tomorrow.  A life on the road is the life of a travelling man.

I am about to become one of my punters as it were.  I am going to be selling our family home of some 25 years and looking to purchase two properties.  I want an easy to manage small place close to the office and then we have the freedom to choose where the other will be.  Our daughter lives in Hampshire and there really is no need to keep a family home here.  The kids schooling is now a memory and I have this idea that now might be a good time to move.  The problem I guess will not be in finding a place to purchase, several seen would already suit the bill but finding a buyer for our place.  This will be a very interesting exercise - the key will be finding a buyer and then having sorted out the sale price strike a deal on the purchase.  25 years ago it was the local paper and a string of telephone calls to the local agents.  Today a zap onto the web and Rightmove or one of those sites.  I asked an agent to send me the details of a property and was told in no uncertain terms that if I wanted the full details I should go onto the internet.  I suspect he was wishing to save money rather than the environment but I do like the old style details complete with pictures.  I also found it interesting to see what my eye was drawn to when looking at specifications.  Floor plans and photos seem to be the key.  Many of the developers also provide a very basic set of specifications and often fail to give sizes for areas like the garage.  I want to know if the present car will fit in - I don't really have to be concerned about the Smart car but the other vehicle is larger - dimension wise it might fit in but getting out through an open door might be tricky.  In theory our place has 6 bedrooms but over time we have amended this so there are now only 4 but this means that the rooms are large.  Our place was constructed in the early '20s and has lovely high ceilings - so many of these little boxes seem to be mean with the dimensions.  What has surprised me is looking at apartments as well.  We are selling a development in Foxley Lane called Wakeling Manor (after Webb's blacksmith) and I knew these were good units with high specifications but it is interesting to look from another point of view as a potential occupant.  I am very impressed and could see myself in one of those but as with the majority of lookers there is no point in getting excited about an onward move until I have the ability to do something about it.  I have told so many applicants over the years that a home move should be an exciting project - I will make it so but it will I suspect be helpful for me to be reminded of the ups and downs of this.

2nd October '8:  The working girls are arriving at the place next to our office.  I get the impression from the numbers of "visitors" that the banking crisis is not effecting their trade in any way and I find myself wondering if they take credit cards?  I think that I am unlikely to win friends but could possibly influence people if I stood outside and asked the punters.  On the way back to the office a short while ago I was walking with a friend who paused in the doorway to finish his cigarette.  A disembodied voice floated down to us asking us to move on in case we frightened away the clients.  Oh dear estate agents are really going down in the world.

What Ireland has done by guaranteeing total deposits is to have wrong footed our magnificent government.  Smart move, no wonder billions of pounds has been winging it's electronic way over the water.  It also looks like I might be wrong about the timing of interest rate reductions.  I thought with the next inflation rate likely to be around 5% that the Bank of England would keep the bank rate on hold.  It now seems that some economists are predicting that October might see a .25% drop - that would be good in that Joe Public would then be hoping that they had seen the peak of interest rates.

I want to quote a chap called Luke Johnson who I gather is the chairman of Channel 4 and also runs a private equity firm.

"We all sit transfixed by the unravelling of free market capitalism in fear and awe, while the clamour grows to find the guilty parties.  Most commentators are blaming Wall Street.  Yet the heart of this wealth destruction is a collapsing subprime property market.  And in that dark and catastrophic place, I suspect that there have been more lies told than by all the worlds' bankers put together.  It is inconceivable that the many thousands of realtors, mortgage brokers, valuers, developers, builders and other members of the great daisy chain were not in on the game.  Moreover, the homeowners themselves were also willing participants.  Many lied to get mortgages and paid more for properties than they could afford, thinking they would flip them for a profit - because property only goes up in value, right?  We may be witnessing the greatest fraud of all time - on many levels.  Western societies have been guilty of living beyond their means, and the reckoning we face is a sobering jolt.  As they say: I have seen the enemy, and it is us."

Listening to a sermon on Sunday the minister mentioned a visit to Croydon from planning officials who had come to Croydon from Arnheim (which is linked to the town).  Walking around the town centre and looking up at the sixties monstrosities the visitor looked sympathetically at the planning offers and stated that he was sorry and that Croydon must have been very badly damaged during the second world war.  The Croydon planning officer turned to his Arnheim counterpart and proudly announced - "No - we did this ourselves".!

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