Westie

I tried the whole virgin sacrifice thing once... made a terrible mess on the carpet

Patience is a virtue.... not that this site (or Mark Arbour's forum) is the place to talk about being virtuous

what parallel universe is this when RICKY is the one telling us to be patient

With apologies to Bleu, from whom I stole the title of this blog shamelessly from one of his comments.... So it has been three weeks in the new job. There are good things, there are bad things. Let's start with the bad things, because it is by far the smaller list. The main thing is, that however much more money and status this job has, it is considerably less challenging than my last one. While some people might relish the idea of a better paid job that is considerably easier, for me it goes against my nature. The second issue is that the people are not very sociable. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there will be considerably less socialising than I have been used to and I will genuinely miss it. On to the good things though. Well, the first is that I can make real, substantive decisions without having to refer upwards. In short, I have much more control and responsibility - and while that in itself carries its own burden, I would rather fail off my own back than fail because someone else had tied my hands. Not that I'm going to fail at all mind you Second, is location. I work at Oxford Circus, which means I can either go direct to the office, or as I have done this week - walk from any number of picturesque locations. This has taken me through St James' Park, Regents Park, Portland Place (familiar to fans of Mark Arbour's Bridgemont series) and Westminster. Third is facilities. These guys really know how to look after their staff, and we are pampered and spoiled in ways familiar only to employees of google and apple. All in all, things are going very well, and for the moment at least, I am pretty happy. Anyway, that was just a very quick update. I hope to post a more substantial blog very soon. In the meantime, I'm sending hugs and happy thoughts to everyone at GA West

On the question of the "Small Beer"... it actually depended on the length of the voyage, who the purser was and his skill. If you can imagine that a ship can get very hot, and caskets are porous. Alcohol continually evaporates from the caskets, and so in the course of a voyage the alcohol content would reduce by as much as two thirds. In the case of a 1.5% beer, this would drop below the threshold after which beer would spoil at sea after around 3 months. Small beer in the English use of the word is actually a by-product of making very strong beers, and in fact could be much stronger than 1.5%. With regards to the Rum Ration.... I would like to review wikipedia's sources. The reason I say this is that I believe the article there to be almost entirely inaccurate. My sources in this are the incomparable Daniel Baugh in "British Naval Administration" and N. A. M. Rodgers in his pamphlet "Food and Drink in the Royal Navy" and "The Wooden World" (which I have mentioned here before). The British Royal Navy had a BEER ration. In chapter II, Section F of the Wooden World, N. A. M. Rodger is categorical... "They did not 'splice the mainbrace' in the fashion beloved of novelists, for there was no official issue of spirits in the Navy".** The only exception was on long voyages, where beer ran out and was unavailable for purchase. There was also an exception during certain wars when supply lines were short (such as the Napoleonic wars), but this was not standard and the Navy stores show only beer in ledgers. This inaccuracy seems to be endemic even in scholarly articles on the internet - however it rises from a misconception. That said, what WAS common on ships was a subscription, via the purser, to a daily tot. This was a private arrangement and was not a navy ration In 1970 the United Kingdom government banned all spirits from ships (with a few exceptions). The day the ban came into force became known as the "Black Tot Day" and has perhaps exacerbated the idea that the Navy directly supplied rum to soldiers. West ** A note on Sources. Daniel Baugh is considered the definitive expert on British Naval History, and in addition to his publishing credits, was a professor at both Princeton and Cornell Universities (a pedigree JP Crampton might be proud of ). N. A. M. Rodger was the Assistant Keeper of the Public Records office, Honorary Secretary of the Navy Records Society and a Trustee of the Maritime Museum at Greenwich. He is the author of the acclaimed book "The Admiralty".

As a matter of fact, the Ottomans had a tradition of tolerance. Christians - although second class citizens - were free to practice openly. Women were much more liberalised in this period. Lady Elgin would not have had to take a veil. --------------------------------------------- So I thought I would talk a little – while the forum is quiet – about some aspects of shipboard life that you might find interesting. This particular post is inspired by some of the comments about “feeding the Elgins” while on board. The first thing to note is that we should separate the supplies “of His Majesty” – that is, the navy supplies to feed the general ships population – from the stores personal to the officers. It might be surprising to some just how much “personal” food and drink was brought aboard by even the most junior of officers. The Elgin’s are guests of His Majesty, not of Granger, and so Elgin should really have thought about his own stores long before the voyage if he did not want to survive on the basic (by aristocratic standards) rations supplied by the Admiralty. First of all, we should talk about drink. Sailors could – and did – drink prodigious amounts of alcohol. Not just the grog, but wine, beer and improvised poteen on longer voyages were freely available. It is a misconception that sailors were punished for drinking; they were only punished for being drunk – which is very different to what we might call a “light buzz” today. The purser would keep stocks of beer, cheap fortified wine (stores better than normal wine) and spirits that would be purchased by the men and drunk in all manner of ways. Most importantly, they would be used as additives to the water to remove any foul taste. The quality of the spirits would go up the more senior you were. We know that in 1761, Captain Clements of the Argo stocked up his cellar in an Italian port with a huge array of drinks for his table. He bought Messina, Port, Cyprus, Champagne, Burgundy, Claret, Frontenac, Montepulciano, Florence, Malvasia, Rum and Beer. In total, there were over six hundred gallons owned by the Captain – though one should note that some of this would be for private trade with other officers and with the purser. Spirits and wines were stored in traditional units, the largest being the “tun” (252 American gallons, or 210 imperial gallons), broken down into “pipe” (or “butt”) at a half tun, a “puncheon” at a third of a tun, a “hogshead” at a quarter, a “tierce” at a sixth, a “barrel” at an eighth, and a “rundlet” at one fourteenth of a tun. Sixty litre demijohns were also common. Contrary to what novels will tell you – even Patrick O’Brien made this mistake – there was no “official” issue of grog in the Royal Navy. It was used by many captains to ensure loyalty and popularity with the crew, and as a means for discipline (by depriving grog from rule-breakers), but this store would not have been paid for by the Admiralty. The admiralty supplied beer only. We then come onto food, which is often portrayed as being dire. While that might be true by modern standards, it’s actually quite far from being accurate in the period we are looking at. Most poor people would very rarely have eaten meat, and when they did it would have been relatively cheap meat. On a ship, your weekly rations were very good. You had a daily ration 1lb of bread and a gallon of beer. If you think about it, this is a huge quantity. You ate meat for days per week (alternating beef and pork). Meat days were Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. You had Oatmeal (1 pint), butter (2 ounces) and cheese (4 ounces) on your none meat days. Finally, you had pease (middle English, the vegetable “pea”), usually made into a pottage of some kind on four days a week, in the amount of one half pint. By any standards, to have 4 pounds of meat in a single week is a lot. This would be supplemented by the purser, who from (some) profits in his wheeler dealing would provide also fresh fruit and vegetables when in port also. Beef and pork were salted and placed into large casks, but there would also be additional livestock on board. This would be managed by the purser, but would often be owned by the captain, other officers, or even by seamen themselves who would club together in groups. It was not even unusual for the men to bring aboard a personal hen, using the eggs as barter with the shipboard cook, officers, or purser. I hope you found this little sidebar interesting. I have a few more ideas for bits of info as we go along. I would like to talk about the crew at some point, and in particular personal servants – for example, we see a lot of Winkler as Granger’s steward, but what we don’t see are the minions who report to Winkler. Anyway… Wishing you all a happy Sunday. West

Such a very sad piece of news. It's great to see though just how many lives Trebs touched. I'm sure some ideas are already swimming round for some kind of permanent memorial on this site for Trebs. Maybe the next readers choice awards could include "The Robert Jordan award for Outstanding Contribution to GA" or some such. We mere men stand on the shoulders of giants to reach our goals. Trebs was most certainly a giant. RIP

I'm going to disagree completely with what most people have said about your supervisor. It is possible in management to have genuine and fulfilling friendships with those people who report into you. In that though, is a covenant that whatever happens in your friendship does not effect the office, and whatever happens in the office need not effect your friendship. It is fine to share personal matters at work. Vocalising them and receiving validation (or a more nuanced point of view) helps your mind work through events, and surprisingly ill keep you more focused on your job than you would otherwise have been. I would suspect that your supervisor got on well with you, liked you personally, but couldn't get over the issues you mentioned in bullet points 1 and 2. You didn't get sacked for oversharing.... points 1 & 2 were enough on their own. Moreover, you mentioned in your last blog a "specific incident". I say this because, through everything, the very best employees take full responsibility for themselves. The first step to learning from something is to stop shifting blame from anywhere but yourself, to truly understand how YOU could have handled things better and to resolve to do so in future. I myself learned the hard way, but that the best news is that people quickly forget, and it shouldn't hold you back. I have been very lucky in my career so far... but it came from a very, VERY hard lesson. West

Given Alex's position, I would imagine the "whores" he has met previously were incredibly discrete....

On a slightly different note.... Greenwich and the river thames are hosting a "Tall ships" festival in September. I will of course post pics to my gallery here, but there will be replica ships of the line ready to tour if anyone happens to be in or around London....

In a purely technical sense, as of now, I am unemployed. I left my employer this morning having handed in my ID card, blackberry, laptop etc and very much feeling the effects of my leaving party last night. Obviously this is good news, not least because i will now have time to actually fulfil my obligations as a beta reader. I now have a week of unemployment before starting my new role - I'm very excited

Don't worry. When you retire, you're going to be busy churning out more chapters.... That's extra hours in the day you can be writing.... and for an academic, that's gotta be what? at least an extra 6-7 hours a week freed up by not "working"

He will have to wait until 2014. Moreover, maintaining the bloodlines would require the child to be "legitimate", which is to say that the child would need to be biologically belonging to both people in a marriage. This is one area that equality does not extend to in the UK - unfortunately titles can never pass down through a gay bloodline unless via a legitimisation arrangement - i.e. Marry a beard and have her father your kids.

I think it's ridiculous to suggest that gay men didn't used to be monogamous or relationship types. The QAF image of sexually confident and promiscuous gay men of course exists, and it is a product of a sidelined community being pushed together in one place, and forming their own societies to cope with mainstream pushing them out. Put a load of hot horny men in one place and you will get one outcome. Given that those clusters and groups of gay men were also the most vocal in arguing for rights and protections, it is hardly surprising that an image in the mainstream media grew of a certain "gay lifestyle". But just like straight people, there are gay people who like clubs and those who don't. There are gym bunnies and home bodies. There are extroverts and introverts. There are a huge number of gay people who are now coming to prominence because its more and more safe to do so, who effectively "mainstreamed" in society. They went about their normal lives each day and didn't allow one facet of themselves define everything about them. I knew a couple growing up, who were completely usual in every way except that they were two men living together. And as I have got older, it seems that the vast majority of gay people I know are not those that shout loud and proud that they are gay. They aren't the kind of people who attend pride events. They are just normal, non-descript people going about their daily lives who happen to come home and sleep with another person of the same sex.

I knew it! I always suspected that if you got a nice young stallion between your legs, you wouldn't be able to ride it properly

One might also note that while the Acropolis museum has a €5 entry fee, the british museum is free. Moreover, it is the second most visited museum in the world, second only to the Louvre. I would suggest this is much more in line with their status as "world" heritage objects.

Some might consider your use of the word "theft" to be inflammatory and offensive... but I would merely state that it is in legal terms inaccurate. This is not a matter of debate, but of settled law, which is why the Greek Government have been unsuccessful in their attempts to mount a legal case for the marble's return. It is why their only option is to resort to "moral" arguments and diplomatic pressure. Regardless, what is clear is that the marbles would not be around at all to enjoy today if they had been left in Greece. The whole reason behind their removal was that Lord Elgin had found that the sculptures recorded in a previous survey had been taken by the Ottomans to be burned in order to extract the lime. The same fate awaited the rest. Regardless, Elgin's work with the marbles commenced in 1801, and so I doubt that George's stay would be extended so long as to encompass that.

Phew. I'm exhausted. Right now, I am typing from our bed at Paya's mother's house, recovering from 4 hours of travel up through slovakia and into the Czech Republic, but this is but the latest in a long line of journeys over the last week or so. We arrived just less than a fortnight ago from London having decided that the best use of our financial resources was to visit for two weeks instead of the usual one. The journey started our badly. Our plane was full of chattering girls from what appeared to be a Jewish religious college. Don't get me wrong - I don't care that they were Jewish - my only concern was with the very loud prayers they chanted during take-off and landing. Prayer and turbulence aside, we were an hour or so late into Prague which cut down our time at my favourite restaurant. If you are ever in Prague I would strongly recommend the Cafe Imperial... it seems to be stuck in time in an age of 1920's elegance, when the intelligentsia would frequent the restaurants of Prague, Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade. After Prague, we travelled to Paya's home-town and got our usual effusive welcome. My mother in law is AWESOME, and within moments she had thrust into my hand a shot of Myslivescka - a herbal brandy, One thing I have come to learn and very much embrace is that there is no discomfort or ill that cannot be cured or at least made better with a shot of Myslivecka. You might recall from the film "Schindler's List" that Myslivecka was Oscar Schindler's favourite drink. Our first trip out was to visit Paya's family ancestral home, a league or so deeper into the countryside and almost all of it uphill, I spent most of the journey clinging with one hand to the car door handle and the other hand clinging to my stomach as we raced around serpentine roads at a speed not unfamiliar to a roller-coaster aficionado but unfortunately extremely unfamiliar to my British reserve and temperament. If I were to describe the house there, I think the word I would use is "rustic". There is something rather special about eating "Klobasa" (sausages) cooked in a closed metal furnace, while sharing a shot or fourteen of "slivovice" (home made distillate of plums often described as a plum brandy - though this description implies a level of refinement that you would never get from real slivovice - this stuff will blow your socks off). One thing about the Czech's is that they have a devout respect for the dead. We visited the grave sites of a number of Paya's family members, and I was very much touched by how well tended the graves were - even of people long since gone. It was very clear that tending these monuments was a sacred duty to each and every person in the village. Our next trip (leaving out some details in between) was to Vienna. I had decided that since we were spending our holiday visiting relatives, I wanted at least one day of the trip to be all about what I wanted to do. With this in mind, our trip to Vienna concentrated on the food. Vienna is rightly famous for it's Wiener Schnitzel - basically a veal escalope served with a slice of lemon and rosemary potato. And the very best in my opinion is served at the Café Restaurant Residenz Schönbrunn, located (as the name might suggest) at the Schönbrunn Palace. If my first priority in Vienna is Wiener Schnitzel and Schönbrunn, my second priority is Sacher Torte. The Sacher hotel is world famous for the eponymous chocolate cake invented by their original chef. Don't be put off my the price - in anyone's book, €36 for a chocolate cake of 19cm is a lot of money, but I absolutely promise you that it is worth it. Our final stop in Vienna was the orangery restaurant at our hotel. The reason for this is that I absolutely adore beef carpaccio and this restaurant happens to make one of the best - though I appreciate that raw meat is not everyone's idea of a great meal. From Vienna we travelled across part of Hungary to a border town with Slovakia, where we would meet Paya's grandparents, who are ethnic Hungarian. The thing you need to know about Hungarian women is that their hospitality is legendary. There are only two possible answers to the offer of food at a Hungarian table. The first is "Yes Please", the second sounds remarkably like "no thanks" but to a Hungarian woman generally means "Yes please". No trip to Hungary would be complete without an investment in a few bottles of Tokaj - a legendary and sweet wine that in the most quality forms can age and keep past 200 years. In our case, we bought the best we could afford (which was not 200 year old, not that the local hypermarket stocked 200 year old Tokaj) and will save it for special occasions. We are now back in Paya's home town where we will rest for two days before heading back to London. Thoroughly exhausted, the one thing I love about travelling in Europe is that you learn and experience something new every time. That's why, even in the haze of my exhaustion, there is a creeping sense that I am really looking forward to European Odyssey 2015 too.... West

It's a poem. And it's misquoted I mentioned this not to be pedantic or the quote police, but because I think the full original quote is much more beautiful.

Indeed. I remember the consternation caused when Christie's switched from Guinea to pound.... though that was mostly a cover to increase their commission from 5% of £ purchase price on top to 7% flat rate deducted at final bid. But yes, most "blood stock" auctions are still in Guineas... incidentally there are some other anomalies too. For instance, certain payments from the College of Arms in London are denominated in Guineas.

This wasn't an enlightened enough time... outing George essentially meant revealing that she was unable to satisfy her partner. It cast just as much of a pall over her own reputation as to George's. This nuclear option, would also be mutually assured destruction.

Your reputation is your calling card, "Always leave them wanting more" is great advice for an international singing sensation, but also in your career. If you leave with unstinting professionalism, having done a great job, leaving the company in a better place than you found it in because of your contribution - you essentially create goodwill that can be cashed in when you are in a hole. If you leave the company ungracefully though, how can you expect goodwill? In a small industry, who is to say when you might run into your old boss again? Its not worth it to piss them off....

By no means do I have a particularly complex job... but it turns out I do have a broad base of responsibilities. Until you start writing your "transition" documents, you don't realise just how "big" your job is. I am writing four separate transition briefings. The first two are client specific, for my two major clients and are currently running at around 10,000 for client (1) and 8,000 for client (2). I have a "process and products" briefing to write detailing the processes I manage, the internal controls I am responsible for and the products I own and have input into. This is running at around 5000 words at the moment, but will be the longest of them all once its done. Finally, I will write the "Executive Briefing" for the management team. I refer to this one as the "Janet and John" bit - for those of you who aren't familiar with the reference, see here. I am currently trying to negotiate my "exit" from the business, which at my level (in so far as I have a "level") is considerably more complex than it would first appear. It's a political balancing act. Firstly, there is the "notice" period - mine is 3 months, but of course my preference is to leave sooner, while my employer wants me to leave sooner also but must maintain the business. My clients are going to be spooked - really spooked - by my departure, and very nervous about my replacement (in whom they have little confidence). There is the added complication that I will be leaving to join one of my current client's competitors, and so if they wait too long to remove me from the account, it could be damaging to the relationship between my employer and the clients. With all this going on, I am also about to take a holiday. From Wednesday of this week, Paya and I will be travelling through Central Europe for 15 days, effectively removing me from day to day business for 3 weeks. While my holiday is exciting, it is adding a layer of complexity that I wish wasn't there. Looking to the future, I am very excited about my new role. I will be working specifically within a "big data" sphere - which is something I have worked on the periphery of for a long time, but will now be directly in on the action. I will also have more "control" over resource allocation and product direction, and will no longer be "client facing" (at least not in a B2B sense). I am also looking forward to the money. It's going to allow us to move to a nicer property in a nicer part of London. To be fair, we already live in a nice place in a great location - we are in Zone 2, which is not "central" but "inner" london, and we can get to places like Soho, Piccadilly and Hyde Park inside of 20 minutes from our door. The problem is that we pay a lot of money for what amounts to little more than a shoe box, so we are hoping to move to a larger place in a similar or even more central area. We have time with this - our lease runs for another year, so there's no rush Anyway... apologies for the rambling update post. It doesn't matter if nobody really reads it, its just sometimes I have to write it down to process everything that's going on in my head. See you guys after our holidays! West

Also note that the Guinea is still used today.... in horse racing. Prizes in races, and auctions of racehorses, are still conducted in Guineas and then converted to a modern equivalent. And £sd was and is infinitely practical.... it just required you to be able to multiply by 12 instead of 10. Easy Peasy!

You are right, in that the guinea would exchange at the treasury, the Bank and the mint for 21 shillings. But the war with France took its toll, and gold was scarce. in 1799 the treasury had to cease production of the Guinea because it was costing more in gold than the face value of the coins. Based on this, you could usually get a much higher exchange rate in the "real economy" than you could "officially". In giving a view of purchasing power parity, a 25-30 shilling estimate of the purchasing power of a Guinea would be fairly accurate.