Hey, let's be realistic, things are that bad for everyone. Look at the investment bankers... the top four or five banks will be paying out well over $30billion to their employees for the good job they have done. I applaud them at their astuteness as they earned money running the tanker we call the financial industry aground and now they are making money trying to find ways to to patch up the holes and get the tanker back out to sea. Actually, they don't really care if the ship floats in the long term or not as they will have already earned their money.

At least the public sector is getting real. Look at the Royal Mail here in the UK. Up to 75% of the 120,000 workforce is expected to strike. What's behind this strike? Well, now one said it better than one of the union representatives who said "“This is about a culture of management that seems to think in a democracy that the workforce have to do just what they’re told."

I think he should get a real job as I have never worked for a company that was anything other than a "civilised dictatorship"...

I thought it would be worth sharing them with you...

2010	MPC Meeting
Jan	Wed 6 / Thu 7	(2.0%)	0
Feb	Wed 3 / Thu 4	(2.5%)	+0.5%
Mar	Wed 3 / Thu 4	(3.0%)	+0.5%
Apr	Wed 7 / Thu 8	(3.5%)	+0.5%
May	Wed 5 / Thu 6	(4.5%)	+0.5%
Jun	Wed 9 / Thu 10	(5.5%)	+0.5%
Jul	Wed 7 / Thu 8	(5.5%)	0
Aug	Wed 4 / Thu 5	(5.5%)	0
Sep	Wed 8 / Thu 9	(6.0%)	+0.5%
Oct	Wed 6 / Thu 7	(6.0%)	0
Nov	Wed 3 / Thu 4	(6.0%)	0
Dec	Wed 8 / Thu 9	(6.5%)	+0.5%

* - Note these estimates are completely based on my gut feeling.  I take no liability if you trust too much in them.  

I think that there a some significant interest rate increases ahead, but I am bullish that interest rates will be kept low for another 6 months at least.

If you are on a variable or tracker, keep your eyes open for the best time to fix your rate.  There are 2, 3 and even 5 year deals out there and although it may be higher than you are paying now, over the course of the fixed rate period there is the opportunity to make some significant savings.

That certainly is true for the X-mini Max portable speaker system. Who would have though that speakers so small could deliver a sound quality so grunty and presence announcing? I have just bought a pair and can only praise them.

For £22, they are by far not the cheapest speakers you can buy (I have seen a set of speakers going for £4 on ebay), but they are definitely worth every penny. They are ultra-portable, the USB charging battery are a god send and the sound quality doesn't disappoint.

While researching portable speaker systems I noticed that X-MI are really pushing the boundaries of design. Although the X-MI Max II speakers look like a Star Wars Clone knock-off, the originals look slick and black. There's something to say about "Once you've gone black, you can't go back!"

I have yet to fully challenge the 10 hour battery life, but based on the build and sound quality, I am confident that they won't disappoint in this respect either. I've tried them with my Ipod, internet radio over my netbook and as external speakers for my speakerphone on the Blackberry. Sound quality was great, although my brother did compalin about some echos when using it with the speakerphone.

My verdict:

If you can get these speakers under £30, they will are the perfect solution for:

• pimping up your laptop audio when listening to music or watching movies;
• sharing your Ipod's music collection with others when on the go;
• and they might even help the next time you have a conference call to close that mega-important deal with only your BlackBerry X-mini Max speakers to hand.

These speakers get's 10 out of 10 from me!

Now if you are an hayfever sufferer like I am, you will hate days like these.  Particularly because they are usually accompanied by glorious sunshine and cloudless skies.  However, let me share with you a little secret of what not to do when you forget your sunglasses at home...

Don't resort to wearing your swimming goggles! 

My advice is to turn around as soon as you notice you've forgetten them and never make a poor substitute.  By the way, when it's hot the goggles steam up faster than you can blink. 

Here in London we are under attack again.  The RMT, one of the Tube Worker’s unions, has decided to picket for better pay…. again.  This is bringing travel chaos to thousands and normality is unlikely to return to normality until Friday. To add insult to injury, I found out the following with regards to Tube workers terribly unjust starting salaries: 

·         Button Pushing Tube Drivers:                     £40,000

·         Chair Warming Station Supervisors:          £35,000

I've always considered the cycle infrastructure more than inferior to on the Continent. If you have ever been to Amsterdam, most German cities and most of Switzerland, you could have helped but notice cycle lanes everywhere. They really put a lot of thought into how to get people on bicycles safely.

Boris Johnson has finally unveiled Transport for London's concept for London. This consists of 12 new Cycle Highways that will serve to transport people from up to 15km from the centre in quickly and safely. Given that there is little or no infrastructure in place at present and a May 2010 deadline for the first 2 Cycle Highways (Wimbledon to Bank and Barking to Tower), I will wait with baited breath to see how they do it.

Sadly, I imagine it will be a token effort more than anything and given the fact that motorcycles already feel that they can use cycle paths since they were allowed to use bus lanes (introduced early 2009 and "no" they are not allowed to also use cycle lanes), it will be interesting to see what they do.

If you'd like to find out more about what could by a London Cycle Revolution, here's a link to the press release and the conceptual cycle map...

"What am I getting up for?"

I then brush my teeth and ask myself,

"What am I making myself presentable for?"

I then cycle to work and ask myself,

"What am I risking my life for?"

Finally, I arrive at my desk and ask myself,

"What am I working for?"

The answer is..

"I don't know, but it's what I've always done."

If you are in the UK and suffer from hayfever, the next time you are in a Boots make sure you go to the Pharmacy counter to get your hayfever tablets. They sell most of the "over the counter drugs" like Clarytyn in packs of 30 there which are much better value for money than the 7 day packs. They also usually have the same 2 for 1 deals they have for standard packs saving you even more money.

Sniffle less and enjoy your money more!

Our garden is finally taking shape.  Like a pheonix from the ashes, something beautiful is emerging.  The garden is almost unrecognisable from where we began 6 weeks ago.  There is still a long way to go, but the transformation is already dramatic.

So what have we achieved thus far?  Well, the decking has been laid creating an extension of the kitchen.  Although we don't have any garden furniture yet, the area is already being used extensively for bbqs and breakfasts.  The space is designed to break up the garden with and will lead out into a working vegetable garden beyond.

With regards to things you can do yourself, it's is well worth looking at building the decking yourself as you can make significantly savings.  A tip is to make sure that you have a car as I had to make 3 journeys on foot to my local DIY store to pick up additional timber when I realised I was short.  I carried two loads on my shoulder and one time had to rig up a make-shift "on foot" trailer to move 3 joists and a bag of cement.  A car would have made life much simpler and saved me a mild case of tendonitis!

Over the course of the next months, I'll share with you the development of our garden and share some tips of how to make the most of what you have on a budget. 

1. Plan
2. Prepare
3. Transition

Plan

As you are likely to be looking at whatever you've painted for some time, make sure you think about colour and contrast.  Paint can make a room look brighter or darker, larger or smaller and welcoming or oppressive.  Take a bit of time to test out colours before you spend a lot of money on colours you end up hating. 

My personal favourite for lightening rooms and giving them an updated feel is the colour, Barley White.

Prepare

Preparation can make or break a painting project.  Make sure that you take extra care during this stage of the project.  My advice is to think of 3 things:

• Take extra time to prepare the walls.  Fill any hols with filler and sandpaper smooth.  A tube of wallpaper adhesive can be invaluable to re-attaching loose wallpaper.  Use sugar soap to wash off any residues and a vacuum cleaner can help you suck up dust and paint chips. 
• Use masking tape to cover all edges of window, door, outlets, etc.  This will ensure that they don't get paint splatter and will give you neat and tidy edges.  It's worth taking extra time to make sure you get the edges straight.
• Use plastic sheeting to cover carpets and furniture.  This will ensure that paint doesn't soak through and make an unpleasant legacy.  A tip is to use masking tape to stick the sheeting to the skirting boards and you will be sure to keep your carpet and skirting boards clean.

Transition

Many painting projects take more than a day to complete.  This means that many people have to clean their paint brushes and other equipment time and time again to avoid the paint drying out.  Well, here is probably the most valuable painting tip you will ever be given... use cling film or a plastic bag to cover your brushes, rollers and paint tray.  This will ensure that everything is ready to use the next day and save you all the hassle of washing everything.  We painted 3 rooms over the course of 4 days and only cleaned everything once at the end of the job.

Painting doesn't have to be a chore if you know the tips.  Most people think it's all in the technique, but as I have shown, it's preparation and transition that makes all the difference.

Happy painting!

It's not over until the Fat Lady Sings, but with our deposit having been sent to the solicitor, we can but think its a done deal. Our buying property experience has taken us through highs and lows, successes and failures, and elation and depression. In the end we have "hopefully" triumphed, but we had to work at it.

Over the next 7 Frugality entries, I'll take you through our process to see if there aren't some tips and tricks you can use to help you in your own property purchase. Who knows, there could by something that tips the scales in your favour in your own transaction. Sometimes that makes all the difference.

The 7 Steps that helped us successfully buy a leasehold property in the UK are:

1. Do your homework
2. Get good help
3. Getting Financing
4. Surveys
5. The Lease
6. Negotiating
7. Finalising the purchase

This may be not be news to many of you, but the world is in crisis.  Banking systems and economies are collapsing, the house of cards built on debt is falling down.  Now normally this would be all doom and gloom, but if you if you bucked the trend and put a bit of money aside, you may actually be able to pick up some bargains.

 As or me, I have put some of my money aside for a rainy day and pooling together with my girlfriend, we actually have enough to wade out into the world of property.  However, as first time buyers in a distressed market, we had to learn the hard and fast rule of buying property in the UK.  Given everything that we've been throught, I thought I might be able to share them with those of you that might also be looking to buy property at the moment.

1. Know your seller - selling a property can be emotional or clinically business.  We are buying from an institutional investor and we've learned that they are all business
2. First offers under the asking price are likely to get rejected flat out - we made an offer that was rejected and made the mistake of upping our second offer too much.  It's likely that only a small increment would have sealed the deal.  Let's just say the seller's real estate agent did a good job in scaring us into it.
3. Do your homework - scour the internet, explore the local area and make sure you check the local Council databases.  We discovered subsequently that the flat is in a conservation area (very restrictive, but actually not all bad) and that a large development was being built down the road (likely to be bad for traffic, but good for local amenities)
4. Solicitors are all rubbish - even though you pay these guys up to £1000 for their services, their hearts never really seem to be in it.  Ours missed a number of funamental errors in the lease wording and also that the flat was in a conservation area.  It's also important to note that there is no incentive for the seller solicitors to make any effort, so be sure you double check your solicitors work the best you can.
5. Negotiate if you can - just because the lease say something, doesn't mean that it has to stay that way.  We were able to negotiate changes and also have things be allowed that are explicitly forbidden in the lease through licenses.
6. Have patience - unless you are going to be homeless if your purchase falls through, take your time.  Seeming too eager can often be interpreted as desperate and sellers will take advantage of this.  This is particularly true if your seller is an institutional investor or doesn't have time pressures to move.
7. Unless you are willing to walk away, pay the price - If you get down to negotiating over a few thousand pounds, remember that if you are not prepared, you might as well bite the bullet and pay the money.  If you are prepared to walk away, might as well play hard ball as you never know what you might be able to achieve. 
8. Have fun - buying a flat is one of the biggest investments most people will make in their lives.  If you a buying something that will become your home, enjoy the experience of buying as it will make living in it even more enjoyable.

Well, I hope the above tips give you a bit of a headstart on buying property in these turbulent times.  There are some desperate sellers and some real bargains to be had.  We estimate that the prices are currently back to about 2004 levels (which is about the time I last said I need to buy a property).  Although we might not have the same crazy boom that just busted, at least in London, property is likely to be a reasonable long-term investment for many more years to come.

 In my next entry, I take you through what I consider to be a step by step guide to successfully buying property in the current market.  I'll follow that up with entries on each step that takes you through things in greater detail...

After installing ScribeFire, I decided the next logical step would be to update my Movable Type interface to the latest version. I had been working on v3.34, so a full generational jump to 4.2.1 made me giddy with delight. Movable Type's website had very simple instructions to do the update...

1. Make a backup of your database - Whenever you are making a change to your system such as this, it is always considered wise to make a backup of your data just in case you need to undo anything you might have done.
2. Download Movable Type - Once you have backed up your system, download Movable Type to your web server.
3. Unzip Movable Type - Using your preferred unzipping software, unpack the Movable Type archive onto your file system.
4. Copy Movable Type's Files Over Your Old Installation - Copy all of Movable Type's files over your old installation of Movable Type.
5. Login to Movable Type - The first time you access Movable Type, the system will detect the new version of MT installed on your system and take you through the automated process of upgrading your database. When this process is complete, you will be able to begin using Movable Type immediately.  The first time you access the application, you may need to "shift-reload" your browser in order to clear the cache for your css, javascript and images. Doing so will fix any display abnormalities you may experience upon first logging in.

However, I have left a post on the Movable Type Installation Forum and hope that someone will either:

• Explain to me what went wrong and how to fix it; or
• Explain how to do a clean install of v4.2 and the most efficient means of copying my custom templates and archived entries into this.

The menu was an array of Korean specialities and we did our best to order an arrangement of dishes - the raw beef starter, various versions of Korean BBQ, hot pot stew, etc. It was a veritable schmorgisborg of Korean food. Drinks were flowing with very good Hite Prime Beer and the house read and white lubricating our appetites for the feast ahead.

It was when the food came out that everything started falling apart. Firstly, the raw beef starter (the Korean version of steak tatare) was more than raw it was made of shredded frozen beef. This frozen meat theme prevailed during the provision of all the "raw" meats for the "at table" BBQ. Secondly, their timing was so far off we're glad there wasn't a benchmark to rate them against. The first people were given their meat to cook on the BBQ (their main) 1 hour before the hot pot stews finally were brought out. Finally, the portions were tiny. Our duck BBQ at £8.50 consisted of 4 thin slices of frozen duck breast. Now I understand that there are mark ups, but this amount of duck couldn't have cost them more than £1, particularly as they probably bought it frozen anyway!

It's a real shame that they completely ruined our dining experience through the careless provision of frozen meat and not getting the timing on our mains right. Such carelessness when couple to a £26 per head price tag gives rise to a desire to never eat there again and to advise my friend to not risk going either. There are many other Korean BBQ's in London that do get it it right and believe me when Korean BBQ is done right, you are guaranteed a night of good food, fun dining experience and smiles all around.

To Koba's credit, the Kimchi and other pickled side orders were good (of course, they would be as they come out of a packet!)...

I give Koba...

2 / 5 for food (you just don't serve frozen meat!)
4 / 5 for ambiance (to their credit we did feel like we were foreigners in Korea)
3 / 5 for localness (the food does feel authentic)
2 / 5 for value (at £26 per head, you would have expected a lot more)

2.5/5 Overall

So if you are in Central London and would like some Korean for dinner, whatever you do, don't go to Koba.  The place is run by Korean's that should know better, particularly when they are representing their country and it's cusine in the UK.  I love Korean BBQ, so I will find an good one and let you know about it.