The Thunderer July 22 2009 READER.es

A MONTH ago I telephoned Telefonica and
ordered a wi-fi router for my ADSL. I was
promised an engineer would deliver and
install one within ten days.
Despite numerous calls, over nearly 4
weeks, nothing happened. Finally after
being told to go and get one from a shop,
(Really!)I cancelled the order. This company
is a national disgrace. They do not
believe in going that extra millimetre to give
one jot of customer satisfaction.
I have now written to the company asking
for an explanation. I shall report back on
the response.
During one of my calls, the operator gave
me the good tidings that I was paying too
much and had been since I signed with
Smellifonica. I had a commercial line and
an engineer would be out within 48 hours to
adjust whatever. One week on and I’m still
waiting so I put that in my letter, too. No
matter how hard I try to put a brave face on
these setbacks, no matter how hard I tell
myself that it’s the price of living in Spain, I
can’t help feeling that the company is rotten
to the core and
the country
needs more competition.
Have you noticed
how many insurance
adverts there are on
British television? Are
they annoying you?
Well I’m certainly fed up
with the one with the
damn bulldog. The point is, I’m so fed up
with the advert, I’m sure I won’t be ever
using that particular company. Have you
ever had similar thoughts?
Which adverts annoy you?
I remember when I was in the pub trade,
there was an advert for a certain brand of
coffee. You will remember the one; the
lovelorn couple in the restaurant. They are
oblivious to the fact that they are the last
ones in the house and keeping the staff up,
and ask for yet one more cup of coffee. The
b88s.
As somone who has been there, desperately
tired after a fifteen hour day and longing
for my bed, I could appreciate the disappointed
feelings of the waiter. Let me tell
you I would never, ever buy that brand of
coffee.
Adverts that give rise to adverse reactions
are not new. Some of the less young
amongst you may remember the ‘Strand’
cigarette debacle. The brand was promoted
with the slogan, ‘You are never alone
with a Strand’. The advert showed a solo
man on a street corner, under a yellow
street lamp, smoking a cigarette. Sales
plummetted as people saw the advert as
proof that
only loners
(and by
implication,
l o s e r s )
s m o k e d
‘Strand’.

The Yeoman Synopsis

THE YEOMAN

SYNOPSIS

A story of mystery and greed and yet hope.

Liz, an advertising manager in an upmarket magazine and her chemist husband, Jack Lord, decide to change their lifestyle and buy an inn, in the village of Buddleigh, a pleasant village, near Bustington, in the Saigh Valley.

Under new management, the business booms in the late eighties and their Bank are keen to fund the expansion deemed necessary to accommodate the growing trade. In fact the bank managers almost insist that the Lords borrow more. Initially, it looks as if the enterprise has paid off but bust was soon followed by boom in the early nineties. As the recession and high interest rates took their toll, the bank repossessed the property, leaving the penniless Lords to move into Council housing. As Liz Lord finds a job in teaching, her husband starts to write a novel.

The ‘Yeoman’ had been in the hands of the same family for countless generations and several centuries and within its walls harboured dark secrets from the past. Fate seems to be playing a strange hand when after some mysterious happenings; an opportunity arises for the Lords to wreak their revenge on the ‘greedy’ banks and the unscrupulous managers.

At times, comic, at other times tragic, the tale of the ‘Yeoman’ is a story of mystery and intrigue that draws the reader to ponder on the vagaries of life.

Kevill Davies

May 2009

DR BEAT RICHNER

True hero of my novel 'APSARAS' More can be found of the life and achievements of Doctor Beat Richner by clicking on the link below.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_Richner

Please help me to recognise his achievements with a Nobel Prize

Pictures of Apsarases from Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

Click on;-

http://picasaweb.google.com/kevilljdavies/Apsaras?feat=directlink

Article READER.ES July 22nd

Dire straits for UK pubs

THE Daily Mail reported, last month, that in
the UK, 1000 pubs and country shops will
close this year. That´s 20 a week, mostly in
villages or out of town locations.
It is no surprise; the trend has been
apparent for years, a combination of reducing
sales and higher costs leaving landlords
with no margin to make a living.
As a licensee in Oxfordshire for over
twenty five years, my wife and I were fortunate
to be amongst the last of what I may
say was the golden age of pubs. The traditional
inns with their Christmas card looks
were not only businesses but local social
centres, where members of communities
could meet socially and exchange news and
information.
The trend, in the internet age, has been
for the brewers to concentrate on larger,
managed themed bars for the enjoyment of
the hedonistic youth. This comes as no surprise
when the breweries began to be run,
not by brewers but by accountants. The bottom
line is ALL that matters, that is their
motto!
The independent tenants have felt this
transition. Brewers used to know their tenants
and look after them, happy that for a
fair rent their beer would be sold and the
landlords could make a living. Now the
accountants see the value of the pubs rising
inexorably as property prices have soared.
Fairness was thrown out of the window as
the accountants demanded a proper return
on the value of their assets. Rents soared,
beyond the level at which the landlords were
comfortable. It was not only brewery greed
that squeezed the landlords. Most other
costs increased including local council
demands for non domestic rates (NDR)
which soared to ridiculous levels. I remember
once being threatened with legal action
for non payment of NDR during a particularly
hard time during the recession in the early
nineties. I eventually put the money together
after the spring bank holiday and went
round to the council offices to settle. I had to
pay to use the car park and remember this
is on land owned by the people. If that wasn’t
bad enough I found the offices closed
because the workers with their gold plated
pensions had a complimentary day off on
the Tuesdays following a Bank Holiday. I
went ballistic when I considered I’d worked
seven days a week without a break to make
the money and they had a paid day off at my
expense.
Although being a landlord is a way of life,
with many advantages, it is nonetheless a
hard way to make a living.
Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates received a
recently deceased publican and asked his
profession. When the landlord told him he
said, ‘Pass on through to heaven, my son;
you’ve known enough of hell on earth.’
In the twenty five years I was in the
Licensed Trade, working seven days a
week, I actually worked the same number of
days as, say, an office worker does, working
Monday to Friday, in thirty two years. Apart
from the hours there are other worries; apart
from the usual business problems, including
staff, and the risk of personal alcoholism,
there is the added risk of abuse from the
public.
So next time you are in a bar or pub,
please be nice to the landlord or landlady.
The pleasant smile on their faces and happy
welcome may well be hiding a hurt and pain
that belies their image.
Kevill is a published author living in
Mojácar. Look at his future projects and
thoughts at:
www.kevilldavies.blogspot.com

Article in READER.ES July 8th

Transport policy

WITH the state of the UK car industry in
such dire trouble, I have had two totally
unconnected thoughts.
The first involves the safety of troops in
Afghanistan. Much has been said about the
totally inadequate armour on vehicles used
by the army for patrolling the country. They
are useless for protecting men from roadside
bombs. While men in the UK are being
laid off or are put on short time, is it beyond
the wit of politicians to put them to work
making some better armoured vehicles?
The second idea concerns the industry
itself. There are no British mass produced
cars and manufacturing is in decline a makers
around the globe rationalize their operations.
Motoring is difficult with millions of
cars vying for space on the crowded roads
and simple car parking can be one of the
day’s most stressful events. It will get worse.
With the latest innovations in Micro
Electro Mechanical System Technology
(MEMS), is now a good time, to revolutionise
the complete concept of motoring in
heavily populated countries such as the
UK?
How will it work? The Government will
have to announce that at a date in the
future, say 2030, all independently driven
cars will be banned, to be replaced by ‘pods’
that will run on a National Highway Grid
(NHG), using all the roads now in existence.
Pods will be manufactured in all sizes and
standards, as in today’s cars. You will, for
instance, be able to buy a Rolls Royce pod,
fitted out in complete luxury and containing
a bar.
Since nobody will be driving, travellers will
be able to enjoy a tipple as they travel. The
pods are all electric, recharged at home or
at work. The traveller will drive the pod to
the nearest network hub. (No more than a
couple of hundred yards). There, they
engage with the NHG. Press in the post
code of their destination and allow themselves
to be transported, travelling at
speeds of up to 200 mph, depending on the
road and completely free from collisions.
The network will be built and run by a consortium
that charges the traveller according
to the length of the trip, based on the starting
hub address and the destination post
code.
The idea was first conceived in my novel
‘Henry Bagshot’ (As yet unpublished) and
introduces a similar scheme, replacing
heavy freight lorries, using large pods, running
on a second NHG built on existing railway
lines and those axed by the Beeching
report. This network will be operated by
today’s railwaymen. I conceive that the pods
would be relatively inexpensive, although
owning one will not be important as there
will be many for hire.
There will be no car crimes, no insurance
costs. Pods being used for antisocial purposes
can be reported and will be rerouted
to the nearest police station.
In my proposal, the whole country will be
covered apart from that part of Scotland,
north of the big loch. This will be set aside
for independently driven vehicles, providing
a new tourist opportunity as people satisfy
their nostalgic urge to drive on the old roads.
By building on this initiative, the British will
become the world leaders in this technology,
exporting it to other densely populated cities
or countries. Is this a good idea? Please
send in your comments. emails to letters@
thereader.es. Kevill is a recently published
author.
Look him up on:
www.kevilldavies.blogspot.com