http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/blogs/chriswain/ Salisbury Journal /blogs/chriswain/ en-gb Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:30:08 +0100 Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:30:08 +0100 http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/blogs/chriswain/rssterms/ M6 nvincent@newsquest.co.uk (Nigel Vincent) webmaster@digitalmedia.newsquest.co.uk (Tim Joy) http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/resources/images/1001934/?type=rsslogo http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/blogs/chriswain/ http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/blogs/chriswain/8376218.It___s_not_the_fortnight___s_ban_on_driving___/?ref=rss … I can live with that. It’s not even having to wear an eye-patch while sleeping. No, the really annoying thing about a cataract operation is that for a week afterwards you can’t wash your hair. Yuk. Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:37:36 +0100 7da58f2576fbf2bf67fe07de63df7018 http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/blogs/chriswain/8361915.The____consultation_process____over_the_Parish_Council___s_bid___/?ref=rss … to wreck Queen Elizabeth Gardens by spending £450k on unwanted, unnecessary and unaffordable “improvements” expires next week. So you could, if you wish, write to suggest that providing tiered seating and a main entrance to a delightful open space is just plain daft. You could do that: my own feeling is that you’d be wasting the stamp, just as you would have over the Bourne Hill Crystal Palace. The decision has already been made. Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:23:52 +0100 9135ddff611523537b32dd3b02b81ef6 http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/blogs/chriswain/8320798.Years_ago_a_senior_BBC_board_member___/?ref=rss … wrote an article in Pravda (aka Ariel, the Beeb’s in-house newspaper) proudly describing how she and the rest of John Birt’s new team had been on a TV programme-making course at Evesham. She enthused about how they’d operated studio cameras, acted as sound-recordists, directors, PAs and so on. She hadn’t realised, she wrote, how much was involved in television production. Far from boosting morale, the general response was shock. Hitherto we’d always been led by experienced broadcasters. The discovery that board members needed a fortnight’s training in basic TV skills was appalling. Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:57:50 +0100 e91338e06f862a91b859384044d322d7 http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/blogs/chriswain/8307676.Well__the_house_selling_process_was_shortlived___/?ref=rss … A cash-buyer turned up and bought the place we were after. So we withdrew our house from the market and decided to stay put. But it was a real eye-opener. We’d shown 10 prospective buyers around in a week and two couples had made return visits, so there was evidently a lot of interest. But apparently that isn’t the case generally, and glancing through this week’s Journal Property you can see that for yourself. Count the number of new instructions, price-reductions, re-available properties, no chains and vacant possessions and you see a very flat market. Many seem to be buy-to-lets being offloaded. Some economic think-tank somewhere has published a report saying the housing-market will pick up in three years’ time. But, they say, it won’t collapse here in the way it has in Ireland and Spain. I’m not so sure. Two years ago The Economist said UK property-prices needed to fall by a third to come into line with average earnings. If you allow for inflation (and the lower the interest rates the higher the inflation) house-prices are already falling in real terms. So if inflation runs at 5 per cent a year for the next three years and prices remain static, that’s a cut of about one-sixth. Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:04:51 +0100 cf3225251f97db6e78c9f1461faebb47 http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/blogs/chriswain/8283692.Some_years_ago_my_career_was_nearly_terminated___/?ref=rss … by a large bundle of tents. Air-dropped by an RAF Hercules (we were filming in what was then Rhodesia), they’d landed about 30 feet away, turning a small tree into matchwood. I had mistakenly supposed that the wind would make them drift safely away. But you can never tell with parachutes. These were more like drogues and the loads dropped vertically, nearly hitting us. Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:17:40 +0100 d95af132d7cf583c5eaa3066d6d4ec2a http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/blogs/chriswain/8268919.___Once_again__Salisbury_isn___t_being_represented___/?ref=rss … in the way it deserves” complains Michael Riley, the owner of a Salisbury guesthouse. He’d complained to the Journal that the Tourist Information office was no longer handing out Wiltshire Where to Stay guides. Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:51:13 +0100 cf15d44ffcdb2ae646e38b2e77a60974 http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/blogs/chriswain/8244816.I_missed_our_Armed_Forces_Day_celebration___/?ref=rss … on Sunday (why a day later than the rest of the country, incidentally?) because it was the Bishop’s final Sunday eucharist. So I was in the garden rather than the Guildhall Square when a solitary Spitfire flew past. Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:56:42 +0100 442372e317be262411df314cb4c38b9f http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/blogs/chriswain/8234486.More_years_ago_than_I_care_to_remember___/?ref=rss …sixth-formers from Bryanston teamed up with local grammar schoolgirls for a joint production of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, and the director devised a great publicity stunt. Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:56:44 +0100 fe7da025bda3dddeb6099b4dc9e6b615 http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/blogs/chriswain/8219797.Driving_back_from_Oxford_last_week___/?ref=rss ...I was pondering why their park-and-ride system works (as it does in Cambridge) and ours doesn’t. Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:40:36 +0100 c07f511d0da7a733570b564f400fba70 http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/blogs/chriswain/8194842.___A_word_of_advice______/?ref=rss … murmured the lady from the Festival Office. “Don’t bid for the horse”. Aha, methought, we’re going to see some poor soul humiliated here; “here” being the Salberg Studio, and Flick Ferdinando’s award-winning performance of “Horse”. Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:02:30 +0100 105355ca95e2b24d13ab4b477798449a