Don't Change Your Scottish Notes Here

On looking at silver coins in the Tavid kiosk in Kristiina Keskus I was a bit surprised to see that, for some reason, a 'Scottish' pound is set at a lower price than an 'English' one, whether buying or selling, to the tune of about a Kroon or so, given that they are actually the same currency.

Now, not being an expert in monetary matters I'm sure there's a legitimate reason, and I can well remember the confusion that Scottish notes that I was given as a kid when visiting relatives (especially if they were issued by the Clydesdale Bank) would bring when trying to persuade hog ignorant anglo saxons that they were legal tender. But at the same time I'd have thought there ought to be some solidarity between one small, formerly oppressed nation and another. Or are Estonian issued Euros going to exchange at a lower rate than Finnish ones from next year?

The Recession is Apparently Over

Not a feeble April fool's gag, the PMC is above such puerility of course (!) but according to a Moody's report this is the case. They were the people who (I think, or was it Standard and Poor's?) downgraded Freddie Mac in the US from the highest rating to the lowest in one fell swoop.
According to the report Estonia's outlook has been raised from negative to stable due to impressive Governmental fiscal performance (1.7 per cent budget deficit), a stabilizing of overdue bank loans and the likelihood of joining the Euro in early 2011. Furthermore there's likely to be gradual recovery from here on in, tempered by the high degree of debt leverage in the private sector.
All well and good, but more important than that what does that mean for the PMC? Does that mean people failing to pay us on time (delayed and incomplete returning of rental deposits, tenants being in arrears month after month, failure to pay for orders made, just failure to pay really) is going to be a thing of the past? Well, maybe, but the point is, we think this recession was primarily in people's minds anyway. The PMC's editor was in Riga this time last year and, though the economy was a mess, doesn't recall anything terrible happening, no bread queues or people starving in the streets, just a fairly insipid riot.
These things are really just numbers on a page which cause some 'experts' to go on TV and trumpet their little learning and knowledge like, well, a tuba and everyone follows suit causing a mass hysteria which is completely unnecessary, unhelpful, and leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Yes, there has been a high degree of unsettling things like defaulting on loans and job losses, but we can't help thinking that a lot of it needn't have been so and was a part of this knock on effect to follow on from the giddiness of the 'boom' years.
Let's hope that once the dust settles some pointed lessons will have been learnt and Estonia can continue to progress and get stronger.
Oh, April fool's by the way.

It Only Takes Some Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Months, Years Or Other Unit of Time to Make an Impression

Canfield, Proctor, Nightingale, Zagler, Hill, Robbins, Tracy, Aaron... step aside please..there's a new success guru in town! Walt Gleeson is a highly successful, internationally renowned author of motivational books and CDs and other products. With a career spanning over half a decade, he has enthralled readers all over the world, from Alaska to Florida and from Hawaii to Rhode Island, with such titles as You Can Do It!, You Can Do It! Too, Literally Make Your House Work For You and Become a Billionaire Whilst On The Toilet, Walt is the Puumaja Crew's personal realization and fulfilment coach, whatever that is.

I was talking to a woman once..but she made her excuses and left, ha ha. Anyway this incident reminded me of the short space of time we have in which we have to make our pitch; do you know, it takes in the region of two seconds for someone to form an opinion about us, so those first two seconds are absolutelöy crucial. I can't count the number of times I've ballsed up an opportunity by sneezing at an inopportune moment.

If you watch the movie 'a lie' (which incidentally I didn't contribute to, purely because I was, I think, in the shower when the phone call probably came through offering me the gig) you'll remember just how critical a soft focus shot and funny moving background is in making that ciritical first impression, something that some of the world's most notorious people - Sadam Hussein, Price Edward and that guy that ended up on various outtakes programs for going on TV and trying to juggle without having practised properly and cocking it up - will never grasp.

This is equally true of a blog post; if you've made it this far you evidently don't have a whole lot to do at the moment but you can console yourself with the fact that you're probably unique in having made it to the end of this, so you can at least take that away with you.

So have a killer day!

Walt

Why I Don't Like Facebook Part Two

I've already posted about Facebook but that was way back in November, so this is just an update to say that nothing in fact needs to be updated.

I still dislike it, despite having a profile. I don't care if someone regretted eating that whole bag of revels, wishes the snow would melt or is returning from somewhere (and 'friends' who are supposedly employed in full time jobs are often the worst offenders). It's just a devourer of time. Maybe it's just me - maybe I'm too antisocial (I don't have time for twitter or even instant messaging, barring one person of course, either) but I think you'd have a hard  time trying to disprove the time wasting aspect.

Seth Godin will back me up on this - think you know better than he does? In fact he's not having a go at Facebook or social websites per se, just their abuse. He recognises the technology does have its uses, well, more than that, it's a central plank of his approach and seemingly noone below the age of about 90 can really afford to ignore it. I suppose once something's available to the masses it runs the risk of getting compromised and degraded - look how people drive cars compared with (I presume) the requisite etiquette or mandatory detailed knowledge of how a car actually works that was the case in the early days of motoring, yet they have made our lives incomparably easier (again, I presume).

So, maybe I'm wrong. But I still don't like Facebook. And I don't even want to hazard what the next social networking site round the corner is....

Business How Usually

The PMC is back open following almost a week in London, and it's good to be back in the cold.

Spotted a certain media star on the same flight (so even they have to fly sleazyjet!) which amused us; they look a lot better on the TV...

Forthcoming contributions to look backward to including offerings from Walt Gleeson, the Rabbi and a short awaited new installment of Charlie Moraine's 'book', so watch this space.

Londo Zoo Revisited

Seth posted a while ago about how we have to accept that some things just won't recur. The media have for as long as I remember been searching for the next Beatles, applying this tagline in even the most pitiful of cases (Kajagoogoo anyone?) when of course, there won't ever be anything like the Beatles again. Just as on a personal level, one's schooldays will never be recaptured (there is a huge variation as to whether this is a good thing or not of course) nor will the initial rush of enthusiasm for a new hobby (without starting another and the recently-divorced ponce de leon has been mocked sufficiently by more worthy pens than that of the PMC..

..so it was in this spirit that PMC man in London (this week) went to the Zoo for the first time in over quarter of a century. With that in mind, it was actually quite good. Not so huge as the writer's eight year old memory had retained, and it was perfectly doable in half a day; some of the animals didn't cooperate of course but we've learnt to accept that too, and watching the pecking order within a group of hyenas as the keepers threw half a mutilated calf into their enclosure made an impact.

I'm not too keen on the 'hey, animals are really funky, check out these [insert piss poor alliteration here] spiders/bugs etc; surely the animals themselves are the draw, they certainly used to be in my day (same applies to the same patronising and rather silly treatment that seems to be applied to history nowadays) and the entry price is, well, London priced;  but you know what you're getting, and there's something timeless about the appeal of viewing other species than our own..for a bit anyway.

On This Day 344 Years Ago

21st March 1666...

Sir Robert Long told us of the plenty of partridges in France, where he says the King of France and his company killed with their guns, in the plain de Versailles, 300 and odd partridges at one bout. With Sir W. Warren, who tells me that at the Committee of the Lords for the prizes to-day, there passed very high words between my Lord Ashly and Sir W. Coventry, about our business of the prize ships. And that my Lord Ashly did snuff and talk as high as him, as he used to do to any ordinary man. And that Sir W. Coventry did take it very quietly, but yet for all did speak his mind soberly and with reason, and went away, saying that he had done his duty therein.

On Seeing Alice in Wonderland in Estonian...

I thought it worked rather well, 'Kallis Alice' and all; well, Tolkien used the related Finnish language as a basis for either the Noldorin or Sindarin tongue, I don't remember which and the books are just slightly out of arm's reach on the PMC bookshelf, so why shouldn't Estonian have an other-worldly quality all of its own, huh?
Film itself was a bit too Tim Burtoney for my liking, since he made it, I guess that wasn't unexpected.