Just a friendly piece of advice – If you’re planning a trip to  London, don’t choose the hottest day for a decade to do it. And especially don’t choose that day if you’re travelling by  train. I made both mistakes last Wednesday, and it wasn’t much fun. Continue reading →

Something strange happened this week. In most parts of the UK, it briefly stopped raining, the clouds broke and we had, what used to be known as , “a few nice days.” But times change. What I thought was a bit of good weather, was nothing of the sort. It was apparently, according to the government, a potentially hazardous weather event, deserving of a Level Two Alert. Continue reading →

A couple of days ago I sold an obscure French Chronograph watch with a Swiss movement to a man in New Zealand. In the internet age we take transactions like this for granted, and yet just a few years ago it almost certainly wouldn’t have happened. Continue reading →

All  the opinion polls over the past 4 weeks showed the Tories and Labour running  neck and neck. It seems that they were wrong. Or were they? I’m not sure that they were, and the reason why I say that  carries a vital lesson for anyone in business or with the ambition of launching a new one. Continue reading →

What are the two biggest purchases you’re ever likely to make in your life? Well unless you’re  a billionaire (in which case a Gulfsteam Jet and a  150 foot yacht probably came to mind) you most likely thought of a house and a car. With so much money at stake, and the re-purchase cycle being a relatively long one, you’d think the marketing in the property and automotive fields would be faultless. But it isn’t – far from it. And one of the crucial areas they slip up is in the use of language. Let me give you a couple of examples… Continue reading →