Blair’s other legacy

July 27, 2007 · Filed Under England, People · Comment

Many would have you believe that post-Blair Britain is a fabulous place. Many people have more money than they know what to do with and everything is hunky dory. Only, this is not necessarily true for 100% of the population, at least not according to the story which one of my students told me after a recent visit to London.

I was a little surprised to learn from him that there is an apparently sizeable group of people who are really struggling to make ends meet, or at least that was what he was told by a Londoner he met. Soaring property prices and low salary levels seem are probably the culprit, I suspect.

I decided to check this out, so I hunted around a UK job search website and looked at a couple of estate agents sites.

With regard to jobs, I discovered from taking a look at the some admin jobs advertised in Bristol, a moderately wealthy southern UK city, that salaries of around £13,000 and £14,000 are still quite commonplace. This means that a couple earning around £28,000 would just about be able to afford a mortgage on a one bed property costing £98,000 - which is just about the lowest price you will find on the market in that area.

Such low salary levels mean that what my Italian friend told me is quite possibly true - there are plenty of people who are struggling to make ends meet. How many, I don’t know, but probably more than I would expect.

Did Blair benefit everyone in the UK? Good question. Answers on a postcard, or comment please.

A small update: This article in on the Guardian website seems to indicate that even graduates are finding living in the UK something of a struggle.

Tags: Italian

Gold fever.

July 27, 2007 · Filed Under Fashion, Milan, People · 1 Comment

Nope, sorry, gold has not been found in Milan, so please don’t rush here. However, gold is certainly on the streets. Gold seems to be the in-colour for quite a few Milanese women at the moment. There are gold coloured handbags, shoes, belts, and tops. Should you wish to demonstrate the Midas touch, you will be able to find gold coloured everything in Milan’s shops. And it’s sale time, so you can go for gold, without spending a fortune. You can even dress your little ones in gold too, if that takes your fancy.

I’ve yet to see a gold family, but sooner or later, I will, well, mother and daughter. If I happen to have my camera with me at the time, I’ll post the photos here.

Tags:

Frank Zappa.

July 6, 2007 · Filed Under People · 2 Comments

One of the people, Howard Wright, who posted a comment on my entry about traffic fines in Italy, and the infamous, now, invisible Pisa restricted traffic zone, is a guitarist and has a nice site with lots of guitary info. One this site he mentions his favourite guitarists, and among them is the late Frank Zappa. Now, I have always known about this guy, but, for some reason, I had never really heard his music.

At the moment, I’m listening to Zappa’s ‘You are what you is’ album, which I bought yesterday, as a direct result of reading up on Zappa on Howard’s site. Cheers Howard! Mighty good stuff Zappa’s music is too, I reckon, especially, if you are like me, a closet Hendrix.

Zappa was one heck of a versatile musician and his music is highly original. I like music I can get into, and I can get into Zappa’s stuff very easily. He’s one of those artists in whose music you notice something a little different every time you listen, if you can understand what I’m trying to get at.

So zap on down over an on-line music store near you and have a listen, although you’ll need quite a long except to really appreciate how good this guy is/was.

Of course, if you hate his stuff, that’s cool too. Each to his own.

Tags: Italy