The walk of fame – in Nottingham
There was some great coverage yesterday of the Walk of Fame in Tinseltown – centred around the fact that it celebrates its 50th year and Ringo Starr was about to become the 2,401st celebrity to be immortalised in a paving slab.
Michael Jackson - at the walk of Fame
It turns out that the first was Stanley Kramer back in 1960. Since then the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce have ‘managed’ the whole process and now charge $25,000 for each little square of marble with brass inlay. The whole walk now stretches over 3.5 miles!
I actually visited the walk of Fame when I was in the USA with the Sheriff of Nottingham last September. You might have seen previous blogs about the trip. The summary is here.
One of the ideas we had was to have a Walk of Fame in Nottingham – accepting that this would be on a smaller scale…
But we have some great people who were either born or spent their working lives here – they each tell part of the Nottingham story.
Some candidates:
Sir Paul Smith – fashionista
Jessee Boot – pharmacy
Robin Hood – good bloke
Lord Byron – poet
D H Lawrence – author
Su Pollard – actress
Richard Beckinsale – actor
Leslie Crowther – TV personality
Jane Torvill & Christopher Dean (one each I think!) – skaters
Stella Rimington – MI5
There are lots of others – but wouldn’t it be fun and entertaining to get this started?
And as Paul McCartney doesn’t have his star in Hollywood I am sure we could let him have one here – just so long as he doesn’t mention football?
Nottingham – sites for sale in Cannes!
I have blogged previously about MIPIM, the International Property Show held in Cannes each year.
Loxley House - new home for Nottingham City Council
The PR machine has started – in order that we can gain maximum exposure to Nottingham on the International stage.
One interesting development is that the City Council are to formally market six prime sites / buildings in the City. The properties will be released as a result of the move to Loxley House.
The six sites are sure to be much sought after, but investors must show they will be put to good use, as Director of Workplace Strategy and Property for Nottingham City Council, Councillor Geoff Hibbert explains, in a press release:
“The six council buildings are on some of the most prominent and prestigious sites in the City. They are part of an exciting portfolio of opportunities for investors and developers who have already secured agreements with potential end users and who can guarantee new jobs or relocations. Nottingham City is open for business and is very keen to encourage innovation and excellence by providing a strong framework of support to prospective partners.”
We are now one month away from the event. My firm will be present offering support to Team Nottingham.
Last year the show was quieter as a result of the downturn in the property market. It was noticeable however, that the show had less of a ‘booze-up’ feel and was much more business like. There will always be criticism in the press about the event, but we live in a very small world and we need to attract inward investment. It is as much about defensiveness as promotion – if we don’t go looking for investors, you can be sure other Cities will!
Skiing – the expensive holiday!
I am just at the end of my weeks holiday skiing with my two sons. We have had a great time in Cervinia – Italy.
Snow Cannon in Cervinia - an expensive toy!
It is not a cheap holiday by any means – mountain restaurants are notorious – £10 for three cans of coke is a bit excessive. They, of course argue that they have significant transport costs. No element of monopoly comes into play?
One of the most expensive elements of the holiday is the ‘lift pass’. Without one you go nowhere – and you are a fairly captive audience. This years adult pass for 6 days cost me £227 – nearly £38 per day. Each. Ouch.
We ate a few times in Lino’s (a great restaurant at the side of the piste which does superb pizza). I remember Lino’s from when I was last in Cervinia – depsite being in a Hotel with half board, I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in there one day – so bad was the Hotel food!
As we paid the bill for the pizza – we got talking to the owner about the resort. He was moaning about the costs in resort – I think he meant ‘business rates’, but some of the conversation got a little lost in translation. I moaned about the lift pass cost!
My son had asked me a few days earlier about the ‘piste bashers‘ – and what they cost. I thought they would be £200,000. In fact Lino said that the base model was 380,000 euros! They have 5 in the resort – which are manned on two eight hour shifts by 10 people. They run overnight…
Then there is the investment in snow cannons – which guarantee the snow conditions by ‘making’ snowflakes – forcing water and air at pressure through nozzles. I lost count of how many we saw!
The cost of fuel and electricity for piste bashers / snow cannons is colossal!
Then today as we used four lifts to climb to 10,000ft I realised the other staff involved – at both top and bottom of each lift were at least three staff, checking and clearing the areas.The lifts run from 8.30 – 4.30 every day.
Lino said that there had been investment of 80m euros in 5 years.
It is then that you realise that this investment needs to be clawed back – thats 350,000 lift passes… I won’t moan any more. Much.
No more men on the moon?
It seems that President Obama has come to his senses!
The moon - quite a long way away? Courtesy NASA
Bush started a programme in 2004 known as Constellation – it was costed at $104bn!
Whilst the original moonshot in the 1960’s when Kennedy galvanised the western world I cannot see why mankind would want to spend £65 billion on proving we can go to the moon – again? Or have I missed the point? As a kid I was fascinated by space and the Apollo missions – Buzz Aldrin sounded just great! But that was then… the world has moved on. We have other priorities.
We may have learned a lot as a result of the work NASA did but there are myths about how they ‘invented’ new products – velcro for example. That was invented by George de Mestral
But that diverts the argument. Imagine what we could do with £65bn. We could probably wipe out ‘homelessness‘. We could train doctors to eradicate many of the worlds diseases – especially in the third world.
I know the money won’t go to such causes. Perhaps Obama will use it to sort his health reforms?
Technology making life easier? Not in Tamworth.
Last week, I blogged about my trip to Birmingham to see Feeder / The Renegades. I met my business partner, Matt Hannah at Tamworth Services on the M42 where we agreed to leave one car and just take mine into Birmingham city centre.
Easy instructions to take your cash...
The services have a policy of only allowing free parking for 2 hours – which is fair enough. We were likely to be longer so opted to pay the charge (a slightly outrageous £8…)
You are warned that your number plate had been taken on the ANPR system. The parking is operated by CP Plus – who I have had a run in with before! They have a reputation!
The method of payment is a mobile phone call to an 0303 number.
It took two attempts – entering credit card numbers and Matt’s number plate a single digit at a time. We even called the helpline when we were having problems. They weren’t there unfortunately – gone home for calls, but still able to take your money – or no doubt fine you for their shortcomings.
I am not sure if the intention here is to stop you parking for more than two hours? If so, why not just say so. I blogged before about making visitors welcome – and on that occasion I gave up!
It is slightly different here, but we hardly felt welcome. Nor did the technology make the job easier. I guess that a ticket machine needs emptying – whereas the remote automated calling system is just a nice clean, easy way of making cash! Really, this was the worst of all experiences!
It also seems that these car parks might be breaking DDA laws…
In future I will avoid Tamworth services – and they lose out. I won’t spend money on drinks / snacks.
Nottingham has new buses….
Last week I needed to get home at a reasonable time; and I quickly remembered why I wait until after 6pm (apart from the work!).
Small buses in the bus lane 5.44pm ...
My journey home brings me down Ilkeston Road, where between 4pm and 6pm there is a bus lane. It was put there a few years ago by the Council who announced they were installing ‘new lanes’. This was the pinnacle of spin as they didn’t knock any buildings down to widen the road, they removed a car lane to make the ‘additional new lane”….
It seems that Nottingham has redefined the ‘bus’ as whilst I queued at least 50 ‘buses’ passed me in the bus lane. There were some well known makes – Land Rover, Audi, Toyota, BMW’s, Ford, Vauxhall. Some of these buses seem a little small – often with only one passenger. All have a driver with a similar look – pious,invisible and blinkered! When you were a child you really did think that if you couldn’t see someone they clearly couldn’t see you? They never look around!
My confession is that I am not a great fan of buses; they don’t go where I want to go, or when I want to go. But this week I saw several real buses queuing behind a row of cars! I do accept that the bus lanes makes travel by buses more attractive.
I try to avoid road rage, but this blatant law breaking is very irritating! I do hope that all buses will have cameras and these law breakers fined! I am not sure why I have to queue patiently (the price for not using public transport?) and others don’t think they should.
I am reverting back to leaving after 6pm. Then I drive in the bus lanes and frequently suffer abuse from people who tell me I shouldn’t be in the bus lane….
All gigged out? -never!
It has been a great week for music! Two gigs over two nights.
My son Jack, daughter Jade, Cameron Hannah, Grant Nicholas and Matt Hannah
The first at Rock City in Nottingham on Wednesday to see Reel Big Fish. I went as my son wanted to see them – and they were brilliant!
But then last night we went to the O2 Arena in Birmingham to see Renegade (a Feeder project!). It was a tiny venue – 350 people. They played for an hour and the set list was their new album – save for a couple of ‘covers’. The latter were Feeder songs.
The music was as promised – raw, loud and energetic! It was great – and what live music should be! Although we only knew a handful of songs, it was still engaging. Some of the music has an anthemic feel already.
It was great to meet the band after the show – they were happy signing fans autographs / bodyparts (!) / albums / setlists et al. They were clearly relaxed amongst fans.
We also met their manager who was explaining the changing face of music. In the ‘old days’ a band would make money from a CD / Vinyl record. They would tour to promote the album. But the tables have turned now and the money is in touring. He regarded a CD as a ‘calling card’. Live music is what people want. This may have changed because of downloading (legal and illegal), file-sharing or services such as Spotify. He cited U2 as an example where their last album ‘only’ sold 300,000 copies; on their 360 degree tour they played to 3m people! U2 have sold 145 million albums since 1976!
So it seems that in order to succeed bands really have got to get on the road. Of course this means that they do have to have an ability / talent. They can’t hide behind clever recording techniques. Or do a Milli Vanilli!
Feeder / Renegade do have talent and pulled off the gig last night brilliantly. And the night before, so did Reel Big Fish.
The Isle of Wight Festival is my next big musical event – my 7th year! Roll on Summer! And can you ever see too much live music? No, never!
Web statistics?
We have come to run our lives through the internet – be it via emails or by social networking. I wondered just how many people are connected through the various mediums?
The headlines – ideal for Pub Quizzes? (I am not sure I would stake my life on them!)
1. The number of emails sent each day – 247 billion (by the time it takes to read this another 20 million have been sent!)
2. Around 91% (224 billion) are spam!
3. There are 1.4 billion users of email around the world
4. Approximately 900,000 blog posts are published each day
5. There are around 133 million blogs!
6. Wikipedia currently has more than 13 million articles in more than 260 different languages.
7. 18.3 million households had internet access in 2009 – around 70%
8. In 2009 it was estimated that 10.2 million adults never accessed the internet
9. If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populated place in the world
10. And yesterday the biggest search on Google was “Apple announcement live” … I wonder why? Google defined the hotness of the search as “volcanic”
Will electric ever be cool – in transportation?
I spent a freezing cold day in Hull last week; actually it was colder in the warehouse I was surveying than outside! I was parked in one of the darkest and dirtiest car parks I have been in for some time. It was not a ‘Park Mark‘ place by any stretch of the imagination!
Plug your car in here after 3pm
When I came back to my car, I realised that I had parked in a space reserved for those vehicles that need plugging in. I was lucky as it was only 2.00pm… I was also relieved to see my car was intact – although I could only check this when I got outside in the daylight.
I am not a great fan of these electric ‘vehicles’ – the only decent one is a Tesla and that’s a bit beyond my means! It costs a cool £86,940 – speeds to 60mph in 3.9 secs and has a range of 244 miles (better than my little car most of the time!)
By the end of 2010 it will be joined by such contenders as the Nissan Leaf, Coda sedan, and the Think City. But we are talking 100, 90 and 110 miles respectively before you need to find a plug (or a set of AAA batteries). The Think Car seems to have had an accident in the design department. Perhaps they were at lunch when they got around to that part? Or was it a winning design competition at a Junior school?
There’s an interesting article in the Guardian about the state of play of the electric car market here
So, we have some ways to go yet. But then last week there was an announcement by NASA which suggest to me that I might be thinking about electric after all… As the saying goes – I want one of those!
And for the weekend I would like an ICON A5 – if thats OK? And the price – around the same as a Tesla! Now that really is cool. I wonder if they will let me land on the Trent?
Beyond collaboration – The new Accounting Property firm
It was an announcement that took the property world by complete surprise (and perhaps the accountants too?).
I sold out and all I have left is a lousy key ring
Deloitte and Drivers Jonas are merging to create Drivers Jonas Deloitte. Details on the FT here about the new look firm.
Theres plenty of column centimetres on all three websites above to read the news – so I needn’t repeat it here.
But what do we make of the merger. Well it is interesting – a first I think. A merging of two quite different disciplines – or perhaps they are not. I guess over the years the big accountancy consultancy firms may have regarded ‘audit’ as bread an butter, but the business model has shifted toward consulting – and that’s precisely what DJ do, albeit in a narrower field.
I have two main observations…
Firstly, I have been part of a merger (takeover!) when Savills plc bought my firm (Walker Walton Hanson) in 1994. It was regarded as a good fit – giving Savills an exposure to Plant and Machinery, but also (critically) an east midlands base. It was an interesting marriage. I lost my partnership status to become a Director. It didn’t take long for Savills to start imposing a regime change (in fairness they had parted with some cash!). But fundamentally from my point of view was the difference in culture. We were completely different to them. But they had power…. It didn’t take me long to realise I didn’t want to do breakfast meetings at Grosvenor Hill in London, nor did I want to spend a morning coding my expenses! I left the minute I could and worryingly one of my old clients said soon afterwards – “it’s good to see you back on the tools”. There is a subtle difference here on that there has been no cash changing hands – just a merging of equity so this may help?
Secondly, I think the idea of collaborative working is really great – and the future. In fact I touched on this in my blog a short time ago about MIPIM. But there is a world of difference between working collaboratively (and thus non-exclusively) with a firm or group of firms and sleeping with them! The two firms must believe that there is substantial cross selling opportunity. But how will the other firms feel? Will DJD now do work for Ernst & Young as an example. Will DJD be able to appoint themselves instead of, say, GVAGrimley? It is an interesting conundrum – which I have no doubt they have thought through.
Many years ago we (in my Walker Walton Hanson days) considered briefly a merger with a firm of Nottingham Solicitors. But the conversation was relatively short-lived as there just seemed to be so many real or perceived conflicts of interest. We carried on our separate ways – for a while!
Only time will tell if this merger works. It is certainly interesting and I am sure we will all be watching it carefully!
UPDATE 26 Jan 2010 : 3.30pm
And news follows that NB Real Estate are selling to Capita – brief details are that there will be a £10m sum immediately and £10m to follow on an earn out.
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