Yes, I’m aware a blog should be updated more regularly than this. Last night the family (Mum, Amy, Georgie and myself) spent the afternoon and evening in London. Very enjoyable indeed! We started in the shadow of the London eye, eating some tasty sandwiches (thanks Amy) and people watching. As usual, Southbank was playing host to an array of street performers, free-runners, breakdancers and tourists, so plenty of food for observation. Then off to the book stalls, where Amy picked up a bargain, and Georgie reflected on her relationship with reading (disfunctional is an understatement). The air seemed to have cleared from a slightly unnecessary barney in the car (sorry Mum), and in good spirits we headed off to the Tate Modern for a little look around. Loved the slide installation and Carsten Höller’s sliding doors in the new aquisitions exhibition. Gourmet Burger Kitchen did the dinner honours, and the ongoing 2006 production of Evita at the Adelphi Theatre was wonderful.
Category: Blog
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Lucy and I were sitting outside a little corner cafe (Cafe Gena, pictured right) in the eastern backstreets of Florence, Italy on 6th August. Elated at our purchase of a day-old copy of The Guardian, we were both eager to digest as much news as the flimsy international edition could feed us. Typical then, that we should settle upon a small news item on the front page to debate for hours upon end, leaving little time in the day of two busy tourists for all that news.Katie Allen’s article of 5th August 2006 announced the intentions of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to publish details of boardroom salaries and bonuses on a new website, allowing employees to compare their below-inflation pay rises to some of the 25%-plus salary hikes experienced by their bosses. Lucy sparked our lunchtime conversation by asking how one could possibly justify the expansive difference between boardroom salaries, and the salary suffered by the bottom rung employees. Never one to shrink from such a challenge, I suggested the responsibilities of a manager were so much heavier than those placed upon the shoulders of the average employee, and the influence she could have on the fortunes of the company though poor performance so much more significant. Poor management can lead a store into the ground within weeks, but a poor till clerk is replaced without any real impact upon the branch performance.