Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
Posted: May 11th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: About retirement - Howard Croft | No Comments »
Dear Philippa,
A couple of months ago – I may have mentioned it – I was caught by a speed camera on the A1 doing 61mph in a 50 limit. I was driving my Fiona’s sprauncy John Cooper Works Mini whose top speed is twice anything permitted on any road in the UK, rather than my own more modest car, and it was to her that the summons was sent. Having as she does almost as many points on her licence, all for speeding, as she has on her Boots loyalty card, she naturally assumed her own guilt, but when I pointed out to her that although we together I was in fact the driver she did her civic duty and grassed me up. Which is fair enough. What was not fair enough was the unhealthy and unattractive glee with which she did so.
As it turned out I was one of the “lucky ones”. Instead of being fined and awarded three points I was offered the opportunity to attend a 4 hour speeding awareness course, which conveniently I could do locally rather than in Nottinghamshire where the offence was committed. Also conveniently, I could book on-line or by telephone. I tried to phone, but the number was out of service. I tried on-line where I was warned that the web-site no longer had a valid security certificate. But I risked it anyway, it being a police site, where I was offered two choices, Nottingham or Newark – both over a hundred miles from home.
So two days ago to Newark I went, along with seventeen other lucky ones, to a large indoor bowls club that was packed elderly ladies in lavender tweed skirts and, rather fewer as is usual in this age group, elderly gents in high-waisted trousers. How they stared at us, this motley bunch of offenders sheepishly lined up to eat our portion of humble pie. I was reminded how as a child I would stare at the crocodile lines of boiler suited borstal boys as they were marched past my house from what is now Hull Prison to the East Park to do a bit of weeding, and wondering what they had done. No need for the respectable matrons of Newark to wonder – there was a big sign announcing the purpose of our meeting.
I expected a load of sanctimonious sermonising, but instead we were treated like a class of trainee driving instructors, and addressed by our first names. They began by asking us to give the make of car we drove, how long we had held a licence and how fast we were going – a bit like an AA meeting: Hi, I’m Howard and I’m a speeder. So I believe anyway. Having held a licence for 47 years I expected to be the most senior offender but there was another chap there who’d had a licence for 50 years; how the rest of us sniggered. In case you are wondering, there were twelve men and six women, one of whom drives an ancient Jowett Javelin and described her hair-raising tactics for dealing with tailgaters. I admired her style.
We were treated to a whole lot of selected statistics, which, in the absence of even more statistics not selected were impossible to interpret. We had to guess the number of fatalities on British roads. The guesses ranged from my own (6000) up to 50,000. The “right answer” was 2500, by which we were meant to be shocked (and obviously any fatalities are world shatteringly shocking to the families involved). But for a small island with a population of sixty million I think this is a creditably low number, close I should have thought to an irreducible minimum – not that the road safety people would recognise that concept. The French score is 20,000, but they are an excitable people and so doing quite well. For them.
In the presence as we were of single-issue fanatics, there was no acknowledgement of any other causes of accidents. When two of use described experiences of driving from north of London to Yorkshire and not seeing a single police traffic car throughout the whole journey this was brushed aside, but it is a consequence of the obsession with speed and has led to a serious growth in dangerous driving behaviour. We were told that the government “worked out” almost a decade ago that education is more effective than punishment, but tell that to the woman reported today to have been read her rights and taken to court for leaving a piece of cardboard beside a recycling container because it was too big to pass through the slot. Interestingly, significantly perhaps, when she opted on legal advice to be tried in front of a jury the council concerned immediately dropped the case and she was spared a £300 fine and a criminal record. Don’t get me started.
We were told that speed cameras are actually fewer than we think and the revenue goes to pay for driver education programmes, and we rolled our eyes. When I mentioned that I live in a county, the only one, where there are no speed cameras the reaction from the presenter was what I would have expected if I had said that we send our children up chimneys.
But, I have confessed my sins, expressed earnest remorse, and got back to Yorkshire in record time.
Best wishes,
Howard
Posted: May 11th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Offers and competitions | Comments Off
![6100-EB[1]](http://blog.thefutureperfectcompany.com/wp-content/uploads/6100-EB12.jpg "6100-EB[1]")
We have got together with The Healthy Back Bag Company to offer you a free Baglett with every Healthy Back Bag you buy from us from today until 15 May 2010.
This mini version (20.5 x 11.5 x 9cm) of The Healthy Back Bag is truly smart, functional and fun whether worn alone or clipped inside its larger counterpart.
How to claim:
This promotion entitles anyone purchasing a Healthy Back Bag from us to one free microfibre or distressed nylon baglett (as described below). Only available colours within the microfibre or distressed nylon baglett ranges will be given away free as part of the promotional offer. Promotional bagletts as follows: MICROFIBRE Black, Eggplant, Flamingo, Midnight Blue, Red, Sea Moss, Taupe, Lemongrass, Mauve, Chocolate, Hunter Green, Graphite, Burnt Coral. DISTRESSED NYLON Black, Burnt Orange, Brown, Crimson, Desert, Electric Blue, Purple, Sage, Strawberry, Taupe. The Healthy Back Bag Company reserves the right to supply any of the bagletts as described above as part of the promotion depending upon availability. The promotion is limited to one baglett per purchase and is open to UK, CI, IOM and ROI residents only until midnight 15 May 2010
To obtain your free baglett: Purchase any Healthy Back Bag from us and send a copy of your receipt showing details of purchase to: Baglett Offer, The Healthy Back Bag Company, 90 De Beauvoir Rd. London N1 4EN. Indicate where you saw the promotion advertised. Please allow up to 10 days for delivery from submission of order. The Healthy Back Bag Company reserves the right to rescind an order where they believe it has been made fraudulently or not in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.
Posted: May 10th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Press coverage | No Comments »
![iStock_000007382092Small[1]](http://blog.thefutureperfectcompany.com/wp-content/uploads/iStock_000007382092Small11-200x300.jpg "iStock_000007382092Small[1]")
I am very pleased to announce that The Future Perfect Company won the category for Best New Business at The West Sussex County Times Business Awards 2010.
On Friday night in the grand surroundings of Christs Hospital School in Horsham, I received a trophy and certificate from sponsors, Spofforths in what was one of the most competitive categories of the night – which shows that notwithstanding the gloomy economic climate the entrepreneurial spirit is still alive and kicking in the UK.
A great night and a big boost after just 6 months of trading.
Posted: May 5th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: About retirement - Howard Croft | No Comments »
Dear Philippa,
Twice a day I nip out the garden gate into the churchyard and out the other side onto the river bank to walk Rosie the dog. On my side of the river there is a tract of land called the Gannock, which is a flood plain, providing Rosie with plenty of space safely to run free.
The severity of the winter brought the usual changes, but also some I had not previously noticed. The river has burst its banks more often, and the flooding has lasted longer, attracting birds in greater numbers and variety. Mallard we always see, but more prolific this year, and geese, proper geese not those Canada jobs whose disorderly bowels defile every park and playing field in town and country as they graze. Not previously seen, by me at least, have been swans, cormorants and herons, and sightings of kingfishers have been more frequent.
There is around here a relatively narrow range of mammals – the usual deer, rabbits, moles (or rather molehills) and hedgehogs – but this winter I saw for the first time, and just the once, an otter. Otters have populated this river for many years but have not before as far as I know been spotted on this particular stretch, where sightings now by others suggest that they have moved up river.
The past couple of weeks have seen great change. The swans and herons have gone, but all the rest, blackbirds, thrushes and every type of finch and tit are dashing about with building materials in their beaks and singing their heads off. Not at the same time obviously; that wouldn’t work. The barn owl, usually seen early in the morning, is no longer about, but it kicks up quite a racket at night in the churchyard which is infested with field voles, its own Pret a Manger, and woodpeckers I seldom see but every day I hear them
Extending our walks beyond the river and the Gannock is again easier and more pleasant, through Lady Spring Wood where the clear, spring-fed pools are ideal for rinsing Rosie after her swim in the river, a daily demand, into which she leaps with fearless enthusiasm.
Last week we went to visit Dave, a friend from childhood, his wife Barbara and dog Stan, a spaniel friend of Rosie’s since they were puppies. They too retired to North Yorkshire, to the Dales, a very different proposition from our part, situated as we are only a hundred feet above sea level between the Yorkshire Wolds and the North York moors. The scenery in the Dales is breathtaking and although spring has arrived there too you can still see snow on the hills north above Reeth. I saw there, in their garden, something I have never before seen – a flock of goldfinches. We have had goldfinches nesting in our garden the last two years but I have only ever seen the pair. When they flock it’s quite a sight. Dave told me all the dales are named after rivers except one – Wensleydale, which is named after a cheese. Can that be right?
Best wishes
Howard
Posted: May 5th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Miscellaneous | Comments Off
![images[1]](http://blog.thefutureperfectcompany.com/wp-content/uploads/images1.jpg "images[1]")
Facebook has been getting some bad press recently. But before we all ring the death knell for this pioneer of social networking, I just wanted to record that we are finding Facebook really helpful in reaching our audience. We have set up a fan page, The Future Perfect Company and have attracted 100 fans in the first month. And what a great bunch they are too, with a diverse range of interests and opinions.
If you want to join us, check out The Future Perfect Company next time you are on Facebook. It is a great place to tell us what you think about our website and also to give us suggestions as to which products you think we should stock. Also, if you are a designer with some interesting products for people getting older, why not ask our customers what they think of your designs? Look forward to seeing you there!
Posted: May 2nd, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Care, Miscellaneous | No Comments »
Here’s an interesting question, perched as we are on the cusp of social change this week - what does compassion mean today? Does it have any relevance in today’s society?
My sister in law kindly arranged for us to attend “Compassion Today”, a talk which is part of this year’s Brighton Festival. The speakers were the former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway, actress turned author (and mother of Emma Thompson) Phyllida Law and the excellent Julia Neuberger (rabbi, broadcaster and member of the House of Lords).
Where does compassion come from? Is it innate or can it be taught? One member of the audience observed that often compassion is taught through story telling, be it via the bible stories many of us used to hear at Sunday school or through bedtime stories read out loud to children. This being so, it is a great shame that many children start school today without ever having been read a story by their parents. But the power of story telling is still recognised. According to Julia Neuberger, medical students at Harvard are today taught empathy through stories told to them by professional story tellers.
In any event, the speakers agreed that in order to feel compassion towards other people, it was necessary to recognise something of ourselves in them, for there to be some sort of connection. This being the case, it is difficult to understand why we often do not feel more compassion towards the very frail elderly when we ourselves will one day be old. Is this because of a failure of imagination on our part or perhaps an act of denial?
How do we become more, or less, compassionate. For Richard Holloway, compassion comes out of recognition of one’s own weaknesses and failings. Julia Neuberger was more postive; for her, seeing the success of acts of kindness encouraged her to be more compassionate.
Should, or can, a government be compassionate? Julia Neuberger thought that it absolutely must, although the institutions of the state which are mostly closely aligned to compassion probably owe more to utilitarianism than compassion. The NHS, for example, was conceived as a means of making healthy a workforce which could rebuild post war Britain. It was not then imagined that it would become so dominated by the care of the elderly.
For Julia Neuberger, the body which most encompasses the idea of compassion today is the hospice or pallative care movement. Though this again has its roots in a kind of utilitarianism conceived as it was by Catholic nuns as a way of easing the sick into the afterlife.
This is a good time to be asking ourselves these kinds of questions as the answers will influence the sort of society we want to live in. We are facing huge decisions in the next few years as to how to spend diminshing resources and difficult choices will need to be made. The frail and the vulnerable, on the other hand, may have no choice but to rely on our combined compassion.
Dear Philippa,![iStock_000007382092Small[1]](http://blog.thefutureperfectcompany.com/wp-content/uploads/iStock_000007382092Small11.jpg "iStock_000007382092Small[1]")
