New word

Do you know what the word lipogram means? I didn't until today. Well, that's not true: I heard it years ago but then forgot then was reminded today.

Answers on a post card, please!

DW

Australians and pies and peas

You don't get this sort of information anywhere else!

Talking to an Aussie last night and I asked him for his view on the meat pie float that I'd heard about a year or so ago from another Aussie. He didn't know the term but said that I shouldn't be surprised as diet and dishes vary from area to area. He then described yet another variation on the delicacy that is pie and peas.

Take a cooked pie of your choice;

1. remove its lid;
2. pour in enough cooked, mushy, peas to fill the pie;
3. put the lid back on

et la voila!

Another winner for the world of the savoury pie and the mushy pea!

DW

Remember Alan Ball

Some people cannot pass by without a worthy mention. I told young master Williamson just the other week that the England football team needed another Alan Ball.  As you probably know the poor little man died last week: you can now see how important he was to old sticks like me. A fantastic player, a ball of fire and a great leader.

His funeral is on Sky News as I type this  and how can I help but watch and pay my own little tribute to such a man?

 

Ave atque vale Alan

 

Duncan :-(

This made me laugh today. I was using the normal distribution curve to explain Six Sigma and had asked the audience to consider the heights of doors, people, feet sizes ... And had put a sketch of the normal distribution curve on a flip chart. I overlayed the curve with three sigma.

Hameed bemoaned the idea that his feet were beyond the line to the left of the graph: much merriment ensued!

I had to agree and said that my size 47 feet were off to the right as I find it very difficult to find them. DW

Sale and leaseback

Sale and Lease Back

Here is a short article on sale and leaseback: not a difficult thing to deal with so this is another example for you to add to your files.

Travelodge, the budget hotel operator controlled by Dubai International Capital has raised £128 million through a sale and lease back of 17 of its hotels.

The company operates 314 hotels, the majority of them in the UK and is selling some underlying property assets to Prestbury, the property vehicle owned by Nick Leslau.

It is the second sale and elase back deal Travelodge has signed with Prestbury. Leslau is expected to inject both packages of Travelodge properties into the £2 billion real estate investment trust he is planning to float on the London Stock Exchange.

Source: Khaleej Times 29th April 2007

Duncan Williamson

Arbitrage

Arbitrage is a business/finance word that some people have difficulties understanding so here's a good example of it.

Mr X is currently in Dubai and he has a business in Saudi Arabia. He is runnning a transport company in Saudi where the cost of Mercedes trucks has increased significantly recently. Mr X believes that the price of Mercedes trucks in Dubai can be bought at a major discount vis a vis Saudi.he says that if he can buy the truck he wants in Dubai for $10,000 less than in Saudi he will buy it. If not, he won't!

Dealing in goods and services where difference prices exist in different areas/markets is known as arbitrage.

 

Duncan Williamson

Hummer H2

Just thought you'd like to know that yesterday I was given a lift in a Hummer H2, erm, vehicle. Bit of a beasty that: 5.2 litre engine apparently!

DW