Percy Faith's sister

If you read my other blog the Taffanel Wind Ensemble, you would know that today the group played for Percy Faith's sister. You never know where and when you are going to meet someone who is connected. She admits to not having the musical talent that her brother who was the first born in the family had. Hope to see her at the seniors' home again.
Must make sure that I practise for future performances. Another one on Thursday.

No Cruises for us

After the news on the weekend, cruises are done for us. What a horror. The captain of a cruise ship sailed to close to an island so that a signal could be sent to someone on shore. If as he done in the past, the cruise past went well, there would be no problem but this was not the case this time. The ship struck rocks and suddenly without warning the ship capsized. Sadly, it seems that the crew was not well trained and the crew abandoned ship with the captain one of the first off. The crew did not give passengers clear messages as to what they needed to do.
Even after the coast guard pleaded with the captain to return and help with the rescue he refused. It was every person on their own and it seems that there are still at least 25 people are still unaccounted for.
This has certainly tainted my vision as to how well crews are trained. The crew member who was found with the broken leg needs to be congratulated. He had gone back to help passengers and crew. Not leave everyone on their own.

The Practical Gardener

Yesterday, I attended a gardening session at the Toronto Botanical Centre. It was mainly for the Master Gardeners. If this is what they are learning, I really do not want to become a master gardener. I am glad that some people are interested and ready to man the phone lines when people have questions and also answer e-mail questions. I am sure that there are many questions to answer. However, was not impressed with one of the presentations which was simply a presentation of Perennials-The good, the bad and the ugly. This was one persons opinion and partly determined by where she lives and what kind of gardening she wishes to do determined by her interests and many gardening pursuits.
Will be more selective about future presentations.

Winter is here

At long last, winter has arrived. It is nearly the middle of January. I am so glad that I was able to stay home and not worry about driving on the slippery roads. Later, I will do some shovelling. So far, I have managed to get mail done from yesterday; plenty of bills to pay. Amazing how they all seem to arrive at once. Will do some reading, practising and other indoor activities.
I am hoping that the snow does stop tomorrow and we can drive around safely.
If you have to go out in this weather and it is snowing be safe.

Executive Pay

Recently, many of us watched the protest in major cities asking why the 1% receive so much pay. In fact they are receiving what the 99% receives. A serious discrepancy. Today, the Globe and Mail ran an editorial by Margaret Wente with the title "Bringing executive pay back down to earth." Now, that is a surprise since she writes for the Globe and Mail a business paper. She mentions a bank executive who used to run the bank before stock options and before executives made 250 times more than the average employee. Her point is that CEO's pay is related to performance but points out that CEO pay has increased by a factor of 8 in 20 years. In the beginning,pay was tied to performance much like sports and the arts. The incentive that corporations picked for CEOs was stock options. The way to do well was increase the price of the stock which was not related to selling more stuff or making more money. Today's hero is Steve Jobs who lived in a relatively ordinary house but what Margaret Wente forgets is that he managed to earn a incredible amount of money so there are still things to exam.
The questions that is being asked once again: "How is it that executives get to make lots of money even if the company doesn't do well?"
Hopefully, the protesters will look at this and start targeting the CEO's buy a stock or two and be in the position to ask questions.

Bank fees

Yesterday, I checked one of my bank accounts. This particular account does not have a pass book and is only on-line. It is a virtual account. When I checked it, I found that there was a $5 fee for transferring money out. Interesting that there is no fee for putting money in since the work is the same. $5 for a transfer of little over $100! Oh my. Now, apparently since the account was opened, the rules changed and the account must now have $25,000 in order to avoid fees. I do not remember receiving notification about this but it could have happened. I would never have believed that a high interest account (interest is 1.2%-that is now considered high interest) could pay so little and charge so much.
Who could believe that banking institutions that earn so much money already want more?

Computer is back on Line

After a lovely New Years Day with friends, our computer failed. We did not know what caused the problem but when I called for assistance I was told that it was the power cord. I found it hard to believe that the power cord was the problem but when the part arrived, the computer was up and running in a few minutes. I would not have believed that this part could cause the connectivity problem.
Now that we are back on-line, I have checked my e-mails which numbered nearly 100 after a 24 hour period. Some of the e-mails are from conferences some of which I should unsubscribe. It is very rare that I actually do something that Martha Stewart suggests. Some of the suggestions are interesting but I will never try them.
Strange how unconnected I felt despite the fact that I do have a Blackberry and could see messages on there.
Hope that none of you are disconnected for any length of time.