What would I take from my desk?

The BBC asks: "if you loss your job today, what would you take from your desk?". In other words, what personal items do we have in and on our desks to make the long working days just a little bit more personal?

So here goes:

• University mug
• Mug given to me for my birthday
• Coca-cola glass
• 10 novels which I have finished reading at work and never made it home
• Contact lens solution
• Painkillers, spare tights, tampons etc
• Files of work from law school
• Law books which belong to me
• hand cream
• personal file (e.g. records of work/courses etc)
• photo of M and I on holiday
• fountain pen
• umbrella
• small pretty mirror given to me by BestFriend which sits on my computer

There are obviously a few other things I have at work too like mustard, orange squash etc but I think if I had to leave, right now, I wouldn't bother to save them. Likewise I would not make off with confidential client information, the contents of the stationery cupboard or any expensive but useful text books. And that's not just because by the time I loaded all of the things I do own into a box there would be no room for anything else...

The Times also had an interesting article about the wives of bankers/traders who gave up work to look after the children etc and now their husbands are out of work with limited options. Not many people feel sorry for them. Only last night I was discussing with M what conversations were happening in those households. One can only hope that if you'd made your fortune as a trader or banker you would have been clever enough to follow some sound financial advice, realised that you make a lot when the going is good but that it can all very easily be lost and so diversified portfolios and kept an emergency easy access account so that you could still pay the mortgage, school fees and household expenses until you found something else to do. Like become a maths teacher. There's a shortage of those.

Say hello to your neighbours

The BBC reports today that 1 in 10 people questioned for a survey do not speak to their neighbours. It goes onto suggest that the streets are empty and that there is a serious decline in everyday interaction.

We live in a typical somewhat suburban inner London street; a mixture of Victorian and modern houses, some converted into a number of flats, some are family houses. We are not on a main bus route but there is a tube station fairly nearby so there is pretty much a constant trickle of pedestrians up and down the road for most of the day. Every match day this number is multiplied many fold. There are also various workmen about completing one project or another.

One of the nicest things about living where we do is that we have friendly neighbours. We are friends with the people who live upstairs from us and frequently pop round to each other's flats for drinks. We are also able to just text each other if the music is too loud, or whatever, rather than letting it annoy each other and cause resentment. It is surprising how low our music can be and still be heard 2 flights up.

We are also on good terms with the neighbours to the side - greeting each other rather than drinking together - and they came round last night with a bottle of champagne to apologise for some rather prolonged building work which had taken up many weekends before they moved in. Last week we popped home to vote at lunchtime and returned quickly to the house. The dog started barking and Mrs Neighbour came to check that there were no burglars. Whilst some people may deem that nosy, I was very appreciative that someone noticed that there was unusual activity in our garden and came to investigate.

Our property is unusual in terms of access to other properties so we do see our neighbours at the back more than perhaps others do as we share an access way and also the gardens are connected. We are on very good terms with the parents of the family and do our best to use our shared parts of land to minimise disturbance to each other. The BBC article indicates that many neighbourhood disputes arise over a lack of communication - something which we have certainly noticed first-hand. Sharing communal parts inevitably leads to differing ideas over how things should be done and whose priorities are more important; an issue exacerbated when one party owns and the other party rents. Communicating with each other regularly seems to have smoothed the issues of contention and both parties have learnt to compromise.

As to other people on the street, well that is harder. People do tend to keep themselves to themselves in London and apart from our immediate neighbours I would not recognise people who live near-by. Free-cycle has introduced me to a few very friendly people in the area but they are not people I see on a regular basis. I know our normal postman to say hello to and he knows which address is mine but it is not always the same postman (or at least I presume it isn't since sometimes the postman hands me the post yet on other occasions our neighbours bring it round as it has been posted through the wrong door).

Whilst I agree that everyday interaction is important there is also a need, especially in a city like London, to be able to switch off at home and not feel that people are constantly haranguing you or being nosy. Personally I am appreciative of friendly neighbours and go out of my way to cultivate this relationship but I also understand that some people do not want to be under an obligation to say 'hello' or even idly chit-chat for a couple of moments if you both happen to be in your garden at the same time or step outside the front door simultaneously. However, I do think that a happy medium is preferable, not least because it encourages a safer neighbourhood and, I hope, lowers crime rates.

McCann Questions

Kate McCann has been named a suspect in the case of the disappearance of her daughter on 3 May 2007. This news has been splashed across the British press this afternoon. The BBC website shows the following as a timeline box. The BBC words are in italics and my questioning is in usual typeface.

THE NIGHT MADELEINE VANISHED

• Kate McCann tucks Madeleine into bed in their ground floor apartment.


• Mrs McCann and husband Gerry then go to a nearby tapas bar, which has a clear view to their apartment, to eat dinner.

The above picture was also published on the BBC News website but on 17 May 2007. I am not an expert but there do seem to be obstacles between the restaurant and the apartment. There is a swimming pool, loungers, what appears to be a fence. They may just about been able to have seen the apartment but what good would that have done? It would clearly take several minutes to reach the apartment from the restaurant.

• The McCanns said in an interview they checked on their children every half an hour. At about 2200 local time Mrs McCann returns to the apartment to find Madeleine missing from her bed.

It has also been stated that Gerry McCann checked on his children at approximately 21.05 and that at 21.30 one of the males in the party offered to check on the McCann children when he checked on his own child/children, one of whom had been vomiting. It is alleged that this male only listened at the door rather than actually entering the room. It then seems that Kate McCann checked on the children at approximately 2200 and found that Madeleine was missing. That, to my mind, is not the same as actually checking on the children every half an hour. It also raises concerns in my mind that one of their party was happy to leave a child unsupervised that was or had recently been vomiting.

• She goes back to her husband at the restaurant to raise the alarm and police are called.

This too is something that disturbs me. Allegedly there were three children there in the room that evening. We can be fairly certain that the twins were not taken and would have been in the room when Kate McCann entered and realised Madeleine was missing. Were they still asleep? Did she take them with her when she returned to the restaurant or did she leave them in the apartment? And if so, why did she leave them there when her eldest daughter seemed to have disappeared.

This story seems more and more odd. The parents state that they are drawing away from a media circus, yet they were happy to be interviewed by the Times this week. Each time they state their point of view there seem to be discrepancies. There are questions which no-one in the press seems to be asking. The parents seem convinced they did nothing wrong and repeatedly make the situation about them, not Madeleine. I hope that this new line of questionning provides some much needed answers, an end to speculation and a break through in finding Madeleine or her whereabouts.

BBC Wimbledon Weather Forecast

Clicked the link on the sidebar mostly out of boredom, expecting to see wet cold English summer weather symbols. You can imagine the double-take I did when all the symbols developed as suns, temperatures 34-36 degrees. Checked location – Augusta, USA. Some fool at the BBC has mixed up Wimbledon SW19 with the golf…