Various photos

The UK stock market seemed to break out yesterday after a long run of volatility and a downward trend. Is the war in Iran finally over? Investors are hoping talks will lead to permanent peace, but Trump is as erratic as the Iranians, so we just have to assess the risks and dip our toes into the murky waters of the stock exchange! I’ve been investing quantitatively, smaller amounts to begin with,…

Here in the UK, we have a heat wave. It is 32 °C at the local weather station; that is close to 90°F. In this room, the thermometer is reading 30.5 °C. I’m dressed for the heat, linen trousers and no underwear. Choosing the right clothing is a problem. I usually write about random subjects, but I often write about photography. I haven’t taken any pictures lately. If you can afford a decent…

There has been a lot of chat online about AI and investing.  We have a financial crisis, yet again, as a result of the conflict with Iran. The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, making it a challenging time for investors. Can AI help us steer through choppy waters? I have used Copilot to gain insight into how we can use data from previous financial crises to navigate this one. There is…

It has been a while since I last wrote a post. I was hoping to write about how well my Stocks & Shares ISA was doing. Then Diaper Donny started his big, beautiful war. Pete Hegseth, his rather immature Secretary of War, proclaimed with glee; Iran is toast. Donny, believing he can do no wrong, called the British Prime Minister a “loser”. They use the language of the school playground because none…

It has been nearly a month since I wrote a post. I have been busy with other things and not really in the mood for writing. When I was doing photography, I was always aware of the light and its quality. I live in central England, and we get a lot of rain and cloudy skies as the weather systems come in from the west. Grey skies give a photograph a grey tinge. January was a very grey, slightly…

In this post, I thought I would give you an idea of the stocks I have added to my stocks and shares ISA. The heatmap above shows it fairly clearly. You might think you need lots of money to invest in stocks, but you don’t these days. You can invest with an app that has no fees for dealing, but you still have to pay .5% stamp duty on UK trades. You might invest £100 in a stock and pay 50p stamp…

I haven’t written a post for a while, but today I don’t have very much to do, and I don’t want to go out in the snow! Yes, our English winter has arrived! We’ve had snow for the last two nights, but it isn’t too deep. I remember the snow of my childhood, was much worse. In primary school, the snow was up to my shoulders! As always, when I have nothing better to do, I research stocks and check my…

The Olde Leathern Bottel It has been a while since I wrote a post, again. I finally got around to buying a new laptop. The left mouse button on my old one fell apart, so it forced me into action. I didn’t get a Black Friday discount, but I did get the laptop I wanted. It is a Dell 15 DC15250. It has nearly a terabyte of SSD storage and 32 GB of memory, so it is more than adequate for my needs. I…

This year seems to have gone by really quickly; spring, summer, and autumn flew by, and we’re now just six weeks away from the December solstice and Christmas. My friend in Shenzhen is still enjoying summer temperatures, and I’ll soon be feeling the chill of an English winter. I am preparing for Christmas, but I must admit that I’m not looking forward to it. I am looking forward to Black Friday.…

If you have a bucket in your garden with a small hole in it, the water will drip, drip. It will continue to drip until the bucket is empty. In the old days, people used to say, “Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. Pennies leaving wallets and purses were like water dripping from a leaky bucket. If we didn’t pay attention, our wallets would soon be empty. Those…

It has been a while since my last post (again). Over the past couple of months, I have been moving my stocks and shares ISA to a new provider. An ISA is an Individual Savings Account, and the interest from it is tax-free. I have a cash ISA earning interest and a stocks and shares ISA. I can put up to £20,000 in total in both ISAs. My cash ISA is still with a traditional bank, but I have moved my…

It has been a while since I wrote a post. It is stormy here in central England, so writing seems like the obvious thing to do. Yesterday, I had my winter influenza vaccination. I know my immune system isn’t very good, but since I’ve had an annual flu vaccination, I haven’t had the flu, so they must be working. I’ll drive to a pharmacy and get my covid vaccination soon, so I have good protection…

I’m getting on a bit now (for those of you in other countries that means getting old). I forget things, so I have to write lots of notes and keep notes on my phone. Notifications from my phone-calendar help too. I just started writing this post, and guess what, I couldn’t remember how to do it. Fortunately, I remembered I needed to log in, eventually. A bad memory can sometimes be an advantage.…

I’ve started this post with an image from my lockdown in 2020—ambulances in the little avenue where I live. I wasn’t supposed to go out and socialise, so I took photos around the garden and photographed my meals. Many of my meals consisted of toasties that I ate with salad. I have adhered to a gluten-free diet, and so they were all made with gluten-free bread. I enjoy experimenting with my…

It’s Friday, and here in the UK, we have another heatwave. I went for a blood test this morning, and the steering wheel on the car was really hot to the touch. I wear glasses and I need sunglasses. My glasses are supposed to go darker in the sun, but they didn’t work. I need to book an eye test and try to get some decent glasses that I can see through, regardless of the weather. As always, I’ve…

It has been two weeks since I last wrote a post! Here in England, we are experiencing a heatwave. The local weather station reports a temperature of 25 C, but my thermometer indicates 28 C. The thermometer next to my bed also displays humidity, which was high last night, making it very difficult to sleep. My neighbours’ dogs barking made it even worse. I considered closing the window, but by that…

I haven’t written a post for a while. I have an autoimmune disease and haven’t been too well. I haven’t been out taking photographs either. I’ll add a few photos to this post. I began photography about 20 years ago and taught myself the craft. I’ll let you judge if I’m any good at it! I started with a cheap Fujifilm camera and bought my first DSLR, a D3200, in 2013. We had a local Arts Festival…