Family Mystery
A cousin sent me an entry from the 1911 census for my great, great grandfather who lived in Old Kilpatrick in Scotland (which is where I grew up). James and his wife Ann Kemp are recorded as living at number 90 (Lusset Cottage) in Old Kilpatrick (the street isn't explicitly named, I guess that is on the page with the first house on it). This sparked an intriguing mystery, as there is a death certificate for Ann Kemp (nee Dewar) in 1890. Her husband James died in 1911 (for which I also have a certificate). His address on the death certificate is different to the census one (Smith's Land, Old Kilpatrick - but the person reporting it is listed as a neighbour and lives in 2 Neil (or Hill) Street Kilbowie), It is hard to be sure as the 1911…
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
Second Assignment done
At last I have finished the second assignment for the B301 Making Sense of Strategy Open University course that I am currently doing. I got a week's extension to this one because I'd been a little unwell and very busy, so not managed to get any work done in time to get it done by 30th March (the original deadline). The task this time was to find an annual report for an organisation on the web and use it to describe the strategy that the organisation had followed in the period covered and also to critically examine whether they had conformed to technical rationality (and the clue in the question was to explain why they hadn't followed it). Well this one isn't as good as the last one, because although I got an extension to do it I spent much…
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
The Defense of Jisr Al-Doreaa
This is an excellent update of an old classic. Two books in one, the author's have brought Swinton's Duffer's Drift and re-written it for the modern conflicts (which bear more than a passing resemblance to the Boer War). Swinton's book is in the second half of the volume. The basis for Duffer''s Drift (if you aren't familiar with it already) is that a young officer en route to the Boer War has a series of dreams about his first independent command. In each dream it all goes horribly wrong, but on waking he learns some lessons which he then takes with him into the next dream (without remembering the details of the previous dream). Over the course of six dreams he manages to learn enough lessons for a successful outcome. The scenario is well set out, with appropriate maps and…
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
You Cannot E-mail HMRC?
I was somewhat surprised tonight to discover that HMRC apparently refuse e-mails from members of the public (AKA customers) with tax enquiries. This was started because I got a coding notice (dated 21 February 2011) that said I owed some back tax from a previous year. They claimed to have told me about this already, but I didn't recall that, and since I'm on PAYE (with a Govt Dept) I believe I've paid the correct tax for my entire career. If anything I may have overpaid because my charitable contributions won't have been taken into account (a modest amount though). Anyway, I used a bit of know-how and after the first obvious e-mail addresses bounced (enquiries@) I then wrote to postmaster@ (the address the bounce came from) and it also bounced. So, being aware of the pan-government standard for personal…
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
Ars Magica – Lumen
Recently Lumen has been on a trip to Waddenzee with several of her friends from the covenant at Triamore. (See for the write up). From her perspective the journey was mostly uneventful apart from: premonitions of the attack on the ship they were using (during which she mostly made attackers fall asleep); some searching on a swamp near Waddenzee where she realised that she could spontaneously cast to power the punt they were using; she also made a bird; the visit to Waddenzee itself, where she rescued one of the local women from ill use, employing her as a second maid; a night excursion just on the mainland on return where a lot of time was spent searching in the dark for a particularly unpleasant creature, which was later found to be called a Lamia. So what does Lumen take…