UKCruiseJeff

Lovely plates GD. I think I noticed someone about to steal the basil. Jeff

On Glasto currently is a stripey snow person rapping. Who’d have thought of such things. Jeff

It remains unclear where I was conceived.

I know 🙂 Today, left-over cold thinly sliced pork with fries, picallili, ketchup and house white and Glasto. Jeff

You will of gathered I totally understand “where you are coming from” and I’m energetically in your corner. However I have learned that giving time and then pursuing stuff needs three main components. Firstly is there a principle that’s worthy to pursue, then if pursued is the chance of success sufficiently favourable and finally if the result goes your way is the payback worth the hassle. As you get older two out of free isn’t worthwhile. Is the last one really worth it. Let them win your battle but lose their war. The best thing I learned late in life is as time seems to be running out it is sometimes better to simply shrug. But then you are 40’s and I’m not. 🙂 Jeff

🙂 Being seen unexpectedly as a reliable honourable and honest recipient of your hard earned cash is one of the most valuable components of converting what was originally purely a commercial business relationship into long-term partnerships based on the complete confidence based on seemingly rare shared ethical values which you can rely on. It sometimes even develops and becomes friendships and in extreme cases lunches with lots of alcohol and then life becomes sweet. Jeff

You could be right or you might be depriving yourself of more Yorkie opportunities for being so straight-laced. 😄 Jeff

I admire your business ethos and simply say you deserve to be successful, and you clearly are because you can afford the good things of life. I know you like the anecdote so this was one of my first lessons about owning up quickly and putting things right graciously. The terrible thing about life is that one learns the largest and most valuable lessons in life only when you stumble falteringly on accidentally doing something right and you find that it turns out much better than what you feared because you did something honourable very quickly. In relation to the lessons in this thread, when I started the CS consultancy we were totally reliant on printed/paper surveys sent to hundreds of thousands of surveys monthly. It was a nightmare volume of effort and data. All had to be entered into computers and freeform comments coded by hand. Eventually I worked out the technology of putting surveys online and that was life changing but a completely different story. One of our early clients was “the oldest bank in the world” based in Italy and as our fees and costs meant we only could then only specialise solely in “very high value relationships” for our clients. We had loads of meetings and a suitable survey was thrashed out and I had been successful in pinning ownership of every part of the results of every question on a VP to be held totally accountable for the results which we would be reporting back and prescribing measurable improvement plans was an essential component of the usefulness and success of our programme. After all that work, the surveys were all sent out to all over the world in dozens of languages, and we started receiving them back. I took a few and read them. To my absolute horror, I realised that what had been sent out was an earlier version of the survey which was different to the one the board had approved. I cannot explain how I felt. The same four letter was repeated many times. On closer scrutiny it was clear that we’d argued and debated and spent hours making only minor changes but it was still not the right one sent. I called the CEO and explained what I’d done. I told him there would be no fee but we’d complete the project just the same for free and I promised to do better next time. The was a long terribly painful silence and I heard the voice suddenly roar with laughter and say in approximate English “Jeff you are an idiot. We wasted far too much time over-finessing and your first version I always thought the best one. Charge the fee and push on. Next lunch on me”. It taught me both how to deal with problems and how they taught me to be an excellent customer. They remained excellent clients and friends to when I retired the business. And we had much good pasta and on one occasion on 801 on Whisper. It was a business trip you understand 😉 Sorry once again for the ramblings. Best wishes in your future business life. Jeff

tnm, To a really collectively myopic management, the thing that they could measure was the $30 and whether such a highly critical level of expenditure could be entrusted to anyone on board who they clearly consider incapable of such authority. The loss of your future and other loyal and new customers’ future revenue who read these things in disbelief and bewilderment is not in their range of focus ergo to them it doesn’t exist. To them it is QED. Jeff

Rules to be broken and some would argue that the Yorkies aren’t for the benefit of the roast beef in any way but for the mopping up of the gravy and to add some different texture of hopefully fluffy crunch. If so then Yorkies qualify for any roast meat with a gravy. And Yorkies aren’t just for Sundays. 😄 In my case I’d intended to make some knodel/dumplings to finish off the Austrian vibe for the wife but I decided to shrug and add the Yorkies to do the plate mopping job instead. And The Boss approved. Jeff

Good Morning Coolers, First off today from Glasto is Seasick Steve, who seems a bit Landsick as well today …. I think his backing members look expensive and recognisable … 🙂 Apologies for all my Glasto posts to those it’s irrelevant to. Hope they aren’t too irritating. Jeff

You really do understand intuitively a lot about extraordinary customer satisfaction. If I may I’d like to add a couple. It’s about the relationship between speed and graciousness for want of a better description and the satisfaction of the customer and their future loyalty. Firstly the faster you resolve a problem the cheaper the resolution and the happier the customer will be. To the extent that is extremely likely that they will become even more loyal than if the event causing disappointment hadn’t happened in the first place. “Something went wrong and it was put right immediately. I can trust these people and will give them my loyalty and recommend them to others.” Another by-product about rapid resolution is that customers become more angry the more unjust resistance they are subjected to and the longer the resolution - if ever - it takes. This means that “cost” of satisfactory resolution (if satisfaction is ever then possible or attainable) gets more resource and cash intensive. The costs and loyalty costs then becomes exponentially expensive. For example, people often start really only needing a simple acknowledgement that their complaint is fair and want a genuine apology and to be reassured that something has been learned for the future and then simply having the error resolved. But when left unrespected, unvalued and unresolved, their demands increase including expensive escalation up the line and the level of demand increases. And with the explosion of access to social media so does the collateral damage to reputation takes disproportionate hits. Potential new customers or undecided existing customer often decide about pressing the button on expensive purchases as a result of a single event or two read on social media being a last deciding straw that resets their balance. Any competent management team therefore should be fully aware of all this stuff that the obvious key component in prompt low-cost resolution is therefore that the lower down the chain you empower people to resolve simple issues sensibly the better it is for your bottom line. Not doing so therefore indicates a rather useless management team that is without competent leadership particularly if you make big claims for an expensive product but inject extremely low standards. Jeff

Some piccies of Coldplay who headlined Saturday night at Glasto who was joined by Michael J Fox and a few people showed up too watch. 🙂 Jeff

Havana comes to The Farm!

I’m ahead of you. I’m thinking of putting one in next door’s garden. I have weeds, They have flowers. Jeff

Thee’s nothing wrong with the couch. 🙂

Good afternoon Coolers, Yesterday I mentioned how I’ll always think of John Peel when enjoying Glasto. Mr Ravenscroft made Glasto and so many acts. He was one of a kind. Even when extinguishing the burning head of Crazy World Of Arthur Brown! Today the queen of Glasto - Jo Whiley - oddly coincidentally to my yesterday post of the Peel influence and legacy on Glasto and how a stage was named in honour of him. The article expresses how she feels pretty angry about how it was removed wrongly by the latest Eavis. It was pretty hurtful to Jo as well. It’s lovely background about Glasto generally to those interested. I’ve shared her article in todays Times for those interested in such trivia. It’s positively mostly about the joy of Glasto but mentions Peel as well and his influence on her particularly with respect to cider and children 🙂 Some might be interested. Jeff Jo Whiley: It’s fantastic being on stage, not apologising for the age I am. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/329d04e2-b1fe-4a2f-9310-aeae87e75964

🧑‍🍳 Jeff

Your proximity point hit home with me. It was only when I travelled to the US and Oz that I realise how much for granted we have taken the proximity to Europe for granted. And every city in Europe did feel very different. It was proper travel. It seems strange now but when playing records I use to travel to Paris for Saturday nights at the Locomotiv arriving late in the afternoon and getting first flight back on Sunday morning having been away for less than 24 hours. I had a Friday and a Sunday gig. I once took my whole family and their partners to Amsterdam for a rijstaffel and to buy some cumin gouda. We regularly traveled to Nice on the first flight out and taxi straight to the Negresco and dump the luggage with the concierge and have a wonderful fixed price lunch. My wife then discovered she actually did like cheese having always hated it. All of the best Michelin Paris restaurants have expensive but more affordable lunches and we’d arrange five day trips around lunches. There were many times when we were traveling to different places under the tax-saving pretext of business several times a month. And understanding the miles issue we travelled inexpensively compared to today. The pork is beckoning for some more steam so please excuse me … 😄 Jeff Edited to add a resting porky ….

That looks lovely. Weird how one can start thinking about the proteins and the meal in the light of something previously not properly noticed. I’m looking forward to fish with a simple squeeze of fresh lemon and a glug of oil. We have missed our Vienna trips since before covid. For around 30+ years we’ve always gone every first Monday in December for the Christmas markets and midsummer … and we often added a spring visit as well. Always Monday to Friday for 5 days. Summer focussed on stelze in the Swiss House and trips up to Grinzing on the tram 38 to Martin Sepp for their heurige buffet, which had pork. andother delights. https://www.schweizerhaus.at/speisen-getraenke https://zummartinsepp.at/ I now think of roast pork as being a summer dish, so today is roast loin of pork with a calvados gravy with whatever I decide in an hour or so. If it doesn’t look too bad I’ll post a piccy with whatever it becomes. Jeff

Should have asked the parrot directly! 🙂 Jeff

Thanks HPD, lovely memories. My great regret is that I’ve spent far too long being mean and buying reasonable olive oil I thought good but now realised what’s possible. I’m looking forward to some bream next week with a salad! Thanks again, Jeff

Happy!😊 I’ve never seen oil this dark before. This is clear glass. It’s so peppery and cloudy and fragrant! I wish I could share it with you all! Jeff

Dua Lipa Jeff