Last month we got the year two pay rise from a two year pay deal. We were to get either 2.5% or inflation if it were greater. Inflation won and I think we got something nearer to 4%. This made me think about Zimbabwe, my wife’s home country, where inflation in April was 3,713.9% year on year and 100.7% for that month! Here is a page from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe website showing each months inflation since January 1999. I’ve put the page on my website because the RBZ website is so slow to load, if you want the RBZ website it’s here.

This was written on 13 June by Eddie Cross “Yesterday I bought fuel for Z$57 000 a litre, today the price is Z$85 000 to Z$90 000. I have just spoken to a taxi driver and he said that the standard fare from the high-density townships to the City Center was Z$15 000 today – going to Z$20 000 tomorrow and then Z$25 000. The currency continues is collapse and is now trading at 10 000 to 1 against the Rand and anything from 75 000 to 100 000 against the US dollar. Maize meal is again out of stock as is cooking oil and sugar. We bought a loaf of bread yesterday from Lobels for Z$30 000 and other bakeries are selling at Z$24 000.”

And, two days later he wrote “we are fast approaching the point where we simply cannot cope with the rapid changes in the economy. Fuel went over Z$100 000 a litre this week, the US dollar is trading at 120 000 to 1, the Rand is approaching 15 000 to 1 and the pound is off the scale. This means prices have doubled in a week. I run a supermarket and we are marking up everything but simply cannot keep pace. No matter what we do when pricing, everything we sell is below replacement cost and you can only carry this for so long before grinding to a halt.”

“The government stipulated wage for a domestic worker is less than Z$15 000 a month, the wage of a farm worker less than Z$40 000 a month and a worker in industry probably gets about Z$500 000, not enough for bus fare. We had tea with the widow of a Supreme Court Judge on Sunday – her pension is Z$90 000 a month – one US dollar.”

We send money to Zimbabwe to support Essy’s family but whatever they receive they must spend within hours because what would have bought a loaf of bread today will only buy half a loaf tomorrow! The electricity supply is now only on for 1 hour per day so forget keeping frozen food, or even chilling food. Until very recently the water supply had been one constant, now it’s reduced to a trickle much of the time.

I’m writing this in the Buckingham Palace Road public library, opposite Greenline where we stop in London – I depart at 17:00 for Bournemouth. When I arrived in London this morning I opened the doors and everyone started to got off, I got out and opened up the hold so that baggage could be collected and then went back onto the bus and shut everything down so I could go for breakfast. Got off the bus and closed the door, went to close the hold doors and saw that one case remained in the hold. Oh well, it’s not unknown for a passenger to forget they left home with a large suitcase and go on their way lightened of its load! Then I thought I should check the bus again, sure enough right at the back I found a girl fast asleep. If she’d not had a case I’d never have known she was there and she’d proably have gone on to Brighton which was my next trip. I sleep pretty well but I think I’d know a bus had stopped, fourty odd people had clattered their way off it and then the door slammed shut!

A few of you must have noticed ‘My Sponsors!’ in the column on the left because you’ve clicked the ads there enough times to earn me US$0.01 …… that’s 1 whole US cent. Thank you ;-) Due to this phenomenal interest I’ve cut the ads back to just two. Both of which I use and can honestly recommend.

It’s only around 10 days now before we go off to Majorca for a week, details of the trip are in the entry for 23 May and I’m already getting in the mood. So much so that I bought a new holiday shirt on eBay today!

Most of my purchases on eBay are done using snip. This means that I make my first, and only, bid within a few seconds of the auction ending. It’s a bit like eBay’s own system where you bid your maximum and eBay automatically bids for you each time someone else outbids you. The problem with that is that you have declared yourself a bidder days/hours before the auction ends and this helps push the price up. With snip you set it up and go to work/bed/the pub or whatever and let things take care of themselves. Your bid is only placed a user definable number of seconds before the auction close, my choice is 4 seconds. So, suddenly from out of the blue a new bidder bids and nobody has time to react and bid higher. You win!

At last I’ve finally got my hanging baskets and pots planted up. Last year we were on a 4 day rota, this year the weekly hours are the same but they’re spread over 5 days and it really doesn’t seem like I’ve got enough time to do all the things I used to! Anyway, here’s a photo of how the pots looked last year, I’ll post a picture of this years display once the flowers have grown a little and started to fill the pots.

I’m also off tomorrow but I’m not sure what I’ll be doing yet. It’s too hot to do much, still 27C and it’s after 5:00pm.

Megabus 95 duty (as writen about on Thursday) again today. Traffic was no problem at all today, early on every trip, some passengers were the problem this time. I pulled away dead on time at 10:20 from Greenline Coach station, got to the first set of traffic lights and two potential passengers were banging on the door. The company ruling is that we don’t pick up anyone unless they are at a designated stop on the route. My own ‘rule’ is that I will stop if it’s safe to do so. Traffic lights really should be a no, no but they were red and I was within a few inches of the kerb so nothing could get up the inside to hit anyone getting on, I was about to open the door and then I heard what they were screaming “It’s not yet 10:20” and then something which seemed to suggest they thought I had a solitary sex life! Take that attitude and there’s no chance you’re getting on! The lights went green and I pulled away. A few more yards and there’s another set of lights and another bang on the door. This time a young lady on her own mouthing the word ‘please’ which seems so much nicer than being called a wanker. Situation as before, I’m near the kerb but the problem this time was that she had a large suitcase. There’s no way that could quickly be brought up the coach steps, round the corner and into the coach. Besides, large luggage is not allowed inside and that’s quite reasonable. There was no way I was going to get out, open the hold and load the suitcase at traffic lights. So she too was left behind. I wish she knew why.

I got it at last! I’ve seen these two cars parked in Chelsea many times and wanted to get a photo of them – sometimes I don’t have my camera with me, sometimes one is ‘missing’, sometimes they’re parked the wrong way round. In case you can’t read the registration numbers they are ‘2 BE‘ and ‘NOT 2B‘. Obviously owned by someone with a fair bit of money ……. and a sense of humour.