I've driven Mercs for years, ever since I worked in Stuttgart, I even collected a couple of the cars from the factory and drove them back on German plates, to be re-certified in the UK. It used to be a thing. Personal collection from Germany. Fly out, drive back.
Now I'm swapping to another manufacturer. Some might say a disruptor. And quite a shock to see how the car trade values my previous car. 120,000 miles, admittedly, but still drives fresh. Someone, at auction, will pick up a bargain.
Once I'm in the game, it suggests the installer for the wall charger, the finance package available from a reputable UK provider and so it goes on. I can tell I'm running on the rails of the App now.
One thing they don't tell you about is the length of the waiting lists for the different models.
However, my friends at the farm shop seem to have a few clever hacks.
I booked a car using the iPhone App and then the next day we sauntered the 100 metres to pick it up.
Then, into the little Fiat 500e (other option was a golf-like VW ID.3- maybe next time). We were soon away, noting its nifty little gear changer set up like radio buttons on the relatively empty dashboard. I expect there will be a massive decluttering of dashboards following the full eCar revolution. My manufacturer picture below illustrates the gear changer [P-R-N-D] Very simple. The car even has a one-pedal rgenerative braking mode, although I was too chicken to try it for any length of time.
I see another party took place this weekend, in Chequers, the16th-century Buckinghamshire mansion with its 1,000-acre estate in the Chilterns. Officially a grace-and-favour location provided for the Prime Minister to run state occasions.
Except this 'privately funded' event illustrates again that the clown is determined to max out everything before he leaves. To run a party in a tax-payer funded stately home, when many are worried by the increasing cost of living is arrogantly out of touch.
And I can't help wonder whether the event was somehow 'sponsored'? It doesn't seem in keeping to use one's own money when there are so many alternative sources of funding.
Presumably the 'new leadership contenders' were not there, although a list of the guests would make entertaining reading. But wait, I see that, based upon earlier transparency submissions, 'Nil Returns' seem to be a way to avoid this.
That would give this:
Then Rishi and Penny both need deals.
Penny goes for Tom's military vote. Rishi politely asks Suella to assist him. Maybe a few votes float around.
Kind of like this, which would make it Penny vs Rishi in the shake-down, unless Liz puts her tanks on Penny's lawn.
I've seen those pictures of Liz trussed up in combat gear at the helm of a tank and standing in front of rows of fighter planes. Photo opportunities to combat the agendas being put forward by the military backgrounded leadership contenders.
Now my next novel is almost ready, although the choice of cover design becomes a challenge. I've found that if I offer two or three designs, they all have their supporters, although most people download the eBooks.
I'm using a cover which is attempting to reboot the Edge book series, by writing what is effectively the first book in the Edge Series. They will run as
I was along the South Bank a few days ago at the fascinating Self Publishing Show. It was a lively and interesting place to pick up some ideas about my various books and ways to publish them.
I guess I've been focused on the creative side (ie writing) but less on the business side (ie sales).
In fairness, it all started as something of a hobby, but I can see that others who started around the same time as me but have taken a more business-like approach have had some interesting successes.
My 10,000 downloaded eBooks dwindles to nothing when I see that others have focused on altogether more targeted approaches.
In one case, an author's shift from political novels to police procedurals was able to resonate with the Line of Duty watchers and the result was 750,000 novels shipped.
In another case, with some slightly salacious writing, but along a theme akin to "Voldemort runs Hogwarts", two sisters were able to ship around 5,000,000 books.
Astonishing.
It got me thinking. I've got the 'inventory' now in the form of a stack of novels in various series. Maybe I need to put some more attention onto the Advertising and Marketing and of course targeting? I could even write to a genre, although I'd rather recategorise my existing novels into more commercial categories
I think I've shipped something over 10,000 novels now, spread across around 20 different stories. For every one that gets downloaded as an eBook, there's about 2-3 further views.
The newly refashioned 'Indie' market seems to be where an increasing number of novels are being sold (50% of the market for eBooks), and I'm told the market is expanding at more than 10% per annum.
Two recent movies I've seen - both of which had their star grabbing most of the camera time. First up was Top Gun: Maverick, with Tom Cruise. It shows Captain Cruise mainly competing for screen space with big pieces of metal. It's a reprise of the Top Gun, complete with piano bar scenes and beach volleyball, and I'd say it managed to enthrall in the way of the original all those years ago. The 60-year-old Cruise shows the young guns how it's done and there are miles of aerial combat footage, flown mainly on F-18 planes, plus an original F-14 thrown in for good measure.
The film doesn't disappoint with multi-Mach moments, flames from the engines, crash landings, mean black Soviet helicopter gunships, Sukhoi-57 '5th Generation' fighters and a few 'just when you think its all over' moments when something ratchets the suspense. No wonder it grossed over a US$ billion in the first few days.
I'd say both films, for different reasons, are re-watchable.
