I LIKE DRIVING PETROL POWERED CARS. March 23, 2022

Surely, I can’t be the only person out there who actually likes driving? I currently feel that admitting this is up there with confirming that you worship the devil and dance naked around the garden when the moon is full.

I’ve liked cars since I was a little lad buying matchbox cars with my spending money.

I had toy versions of the Batmobile, James Bond’s Aston Martin, Hot Rod Racers, trucks, fire engines, a tank, a Jeep, Jaguars, Fords and even a Mini.

I sat in the back of my dad’s various ‘dad cars’ – Vauxhalls, Allegros, Triumph Dolomite and the Austin Princess – trying to hide with embarrassment whilst Tr7’s drove past and Jaguars left us in their dust.

I yearned for the Lotus Carlton or the Cosworth Fords – the XR3 or even an XR2 would have kept me happy.

These were the years when getting a car meant freedom and girls*.

My first car was an MG and I never really looked back from that point, always looking for the next power upgrade, sports exhaust of modified piece of kit that would make me ‘king of the road’ …

It also made me work that little bit harder.

I ….ASPIRED…. for better things. The bigger, faster car being a target that was always on my agenda.

I do feel this has been lost with today’s youth. Nobody I come across seems that bothered about anything. Maybe the next game console is yearned for – but – it’s not REAL is it…it’s a game.

A car was something you could wash and polish – and see on your drive when you woke up in the morning.

It was something you went to work in and tried to beat your fastest time on your journey to the office. It was something you looked forward to at the end of the day when you could put your foot down and let the wind blow in your hair as you made your way through traffic on the way back to home.

It was something you were proud of.

I’m sorry ..but …for me ….electric cars just don’t inspire this sort of love.

I think Teslas are the most ugly, boring looking cars on earth. Yes… blah blah blah… I know they go quickly from 0 to 60 …but they do it with zero style.

I think Elon Musk is weird. I don’t trust him.

So… yes… – you will find me dancing naked in my garden at full moon …and Lucifer is on speed dial.

 

Mike C

 * Sorry, I know this is politically incorrect, but it was true in 1980.

Minutiae March 9, 2022

Full income and expenditure. Either you know about these or you don’t. It’s a bit like a root canal for your business whereby the deeper you dig …the better the long-term outcome …but it hurts.

The ‘full monty’ as I shall now call it – is when you compute and list every little cost that your company has in one column …and every amount that you invoice in another column. All your insurances and taxes, all your petty cash and all your office parties and biscuit allocations. Fuel and servicing and all the extra cleaning that’s required to deal with Covid.

It’s a very sobering exercise.

It’s a little like the film ‘The Butterfly Effect’ which highlights how one minor change in somebodies’ life can have dramatic effects down the line.

I used to have a business partner who obsessed when the team bought Gold Blend coffee and velvet toilet paper for the office. He would have bought Asda own blend and re-cycled the newspaper for the toilets …I laughed at his tight money saving schemes.

However, …

After spending several hours going through the income and expenditure there will be a few changes at JKSL.

The detailed analysis has proven that the weakest link in the chain of spending is that somebody called Mike Clough, who seems to think his business credit card is his link to financial freedom…. business lunches, drinks with clients …. hotels…London trips.

Oh, hang on …

That’s me.

  

Mike C