Stock market recovery?

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/market_data/stockmarket/3/default.stm .

The UK stock market is doing its best to recover ground lost in the market turmoil last week. The markets are still all over the place and recent gains could easily be lost again in the coming days.

Canadian shootings in Ottawa

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/Canada_Ottawa_Panorama.jpg/1920px-Canada_Ottawa_Panorama.jpg

Usually, we think of Canada being a normally quiet and uneventful sort of country.  We holidayed in The Rockies there 2 years ago.

So, it was with some amazement that I read about the shootings in Ottawa earlier today in and around the parliament buildings there. Ottawa is a fine city with a really French feel . I am sorry to hear of this tragedy.

We visited Ottawa many years ago, back in the 1990s I think.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29724907 .

Drive to Lavenham and back

Today, I drove further than ever before since my enforced driving ban because of my brain bleed in Sept 2013. The driving was fine. Whilst there, we got a bite to eat, although I was not very hungry.

Slowly, all too slowly, things are returning to normality, although I suspect it will be well into 2015 before I feel "right": I still feel poorly and not my old self yet.

A new hotel or guest house?

For over 30 years now there has been a lovely large house empty on our High Street, right across from the church. Apparently 2 brothers owned it and argued over it. Now at last it is up for sale. It will make someone with a large family a nice home.  Alternatively it could be a nice small hotel or guest house. It will be interesting to see the place 1 year from now.

House for sale. Burwell, UK

River Cam in autumn

Most visitors have gone. The Cam is quieter again. In the summertime the river (just outside Kings College) would be crowded with foreigners on punts enjoying the place.

Cambridge in autumn

Oscar Pistorius verdict

5 years in gaol, but he is eligible for parole in just 10 months. Not being party to all the evidence, I have no idea if this is fair or not.

South Africa is violent country and he probably had to react in great haste. In the calm of the day and thousands of miles away it is too easy to say, "he should not have shot through the bathroom door", but I don't know how I would have reacted in a similar situation.

Sounds to me like he was lucky to get such a lenient sentence.

Sepura shares slide

Shares in my old company Sepura - I retired 6.5 years ago - have, like many FTSE shares - fallen by about 10% in recent weeks. It remains to be seen if these will fall further or stage a recovery.