Recession Ghost fleets and contemplating a long bike ride

A Skype call to Australia to talk to the author, Mr J, of the document that I was proof reading and to go through the textual recommendations, the decision being up to the author whether to accept or reject them. We also talked about the impact of the global recession and I was directed to a 2009 image of a ghost fleet of ships mothballed around Singapore and the Straits of Malacca. Apparently people living on nearby islands cannot see the horizon anymore due to the number of ships moored there.

This reminded me of the still ocean going ships at anchor in the upstream waters of the river Fal, away from Falmouth harbour. We saw these, again in 2009, when on holiday in Cornwall and taking a boat trip from Truro to St Mawes.

Mr Heker was back from his holiday in Spain and looked suitably bronzed when Skyping me over lunch time. He had had three viable enquiries for work from UK dentists, a positive homecoming result. We talked about the possibility of chasing that bane of any business, the client forgetting or delaying payment as long as possible. I promised to make a phone call on his behalf in this matter.

Mr H had interrrupted a search on Google Earth to try and gauge the distance from Milton to St Ives via the guided busway and from there to the Huntingdon Indoor Bowls Club. I am severely tempted to try and cycle the stretch tomorrow and to do so in a time equal to or shorter than the 126 minutes taken last Friday when travelling by public transport, including the guided bus itself.

The distance is 22km to St Ives P&R and from there 11km to the Huntingdon Indoor Bowls Club. To achieve the objective, I would have to cycle at about 16km/h. The one concern is that I would have a headwind of roughly the same speed on the way there, and a lot of the trip is across open country.

I will see how I feel tomorrow morning!

The world unites today in asking President Assad of Syria to step down, after the brutal crackdowns against protests in the country are reported to have resulted in the deaths of 2000 or more civilians. The other worrying news was the stock-market plunging over 4%, the greatest fall for two and a half years.