Diary of a Stanmore accountant

PUBLIC PROFILE

Registered: 30 January 2009
Location: Stanmore
Invariably you can find me at Stansted, Luton or City airports on a Monday morning ( Heathrow if there is no other alternative ) or possibly Dover ferry port. I've been travelling now on business for the best part of 30 years doing company turnarounds and accounting systems investigations. I have accumulated a lot of hotel loyalty points, which give us 2 weeks free holiday each year, and also a lot of anecdotes.

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    "And how many Israelis would know where Edinburgh is, or Brussels or wherever ? How many Israelis know when Easter is ? Works both ways. Why does this surprise you ? Most people's horizons are li(...)" Diary of a Stan...

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POSTS BY DIARY OF A STANMORE ACCOUNTANT



Kosher cuisine north of Watford Gap

By Diary of a Stan..., October 15, 2009

Back at work now, but still feeling mildly sore inside, it was up to Manchester by road on Monday evening.

Tuesday evening it was off to Pagoda kosher Chinese restaurant at 38 Bury Old Road, Whitefield, in the heart of the north Manchester ghetto. Apparently this is the only kosher Chinese restaurant outside of London. You drive north along Bury Old Road from the centre of Manchester past all the Bargain Booze shops until the restaurant appears on the right in a small parade of shops just before the M60 bridge. I was early, about 6.20 and it was empty.

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Purim in Dublin

By Diary of a Stan..., March 10, 2009

This morning I went to Shahrit at the Rathfarnham Road synagogue in Dublin which I reached in under 20 minutes from the airport side of the city. I didn't find the people there desperately friendly, neither were they desperately unfriendly. A few years ago I heard the megila read in Zurich at high speed... this morning it was read at an average pace. There's a young rabbi there, Rabbi Lent, who seems on the ball. Apart from that it seems a fairly ageing and humdrum community, disinterested in visitors.

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New low cost kosher eaterie concept comes to London

By Diary of a Stan..., March 8, 2009

Opening next week in London, in the middle of one of the worst economic recessions ever, is the first in a global chain of low cost kosher eateries called Foreskins. This concept was thought up by the UK restaurant entrepreneur, Aymina Houri and her Kosovan colleague, Mustafa Stifdrinc.

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Distinguishing between Holocaust deniers

By Diary of a Stan..., March 4, 2009

An interesting article in today's Irish Independent. Starts to make sense about three quarters of the way through :

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/im-a-holocaust-...

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Amos Oz in London

By Diary of a Stan..., February 22, 2009

Last night we went to the opening evening of Jewish Book Week. We did not have tickets for any of the speaker events but through the videolink in the room next door we were able to listen to Amos Oz in dialogue with Jonathan Freedland.

Amos Oz is a very cogent and eloquent speaker, a pleasure to listen to. Although you may disagree with some of his politics he does not denigrate, and is not malicious or vindictive towards Israel, unlike several Jewish and Israeli academics and self-haters in this country. A great credit to Israel and to the Jewish world in general.

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Two Polish words

By Diary of a Stan..., February 19, 2009

Story in today's Irish Times :

He was one of Ireland’s most reckless drivers, a serial offender who crossed the country wantonly piling up dozens of speeding fines and parking tickets while somehow managing to elude the law.

So effective was his modus operandi of giving a different address each time he was caught that by June 2007 there were more than 50 separate entries under his name, Prawo Jazdy, in the Garda Pulse system. And still not a single conviction.

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A westerly approach to Ben Gurion airport from the Modiin area

By Diary of a Stan..., February 4, 2009

A recent news article reports that an El Al 767 came close to hitting a hillside near Modiin while making a westbound approach to Ben Gurion airfield. The usual approach is straight-in to the east, over Tel Aviv. In this instance due to wind conditions, the aircraft passed by the airport heading towards Modiin, where it came close to a ground proximity warning while executing a 180 degree turn back towards a 280 heading to the airfield. Whether or not warning klaxons and flashing pull-up signs went off in the cockpit is not disclosed.

A Canadian pilot writes :

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Level crossings on a Friday afternoon

By Diary of a Stan..., February 1, 2009

There is an airline that I frequently use. The tailfin on the aircraft is identifiable by a gold harp on a dark blue background. Its chief executive is a sparky individual who has made his fortune by sticking two fingers up to all his passengers. This makes an entertaining business success story.

On my trips to Ireland I sometimes use a small regional airport on its west coast. It has the suffix 'international' after its name as it has three weekly flights to and from Luton.

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Dinner in the murder capital of Europe

By Diary of a Stan..., January 30, 2009

This place was also known as Stab City when the gangs just had knives but now they have high velocity rifles. This place is Limerick in Ireland, home of Irish drug barons and gangland feuds. I was on my rounds this week starting with a flight to Dublin from Stansted to sort out some Irish companies suffering from the recession. It was 2 days work in Dublin and then an evening drive across Ireland to Bansha near Tralee. On the map Limerick appeared as a convenient en route stop for dinner. I had never been there.

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