When in Kabul...

In an article in today's FT about Chinese expatriate workers, one of them says, "When we were sent to Afghanistan, lessons about which fork and knife to use were completely useless. It was crucial for survival to understand that you couldn't hang out on the roof bare-chested to cool down from the heat - the neighbours will shoot you as they think you intend to molest their wives."

Photo of the day

Prime Minister Wen watching Hamlet with J.Hunt at Stratford. Captions please!

Conundrum of the day

A man in a restaurant asked a waiter for a glass, a plate, water, a match, and a lemon wedge. The man poured enough water onto the plate to cover it.
"If you can get the water on the plate into this glass without touching or moving the plate, I will give you £100," the man said. "You can use the match and lemon to do this."
A few minutes later, the waiter walked away with £100 in his pocket. How did the waiter get the water into the glass?

Greek solution

As the Greeks weigh up the pros and cons of austerity versus default, they could consider selling some of the islands as part of the debt repayment. The ECB could swap its debt for Crete, for example, and move from Frankfurt to sunny Iraklio. The banks who lent to Greece could bid for some of the other islands, thereby enabling them to offer their employees free holidays in lieu of bonuses. They need to consider the value of their main assets: climate, sea and beaches.

Punting or rowing?

Which is better to cope with the floods in China?

Inflation

Inflation concerns continue to depress the Indian stockmarket. The latest story is that a coconut plantation in Kerala has advertised for experienced pickers at a monthly salary of Rs11,250 (£154) plus accommodation compared with the average monthly wage of Rs3500. Mind you, I would have thought that chaps who can climb like monkeys up bare tree trunks, would be worth more than the average...

Keeping my head down...

Have you seen these ostrich pillows?