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Alternative Strategies - A year away from the City - November

Patrick HealyIn October I was back, briefly, in London.  It is disorienting to go into the City as an outsider as I did for various meetings and social visits.  If you are taking a year out from the advertising industry you can go back to Charlotte Street and wander around and there is enough other life for you not to feel too odd.  If you go into the City there are only working people (I exclude as an aberration the few terribly misled tourists).

People tend not to visit industrial estates when not employed there and the nature of the financial services ‘industry’ is more obvious when you are not working.  Despite the trend to less formality in work clothes there is still a great consistency of uniform; lots of greys, blacks, blues; lots of white shirts.  I was puzzled by the lack of people in the US investment bank golf-outfit chic (polo shirts, chinos etc) until it occurred to me that they had probably all arrived at work before I went in and, after having lunch at their desks, would not be leaving until long after I had gone in search of cooler bars elsewhere.

The schedule to which people work to is also more apparent; an ebb and flow of people to Pret and M&S starting around noon and tapering off around two thirty and then the flow toward the stations,  starting with a trickle of younger women around five.  This flood peaks at around six to six thirty with a surge of the broadest cross-section of gender and age.  It tapers off into a younger crowd as the evening progresses, either groups, loud and flushed from the bars, or individuals, pale and frazzled from long days staring at screens.

Perhaps it is because I was not part of the flow that the social side seemed less busy; it was easy to get tables in restaurants or find seats in bars.  It could also be that people are working longer, not spending as much money and trying not to look too frivolous or complacent about their jobs.  General chit chat at lunches seemed to be more optimistic and clearly some people are getting better bonuses than last year (although these invariably seemed not to be the people I talked to).

Trying to use my distance to take a balanced view of the wider picture of what is going on there seem to be a number of generally accepted facts.  The good news is that the financial service industry is broadly up, house prices are up, the trade deficit is down and exports are up (based, admittedly, on the weak pound).  The bad news is that manufacturing is broadly down, there are still more anticipated falls in house prices and there is a bearish feeling across the banking sector and this is dampening lending activity.

Overall there seems to be no evidence of a recovery in general employment levels, and the rise in the price of gold is hardly a good omen.  Even the property market rises are on thin volumes although there seems to be little evidence yet of forced sales and significant negative equity (at least in the UK).  So; still lots of contradictory data.

I heard some reports of new hiring at various places in the City but word of mouth suggests the opposite and I heard a number of comments about more discreet culls at various institutions.

To more enjoyable things

Our 6,500km round trip became an 8,000km round trip as we spent some time pottering around the British colony in the Dordogne and made a diversion on the way back to visit friends and family in Paris.  After driving in Italy and Greece, Paris was a doddle and the Parisian drivers appeared, compared to the Athenians at least, to be cautious and courteous.  Throughout the trip the car has performed beautifully and we appear not to have picked up any speeding tickets (or at least none that have caught up with us yet). We have however been driving aggressively enough to erase the tread on our brand new rear tyres.  This only became apparent when the tail of the car began sliding in the standing water on the Autoroute during a thunderstorm as we sped toward Calais.  Very exciting.

Trying to pick out the highlights of the trip so far; the more obvious ones are Rome, Paris, sailing in the Greek islands and chilling out in the Dordogne.  In Rome we stayed out in the Trastevere (try to imagine the Marais before it got so touristy).  In Paris we caught one of the Nuits Blanches and had an evening of wandering around the bars and open museums and the crazy, crazy, only in France, art installations.  More surprising highlights, at least to me in my ignorance, were Bologna, Ravello and the bucolic bliss of Piedmont.

Few disappointments, although motorway food seems to have got worse in France and Italy.  Pisa seemed only fit for drive by tourism; in general we tried to avoid just seeing places just in order to have done them but would suggest making an exception for the leaning tower.  Greek roads were generally terrible, although there was a stark contrast between the crumbling old roads and the new, wide EU sponsored roads.  It has to be said as an Irishman it made me slightly nostalgic for the Irish glory days of European money.

As for the next stage; in November and December, we stop off in Hong Kong, then along the coast of Vietnam and into Cambodia, down the Mekong and on to Thailand.  Visas obtained (surprisingly few), vaccinations done (surprisingly many), flights booked and rucksacks bought.  The preparations are complete.

No car but lots of boats and trains and possibly the odd bicycle.

Patrick Healy was the Group Head of Risk Reporting for Man Group plc
© Patrick Healy

I ran the Parks Half Marathon in 1 hour 54 minutes (and four seconds).  I ran for brainstrust, a charity that aims to improve clinical care and support for brain tumour sufferers and the site www.justgiving.com/Patrick-Healy is still open for donations.

 

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