What’s the point of a tambourine?
To me It’s one of those musical instruments that doesn’t appear to add much to a song other than give the singer something to do with their hands as they roam the stage. But, even that’s probably better than a triangle! A triangle, to me seems to be pretty pointless apart from being used as an offensive weapon. I don’t believe anyone has joined a band looking to play “lead triangle”? Hope I don’t get cancelled for this by any triangle societies out there….
This leads me nicely into a rant on pointless documents in contracts: I’m sure we all understand why Bills of Lading, Certificates of Origin and inspection certificates are required to move commodities around but why do some traders ask for Packing Lists when product moves in bulk? And then, ask for that document to be issued in one original AND endless copies? Then we have (shall we say) less experienced banks getting involved in financing traders and insisting on a requirement for Bills of Exchange, payable at sight under LC’s and Bills for Collection where the Bills just sit in a file and get lost in the archives over time. Ok I understand, certain countries have certain rules here and it’s just the way it is (possibly the worst reason for justifying anything but that’s a whole subject on its own…) but, surely as we eventually move to electronic documents, we could have some quick wins and remove superfluous documentation now?
Discovered a new band last month- Lo Moon – kind of American indie with a War on Drugs vibe-saw them at a small venue in London on the off chance after checking them out on Spotify and they were absolutely excellent- worth a look.
I’m surprised I’m not seeing more barter deals at the moment. Historically, conflict and high commodity prices leads to an upswing or maybe all the people doing it are to busy playing with their tambourines and triangles to talk to me about it? Who knows?
At least the media (in the UK anyway) appears to have got over their obsession with Covid, having a war to write about, a dose of inflation and a new obsession with cake and parties. Maybe all politicians should be obliged to attend a “party awareness course” similar to first speeding offenses?
Travel wise, with a few notable exceptions the world is opening up which should make life a lot easier to go and physically meet interesting people in interesting places. Zoom and Teams calls serve a purpose but too many people need to learn that listening is a better skill than talking too much and dominating a call whilst talking crap. Looking forward again to the certain joy I get wandering around storage tanks, warehouses and understanding the commodity back story.
I’ll leave you with the multi-interpretational thoughts of Pink Floyd “Brain Damage”
“And if the band you’re in start playing different tunes, I’ll see you on the Dark Side of the Moon”
