Apologies to subscribers who got an early draft
On Friday I was in Fife and yesterday I was in the West Highlands. A train picked me up from Rannoch station and in dreich conditions we were dragged through Fort William to Mallaig in a Scot Rail train. Such was the weather that I cannot report on what I saw as I kept my head in an e-book.
Mallaig in later March is still shut down apart from the West Highland Hotel which used to be rail hotel and today is rather swanky relative to the rest of this fishing village. Quite unlike Fife harbours, it is full of functioning boats and has places to take you when the weather’s right, It wasn’t. Rain and wind got the best of me and I retired to the lounge of the West Highland, welcomed by this
The train I was on was a skanky affair but sitting in the next door platform had been this fine fellow, fresh from the 1970s it appeared
Another person’s train in Mallaig’s station
I returned thinking I was on it and in all honesty, the Scotrail ticket collector and I had a fine conversation on the merits of her job- clearly dominated by Glenfinnan viaduct and the Harry Potter myth. As we passed homewards, I could see what we were crossing
but I was by then into a deep WhatsApp conversation with Richard Smith who is to speak again next week on pensions and dashboards. I shared photos of what was outside and he shared his thoughts.
Random from the head of someone who has the same approach to life as me.
We talked about our jobs and what we want to see improving in administration
RS white, HT green
Richard reminded me of his seminar with Quietroom on 2nd April. I signed up, so you can as it is virtual. Quietroom have already their record attendance of 150 attendants but they are not closed.
I hoped that the weather would clear
And as the train slowed down and the sun beat off the dreich , it all became clear
Scotland in the West is empty, the line from Mallaig showed us solitude
and the delicacy of nature arrived with the sun
We talked at length about whether the dashboard will change pensions. It turns out that Richard instrumented the quoting of out DC pots as potential pension they can bring.
Perhaps we will see the analysis of VFM will stretch to considering the capacity of the pot to provide income and the sustainability and quantity of the income available.
Our conversation was stirred up by a rogue photo thrown up by the carriage’s dirty window.
I thought this either our understanding of dashboard’s impact or the inside of my brain.
Richard was more optimistic. Though currently out of contract , Richard is doing so much work to make us understand our retirement that I would like to think he will be a part of the plans of a good firm. We talked about former boss Sam Seaton of Money Hub and good people fresh from college at Collegia .
Richard concluded that technology made good things happen, Yeovil scored in the 98th minute to win 1-0. It was like being on a Pullman , but our conversation had got dark at times, considering what had happened to us both and to our partners.
Our children below – in Perthshire.