TomWinnifrith.com

The Mrs has been to see her new colleagues in the Grim North and has been given her lecture schedule for next term. And on it is a talk called “Greed is Good”. Of course it damn well is.

I cannot say that 290 Euro is going to make that much of a difference to my net wealth but a few days after the dire news came in about my 2018 Greek Hovel olive harvest I was at a loose end and in Central Kambos.I was not quite ready for an ouzo and supper so wandered into the press to ask about my money.

You may remember, that at the height of the Greek Financial crisis I went to deposit 10 Euro in an account with the National Bank. As I entered the branch the queues at the withdrawal counters were endless. I went to the special assistance desk where there was just me and three completely senile peasants.

I suppose I should declare a bit of an interest in the annual ritual that is the bashing of Oxford University as an institution run by elitist snobs who hate poor people, in that my daughter Olaf spent last week in the City of my birth facing interview panels. We will find out whether she has got in on or around 9 January. But the press, this week, has been all over Oxford as it emerged that, last year, eight of our poshest fee-paying schools managed to get more folks into Oxford last year than the bottom 75% of British schools.

I start with news of a washing panic at the Greek Hovel. Then I look at why the mainstream financial press are part of the problem not the solution to stockmarket over-promotes and indeed outright criminality. In the podcast I look specifically at The Times on Neil Woodford and at The Sunday Times on Hollywood Bowl (BOWL) and Midas in the Mail on Sunday on the IPO of AJ Bell (AJB)

As you may have gathered Paddy Leigh Fermor is a bit of a hero of mine although I am the only member of my family never to have met him. It is because of him that Joshua was given his middle name. His house in Kardamili has been under renovation for a number of years and although entrance is impossible I popped down to see it the other day and peaked over the wall, as you can see below.

In a couple of days time I head back to the Mrs, in Bristol, and so I thought it prudent to start washing my clothes and that it might earn me major brownie points if I washed the bed linen as well. And we now have a washing machine up at the hovel. Prudently I handwashed a pair of underpants and a pair of jeans and put them outside to dry. But all of my socks and much else besides was put into the washing machine with some detergent in the right place. Problemo.

I have given Andalas (ADL) a week to fess up to what looks like bad news but there has been no RNS. And so though my patience is legendary and I am trying my hardest to be a nice guy, enough is enough. I know this is the AIM casino and Rules, like 10 and 11, do not really matter but surely there are some limits.

During the week that he was here, ShareProphets reader Bernard from the Grim North of England, c/o Donegal tried manfully to get my new wood burning stove going. It is jolly chilly at night. He failed. Over to the maestro.

Petropavlovsk (POG) has announced the initial processing of refractory concentrate at its pressure oxidation (‘POX’) hub – emphasising this “marks a significant moment in the company's history, as we begin to process our refractory ore via the newest and most technologically advanced POX processing facility in Russia, a month ahead of schedule”…