Resumption of Service!

I see that I have not made any comment since June 2007, and here we are at the end of November. I have been overwhelmed with activity which leaves me with little time of inclination to talk to the world. I will try to do better at least over the winter!
First of course was buying and selling flats and houses. It took much longer to sell the flat in the north of England than I had anticipated once a firm offer had been received. This seemed to be due to the UK bureaucracy where if an enquiry letter goes astray or someone just does not reply, then the process grinds to a halt. This is alway annoying as being abroad one tends to have an exaggerated pride in the efficiency of the UK civil service and one can quickly become disillusioned. This all delayed the purchase of the house (legally in my wife's name) in Manila by a month or two. Nevertheless the UK legal system working alone was quite impressive and helpful. I remember once criticising the Malaysian bureaucracy in 1986, and was immediately rounded upon by a local manager who enquired if I had ever worked for the UK Coal Board! We must compare oranges with oranges and not with apples, and are apt to forget how really terrible governments are as compared to efficient private companies. (I see the UK government has just lost the records of half the population!).
One interesting aspects of value and curency is that the tiny UK flat with two small bedrooms and a sitting room generated enough funds to buy a 7 bedromm house in Asia! WE also noted that the Philippine legal sytem was more xpensive than in the UK! How would anyone with a US$4 million house in London wish to stay in the UK when property is so cheap elsewhere - indeed it is said a significant proportion the UK population (with houses?) are already leaving for good. The risk of staying must be significant.
In the Philippines, foreigners are not allowed to own land so funds sent in become owned by the Filipino side of the family. A useful way of improving the balance of payements in the short term, but may dissuade many from investing here. One wonders how many Filipinos actually own property in the UK or USA.
The other confusion of the summer is that the college I act for as a consultant is introducing the UK BTEC HND system. This has involved a lot of extra work and understanding a rather bureaucratic system It is too really to comment adversely in any detail, but the system relies on us checking each other and reporting in voluminous detail. One fears this a British government politically correct system where every student will in the end pass. Whether this improves the quality of the teaching is not so certain as students are left to 'research'. The system seem to be vocational and the top UK universities are not involved. The advantage of an HND diploma means that students can go to many (but not all) universities in UK, USA and Australia for their final year when they can get a degree.
Well! That's a start for resumption of service and I must find out how to advertise one's own blogs!