AlteredCarbon

CM happens once a month in London. Are you saying you manage to regularly get caught up in it? even though it takes a completely different route each month? That's quite impressive. Do you also get hit regularly by stray air plane parts falling from the sky? Is someone driving around London in their Range Rover 4*4 with a smug self-righteous air of superiority ok? I have to choke on their excessive pollution - but hey - that's all ok. Regarding your not being able to count the number of times you've avoided being hit by a bike - can I advise you to look before you step out into the road in future and that might reduce that number somewhat. Relying on hearing a cars engine often isn't enough as you've obviously found out.

Some 'have a go' cop assaulting a cyclist for doing nothing is FAIR? Perhaps you should move to Iraq or Iran where their law and civil liberties may be more to your liking.

The plan is to move to Shanghai in June 2009. My wife and I have two apartments there and no money invested in the UK economy. I have been there several times and I have no illusions that it will be the easy life. Getting to grips with such a radically different culture and language is going to be difficult but I'm willing to take the risk - I hope the skills will pay dividends in the coming years. I have very little faith in the UK economy in the near to mid term. Richard

The same can be said for your money except with fiat currency the government and banks can keep debasing it by printing more and more - after all it is only paper. Gold is essentially finite is therefore a much more solid base for a currency. Gold is real money. When the printing presses of countries are pumping away like there's no tomorrow and the currencies are looking as shakey as ours then gold is a good choice. Otherwise find a country with a real economy (i.e. makes or has real things that people need and has some savings) and invest your money there. A mixture of the two is my bet at the moment. Richard

I agree - not much good comparing too fake economies that are both wildly running the printing presses 24/7 with the biggest debts. They are both in deep trouble. China is a real economy with high savings and a LOT of upside.

I would hold minimal in sterling - it has no fundamentals to hold it up so more dangers than upside. Our economy is in more debt than any other advanced economy and at some point countries lending to us are going to wake up to the fact we will have big problems paying them back. My wife and I bought two apartments in Shanghai converting money from Sterling over for the 20% deposits - unfortunately we did get Chinese mortgages - I'd be laughing if we'd got an English mortgage on them unfortunately we only discovered the possibility to do that about a month later. We knew the Chinese currency would appreciate significantly over time but had no idea it would be this fast. We bought at 15.3 yuen to the pound and it is now 10.45 - that is a huge drop. In the long run its good for us but in short term while I am earning pounds the mortgage (above the rent) is getting expensive. To reinterate - I would get out of Sterling. Richard

A financial adviser advised her and at the time she put the money in the thought of large banks with AAA ratings hitting the deck seemed a very remote possibility. She should have seriously reassessed this when she saw what happened to Northern Rock but she didn't and she has learnt a big lesson and YES she is one lucky lady. She owes Darling and Brown big time.

A friend of mine just got hers back late last week. Not sure exact amount but it was substantial - in the region of £350k. And yes - she was having major panic attacks the week they were going under. Richard