₪ David Pescod's Late Edition June 9, 2006
We’ve been off the job a while now, but we were lucky
enough to attend some Canaccord meetings in southern France
and then hey—if you’ve gone this far, why not hang around
Europe a while longer and enjoy it...especially in this market!
We fully expected to keep up a running market commentary
over this while assuming the advances in technology could
keep us up to date. Well, that hasn’t happened, but more realistically,
why bother? We are in a correction and why fight it?
Going back to February we wrote long and often about a correction
being due—the market just doesn’t go that far, that fast for
so many without some pain.
Having said that, once in a correction, you always realize you
didn’t sell enough, raise enough cash or remember how painful
corrections can be and how long they can last.
The charts say it ain’t over yet. There has been no sign of
base or support levels put in yet and we have to come back to
work and face this reality next Tuesday. Sure, we’ve been nibbling
on a few things (you’ve read Jim Welykochy’s report on
Capitol Energy (CPX) by now—if that water flood works…)but
things get cheap and then cheaper.
Meanwhile, in England, this country is what the tourists expects
in some way—but surprises you in others. The country
has gone agog with World Cup fever—all bars will be showing
the games, many cars flying their flags and the press seems to
have nothing else to talk about except soccer (Meanwhile, with
that much more important sport, hockey, you’ll find nothing
about it over here and the Oilers find themselves like at the start
of the year, without a goalie) ...
The City of London bustles with 9 million people and is obviously
a growing financial hub of Europe. A trip on the boats on
the Thames, show that financial history and evolution and as far
as culture, the West End is hard to beat—42 theatres attract the
evening crowds and a flood of good restaurants surround the
area. With pre-show and after-show crowds, the restaurants are
full and you can ignore the knock on English food. In one short
block in the West End, we counted 15 restaurants that were as
varied from Mongolian to Thai to East Indian to you-name-it.
And the employees are from everywhere. One good meal featured
a café owned by an East Indian gentleman where we were
served by Polish and Jamaican waiters and the menu was Italian.
As for the plays, we saw Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s
Theatre where it debuted 20 years ago and is still going
strong. An intimate theatre with oodles of history—it was great. The Producers was another good show with a strong cast and
better yet supporting cast.
While many think of England as the financial and cultural
centre, it’s a pleasant surprise where we visited in the rugged
coastline of Devon and Cornwall. Towns like Tintagel, with its
unbelievable rough coast and fame as host to King Arthur’s
Court of almost 1000 years ago and it’s a place that simply has
to be seen to be believed.
When you speak of history, how about Plymouth, where 500
years ago, this Spanish Armadda tried to trap Sir Francis
Drake and the English fleet. Up through the Second World War
when 35,000 Canadian, Aussie, British and American troops
were launched from this location on their way to D-Day. Now
it’s the home to the British Navy and a tour of the harbour to
learn its history, you also see the site of all those nuclear
subs, frigate and more ships and it is a taste of power and the
real world.
This area folks, should be on one’s “To Do List” of places
to visit and we are a little appreciative of the few shares of
Connacher (CLL) that helped pay for it.
When we do get back, we still expect more choppy seas,
but an interview with Canaccord’s Peter Brown is coming that I
think you will find interesting as well as a visit with Dick
Gusella of Connacher fame and hopefully a few surprises.
Ciao for now from Bideford, Devon, England. |
