pull! push! Adventures in Internet land :-)
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Thoughts on why the taste of your next Mudslide may be sliding
DISCLAIMER: IANAE, IANAB (I Am Not An Economist, I Am Not A Bartender)
(Mudslide picture from A cat in the kitchen blog)
Recently, after a weekend out in 'The Gap,' a friend of mine mentioned that the taste of his Mudslide wasn't what it used to be. For the record, I'm a beer (Heineken) and soft drink (Coca-Cola) man myself. Another friend joked that I might try to correlate high gas prices and the change in taste of said Mudslide.
I did, here's my theory:
High gas prices result in high prices in general (this we already know, e.g. increased costs of living). High costs of living force people to cut back on the 'non-essentials.' A cut back in the 'non-essentials' is as a result of people having less discretionary income (which is money left over after the essentials like food, clothing and shelter have been taken care of, as per this Wikipedia article).
Less discretionary income may mean that businesses including: nightclubs, bars and hypothetically, academically and purely for the sake of this arguement, Club ABC123 (not the real name of the establishment where the Mudslide was served), may face a slowdown in business.
A slowdown in business may result in Management of Club ABC123 seeking to cut costs and to reduce expenditure. One way of doing this is to reduce the amount of any 'expensive' ingredients used in my friends' mudslide (or to seek inferior but cheaper, substitute ingredients).
Any reduction in quality ingredients and/or a switch to inferior ingredients all result in a reduction in the taste/quality of my friends' mudslide (from the point of view of my friend).
But what do I know? Remember, IANAE & IANAB.
:-)
P.S., I'm planning to do a little 'research' which, if I can get my hands on the data, will look to discover if any relationship exists (or doesn't exist) between the amount of spirits (i.e., alchohol) sold by distributors/manufacturers, and the performance of the economy, in Barbados.
(Mudslide picture from A cat in the kitchen blog)
Recently, after a weekend out in 'The Gap,' a friend of mine mentioned that the taste of his Mudslide wasn't what it used to be. For the record, I'm a beer (Heineken) and soft drink (Coca-Cola) man myself. Another friend joked that I might try to correlate high gas prices and the change in taste of said Mudslide.
I did, here's my theory:
High gas prices result in high prices in general (this we already know, e.g. increased costs of living). High costs of living force people to cut back on the 'non-essentials.' A cut back in the 'non-essentials' is as a result of people having less discretionary income (which is money left over after the essentials like food, clothing and shelter have been taken care of, as per this Wikipedia article).
Less discretionary income may mean that businesses including: nightclubs, bars and hypothetically, academically and purely for the sake of this arguement, Club ABC123 (not the real name of the establishment where the Mudslide was served), may face a slowdown in business.
A slowdown in business may result in Management of Club ABC123 seeking to cut costs and to reduce expenditure. One way of doing this is to reduce the amount of any 'expensive' ingredients used in my friends' mudslide (or to seek inferior but cheaper, substitute ingredients).
Any reduction in quality ingredients and/or a switch to inferior ingredients all result in a reduction in the taste/quality of my friends' mudslide (from the point of view of my friend).
But what do I know? Remember, IANAE & IANAB.
:-)
P.S., I'm planning to do a little 'research' which, if I can get my hands on the data, will look to discover if any relationship exists (or doesn't exist) between the amount of spirits (i.e., alchohol) sold by distributors/manufacturers, and the performance of the economy, in Barbados.
Labels: Barbados, business, drinks, economics, fun, funny, humour, life, random, thoughts
Friday, May 30, 2008
Big weekend in Bim (Barbados)!
*** UPDATE (May 31, 2008): While stumbling around the RB2K8 'live' tracking website, I found out that a team from Oxford University (of all places!) was taking part. A quick search on Google and mouse click or two onto Cherwell (OU's student newspaper) confirmed this:
"Oxford University students who rebuild vintage rally cars will race an historic Riley 1.5 through the winding roads of Barbados next month as they compete in the Caribbean’s largest annual motorsport event, the Barbados Rally Carnival.
Members of the Oxford Universities Motorsport Foundation (OUMF) will travel over 4,000 miles to battle some of the world’s top rally car drivers, including 2006 British Rally Championship runner-up Ryan Champion."
Good luck and good racing to you, OUMF! ***
An exciting and entertaining weekend awaits most folks as both the SOL Barbados Rally and Mount Gay Regatta are set to take place!
Since I'm more interested in motorsports (though I rarely follow the events anymore), here are a few highlights from the freely available SOL Rally Barbados 2008 programme (click here for the full PDF):
* 89 crews (including seven from around the region and a further 23 from Europe)
* Entries by Sweden's Bjorn Waldegard, a 1979 World Rally Champion, as well as
* Kris Meeke, a 2004 to 2006 title contender in the JWRC.
Online info on the Mount Gay Regatta appears to be scarce, so your best bet is to check with Google.
Enjoy!
"Oxford University students who rebuild vintage rally cars will race an historic Riley 1.5 through the winding roads of Barbados next month as they compete in the Caribbean’s largest annual motorsport event, the Barbados Rally Carnival.
Members of the Oxford Universities Motorsport Foundation (OUMF) will travel over 4,000 miles to battle some of the world’s top rally car drivers, including 2006 British Rally Championship runner-up Ryan Champion."
Good luck and good racing to you, OUMF! ***
An exciting and entertaining weekend awaits most folks as both the SOL Barbados Rally and Mount Gay Regatta are set to take place!
Since I'm more interested in motorsports (though I rarely follow the events anymore), here are a few highlights from the freely available SOL Rally Barbados 2008 programme (click here for the full PDF):
* 89 crews (including seven from around the region and a further 23 from Europe)
* Entries by Sweden's Bjorn Waldegard, a 1979 World Rally Champion, as well as
* Kris Meeke, a 2004 to 2006 title contender in the JWRC.
Online info on the Mount Gay Regatta appears to be scarce, so your best bet is to check with Google.
Enjoy!
