An Ordinary Life by Edmund Gubbins

An Ordinary Life by Edmund J Gubbins

Money laundering is illegal. Even Tom Houseman knows that. He, as an academic, makes a distinction between helping somebody to set up legitimate business and the source of the money. 

The novel follows the life of Tom Houseman. From his early childhood on the edge of a hard council estate to eminent Professor with a worldwide reputation and great wealth. The story explores the manner in which most people regard themselves as honest and law abiding although there are times and circumstances when they ignore the rules of behaviour or of some moral code. These people justify their actions by ignoring their conscience or making excuses for their behaviour. In extreme cases they give the impression that morality is not an issue in their case. 

Tom Houseman has a boyhood friend called Derek from the council estate and, though their paths diverge after junior school, he stays loyal to his friend. Derek becomes the right hand man of the criminal Mr. Big and introduces Edward. During his life, Edward accepts opportunities presented by his friends and his brother. These enhance both his standing in society and his wealth. All the time, he ignores and denies the moral and legal implications of taking advantage of these offers. As time passes, he has to accept the implications of his choices. 

Will he finally have to face these hard decisions or will he sail serenely on living, to him, this ordinary life?

Available as a paperback from Amazon and www.createspace.com and for downloading to readers from Kindle and www.smashwords.com

Northern Rail and project management

How can Northern Rail go ahead with changes to the timetable without project management?
There are three aspects which should have been planned before the changes were implemented.
1. They should have made sure that there was enough track capacity to sustain the changes. This has to be planned in conjunction with Network Rail. Once it has been established that there is enough track capacity, the next aspect can be planned.
2. That there is enough rolling stock to fulfil the timetable and the rolling stock is in the right place to fulfil the timetable over time.
3. There are enough drivers to handle the routes and the timetable.
Northern Rail appear to have failed on all of these points which does not give anybody confidence in their ability to run the franchise in the future.!
Do they employ anybody in higher management who knows anything about running trains?