The Haslemere Cellar - excellent service and wines

How's this for service and expertise in retailing?

I went to The Haslemere Cellar/Cheesebox last weekend looking for something a little bit special for dinner. Our guest was a great friend renowned for his excellent taste and knowledge in food and drink. But as usual I didn't want to spend silly amounts on a bottle of over-priced wine.

The conversation went something like this...

Can I help you?

Yes please, I'd like some wine to go with dinner tonight.

What are you eating?

Beef.

How are you cooking it?

In an oil fondue.

Ok, and what are you having with the beef?

Potatoes.

What type of potatoes?

Sauteed potatoes, possibly some asparagus as well.

Right, you have a couple of choices...

After a bit more discussion, I bought choice A. I don't really care whether the wine - Chianti, btw - really was great or whether the buying experience had conditioned me to think it would be. It was very enjoyable and seemed an ideal match for the food.

You don't get that at the supermarkets, do you?

See Naples and Live

I spent last weekend in Italy with friends. The trip was great fun, and I expect we will return once again next year.

Our destination was the excellent Lido Cerullo, on the beach near the ruins of Paestum. On the way, our coach skirted Naples, the sight of which always takes me straight back to a visit I made there in the summer of 1990. The place made a big impression on me. Being an idealistic teenager, I found its alien ways highly alluring. Grimy, sultry and anarchic, it seemed the opposite of much I'd grown up with in southern England.

But despite a couple of opportunities and trips to the south of Italy, I've been back to Naples itself only once in the intervening 22 years. Like a lot of other people, Naples just hasn't seemed like the right place to take a young family or to head for a romantic weekend. Understandable I guess, but it's a shame more of us don't visit the place, despite all the rave reviews it gets in many travel guides.

Naples has two great attributes for the visitor. Firstly it is hugely atmospheric and exciting. The backstreets are the stuff of Italian cliché - ancient, claustrophobic, chaotic, populated by noisy extraverts fed on the world's best pizza. But you wont find anything comparable in Rome, Milan, Florence or Venice. This is unmistakably the South. Culturally you feel closer to Tangiers than Turin.

Secondly, Naples is simply stunning. They used to say "See Naples and Die" because the city was such a sight to behold. It remains so. Climb up the hill to get a view of the city, the vast bay and looming Vesuvius. The photo to the left, which I took on that trip in 1990, doesn't do it justice.

No other major European city offers your eyes a more awe-inspiring combination of historic urban sprawl and natural beauty. Barcelona doesn't come close, Marseille (another under-rated and under-visited city) is the next best I've been to.

So my recommendation is to take sensible precautions (yes, there is no doubt petty crime to rival any city in Europe) and dive into Naples. It's an experience you won't forget.

Declinism? No thanks, I'll decline

Excellent 40-minute slot this evening on Radio 4 from David Aaronovitch entitled Things Ain't What They Used To Be. Punchy but thought-provoking, it was the type of programme Radio 4 does very well.

I'm with Aaronovitch on the topic in hand. Look at history with any sort of informed clarity and it's surely evident that things have got a lot better for much of the world. We may therefore also believe, quite logically, that they will continue to do so.

On average, we experience lives that are healthier, longer-lived, more peaceful, safer and admittedly less contented than ever before. And looking forward, without taking an absurdly Panglossian outlook, I don't find it that hard to believe that we will find solutions to the world's great challenges. I even suspect the current economic hardships, awful though they are for many right now, will be seen to have positive effects (more of which in future post, no doubt).

The programme asked why pessimism appears to be the default setting in human psychology. One academic posited a fascinating idea. Early humans needed to pay more attention to negative news because it demanded immediate action, unlike most good news. A shout of "lion coming" was much more urgent than one of "no lions around today". This kind of evolutionary reductionism, although easily dismissed, appeals greatly to me. I'm happy to think that there may be a direct link between that alarm call on the ancient savannah and the endless cycle of bad news stories that dominate the media.

So pessimism prevails. What wasn't explained was why it is so unappealing in other people. We naturally are drawn to more upbeat friends, partners and leaders. Optimism is attractive.

To answer my own question, I guess the appeal of optimism is the flip side of pessimism. When the call of "lion" goes out, we fear the worst but are drawn to those who have an optimistic solution that could lead to safety. Despair and inaction will get you eaten.

Marketing that sucks: Henry vs Dyson

Ask a professional cleaner what brand of vacuum they prefer and there's a high chance they will cite lovable little Henry. This product is popular with people who do a lot of vacuuming. That's not because of its cute face, I suspect, but because it does the job well, is tough, simple to operate and seems to be highly reliable.

But which brand dominates the consumer consciousness when it comes to hoovers? Not Henry, not even Hoover. It's Dyson. The Britsh firm has done a brilliant job of positioning its products as simply better by design. A combination of top-notch engineering and marketing by Sir James Dyson and his team has created a very strong brand that attracts a lot of business and a premium price.

Meanwhile Henry is a great example of a sleeper brand. The product is popular and inspires loyalty where it's used, but it's also under-marketed and ineffectively positioned. It has an iconic design and most people have heard of it, but its identity is unclear, its attributes uncommunicated, its price point well below Dyson.

So here's my suggested positioning for Henry. It's the smart choice - no gimmicks, no gadgets, no see-through dual turbo cyclones. Just great results and reliability at a great price. And the killer brand fact: cleaners (and cleaning firms) like to use 'em. Cue market research to demonstrate this and an ad campaign featuring hard-working people hugging their Henrys.

Henry, your time has surely come.

Haslemere Educational Museum

Time to highlight a precious local institution. Haslemere Educational Museum is like a mini British + Natural History museum in one. Bears, giant crabs, Egyptian mummies, palaeolithic hand axes... it's free and it's right on the high street. Highly recommended and every town should have one.

Local elections and scepticism

There was yet another dismal turnout in this week's local elections around the UK. Cue the ever louder voices lamenting that "they're all as bad as one another" and that they can't trust anyone in politics these days (e.g. see the highest rated comments here).

What we seem to forget is that we, the public, have evolved. We are more sceptical than ever before because we know so much more. The media pries into public affairs and public figures in ways unimaginable even twenty years ago. We are lucky to have the knowledge and insight that such prying gives us, but it does breed contempt for those in power and those who want to be in power.

I would therefore tend to read the widespread dissatisfaction with politics as a sign of modern day scepticism, rather than a deterioration of parties or politicians. Today's crop of ministers, MPs and local councillors are surely no more clueless or corrupt than those of any previous period.

So how does democracy flourish in a society with ever increasing disclosure, knowledge and scepticism? That's a question we seem to miss when bemoaning so loudly that there isn't a better calibre of politician for whom we can cast our precious vote.