It is interesting that payment for attending events has been mentioned
this week.  I have been giving talks and demonstrations of mechanical
musical instruments for about 15 years.  I charge a fee but have to pay
public liability insurance, of course.  A one-hour talk only ten miles
away might take four hours of my time to load up, drive there, set up,
talk, take questions, and return.  I used to give up to three talks a
week but I have only two bookings for the whole of 2013.

Petrol prices here in the UK are much higher than USA.  It was mentioned
yesterday that fuel in USA costs $3.50 a gallon, which is about £ 2.25
UK pounds.  Here in the UK we pay £ 1.50 a litre x 4.5 to get gallons =
£ 6.75 UK pounds which is about _triple_ what you pay in USA, as 80% of
the cost is tax.  My car does about 55 miles per gallon.

Kevin McElhone
Northampton, England