Wednesday: The poor fish in our pond were under an inch of ice this morning, but the 2 degree weather during the day has helped thaw them out a little. I saw 2 clients today with a colleague - nothing much to report there as the meetings were rather ordinary.
One of the appointments was in the next town from where we live (which is better than the usual 2-3 hours drive to some appointments) and it was sad to see shops closing down both small and large (Woolworths and M&S soon) - the recession is taking hold. There seemed to be a lot of scummy looking people around and you have to wonder whether they cant get jobs or just choose not to work - unemployment rates around here are much lower than the national average.
Last nights feast of hearty home-made vegetable soup was rather good, but Pete didn't agree. He decided that my offering was merely a starter and went to the freezer to find a pizza.
A few misc things:
- At Christmas my brother gave us Mario Kart for the Wii and it's brilliant. We have played it every evening!
- I haven't shaved since Christmas and I look a right mess.
- I made some juice yesterday in our industrial sized juicer and including a couple of large cabbage leaves. The juice had a bad smell, but tasted OK!
- I completed my "best of 2008" photobook yesterday and uploaded it to blurb.com (I think their photobooks are the best around) and I await delivery - it has 413 pictures!
- Tomorrow I am off to the dentist for 2 fillings. I hate going to the dentist.
I emailed a friend of mine called Donna and pointed here towards a blog entry that she might have been interested in. Her reply was basically "how do you find the time to do all this?!". I hadn't thought much about this as I don't appear to have a problem finding time. Donna is a working wife/mother and is probably busy doing something all day long, whereas Pete and I have only ourselves to look after and neither of us choose to work particularly long hours. How lucky we are!!!
Tonight, I might sell one of my guitars on eBay depending on whether any of the 22 viewers decide to make a bid. My plan is to use the money to buy a different guitar. I have owned this Yamaha acoustic for nearly 20 years and am sad to let it go, but I've learnt that it is quite rare and I don't play it much. For those who don't play guitar, I can hear you saying "you sad bas***d"!
I had an email about my phrase "scummy looking people" and I agree it's a generalisation. Certainly not everyone who doesn't work looks like that or is lazy.
ReplyDeleteFor the others however, it doesn't take much to comb hair and take some pride in your appearance. These people looked really rough. There are some great charity shops selling quality clothes for pennies and there ARE many jobs available around here still.
I've lived next door to a whole family who chose NOT to work - they made NO effort to find work and happily lived on benefits. I am swayed by the unhappy and miserable experience of living next door to them for nearly 3 years. Possibly the some stressful and depressing times I've had were due to that family.