It has now been four years since I started this blog and although a lot has happened in that time it only seems like a few months ago since I started. My first post was on February 23rd 2007. I have no idea where the time goes but it slips by so quickly. I had plans to be well away from here by now but those plans are on hold indefinitely, or at least until the world returns to some semblance of normality. Judging by the turmoil in the Middle East it may be some time!
The turmoil has affected most people on the planet if not all with the increase in oil prices as fears mount that the supply may be cut off. For my friends in foreign parts petrol (gasoline) is now close to six pounds a gallon and is set to reach £6.50 within a few months and possibly £7 by the end of the year. You can do your own conversions to your own currencies. This will not help to end the recession and the bankers are not to blame for this particular incident although much of the current burden is theirs to share alone, unless…… Yes speaking not so long ago to one who works in a bank he reckoned it was the fault of ordinary Joe Public. You see he reckons that if us lot had repaid the money we owed to the banks then there would be no problem. It is out fault for borrowing so much and not paying it back you see.
There, the answer is clear it is not the banks fault at all. We should have kept our jobs and made the repayments and all would have been well with the world. Bernie Madoff was merely misunderstood and ponzi schemes are fine. Don’t you just hate it when everyone else expects you to pick up the tab for them? A little bit like our own nationals who decide to go and work abroad because they hate the UK and then pay tax to foreign governments until the shit hits the fan and then they start screaming about how the British government should get them home. In other words you and me have to pay tax to mount the rescue of someone who has pissed off on us. Wouldn’t it be nice of the companies they worked for to pay and arrange to get them home instead of UK tax payers?
On the bright side the weather is warming up and the days are getting longer. The blowy season will be here in a few days and then the clocks go forward again. That means the start of the Barbie season, if we have a summer that is. The last three years have been awful with the last two the wettest I have ever known. My chief partner in crime Ted Magnum comes home next week from a tour of Africa and I already have plans for this year’s highlights and events. The smoker is getting refurbished along with a good ole scrub and re-paint in readiness for plenty of action. I have not used it since Halloween and it has since been neglected and like the greenhouse looks a little bit sorry for itself. When the clocks go forward and it is light in the evenings I will be able to start working in the garden again and clear up the storm damage. I may even be able to give Rhonda a service. Without a garage this task is difficult in winter when spanners stick to your fingers because they are so cold and the rubber on tyres is so stiff you can’t lever them off the rims.
When I was in my teens most of my bikes were fixed in the kitchen, the sink was handy for cleaning engines although Elsie never thought so, but Rhonda is too big to get through the back door. What I want is a garage or a decent size workshop, I have never had one of those in my life and I am starting to really feel the need for one. By the time the recession is over and in my experience these things last about 7 years, I may be able to move to somewhere that has one in which case I will probably be too old to handle Rhonda. Yes time is flying so fast that before I know it my pension and bus pass will be here.