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Well, this time last year I felt refreshed after a break, and was almost looking forward to things. This year it feels different. I have a pile of material on my right hand side, in front of the other computer, making me feel guilty. I have even turned on the office computer in the vain hope that I will feel guilty enough to write some stuff for Monday, but it hasn't happened. In more typical journalistic style, I have said "tomorrow". That just ain't like me at all.
Instead I have been decorating the spare bedroom, and have made significant progress in the past couple of days. Wallpapering the chimney breast was a bitch, and the vertical lines show (if you look carefully) how badly sloping the chimney breast is. This caught me out in a couple of places (the skirting board to the left side of the wall must be two inches below the same skirting board on the right-hand side of the chimney breast). But that's part of the fun of old houses.
I have also been playing cards, and a storming start to the year (+$600 on day one, +$90 so far today) is a cheering prognosis for 2009 as a whole. Then again, I usually do well up until about January 8, at which point the wheels come off. This year I shall be prepared!
The memory cards have arrived for the Roland BR-600 as well, but the piano-playing has taken second place to decorating for the past few days.
I've managed very little reading and very little TV-catch-up on my break, which is perhaps an explanation for me feeling less refreshed than I anticipated. This year will be tough at work and who knows if I will still be in a job come December.
If it weren't seriously anorakish, I'd be tempted to collect the number of times people say that "it isn't fair" or "it's wrong" (by which they mean "morally wrong") in financial programmes.
The first arrived today when there was a pirce on the increase in rail fares. Any commentary on this turns everyone into the financial equivalent of a football supporter. Do you want your club to make money or to win matches?
With the railways, we had a guy getting himself into tortuous economic knots, first of all moaning that trains were too crowded, and, in virtually the next breath, complaining that fares were going up "at a time when in other areas price competition is driving prices down".
This is the problem with rail travel. Is it a social service or a business? The common complaint is that it's a monopoly, but that's bullshit. People can travel by coach or by car instead. They do not do so because the train is, despite their moaning, an easier way to travel. Why, therefore, should they not pay for this added convenience? Many of the loudewst moaners havve chosen to live further away from London (sorry to be London-centric, here, but most of the complaints are from London-bound commuters) because they were bringning up a family and they could only get accommodation sufficiently cheaply by moving further away from the capital. You can hardly therefore moan if the quid pro quo is a higher travel cost.
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Instead I have been decorating the spare bedroom, and have made significant progress in the past couple of days. Wallpapering the chimney breast was a bitch, and the vertical lines show (if you look carefully) how badly sloping the chimney breast is. This caught me out in a couple of places (the skirting board to the left side of the wall must be two inches below the same skirting board on the right-hand side of the chimney breast). But that's part of the fun of old houses.
I have also been playing cards, and a storming start to the year (+$600 on day one, +$90 so far today) is a cheering prognosis for 2009 as a whole. Then again, I usually do well up until about January 8, at which point the wheels come off. This year I shall be prepared!
The memory cards have arrived for the Roland BR-600 as well, but the piano-playing has taken second place to decorating for the past few days.
I've managed very little reading and very little TV-catch-up on my break, which is perhaps an explanation for me feeling less refreshed than I anticipated. This year will be tough at work and who knows if I will still be in a job come December.
If it weren't seriously anorakish, I'd be tempted to collect the number of times people say that "it isn't fair" or "it's wrong" (by which they mean "morally wrong") in financial programmes.
The first arrived today when there was a pirce on the increase in rail fares. Any commentary on this turns everyone into the financial equivalent of a football supporter. Do you want your club to make money or to win matches?
With the railways, we had a guy getting himself into tortuous economic knots, first of all moaning that trains were too crowded, and, in virtually the next breath, complaining that fares were going up "at a time when in other areas price competition is driving prices down".
This is the problem with rail travel. Is it a social service or a business? The common complaint is that it's a monopoly, but that's bullshit. People can travel by coach or by car instead. They do not do so because the train is, despite their moaning, an easier way to travel. Why, therefore, should they not pay for this added convenience? Many of the loudewst moaners havve chosen to live further away from London (sorry to be London-centric, here, but most of the complaints are from London-bound commuters) because they were bringning up a family and they could only get accommodation sufficiently cheaply by moving further away from the capital. You can hardly therefore moan if the quid pro quo is a higher travel cost.
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