It turns out that if you keep your car long enough it may become worth more. Not because it achieves antique value, but because the government are threatening to launch a scrappage scheme that means you can get money for trading in an old car against a new one. Our second car known as the ‘loozer croozer’ may the worth £2000, it’s currently worth 50p. In the event that Gordon B (or his mate Darling) don’t launch a scheme many of the manufacturers have beaten them to it. Especially Citroen who have their own scrappage scheme, launched this month.
Spring is in the air
I love the fact that people are mowing their lawns, its light when I get to work and light when I leave work. I must be a bear, I don’t mean in the GAY sense, I mean the sort that hibernate in the winter. I cannot stand the winter, even the good things that happen in the winter don’t make it any better, such as Christmas or the Rugby season. I find myself watching holiday channels on SKY just to see blue skies and the sun.
This winter has convinced me that my winters in the future need to be spent overseas, I don’t mind being stressed at work or poor as many of us have this year. I just hate the dark and the cold.
Stop complaining about the snow.
The British complain when it doesn’t snow, then if it snows for more than a couple of days we start moaning about it snowing too much. It’s just weather, that shows up how bad we all are at driving.
As I type this we have just had another inch which probably means that the country will grind to a halt tomorrow.
England v Italy at Twickenham
Had a great day out in London. Managed to stay in control of my faculties and saw England win for a change. I have been going to Twickers now for about 20 years and have worked out what is important for a successful day. The secret is careful bladder management. You must take every opportunity to ‘water your horse’. You will have long periods of time on the tube and during the game when you can’t get to the loo, on a day when you may have to consume a gallon and a half of beer in the name of sport this can be quite uncomfortable.
On Saturday there were 82,000 people at Twickenham, but at no point were there more than 70,000 watching the game. At any point there were 10,000 plus in the bog.
January Sales
I have decided to review January 2009. A lot of people have had a miserable January because of redundancy, work stress, money stress etc. They all have my sympathy. Having said that, these are all things that I have lived with for years, as have people in many industries. It is particularly bad for people who have always managed their personal finances well and are now without a regular income.
My story has always been slightly different, I need a certain amount of money and work stress to keep me going; I actually need the pressure that this generates to make me operate at optimum levels, it makes me more creative at work and more motivated. Comfort zones and security are very bad for me, just as well that I never experience either of them for more than a few days. I would make a really bad life coach, my secrets to motivation are: over spend, over borrow and over commit yourself with responsibilities. That way you will always have a reason to drive yourself on to be bigger and better. As I am sure you can imagine, this method is not for everyone.
Back to January, I have enjoyed the following:
- South Africa beating the Ozzies
- Not drinking much
- Guitar lessons on Youtube
- Staying in more
- Avoiding the TV – except My Name is Earl
- Reading – first book for a couple of Years
Of course I have hated the weather, that is because I was born in the wrong country, no bones about it, I hate the cold. Winter has no redeeming features, I want to be warm and in the sun all the time.
Looking forward to 2009
Although there is much gloom and doom being bandied about, I have thought of some things to look forward to in 2009.
- England have good chance of getting the Ashes back
- Less money being thrown around in local cricket, mysterious benefactors may be hanging on to their cash during the coming season
- Hopefully my son Simon will pass his driving test and bring an end to my duties as a taxi driver
- I will be losing weight, I have suffered as the result of a paranormal event which resulted in a large number of my clothes shrinking over the Christmas period. In order to save money I am going to slim down in order to fit in them
- It will be my 20th wedding anniversary in April, the 1st of April to be exact
Please help me if you can think of a few more reasons to be cheerful.
Merry Christmas Everybody
I am now watching the TV and getting ready for Christmas, time to start thinking about the last 12 months. Not many personal highlights this year other than getting through relatively unscathed. We end 2008 with the country in the grip of a credit crunch that is rapidly turning into a recession. I feel sorry for anyone who is facing redundancy in 2009, I suppose the one advantage of having my own business is that I’ll be the first to know when I am no longer needed, it may happen!
The truth is, the UK has been a “false economy” for many years, consumer confidence has been based on how much equity the population has in their house. As soon as house prices started to drop the economy has collapsed like a house of cards, we then found out that our banking systems has been built on an equally unsure footing. I will be interested to see if the UK and US governments will have enough money to fill in the hole.
On a more positive front, all of this may calm our ambitions down a little. WAG culture, reality TV, the overwhelming urge to ‘Pimp your Crib’ has created a tidal-wave of greed that we have satisfied on credit. We may realise that you don’t need a massive 4×4, designer clothes and a hot tub to be happy or accepted in society.
If you are a bit surprised that this is not my usual upbeat fare, I can now reveal the reason. I am staying with my inlaws for Christmas, no wonder suicides increase at this time of the year.
How unfit am I?
Having done no exercise since the end of the cricket season, I have just started trying to get by old bones moving again and it is obvious that time is catching up with me. Whereas in the past I would comfortably start with 2 or 3 miles and build up from that, this week I went round the block once (about a mile at most) and was sweating like a pregnant nun.
I have now been advised that I need to combine power walking and light jogging, I think I can feel a mid-life crisis coming on, watch out for the impending motorbike, hair piece, face lift and leather trousers.
My new project – Home Cinema Chairs
I have gone about a month without a post, which is very naughty of me. However, work has been very busy, I have been working hard to counteract the effect of the economy on my business. One interesting story from the last 2 months is the success of my new little sideline www.justrelaxing.co.uk which is a website that promotes 2 ranges of home cinema seating. Despite the credit crunch we are geting enquiries nearly every day from people building home cinemas, some of which are looking to spend a lot on chairs. As usual we have done a pretty hot job with regard to search engines, you can find the site for phrases like, home cinema chairs, homes cinema seating, cinema chairs and cinema seats. In the last 6 weeks we have taken some good orders, which is encouraging in a tough trading climate.
Hopefully during 2009 I can start to monetise the site by getting some new stock in place and increase the marketing activity.
The credit crunch sucks – so go to the seaside
I have spent the last week hearing about the credit crunch, luckily I have not been affected by the drop in share values as I don’t have any. I also don’t care whether the Gov’t are going to guarantee £35 or £50k of savings if Natwest goes tits up for obvious reasons. I am a small business owner therefore the banks have never done me any favours. I am enjoying watching them squirm a bit along with ‘The City’, my solution is to go to the seaside for the weekend and walk by the sea with Ange, Vez and Elvis (also Vez’s friend Lauren).
Nothing like candy floss or a pot of cockles to make you forget the global financial crisis. We have all got our values the wrong way round nowadays, we care too much about property, wealth and everything that goes with it. I am a big fan of Bruce Parry and his BBC series Tribe, I think that I am going to go native and adopt an alternative lifestyle. I will develop this idea in future posts.