Last post of 2008

Ramblings / December 31, 2008 / John / 2

I’m taking a leaf out of RedSmartie’s book here and doing a quick run down. 2008, all in all, his been pretty grim. So many things that were fine before seem to be irrepairably broken and as the months went by I just seem to have lost the energy or will to try and fix them. 

There’s also the matter of the economy, which is – frankly – completely buggered. Her Majesty’s government gave us a nice little cut in VAT which does no good whatsoever as VAT is not charged on food and no one can afford luxury items. To add insult to injury, they increased National Insurance contributions and increased duty on fuel. As it stands, after the ‘economic help’ they’ve provided, we were 5% WORSE off in November than we were in October. Gee, thanks.

I had a job and relocation offer from a company in Oz back in the Autumn. We did give it serious consideration, but then decided we’d already traversed that particular minefield. Despite Britain heading rapidly to hell in a handcart, Scotland is still the best place to be. It’ll get better, understand? Repeat after me – It’ll get better.

So, a year of broken promises, deceit, and all kinds of other crap too personal to list here. Bad year?

Nah, not really. I started writing again, thanks to the encouragement of people from the West Lothian Writers Group, my job has settled down into something I’m really happy with thanks to a change of management, the kids are all happy and healthy, I’m playing a Tuba, and deKay is now the proud father of  a little baby girl after what must be the longest pregnancy in history.

And I finally finished Half-Life 2 – result!

John

UNIX geek, wannabe cook, musician, book-lover, and all round good-guy.