A grim outlook

Reading the paper on the way home from work yesterday was just freaking depressing. All doom and gloom, double-dip recession, excessive government spending, the Eurozone, North Korea, shops closing their doors. 

It seems the media want to terrify us into believing the worst for 2012. I ended up leaving my 20 minute train journey feeling utterly despondent. 

But then I got home, and I busied myself by doing 2 loads of washing, changing my sheets, wrapping some last minute presents, shaving my legs and cooking pasta. It's a well prove fact that doing things and the old "keep calm and carry on" mentality is an excellent distraction from the woes of society. 

The December Pinch

Today, the expense of the festive season well and truly hit. With social catch ups around every corner and last minute gifts, my bank balance has been taking a pounding. 

It was much easier when I lived on the Sunshine Coast and never did anything. But as I insisted on moving to one of the world's most expensive cities in the middle of a recession I must start cutting my costs. But the question is where? 

Potentially, I could look at cutting some friends out as a money saving exercise. After all, the less friends you have the less social occasions one must attend. But then I'm afraid I'd get horribly bored and spend money on wine, fancy underwear and dresses I don't need in order to amuse myself. 

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

I love Christmas wholeheartedly and every year delight in tinsel, lights and buying presents for the people I love.

However, it seems that this year in the office, the only person rockin’ around the Christmas tree is me. Or rather, I would if there was a christmas tree.  

But it seems not everyone shares my disappointment at the lack of tinsel. But to these people I’d like to make the following points.

No I don’t want a bag, thanks

I’ve never been overly environmentally conscious. But lately I’ve been feeling somewhat angry at being surrounded by a complete lack of regard for wastage.

In many office, we for some reason have a shortage of tea-spoons. So instead of buying more, or everyone just keeping theirs for the day, we go through literally HUNDREDS of plastic spoons each day, with people letting them pile up in the sink. Likewise, our kitchen recycling bin is frequently full of food scraps and things that are very clearly not recyclable. And the rubbish bins full of recyclables. Sigh.

But what baffles me most is when you go to a supermarket and purchase one or two items, and the conversation goes something like this…

Pondering the future

I don’t often like to comment on political manners. I was brought up to believe that it’s bad manners to talk about politics and religion in public.

Today’s strikes have got me pondering the current state of the economy and the government, and I find the whole thing very scary. 

We are so used to being in the “I want, I get” generation, with endless credit facilities, rapid job progression and the world being at your fingertips.