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It’s fairly easy to garden normally, you wander outside & see what needs doing then you either do it or else find a reason why you don’t have to do it right now. You plant stuff, you water it, get rid of the weeds & then it either grows or it doesn’t, it’s not rocket science & is a pleasant way to pass a nice afternoon, however when faced with a blank sheet so to speak things are different. It’s okay at first, or at least it is if you live on my estate since whilst the house is empty all the neighbouring houses seize the chance to dump all their awkward rubbish into the garden so that by the time a new tenant shows up it resembles a landfill site. Once the clearing of mattresses, abandoned wheelie bins & assorted household appliances has been completed though you’re left with a kind of crappy gap between a fence & a hedge & not a clue as to what to do with it. You immediately cut the grass but whilst in a tended garden this immediately lifts the scene positively in a neglected scrap of waste ground all you really achieve is flatter, although it’s something to be able to strim away in the certain knowledge that no damage will be done to any plant worth keeping. (continue reading…)

I read recently that a few of the big players of the grocery world are claiming to be all for a regulated unit price for alcohol & an end to the all out price war that leaves them giving it away. Considering that the World Cup was coming up along with the normal UK delusions about how Summer could turn out this was a worry but it appears to be an unfounded one. So far they all seem to be pulling the usual trick of encouraging us all to buy more for less & vying with each other to have the cheapest offers. The range would also appear to be wider this year although that could just be my not noticing before that cider has always been included. It’s coming to something though when you fancy a four pack but end up buying three crates because it’s just so worth it, that’s not a complaint by the way, I’m all for beer being on sale. It’s just that if the supermarkets are really in favour of charging more then it has to be legislation they’re waiting for since whoever goes it alone is going to have the emptiest shop in Britain. (continue reading…)

Assuming that the worst is yet to come & that we’ve all got difficult decisions to make this year how do you decide on what treats to keep? Given that many of us are already living a reduced lifestyle in order to cut down our personal debts many of our costlier activities have already been abandoned, finding more to cut could be tricky. I mean we certainly could all live on beans on toast & rediscover the joys of powdered milk but you’d have to be a masochist to endure that for weeks on end, I already loathe toast. I suppose that some clever people will have invested in the latest energy efficient appliances but even though they’ll save in the long run they’ve still had to shell out now, for those of us without the money switching things off is the only option. One of the main problems we’re up against is that we don’t just need to pay down our debts, we also somehow need to save up as well in order to avoid getting back into debt later on, the ridiculous interest rates are killing this since we may as well spend the little we’ve got until it goes up. This leaves us with a second cull of the little things in life that make life a little bit better, hardly good news unless you’re really extravagant. (continue reading…)

It’s about time people, I know that moving home has been a chore & that much is different at the moment but even with so much to do it’s been hard without the net. In an insidious & invasive way it has permeated so much of my world that the wrench when it was no longer there was tough to deal with. I’m so used to being constantly informed about everything & being able to take an active part in the endless discussions about nothing that swarm forever online. I wouldn’t mind but it was the first time in a decade that I’d been without it for longer than three days & once you start becoming wistful for dial-up you know things have got out of hand. Seeing the browser come back to life was one of the highlights of today but knowing what I know now it will no longer be the everything that it was before, I may even get some work done. (continue reading…)

It may seem an odd time to bring this up what with the continuing lack of progress on climate change & BP trying yet again to plug up the hole they so patiently drilled in the sea floor but there you go. All the encouragement to be part of nature & the whole circle of life thing is quite sweet but mostly meaningless in the general scheme of our lives. Even after years of arguments & rabid tales of ecological doom there’s hardly anybody who’s really prepared to alter their lives to the grim prospect of a carbon neutral future. There are of course many reasons for this, firstly we all see little point in living in an age of technological miracles if we’re then supposed to deny ourselves the advantages of these miracles. Secondly there’s nothing all that shiny & attractive about sprouts & this counts a great deal more than the Green brigade are giving allowance for, there’s a reason that Apple makes a profit. I’m not saying that it can’t be done, just that it can’t be done in the ways so far being suggested, to succeed it would have to be cool & Green may be many things but cool isn’t & never will be one of them. (continue reading…)

The all new & shiny government has begun & as expected is busy hacking & slashing at the budgets of the nation in order to demonstrate their desire to destroy the deficit. I’m not actually here to knock the attempt either, it’s needed doing for a while now & we all knew it was coming, I do think though that it wont be as easy & straightforward as they seem to believe. An economy, no matter how big or small is a sensitive animal & since any adjustments made must somehow rely on all the variables staying the same it does require a very stable future in order for the pain to be controlled. It’s also true that there will always be areas that with the best will in the world will suck up money like a sponge, predictions are tricky things & cause & effect are ever there to kick you where it hurts. This remains true wherever you are in life & no matter whether you measure your budget in billions or in pounds, the uncomfortable truth that the politicos are heading towards is that you can only ever cut so far before the branches start to break. (continue reading…)

People will tell you that moving home is a stressful process & a logistical nightmare & they’re not completely wrong, however mostly they mean both the organization of the move as well as the physically moving. Here on the estate things are different, here we pretty much pack everything up that we can, round up as many friends & family as we can to help & then we set a date & hope it all works out. Their way is probably better but our way does sort of work, at least we’ve progressed as far as motorized transport anyway, I’ve moved plenty of people with just a shopping trolley in years gone by

I suppose it could be worse

& I don’t recommend it as an alternative. Then again no-one’s exactly sure of what vehicles are showing up tomorrow so maybe I shouldn’t be counting my chickens & all that. I can’t say that I’m wild about the move, it’s just something that’s got to be done so it’s getting done, perhaps once the farce of moving itself is behind me I’ll feel better about it all but at the moment it’s just a headache with a ton of decorating to follow. It’s not that inspiring to discover that I seem to own a massive amount of stuff as well, I like owning stuff don’t get me wrong but you do start to question it once you’ve got to pick it all up. Not only that but I’ve got another list of all the stuff that I don’t actually possess but do actually need, something to sit on would be nice I suppose & at some point a washing machine will have to turn up, right now though it’s having no cooker that’s the worry. (continue reading…)

It has to really, such is the nature of a coalition but for almost five years? This is asking quite a lot from both parties let alone individuals, even I can see how they could maybe make it through one year without a major disagreement but as time goes on it’s going to get more & more difficult to keep up. There’s a reason why the people concerned are in differing camps after all & even if the hard-liners on both sides can be checked there’s going to be some deeply uncomfortable votes all round. Yes both sides have a lot to lose if the agreement breaks down & much to gain from a successful Parliament but the Tories will be looking to be alone in government by the next election which will put the Lib-Dems straight back down to third. Maybe they’ll settle for whatever watered down versions of their policies they can get passed but it wont sit easily with either set of grass roots support. There’s much to be said for this coalition, finally we have a group of politicians willing to work together even if it is only a basic power grab forced on them by wishy-washy election results. There will however always be those from both sides who will look upon it as a sell-out no matter how successful it turns out to be. (continue reading…)

Life’s a funny bugger at times & even now with all the thrills of living in a country that apparently has no leadership some things turn out to be slightly more important on a personal basis. I was getting a little worried that this year would involve a small portion of time without anywhere to actually live in due to a set of circumstances that defy belief on a regular schedule, happily this is not to be the case. No matter that there’s a major housing shortage across the country there are still a few council houses left & I’m bloody lucky to have been offered one at all. Okay so it’s not in the most salubrious of areas but given that it’s only five minutes away from my current address I can’t see me complaining much. I’ve yet to see any of the neighbours yet & they could well be terrible but I’m not planning on living with them & there’s just as big a chance that they’re fine, people generally are even here. You would think that this was all if not a cause to celebrate then at the least a weight off my mind & in some ways it is, in other ways however it would appear that the council having helped me have also hung me out to dry. (continue reading…)

So it’s a hung Parliament or another General Election, Cameron has got to be gutted, all that hope & all the surge in the world & now he’ll have to share if he wants to play boss. Brown’s probably not too happy either, he’s still stuck in Downing Street & if Clegg wont snuggle up to the Tories then he might be forced into staying in power. Bang goes the retirement if that happens, I wonder if Blairs stopped laughing yet? Anyhow, I can’t see Cameron offering Clegg enough on PR for Clegg to be able to sell it his mob so unless the Lib-Dems are as desperate for a bit of power as Cameron is it’s doubtful that it’s going to go well. No problems with Labour on that score though, they’re already naked & oiled up & just waiting for Clegg to read them the list of demands, it’s a mess right enough. (continue reading…)