OK. 3 months is long enough to wait for a new post.
And what a 3 months...
I have stayed in Germany this weekend for the first time in a while - half term travelling arrangements of Mrs Moose and the Mooselets cutting across the weekend. The Frankfurt marathon was today...I didn't run myself but did go to the end of my street to watch everyone run by and cheer on 3 colleagues who were running. Amazing that in a group of 12,000 runners I managed to see all 3 of them!
Thanks to Lyndyloo for passing on my message. Did my ARF get played?
Congratulations to Susan and the new mini-Susan!!!
Glad Mr Jollygit has a new job.
Loved the church announcements...crying from laughing so much!
Hi to everyone else...and come back soon anyone who's missing (I'm a fine one to talk...)
I am starting another (3rd since I got here...are they trying to tell me something?) new job soon, probably start of December now and highly politically sensitive. Always is when the person whose job you are getting doesn't know they are leaving it...oops!
I am looking forward to my next coaching session tomorrow, and to America having their first black president...there will be some serious egg on my face if McCain makes an unlikely comeback, huh?
I am looking forward to my next Personal Training session on Thursday...just signed up last week and did my first session. Already feel a couple of kilos lighter. In fact, I am considering shooting off for a swim when I have posted this.
So the financial markets are falling apart. Mrs M and I have had a difference of opinion on it and I thought I'd throw the topic open to you lot to chip in...
My view is that a global recession is actually only bad for a fairly small proportion of the population...mainly rich bankers...and that it's generally "no big deal". The media make a huge thing out of it because they have nothing else to talk about and it fills a few hours of non stop TV coverage without having to think too much. This makes everyone depressed and think about it more than necessary. Most of us will not lose our jobs. Just about everyone will survive it. We will probably all have to tighten our belts a bit, but for a lot of people in our all too well off world, I believe that's a good thing to have to endure now and again. And let's face it, for some of us mooses of a wider girth, a tightened belt is very definitely a good thing...
Mrs Moose thinks this is a selfish and narrow view. The chances are we will be OK as a family and will be almost totally unaffected. OK my shares a worth a bit less than before but that's paper money that I do not rely on for day to day food and shelter, and most likely will recover in time (and I still have some time before retirement when I might need to cash them in). But a lot of people will be seriously affected, high food and fuel prices will seriously impact people.
So what do you think? Will people really die (or even suffer) from starvation or even just a lack of food? Will people die because they can't afford fuel in the recession (but could have otherwise)? Or am I being extreme and only counting real suffering if it's of the fatal kind?
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6 comments:
Moooooooose - you're back!!!!! It's lovely to 'see' you again and so glad that all seems to be going well for you, Mrs Moose and the Mooselets. Congrats too on the new job - shhhhh ....
I don't believe that people will die from the recession but there are inevitably going to be those (particularly the elderly) who will suffer if the price of fuel doesn't come down. My hope is that some people's priorities will change and they'll realise just what is important, ie you don't have to have the lastest PS game and if you can't afford one your world isn't going to come crashing down around you.
Mr Jollygit was out of work for a total of two months which is nothing compared to a lot of people. Even so, it was a worrying time and when, pride in hand, he went to the Job Centre to sign on he was told that he could probably claim housing benefit (we rent privately) and council tax relief but after filling in the 3-mile long forms, he was informed that his partner was earning too much money for him to qualify for the benefit. For one moment I thought he must have someone else on the go - my salary is hardly earth-shattering!
Thankfully, after receiving a total of £205 in Job Seekers' Allowance, he started his new job which earns him the princely salary of 15k. But for all that we don't own our own home and have to think carefully about what we spend money on over and above our bills, we're both the happiest we've ever been, so for me it's not a disaster at all, just another irritation!
Glad you liked the church announcements!
Hope everyone is well and had a good weekend.
jollygit xx
Moose - I'm not sure how appropriate this is, given that you're now in Germany, but it made me larf:
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as 'Euro-English'.
In the first year, 's' will replace the soft 'c'. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard 'c' will be dropped in favour of 'k'. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced with 'f'. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent 'e' in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing 'th' with 'z' and 'w' with 'v'.
During ze fifz yer , z e unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou' and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza . Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.
If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl
jollygit x
Here's another one for you:
EU Directive No 456197.
"In order to meet the conditions for joining the single European currency, all citizens, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, must be made aware that the phrase 'Spending a Penny' is not to be used , After December 2009.
From this date, the correct terminology will be: 'Euronating'.
Thank you for your attention."
jollygit x
And yet another one:
Frozen Cows
A farmer goes out to his field one morning only to find all of his cows frozen solid. As far as the eye can see are cows, motionless
like statues.
It had been a bitterly cold night, but he'd never thought anything like this would happen.
The realisation of the situation then dawned on him. With his entire livestock gone, how would he make ends meet? How would he feed his wife and kids? How would he pay the mortgage? He sat with his head in his hands, trying to come to terms with his impending poverty.
Just then, an elderly woman walked by.
"What's the matter?" asked the old lady.
The farmer gestured toward the frozen cows and explained his predicament to the woman. Without hesitation the old woman smiled and began to rub one of the cows noses. After a few seconds the cow began to twitch and was soon back to normal and chewing the cud.
One by one, the old woman defrosted the cows until the whole field was full of healthy animals. The farmer was delighted and asked the woman what she wanted as a repayment for her deed.
She declined his offer and walked off across the field. A passer-by who had witnessed the whole thing approached the farmer. "You know who that was don't you?" asked the passer-by.
"No" said the farmer "who is she?"
(Wait for it)
(Wait for it)
(Wait for it)
"That was Thora Hird."
jollygit x
Hey there Moose, how are you doing? Mighty fine by the sounds of it and congrats on the new hush hush!
So, my take on the whole mess of the financial situtation / credit crunch / recession is in between your's and Mrs Moose's opinions. I agree the various news programmes are bigging it up and painting a very gloomy picture, but also the spiralling costs of fuel will, I believe, lead to some families and elderly to live in conditions unacceptable in a developed country like our own. I do believe that a lot of people have overstretched themselves over the past years of good times and these people will also suffer with negative equity, higher interest rates etc..
Mr A has gone back to work now after 7 long months of illness and we were just reaching a critical point of financial crisis when he got the all clear to return to work. Slowly we are working ourselves out of the financial mire now. At one point we feared losing our family home but found that being up front with the various financial institutions we are involved with helped a lot and we managed to keep hold of everything. That and a fair amount of e-b@ying! We have flown by the seat of our pants though and the stress has been unbelievable, but we have made it through.
As for the impending recession affecting us, we hope it won't too much. Yes we have pensions and (a very few) shares but are not planning to touch them in the immediate future. We have no savings now so we don't stand to lose anything there (thanks kids!!!).... We both have relatively safe jobs at least for the next 12 months..... and that is all I have to say!
So JG - loved the jokes, so very funny! Glad you and Mr JG are happy and settled and enjoying life.
My boys are away for half term with their grandparents down near London. They rang me at 08.15 this morning, very excited, as there was an awful lot of snow that came down overnight. So grandparents were planning on a day inside in the warm while the boys can play out in the freezing snow and have an absolute ball. After speaking to me for a few seconds they were dashing off to get washed and dressed to get outside and have a play! Our house is so quiet without them this week, but I am not letting on just how much I miss them. My parents are having the time of their live's spending a week with them. Thanks mum and dad!
Mr A and I celebrate 10 years of wedded bliss next Thursday (6th), I cannot believe how time has flown and what a lucky girl I am to have such a wonderful partner to journey through life with.
So all in all, life is good in the 'A' household.
Wish me luck for Friday when I shall be trying my hardest to get Take That tickets for 2009 Circus tour. We may have no money for fripperies at the moment but this week's shopping budget (as the boys are away) is being spent on a ticket for Take That, if I manage to get one!
That's enough from me - hi to all!
So good to hear from you again Moose, so glad everyone is well and life is good for you.
Love Amanda x
...... oh and just to add another thing. Well done BBC for seeing sense and suspending those 2 silly men for what they did. Maybe now suspend the producers that allowed their nonsense to be broadcast. No I didn't hear the broadcast as I wouldn't listen to either of them as I cannot stand either of them or their sense of humour either, but this doesn't stop me from having my own opinion about what I think is the right course of action to have been taken. Freedom of speech and all that!
Rant over, got it off my chest now!!
CE blog - thanks for giving us Moose but the bunch of cliquey people on there now get on my nerves so I don't bother posting at all. Keep my eye on it to see how the old 'uns are getting on and what Chris has to say. Other than that - n'ah can't be bothered with it.
One more thing before I go - Living TV this week has the most hilarious programme I have seen for a long time - Most Haunted Live, The Village of the Damned - live TV streaming at it's best. I am not sure if I am meant to find it funny but it really makes me laugh. It is on up to and including Friday night - I dare you to give it a go and let us know if you think it is as funny as I do.
Right, really am off now, massive amounts of work to do so must fly (thank goodness I hear you sigh!)!
A x
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