Clarkson for Prime Minister!

So, what’s all the fuss about? With the country falling apart at the seams, house prices falling, the value of the pound collapsing and unemployment increasing, our grumpy old Labour politicians have managed to put down their expenses forms for a moment and start moaning about Jeremy Clarkson.

In case you’ve not heard, Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has said he is sorry for calling Gordon Brown a "one-eyed Scottish idiot" to journalists in Australia. He said: "In the heat of the moment I made a remark about the Prime Minister's personal appearance for which, upon reflection, I apologise."

Still, let’s way up the facts shall we?

One-Eyed – this is true, Gordon Brown lost the sight in one eye after an accident playing rugby as a child.

Scottish – this is true, like most of our illustrious cabinet members who are doing such a fine job of right royally shafting us whilst they fatten up their pensions and feed at the money trough, Gordon Brown emanates from Scotland.

Idiot – this is true. The man is such an idiot who, if asked what day it was, he’d reply with some obscure statement that he’d ultimately blame on the Americans. Or Margaret Thatcher. Or the French.

Oh well, that’s enough politics for now.

Still Moving on Up

I’ve still not forgotten my blog, although finding the time to both update my own blog and catch up on the lives of other bloggers, is very hard to do these days. Never the less, after being dropped a line by Miss Meep (Blimey, I've just visited your site and never knew that another mini-meep was on the way!) I decided to make the time to create a new entry and provide a bit of an update.

Home Front

First off, I’m at the point of moving in with P. Yes, I know this was on the cards way back last August (and, rather shamefully, my last blog update), but we’ve both being trying to trim our collections of rubbish to allow me to fit my stuff in P’s house.

It’s a bit of a running joke with her friends, but I really wanted to make sure we had everything we needed before I moved in - and with my lovely fur ball, who I miss so much, no longer with me, now that the furnishings and gadget purchases are pretty much complete, I have little reason to delay things much longer.

And we’re really close to achieving that. I’ve set up the “office” – which is the spare room that was floor to ceiling junk – with a new pine desk, new printer, my wardrobe annexe and, when it’s finally set up, a new super-fast PC.

I’d already bought a lot of new furniture for downstairs (mainly for my TV and hi-fi plus P’s hundreds of handbags!) and with the newly constructed shed there’s now room for my bike (and any surplus junk we can’t find room for or bring ourselves to throw out).

All Loved Up

I’m certainly very content with everything and P is still keen to grab my hand whilst we’re out and the text messages and emails continue to flow. I worry about her driving in the current poor weather and I’m always relieved to receive a text to say she’s home safe and sound. P is also very “happy” that I worry about her too – I guess it shows that I care.

We’re still a family of three, but that may start to change later on this year when we’re planning on trying to increasing the number of people in the house (and no, we’re not getting a lodger in). P has become very broody – especially since her sister has recently had a baby and, credit crunch permitting, this years holiday (somewhere hot and sunny) will be seeing me leave a packet of equipment at home in my wash bag.

Work Stress

Like most people in the UK (and the world for that matter) the credit crunch has had a big affect on our lives. P works for a large European company that provides material to the building trade and their sales have been badly hit. Whilst there’s no signs of any impending redundancies, lots of their customers are going out of business and profits are down. However, given that they are a small outpost in the UK, I’d be surprised if their parent company pulled the plug too prematurely. Still, it’s a stressful time for her – although P was surprised to recently learn that she’d had a pay rise and small bonus.

As for me, whilst my office is still busy, before Christmas the management went into headless chicken mode and made a number of people redundant across various departments. It was a very stressful time, especially since my job role was one of the ones that was up for the chop (Fortunately, although not for the poor guy who got the chop, it wasn’t me that went).

Although I try to keep positive – and I went through a similar experience during the last recession, the stress made me quite ill and I’m still not really over it as I continue to wonder what will happen later on in the year (and possibly the year after that). The office doesn’t feel the same either – it’s much quieter and the banter is a bit on thin side. There’s definitely less “love” towards the management these days and any meeting tends to draw suspicious glances.

Needless to say, my new PC will be used for reskilling purposes as much as surfing the web and listening to MP3s. They always say a recession is a good wake up call and its true. It’s just a pity I was sensible enough not to get myself into debt by buying a house a few ago. But then again, may be I should have been reckless as my mortgage payments would be virtually nothing and both P and I would be on the housing ladder rather than looking enviously around us at those who are.