Pinch Punch

The first day of another month. Phew! we got here. This has not been a particularly good year. I suspect that we are all living day by day and some of us, hand to mouth. It is a relief to have reached another milestone in the year and still be able to say that we are still here. That is not to say that there has not been high points. Last weekend I visited Emma and Andrew Cultures Allotment. What a lot of work there is to be done, but with the sun shining, a gentle breeze, the passing trains I can see why having a shed with a barrel of sherry on tap, becomes very attractive. I almost wanted to roll my sleeves up and start digging. I managed after a short mental struggle, to over come the urge to exercise my muscles, and contented myself with the walk from the Cultures home to allotment and back again. Its amazing how the sunshine can relax you and make every thing right in the world. If we listen to the news we are all doomed to a life of poverty and no credit. Is this a bad thing I ask myself. Perhaps we should go back to cash or bartering. That wont happen. There is no control over the flow the transfer of funds, and if there is no control, how would the treasury get its hands on our hard earned cash. How indeed would the banks survive if we all started to pay for what we needed instead of what we wanted, and stored our money under our beds. The bankers could say goodbye to their multi million pound bonuses, and high living lifestyle. Should we feel sorry for these people? Maybe! They after all just fallible human beings, but it is easy to see why there is little sympathy for their plight. Neither they or the governments, past and present had much concern for lesser companies that needed help when they were on the ropes. Now it would seem that all of us are being urged to rally round to bail these incompetents of of the hole they have dug for them selves. They will then climb out of the hole on the shoulders of the rest of us who are in the hole with them, because of the encouragement we received to borrow more than we could payback. This does not relieve of us of our own responsibilities for the mess we all find ourselves in. But when you hear that banks have acted like your corner shop bookies, laying of bet to minimise their losses, it does make you wonder if the world has gone mad. Is it any wonder we all look back at what we perceive as happier time when life was so much simpler. So here's to the next month, and whatever it might bring.