Rick's b.log - entry 2010/08/16

Holiday's over...

Okay, truth be told, the holiday ended for me on Thursday, but nonetheless, the "planning" for the upcoming year (subject to gross variation) is we'll get a week from December 25th through to January 3rd (which will probably be three days plus a weekend for me), plus possibly a week in mid-February and another in mid-March (quiet periods of production). Otherwise, it is the same routine over and over until next year's summer break. Oh well, I'll have 240 chances to win the lottery between now and then (mom plays the French lottery on all three days and I play two lines of the EuroLotto - but current winnings are only really making back our expenditures). It is more hope-based than anything else. A lot better than thinking "this is it" until I retire, turn into a grumpy old git, then die all alone which, while probably being fairly accurate, is a bit too tragic. I'm gliding depressingly rapidly towards my 37th birthday and while I'm sort of 15-17 in my mind, it means I'm less and less recognising the face I see in the mirror.

I have had some good news. If I ever fly to the land of the rising sun, off-peak taking Swissair from a smaller airport (Lyon, in this case) will do a return journey in the €700 ballpark. This means for the entirety of a paycheque I can fly to Japan, get a train into the middle of Tokyo, go "ooooh!", turn around, and fly back. It would take two paycheques to think of being able to stay somewhere. <sob!> And I can never "save up for it" as there's always stuff to do. Electricity bills every two months, car repairs (scheduled service plus a new cam belt), land tax, my UK passport needs renewal, and this month the government happily sent a guy around to say out waste disposal wasn't up to new EU specification and charged us €72 to tell us something we already knew. I'd like to put aside money for a trip over, but I'm thinking it'll be in the 3K ballpark and, well, assuming nothing happens that needs cash, it'll take me two and a half years. Mmmm. Might be enough to manage to read katakana, and learn how to say "no thanks, I don't eat fish", which Google says is "Īe,-gyo o tabete inai".

You'll notice I'm waffling. Don't have anything useful to say. Just, you know, feeling down as the routine starts up again. Ho-hum.

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Steve, 10th October 2010, 17:35

Wow. I'm about to go back to work after nearly a year and I'm about as excited as you were. ;-) Particularly looking forward to sorting out a rental flat, the agents are so helpful and friendly and I never feel the prices are insane.

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