Not a good morning

We had a good sleep-in this morning and got up to find two anonymous notes in our letterbox complaining about our selfish slamming of doors. This followed one we had recieved last week, also anonymous. Given that we hadn't opened the door since getting home the previous day we were a bit miffed. You can imagine that we weren't happy with gutless anonymous notes, so we have posted our (named and signed) reply on the downstairs door. Our neighbour opposite made the effort to say hello and tell us they hadn't noticed any particularly noisy door shutting, so we can rule them out. 8-) Actually we are virtually certain it is the two downstairs - one an elderly lady, the other unseen - who seem to have got bees in their bonnet. I was tempted just to tell them to F-off, but instead asked them to come and talk to us. We'll see if that happens, but if they want a war they'll get one!

I managed to slice my finger quite deeply this morning so that's bandaged up and causing problems typing.

Oh, yes. To add to the great morning, we got a letter from our ISP saying that we'd gone over our 'fair use' allowance and would have our connection throttled back to dial-up speed next month in punishment. I've appealed, but if you are expecting any large attachments from me next month, you shouldn't hold your breath. We had been watching on-line video (having no TV) and this seems to have swallowed our allowance and then some. Unfortunately the warning letter arrived today but advised us that we had to cut our usage in the month up to Sept 30th to avoid the punishment - rather difficult if we are already over!

Earlier in the week we had the dreadful news that one of my colleagues at OGHS, and a flatmate for a time (KYg), has been diagnosed with lung cancer. Our thoughts are with her.

The economic news continues to be bad and I can't help thinking that this is how people must have felt as the Wall Street crash loomed in 1929. The timing could not possibly have been worse with American elections crippling any reasonable response for fear of picking the wrong 'side'. Who'd've thought we'd hear George Bush and the multi-millionaire CEO of one of the biggest finance companies in the world being accused of being socialist! I had thought that lessons had been learnt from the Great Depression and that controls in place would prevent anything similar happening again. So too had politicians and financial gurus I guess, so everyone has had a nasty shock. Could this be the end of capitalism as we have known it, to match the apparent defeat of world socialism over the past 20 years? Or will the world markets continue to be driven by those only interested in profit once the dust has settled (like Chinese milk product manufacturers and their ethically confused NZ shareholders)? JP Morgan Chase seem set to continue for one, having picked up some bargain basement competitors. I hope those teaching 'Origins of WW2' are milking the parallels in their classes.

Regardless, my job continues in its inevitably boring fashion. We have completed the Scottish pipes in Phase I of this project and started the Southern (English) pipes yesterday. The landmark was celebrated with cake and drinks and a "thank you" from the boss. NOT. The first escapee appears to have been settled though, with Noni heading off to a programming job next week, subject to reference checks. Hooray! One up for the escape committee. A shame though as she was one of the faster working amoung us. I accomplished little yesterday, as for many pipes I couldn't even find the street, let alone the pipe! I feel a field trip to Lambeth (also home of the IWM) would be nice, but I think I'll struggle to convince the powers that be...

On that boring note I shall sign off...