Cardboard Spaceship

Running for the Attack of Lumps

Here's a heartwarming picture.  The daughter of our good friends from London, the Hoseins, ran a charity course of 5km the other day, and here she is in her tabard before the start. The charity is cancer relief, and so sweetly she ran with my name on her badge. 

Thanks Rose!

Now I thought it was a good cause before, but now that I am directly touched by it, it seems even better...

 

Taking it Easy

Not going to posting a lot in the next little while, as I am taking it easy over the summer as we make excellent progress in treating the Attack of Lumps.  Went to see the Head of Lumps at the local Geneva hospital, and apparently I am making very good progress.  Have one stubborn one, right under my sternum, but we'll winkle the little bugger out. 

Other than that, Mrs Spaceship is setting up her psychiatrist office in town, which is going very well, so if you are in the Geneva area, and wondering what it's all about, she might be a very good option.  (A lot of people are coming to the Geneva area, couple of mates who took me to lunch the other day were complaining about how difficult it is to get suitable office space, houses, etc., etc.  As the GBP hit 1.35 CHF this morning, I wonder who is going to come here from London, the exchange rate used to be 2.35...)

Smallest Space Cadet of them All is in his last week or two of the local primary school, and then it's off to big school next year.  Wow, already.

Ouch Greece, Very Ouch.

In about the least surprising thing since, well, just about ever, Greece is now running at record highs in terms of what it is paying to get money:

"Greek two-year bond yields, which have an inverse relationship with prices, lurched 160 basis points higher, one of the biggest daily moves of the year, to a euro-era record of 28.02 percent.

Greek five-year CDS leapt to a high of 1,700 basis points, or a cost of $1.7 million to insure $10 million of debt annually over five years. Greek CDS is also pricing a 75 percent chance of a default by the country over the next five years – it was about 45 percent at the start of the year."

At this point the market has called the EU's bluff on the kick-it-down-the-road model.  No country or individual can be expected to go into austerity, to pay money to others, at such a punitive interest rate.   Default, however structured, seems like the only option.  Question at this point is; what would it take with it when it goes?  One way or another, I suspect we are about to find out. 

The Three Things I am Watching...

Well, have been meaning to blog a bit during my enforced idleness, but haven't really been doing so due to blogger's block again - mainly, the news that worries me isn't getting any better, and it seems a bit pointless just to stand in the headlights of the train shouting "ohmigod, it's a train!" the whole time.

My top three "ohmigods!" at the moment are: Fukushima, the Euro, and the Arab Sprung.

Fukushima has dropped off the main media cycle, which is surprising given the fact that three of the reactors are now known to have melted down, and the spent fuel pool in building four seems to have more or less evaporated.  Current exclusion zone is at 20km and holding, but on the ground reports seem to suggest it should be two or three times that, eating a big slice of land on a very crowded island.  The pattern seems to be drip drip drip with the bad news, so I'll guess that we have to keep watching that one.

The Euro.  Nouriel Roubini, and now just about everyone else, thinks that the game is up for Greece, and hence default is going to happen.  What we don't know is what the really means for the situation.  Do we; fuck Greece, fuck Germany and France via their banks, or fuck the whole Euro project?  Answers on a postcard please.

Arab Sprung.  Egypt has stalled, Gadaffi is looking remarkably tenacious and the Syrians are not exactly taking the idea of internal dissent lying down.  The best outcome is establishing democratic and fair government in the region, the likely outcome is economic hardship followed by more unrest, and the worst outcome is that the present actors keep their places, but crack down even harder on other ideas.  Sheesh.

 

Lumpdate

Well, I've had my second dose of chemo now, and I get my third on Friday, so I'm getting to half-way on that treatment, and the good news is that it seems to be working.  Rather than having great lumpy glands on the various bits of my lymph system I have more or less nothing, so here's hoping that it keeps going as well. 

Still having some difficulty adjusting to the fact that I am fighting cancer though, as at one level it seems all a bit mundane for that. 

Gaping Void on Zero Hedge!

My long time firend Hugh MacLeod's Evil Plan thang is being referenced on the finanical apocalypse / commentray site Zero Hedge as a go to read. 

Dunno, that's a crossover for me.  Well done Hugh, that's a tough crowd to excite, as most of them have already got several shotguns, and a lot of tinned food, not to mention the odd tin foil hat.