Cardboard Spaceship

Well, Europe...

Hmm.  Been watching the Euro rescue.  Waiting for the rescue.

MiGosh.  You would be hard pressed to see a more complex comedic clusterfuck if you tried, but...

It's about everything in financial stability, even a functioning monetary system, but no-one seems to have any concrete plans anymore.

I am reminded of John Law, the Scottish man from Lauriston, who sank the French economy, more or less single handed.  I find this resonant for many reasons.

If it looks too good to be true, wouldn't it good to assume it is?  AAA interest rates for an economy that did not have it before?

We'll see, I hope that it does not collapse before we get back!

At least we have have bloody wonderful Autumn weather, hoping you have had the same...

Turkey, and it's not even Christmas...

Just been chilling here in the Spaceship, getting better, and relaxing. 

Reading Neal Stephenson's Readme.  Everything he does is a kind of bonkers stream of consciousness, but I do like his stuff. 

Tomorrow we go to Turkey for a week of much needed family holiday before we all go back to work and try and finish off a bloody busy, and somewhat surprising, 2011.

See you on the other side of a bit of sea and sand.  Enjoy.

Excellent New Word from Labour Spinmeister

RIM have had the Blackberry service down in EMEA for the last three or four days, which is a disaster for a company that is so central to mobile comms.  Given that their products are pretty lacklustre right now, the one thing that everyone always said was "well, at least e-mail works."

Best comment of the stressed yuppie classes came from former Labour spinmeister Alastair Campbell who tweeted:

"day 3 of blackberry blackout. Some free advice. Explain while you fix. Apologise when you have. Recompense after. handling so far woefuk."

Woeful was the intended word, one assumes, but the type really sums it up nicely, a woefuk of a situation.

Are RIM and Nolkia in competition for the Digital Equipment Corporation Memorial award for taking brilliant companies and products, and pissing it up against the fence?

Euro Show Continues...

Man, if you had to do a text book case of how to mishandle a complex and escalating situation, you could not do a more mangled and screwed up job than the vast numbers of people who all seem to have conflicting roles in the demise or whatever happens next to the Euro.

Greece will default, it's a question of how long, and how much.  When it does the big banks go down.  Dexia is looking wobbly already, SocGen and BNPP have also been the subject of intense speculation, and at least some German lenders would be very exposed.  Short question is who gets screwed?  The PIIGS by being forced into austerity and deflation, or the bank countries, notably Germany and France?

None of it bodes well for the overall popularity of the Euro experiment. 

End of the Attack of Lumps

Went into see the Head of Lumps in the cantonal hospital, and he gave me the official "all-clear," so that's the end of that episode.  I still have to do follow up scans and so on as a matter of routine, but it should be recuperation and rehabilitation from now on.  I will start back with SAP in my day job for the beginning of November, so that will be life starting to turn back to normal. 

A lot of people seem to go through life changing epiphanies when this happens to them, I just feel tired and a bit weak, as I lost a lot of weight, not all of which was unsightly fat, sadly, but also quite a lot of muscle, so lots of long country walks for me, and also some physio as well, I would imagine. 

Also, I will not spend my days slumped in front of Minecraft, as I start to feel more energetic.  Minecraft is bloody addictive though.  Diggy Hole, Diggy Diggy Hole!

Mrs Spaceship Hits the Half Century

This weekend we celebrated here in the Spaceship, as Mrs Spaceship hit the half century.  As I have always graciously said of this event, "I can't believe it's me bird who's 50, and not her mum."  A feeling that my spouse shares, as she cannot believe herself that she is not 25 anymore.

So, all the local ladies got together and had a lunch, and then we had a few friends round for a drink, and went out to a very good local restaurant, after having some champagne in the garden.  With the unseasonal weather, we forgot it would get dark earlier, and so we ended up drinking it in the dark around our brazier thingy that we bought earlier this year. 

Great fun, and I think that Mrs Spaceship enjoyed herself as much as possible under the circumstances.