Apocalypse 2009

The holiday season seems to have made an even briefer appearance than any other that I can remember. The Christmas decorations are still up, but will be confined to their dark drawer dungeons by the end of tomorrow; the desiccated mistletoe will be thrown out and the 80 or so cards pinned to the kitchen ceiling beams will be prised off once again and banished to the appropriate waste recycling container. It seems a shame, particularly the fate of the greetings cards but what else can you do with them? Those with new addresses have already been copied into the address book and the one or two 'unknowns' will have to stay that way.

Simon came over from Italy with the family on the 29th December. He hit a blizzard on the A89 motorway when he was less than one hour from us and spent more than three hours trapped there, finally escaping out onto the old National Route highway by means of a service road. 

We exchanged a few anxious mobile 'phone calls during this episode while we waited and the dinner was put on hold. We didn't get a single snowflake during this time, 40 kilometres away but more than 500 metres lower down the valley.

And so, on into 2009...

Will life as we know it come to an end? Will it be worth making a few new years' resolutions? Will the pound fall so much against the euro that my weekly UK pension amount will be totally blown every time I go to the baker?

We'll see.

Happy New Year

Mapmaker