Just thinking...

It's funny how things change, the older you get. Five years ago i owned a nearly new car and had a five year old car in the drive. Now i rent a dilapidated static caravan from a senile landlord, and drive a posh-rotten Fiat Tipo diesel, where the electrics have a mind of their own (well, it was £350 i suppose...)

Still working, slowly driving me insane and i nearly, very nearly walked out the other day, childish i know, but being promised basic working tools and not getting them is childish as well...just so glad it's a temp job, things are really getting busy in the valeting trade, with scrappage and all. Just a shame that they're scrapping all the decent, usable, nice old bangers and hence the fact i'm driving around in a Fiat Tipo where the electric windows don't undo. Or do up.

Starting to think "What Next?" in the new year (good idea for a magazine title that, imagine it next to What Car...), when the contract ends and it's back to Housing Benefit and Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance for me. Will i get work again immediately?, will i have to wait another three months or so for another temp job to come up?, who knows, but it does worry me, especially as all my wages are going on old debts, which isn't a huge problem, as long as i have a few pennies to buy Fish and Chips for Friday tea-time, buy the odd second-hand book or CD from a boot sale and fill the old tank up with diesel, then i'm happy, for now.

The problem is how long will it get to being back on acceptable income again?, i'm living on the breadline now, instead of the poverty line and i kind of like it. It tastes better than poverty.

It's not just me, and i still class myself as a "mild" case of poverty. My only regret was not charging all my bills to my credit card (when i had credit) and going bankrupt and starting again. Other people as you will know are losing jobs, then losing homes, and perhaps losing families, ie breaking up and that is tragic.

I really hope everyone who's come a cropper in this god-awful, greed led, incompetence followed recession can make good of it. I know i will never be careless with cash again, it will be hard for us all to get back on our feet, as i'm finding at the moment, but maybe one day in the next five years, this recession will be over, wages will be comparitive to some sort of basic, good, living standard, and maybe, just maybe we can look back..and smile?