Fare rises and opportunities

It was really nice to have a five minute chat with Sparkling today.  It was off the cuff, I sat in a Chinese and was waiting on my mains to turn up.  A lovely dish of chicken in black bean sauce and very reasonably priced.  I should of made my own sandwiches and have cheese and pickle on the ready, but just didn't get round to it.  It must of been my rush to hit the Fish Factory and leaving early.  Beginning the fish processing at 7:50 a.m., it's been a long day, but because I have been so busy it has gone past like the blink of an eye and I've enjoyed it.  So the lunchtime chit chat with Sparkles was a lovely break in the middle of the day and so good to hear her voice.  Hopefully I'll get a longer chat tomorrow.

I popped my complaint letter to East Coast in the post box on the way to the station. A news item on this morning stated train fairs are allowed to increase by 8 per cent this year, and the companies were even allowed to add another 5 per cent on top of this.  If this carries on it will unviable for some people to catch the train to work.  Car pooling will become very real, bicycles will be pulled out of their sheds and in some cases employees will consider changing job, retiring early, or just not working at all.  If you were earning minimum wage and had to travel into London it would make sense to not even bother and go on the Brew.  All because the price of a ticket has gone up.  Something just doesn't seem right.  Public transport has to be subsidised it can not make a profit, certainly not if it is truely public.

The old burnt out Weather spoons building has been boarded up after the riots.  People have now taken to writing on the boarding their love for the area and their unhappiness it had been rioted.  Some have been put out of work because of the actions of the rioters.  It is a shame, I hope they can find other work.  Talking about the unemployed I saw Layabout Lad this evening and told him about an article I'd read in the paper about volunteering.  I said to him I don't know why I'm telling you this, it's like water of a ducks back.  Twenty-three years old and never held down a proper job.  The writing is on the wall. I love him but he just needs to pull his finger out, and I don't mean the fingers or thumbs stuck to his Playstation.  I could so easily give him a good kick up the arse, hell I'd buy an industrial firework and stuff that up it as well, maybe then he would do something proactive than sapping benefits off the state.

I recall being unemployed for nearly a whole year when I was young.  It was the most depressing period of my life.  I used to despise seeing people go off to work and think to myself "I bet I could do their job."  It was hard as hell to drag myself out of that situation.  I was lucky, then got a low paid shop job to barely make ends meet.  It was a life time ago.  So it is.  We all have our own lives, our own choices, and where we are now is both the sum of choices made, and opportunities created.