Stress

Today was, frankly, a bit of a strain. A band of pseudo-bruising gripped my abdomen and did little to encourage activity which was, nonetheless, necessary. We visited my Mum and I took the opportunity to take some photographs in the painfully drab Leigh Park. Photography has been very much on my mind but I need to think out much more carefully what I want to say on my greatest concerns. I have a real problem with copyright law not in so far as it might affect my own work in its own right but in any depictions of other peoples work. Of much greater concern though is the ongoing risk of being branded as a terrorist or even a paedophile by some low grade hi-vis-clad moron who is likely, charitably, to be myth-guided more than genuinely malevolent. Can we not live in a society where we routinely assume that an individual is neither a bomber nor a child-molester as is, after all, statistically likely?

I went to work on a day off with little genuine enthusiasm but a greater desire to make the next two days, my last for a while, as simple as possible. I was annoyed with myself for having forgotten that our kitchenette is being refurbished. I am glad that it is being done but, for today, it was another irritation. I am grateful to my employers for lifting the quota time restrictions on internet use. This progressive and pragmatic policy will make breaks more pleasant. Earlier I benefited from the admirably clear explanation of a colleague on the subject of forthcoming tax changes affecting pension contributions. I very much resent many aspects of the birth to death tax regime which oppresses us and find it entirely illogical that pensions themselves are taxed. In particular I find it extraordinary that the tax exempt contribution limit should be reduced in one go from £255,000 pa to £50,000.

I am excited by our travel plans bolstered last evening by a November cruise from New York to the Caribbean. However, I am slightly concerned that our ambitions might outstrip our budget. After 2011, we might need to be more restrained. Everyday life is becoming more expensive with fuel prominent amongst our costs and significant because I enjoy driving for leisure and touring our ceaselessly fascinating country. I might need too to assuage some guilt over part of our autumn itinerary. The first port of call is Labadee, a Haitian territory but secure and private for the use of cruise passengers. I can not claim I would like to see the poverty, unrest, corruption and disease which mark everyday life in post-earthquake Haiti but it might not be morally comfortable to be so close to it in western style luxury.