Defiance!

I have a nasty feeling there'll be a fair dollop of this in 2009...

... personal denial about the fact that at the bottom of the whole world financial mess was alot of individual greed and due to people taking on (or being badly sold) debts they couldn't actually afford...

...head-in-the-sandness about how bad things might actually be...

...anger on the parts of those who HAVE been careful with their finances and are now penalised with pants savings rates etc as a result of the mess...

Hopefully (as more positive No!'s) there'll also be some New Years Resolutions of the "we'll never do that again" variety and a rejection of some of the consumerism excesses which have been a feature of our culture.


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I have no idea what this building/business is or what its logo is about. The signange is in the arches of a railway bridge on the south side of the Tyne, facing Gateshead (just after you come over the Tyne bridge). I drive past it at least once a week and had thought it would be a good blip for a while - I once saw someone photographing it too and did wonder if I was looking at one of you!! With today being soooo quiet, I was able to dump the car nearby and get a non-traffic-infested shot of it. This morning was fairly grey and the raw shot looked really bland, hence the Picasaness to jazz it up a bit.

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A good NYE last night, with a spontaneous invite to a friend's house in North Shields, where there was a gathering of her friends. It was lovely to catch up with K as although we've kept in touch by Facebook etc, we haven't actually seen each other for over a year - isn't it terrible when you know you only live ~20 miles apart?!
I ended up sleeping in a bathroom on a foldy-down chairbed thing ... and no... not because I needed conversations on the big white telephone (which was nextdoor anyway) but it's a fairly expansive affair and was the only available space! Quiet, warm and comfy so I'm not complaining :-)

I'm heading out to see some friends Sunderland-way this evening and then hitting the road tomorrow :-)