🎆Highlights of 2022🎆

Shift change - changing shifts after 34 years from continuous shifts with nights to days/afternoons ( Mon - Fri). Probably the biggest and definitely the most life changing alteration.

A job - for my Son. Finally getting a job after five years of trying. Defying expectations due to his autism left school with good qualifications going on to get a degree in IT. Now doing several hours a week working from home and earning. Finally a start and a foot in the door.

Changes….

2 Monarchs

2 Deputy PM's 

3 PM's

3 Secretaries of state for work and pensions 

3 Secretaries of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

3 Home Secretaries 

4 Chancellor's

And still stuck with the Tory party 🎶

Feel free to sing along to the tune of Twelve Days Of Christmas 🎶🎶😉

Discovering Mastodon - a social network that is just that - Social. Somewhere I can be myself, engage with others and post about my various interests in one place. Liberating.

Entering a race - entering a race for the first time since before the pandemic. The Chester Metric Marathon in October 2023. Done the Chester marathon but always fancied this as it is a unique distance.

An artificial construct.

The government peddles the narrative, which Labour and other parties go along with, that the country's finances are akin to household finances. But the truth is the country cannot go bust and there is no national credit card.

We are money users, the government are money issuers (creators) and owns its own bank. The BoE is only in essence independent on paper. The government own it and the treasury holds all of its assets.

We cannot create money to pay our debt but the government can. The ability of the government to create money isn't unlimited. Creating too much will fuel inflation and overheat the economy. But the scope is very large before that happens.

Government borrowing actually pays for government expenditure. Tax is to control inflation and maintain social balance. Austerity is a political choice. The current "black hole" is also part of the narrative. For instance the calculation of the "black hole" is, among other things, based on assumptions the chancellor himself controls and has set. If instead of using the assumption we will "pay it back" over 5 yrs he say changes that to 10 the "black hole" shrinks massively.

The household narrative is one way to look at government finance; another is MMT (Modern Money Theory) , some of which I have illustrated here.

I took a step back from the government financial/ economic narrative to look at it through MMT.

What if we take a further step back? The arguments between the household finance narrative and MMT are part of a bigger picture.

The financial system/economy are, as they would say in The Matrix, an artificial construct. They are man made. As such we have full control over them. With enough collective will we can do as we please with them. We could end poverty and hunger. Tackle climate change etc. 

Two reasons we don't - Power and control. 

Just my crazy thoughts on a small piece of this crazy world.

Reasons to run 🏃‍♂️ ♥️ 😌

Why do we run? Why do I run?

We all have many shared and varied reasons to run. Chasing PB's, entering races, fitness, stress relief, mental health & being amongst nature to name but a few.

We may run for all, some of or just one of these reasons. I think no matter what the reasons we must all share one thing - an enjoyment of running. If we didn't enjoy it on some level we would quickly lose motivation and stop.

The great thing with running is that no matter what the reason, how fast or slow we are or wether we are elite or walk/run, first, middle or last, we are all runners.

It's funny how you can enjoy something you shouldn't have on the face of it enjoyed. I have only done one marathon. The training was hard. The race was hard and mentally sapping. I ached for days afterwards. But I remember it all and think I bloody well enjoyed that!!!

I am happy with 5k - 8k and 10k - 12k these days. I do it for stress relief, fitness and the peace I find when I'm out amongst nature. I enjoy stopping to take photos on route.

My dad, before he passed, used to love walking. In his later years he couldn't walk far due to an old back injury which resulted in the use of a stick. He used to love seeing my running photos. I think it allowed him to see places he otherwise wouldn't. Hence the reason I still take photos while out running. It keeps that connection with my dad alive.

So no matter the reason or reasons for running I think the most important thing is to simply enjoy it.

🏃‍♂️😀🏃‍♂️😀🏃‍♂️😀🏃‍♂️😀🏃‍♂️😀🏃‍♂️😀🏃‍♂️😀🏃‍♂️😀🏃‍♂️😀