Joolez Talk

I'm walking

My new shoes and I are off to a mini-vacation at Lago di Garda. The parents have come yesterday and are taking care of the cats - God bless them - so we have taken the opportunity to get away for a few days.

Debt Trap?

After reading this article in the NYT The Debt Trap ... I was a bit flummoxed. I just don't get it.  One thing I want tomake clear right away, although this article is about americans, to me the country is really interchangeable.

What really beats me is HOW can ANYBODY spending more money than they have think it is NOT their own fault? Excuse me was there anybody close by pointing a gun to your head? Making you spend money - you don't have, none the less!

Are there really people in this world who think that it is their RIGHT to own and have everything they think they should have, even if they can not afford it? So when finally they are disowned they actually believe somebody else than them is to blame for their misfortune?

HELLO? WAKE UP CALL!

You can only spend money you have on things you think you need. And by that I mean: actual needs first and everything after that is luxury. Please repeat: LUXURY!
Be it a cigarette, a muffin, a computer, a TV, a car, a house, a boat, an airplane ... whatever!

As much as you like you don't NEED a house, you can rent an apartment. Even a very small one. Depending on where you live: do you really need a car? Maybe there is public transportation. Yes, not as convenient, not as flashy, but doable. Buying on QVC? We are talking crappy stuff nobody actually needs. Can't resist? Watch another programme. Still can't resist? Read a book instead (get it from the public library and return it on time, save a whole lot of money as compared to buying it), preferrably one that not only entertains you, but maybe even teaches you something. And I am NOT talking about all that "The secret of a successful and ginormeously rich life". Only the outhors of these books get rich for a whole lot of "hot air".

And if you ever have to borrow money - putting it on a credit card, a mortgage and so forth is nothing else - than never borrow more than you can possibly repay next month.

Buying a house without putting down any money of your own at all is simply stupid. You don't know if you get to keep your job, you don't know if you are going to always stay healthy. If you have no security in your back at all, you need to be either THAT lucky or win the lottery! Which basically is the same.

Yes, sometimes in life one has to take a risk. But make it a risk that you can control. One that gives you more than one option of a way out!

It is very symptomatic that today everybody thinks they need to have everything. Big surprise: you can't, and you don't need to. As unfair as it is: it is life. And it certainly doesn't change when you spend more than you can. In the end you'll just end up having even less than you could have had if you had spent your money wisely and saved and you are even more miserable. You have won nothing, but lost all.

And it doesn't take a doctoral degree to know that.

Is this for real?

Forgot my office ID, I realized when I arrived at the office at 6:50 am today. As coincidentally our working hours are monitored by means of this ID,  upon arrival I sent "the boss" an email telling him that tomorrow I need to register my hours of today manually.

So guess who called at 7:25 am - and I swear , I am ABSOLUTELY sure of this - to check if I am really physically in the office: "the boss" of course!

He was still sleep"drunk" - after all he left early yesterday, and the day before, I mean this can be very stressful! - and  kind of stammered what I was doing in the office so early.  Puleeeeeeeeaaaaaaazzzzzzzze! I could HEAR that he hadn't expected me to actually answer the phone and had no idea what to say or to explain why on earth he called. So the best he came up with is: why am I in the office early?

Honestly how do you answer a question like that?

Of course because I got shitloads to do, why else! I am NOT coming here because I feel alone, or don't like my home, or because the view is better or any of that. I am here to work!

Some people you just have to experience, they are beyond anything one could describe!

Actually ... inside I am laughing. The whole thing just tells me a lot more about his own attutude towards work. Maybe he oughta figure that one out!

Vodka-Strawberries and Champagne - Just a kiss

Here I am sitting in the dark, watching "A good year" and drinking champagne with frozen sugared Vodka-Strawberries. Wondering why it's always been the times of greatest sadness which linger on in our minds, never leaving us alone. And very often they also turn out to be our fondest memories.

Happiness and sadness often lie so close together that sometimes it seems they are intertwined and inseparable. And maybe happiness can only exist in places where there is great sadness. Making it all the worth while.

And so I am sitting here sipping on my cocktail, sweet and succulent, prickly and ice-cold refreshing going straight to my head. Like a kiss to my heart.

A kiss I once had. A kiss I have not forgotten. A kiss that ccan never be repeated. A kiss that filled me with great happiness, and sadness. A kiss that held great promise. A promise the "giver" of that kiss chose not to deliver.

But you can never take back a kiss. Once it's given it isn't yours to take back. And so I hold this kiss dear in my memory. With great happiness. With great sadness. Though it's only a kiss.

But one of those kisses that would receive an Oscar if they were on screen. A kiss that would go down in history for ever been known as "This Kiss". And yet it is mine. Forever.

Have some more sugared Vodka-Strawberries kissed by champagne. Like bubbles in my head.

Just a kiss.