A return to planet earth.

Forget all the rhetoric burbled by the usual motley crew of western leading politicians regarding the recession, lets look at us here in the real world for moment. I've been thinking alot this week about how the recession his actually affecting us. One interesting twist came up when I decided that I needed to down size my car recently. One of the things that I realised whilst reviewing my money situation was that in order to actually purchase my smaller, older, slower car, I would have to sell the one I've got now. I sat back in my stair and for a moment was completely perplexed by this and it dawned on me that I had never actually had to do this before. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm far from loaded. It's not as if every time I'm bored with the colour 0f my new Bentley I march into my local dealer and demand a red on instead. For the last ten years or so, basically ever since I started driving, I've bought cars at the very limit of what I had available so me at the time. Very often this was around 500 to 1500USD. Except when I bought my last car. Last time in the height of the credit frenzy, I decided for the first time (running counter to everything I believe in), to buy a Suzuki 4x4 on finance from my local dealer. This will be the first and last time this ever happens. Though I have to admit after years and years of frosting up the glass staring into the showrooms, looking at all the toys on display, knowing I would never be able to afford them, it did give me a strange sense of power as the sales person handed me a posh cup wafting with the scent of fine Columbian coffee and I slid back into the comfy leather chair all purposely designed to induce a pseudo sense of omnipotence. It's was intoxicating. It really was, even though I knew fine well the money I was spending wasn't even mine and I'd be paying it back till the end of my days. I savoured the moment, every last drop of it.

So now I've found a little Renault 1 litre that should get me about in a much more modest fashion. Problem is, that instead of just saving for a week or two to buy it and then sticking the other one in the paper or in a prominent place by the road with a sign in the window, I now find myself in a "chain of sales". Just like when buying a house. I can't buy the Renault until a chap that wants to buy my Suzuki sells his to a young student who's getting back to him when HIS buyer pays for the car he's trying to sell...and so on and so forth all the way down the line. The lady I'm buying the Renault off is also waiting for me to buy so she can get her hands on the car she's been after too. To make matters worse so far in the neverending chain, we've have two back-outs and one change of car. It's becoming farcical, it really is. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that we were all in a giant loop or something. Though, amidst all the complaining there is a flip side to this, after dozens of phone calls to bother the buyer and the seller I've got to know them quite well and the really quite nice people. turns out we have friends in common. We've exchange ideas and I've learnt useful things. Things I probably would never have know otherwise. Like did you know you can make a digital photo frame like the one in the shops out of an old broken laptop? no? neither did I! This would never have happened the old way. Encounters were always awkward things involving alot of mistrust on both side. Very cold and business like. It's a brave new world we find ourselves in and I for one am excited at the possibilities.