Good friends, no cash

My first post worked OK, this seems easier than I thought it might be, after my many failed attempts at building a myspace page, I thought that this might be the same.

I am definitely feeling better by the day and am coming out of this fluey cold that has floored me for a few days.

I txt my friend T last night, wondering if there was anything going on because I was getting a bit stir crazy. I ended up with an invite to a dinner party which was good. I didn’t know it was a dinner party till I got there and my first reaction was “I can’t deal with all these people”. I haven’t been the life and soul of the party lately (not sure if I can be described as that usually, if I’m honest) but it was OK, I was amongst friends.

These people do actually seem to care about me which is a relief………….

C was there and has invited me over to Christmas dinner, it’s really kind of her and am quite looking forward to it. That brings up a dilemma in my fuddled head, I’m not allowed to enjoy Christmas because I should be with my Children. If I’m not with my Children, then I’m not allowed to enjoy myself at all………….. I know, weird logic but that is how I feel every Christmas.

This year is worse that ever, I’m not able to see my children at all, I can’t afford to. I’m a professional man with a good job and I can’t afford to see my kids at Christmas….. how can that be? It’s a good question and one that is difficult to answer but the Child Support Agency has a lot to do with it after putting up my maintenance payments by 285% this year. Basically, I’m skint and no longer have any disposable income. I’ve done the math over and over again, bloody hell, this country is so expensive to live in. At least I don’t have much debt (well, apart from a £10K student loan which is still outstanding).

I dunno, I love living in the UK, it’s a very free and clean country but that freedom comes at such a price, I’m seriously beginning to doubt that it’s worth it. I don’t know whether it is my wages that are too little, or that my taxes that are too much. Whatever, the end result is the same, I’m working really hard, carry a lot of responsibility and I am wondering how I’m going to feed myself for the next month, that can’t be right. I work for an NGO, I can see how much money gets wasted, I know how inefficient our local authorities are and I don’t think that my £60 month council tax is good value for money.

Oh, I’m bleating on about money (or the lack of it now) boring…………

Still, I can feel it affecting my work, which isn’t good. I can be sitting round a table in a meeting with some of the senior managers of the local water company, who are all on at least £60K plus, discussing environmental needs and justifying why, and where, the water company needs to spend £Xmillion during the next periodic review, and in the back of my mind I’m planning to max out on the lunchtime buffet so I can skip food later so that I can afford a pint with my mate in the evening !!!!!

I am very much at the head of some extremely high profile issues around the “growth areas of the South East” It is a lot of responsibility, I live in a 1 bed flat and haven’t got two ha’pennys to rub together.

That’s it, I’m getting really boring now, sorry.

Anyhow, I still have some stuff to learn about this blogging business, like uploading photos etc. I see that some blogs have videos and all sorts, not that I’m planning to go very far down that line, I just want somewhere to sound off. I promise that it won’t always be about me whinging about money (or the lack of it).