January 21st 2009

I woke up this morning feeling a new sense of optimism, a new beginning almost. Why you may ask? Because I watched the Barack Obama inauguration. I am not American, nor black, I am not in a minority group either. I have been subject to sectarian abuse and ashamed to say have been guilty of it. I am not perfect and don't live in a perfect world. All I want is my children to grow up in a better world than I and generations before me. A world without prejudice. Barack Obama was inaugurated as President of the most powerful country in the world yesterday, not because of his colour or religion, but because the voters believed he was the right man for the job. He is a man not much older than I, a man I would not have been able to sit next to on a bus 60 years ago. A man who has reaffirmed my belief that no matter how hard the battle, it can be won if it is right.

It is not that I know much about politics or the policies, it is the fact that traditional prejudices did not get in the way of peoples choices. You see our world is in a mess, credit crunch, recession, poverty, wars, to use a few soundbites. Nothing must get in the way of the right people being in the right positions to get us through it. America has now shown the way, the rest of the world can follow suit.

Lizzy and I will bring our girls up to be good people, tolerant, to treat others as they wish to be treated themselves. When they are ready to go out on their own into the world it might, just might, be a better place.

You may wonder why events on the other side of the world can affect me in my little village in the mountains of Spain. Well it has, it has made me believe that anything is possible again. That walls can be pulled down and obstacles overcome. It has given me hope.

Sorry to have rambled on a bit too much, I doubt if President Obama will even read this, but it's possible.......

January 20th 2009

Hello reader(s), just sitting here with Mac (my 2 year old daughter). She hasn't been to nursery school for the past 2 days as she has had a bad cough, so I write this to the accompaniment of loud cartoons!!!

I had my job interview on Friday, drove an hour and a half there and waited half an hour to see Sales Director only to be told there is no basic wage but I would get 5% commission on all sales. Not ideal as I need to get money in the door asap. It's an employers market at the moment, too many people chasing too few jobs. However, I have another option. I spoke to one of my brothers (I have three brothers and one sister in Glasgow, Scotland) at the weekend who can get me in somewhere driving taxis, so I have booked a flight to Glasgow for January 28th.

Driving a taxi at the moment doesn't seem a bad option as I should get out of it what I put into it in terms of hours. Probably not the safest job on a Saturday night in Glasgow but, hey, there's a recession and I will be lucky to work.

Looking forward and not looking forward to leaving. Can't wait to start earning some money again and send it back for Liz and the kids, but dreading leaving them at the same time. Mac keeps saying "no, you don't want to go away on the aeroplane Daddy", so it will be tough when I do go. Still there are people out there enduring worse.

I will be watching Barack Obama's inauguration speech later, I am not really a political person, but the whole Obama thing has been exciting and fills me with a sense of optimism as I think it does most people (no pressure President Obama).

I have also been reading up on making money on the Internet, trying to sort out the 'genuine' from the 'cons' and 'too good to be trues'. More on all that later though. And remember I am a complete novice at all this, so if I do find a way of making cash (I will write all about it) then so can you.

Better go as Mac needs me to find 'Peppa Pig' DVD.

Good luck and if the recessions affectiong you and yours, keep going.

Take care for now
John