well that was a little bit embarrassing

I had to go to training in Hobart today, and since we are spread out all around the state, the company decided to celebrate a staff Christmas at the same time. So yesterday after work I 'zipped' down the highway and had a yummy dinner with nice colleagues. Today we gathered for training, and it was surprisingly good. I enjoyed the conversation (about a theology of work and ethics in business) and, apart from feeling slightly brain dead from sitting all day, found it motivational and stimulating.

While at the training, I parked my car in a nearby multistory car park. I'm not quite sure how it works there - every space seemed to say 'reserved' but I was sure I had been directed to this car park by the conference centre. So I kept climbing around and around and around. Eventually I came upon a young man who was stamping tickets with 'early bird' and (after accidentally almost knocking him over) I querulously asked where I should park. He directed me to a space and I set off down the eight flights of stairs.

After the training I elected to wake myself up for the two and a half hour drive home with a little shopping. I mooched around, decided I didn't feel like spending money and just picked up a tub of magnesium powder to restore my happy pants.

Back at the car park I circled down and down and down to the payment counter and handed over my ticket. I was sure I had seen a sign outside advertising $4.50 for the day and I was ready with my $5 note. Ha ha. 'Nine dollars' he said.

And then the scrabbling began, because I only had five dollars plus a few coins. I pointed out the early bed stamp ('Yes Ma'am, it would have cost $15 without it') and scraped the coins together. $8.85. I apologetically handed it all over and searched frantically around the inside of the car for another coin or two. Nothing. I donned the most beseeching like I could muster and waited.

At which point the young man rescued me. He handed back the five 5 cent pieces and accepted that I was running short.

What a relief. But how embarrassing!! I really need to make sure I have more cash on hand.

not quite on my soap box again

So I'm concerned, worried, scared about the environment. Apparently the science is in and, apart from ignorant non-experts, everyone agrees global warming has reached crisis point. We've really stuffed it up. What I find most troubling is that we madly keep on with wrecking our home, despite the warning signs telling us something is seriously wrong.

There have been some interesting online articles recently, chewing over the reasons for, and implications of our refusal to address this issue. There is some evidence to suggest climate sceptics have fallen prey to an elaborate defence mechanism designed to prevent them from thinking about death. Never mind that avoiding the issue and denying climate change brings us all closer to the end of life as we know it. Just don't think about it. Say it isn't true.

Other climate change, brain function, behavioural scientists think the risks seem too remote for us. The earth is spiralling towards cataclysmic upheaval, rising sea levels, potential ice age, and mass extinction, but it's not happening tomorrow? Oh well. Turn the air-con up, drive don't walk, and eat as much meat as you like - it might never happen!

Then there's the industry lobby. Think of all the profit we'll lose if we don't keep on pumping carbon into the atmosphere! Seriously, the economy will fall apart. We'll all die if we don't have more money. So don't even think about charging tax on carbon emissions. We just can't afford that cost. Too bad that it might kill us all in the long run - economic growth is key.

I find it singularly depressing. No matter what Frank and I do to reduce our carbon footprint, it will never be enough, because too many other people don't care, or they simply love money more.

Shame on you.

But we'll keep plugging away despite all that. We have solar power on the roof. It's even connected now (after 4 months. long story) so we power our house from the sun all day. We've started charging mobile phones and tooth brushes during the day, to save drawing from the grid at night. We walk or ride the bike when we can. Meat makes much less regular appearances on our plate. Just about everything we do is accompanied by a quick calculation of its environmental impact. For example, tonight we cycled to the river front for fish and chips. The calculation runs something like this:

Cycling = carbon neutral. Fish and chips = unsure of stocks of fish we ate therefore unable to calculate accurately. Communal cooking = less environmental impact than heating oil at home to cook fish and chips ourselves. Overall = not too bad, but might be better if we ordered a salad instead.

We like to think it all counts. And of course it does. But is it enough? Only if everyone else gets on board! Come on people - time to make a difference for our planet.

money games

Last week I sorted receipts from shopping long past. Someone, somewhere once told me to keep receipts as a safety net against inevitable banking errors. Ten years of receipt collection later and I've found one or two mistakes, both of which occurred in the UK, one having nothing to do with a receipt, instead being the incorrect withdrawal of money from my account and its subsequent quiet return. It was sorted out well before I received the statement in the mail and my only lasting concern was that, since the 'withdrawal' was made in a foreign country, the volatile exchange rate left me a few pence short.

My receipt pile was getting beyond a joke, taking over its file, the drawer... the house. I decided to sort, cross check and chuck. It took all day, during which I found one receipt from Jesmond BigW dated 27/10/96, a letter with an email address I've been hunting for for a couple of years and a Chickenfeed receipt for 50 cent wrapping paper. They made a big difference to the bank statements...

Rustling through the papers I couldn't help observing the way my shopping habits have changed recently. No longer do I visit the discount meat store, choosing instead to pay a bit more for meat I know the source of. There were Spotlight receipts, where now I support several fantastic locally owned craft stores. I found a reminder of how much sugar I used to consume with the receipt for two dollar jelly babies - another Chickenfeed special. Some shops no longer exist, others like the Christian bookstore have been taken over. There was a receipt for antrid, from the time our kitchen benches were infested and one for the beautiful cashmere jumper I bought on a trip to Hobart. I'd even kept the receipt from a money order to pay for my visas to the Philippines in 2005 and China in 2006, plus the Tamar River Cruise work Christmas dinner in 2005. Some items weren't even receipts! There was a list of all the cartons and items moved from Newcastle to Tasmania by a local removalist company, a lease agreement and a referee report from a previous landlady. What a trip down memory lane!

The receipts matched up with the bank statements well enough, though there were several gaps where some were missing... and after five years of elapsed time I don't care about that, leave alone the bank! They joined the others in the bin.

I'll probably go on keeping receipts - old habits die hard - but perhaps now my motivation will be posterity rather than good book keeping! Tedious as it was, there was some fun in remembering the past and musing over how life used to be, even just five years ago!

this is one of the reasons for the eye rolling...

Australia won 14 gold medals at the Olympic Games.

Yay.

This is how much it cost in government funding for every medal: $16.7 million.

Yay?!

I hate to rain on the parade, but isn't that figure a bit outrageous in a world filled with poverty and injustice?

And to those people who claim our poor showing in the Olympics means the government should fund our sports people even more (surely they are forgetting our small population - in terms of medals per capita we've done pretty well. Or maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better... national pride and all that.) I have this to say:

Millennium Development Goals

The money we spent on the Olympics had the potential to supply millions of people with mosquito nets to prevent them from contracting malaria. Or fund the establishment of health clinics. Or reduce maternal and infant mortality.

Go figure.

nabbed by the bank

OK, so it wasn't the smartest thing I've done to assume the best of a bank, but I thought if I paid out a loan their computer system would be onto it and consider the loan automatically closed.

No such thing. Last week I received a letter advising me that the repayments on the loan I have with them (that I paid out in November) have increased by $10 a month. Hello, I've paid out that loan, didn't you know? So I phoned them and was informed (rather condescendingly) that I would need to visit my local branch to formally close the loan.

And pay off the $37.58 of accrued monthly fees and interest. Right.

I've been NABbed!

Rest assured the loan is well and truly closed now. And I won't be paying monthly fees and interest on the monthly fees for the remaining five year life of the loan. What a relief!

is this a sign?

Maybe it's because I grew up in churches where God 'spoke' through everything and everyone, or perhaps I have a shadowy superstitious streak, or it could be that I just like a bit of a laugh... whatever the reason, I've developed the habit of saying "it's a sign!" when circumstances seem particularly stacked for (or against) a certain decision. But mostly I say it as a joke.

Not that I don't believe God is interested in my life, and certainly my experience is that if I take time to tune in to his voice, she speaks through the wind and the sun and the birds and the rain. But after years of unsuccessful searching for flashing neon signs in the sky every time I have a decision to make, I've realised that mostly God lets me make up my own mind about what I will or will not do. Occasionally I have a strong sense I should do this or that but most of the time I get on with making the best decision based on the available information and then I ask God to walk with me through the choice or to help me survive the ensuing consequences. God is very present in my life, but he is no voodoo doll responding on demand.

That being said, I've started wondering if God is trying to speak to me about the new credit card I'm applying for!

Now it's OK... I'm not planning on running up massive amounts of debt in the midst of a credit crisis, but one of my friends recommended her institution's credit card because their interest rate was a wapping 8% lower than that of my current credit card. I thought it was worth looking into so when I had 15 minutes to spare a couple of weeks ago I ducked in and filled out the forms.

Apparently the government in its wisdom recently decided that it was not sufficient for me to show my 100 points of ID and payslip in order to receive instant credit. Now I must photocopy each item, have the copy certified by a JP and then present it to the financial institution. I dutifully photocopied everything, had it certified and handed it over to complete my application last week. Except that I miscalculated the ID points and only supplied 90. I needed to make another trip to the JP and (feeling very embarrassed) I wondered if there was any point bothering - I mostly pay off the account each month anyway so what's the point of a lower interest rate?

Over the course of the week I decided it wasn't really too much trouble to get one more copy certified, so today I trudged back to the library and dragged the JP from her very important work in order to certify my final measly copy. I represented every single signed form at the financial institution and all seemed well.

Until half way through my pleasant stroll home my mobile rang... "Ah, Cecily, we haven't quite finished the paper work. You haven't signed the application (because you were in such a rush the day you first applied - 15 minutes wasn't really long enough after all). We can't process it until you come back and sign on the dotted line."

Again I am left wondering if this is worth all the effort! Four trips to their office just to apply for a card I don't really need and merely liked the interest rate of?! And the colour and shape of the card is nice too, but I wasn't going to mention that... seems a bit trite and all.

Sigh. "Next week" I said, "I'll be back next week."

And, ah, God... are you saying something here? Is this a sign? Should I be listening?!