2010, eh?

It's not officially the 'end of the noughties' until 31st December 2010, but I reckon 2000-2010 should go down in history as the 'decade we'd rather forget'. At least as far as the UK is concerned. For me it's been a decade of highs and lows. 2001-3 were pretty good years for me personally and financially. Marrying Mrs S. My first trip to Canada and the USA. Touring Europe on our beat up old Triumph motorcycle, and learning how wonderful air conditioning can feel after a long hot day in the saddle. Work was good, I was making good money. Yay.

Then came 2004-2007 which were very poor years. Work evaporated. Not so yay. Lost pensions (Two of them). Lived off my savings for a year until my money ran out and ended up taking a menial job which I hated, although that hatred gave me some cracking first hand material and serious insights into the human condition. Oh, and a book, funnily enough.

2007 was when Mrs S and I took our great 'leap of faith' and threw up our highly stressed lives to come half way across the planet to BC. We'd watched the way things were going in the UK and sold up almost at the apex of the housing boom. Mrs S sold the house, we packed the kids off to Uni, and after crossing the trans Canada highway from Campbell River BC to Halifax Nova Scotia and back stopped here in the mid-Island area. Over 12,000Km or about 7,500 miles. We're over 4,500 miles (almost 7,500km) as the crow flies (If said putative Crow wanted to take the shortest sub-arctic route) from where we first started. It has been a long and varied journey so far. 2010 promises to be more of the same with some of the restrictions removed, which will be a help.

Will 2010 be any better than 2009? I've just turned my head to watch a Bald Eagle sail lazily past before casually taking a perch on the highest solid branch of a threadbare Douglas Fir some four hundred metres away. He's currently preening his flight feathers ready for another foray in search of sustenance. To make 2010 a better year than 2009 I must do likewise and gird my loins for the next step forward.

Perhaps the UK electorate will see sense and oust the current pathetic shower. Perhaps I will be wrong and 'Call me Dave' won't turn out to be the next Edward Heath. Maybe the UK economy will strengthen and our capital will go up in value. These are things I can do little about, but which I have great hopes for. I'm also hoping that the current Harper government over here continues to resist the siren calls from the IPCC to trade the very air that we breathe, and instead focus on keeping the Canadian economy set on producing and selling real goods and services.

Whatever happens, I shall make like the Eagle just across the way; tidy my feathers, take in the lie of the land and prepare to soar. The future is out there and all I have to do is go and take a look. It may be raining as I type these words, but the sun is making a spirited effort at breaking through the rain clouds, and patches of blue are beginning to make themselves known.

Anyway, that's 2009 done and dusted. Glad it's over. May I wish a far better 2010 to everyone. I think we deserve it.