January blues

Well, we’re just over a week into the new year, and I didn't really expect to be scratching around for something to write about. It's not a classic case of writer's block, instead it's much more a general and very weird feeling of melancholy. This feeling of lethargy peaked on Tuesday, and fortunately subsided somewhat, the following day. There’s no logical reason for me to feel down in the dumps, as I've got absolutely nothing to feel bad about. I'm living a good life, I've got a loving and supportive family, and I've got some good friends as well.

A new year should mean a new beginning, but sadly at the moment, it's more an instance of the same old, same old. Coming as it does, after all bright lights, glitter and razzmatazz of the Christmas and New Year celebrations, the opening week of January has been marked by some very bleak and cold winter days. I haven’t been out on any rambles this Twixmas, an activity I would normally do over the Christmas period. I also haven’t seen many local buddies this year, mainly because I haven’t attended much in the way of CAMRA socials.

This year the weather seems a repeat of the last few Christmases, with flooded fields, muddy paths, and cold driving rain. Not exactly conducive to a cross-country hike, especially when combined with the wet slushy snow, we’ve experienced over the past few days. Fortunately, the sun came out this morning, which certainly helped lift my mood, but this left me wondering whether I’ve been suffering from SAD seasonal affective disorder.

Today, one of my work colleagues is flying out to Egypt, for some winter sun. He told me, that the sun will help lift the mood of his partner, who is affected quite badly by a lack of sunshine, during the winter months. Coming originally from South Africa, this perhaps isn’t surprising, but he was confident that once his girlfriend gets out, by the pool, and starts soaking up those golden rays, she will be a different person. SAD isn’t a condition that I’ve given lot of thought to, but it certainly makes a lot of sense.

Shortly before Christmas, I booked a mini cruise for the whole family, which means Matthew will be joining Mrs PBT’s and I on a short return sailing, across the North Sea, to the former Hanseatic, north German port city of Hamburg. It will be Matthew’s first visit to this part of Germany, as well as his first cruise. It will also be a nice family break for all three of us, especially as it will be a pre-cursor to the late spring, "round Britain cruise" that Mrs PBT’s and I will be embarking on, in the last week of May.

Back to the melancholia for a moment or two, global events haven’t exactly helped. The world economy still hasn’t recovered completely from the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Many governments had to either borrow heavily, or to accept a bail from organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The global pandemic of 2020-23, didn’t help either, as with populations across the world forced into lock-down and isolation, in order to contain and prevent the spread of COVID 19, governments were forced to introduce furlough schemes, just to keep economies and indeed populations afloat. Sovereign debt has therefore increased still further.

Set against this background are the selfish actions of four individuals, all male, and all people who might be described as mavericks. That might be too kind a description, and disruptors would be a more appropriate term. Even that is far too good for a bloodthirsty, warmongering, despotic dictator like Vladimir Putin, who tops this group of disruptive malcontents. Nigel Farage, with his unfortunately, successful campaign to remove the UK from the European Union, was the person who lit the spark, and emboldened Putin and his campaign to resurrect the corrupt, oppressive, bankrupt, and totally burnt out, Soviet Union.

We then come to Donald Trump, an egotistical, narcissist loudmouth who, if you though was bad enough first time around, well you ain’t seen nothing yet. Voters in the recent US presidential elections, seem to have developed a collective madness, by returning this joker to the White House, and I’m sure we shall all be worse off as a consequence. Trump now has his No. 1 fanboy, Elon Musk opening his mouth and throwing his weight around. The world’s richest man has plenty of money to throw around, with the mistaken belief he can buy politicians, governments and even entire countries. Given the massive size of the egos of these two men, there’s fortunately a strong chance they will have a falling out, sooner, rather than later, but the whole sorry saga of Farage, Putin, Trump and Musk, isn’t really a cause for optimism.

Right, having got all that off my chest, it's high time for a beer, or three!