As I mentioned before, Hairdressers like cash, yet we are the poorest paid, considering the level of expertise and diverse skills we have to master. We also rate as the most poorly paid professional people, with the highest job satisfaction and 'happiness factor'. We are also probably the most reliable profession, taking shorter holidays, working longer hours, and going the extra mile for our clients. We have to be almost dead before we take a day off, or phone in sick. And generally we are social creatures who like to party, except me, I like my own company. I have been listening to people for so long, I think I forgot how to talk.
I still think of myself as a hairdresser, but due to the back injury, I now have really bad back pain standing, so even doing shop work or retail is out. I have one of those kneeling chairs for sitting here, which is fine, but I have the same problem with an ordinary chair. I am alright moving about, lifting, digging, walking, but I do have terrible aches and pains after If I have done too much. And no, I am not signed on expecting Jersey Social Security to give me a hand out. I am capable of doing something, just that I haven't decided what I want to commit to. I did offer to help with some charity work, but no-one has come back to me!
Just have to see if I can flog paintings. I must get some of them varnshed and see if any of the local galleries will sell them for me.
Anyway back to the morning thought. I do just wake up with this stuff in my head, and I never bothered writing it down before, because I was always going out to work.
I woke up with the thought that people must be saving actual printed money, as I realy can't see any reason why governments would print more. Perhaps like me, many more people are going back to trying to use cash, as it is easier to get to grips with debts when you only have cash to manage.
(I did have a thought that perhaps the Americans were collecting up all the dollars in circulation, boiling them up to get the cocaine out of them, and selling it back on the street. Then recycling the paper back into bank notes. Good thing I don't live in America, the Thought Police would have got me by now and put me back on Serequel).
It occured to me that all this rampant inflation has only been made possible since developing electronic money. When you actually think that the Crisp Packet calculation means that £40 weekly wage 45 years ago works out to £600 now, I think that means as the £40 is pretty well 6.66666% (I think this is going to be recurring) money has actually been devalued by a rounded up figure of 93.33% over 45 years, so that is an average of 2.074 inflation per year. So I guess if inflation is over this figure we are escalating this problem even further.
I did notice the of 666 here so thats very apocalyptic!
I wonder if we just went back to a manual banking and stock exchange system by choice, if it would actually correct itself more quickly. I much prefer to pay with a cheque, as I keep tabs on my balance as I go along. I also like a few quid in my pocket, I also like finding the odd fiver in a jacket I haven't worn for a while.
I think it is better to have part time tellers at the banks doing manual transactions and clearing, so that people are employed, rather than electronic money systems that have become too volatile and just make it too easy to do crime, hide stashes of despot money in offshore accounts, and do all sorts of nasty things to the working population behind their backs, like propping up banks that have traded/gambled away all our savings.
When parents can stagger their working hours, and both parents need to work, they can hand the kids over to each other to save on child care. This is done a lot here. It only means that once the bank has finished the tills at 3.30, the till is balanced, and then the next shift comes on to do the clearing from 4pm to 8pm.
If there was actual service as well during those hours to deal with financial advice, setting family budgets and heping to consolidate the family debt problems so many people now have, the Banks could actually offer a proper way out of this debt loop for their customers.
Jersey headlines yesterday were that we managed to release £20 million of Nigeria's money from embezzeled funds that were laundered by Raj Bhojwani (who got nicked), and laundered US$43,9 million for the Abacha regime. No doubt if this has gone to press there is a further pack of our bloodhounds going through the financial services to find any more we can repatriate.
This level of international fraud has only become possible with electronic banking. In the old days the joke was that people would turn up in Jersey with a suitcase of money to put in the bank, well you can only put so much money in a suitcase! These days with tougher auditing of banks and private accounts, you have trouble moving cash at all from one account to another.
The other factor is that if people are using actual money and cheques there is the personal aspect of I 'promise to pay the bearer'. The paper is worthless in itself, but it represents that someone has been out to work to get it, and have this bit of 'billy doo' that they exchange for someone else's 'work'.
It is the reassurance that within our local economies the wheel of exchange is still turning.
I do increasingly think that the euro has failed, but it is better to dismantle the system slowly, rather than take a manic leap at it. Having the independent european 'face' currencies (that each country backs with it's own gold reserve), float against each other is a tool for calming the volatility of a single european currency v other reserve currencies.
However, underpinning the system with a 'trading euro' that is pinned to a combined european productivity factor, so that goods can be moved and paid for in a europe wide exchange makes sense.
I am sure Germany would like to set up local production of Miele in other countries to create jobs, instead of having to ship crate loads of dosh to Spain and Greece. This means if their product is made for that economy, by that economy, the price isn't inflated by transit, exchange rates, and unemployment.
I have to say I am a Miele fan. I buy the top of the range washing machines and tumble dryers, vacuum cleaners, and I even have a Miele rotary iron, as I love cotton sheets, tablecloths and napkins, and making beds that are a joy to sleep in. I am prepared to pay a pemium for these appliances as they are so well made and last so long. They are energy efficient, and well designed. They have the sort of functions I want.
As my washing machine has such a gentle hand wash, I never send anything to the dry cleaners. I wash my suits, and steam them back into shape. I washed one of my Husbands silk ties, and his suit trousers after a recent wedding as he ended up with a bottle of wine all over him. Both came out perfectly. I am going to take the plunge and try washing the jacket to this suit, and steaming it. (I have a hand steamer, which is far better for suiting than constantly sending it to the dry cleaners).
There is also a Miele service agent on the island. So I can get my machines fixed if they go wrong. Just to underpin the value of these machines, I put a normal household Miele wasing machine and tumbele dryer in my salon 8 years ago, which are still working perfectly, think how much of a hammering they are taking. Yes they have had minor repairs, but an incredible investment for domestic machines.
It also means I am not having to take a washing machine to the dump every three years, as I know perfectly well that they are designed to fail after so many washes! As Jersey is an island, we have to find somewhere to dump things, so I see this as being environmentally responsible too.
We have been brainwashed into wanting everything as cheap as we can get it. This has casued a loss of local employment, local culture, having poor quality as the normal product, and having a mindset that all this 'stuff' is just as disposable as the plastic bags and rubbish we choked all the oceans with.
We have plenty resources, they are all in infill sites!
Now with my Husband and I being foodaholics, we know where the best stuff is, only the only way to eat it is to go to the place where it comes from. For instance we went to Palma a few years ago on a cheap package tour, and blew over a £100 quid in a little restaurant eating the acorn fed cured ham. You have to go and eat it cut straight off the ham, as it doesn't taste the same from a packet in the supermarket. Also it is a very skilled thing to cut the ham as it has to be done by hand. It doesn't taste the same if it isn't cut by hand. It is something to do with bottom wiggling!
We went to Ireland to visit friends and want to go back. Even our friends who are foodies didn't now about Clew Bay Oysters, and that the Oyster festival was on in Gallway. Three of us ate Six Dozen of these, and a good deal of Murphey's to see them off.
We save up to have these extravagant food fest moments, and actually go out of our way to get them.
The photo I took of the Ducks in Norway, that has the odd fracked seagull in it, was just after sitting outside the fish market where we bought the local fish and ate it on a bench. That's where I bought my expensive fur hat. We tried whale meat, it was an incredible experience. I wouldn't eat it anywhere else, because it is not part of our normal seasonal diet, but to try it somewhere where it has been considered a staple in Norway is acceptable to me.
We have eaten chicken feet and beggars chicken in Hong Kong. Cow skin in Jamaca in a tin hut, and I have bought local fabrics in every place I can find them. I love buying cotton sheets in Cyprus, and would like to buy egyptian cotton sheets in Egypt. I also want to by a proper authentic Tadgine dish in Morocco, and some leather to cover more of my books. I want to buy curly fleece for adding collars and cuffs to my wardrobe from Nepal as well, although I might be able to buy one from a market next Fetes des Remparts in Dinan.
Yes I live like a mouse, so I can have these experiences every few years, that makes them very special.
I truly want to go on an Icon trip to Russia, I want to go to Hagia Sophia, I want to go to so many places that have incredible cultural heritage, and archeological significance. I have considered taking a tour guide course, and actually leading these trips. My Husband is a Blue Badge Guide, and teaches guiding, so I could get him to coach me as well!
However all these places need to be safe to visit. They need the investment and infrastructure to use for tourism. Also offering traditional craft courses and local cookery classes is very popular with many people.
Anyway I feel as though my morning thoughts have been aired, so will go do something useful.
That cherry jam Himself made is divine, I fancy a croissant and cherry jam reward for my efforts this morning. He even took the stones out!
Nope, we have eaten all the croissants, so it will have to be home made Brioche. I need to have a baking day on Monday, make some Pumpkin bread, and more Brioche, and I fancy some Banana and Ginger bread as well.