Cancelling Tech-Ed, a considered cut-back
All dark at the morn
It quickly dawned on me this morning when I left home for work considering I had the penchant for arriving at work around 11:00AM in my last endeavour; I find that I am at work before 9:00AM in what constitutes a 1 hour 45 minute commuting journey.
Yes, it did dawn on me that the street lights had been switched off well before dawn; we are in the autumn months and sunrise [1] today was supposed to be 07:51AM, I literally walked in the dark to the tram station some 4 minutes away – it was eerie.
The power to charge
On Saturday, we had a power cut for nigh on 2 hours, no one could explain why, but some including myself would have been relieved for a while that the energy bill black hole had closed its mouth for while.
Even I cannot believe what I pay for electricity and heating, I have just allowed them to claw at my account with impunity, but I am getting to the stage that I find the situation less than funny anymore.
As I got to work, I threw some stuff in the bin only to find that the office bins had not been emptied over the weekend.
No Forte for Fortis
Meanwhile, as the credit crunch swirls around with the menacing destruction of a never before recorded hurricane force, my mortgage bank which at the beginning of last week was partly privatised is now fully owned [2] by the Netherlands government – as I fall into the higher tax band, there is no doubt that even my pennies would go into assuaging the gross offences of those who first laughed all the way to the bank and now are running off with the loot and not giving a hoot.
Microsoft cancelled
I had planned to go to Barcelona in the first week of November and had paid in full for the Microsoft Tech-Ed EMEA 2008 [3] community gathering as a Super Early Bird registrant, my mouse has hovered over the cancel button a few times in the last week – I think, the thought alone means I would not fight the urge to cancel.
I think planning for a decent holiday in December takes precedent over this jaunt; it would have been different if someone else was paying for it and I was still earning something whilst I was away – freelance consultants have no such luxury. Maybe next year.
Just around this time, one would have received an invitation for the once free Best of MMS Roadshow [4] which attracted a cost last year with poorer planning arrangements than when it was free for the two previous years – it would appear, that useful event has been shelved, quietly.
Frugality enters vocabulary
In conversation with a friend over the weekend, I used the word frugal in relation to certain of my affairs, a word that would never have crossed my lips except in reference to others.
In other words, we are all quietly cutting back, ditching the non-essential no matter how thrilling it could be – we are left with one fervent prayer of hope that when the times are hard we would be able to see it through unscathed, and when the times of the good life return, we are left without a care about how to live it good.
What makes one so angry about it all is the guys who created the maelstrom have bolted the endangered airplane in golden parachutes and are literally out of reach of the law – whoever gets caught would most definitely be small fry – Such is life!
Sources
[1] Sunrise and Sunset for Netherlands – Amsterdam – coming days
[2] Dutch part of Fortis is nationalised - Times Online
[3] Microsoft Tech·Ed EMEA 2008
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