Foreign Perspectives

Archive for December, 2009

It hardly seems any time at all since we were packing up last January and making a start to moving back to the UK and now Christmas is only a matter of weeks away.

As usual, we’ve not yet really gotten going on our Christmas letter that goes along with the cards that we send out to far flung relatives. Also, as per normal the first of theirs has just turned up and, of course, it’s from Faye in Canada.

In previous years we needed to be a whole lot more organised with the Christmas presents in that we needed to get them on one of our relatively infrequent trips back to the UK if we wanted them to be in English. This time around we’re back to our old habits and have barely a present bought or even thought about for anyone. Still, if nothing else, the prices and availability of stuff is much improved from what it was in France. Even more noticeable is the difference in the Christmas cards: instead of really naff and expensive ones, we’ve a sensible selection at half-decent prices in all the shops.

And, of course, there’s the Christmas markets which ironically have more French stalls than there were in France!

Most people are still in search of their ideal holiday spot I’m sure. But what is “ideal” anyway?

Obviously it should take into account your interests and those of the group which you’re travelling with. But is it enough to consider each of those individually? What if there was a single spot that took account of all possible interests?

Argueably, orlando vacations would be very close to allowing for all possible interests. Granted, not quite in a single spot but in a fairly compact region you can take in theme parks, beaches, wildlife, museums and just about everything else that you can imagine.

Does that make it “ideal” though? Not for everyone certainly but it is very close to ideal for an awful lot of people.

You probably associate binoculars almost exclusively with birdwatching and indeed there are loads of people running around with “bird watching binoculars”.

What you probably don’t consider is that binoculars are ideal for a whole lot of different types of astronomy too. In fact, if you’re starting out with night sky observing, chances are that you’d be better off getting a decent pair of binoculars than a telescope. Every year, without fail, I get a little e-mail from the chief publicist in our astronomy club pointing out some massive saving to be had on Meade binoculars (that pair at the left is what I bought).

With the long nights, this is pretty much the ideal time to make your purchase, buy a nice warm coat and enjoy the night sky.

It’s hard to believe that Hogmanay is just around the corner. Obviously for such a popular event much of the accommodation has already been booked months ago but there’s still a chance of finding somewhere decent if you don’t hang about.

What’s it like then though? Think of Mardi Gras only in a colder climate and you might get some idea of the sheet quantity of activities that are going on throughout the city at that time. Street theatre is thick on the ground as are shows in venues all over the city. Although there are lots of venues, it’s also worthwhile booking somewhere for the New Years Eve party well in advance as just about everywhere is pretty much overflowing with people.

The celebrations run over four days so you’ll need to pace yourself to take it all in!

First off though, don’t hang around if you’re thinking of going as all the Edinburgh hotels book out very, very quickly.

Although they can be annoying, it does seem to be a good sign that the people trying to sell you credit cards are back in the shopping centres again and those annoying teatime calls trying to do the same have restarted too.

I imagine that there are all kinds of grand things that the economists are saying these days about when we should be starting to get out of this recession but I think the banks trying to push more credit onto us must be amongst the clearest and most easily understood sign of them all. Not only does that show that the banks have money to lend once more but it also shows that they’re at least prepared to consider lending it too. You might think I said the same thing twice in the last sentence but I didn’t. They always did have money to lend, what they wouldn’t do was actually lend it.

Moreover, this isn’t like them lending via mortgages (which also seems to have restarted, going by the number of “sold” signs going up lately). With a mortgage they have some security (ie they can take the house off you). With a credit card, they are taking a real risk that they could lose the money so overall it’s more encouraging to see people trying to sell you credit cards than it is to see more mortgages being approved.

Now, I’ll grant you that they are probably going to offer you a lower limit than you might have expected in the past, if they offer you a card at all that is. However, that they are trying to actively sell credit cards now seems a very clear sign that an upturn is on the way.