2008 What a Year

What a year 2008 has been, we have witnessed the start of a world wide recession that has brought misery and uncertainty to millions of us. The job market has shrunk with many big name companies like Woolworths going bust with the inevitable job losses compounding the problem.

  The news programmes are full of bad news going from the credit crunch to the latest problems between Israel and the Palestinians.  At home we have continual updates on the rising unemployment figures and home repossessions.  Our capital city London has seen the grotesque rise in knife crime which according to our leading daily paper The Times eighty three people have lost there lives, countrywide the figures equate to five people a week losing there lives in this senseless and barbaric way.

Boy this looks and feels bad, but we have a new year 2009 is upon us we can both look to this New Year with optimism and find solutions to our problems.  Or we can just sit around blaming either the government or the banks for our situation and let things get worse.  So what can we do as individuals to improve the situation, I can only go on my own experience I lost my job in the motor industry ten months ago.  Like many others I have had to adjust to a lowering of my living standards like not eating out two or three times a week.  Guess what I have learned to cook good food at a fraction of the cost I used to spend on restaurants and take aways.  This is just one example of the benefits I have received from changed circumstance.

Having decided I could not survive on state handouts for long I took the decision to turn a lifelong hobby into a business.  It has been tough but as each month goes by it has got a little better I am still nowhere near the income I used to enjoy but I am happier I can spend more time with my family, who used to get a little lost when I was following my career.  So for me there have been opportunities to improve my life that I did not think possible just a year ago.

Nothing I have achieved this last year would have been possible without the support of my family and friends.  So I would encourage anyone who has lost there job to look around for fresh opportunities whether it be education, retraining or starting your own business please do not waste your time use it to create something better.

So here is to 2009 a better year.