Into the new year

Crewkerne Boxing Day pram race - the start, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Here we were a week ago, watching the Crewkerne Boxing Day pram race, sponsored by Oscars Wine Bar, following on from the start of the hunt.

In the meantime, it is a new year, already into its second day. Fred is getting better and I have been tweaking around with the layout of the blog and also preparing my CV, because it seems that my new year's resolution is to find a job. Fred's is to go on a diet, because of a deal he did with his pupils whereby if they could collect 1,000 euros for charity (edukans), he offered ot go on a diet. He has set himself the eminently reasonable task of losing only 5 kilos, although those kilos have to remain lost by the start of the summer! My plan is then to go without beer or wine in the evenings during the week, which should make a bit of difference. Then he can also give up eating licorice and fishermens friends on the way to work.

My search for work, which just started this afternoon - such was the bad weather that even a job search was better than going out into the wind, rain and mist - has led me more to temporary jobs rather than a permanent one and I have started to have the idea that I might try to take a master's degree in something like environmental science or international/sustainable development when the new academic year begins in September. The typical thing to do is to take an MBA, but having had 20 years of experience in finance and business administration, I'd like to broaden my knowledge base on the technical side. I remember environmental economics being my favourite course at university over 25 years ago when this sort of stuff was not trendy but I suppose it is still not too late to jump on the bandwagon. Fred has been heard muttering, but if I can get onto a course, my incentive to get a job to pay for it will be all the greater.