And in other news, the next of the governments big anti-recession ‘incentives’ has hit our bank account. While I’m not complaining about the sudden appearance of an extra $1000 in the bank, particularly since it’s exactly half our next mortgage payment, and since it’s far preferable to being poked in the eye with a short stick - I still don’t understand what Kevin’s hoping to achieve. There again, what do I know - couple of people on the expat forums have commented that the car parks at the big shopping malls were absolutely heaving today as people rushed off to K-Mart, Target and Harvey Norman in their pursuit of Tivos, Tents and Mobile Telephones. Maybe it will stave off a recession.

Unlike a lot of people, Liz and I work for ourselves, so in some ways we miss the worst effects of any economic downturn. Short of firing ourselves, our jobs are fairly safe. If anything, my work (fixing PCs) has actually picked up because ($1000 gift vouchers aside) people are deciding to patch our their old PCs rather than splurge on a new one. They’re also rapidly discovering just how reliant they’ve become on their PCs. Without even noticing, they’ve started banking on ‘em, doing the household and business accounts, storing all their photos, bargain hunting on eBay, using Skype, playing games, listenign to the radio, watching movies … they’ve become as essential to the household as the family car.

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