Tempus Fugit!

tem·pus fu·git: foreign term \ˌtem-pəs-ˈfyü-jət, ˌtem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git\: time flies

OR: What the hell happened to the last two months?

I am sitting in an airport lounge at one of Beijing’s Airport Terminals sipping a moderately hot chocolate (I pressed the Cappuccino button, honestly!). It seems like a good move now, albeit accidental, seeing as the room is fiercely air conditioned when it is a "brisk" 10degrees Celsius outside. They are probably putting hot chocolate into all the drinks on offer.

But in the process of waiting for my flight to Seoul, I have been reflecting on the fact that I was taken to task this week by a variety of colleagues and friends who all suddenly noticed that my Blog seems to have suffered from a lack of activity for almost two months. Heavens above, people check this stuff? I must admit though, it surprised me rather too. I didn’t think it had been that long since I last headed off with some tangential commentary, and it made me realise once again that this idea of retiring and slowing down might indeed be an aspiration of generally sane and intelligent people but not for me, it seems. (Which makes me ….? – Answers in a sealed brown envelope please!)

To miss a couple of months in this manner is either a function of selective amnesia or I’ve been busy. I’ll choose the latter, thanks! And that was what I have said to those who have kindly said they missed the odd comments. (I prefer to assume they meant "odd" as occasional, rather than "odd" as in strange!). But a repeated response was - "... well, you don't have to write too many words in each piece. Little and more often would work just as well." Sounds more like my dietician, but I get the point.

Just because my lack of erudite commentary on subjects as diverse as the daily performances of the "Greek Tragedy", Wayne Rooney’s apparent inability to understand that the idea of football is to put your foot to the ball, not to other people – (otherwise it would be called footpeople or something similar wouldn’t it?), marvelling at the wonderful UK Daily Telegraph caption on “The Return of the Leerer” (go on, click the link!), does not mean to say that I have been unaware of the world around me. I have. Only too well.

It’s just that I haven’t found the time to write about it. Something to do with having visited 9 different countries, taken 15 different flights, and been in Hong Kong for just 17 of the last 53 days perhaps? And to the question about what do I do about jet lag? Nothing. I am permanently jet-lagged, so I don't notice it. (And I am neither looking for a medal nor am I complaining. It's just all so much fun).

Anyway, for what it's worth - the political expediency of keeping Greece afloat may not reflect the economic reality of what should happen. It is a sorry state of affairs when austerity measures to be introduced in Greece, such as increasing the retirement age on a full pension to beyond 50, create riots. As one of my children suggested succinctly recently " Didn't you know that € is the Greek for "Oh sh*t".

Europe generally looks to be in a bit of a bind that it is unlikely to come out of for some time. The USA is taking some comfort from the European mess to deflect from its own less than stellar performance. The Middle East remains in a kind of limbo in certain areas, Egypt particularly where I am going in 10 days or so, and our friends in the UAE are still a little tender. I haven't spent much time looking at Africa or Latin America recently, but Asia continues to be somewhat positive despite the fact that growth rates are falling. But there is no room at all for complacency.

The banking industry continues to attract bad publicity, and the subject of directors pay certainly in the UK has attracted some pretty negative comments. When will we learn that you cannot in all conscience continue to think that it is alright for the gap between the rich and the poor to widen.

Enough ammunition in that lot to keep me "on blogs" for a while, so I will find Tempus to Blogit.