President's blog

They say that Monday 21st January was the most depressing day of 2008. I understand this was partly due to the continuing bad weather, the fact that for most of us our New Year resolutions had long since gone out of the window and the credit card bills for spending over Christmas were arriving. However, there will always be exceptions, i.e. weekend lottery winners who have arrived at work to hand in their notice or who have just received a letter advising them that a long lost maiden aunt has left them a quarter share in a gold mine.

My own New Year resolutions have only partly succeeded. To exercise more is on target but not to get so frustrated with London traffic and people who barge past me to get the one last remaining seat on the train or underground have failed miserably. The only consolation is that so far young people are not yet getting up and offering me a seat due to my apparent ageing appearance!

It is, however, fortunate that Christmas and the New Year in the UK generally passed by peacefully and the hope is it stays that way for the rest of 2008.

I am now under considerable pressure to commit to holidays. I entirely blame my daughter, Georgina, for going to Venice just after New Year with her boyfriend. This has highlighted the fact that Paula and I have not yet done so ourselves. I can almost guarantee that Venice will be part of the 2008 itinerary. In fairness to me though we are planning a trip to India and despite rumours to the contrary this is not a repeat of my early experiences with transcendental meditation and the music of Ravi Shanka.

Between the start of writing this message and today the world stock markets are suffering some degree of uncertainty and whether we are heading for a full scale recession or not seems in doubt. If it does happen all Adjusters know that they are likely to be busier as attempted fraud and arson always seem to increase when this happens. It’s an ill wind.