It's been quite a while since the last ramble. Being sick again for a couple of weeks was the main reason, and since then I've not felt like too much of a stay up and write Friday. Sinterklaas arrived a couple of weeks back, and this means the weekends have extra commitmments - away to the shops tomorrow afternoon again with the happy hunting credit card.
On top of that, there's the usual work shite, compounded by imminent redundancies (which theoretically I'm breaking confidentiality obligations on by writing about it here, but as this is effectively non-public, I guess i'll not worry too much). And I'm busy looking at the proposed redundancies, together with my colleagues in the Works Council, to see if the plan is acceptable. The sad thing is, I think I'll have to resign from the Works Council as the position I'm in now is untenable: I have too broad a picture and may be distracting others from their own focus, and I feel frustrated at their understandable wish to focus in a different way than I do. As I've got a big mouth, it bothers me that I'm becoming more of a hindrance than a help for the rest of the Works Council, for their own development, if nothing else.
That's difficult to express. I do also find it difficult for myself. It's weird when I find myself understanding the bosses' point of view more easily, but I've run a company and I'm one of the movers in this place, so it's definitely unusual for a syndicalist. Still, if you're gonna play the game, play hard - I like to think I'm using those skills for the benefit of most, if not always for everyone. It's the witch thing - somebody has to make the judgement calls, and it seems there's only a handful of us that are actually going to make those calls when the moment bites.
It's nice to be up late for a change, even if I have got the frankly discomforting threat of several hours at Toys'R'Us tomorrow afternoon with a hormonal pregnant wife to look forward to. The 2nd day of the 2nd Ashes test kicks off in 6 minutes, and finally I have the chance to listen to something hopefully entertaining.
It's the 1st Decmber today, which means lots of things in my own personal timekeeping. Sinterklaas time is coming to an end - and it's Pakjesavond on Tuesday already. But it's also the kick into Christmas time: we have the work party on Thursday already; and I'm already into when we're going to get the tree, the Advent calendars are dispensing chocoloate and the specials are starting to get broadcast stateside.
Also, it's the beginning of the meteorological winter here, though the only snow I've seen hints of so far are in the winter sports on TV and the digital snow on the Aussie torrents site Diwana, which is kind of unexpected - I didn't think Aussies would associate Christmas with snow.
The reason I'm on the Aussie torrent site of course is also for the cricket, which has just begun. A maiden to start. It's the ultimate feel of the European winter - the whistling of the reception and the slight twinge of the heating not quite warm enough, the imagining of sun and heat over the other side of the planet.
Not that we're having a European winter yet. I'd be hard pressed to call this an autumn as yet. I might suggest the poles were switching and the seasons topplingover, if it weren't for the rest of the Northern hemisphere. West of us, there have been some heavy winter storms, including the earliest lake effect storm ever seen in Buffalo and some good heavy dumpings of snow in the Rockies and Midwest. And east of the Urals, the temperatures have been record lows for the time of year. Which makes it even more remarkable that the temperatures in Europe have been so high. Not just slightly warmer than the record (which was anyway set last year) but knocking on towards 2 degrees hotter for the entire autumn than the record. This is unheard of, and has naturally got the meteos concerned and investigating over here.
Meanwhile, yesterday was the last day of the Atlantic Hurricane season. Well, what can you say. After last year, and 2004 for that matter, it was natural to expect another heavy season. And the result was anything but. One tropical storm hit the US, and that was it. Almost all the storms started well east, and recurved out to sea well before the Bermudas. In fact, what needs looking into, is that Western Europe had to keep more of an eye on the storms than the US. The Azores were hit a couple of times, and Spain, Portugal, England and Ireland were all hit by at least one heavy storm. I don't know the casualties, but I seem to remember a couple of people being lost when one of the hurrican remnants - Florence perhaps? - hit the West of England, Northern Ireland and northern Iberia. Which would mean more casualties from the Atlantic Hurricane season in Europe than in North America. For sure, we had to keep more of an eye on the storms than the US did!
So what do we see here?
Extremes. Oscillations. Unpredictability.
Everything that we could expect from a chaotic system being disturbed and moving to a new state. Predicting where this will settle, the new pattern that will emrge, would require an ability to understand this sort of complexity way beyond anything we can currently manage. All we can say is, extrememes will become the norm. It might be very hot or very cold, we might get storms or settled weather. We know millions will die and be displaced and economies will collapse. This is now unavoidable. The only thing remaining to be seen, is what the new pattern will be, and that is all that is left for us to influence.
Maybe the weather thing is an English tic. After all, only the English would break into the live coverage of the most keenly anticipated sporting event in years in order to bring the listenenr the forecast for ships. It is a uniquely and peculiarly English lyricism - "Dogger, Fisher, German Bight".
We shall see.
