Happy New Year!!!!!

Happy New Year to all my faithful blog readers!

So here we are in 2019.  I didn't have a particularly auspicious start to the New Year, seeing it in ill, in bed, with the traditional tot of single malt, accompanied by the rather less traditional cough medicine chaser and a smidgen of Vick's Vapour Rub.

Of course the plus side of not being up to partying the night away, is that this morning I am hangover free, although the vicious, hacking cough somehow doesn't quite make up for that.

No matter..... perhaps it sets the tone for what is surely going to be a spectacularly bumpy year.  Foremost in the car crash that 2019 is set to become, is the Brexit Fiasco which is looming uncomfortably close on the near horizon.  It's looking increasingly likely that we're heading for a No Deal Brexit, the very worst of all the very bad scenarios.   The UK is currently split over the issue, with both sides glaring at each other over the bottomless chasm we're hurtling towards.

It's very possibly too late to start stocking up on Fray Bentos tinned pies, or even Spam (for the obligatory wartime austerity fritters).  In any case, when the lights go out there won't be electricity to heat the damned things up.  *sigh*

As a small business person, I still have zero idea what the whole shamozzle will mean, except that I will almost certainly have to pay more for the supplies I buy in from abroad.  There has been no guidance on what will happen with international postal delivery services to and from European countries.  At present I have a simple, seamless process, with none of the necessity for customs declarations, import duty payments etc.  That will undoubtedly change.  Then there's the possibility of the £ going into freefall, followed by a stock market crash, companies bailing out or going bust, interest rates rocketing, jobs lost.......

It's hard to believe how we got into this mess, and even harder to understand why, even at this late stage, the entire omnishambles can't be fixed.  I'm a firm supporter of a People's Vote but I don't think that will happen.  We seem to be adopting a lemming mindset.

Hmmm.....Not a very uplifting first post of the year, for which I apologise.  

In related news, Small Dog, who has her paw on the pulse of the zeitgeist has spotted a gap in the market for a dog of an entrepreneurial bent.....

Scene:  Sandra is in the office, catching up on emails.  Small Dog wanders in and sits staring intently, waiting for a pause in the tip-tappy typing.

Me: *aware of the patient stare*  Yes?  What is it?
SD: *clearing her throat* Ai hav a kunning plann.
Me: *warily* Right.  Good. What is it?
SD: *warming to her theme* Wel... yue kno this Brecksitt thing?
Me: *dolefully* Yes
SD: *perkily* We wil be orlrite.... ai hav a plann.
Me: *suspiciously*  Hmm.... look if it's about your idea for Dog Eared Dolls I don't thi...
SD: *interrupting* No...knott that....orlthew thai WER a dam gude ideer in mai opinyun.
Me: *placatingly* OK, ok,... let's not get into all that again.  Tell me your plan.
SD: *haughtily* Rite.  Jusst lissen.  Kno interupten.  
Me: !
SD: *grandly*  As a Prowd and Knowbul Yorkshier Terrior ai hav the blud of jenerashuns of ratten terriors floen threw mai vains.  When the fude runs owt and we ar liven in rags ai wil saiv us.
Me: *dumbstruck*
SD: *condescendingly* Ah.  Kno kneed to thanck me.  Ai kan see yure speetshless.
Me: *warily* Erm.... SD.  Do you mean what I think you do?
SD: *gives a confirmatory wink*
Me: *flatly*  Rats.  You're going to catch rats.  For us to eat.
SD: *confidently*  Off korse! Jusst thinck..... fresh rattattoowee, rat on kroot, rat flombay.  And we kan sell the wuns we doant kneed.  Cash in paw.
Me: *weakly* That.. um... that's very kind of you SD.  But are you sure you're up to it?  Let's face it, those post-Brexit rats are going to be the size of cats, what with all the uncollected rubbish piling up.
SD: *assuredly*  Kno problemo.  Yue jusst leev it to me.  Kumeth the our, kumeth the Yorkshier Terrior.
  

.... To be continued, no doubt.