After recovering from a dose of the midwinter flu and blues I’m looking forward to going on holiday.

Heading across the ditch and doing a slightly unusual trip on the Indian Pacific from Sydney to Perth. I’m fascinated by Australia especially the natural environment, and I realized I hadn’t been there for over twenty years. Good times.

Found my first “wild book” in the Octagon the other day and checked out the system at Book Crossing. Total geeksville but I kind of like the idea.

Finally paid off my student loan. Good for me but what a stinking system. If student loans meant cutting class sizes for kids and spending the money on fixing the poverty in this country and elsewhere, i’d be all for them. Sadly all the money goes in tax cuts for the financial elite and the corporate sector growing fat on the profits they bleed from the productive sector, i.e. the working class. And to think they were brought in by a “Labour” Government. The really sick thing is the State making profit out of the interest rates. Isn’t the idea of society to help out the next generation? Not when the baby boomers running the show are a bunch of pampered middle aged greedies who enjoyed **free education** **full employment** and **social welfare** when they were young – then spent the next generations inheritance on tax cuts for themselves. Ugly.