Here in UKia I use only one of my names and one of my last names because any other combination creates brain overload on most natives.

By googling for the different permutations of my name I have ever used I find thousands of matchings, but if I use my full name I find a few only of which two of them are mine, one an old USENET contribution (with name, company name and phone number: naivety, those were the days), another one is the result of a race I ran October last year which I mentioned on this site.

From the others I have learned I have a full homonimous that is Chilean, another Spanish and one Cuban. One of them is a microbiologist of certain international renown. The weirdest was a poor sod that was run over by something described as a "ghost truck".

The PROMs start this week, I have 6 tickets + last night, will talk about them as they come, I may prom this year (queuing for cheap day tickets) since I have lots of time while in London for the next few months, which brings me to the topic of unemployment.

Whenever I mention that I am unemployed and that I will not start looking until next year people look at me with a mix of compassion, terror and veiled disdain. My conclusion regarding this is that people are so horrified about the daily barrage of bad news by the media that they just can't fathom that somebody has been responsible with his earnings to the point of allow himself a nice break after redundancy.

I didn't take 5 times my salary for a mortgage ( the damn banks really tried the best siren songs to lure me into this), I saved for a rainy day, I don't have a car (the cost of owning a car is horrific, even pre oil price hike) and moved close to my place of work (that alone saved me £6000 in the last 3 years, i.e. between 2 and 3 months of living expenses). It is just basic maths, but few seem  willing to do them, including those whiz kids of the sub-prime mortgage fiasco.... Any way.

I signed up for another 10k race in London this weekend. The intention is to build up towards a half marathon later this year, my first. I think I have already the necessary stamina to do it, but a well put training program should deal with the mental aspects of pounding tarmac for 21km and a bit. I applied for next year's London Marathon wishing I don't win entry, but I did not know that if you apply several times in a row and you don't win then you are eventually given preference. Will see.

So my sabbatical half year's travelling schedule is sorted. I'll go to Barcelona in August and Mexico in September (visiting friends & family), then in October want to go to Seville, Granada and Cordoba in Spain, to close with Tuscany in Italy in November. Oh wait, Frankfurt in the August bank holiday (maybe).

That sounds about right before the serious business of finding a new job, I could hold for much longer on my cash reserves, but I think by then I would be mentally ready to work again with all the inconveniences it entails (the other day I went somewhere in central London at around morning rush hour, I felt truly depressed when flocking with the day to day commuters down the tube entrance, never before did I resent so much to be part of the flock as that day. Baaah!).