Having travelled half way around the world I am increasingly finding things very odd. The Dutch banks have been downgraded, yet prices are great, people are out and about and airports are full. Venice had thousands and thousands of tourists as did Florence and Paris. No sign of struggle. Yes  there are a few begging on the street but haven’t there always been?maybe everyone is borrowing money to travel. And if as they say, the Italians will need to have a bailout soon, then where is all the money going I saw being spent. Still won’t have to worry soon. Doing my bit for carbon pollution soon and flying home half way round the world, where petrol is near record levels, which will force people to pay  more for everything, thus making the reserve bank think that spending is up, forcing a rise in the OCR which will mean I’ll have to pay more for my mortgage…..oh… and of course for this trip. After all, I did borrow all the money for it!!!