>>One way out of the vicious circle is to simply step out.
>
>It's a shame. I was watching Ice Road Truckers and on the cb radio an Alaskan truck driver told one of the Canadian drivers to go home and give the job to an Alaskan. There seems to be a real attitude with some folks. When the economy sinks, tempers flare and folks get desperate and mean. It reminded me of the stories and films of how some folks behaved in the depression. It's like the last person in the boat syndrome.

People in a crisis usually behave better than you'd expect, unless their manners are shaped by Hollywood. There's much more solidarity here (which I only on UT learned was a bad word), people helping each other. Well, used to be, nowadays with capitalism rampant here I'm not sure anymore.

>I hope it works out well for you there. Do you at least have a colorful home? :o) I'm guessing orange, yellow, bright blue or red? :o)

Close. Daughter's room is yellow (including the ceiling), her furniture is mocha with vanilla doors; our bedroom is sky blue (pure white ceiling) with dark chocolate/latte doors with flowers painted on them; the big room is all white except the wall to the garden which is lilac (or close to teal). Bathroom was tiled to the ceiling already (in something #cecece), so nothing to paint there, but the new toilet seat is as red as your flag. Now we're looking for at least one more thing to match it, will probably find a shower curtain.

But then you wouldn't believe how colorful is the rest of the world here. I've seen bright yellow fences on the bridges; the fence around the customs' impound yard is red (same pure red, only a tad darker); the city buses are pink, orange, blue... and the graffiti are close to artful. And I've stood once in the main street for 15 minutes waiting for my wife to arrive, watching the people in the pedestrian zone. I counted: only about one in 12 had one gray piece of clothing on them. The colors, indeed.