Age of Austerity beckons, Asia and Africa call

With the lib dems fighting back heroically, it looks set to be a definite hung parliament. Whatever the politicians say, taxes will have to go up soon, to avoid an insomountable debt mountain to build that would more than likely to end up like Greece.

I love England, especialy Oxford, and can think of very few better places to study than the UK to get international exposure/experts in all fields. But to work, I don't think so. Taxes going up, costs here, bills there, not to mention the freezing weather, all points to go travelling I think. Flights booked to India in ~August, which I am looking forward to, and then hopefully a bit of travelling around the region, then Africa next year.

In the meantime though, there's much work, and play to be done...

Egypt

I met the family in Egypt for a week over Easter, for what was supposed to be a surprise. However, the surprise was spoiled the night before!

We stayed at the Hilton in Cairo first night which was great, then left first thing the next morning (family only checked in at 4am) for the aiport and a flight to Luxor. Luxor was very hot, and spent the affternnon looking around the temples of Luxor and Karnak. We cruised down the Nile (upstream-one of the few rivers to flow upstream from north to south). Cruised to temple of Enfu, then Aswan was the final stop. A tour of the dam, perfume factory, and other tourist attractions. The cruise was absolutely fantastic. The days were very hot, but were spent in the lovely cold swimming pool, snoozing in the air conditioned rooms, or reading on the deck. Early evening from about 4.30pm to 7pm was probably the best time, as the sun started to go down and the heat began to lift. Food was brilliant with a full course buffet three times a day, and tour guide, Khaled, very good too.

We flew back to Cairo, in what started as a shaky start on the Embraer-could think of just about any place in the world to crash than the Sahara desert! In Cairo, we checked back into the hotel-temperature about ten degrees cooler in Cairo. Went to the Cairo Museum to see Tutankhamen's tomb treasures, then a cruise in the evening and after the family flew back to Harare, I stayed the night then left crack of dawn to the airport and back to Heathrow.

Lies, damned lies...

With the prospect of a hung parliament looming, Brown and the Labour party feel they have a strong possibility of remaining in Downing Street. Labour has a 'machoivillian mindset' and it seems it is working.

Let's separate facts from fiction... Britain has a fiscal deficit of nearly 200 billion pounds. This means that they have spent 200 hundred billion than they have received. And yet Darling's pre-election budget has promised 'halving' the deficit... and the electorate seem to believe him.

Since coming into power, labour have slyly modified the electoral system, providing a huge buffera against losses. There are traditionally 600 constituencies in the UK. But Labour have combined some conservative strongholds of two into one constituency, whereas they have expanded Labour's from 1 into 2. This means, that give or take a few, Labour can lose to the conservatives by nearly 10% and still have a majority!

But, one wanders if the conservatives can do any better? Recent repots suggest otherwise. In the elections probably on May 6th, Britain goes to vote. I won't.

Time for a break

I have just come back from squash and now sitting with a cup of tea in front of the computer. It is a typical overcast, drizzly, (but at least not cold) March day... I am doing final tweaks to a coursework that is due in tomorrow then got one for next week, and then i'm done, for Easter...

I have now booked my flight to India, for the 13th August, so I can kind of say my summer has started! Been reading some books on India and Nepal for the trek over the past few days and getting really, excited, even though it is still five months away... never-the-less, much to be done before then...

Rhodes House

I have been sitting in the Rhodes House library all morning. Looking outside, there is drizzling gently onto the surrounding gardens and buildings. I have been working on my independent study, which is falling behind. It is quite surreal, to be sitting here, reading theses and an expanse of literature on agriculture in Zimbabwe, thousands of miles away. Coming from an agricultural background, it seems so close, but yet far, all the events of the past fifteen years that has shaped the Zimbabwean economy, and country! The library is fantastic. Rhodes House was built after CJ Rhodes died, in his legacy. There is everything one could hope for in the stacks at the bottom of the library and very pleasant work environment. I certainly hope to be back here one day to do more studies.

St. Peter's game and party

A pleasant weekend in Oxford-got round to some work on Saturday morning, and then had the annual st. Peters old boys rugby match in the afternoon. A rusty, as always performance, and marketly unfit, but nono-the-less, a fun game, which is all that matters. In the end we won 10-7. Dinner at 7.30pm in the St. Peter's dining hall which was really good fun-except that they didn't provide wine which was supposed to be included in the somewhat overpriced bill (25 pounds per person). There was the usual singing and warchants (for lack of a better experession) and then on to the purple turtle for after party. A good night, except that it has taken almost a full day to recover, and hence missed most of what was the warmest day this year-can you believe it-we got to 12 degrees centigrade!! It's funny what different expectations do to you. In Zim, 12 degrees would be a very cold winters day, where here, because its been hovering around freezing point all winter, a slightly warmer day really gets everyone excited.

Spring!

Today was one of the first days that I felt that Spring was actually here, and that this cold weather may actually be passing! Nice blue skies, warm rays, and the flowers are starting to sprout... Good start to the day with a swim this morning and now the dissitation will be the focus for the rest of the day. I have decided, after much chopping and changing to do it on whether land tenure security actually increases agricultural performance in Africa. From the literature I have been reading, some interesting and surprising conclusions have come up! Anyway, watch this spot in about two or three months time!

Well, the supervisor is starting to get a bit irritated that I haven't done enough on the report, so despite the nice weather, it's to the books!