Been a while

Well, to tell the truth I got a bit bored with it all and ended up with some work to do (no, not selling houses but building websites). So anyway, I'm back now (but for how long who can tell?).
The financial world has ended as we know it. Gordon Brown is out to save the world (although really it should be Alistair Darling, but Gordon wants the kudos).
Barrack Obama is the new world leader (sorry, U.S. President).
Interest rates are at their lowest since 1954 now standing at 3%. So having just set our mortgage onto a fixed rate we're well chuffed NOT (currently seeing if we can get out of it, shouldn't be a problem according to the bank in question).
The Eurozone, headed up by Germany, is officially in recession. The UK has yet to follow. We have to wait until the next quarters numbers to find out what we all know (seeing as last month the GDP dropped by 0.5% in the third quarter of the year), that the UK is, in fact, in recession too.
Jobs are tumbling by the bucket load with unemployment heading north towards 2 million and everything's joyful. In a funny kind of way the fact I gave up work to be stay-at-home-dad means that we're quite well equipped to deal with it as even if (not so much of the if!), I lose my job as an estate agent's lackey, if I go on the dole I can still take home a bit of wedge and not have to do anything except sign on. Plus with the interest rates dropping we are instantly saving around £90/month without even trying (that is assuming that the bank pulls its finger out for us).