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2005-08-13 - 8:03 p.m.

...cold turkey..cold sweat...cold comfort..

I have decided to take this holiday completely without my laptop! I cannot remember the last day I went without typing or clicking. But I'm doing it now. It will be interesting, and I think darned necessary.

I'm beginning have my usual pre-flight loathing. Flashes of what could happen. The abrupt motion, my white knuckles gripping the arm rests, and then the rest of the terrifying fantasy. I find it strange - I lived most of my life without this fear, and now every year it intensifies. Particularly bad are night flights, when I am alone (err, like tomorrow's flight from NY to London). I guess we all have our ideas of the most terrifying way that we could die, and probably tied with that is the simple terror of dying too soon, before we accomplish what we were meant to do in our lifetime. Wow. Just writing this down is difficult. As if discussing my own mortality could bring it on.

On another cheerful note... I did a sobering calculation today. The estimated global oil reserves are 1200 billion barrels. The world currently consumes about 22 billion barrels per year. Ignoring the fact that China and India are increasing their consumption rates at more than 5% per year..that gives us less than 60 years of this energy-consuming, gas-guzzling lifestyle to which we've grown accustomed. The scarcity of oil means that our children and grandchildren will be forced to lead very different lives.

Yes, perhaps I do need a holiday...

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...they are just words, Suzi... - 2011-08-29
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