I got up early this morning in order to try and write some of my Christmas cards.

Since waking up from the blur that was NaNoWriMo month, I’ve suddenly realised it’s December already and my preparations for the big day are next to nil. I’m trying not to hyperventillate too much.

Anyway, there’s nothing like writing Christmas cards to make you feel like you’ve achieved nothing in the year. How do you summarize your life for the year in just a few sentences? If you’re anything like me, your mind goes completely blank as soon as you pick up the pen. All too often, I end up writing nothing at all instead, but then I feel guilty for not making the effort.

I always love to get a personal note on the cards I receive and I also seem to be one of the rare breed that actually appreciates getting a round robin inside so I can catch up with what my distant friends are doing in their lives. However, they seem to be “not the done thing” now.

So what do you write in your Christmas cards? Do you go for the printed impersonal summary? Do you write half an essay in each one? Or do you just leave it after signing “with love…” ?

This story about road tolls (Motorists ‘must pay for road use’) scares me.

Since we moved from Croydon, we’ve gone from only needing one car for occasional use (at one point we didn’t even own a car) to here in Worcester running two cars pretty much all the time.

Akra works a 45 minute drive from our house and his office is in a converted building on a farm in the middle of nowhere – not a likely destination for any bus service. In fact, bus services around Worcester are getting quietly cut all the time.

House prices nearer to work are much dearer and would put us in an even more precarious position with our mortgage, even if we were willing to pull the kids out of school.

Travelling by any means other than by car is JUST NOT FEASIBLE.

We are by no means alone. One of my neighbours lives 30 minutes drive away from her work and her husband’s job is 30 minutes in the opposite direction. Both need to be on the motorways at peak times.

In the article, it mentions:

If road charging was introduced, the government would be able to examine the option of whether it could raise enough revenue to replace fuel duty and the car tax disc.

But honestly, we all know this isn’t going to happen, don’t we? It’ll be in addition to rising fuel prices and the normal road tax.

It won’t make us a more environmentally friendly nation – for those of us living outside the big cities (unlike most of the politicians, it seems) there are no other options.

Those in the benefits trap will have even less incentive to find work if all their gains in finding a job are immediately taken away in road tolls.

House prices in cities will soar as people try and live close to work or near a viable public transport network.

This isn’t about the environment. This is about taxing the populace even harder, and if it comes in I think it might just topple our already fragile financial balance.

Well, mine is anyway!

The completed wheel, which was a composite of 144 photographs taken of the same 12 scenes throughout the year, can be seen on Flickr (click the thumbnail below for a closer look).

I shall be tidying up the Wheel of the Year project pages over the next few weeks, and hopefully (with permission) posting other people’s entries too.

Now what am I going to do with myself NEXT year?!