So, along with many other things, I have been thinking what to do with my now extra money.

These are things that I would like but are not strictly necessary and would have been the things I would have chosen not to buy to free up the money as required.

This has also made me think about some things that I want in life.  So I have separated things into the Short, Medium and Long term. Short term will be the next few months.  Medium the next year to 18 months.  Long term sometime in the next few years.

Short Term

• Clothes.

Almost all of my clothes are old, many from before university.  So one of the first things I will be doing when I have some cash built up is getting rid of loads of old tatty clothes and buying new ones.

• Socks.

I want to throw away all of my socks and buy 30 pairs of plain black M&S socks.  That way if I loose one all I have to do to restore order is loose another. No more odd socks, no more trying to match pairs.  Bliss.

• Murphy's Law.

I have seen the odd episode and want to see the rest, and it seems impossible to torrent.

• A Good Suitcase

I will be more or less living out of a suitcase for the next year, so I want a decent one.  Not sure what the difference between a decent and a naff suitcase is at the moment, but I would like to find out.  Plus my one is old and needs replacing.

Medium term

• Replace My Media Collection

I want to replace my media collection with legitimate copies.  The decent stuff.  I want the box sets of The West Wing, The Sopranos, The Wire and so on.  This is stuff which will be acquired over time, a box or two a month.  And will give me an excuse to rewatch many of the fantastic shows I have seen again.

• Holiday

I want to go away.  I would like to go back to Rome.  Also Canada.  But then again I would love to go somewhere new, visiting old places that I know are good is great but I love the adventure of going somewhere new and getting the chance to explore.  Perhaps somewhere in Eastern Europe....

• Car

I want a decent car.  I am going to buy one soon to just make do, something cheep to get me to work and back.  But at some point in a year or two I want something better than the usual £1000 cars I have always had.  Preferably with two seats and a soft top.  MG TF, S2000, Z3 something along those lines depending what I can afford.

• Books

I love books, but my collection is very scattered and incoherent.  I want to fill some of the gaps.  I want to learn more about some periods in history and I quite like doing this though biographies and the like.  Some philosophy too.  Along with some classic Science Fiction.  Recommendations on all fronts are appreciated.

Long Term

• A Place Of My Own

I have become fed up of living as a student, and I suspect I will be even more fed up of not having a solid place to live in a years time.  So I want a place to live.  Somewhere nice, probably on my own, where I can live longish term.  Long term enough so I can buy decent furniture instead of whatever I can get my hands on, a place that I care enough about to look after and improve.  Somewhere that is not cheap, that is not just a place to stay for a year or two but a home.  I am sure you all get the idea.

There are obviously more things, but those are the ones that come to mind at the moment.  I would probably have got some of them anyway, and neglected other unmentioned things.  However now I will probably be able to get them all, or at least most of them.

And while I would much rather things have not changed on Tuesday morning, there is a silver lining I suppose.

Just what a company about to go under needs.*

I really don't understand unions sometimes.  They can be fantastic things, ensuring worker safety, decent working conditions etc. etc.  However they seem to pick the worst time to strike, which in the end will only make the company they work for worse off, making less profit and able to employ less people in the long run.  For example see Royal Mail strike just before Christmas and BA attempted strike over Christmas (now on for Easter I think I have heard).

An honourable mention has to go to the RMT and TFL for going on strike so many god damn times that even if there were a legitimate safety concern or a legitimate and serious grievance no one would ever believe them.

Even people with the best intentions can be stupid sometimes.

*I have no idea how Corus are doing financially now, however a year ago they were laying thousands off and shutting just about everywhere down, it is probably a small miracle they still exist at all.