A day

The cold and gloom is here to stay, it seems. This is about as light as it gets most days.

I pass by a sports store most days on my way to work. I always smile at this poster. So many advertising campaigns these days are so heavily stylised, with filters, fillers, colour adjustments, full makeup, muscles and facial tweakments. There is not a wrinkle or line in sight, or a hair out of place. This photo just exudes pure joy. It looks completely natural.

I went to my local auction house the other day, as I was nearby. I buy and sell most of my jewellery here, as well as have my jewellery valuations done for insurance purposes. Normally the wait to sell or have valuations done is 5 to 10 minutes. Due to the huge jump in gold and silver prices over the past week or two, the waiting room was packed and the wait was at least an hour. In the 26 years I have been a customer, I have never seen the shop so packed. Then again, I have a heavy chain I bought at melt value for $500 about eight years ago and it has just been valued at $3800. If I had lots of inherited/broken gold items lying around I would probably sell them too.

There is also a new service where you request a security envelope and post your precious metals to them. I have always had a few pieces of ‘investment gold’ because my mother told me it will always have value, no matter where you are, and I have noticed the price has tripled over the last few years, thanks to the volatile geo-political landscape. So many people are wanting to buy gold now, but to me (as a non-expert) it is not a good time to buy when the price is so high. I think it will go higher this year and then start to fall. But again, I am not an expert.

I had to have passport photographs taken, and while I was waiting I saw this. Normally you see married couples or kids as the fake photos in the frames. I have never seen one with pets in it before!