Let me start with a few cheers in the field of sport. First congrats to the Irish Rugby team for defeating my old Aussie friends. A truly wonderful performance. A result that delivered me a wonderful opportunity to chat to all my Aussie friends – on my new cheap Tesco mobile. Strange how the Aussie’s take sport so seriously.
But despite the greatness of this performance in New Zealand, it was nothing to the wonderfulness, drama and excitement of the All Ireland Football final. Yes it was only won in the final 10 seconds. And the score was delivered by the Dublin goalkeeper (a gaelic football pitch is 140 meters long – over 40% longer than a soccer pitch ). Four points behind with 7 minutes to play against the strongest team in Ireland. Oh yes I forgot, Dublin were playing Kerry. And they (well WE) won. What tension. What drama. What intensity. What a dream come true. 84,000 spectators saw what was probably the best All Ireland ever. But I guess there are a ‘few’ guys (and gals) in Kerry who might disagree with this. They will however remember ‘Black’ Sunday – September 18th
If you were asked how many (Catholic) Saints there are what would be your guess. Or maybe you know. But go on. How many ? Well this answer surprised me. There are over 11,000. And I thought this was a special type of person. Just as well our churches are not obliged to have a statue for each one.
For some of us it might be interesting to know that the Anglican Church/Communion only has ONE Saint – King Charles 1 of England (HOW can a king be a Saint !!). Now HE was obviously special.
Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Parker from New York. It is a nice coincidence that both these wonderful and happily married people share the same birthday – July 19th. And NOW their first born, a son (Mason), who was born just a few weeks ago did the SAME. Yes he was born on the SAME day (yes I know, NOT the same year) as his parents. He did leave it late however. Just 24 minutes before midnight – which would have brought him into the ‘wrong’ day. But what a GREAT day July 19th will be in the Parker household. For those of you interested the odd’s of this happening are 366,000 to 1. While I suppose you could ‘manufacture’ this wonderful event, I would have thought the odd’s would be far greater.
Sinn Fein had its annual ‘think in’ recently. WHY is it that politicians have to speak more often than they have something worthwhile to say. And WHY do they feel they have to make comments on the financial aspects of the economy when they obviously have no talent, capability or knowledge on the subject. This group of former terrorists expressed as much knowledge about finance, the Euro, Economics and banking as I would expect from a microwave. Or maybe that is being a bit unfair ….. to the microwave. But at least donkeys don’t win Derby’s. And hopefully the same applies to National Elections. I mean can you imagine your 5 year old niece or nephew in charge of air traffic control at a major international airport !!! Yep I think you get the picture.
Somebody else ‘acting the piss’ during the last week was well known (and in some quarters, respected) French actor Gerard Depardieu. Apparently Gheeree (to use his French ‘name’) waiting for a flight to leave the runway at Dublin airport when ‘nature called’. Obviously the crew instructed that under NO circumstances that he should unbuckle his seat belt, let alone attempt to carry his not ‘under-invested’ body to the loo. And so the dilemma. Pressure building and increasing pain. And then a friend to the rescue. His fellow passenger offered an empty bottle that ‘might help’ with the relief mission. What this good Samaritan passenger did not realise was that Gheeree had a little more in the tank than ‘the bottle’ was capable of holding. And so our (big) Gheeree proceeded to ‘overflow’ the bottles capacity, onto the floor …………………. which ‘pool’ I presume picked up pace through as the plane ascended to 30,000 feet. I am presuming that Mr Depardieu was towards the front of the aircraft and that the overflow was as large as his body. In which case ‘the stream’ was probably more a ‘river’.
Now it is always nice to see how the ‘other 1% on the Planet’ live. Well let’s specifically concentrate on those who own yachts. Well super yachts. Here are some samples of what you can expect to see on these ‘trinket’ assets. Take Paul Allen from Microsoft whose 414 ft ‘boat’ has a basketball court. The Sultan of Oman (Sultan Quboos) has a full concert hall which has the capacity to host a 50 piece symphony orchestra. And you cannot talk about yachts with bringing Roman Abramovich (Chelsea’s Russian owner) into the gossip. Well his ‘sea house’, the Eclipse, which cost a ‘bargain’ £665 million has a submarine and an aquarium. And this one I LOVE. A new 510 footer (again owned by Roman) will have a ‘mini Grand Prix track’ AND ‘mini’ versions of (Monaco’s) landmark buildings – Hotel de Paris and Monte Carlo Casino. YES on a BOAT. And that is before I go anywhere near the boat which our own Sheikh Mohammad owns – which is taller than a 25 story skyscraper. A bargain at $400 million
Well I guess I
And while on expensive things, Irelands most expensive house has fallen by 75% in value. Yep I guess that says a lot about ‘the minds’ of Irish businessmen in 2003. At the time it cost Euro 58 million (Shrewsbury Road) and now it for sale ……………….. at a Euro 43 million DISCOUNT. Yep you would feel a bit sick if you had been the last buyer …………….. who is believed to have been by the litigious and not very pleasant Sean Dunne. Apparently the house also needs some ‘paint and upgrade’. But that is unlikely to cost more than Euro 2 million.
Now a new pet hate for me. Irish taxi’s. No not their dress sense or their sense of conversation. No it is all to do with pricing. Are Irish taxis the MOST expensive on the Planet. Would not be surprising given Irelands struggle to re-price downwards as a result of the excesses during the silly Celtic Tiger days. Even taxi’s in London or Paris are cheaper than these cheeky drivers who just hand you a price list approved by the Irish Taxi Regulator if you challenge the fare. And so practices such as charging you one extra Euro for every passenger above 1 that gets into the cab. WHERE else does such a stupid practice exist. So if there are four of you, it will be THREE extra Euro on top of an already extortionate Euro 4.45 starting price. Sorry taxi drivers, its time that your pricing party is brought into line with other income/pricing sacrifices being made in the Country.
Another ‘hatred’ I have relates to Michael Fingleton – the previous CEO of the bankrupted Irish Nationwide Bank. He ran this like a personal business and the use of the word bank on the business was as accurate as it would be to suggest that Ahmedinijad from Iran is a saintly humanitarian. Anyhow Fingers (as he was affectionately known by the girls in ‘the Bank’) was not in court this week to hear an unfair dismissal case. Strange. Why was he not defending his old employer. Well it seems that he had to attend a court hearing ‘in a foreign land’. But nobody knows what he was doing in a foreign court. Hopefully the complainant or prosecutor will have greater success in getting this great ‘financial Houdini’ behind bars or at a minimum pay for some of his financial sins ………….. and cost to the Irish taxpayer. HOW this man seems to avoid ‘legal or journalistic’ attention in Ireland is beyond me. It is also surprising why Shane Ross NEVER mentions or criticises Mr Fingleton ……………… given Mr Rosses boring but unending attack on banks. Has Fingers got some ‘photo’s’ on our Shaney !!!
Another Donkey that has left devastation in his wake is former Irish Prime Minister Brian Clown. Not only has he committed (economic) Crimes against his people, but now it seems he has destroyed his (Fianna Fail) Party. A once powerhouse of Irish
Mercozy. Yes you GOT it, the ugly duo from France and Spain still remain in their own brainless world of economics. And in so doing are actually inflicting greater damage on their own economies than it would cost if they were to increase the ‘crisis’ reserve funding for their less financially strong sisters !! Greece WILL default. Home Thoughts told you this 15 months ago. The impact will now be armageddonish. And as the credit markets move towards a full freeze, something that would destroy most economies on the Planet ……………… and you can expect 40% written off equity values world wide.
Also remember it is in NO Governments interest to have stock markets in decline.
I am also tiring of the debate, by the ‘Barbie hearted’ of Ireland who seem to believe that any householder who has a problem in meeting his/her mortgage repayments, should have a component of this debt ‘forgiven’. What complete and utter bull-shit. There are so many more viable, and fair, options to this financial problem. I have lived through and studied ‘negative equity’ in more than 10 countries/periods around the world. NEVER do Governments force the banks to take write offs. This entire stupid debate about debt forgiveness for mortgage obligants infuriates me. What about 30 and 40 year mortgages. Solves the problem and DON’T please let the Government or Regulator be bullied into feeling that it is ‘smoke screening’ the issue. Also how would these ‘Barbie softies’ feel if the Government introduced a tax or levy to cover for the resulting losses (and loss of capital) in the bank balance sheets. How would these idiots feel then. And this levy raising is something that the Irish Government has used frequently when the insurance industry has let them down.
Sticking with matters of mis/non Governance, the dignity of the office of Irish Presidency has been destroyed by the farcical circus that has surrounded it. A complete sham. And not any candidate that the people of Ireland can be proud of in the way they have been with the two previous holders of the Presidency – Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson. No matter who wins the election in late October that person will be of an embarrassingly lower calibre. Shame.
Finally which would you prefer – to never be forgotten or always be remembered. Hehehehe. Difficult eh ???
Finally finally For those of you who want to test your powers of concentration or observance go to the Invisible Gorrilla dot com website over the weekend and have some fun. I of course spoilt the experience for myself by hearing about what to expect first. Something I would NOT do to you my cherished readers.
