Scarey Facebook Skit from BBC

Cheers for the eyeopener Niall!

It's too sunny to blog

Is that the wrong thing to say? Sod it. It's been too long since we've seen sunshine in Ireland. No more comments about "ooooh, what if it's the same as last year, a few nice days in April/May and then nothing but shite for the entire Summer," using the term summer as loosely as humanly possible...

At least business was booming last year. Not. People were unable to go outside and enjoy BBQ weather so they could have stayed indoors and shopped, gone to the cinema [summer of sequels!], etc. but no they couldn't, because the cost of living was shooting up all over the place. According to the never-one-handed folk (Economists) the hike in fuels were offset by the drop in spending on fun things like shoes... Not to mention the old ECB hiking things up just for fun, people's mortgages shooting upwards, the effects really driving home during the summer months. Remember that? Personally I think everyone still went out shopping and going to the clickies and having fun. I think they never really believed that a downturn was on the cards. I reckon it was a case of "surely not, not the Celtic Tiger, sure we'll be grand! Aren't we streets ahead of the rest of them..."

Let's hope it doesn't happen again this year. And let's hope we get some sunshine too :) All the never-one-handeds are focusing on the positive, bless their socks. Matt Cooper's been chatting with ESRI this week and they keep talking about the positive medium-to-long-term forecasts. Nobody has the balls to talk about the big elephant in the room. As yes, those short term realities. I for one don't remember anything but cocopops and cartoons from the 80's so I'm in 2 minds about this. Greedily interested in seeing how it pans out, but also worried about what it could mean for the old financial security...

Aww! No more Present Tense? Funny concept...

Shane's taking early blog retirement to work on the book.

Best regards Shane...

Interesting post from a CEB CEO about the Manufacturing Industry

Frank Fullard is the CEO of Mayo County Enterprise Board, and has posted on the future of the manufacturing industry in Ireland. Worth a read, if only to find out what "they" think...those folks in the know...

Hmmm, Economic Downturn?

So, according to RTÉ News the old rental market is going a different way on the graph, for the first time in ages. This is news the day after it hit that McNamara's are pulling out of no less than FIVE social housing developments. My Dublin house is €50k cheaper than it was this time last year, at least.

So it looks like people are pulling in the belt buckles, it's been happening for a while. Some are making hay of course - lots of little business popping up all over the place, specialising in house extensions, renovations, home improvements........Woodie's & B+Q have never been busier I'm sure ;) When one thing goes up...

One thing I can't get my head around just at the moment is this: Ryanair - always with the finger on the pulse of a lot of people's purse strings - are increasing their fares, rather than strengthening their position as a low cost airline, in times of economic uncertainty. I wonder what they're up to? Ripping everyone off of course, as usual, but what does the Big Guy have up his sleeve, do you think?

Personally I'd rather not fly with the blue and yellow team unless I abolutely have to...