Valintines inquest.

They were making a movie.

This is a Garda "stunt"car.

It has exploding panels etc.
It also has UK number plates.

Well the Chinese new year came in, but when I was making out a cheque I still keep putting down Ox instead of Tiger...!

Well they said in the paper that the firemen rescued €500,000 from a safe in the basement of that head shop which went on fire.

Was this legal cash or money syphoned off from the business?

We're in the wrong game, we should be selling "legal" drugs to kids.
The Sunday paper carried an account of a kids funeral.
He died when he became addicted to those same legal safe drugs.

Valentines day worked out a bit of a damp squib for me. Saturday night was quiet, I went home at 2am, back out at 8am and I made €45 in the first hour and a half, more than the Saturday night. How mad is that?.

I did hear that for the restaurants it was the same.
People are staying at home, if they are going out they are coming home early.
Nothing wrong with a steak dinner at home with a bottle of wine.
1/2 the price and no hastle getting home.

Taxis are a luxury and people are cutting back on luxuries.

Just how bad is it for some people?

I picked up a guy who does repossessions on behalf of the lenders.
"We have 6,000 immanent repossessions on our books, I did 3 on Friday.
We just go in and change the locks, read the meters and secure the building.
They are mostly investment properties. The buyer had a good job, there was a willing rental market and they took the plunge, but there are no tenants now and rents are falling.

The big problem for the investor is that when we sell the property he will still owe a substantial amount and the investor may have lost his own job, this has a knock on effect, as his own home may be held as collateral."
His own uncle had bought an apartment and finds himself the only resident in the whole complex.
Talk about how things have changed, it is no time at all since developments like that were sold off the plans, only to be sold on again on completion at a vastly inflated price.

My Lord and master Google are looking for new offices? The current rent of €6million per year in Barrow St.is a bit high! They claim according to the Sunday Times that certain things which were in their lease were not delivered,,,,rent reduction? or will they be taking away their big plastic balls, jelly bean dispensers and table tennis tables to a newer cheaper location?

How the mighty have fallen, their landlord,a decent sort is in hot,hot water.

I thank God that I never flew so high, not that I didn't have ambition, but I have had a fear of property for at least 5 years or more, this stems from seeing property prices in th UK, France, Italy and the USA. It never made sense to me that you could buy a villa in the south of France with views of the Med. for less than a house in Bayside in Sutton. You could buy 2 houses in the USA one in Florida and another in Vegas for the price of one in Dublin.
Before the crash in the USA the criteria for getting a loan was.

"Can you fog a mirror?"

ie. If you are alive you can have the loan.
Then these loans became "toxic"and were sold as "investments" to banks which then had to be given loans so that they could continue to pay themaslves massive bonusis.

While you and I still have to go to work for less money.
WE will have to work for longer too as our pensions have taken a hammering.

I will survive. I will work at different things, I will cut my own timber for fuel, I will paint my house and cut back on expenses.
No foreign holidays this year.

But we will not suffer like the folks in Heiti.

So lets get things into perspective.

Kathleen Doyle.(taxi regulator) Its good to talk.