The Secret

A run down Dublin doorway.


Is this a sign to wish you a happy Chinese new year !


Some of Mabel's flowers, After all you are not 101 every day.

Remember a while back someone told me about a book called "The Secret".
Well the idea is to concentrate on the posative, try to do good things and good things will happen. But the book goes much further than that, a bit too far for me.
I do believe in Kismet, that no good deed goes unrewarded and no bad deed goes unpunished.
The guy whose camera I found was very happy with its return. He sent me a bottle of whiskey, I really didn't want a reward. I am happy that the camera with its 180 photos found its owner. A Soney camera with 10.4 or so megapixels. A mighty camera.

In conversation with someone I was talking about a footballer from Crumlin who I met a while back. He is an utter gent and signed autographs for everyone and was so polite.
I was walking to the plane beside him and I told him how happy I was to see how he behaved towards his public. "These people pay my wages, I love what I do and when I was young playing football is all I ever wanted to do. So I say thanks to them for paying my wages"
So we went our seperate ways.
Talking to someone tonight I will put a spin on how good this guy is.
A young man died in London.
These lads had all played together when they were young.
Someone rang the footballer with the news, he rang Dublin. "I'm sorry to hear about Paddy, have you made arrangements to bring the body home?"
On hearing that there was no plans made he said. "Leave it to me"
He flew down to London, brought the body home to Dublin and paid for the funeral.

That same guy has given thousands to Crumlin Hospital and to Alder hay hospital in Liverpool. A really good person.

I have been reading about Patrica Kluge only a few years ago known as the richest British woman in America.
She has gone bust and her house called Albermarle has been sold by the bank today. She started asking $100 million and though she dropped the price to $34 mill she still got no offers.The bank said enough! Going,,,Going Gone!
In many ways it is very sad, many of her friends would be wealthy socialites who will shun her now. What a strange world she moved in, a world that was in many ways "Smoke and mirrors".Wearing the right dress, driving the right car, the correct shoes. But all for nothing.

When I win my lotto it will be spent where it is needed, not on me.
I hold Chuck Feeney as my mentor in these matters.
Money is a tool, but like a magic wand you use it wisely

Talking about money the Euro has become bigger and even bigger. today I got a 2 euro from Slovakia, welcome to the club boys and girls! Sometimes when I look at Italy or even Ireland I think. Would you like to share a check account with someone so feckless as those countreys?
Just in case you get into my Prius.
A US inquiry into faults with Toyota's vehicles following a series of recalls has declared that the cars are free of electronic faults.

Reports by Toyota owners involved in accidents suggested that the cars had 'minds of their own' and were prone to surges of acceleration on occasion.

More than 12 million of the Japanese company's models were recalled in 2009 and 2010 as a result of the scare.

Floor mats, sticky accelerator pedals, software faults and steering problems were all attended to during the recalls.

Electronic, software driven models were largely blamed for the surges in acceleration during one of the bouts of recalls.

However, the ten-month report, conducted by the US Department of Transportation, found that driver error was responsible for the acceleration - not electronic faults with the cars.

Officials even enlisted the help of top flight engineers from the NASA space agency when conducting the inquiry.

Toyota, the world's largest car manufacturer, saw its profits jump by 5.2 percent in Tokyo yesterday (Wednesday February 8) and rise by more than four percent on Wall Street overnight as a result of the news.

Speaking to the BBC, the American Transport Secretary, Ray LaHood said: "There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas,"

He continued: "We feel that Toyota vehicles are safe to drive."

US officials also stated that mechanical problems that were fixed in previous recalls by Toyota were believed to be behind the acceleration problems.

Toyota was reported to have paid the US Government $48.8 million (£30.3 million) in fines as a result of the recalls.