The Silver Swan

by Orlando Gibbons

The silver Swan, who living had no Note,
when Death approached, unlocked her silent throat.
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
thus sang her first and last, and sang no more:
"Farewell, all joys! O Death, come close mine eyes!
"More Geese than Swans now live, more Fools than Wise."

we have our own volcano

Lots of friends are asking me about the icelandic volcano... "Are you OK?", "Did the ashes affect you?"

No, no... we are OK here in green Ireland. Cold Iceland is dealing with some ashes - they even need to were masks to breathe! The only thing we suffered and are still suffering here is from the airport closure, that's all. And fortunately I was in Ireland when it happened, and have no travels booked in the near future... but today, looking from my balcony, how surprised I was when I realised we have our own volcano!

think global, get local

The new globalisation is all about being local! When everybody seems to be most enjoying the (good?) effects of globalisation, it seems that the best turned to be the local... the local jamón in Spain, or the local mozzarella de búfala from Italy. Look in the supermarkets: they are proud to be Irish, to offer 100% Irish beef, or pork, or chicken.

The sense of the local has a built-in memory of childhood, of homeland. Few people would be interested in eating tomatoes from Cluj-Napoca in Romenia (supposing you are not from Romenia) or spring onions from Chenai in India.

So, one can ask me what about the "Think global" of the title?

Because is clearly more enjoyable and healthier to get things local, ignoring globalisation, it's not only about quality or even patriotism... As always, money will be your sentence!

the house effect

They say houses prices are extremely down.
They say people are hungry because they can't sell their houses.
They say their houses don't value the price they paid.
They say they can't pay their mortgages.

This should really be the minority of the population. The simplest Paddy people would not buy a house to speculate the market... they would not put the money they don't have into the property bubble...

They say people are hungry because they can't sell their houses, which now don't value half the price they've paid...

To me, it sounds more like the process are at a reasonable level...