Its good for a session and a bit of fiddlydee music. The best St pat day is always had outside of Ireland.
51
celticrover
You don't know anything paddy. You're just a cynical begrudger who wants Ireland to return to the bad old days of the 1980s.
52
emerald_fields
I live in Australia. I moved here from Ireland in 1986. I have never been back. I remember it was cold a lot. I've actually recently moved from Mackay, which is really booming, to the Gold Coast, which is also booming, but in a different way. But the GC boom gets more press. Now, Mackay, that's really booming. My son, aged 16, was lured to play football at a school/football academy with the promise, "If you play football for us, we'll get you any apprenticeship you want". He had already indicated that he was interested in an apprenticeship. As good as their word, they organised it for him. Mackay is a young man's town - plenty of high-paying skilled manual work. The weekend before we left we entertained a truckdriver neighbour of ours to a barbecue. He was bragging about his bank balance. He works at the mines. He said, "I rang my bank and asked them how come I don't seem to get 'preferred client' treatment any more?" The bank manager told him "preferred status" now applied to account holders with $500,000 in their accounts, up from $250,000. "Well, why didn't you say so?", he said and plumped in another $250,000. He drove a schoolbus for years before driving trucks at the mines. It's not pleasant work, but four days on, four days off - which he gets to spend in Mackay, away from the mines might make it bearable.
Because of the drought, our food prices are rising. But since the present government brought in a GST (similar to VAT), they have successfully hidden the real consumer price index rises. The focus isn't on essential, everyday items that average people buy, but also takes into account the price of new cars, repayments for same, et cetera, and with a rising dollar, the price of cars has been falling. But real prices for everyday items has been increasing rapidly even in their artificially controlled low interest rate environment.
I don't feel broke, but I do feel worried about the future, and having sufficient superannuation, et cetera, to enjoy a reasonable standard of living in retirement. Since moving here I have been free of the worry about how to pay my bills. If I wanted a brand new car, I could go out and buy one and pay it off in two years easy, even while paying for a daughter to attend uni.
Are faraway fields greener? Maybe. I lived in Mackay for a long time, and found it teeming with loutish miners. They seemed to believe their capacity to earn a higher income entitled them to flout their sense of their own prestige, and to have it acknowledged by lesser mortals. I guess you could say that miners make other normal-earning people in Mackay feel lifestyle envy and insecurity? So worship of money at the expense of cultural values isn't the answer either.
53
paddypackpacker
well you can buy a 2-bed apartment in Manly with sea view for $860,000 (€546,000) ...if you want a 2 bed apartment in Ireland, let's say Howth, that's comparable to Manly, it's €700,000 (€1,100,000), that's twice the price. I know where i'd rather be living.....
54
paddypackpacker
well i say they're comparable...but not really, just in the sense that they're both kind of considered relatively "exclusive" or expensive areas...
55
paddyleblanc
oh I dunno... all those beautiful tanned people running around in good moods because of the nice weather.... you'd be sick of it in a week PaddyPP
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