It could be worse, but it aint great – being back in Ireland!

Well I am on my own again in Ireland. Nang headed back to Thailand last week cause her 3 months visa expired.

We have been looking at all the options to get her to stay in Ireland. It just didn’t work out in time and there were too many hoops that we were asked to jump through.

After using up a few contacts we managed to find someone who was looking to hire a crèche worker and as Nang has experience in this area it sounded like a perfect match. But alas the red tape tripped us up again. Basically, a new law was introduced last February which means that all crèche workers must come from within the EU. That means that as a Thai Nang has no chance to work in a crèche – the only exceptions is if she works as a student (limited hours), gets married or has an Irish child!

Ireland still does not recognize partnerships or fiancée visas. Even though we are together over 6 years now we get no allowance or compensation for this fact.

So as it stands now Nang is back in Ireland and it looks like we will get her back on another 3 month visa. The main restriction to this is that Nang cannot work and in fairness it gets fairly boring for her and she would really like to start earning so that she could send money back to her family.

When we were at the airport we checked in Nangs luggage and it weighed in as 30kg exactly. We thought that we were within the limit as we had 30kg allowance when coming to Ireland. But unfortunately Etihad reduced the allowance to 20kg. That meant that we had to take 10kg out of Nangs bag – which we opened in the corner of the check-in area. It was completely full of presents! Jackets, chocolate and big frilly knickers for her mother (Bridget Jones like!). There was nothing else except presents in the luggage.

Bertie is still hanging in there but almost every week there is another revelation about him. I just cant believe that the Irish public are still falling for this guy. He is a complete embarrassment to Ireland and he has managed to fool so many people for so long. Look at his predecessors and colleagues in Fianna Fail – Charlie Haughey, Liam Lawlor and the rest of those chancers…….

It disgusts me but if we have voted him in 3 times already then we deserve what we get. Its almost as if people expect others to milk the system and do things under the table. So what if he took some brown envelopes stuffed with cash – sure that’s what we would all do if we got a chance. Its just acceptable behaviour here in Ireland and it is very sad.

Ireland has changed dramatically and it is very much a commercialized experience. Everyone has cash and they want more of it. But what they enjoy above all else is showing others how much cash that they have! Its not just keeping up with the Jones’s it’s beating them to it and rubbing it in their faces!

Recently the news has been very negative about the economic prospects for Ireland. There was very negative sentiments around and it was very hard to get some positive and upbeat talk. Although, in the last few days there have been a few bright spots amongst all the gloom – inflation has dropped slightly, European Central Bank have hinted at dropping rates and there were some new IT jobs in Carlow!!! (well 100 of them!!!).

I am still in the market for a new job but I am taking my time to ensure that I find the right job. I am not going to rush into anything and I am happy enough to stay where I am in the interim. But I will not stay indefinitely cause – well cause of many reasons that I cant really elaborate on.

I made a visit to my house in Sandyford during the week and I really have to do something about the garden. It looks really overgrown at the moment and I would be embarrassed to bump into the neighbours there! Now I have to figure out if I will try to tidy it up myself or whether I will have to pay

Samak is the new leader in Thailand and it will be interesting to see if things start to take off their again. The jury is out on him and whether he will make any changes to encourage more foreign investment.

Ireland lost to France in the 6 nations but they put up a very brave fight. However, I am fed up of praising Irish teams for their effort and passion but in the end they lost – simple as that – and that doesn’t deserve a whole pile of praise at all. Ireland were playing a well established team and France were blooding many new caps. So if ever we had a chance to beat them in Paris this was definitely it.

The bad news is that because of the performance it is unlikely that Eddie O’Sullivan will feel any more pressure to leave. In fact, it probably makes his position stronger as he can now say that he is able to get the best out of the players and that they are willing to themselves on the line for him. Its all shite really but in the end the spin will win!

The other game between Scotland and Wales was a complete bore and was a bad advertisement for 6 nations rugby.

In fact, I watched a game of Leinster Schools during the week between Monkstown and St Michaels and there was more quality in 15 minutes play in that match compared to the entire match in Cardiff. Monkstown were fantastic and their scrum half and centre look like a real find. I think we will be hearing more from them in the future.

Manchester United play City tomorrow in a major game – coming on the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster. Let’s hope the game matches the occasion. I am certainly looking forward to this one.

I’ve been looking for an application to replace windows explorer for a long time. I have used various different applications but more often than not they have annoyed me after a few weeks trial. However, I have just downloaded Xplorer2 Lite from http://www.download.com/Xplorer2-Lite/3000-2248_4-10407731.html and so far its working quite nicely. This is the free version but you can upgrade to the Pro version by paying a few extra bob.

I also like Avant Browser which is just a very good interface for Internet Explorer. It uses the same engine as IE but just looks and acts better

Recently I haven’t been drinking much alcohol at all and I would have thought that this would have resulted in a healthier me but to be honest I don’t feel that at all. I don’t have any drive to go and have a few pints and am quite happy to stay at home and watch TV and DVD’s. I am quite sure there would be no chance in hell that I would have the same attitude in Thailand. Its weird and almost impossible to explain why.

So if I was being honest with myself I would have to admit that while in Thailand I lived a much more exciting and rewarding life. I had more drive and more enthusiasm for the little things in life. In Ireland I just seem to settle for the mediocrity.

I’ve been watching “House” DVD’s recently. It stars Hugh Lawrie as a completely obnoxious but brilliant doctor and it is quite cleverly put together. I have watched 3 seasons already which is quite a few hours of vegging in front of the TV!

I am at a crossroads now in my life and need to make some serious decisions – and soon. I am almost 1 year back in Ireland – which is hard to believe – and although I don’t think I have settled that well it has been a lot better than expected.

I don’t miss Thailand as much as I thought I would but I definitely have some moments where I would just like to escape from it all. The idea of spending the next 20 years working in a big company and pushing paper while sitting at my laptop in my little cubicle just doesn’t appeal to me at all.

I’ve always used Thailand as an optional place to escape to but I am aware of all of the issues that I used to have while living in Thailand. Nowhere is perfect and I think it is more to do with me than where I am living. Once I can feel happy, relaxed and most importantly MOTIVATED well then I am confident that I can enjoy myself. If I am happy I would also expect that I would be successful.

With all this in mind I have always thought that I would be better off working for myself, building up my own business and then motivating others to work for me. If I believe in the business then I am sure I could convince anyone else to believe in it too.

The big decision that I have to make now is “what business”!!?? I have quite a few ideas in mind but I don’t want to rush into anything too soon. In fairness, due to finances I think it would make much better sense to set up business in Thailand cause the initial investment wouldn’t be as significant. If I could establish the business in Thailand and have my customers in Ireland then that would be the best of both worlds.