An Irish woman’s social, political and domestic commentary
Ross O’Carroll-Kelly gave me an LOL moment..
(his father talking)
“There’ll be a re-run,” he goes, “you mark my words. Libson II. Or what’s this Hennessy’s calling it – very funny – the Ah Come On Stop Acting The Bollocks Treaty.”
hee hee.
Update: Thanks to Andrew for pointing me towards that McCarthy article in the Trib. Best thing written.
I’m following the instructions of the ever helpful Gavin and am going to attempt, as someone requested to put photos for the first time into the blog! Quite a breakthrough for me..I guess I won’t stop now! If this works I can do some of my spinach cos some of the leaves are yellow and there are holes in them so somethings up. And the shallots don’t look great either.
ANYWAY meadow shots first and those who were suggesting I leave my nettles and thistles alone will see the problem for themselves. I think I am going to have them strimmed and then cover with black plastic for a year or so. Then sow new grass.
So here goes..first a shot of GOOD meadow
and another..
NOW wretched thistles
AND docks…grr…
and nettles (and you can see where we put cut grass on top to see if it would work as a mulch but I dunno..it just looks mucky and where we tried it before yucky scutch type grass grew up through it.
HOWEVER, not to end on a bad note, here’s a poor shot (just snapped while I did the meadow) of the kitchen garden. You can see the fruit bushes, the new apple trees and two raised beds. I’ll do better shots another day.
So, it’s a work in progress. I’m looking forward to sorting it all out. But, the more work you put in, the less likely you are to sell! Is this my house for the rest of my life??????
Cracking stuff over at Irish Election these days. Especially on the “secret vote”.
Note: one of the ones that I had to let a few days pass before I could post it as I didn’t really like parts of it – especially the end – it seemed twee. Jet lag is the excuse. Still, already a couple of people said they enjoyed and emailed me. So for the record..here it goes…
I have a secret life. You may know me as a domesticated, rural housewife and while this is true, for the past year I have also tasted the life of an international software executive.
Last summer an old friend from college rang me from Palo Alto in California. He was starting a software company and wanted me to do some work for him. I tried refusing but he wasn’t going to be put off. “How long does it take to write a column?” he demanded. “Er, a day,” I replied. “And what you are doing the rest of the time? The boys are in a crèche aren’t they?”
“Well, only part time,” I defended, “and I have the house to manage. And the garden. I’m really very busy.” “Yes, very busy Sarah.”
A contract arrived which informed me I had just been appointed as a “Strategist to the CEO” of a fledgling company. That means I help him plot stuff, as he says himself. Fortunately, this plotting requires my presence in sunny California from time to time and on each trip I am amazed at the number of other Irish technology people I meet on their way to “the Valley”.
Silicon Valley is the name given to the southern suburbs of San Francisco that run about 150 miles down to the quiet town of Almaden where IBM has its research centre. At its heart lies Stanford University in Palo Alto, surrounded by the offices of many of the world’s greatest technology companies. It’s the undisputed global capital of high-tech. How did this happen?
Everyone’s got a theory. Some say that the DNA of Californians is embedded with the adventurous spirit of the first settlers here – the ones who followed the Gold Rush. John Markoff, a New York Times journalist, has argued in his book What the Dormouse Said that the mind-expanding virtues of drugs helped too. In California in the 1960s, hippies + acid = flower power. PhD graduate hippies from Stanford + acid = modern-day computing. Stanford graduates such as Messrs Hewlett and Packard set up here in the 1950s and within twenty years Xerox were inventing many of the technologies we use in every day computing.
Throw in the Venture Capital industry and soon the Valley filled with enormously rich geeks.
Irish people pop up everywhere in this unlikely environment. On the flight out, engineers and middle-ranking executives sit at the back of the plane while up the front there are the likes of Niall O’Connor from Limerick, the chief information Officer of Apple.
Other leading lights are John Harnett, also from Limerick,at Palm; Tony Redmond the chief technology officer at Intel, Brian FitzGerald at Intuit and Conrad Burke of Innovalight, a solar-energy start-up. The Irish have a history of emigration but from the mid-1980′s we started to churn computer engineers instead of civil engineers out of our universities. That’s when we stopped building skyscrapers and tunnels and started building semi-conductors and cutting edge software.
With all those stock options, Silicon Valley is a rich place. I stay in a hotel in Palo Alto and walk around to the office each morning, slowly adjusting to the fact that I am supposed to smile and greet fellow pedestrians and joggers. The tree-lined streets are perfumed with flowers and weirdly quiet. They have so much space here that buildings are low rise, mostly only two-storey and the noise of their huge cars is lost into the atmosphere.
The serenity is catching : I become conscious of my foot fall. People speak quietly, even the children. It’s beautiful, but surreal. You can’t help wondering if all the loud, crazy people have been rounded up and shipped into San Francisco.
The signs of an ailing economy are evident though. When I pop over to the Stanford Shopping Centre, there’s hardly anyone there. Hardly any staff either.
Hilary Keane works for Enterprise Ireland in their Palo Alto office, helping Irish software start-ups work on their pitches to the venture capitalists. She lives in the city and commutes to the Valley each morning. She pays $75 a week now to fill her 2 litre car, the smallest she could buy when she moved out here. Before you didn’t notice the price and now you do.
The result is that like in Ireland people are getting cautious though due to the software billions, this part of the US is suffering least.
In our little company there are about 25 staff, over a dozen of whom have PhDs. Attracted to Stanford from all over the world, these are some of the smartest people on the planet. Lunch is ordered in every single day. Huge fridges burst with snacks and drinks. Bowls of strawberries and muffins lie around the rest area.
The company pays for a personal trainer and gym membership for everyone. A doctor calls round each Friday, after the weekly barbeque, to see if everyone’s in good health. Employees drift in an out at times that suit themselves.
When I observed this behaviour first I was appalled and took my CEO friend aside. This was disastrous! His company would never succeed if he wasted money like this and didn’t crack the whip. He laughed. This is the way it works out here. You have to be nice to people.
Well if that was the case, he could be nice to me. I wasn’t going to fly home in the back of the plane. I summoned up the audacity to ask for business class travel and was granted it without hesitation. Knowing the cost of the ticket was over €2000, which is about $5 million given the current exchange rate, I had to walk around for 15 minutes afterwards chanting “I’m worth it. I’m worth it. I’m worth it”.
But am I worth it? What on earth was I expected to do amongst these doctorates and luminaries. Within minutes of my arrival it all becomes clear. They may know something about computers, but I know a thing or two about people. All the fancy programming in the world won’t convince people to use their product and they need me to figure out how to tell people what they do. I am a devotee of the Internet and email but nothing can replace coming out here and looking them in the eye. When you’re in the same room as someone, one look can explain far more than a phone call or email.
Officially then my job is to develop a communications strategy which simply means working out how to talk to people.
I’ve got a PhD in talking alright, and I appear to have talked my way into the American Dream. For the moment it is still a dream though. Then I tap my shoes and wake up back in Enfield. I have the best of both worlds. Theirs is good, but I confess, I’m glad I live in this one.
MwaHAHAHAHAHA
Paddy sent me this, knowing the trauma I suffer when out and about.
He said “no doubt you will chortle at this story. But it would wrong, very wrong to do so.”
Chortle? I laughed out loud. But yes, it was wrong. 
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My new technique since we are obsessed with Lisbon.
A defeat in the referendum but a triumph in the kitchen. My first swiss roll!!! I played this video while I rolled.
Mine has lemon curd so not as yummy looking as hers, but the boys requested it, and I exist to serve..
NOW, I’m wondering what Michael Martin will do.
The Indo gives him a glowing report today.
When I met him on Q&A I was most impressed , but I am ridiculously impressionable so that doesn’t count for much. But I did think he was smart, and crafty. Which could mean he is an FF leader sooner than Cowen might like, but also perhaps the one who can pull the game out of the fire in Brussels.
If any of his minions read this blog, and for all we know Crewser may be such a minion, or not even a minion, but more! I think he shouldn’t shake in his boots with the other foreign ministers. He can empathise all he wants BUT the people MUST be listened to.
Can he pull it off? Let’s hope so…or we’re toast…
Update: McCreevy (who didn’t exactly help) is leading with that line..
“EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has said Ireland should not apologise for its No vote in last week’s referendum.
Mr McCreevy said the Lisbon Treaty referendum was a democratic process in which issues were debated.
“The Irish people decided to vote No and that has to be respected by the other 26 countries,” he told RTÉ radio today.
Mr McCreevy said the whole construct of the EU is that decisions are arrived at by consensus. “It was clearly understood that this treaty had to be ratified by all 27 member states”.
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….Lawlor (Morning Ireland).
Please stop laughing. Women shouldn’t laugh on radio anyway. It sounds awful. I hate it when I forget and do it myself. But when you do it, it sounds affected. Like someone said “We shouldn’t be so serious all the time. Our market research indicates that people think the show is too boring and serious. Why don’t you guys laugh a bit. Like they do on Today. But on Today they are dry and witty. On MI it sounds like you’re pretending. It’s a serious programme. Its ok to be serious.
Ok, a provocative headline, but just in case those uninterested in Lisbon were starving for other material.
First, I heard three comments on the Treaty over the last 24 hours which struck me as being true.
1. David McWilliams on “Saturday Night With Miriam”
He said, politicians asked the people to trust them, but the same politicians spent the last 12 months saying everything was fine with the economy. They were wrong about that, so why should the people trust them?
2. Gerry Stenbridge on Marian Finucane made a similar point.
He said, Brian Cowen asked us to trust him. We could’ve done that if he’d said. “Vote Yes, and no, I don’t believe Bertie won the money on a horse”.
3. Chris someone from Libertas, also on Marian Finucane
They should’ve allowed the President of the EU to be elected by popular vote. It would’ve given people a direct way to connect with the EU and think about the whole project. Look how obsessed we are with the US elections. Imagine if we had a similar system here?
I thought that was a good point. And I know that John Bruton really tried to persuade the convention to adopt that point.
The future now? I think that many of the items in Lisbon can go ahead through the enhanced co-operation mode. And that could include us! Stuff like co-operating on the drug and human trafficking. Technically I don’t see why other things like the commissioner system couldn’t go through too. I mean, didn’t we vote already in Nice to reduce the commissioners? I’m sure I’m wrong on that one, but I’ve no doubt some of the items could be implemented.
But, but, but, but, I think the politicians do need to do what Sinn Fein said. Go back to the table and renegotiate from scratch. And start with an elected president. Also, let’s face it, France and the Netherlands did vote against this. We’re not alone. Hopefully Cowen can persuade the rest of them to accept that it could be a good thing. People feel the politicians are running away with the EU project. They need to bring it back to us. It might be best thing in the long run.
Also, Gerry Stenbridge said too that the great test for the EU now, and their claims to listen to the people, is how they react to our No vote. If its genuinely respected and they drop the treaty, then that’s actually an argument to vote Yes the next time. I thought that was a good point.
On knickers. Oh yes. There she was jet lagged in Macy’s. Tired and cranky. She had the two new perfectly fitting bras in her hand and grumpily picked up the matching knickers. I registered they seem large and ungainly but was too tired to care. I wore one the next day. Hurrah! Huge, big, up-to the-waist, arse-covering knickers. The comfort! The security! For so long, I have suffered the indignity, insecurity and discomfort of the low rise knicker. They are everywhere! They are the new thong. You can’t get away from them! But no longer. I am a middle-aged woman and I am wearing big knickers. I think you could say I’ve grown. Or my knickers have. But seriously, try it girls. (Even though I know I’m not supposed to say girls). The knicker industry is clearly run by misogynists. Or latent homosexuals. Whichever. They don’t like women. Whoever they are.
Wow..well there ya go. Looks like a No.
Well done to the No campaigners, they were good. They had great posters and a consistent message. The Yes was continually on the defence and had to explain why the No’s were wrong. They never gave a positive vision of Europe.
Now, I can just see the Irish Times tomorrow, blaming Enda Kenny for the whole thing.
Let’s just get it straight.
Fianna Fail spent 6 weeks saying goodbye to Bertie Ahern and two weeks getting pissed to welcome in Brian Cowen. When the hangover passed they suddenly remembered there was a referendum going on and Declan Ganley was a household name. (Though I still exclude Dick Roche from this). Waking up on the last weekend before polling day wasn’t enough. Meanwhile Enda Kenny had worn himself out going up to and down the country to public meetings while Cowen was singing drunken ballads in Clara.
Enda, take pleasure in the fact that you are not Taoiseach. Rent a house in France or Italy and take six weeks off. I know this is bad for the country, but there’s nothing you can do about it. Relax and come back in September refreshed and ready to take on Cowen in the Dail. We’ve already seen how easily he loses it. So it’ll be great fun.
..from Palo Alto.
I checked the weather before I came out and it looked like early 20′s. In Ireland that means you need a cardigan cos of the breeze. Here it means anything heavier than linen feels like your wearing an overcoat. Emergency rush to the shop to buy lighter clothes.
One funny note. Queuing for immigration, a cheerful officer announced, “Ok, you folks from Ireland, All those in favour of Lisbon this way; the No Votes over there!” I obediently took my place in the yes queue. I was impressed yer man even knew it was going on.
And oh joy, one of fingerprints matched so I got through without having to be taken off to a room to explain why I have no fingerprints. The last time I came through they took fingerprints of all 10 digits so the fresh set are matching up at last.
I’ll be doing a column this week and am meeting the good folks from Enterprise Ireland later who will tell me how well the Irish are doing here. Standby…
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