I have just spent the last week in the Czech Republic, while there we visited some people who could do with the type of nursing homes we have available in Ireland.  Basically there is nothing in Prague at this moment.  I am sure the market will develop for care homes as the population gets older and the country becomes wealthier.

However at present people have to be really quite bad before there is anywhere anyway from the family home for them to be cared for.  The types of senior communities that are available in the UK and Ireland are still a pipe dream in the Czech Republic.

When  I drift off and think about what I want I know I want it to be somewhere that I am still in control of much of what happens around me.  I dream of overlooking the Atlantic on the west coast of Ireland - but I know that would drive me nuts after about two hours and I would be wondering what to do next!

So we are getting somethings right, and I should stop moaning and enjoy what we have before I am carted off to my nursing home.

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We make sure our clients receive high quality and innovative photographs with amazing details. Our package is reasonably priced, simply and easy. No hidden extras. The prices include three dvd with wedding pictures for parents and for bride and groom, 36 large prints. During ceremony two photographers are working to capture the real moments. We take care about details all the time.

No set limit on the number of photographs taken. CD of all images (at a suitable size for web and email, with standard editing included) . Additional photos on Black & White or Sepia versions. High-resolution version of all album images on a CD. All our wedding clients receive the negatives and copyright with all wedding photography packages at no additional charge. The wedding photographers do not retain the negatives - we are happy to give them to the wedding client at no charge.

Before you get married we offer you relaxed candid portraits. Engaged photos outdoors with beautiful Irish landscape.  The photographs are taken prior to the wedding. A short, 1-2 hours engagement photography with a photojournalistic style photo session usually done at a location that is chosen by the couple. Congratulations on your upcoming wedding.

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In 1986 I bought my first computer, an IBM, some much of the repetitive tasks were gone over night; now I could just save letters of application and my CV and print them customised for the work application, great.

Fast forward to 2008, man things have changed so much. I have just found a new website - Job Rapido they have taken the idea of search online for jobs one further step forward, so now instead of searching all the different job sites they pull various websites together into a central point - it saves time searching all the different web sites.

Therefore if I now wanted to find a job in Glasgow instead of loads of different searches on many sites I have one area - man I love technology. Go try and see as Jobrapido is bringing the next generation in online recruiting to Europe: Job search rather than Job posting.

Many companies and recruiting agencies post vacancies on their own websites instead of on Job advert sites. Jobrapido provides job seekers with a unique opportunity to search through the vacancies posted on traditional job boards and on all other sites containing employment offers.

Thus, using Jobrapido, job seekers save time and can be sure that they have not missed any job opportunities.

Jobrapido works like a search engine: you just need to enter a job title and location and you get all of the vacancies matching your search criteria that have been posted on thousands of websites.

If you don’t want to check the site every day, you can receive all the latest vacancies directly to your e-mail inbox. By subscribing to the Jobletter you will be notified daily by email of all job vacancies matching your search criteria.

The Jobrapido project began in Milan (Italy) and has already achieved a top three position among the most popular employment related websites in Italy. It has been rapidly developing throughout Europe and South America.

In Europe the Jobrapido sites already provide up to 2 millions of job vacancies arranged according to profession and location.

Since its beginning, the Jobrapido Team has been an enthusiastic, multilingual and multicultural group which aims to create the best European internet platform for online job searches.

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I have known for some time that the service in this shop is crap and therefore I drive a bit further usually and get what I need from PC World in Carrickmines - where the service is amazingly great.

I was only looking for some toner and a cable conversation.

“Hi, can you tell…”

“Sorry too busy just now”  - he walks away.

Fuck - am I some sort of invisible person.

So I try again by asking at the customer service, man imagine putting those two words together when talking about this PC World.

“Hi, can you tell me…”

“Sorry, you will have to get one of the guys on the floor”

“But it says customer service here” - he just laughs, chuckles like I have not yet been switched on.

“Any ideas if I just tell you what I am looking for?”

“Sorry mate.”

Two minutes later I am back in the car wondering why I thought this was a good idea.

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It seems in catholic Ireland this is the best way to get attention.

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I walk with my camera always, you just never know what you might see out and about.

this is of a Dublin Band Called Aortal playing on Grafton Street about a month ago.  There next gig is at Smithfield on the 25th May 2008.  They are Indie and good.

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The park is under used during the week, and gets fairly busy at the weekend. There is horse ridding, Dublin Zoo, the Presidents Residence, running tracks, cycle routes, coffee shops - it is easy to spend a day there just wandering - that is if you can’t get out of the city into the great Irish countryside.

Of all the parks in Ireland this is the best by far - make use of it, in the evening it is safe until at least dark - cricket as you can see below is played there, football all over the place - and don’t miss the heard of wild deer that room the park.

History of the Park

After the Normans conquered Dublin and its hinterland in the 12th century Hugh Tyrell, 1st Baron of Castleknock, granted a large area of land, including what now comprises the Phoenix Park, to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. They established an abbey at Kilmainham on the site now occupied by Royal Hospital Kilmainham. The knights lost their lands when Henry VIII confiscated monastic properties in 1537 and eighty years later the lands once more reverted to the ownership of the King’s representatives in Ireland. On the restoration of Charles II, his Viceroy in Dublin, Lord Ormonde established a Royal Hunting Park which contained pheasants and wild deer, therefore it was necessary to enclose the entire area with a wall. It was opened to the people of Dublin by Lord Chesterfield in 1745.

All the Facts

The Phoenix Park is the largest enclosed urban public park in Europe located 3 km to the north west of Dublin city centre in Ireland. It measures 712 hectares (1,760 acres), with a walled circumference of 16 km that contains large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues. The park is home to a herd of wild Fallow deer since the seventeenth century. The name is a corruption of the Irish fionn uisce meaning “clear water”.

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The River Dodder (An Dothra in Irish) rises on the northern slopes of Kippure in the Wicklow Mountains. From there it flows for some 20 km through Tallaght and the Dublin suburbs of Rathfarnham, Templeogue, Milltown, Clonskeagh, Donnybrook, and Ballsbridge before entering the Liffey at Ringsend.

The River Poddle is linked with the River Dodder as it flows through Tallaght - this link used to help with Dublin City’s water supply.

To catch sea trout on this river it is best fished in September at night when the river is in spate.

There is a weir just above the bridge at Ballsbridge and the river becomes tidal roughly where the bridge at Lansdowne Road crosses it.

The Dodder and the River Tolka are Dublin’s second largest rivers, after the River Liffey.

The Dodder was one of the major industrial rivers of Ireland for many years and is still dotted with may relic millstreams, weirs, sluices and old factories.  The river corridor supports a rich variety of birds, animals and insects as a special wildlife habitat comprising fast-flowing Areas of water, slow-moving pools, ponds and flooded marshy Area: s around its banks.

The Dodder is seen as the organising element of the recreational open space of Dublin’s southern boundaries extending from the sea to the Dublin mountains where the Dodder rises.  The river connects numerous sports grounds along its length as well as providing fishing to members of the Dodder Angling Association.

In managing the spaces along the river, the objective is to provide access along the river, while safeguarding and enhancing the natural characteristics of the river for recreation and conservation. Dublin City Council.

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I have two favorite place for this. I grab a coffee from somewhere and head either to Stephens Green or walk into Trinity College Dublin.

Stephens Green is normally big enough to find a place of peace, however it can get very busy during warm days in the summer. At other times of the year it is great, to walk in nature in the middle of the city is a real luxury that we can enjoy. The large trees, the birds singing, and the traffic kept at a distance.

This will all change next year. The entrance to the Green will be closed from the Grafton Street end to allow work to begin on the new subway/ Luas line that will connect main stations within in the city. It is great that this is happening, but losing the Green for more than a year is tough.

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So imagine trying to jump from there to recycling and encouraging everyone to do so. A tough job - and you would think that someone has to do it - however the Irish Government has little appetite to tackle the recycling problem in Ireland.

I don’t know if the reason is that the population is so spread out that they are not willing to burden the population with the cost. The problem ends up being that rubbish is dumped anywhere - often in the hills outside of Dublin.

Thankfully that has changed somewhat and the authorities no longer charge for the disposal of household rubbish - but that only applies to small household waste and certain types; for instance if you want to dispose of cooking oil properly and take it to one of the centres you will be charged - if you want to throw away any bulky goods you will be have to pay a fee, so furniture, timbers, DIY waste, rubble, you get the picture - so instead of going along and paying the fees, there is a small minority that will just dump this anywhere, and then it has to be cleaned up eventually, meanwhile it lies for weeks, an eyesore on this beautiful land.

Anyway we are now into the summer time hours for the Ringsend Recycling Centre - their address is Pigeon House, Ringsend, Dublin 4 and they are open Mon to Fri 9am - 8pm (until 31st Oct) and Sat and bank holidays 9am - 4pm. Make use of it.

Their slogan is laughable “the less you throw away the less you will pay” - the contrast with Vienna where I lived for a year is amazing. In Vienna there is a local dump near everyone, everyone will take their own rubbish that can be recycled and put it into the separate bins, batteries in one, papers in another, glass in another, there is a bin or skip for everything - all free, clean street they have!

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