News

At the moment I am keeping sane by focussing on my holidays to Thailand in October. I am hoping to be able to go there for 3 weeks but at the moment I am stuck with 2 weeks.

There is so much stuff that I need/want to do while I am over there that I reckon I will need the extra time. I have to visit Yasothon, Cha-am and Bangkok to check to see if all the buildings are still standing!

Bangkok is still rented out to the Indian Embassy and it looks like they will renew the lease so I don’t have any problems there. In Yasothon, Nang’s family live there but it just needs some furniture to finish it off. Cha-am is a different story. It’s low season there at the moment and as we stopped taking short-term rentals it means that the monthly income has significantly dropped. I have put it up for sale now and hope to be able to sell it at a decent profit once the high season comes along.

In fairness, it is a beautiful property in a fantastic complex. The landscaped gardens are really impressive and the properties are being well maintained. There have been a few recent developments in the same area including the Alila Hotel which is improving the facilities in the general area.

The last few weekends have been a complete washout. There was torrential rain on Saturday and Sunday and there was some serious flash flooding in areas. It was almost Monsoon-like. Rivers burst their bank and even the GAA had to turn on floodlights at 4pm on an August weekend. Unreal!

Just last weekend, we headed away to Roscrea for my Mothers annivesrsary. It was just Dad, Denis, Evan and myself and we stayed in the Racket Hall Hotel. It's a nice hotel but has gone into receivership and there were a lot of things that the receiver had clamped down on. Most importantly they stopped the subscriptions to Sky and Setanta so we had to head into town to watch the matches. It really lashed rain on the Saturday night.

Politics & Biz

There is little happening in Ireland except for more doom and gloom. Politicians are on an extended holiday except for the ones who are on junkets to the Olympics!

House Prices are still dropping on a monthly basis and it’s hard to know when they will reach rock bottom. It is estimated that the average drop in house prices for 2008 will be 12%. That will mean that by the end of the year I will have (on paper) lost over €100k. That’s pretty bad news!

In Thailand it’s all happening. Thaksin has done a runner and is now in the UK with his wife and children and is saying that it is unlikely he will ever return. Warrants have been issued for his arrest so maybe he will seek political asylum?

The Finance Ministry is clashing with the Central Bank over monetary policy. The Bank wants to focus on curbing inflation whereas the ministry wants to focus on increasing growth. Not sure if either will be able to succeed!

All things considered, the economy is holding up pretty well in Thailand. There have been significant events that have rocked the political and economic stability but somehow it would appear that the underlying strength of the economy has not been overly affected. With this in mind, it can only be viewed as positive because when the situation settles Thailand will surely be in a very strong position.

If Thailand can manage to encourage foreign investment and to provide the required incentives then there will be significant rewards. However, it is unlikely that there will be much investment made in Thailand for the foreseeable future due to the global financial crisis and the current political situation in Thailand.



Sport
Harrington has won back to back Majors. An incredible achievement by an Irishman. He will be hailed as the best Irish sportsperson of all time after this – and it is well deserved.

Kerry and Wexford are through to the Semis and Dublin are out now...... they were well beaten by Tyrone and they will be a difficult team to beat in the Final. Kerry V Cork on Sunday - will be interesting to see if Kerry can get their revenge after the Munster final defeat.

United won the Community Shield…….. Tevez looked awesome and if he continues to play like he did then we don’t need Ronaldo. However, they looked very average against Newcastle last weekend -albeit with many players missing and injured.

Olympics have started and the Irish boxers have got off to a very good start. I think we would be happy with any medal at these Olympics….. pity there is no golf!!! 2 bronze and at least 1 silver is a good return for Irish boxing. The rest of the eejits would be better off staying at home - especially the drugged up horses!
Techie

Fecking IPAQ 514 is a disaster. If I shut it down it takes me almost 1 hour to get the phone back working. I have to remove the battery & restart approx 20 times!! So just to keep it working I cannot turn it off at all……. In the end, i had to hard reset it!

I bought a copy of Stuff Magazine the other day as I like to keep up to date on the latest gadgets. It’s a really entertaining read. However, they really have a love affair with the iPhone. It’s as if they are on commission for plugging it. Personally I am not convinced. But it is definitely a very good read and I reckon I will be buying again. Interesting thing is that I bought the mag in early August but it is officially Septembers magazine. Is this a way toget extra shelf-life? Cheeky!

What I really do miss is the Database supplement from the Bangkok Post on Wednesdays. That was always full of useful info but on the downside it gave normal users loads of ammunition to throw at the IT department……. Without them really understanding! It’s one thing to get something installed and working on your own Personal PC – its something completely different to get it done on a few hundred business PC’s!!

I watched the Community Shield through Slingbox as it was on Setanta Sports. Quality wasn’t great but it was enough to be able to follow the game.

Started playing some more games on the Wii at the weekend and my whole body aches! I have loads and loads of games to play but I always end up just going back to playing Wii Sports. I don’t like complicated games and prefer just using the Wiimote all the time instead of having to press a whole pile of buttons. Its definitely good fun though!

Ents

I did very little over the previous weekend. In fact I’m not even sure if I ventured outside at all!>!>!>!

Friday evening I watched the Big Brother eviction and a few episodes of the Sopranos. I have just finished Season one and I am really enjoying it. With the weather like it is I am happy that at least I can watch something decent on the TV.

Rest of the weekend I just took it easy as I felt a flu/cold coming on – in August>!>!>!!???

As I said before, last weekend was just the 4 of us in Roscrea.......

Rex is beginning to really annoy me now. He is being completely obnoxious – like always – but recently its not even vaguely amusing. He is picking on Rachel all the time and some might even say that he is bullying her.
IMHO

AArghhhh. My head is wrecked…… and my body isn’t far behind!

I go to bed every night trying to think of ways to get the hell out of here and back to Thailand. I just havent come up with any great ideas yet. Last thing I want to do is head over there and end up doing nothing.