My brother Ted, a man who can wield a mean pen when he wants, had this to say in The Examiner this morning:-

THE late Ben Dunne used to say “opportunities create problems… problems create opportunities”.

I think that about sums up where we are and what has happened in Ireland particularly over the past 10 years or so.

We all know what has happened… we were all part of the crazy Ireland that developed. We turned into a greedy nation, a greed fuelled by reckless bankers, ineffective regulators and stupid politicians who thought it was cool that ridiculous levels of stamp duty from off-the-wall property values could continue indefinitely to fund the exorbitant cost of running this tiny country.

It is now time to move on. Let us be thankful that we are alive and perhaps in the past few years we have started to understand there are more important things to life and living than buying shares in companies we knew nothing about or buying properties in places that were hard to find on the map.

Some very positive and important things have also happened during our perceived period of boom. From Cork we can drive to Dublin in about two-and-a-half hours. We can drive under the River Shannon to Galway and to Rosslare over that wonderful new bridge at Waterford. The time and fuel savings in the years ahead will be considerable.

It is fashionable to bad-mouth the building contractors who have rejuvenated in a wonderful way so much of Cork city.

Looking across the now sweet-smelling River Lee to the wonderful new complex of buildings overlooking the river must give us some degree of hope and confidence for the future.

The skills and experience of the best of these developers must not be lost to this country as their expertise will be needed to rebuild confidence in the construction industry into the future.

When someone dies there is a funeral and a time for reflection and then everyone tries to move on. If some bankers or regulators need to be jailed, then for God’s sake let it happen. If some property developers need to be made bankrupt, then let that happen too.

Let us change the bankruptcy laws now so that in a much shorter period of time the good ones can play a useful part in the rejuvenation of the Irish property market. Ireland is indeed in a big hole. We can be buried in it and wallow in self-pity for years or we can do something now to turn this problem into a glorious opportunity.

For almost 40 years we have been running a small family business. These past three years have been extremely painful and extraordinarily difficult for us and our customers, but is vital for the future of our business that we use these difficult times to learn from what has happened and to make sure our costs are reduced so that we can survive in business.

We have seen in this time how wonderfully resourceful the people employed in our company can be. For less money and longer hours we have seen great loyalty and incredible effort. I have no doubt this is a reflection of what is happening today in thousands of businesses all around Ireland.

The politicians now have to stand up and be counted. They have a job to do and they must do it now. The country needs to be competitive. The cost of running the country has to be reduced. The opportunity has been forced on us – we don’t have a choice. It has to be done, costs have to be slashed.

The news media must play a part too. We are all depressed with bad news stories. We cannot take – or want to take – anymore. Lyric FM is a wonderful alternative to boring economists telling us our country is doomed to failure. From now on they need to get positive and encouraging and if that is not possible, then let them keep quiet.

It might be hard to believe but in five or 10 years we might feel this crisis was perhaps the best thing that has ever happened. We might develop into a kinder and more considerate people enjoying the more important simple things of life. Things like a stroll along one of the wonderful new walkways that have been created along the River Lee and the magnificent safe haven for ships that is Cork harbour.

And maybe, just maybe, our children and our children’s children will be able to get jobs at home that will pay them sufficient to enable them to buy the much more keenly priced houses that will be available at that time.

Yes, this is definitely a time for action and for dreaming positive thoughts.

Elvis Presley was right… “it’s now or never”.

Ted Dwyer
Director
City Life Wealth Advisors
Nore House
Bessboro Road
Blackrock
Cork

Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/letters/enough-is-enough-lets-pick-ourselves-up-and-get-on-with-the-business-of-living-136438.html#ixzz15MDagXNM

It being an absolutely glorious November day we went for a walk around our neighbouring village of Pailhes.

For once Síle carried the camera, and took these shots.

Medusa’s head , bizarrely placed on a tomb just outside the village.

Her present husband resting.

La Chapelle de Montalaurou

Doing the crossword on the terrace after breakfast this morning.

The shadows are much longer but there is still great heat in the sun, even though it is a mere five weeks from mid-winter.

So my beautiful Godin, who spends far too much time standing in the corner looking handsome, is doing a little work again.
And as we have a French family staying at the moment we are encouraging him to keep going all the time (this he is happy to do with the very minimum of persuasion- two logs keep him in action all night)

So as he is standing there being radiant I decided that he might do a little more for his keep.

And so he has managed to produce an excellent Boeuf Bourguignon.

I am an enormous fan of France and all things French- what would I be doing here otherwise- but must admit that they do have a couple of tiny faults and the one that surprises me most is they have yet to discover the amazing benefits of the side plate.

Arrive at any restaurant in France for lunch or dinner and it is likely that the first thing you will be served is a basket full of fresh cut baguette.

This you will tear into pieces directly on the table, tossing gobbets of bread into your mouth as you go.
Now given the Irish sliced pan with its damp adhesive quality one could manage to do this in Ireland and leave virtually no mess.
But the French like their bread both fresh and crusty so the resulting pile of breadcrumbs on the table grows as the meal progresses.
(No matter how cheap the meal a French waiter will be vigilant to insure that your basket always is full of bread all the way through the meal)

No if you go up-market and go to a restaurant which has linen table cloths this crumb scattering will end up being an extra chore for the waiter for, as well as making sure that you always have bread to hand, he will take it as his duty when the mountain of crumbs becomes unmanageable to sweep them up.
There are various ways by which he can do this.
The lower class of tablecloth establishment waiter will merely brush them off with his cloth into his hand, or a plate he has lifted, and depart.
Classier joints will have a sort of dotey little dust pan and brush with which they will clear up the mess, but , best of all,in some of the trendier establishments, they have an ingenious little model of the carpet sweeper which they then (without embarrassment) roll over your table.
It always strikes me that their lives would have been made so much easier if they had decided to embrace the side plate.

And while on the subject of grand nephews, Sam Milo Lynch was born just a month ago.

Firstborn to Martin and Suzanne and my number 43 in the grand nephew/niece stakes.

This lad is a party animal and, like his parents, likes to socialise during the wee small hours of the morning.

Interesting to read Caroline at Bibliocook’s piece about food photography.
I must confess to wanting to know how it is done and am impressed that it is a must with modern food photographers that the food should be edible afterwards.

I remember having a conversation with a man who was involved with food photgraphy during the sixties and his discriptions of varnishing apples with vaseline and browning pastry with boot polish were shattering.

But the most damning piece of information he gave me was that he was involved with that iconic shot of of Cadbury’s.
You will remember a shot of a thick stream of milk being poured into a bar of chocolate while a voice over purred ;
” Over a glass and a half of full cream milk in every half pound ”

Well my delusions were forever shattered when he told me that there was no way they could get milk to behave properly for the shoot, they tried cream, evaporated milk and many more products but the one that looked creamiest and the one they finally used for the advertisment was White Dulux Gloss Paint.
In their favour I will say that it never tasted of it.

The morning sun just catches the snow tipped mountains.

Sometimes I wish I had a better camera.

When we were in Cadiz visiting the cathedral last month we noticed a most interesting lectern near where the choir sang.

As Síle has been singing in choirs for many years she was particularly interested in their method of following the words and the music.

Instead of each member holding individual scores this large sheet was placed where everyone could see it and follow.

Last Saturday Síle and I went to a Vide Grenier in our next door village Corneilhon.
We went through the entire selection of stalls and were heading back to the car empty handed when Síle started to rummage in an old trunk full of old tatty books. She found an old book of christmas songs , “Deux Euro” , said Madame.
I found a scroll of tatty paper and held it up “Deux Aussi” said madame.

This is what I had found , it was a page from an old hymnal which was just the same as that in Cadiz.
It obviously came from a book as it was written on both sides.

The whole page was about 42 inches (112 cm) wide and about 15 inches(38cm. ) tall

I say written deliberately as there was no mistaking that the sheet was meticulously drawn by hand.
It is obviously some sort of canticle or antiphon sung by a choir at church.

It was at one time a thing of great value.

Look carefully at the top left hand corner of this side.

There is a very carefully hand stitched mend of a tear.

I don’t suppose there is anyone reading this who is sufficiently familiar with the church canon to tell me what the hymn was but I am glad that I will be able to treasure it as it was before, and give it a totally suitable home in Le Presbytere.

Out strolling on Sunday night we could see how quickly summer turns into winter here , there is no long protracted Autumn like we have in Ireland.

The vines are turning yellow and red depending on what variety they are.
On Sunday morning I ate my breakfast on the terrace in my dressing gown.

On Monday it had got much colder.
It seems that almost overnight our own vine, which Síle had nurtured and teased to come up to the terrace (there are hopes that it will soon provide us with summer shade) had turned yellow overnight.

The whole garden was covered with leaves from the Chinaberry Tree.

One small consolation was that my Lemon Tree seems to be thriving and the walnut sized lemons are starting to yellow also.

Mind you a glance in next door reveals that their tree is laden with yellow lemons which are lemon sized.
I guess mine has still some way to go.