Driving Lesson Number 2

And I'm still alive and kicking! I had to get into it again, making stupid little mistakes on the clutch and indicator, but after 10 minutes I was back in the game.

Nothing too exciting, still a longgggggg way of any driving test attempt, but at least it was good to be on the road again. Next lesson on Saturday 1230PM around the Wilton area, so if you see a car with 'Irish School of Motoring', just give me moment :-)

Thanks.

Brilliant Cartoon

All of a sudden Fokke and Sukke understand all those expats: Lying on the beach in Dubai all day while complaining about The Netherlands.

The actual article

I thought I just link the article, but while re-reading it, it actually gets better and better. Fair play to the copywriter who wrote this masterpiece!

The Truth About The Irish Ferries Crisis

Eamonn Rothwell, CEO

The Taoiseach would condemn me if I said this:

“There is no more room for concessions…I do not believe the intervention of any other group or agency would assist at this stage…there is no role for the Employer Labour Conference…the officers will accept the overall plan, or if not, the shipping line will close from Friday.”

That was said eighteen years ago by Bertie Ahern, then Minister for Labour about the precursor to Irish Ferries, the state-owned B&I line. He had reached the end of his tether, and Bertie Ahern has a pretty long tether. But the absolute refusal of officers to make changes had exhausted even his patience.

I’m in the same place right now. Or, rather, in a worse place.

The state could, and did, buy industrial relations peace with SIPTU by acquiescing to demands and pumping taxpayers’ money into the B&I. When Irish Ferries took over B&I, it had accumulated losses of €171m. Irish Ferries has no state support. If it doesn’t deliver profits, shareholders lose money – and most of those shareholders are Irish pension funds. When SIPTU officials talk contemptuously about Irish Ferries “making substantial profits,” those profits end up benefiting pensioners.

The fact that Irish seafarers are between 50 and 60 percent more expensive than other seafarers, the arrival of low-cost airlines and the massive rise in fuel prices, all together mean Irish Ferries won’t make any profits, after 2007, if it can’t get radical change. Independent examination of our books by Farrell Grant Sparks, the consultants nominated by SIPTU, verified this.

95% of all ships calling at Republic of Ireland ports use outsourced crews. Are we going to ban cruise ships arriving at Dublin, ships delivering oil and grain, containerships and other ferry operators? Or just destroy the competitiveness of Irish Ferries?

Ireland is a major benefactor of outsourcing - we attract US companies here because of our relatively low labour costs, tax rates and good (low price) transport links to the rest of Europe. We also gained from joining the EU. We voted for enlargement of the EU, but now EU citizens, who are entitled to work on the Irish Sea, have become “exploited migrant workers.” Wherein lies the exploitation? The outsourced crews will be paid in real terms (given accommodation, food, travel and living expenses are covered) 30% higher than on-land Irish minimum wages. They’ll be paid five or six times what they could earn at home where they live. That’s not exploitation. For them, Irish Ferries is the best thing that ever happened.

We’ve spent years negotiating with SIPTU. No substantial change has ever emerged. SIPTU talks reasonably about the need to negotiate, but once you agree, the process is akin to moving into the twilight zone: a parallel universe where nothing moves, no result ever emerges.

Because Irish Ferries has to stand on its own feet, unsubsidized by other parts of our holding company, we offered our crews a severance package generous enough for 90% of them to accept.

If SIPTU really represented the interests of workers, the union would want that 90% to get their money quickly. Instead, SIPTU is trying to prevent the majority of its own members getting their money. Go figure.

When Irish Ferries knew 9 out of 10 of its crews who wanted the package were prepared to familiarize incoming European crews with the ships, our priority was to protect our passengers and crews from intimidation. So we retained an Irish based company who are the leading experts in people-protection.

Extensive planning was done to prevent the recurrence of the sabotage we’d experienced on the Normandy, when spare parts were removed from stores, damaged, and carefully put back in a move calculated to endanger an entire shipload of passengers and workers at some point in the future.

Thanks to the discipline of these experts, nobody was hurt. (We have yet to ascertain if damage has been done to the ship by the officers occupying a key location.) Black propaganda has created the image of flak-jacketed, weapon-carrying, tear-gas brandishing heavies. None of that is true.

Nor is it truthful to portray Irish Ferries, as Government Ministers have done in the last few days, as uncaring villains who won’t use state mechanisms for industrial relations.

We’ve been back and forth to the Labour Court, the Labour Relations Commission and the National Implementation Board, literally, for years. We went back – at their request – to the LRC yesterday. But the Government and others talk only of Irish Ferries rejecting one Labour Court recommendation. That recommendation was that we do nothing for 2 years. We don’t have two years. We’re not a state-supported shipping line. We’d go under in two years. We have to reject any recommendation which won’t secure our survival. Doesn’t mean the company won’t listen. Doesn’t mean the company lacks respect for the Labour Court or any other institution.

It means the company has – like Bertie Ahern eighteen years ago – come to the end of its rope.

This is about the life or death of a company. It’s about the right of freight and passenger customers (and the Irish tourist industry) to low-fare carriers on the Irish Sea. It’s about paying EU citizens a wage which in real terms is higher than the on-land minimum wage. And it’s about the rights of a majority, who do not have faith in SIPTU, to the package they’ve chosen.

At the moment, the rights of the majority count for nothing. Our ships cannot move, because a tiny minority won’t allow the 90% to get their package. Or allow new crews, eager for work, to take over: under the guise of protecting them against exploitation, SIPTU are preventing them getting employment.

And, lest anybody think the officers preventing our ships moving are financially threatened, they’re not. Those officers who choose to stay with us are being offered different conditions, certainly. They’re being asked to work 26 weeks a year. And get paid for 52.

Tough, isn’t it?

Industrial relations and common sense

There is a big dispute going on at the moment between the management of Irish Ferries and the unions; Basically, Irish Ferries wants to replace expensive Irish workers with cheaper foreign agency workers to cut cost. Why? Because Irish Ferries will go bankrupt if they don't.

Irish Ferries' CEO wrote an interesting article about the matter today:
http://www.irishferries.ie/News/2005/05_11_29.shtml

Whether you agree with Irish Ferries or not is your own decision, but it's some battle signifying industrial relations in the 21st century with an open EU market.

Let's see what happens. For now it's highly amusing television, and well, I still take the plane before I board a ferry ever again :-)

Christmas lights on St. Patrick's Street

After a very quiet weekend in Lauragh in which we slept, watched Des Bishop's new DVD, went jogging and saw two deers crossing right in front of our car, we went back up to Cork yesterday afternoon for the annual Christmas lights celebration on St. Patrick's Street.



Thousands of people attended the ceremony in sub-zero temperatures, but the excitement kept us warm.



And St. Finbarr's Cathedral kept a watchfull eye over our car while we celebrated in the city.

Patrick's Street by night

As it's one of those quiet Friday afternoons, I went through the photo archive and found another nice one.

I bought glasses!

Even though my optician said I wasn't legally required to wear glasses while driving, I decided it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to wear them.

So yeah, I bought myself a set of glasses!

I'll take some decent photos of me wearing them at the weekend so all of ye can have a laugh!

Legal Eagle to London

As I'm going to be in Amsterdam the weekend of December 16-18, Legal Eagle is flying off to meet some of our friends in London that same weekend. If you're around in either AMS or LHR, give us a shout!

The pints better be good! (and cheap!)

Today's Weather

Bitterly cold today with Northerly gales and widespread hail, sleet and snow showers giving further accumulations. Some sunny spells at times too but top temperatures only 4 to 6 degrees.



I know... I was cycling in it... well, at least I was wide awake when I arrived at the office!

Welcome to Cork Airport!

Bird Flu

It must have been a Kerryman!

A man had great tickets for the All Ireland final. As he sits down,another man comes over and asks if anyone is sitting in the seat next to him.

"No,"he says. "The seat is empty."

"This is incredible!" said the man. "Who in their right mind would have a seat like this for the All Ireland Final, the biggest sporting event in the world and not use it?"

He says, "Well, actually, the seat belongs to me. My wife was supposed to come with me, but she passed away. This is the first All Ireland Final we haven't been to together since we got married."

"Oh ... I'm sorry to hear that. That's terrible. But couldn't you find someone else - a friend or relative, or even a neighbour to take the seat?"

The man shakes his head. "No, they're all at the funeral."

Bought a new bicycle!

As my old bike has finally packed up after nearly 2-years of good, loyal service, I didn't owe it anything and decided to get myself a new bike.

Well, as Killgrews Cycles on Market Street has given me excellent service fixing up the old bike, I decided to bring my business there. So yeah, I've got my independence again! It's a brilliant bike; not a mountain bike this time, just a normal touring bike but with a LOT of gears. And most importantly, it's got big fuck off detachable lights front and rear! Combine that with my illuminous Sam Brown belt and helmet and I'm as safe as you can be!

It took me 30 minutes from Market Street back to Passage last night; was kinda surprised by that, much faster than I was used to while using the mountainbike!

First driving lesson

Well, it's done; my first driving lesson.

Nothing too exciting, more easy on the clutch, the gearstick and making sure I keep more to the left while going straight at a roundabout, combined that with using my mirrors more while turning and looking over my shoulder for the blind spot.

Except for the blind spot I knew all that already, just need more practice. That's all okay... so yeah, hope to do some more driving this weekend and I have another lesson planned for 11AM on Wednesday around the Wilton area.

So you're warned!

WOW!

Now this is what I call class photography! This happened yesterday at the Kaagbaan at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport. Some US Airways jet getting engine trouble just after take-off. Needlessly to say, they returned to the airport immediately without any further difficulties.



Respect to photographer Ruben Hofs who took the shot.

Claim to fame!

Well, nothing unbelievable exciting, but I was on the plane with Sarah Ferguson. Sarah who you may think? Well, the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson. Just before push-back I noticed these two posh cars pulling up to the side of the jet with people quickly embarking the aircraft. I expected some type of VIPs, but not Sarah Ferguson! Well, at least she had to pay for her coffee and sandwich on the plane!

Now, is that celebrity gossip or what!

Thank you and goodbye Athens

After a long week here in Athens with a lot of hard work, but plenty of fun and satisfied people, it's time to go home to Cork.

The tradeshow was absolutely mayhem! There's been a non-stop flow of people from 11 in the morning until 9 in the evening; some Greek food in a local tavern (we weren't interested in any posh place, just show us where the Greeks go) and a pint at the hotel bar and it was already long passed midnight!

Well, it was good, it was fun, but it's good to board that jet to Heathrow in another few hours.

Paragalo!

A bit of give and take

Well, as I decided to do some more work after coming back from the tradeshow late last night, I found it more than reasonable to take the morning to go around the Akropolis again.

Greetings from Athens

So here we are again, Athens!

I'm supposed to be off on Thursday, so hopefully I'll get a chance to go around the Akropolis again. We'll see. We're doing a tradeshow here, so I'll probably be up the walls later on in the week, but for now it's been easy going enough.

Long live Internet streaming of the favourite radio channel: Red FM.

It's like being at home from home... no need to watch Greek television, just listening to your local station!

All's good!

Jim and Edna

Jim and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital.

One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool,
Jim suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom of the pool
and stayed there. Edna promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to
the bottom, pulled Jim out and brought him to her room.

When the hospital director became aware of Edna's heroic act, she
immediately ordered that Edna be discharged from the hospital
because she now considered Edna to be mentally stable. She went to Edna and
said, "I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is
that you're being discharged because you responded so rationally to a
crisis.

By jumping in the pool to save the life of another patient, you
displayed sound mindedness. The bad news is that Jim, the patient
you saved, hung himself in his bathroom with his bathrobe belt right
after you saved him. I am so sorry, but he's dead."

Edna replied, "He didn't hang himself. I put him there to dry. How
soon can I go home?"

It was worth a try!

Geachte mevrouw Bootsman,

Onlangs ontvingen wij uw verzoek over de verkrijgbaarheid van onze Koopmans Mix voor Poffertjes in het buitenland. Wij adviseren u om een kijkje te nemen op de website: www.hollandwinkel.nl

Voor meer informatie over onze producten en recepten kunt u ook een kijkje nemen op onze website: www.koopmans.com. U kunt zich op onze website eveneens aanmelden voor ons "Recept van de maand". U ontvangt dan elke maand een gratis nieuw en verrassend Koopmans recept via e-mail.

Wij vertrouwen erop u hiermee van dienst te zijn geweest en wensen u veel
bak- en smulplezier met onze Koopmans producten.

Met vriendelijke groet,
Koopmans Consumentenservice
Monique Mantel


So yeah, no luck. No free 'Poffertjes' goodies; Just a suggestion to buy them of 'www.hollandwinkel.nl'. Era, I'll wait then for people to come over or for a stop-over at Schiphol.

Train approaching Little Island

Poffertjes!

There are some things that money can't buy....

One of those things would be eating 'Poffertjes' in Ireland! Okay, what is it? Well, call them tiny little pancakes that you eat with eather some icing sugar, some maple sirup or a bit of butter. A typical Dutch thing!

I wrote some soppy story to the manufacturer so with a bit of luck I might receive a box of 'free' goodies for a 'lonely Dutch expat'. If not, we still have one more pack of the stuff, so if you're interested, let me know!

Cork by night

I don't know if this will come out in such small size, but the larger version looks pretty groovy!

A nice quiet weekend in Lauragh

A nice quiet walk along the shores of Glanmore Lake, Lauragh with my friend Enid who flew in last Friday night from Schiphol Amsterdam.

Try this the next time you're getting a parking ticket!

Parking Ticket.

I went to the shop the other day, and I was in there for only about 5 minutes. When I came out there was a police officer writing a parking ticket.

So I went up to him and said, "Come on, mate, how about giving me a break?" He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. So I called him a biro sucking dickhead.

He glared at me and started writing another ticket for worn tyres! So I called him a piece of horse crap.

He finished the second ticket and put it on the windscreen with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket!

This went on for about 20 minutes...The more I abused him, the more infringement notices he wrote.

I didn't care. My car was parked around the corner.

Fame Academy

Well, I wouldn't really call it a 'Claim to Faim', but my hands and voice were on Icelandic television last week!

Click here for the clip and make sure you got your speakers powered on!