LENTEN
PUBLISHED IRISH MAIL ON SUNDAY, MARCH 7TH 2010
It’s Lent, I suddenly remembered, as I drained the last of a bottle of wine into a glass and ensconced myself in front of the TV the other evening. Once a Catholic…The thought occurred that I ought be abstaining from alcohol, and entertainment, and sitting here in penitential sacking knickers silently contemplating my own mortality in the scheme of bigger things…or something. Read more»
MONEY
PUBLISHED IRISH MAIL ON SUNDAY, MARCH 14TH 2010
Money, money, money, must be funny…Well true to the song, it’s made hilarious headlines recently. In the context of on going credit crisis havoc, the following financial revelations are a hoot! Hear the one about RBS, 84% owned by the British taxpayer? They’ve set aside £1.7billion for bonuses despite reporting £3.6billion pre- tax losses for 2009. 100 of their investment bankers will receive over a million pounds each, tee hee. Or ‘ere’s a funny thing I read on the way to writing this article – Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs CEO, is only getting a $9 million bonus for 2009! There had been rumours it would be $100 million! He got $67.9 million in their last bumper year – 2007! Boom, boom. In between of course there was that emergency Federal Reserve bail-out – But hey, they paid it back! It’s billions under the bridge by now. Read more»
I hosted a party recently. Everyone who came, and hadn’t been in my apartment before, commented on how lucky I was: ‘It’s gorgeous’, ‘when did you buy’, ‘all this is yours?’ Yes it’s all mine: a living room that can majestically contain a dining table and a sofa; a glorious balcony with space for a geranium and a smoker; a ‘galley’ kitchen (for those who like that cramped living-below-deck feeling while they cook); a six-foot across study; a bedroom that can accommodate a double bed ‘and there’s room to walk around it’ as one amazed observer noted. And all with a magnificent aspect on the bare plaster walls of the five stories of apartment opposite. It’s the kind of place an estate agent would trumpet as ‘spacious’ - which you might say was true, if they were pitching to the leprechaun community. After twenty year’s hard and precarious work I’ve a secure and homely place to call my own. Jeez - the decadence of it all is killing me… Read more»
Help! I’m having gender doubts. I know my cupboard of bras and drawer of lipstick says I’m a lady. I have a mountain of shoes, an Everest of dresses, a Kilimanjaro of separates, a Magillycuddy Reeks of mittens, coats, hats and what-nots, but still regularly find I’ve ‘nothing to wear’. I suffer The Curse: I like men. I’ve texted messages that are straight from the heart: stunningly honest, hopelessly romantic and frankly earth-shattering - until I wake-up the following morning and remember sending them. Then I promise God never again will I allow myself, Vodka Red Bull, and the mobile be in close proximity at 3am on a weekend night. And I break the promise. Regularly. Read more»
