Twenty year old Joseph Mullally went missing last December 14th after he was last seen outside The Brog on Oliver Plunkett Street. An extensive search for the last several weeks went on involving volunteers and emergency personnel turned up nothing until this morning at 10am when 4 of the searchers found his body at the quayside in Tivoli, downstream of the city.
More on PRC, Breaking News, and RTE News.
Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.
The last 36 hours have been a fog filled void in most of Ireland and even in the UK too. Radio broadcasters have urged caution on the roads as visibility dropped down to a few yards in places.
It was into this mess that I drove this morning. Thick fog, the sun just peeping over the hills and visibility down to less than 10 yards. My drive from Blarney this morning was along a very straight country road that follows the contours of the surrounding hills up and down, blocking the view of oncoming traffic until the hill rises at the end of the straight stretch. It’s also a 60km/h road.
In deep fog I’m driving carefully and I spot headlights getting bigger and bigger in my mirror until the car behind is tailgating me at no more than a few feet. I could sense the frustration of the driver behind but hey, it’s foggy, I’m driving at the speed limit. There’s no way I’ll be bullied into driving faster in those conditions. Eventually he overtook me of course but we caught up with him at the junction sitting on the top of the hill, so here you go. To the driver of 98-D-455, “You’re a crazy driver! Was it worth risking all our lives to be ahead of me at the junction?”
Update! Driving along the same road back to Blarney this afternoon a Garda (Irish police force) car appeared and drove at speed until it was right behind me. It overtook me later in the 50km/h part of the road and sped off. Meanwhile a few seconds later another Garda car passed the other way speeding too. Why the hell do I stick to the speed limit if the police force don’t?
It’s hard to believe, but despite the really bad uptake of broadband services, or perhaps because of it, Ireland leads the way in WiFi hotspots!
Last week I had the pleasure of using the free WiFi services in Douglas shopping center to make a post on the Mallow Camera Club site. I had half an hour to kill so I popped into O’Brien’s, bought a coffee and a biscuit and settled down. I wasn’t the only one taking advantage of this generous gift. I spotted three others seated at various points around the library tapping away on their laptops. It’s something I never imagined I’d see! Yes, yes, yes. If you’ve enjoyed the use of free WiFi in your city this won’t be anything new, but this is in the “Celtic Tiger” economy where nothing is free and everything is over-priced.
So, next time your significant other is popping down to the shops, tag along. They might have free WiFi and it’ll do you the world of good to get out from behind that desk! I’m waiting for retailers and restaurant owners in Blarney to realise that free access to the Internet would draw all the self-employed Internet geeks out of their homes and into their establishments. I wonder how hard would it be to drop that hint …
The deadline to check if you’re on the voting register has been extended to December 9th so if you haven’t checked, you have a few more days to do so. Type your name and address into the form on Checktheregister.ie to find out if you’re one of the 300,000 voters knocked off the list! This is especially important if nobody has called to your house with a voting form. Even though you may have been on the register for years, some councils have been overly enthusiastic about deleting voters.
It’s a little fiddly doing the check, but not too painful. When you visit the site above you’ll have to click through to the council managing your area. I checked the Cork County Council site and had to click another link which opens a new maximized window with the form. On a large wide screen that looks really silly! All it needs is 600 pixels.
My brother Donal and his girlfriend Celine are heading to Lesotho next April as part of a charity effort with the ISPCC to renovate a school and build a playground for kids there. They’re holding a table quiz tonight in the Spailpin Fanach to help raise funds.
Donal’s also looking for spot prizes. They have a few already and sponsors will be mentioned on their charity.ie page. I want to make it sweeter for people to help. If you run an online company and would like a link on the sidebar of this PR8 website, with traffic of almost 3,000 page views a day for a month, drop me a mail at donncha @ ocaoimh.ie (or ring me if you have my number) – we need to have the spot prize tonight, in about 6 hours time.
Time is running out. You have six hours. That’s 6pm Irish time, or mid-morning EST! Thanks for your help!
I’ll be there, with camera in hand of course, although I’m useless at quizzes so I don’t know who’ll want me on their team. Don’t tell anyone ok?
Every time I want to go to the cinema I search for Cork Cinema and generally end up in the same sites looking up titles and times. If I’m feeling tired and don’t want to go into town, then there’s always the Reel Cinema in Blackpool to find. Enough is enough, for future referene here’s a few cinema related links Cork people will appreciate:
What will we see tonight? I think it’ll be Borat. It’s quite probably over-hyped, and I’m not expecting anything but the usual silliness that Sacha Baron Cohen excells at.
This morning I almost went straight into the side of another car on a bend.
I drive Jacinta into work and on my way back via Sunday’s Well I got a strong smell of petrol on the quay. It was raining with water pooling at the side of the road and the tell-tale rainbow of the petrol on the road was everywhere. It hadn’t been there a few minutes earlier and traffic was backed up going out of the city. The wrong way considering it’s the morning and we had been stuck for 15 minutes going in ten minutes previously.
Driving up a hill that’s been plastered with petrol is no fun. Other cars were getting stuck, we were stopped and people were getting impatient. I heard the beeping of a horn from somewhere behind me. We weren’t going anywhere and my view was blocked by the van in front of me. Finally the car in trouble started off again so I let go of the hand brake and pressed the accelerator. Nothing, I barely moved. In desperation I slammed on the hand brake again and took a breath checking my rear view mirror to see how much space I had. I tried again, the speedometer said 20mph but the car was barely moving. I heard an awful whining sound and slowly the car inched forward. Finally the tires gripped the road and slowly I made my way up around the corner. The road was clear ahead of me and I had another obstacle.
There’s a steep hill up and over Sunday’s Well and too late I saw the rainbow hues on that bend but I was committed. Slowly I advanced forward, turning the wheel with the corner but to my horror the car kept going forward, right towards a car. I stopped quickly. Thankfully the brakes held, switched off the ignition and hit the flashers before jumping out in case something had happened to my steering. No, the wheels were turned left but had been skidding on the slick petrol film on the road. I got in and abandoned my attempt to go up the hill, instead taking the longer route down the North Mall and up Blarney Street. At the top of that street were the signs of petrol again but it’s level ground and the road is more porous and didn’t present a problem.
I’m only now calm and not shaking. It gave me an awful scare and I’ll be heading into town a different way this afternoon. The Gardai were called and they had received a few calls already. I passed a Garda van on the way home so hopefully they were on the way down to direct traffic and help people.
I’m glad I’m home.
Here we are, live from BarCamp, predictably I’m late, but just in time for lunch!
See you tomorrow at BarCamp Ireland! There’s going to be a big crowd and great speakers. Tom will be there and he has volunteered to speak twice. I won’t be talking, but come up to me and ask me about WordPress MU and wordpress.com, I’ll be the one wearing the WordPress tshirt!
I see that the wiki has been updated with the following message:
All attendees, whether you have signed up already or not, please send your contact email address to barcampireland at gmail dot com. Thanks.
It’s a public wiki and I haven’t seen the same message on the BarCamp Ireland Blog so maybe hold off sending that email until there’s a similar announcement tomorrow. Me paranoid? Never!
While I’m here, blogging at 23:30, this will be of interest to the rest of Automattic and anyone else who works at home – Myths About Working From Home. You never really leave the job do you? (via)
Buying a house will probably be the biggest purchase most people will make in their lives. The process is littered with the baggage of ages, you have to get your own engineer, a solicitor must check the title of the land even though it may be a new estate, money goes here, money goes there and it’s all very stressful.
I went through that hell almost 2 years ago but it was brought to mind again recently when I was asked for advice on the subject. I’m no auctioneer or lawyer but here is a list of what I think you need to do when making a house purchase. The list is tailored towards the first time buyer because that’s exactly what I was when I bought. If you already have a property you have the headache of selling that too.
Finding the best mortgage is a tricky problem and there are a number of options – go directly to a bank or go through a broker. Hopefully your broker will be independent and will give you the best mortgage he can find but seems unlikely in light of the fact that brokers receive varying commissions from different banks and lending institutions. Brendan Burges answers frequently asked questions about mortgages on the askaboutmoney.com forums covering topics as diverse as mortgage repayment protection, tax relief and insurance.
You have your mortgage but besides the cost of the house, there are fees for all the services you must use to make the purchase. A solicitor will normally charge 1% or even 1.5% of the house price for their services. An engineer will charge anything from €400 and up depending on the size and condition of the property. You’ll also have to set aside money to purchase furniture and all those things your parents had in the kitchen that you took for granted. I have to admit I completely misjudged how much this would cost. If you like spending money though, buying for your home can be as satisfying as buying the latest gadget or a new pair of shoes!
Look up the Golden Pages and point your finger at the page and you’ll find a solicitor. Some are better than others, some are more paranoid and careful. You want the paranoid one on your side. Ask friends or family for recommendations. If you’re in Cork, email me and I’ll recommend the solicitor I used.
It may seem strange that this is not top of the list but it’s useless dreaming about owning a mansion if you can’t afford it. Getting mortgage approval first and finding out what your budget is will help bring your dreams more in line with reality and possibly down to earth with a crash. Use myhome.ie, and use Google to find local auctioneers. Examine the prices in the area you’d like to live. If you are really diligent, go down to City Hall or the local council and find out what developments are in store for your area in the next five years. You don’t want a sewage plant opening next door.
Your broker or bank, or solicitor, or somebody will recommend an engineer or architect. He’s important because he’ll spot the damp wall that means you may have to spend thousands on a new heating system. It’s also a formality too because he can only do a visual inspection unless he rips up floor boards, moves built-in storage out of the way and peels back wallpaper. There will be things he misses that you’ll curse him for months later. You’ll have signed his disclaimer form so just live with it. The banks want someone qualified to certify that the building you’re spending their money on is something they can sell in the event that you default on the mortgage. Why the buyer can’t hire an engineer and provide that report to each buyer is beyond me, but that’s “how it’s done” here.
The bank will send someone out to value the house, but guess who pays? It’ll cost you, the buyer, about €100.
By the end of the process, you will regard auctioneers as the lowest form of … Let’s just say, they probably squeezed you for every penny you’re worth didn’t they? If you’re a first time buyer the auctioneer is going to love you. You can be a quick sale, he gets his commission and deal’s done. Use that when you’re haggling over the price of the property. I’m not very good at this, if you aren’t either, it might be worth doing some research and practicing. It could save you a few thousand Euro. You do not not sign a contract yet.
Why do I need house insurance before I’ve bought the house? It’s because you have an interest in the property. You will also want to have the house insured the moment you sign on the dotted line. What if someone burns down your new home the same day you buy it? It’s another requirement that you have house insurance before the bank releases the funds for your mortgage. You can buy from the bank or broker providing you with the mortgage, but you probably shouldn’t. Shop around. 123.ie is one site that springs to mind but almost every insurance company has a website these days where you can get an online quote.
Nobody likes to think about death but a life assurance policy is another of the bank’s requirements before you can get a mortgage. If you die, the bank wants the loan they made to you paid off quickly and without fuss. A life assurance policy does that. Like the purchase of house insurance, you should shop around. Rates and options can vary wildly, but the cheapest policy is one that covers only death, and where the amount paid out decreases with the life of the policy, in line with the mortgage value.
Once your mortgage has been finalised, your house insurance bought and all the land registrary checks made by your solicitor, then you can sign the contract to buy the house. If your mortgage isn’t ready, and on the off chance that something goes wrong (perhaps a problem with your life assurance?) that makes buying a mortgage impossible, the seller could sue you or make life very difficult for you by looking for the agreed price of the property. If all goes according to plan then well done, you’re on the property ladder! You’ll owe the bank a huge sum of money every month for the foreseeable future “but at least you own your own home”! I owe the bank a big fat mortgage too so I’m in the same boat. 800 mortgages are issued every day in Ireland and despite the rise in interest rates that doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down any time soon.
If you have any suggestions for improvements to this list don’t hesitate to leave a comment below. Thanks Mel for reviewing my original list and making suggestions!
PS. The bungalow pictured above is in Blarney, I won’t say where but the list price on the auctioneer’s website was €330,000. Apparently it finally sold for €375,000!
If you are selling a house, about.com have a guide on how to prepare your house for the sale and showing it off. This might be useful too when you’re buying. You’ll spot the tricks!
Kathy Foley warns that you may be paying too much for conveyancing. She advices that by shopping around you should be able reduce your bill to less than €1,800.
So I shouldn’t have to pay more than €1,200 or €1,300 if I go for the best deal?
You should be able to get the conveyancing done for this amount, although you might have to pay up to €1,800. “If you pay more than €1,000 plus Vat and outlays for a standard conveyancing, you are paying too much,” said Leonard.