He Blogs Again

I always seem to start blog posts with a clichéd "long time no blog" line. So no need to do that this time :P

I thought I'd get my ass in gear and write something in my blog. The name of the blog is sort of inapt for where I am now. I came home in August 2008, tried to find some sort of job in Ireland connected with China and/or the Chinese language. It seemed that most of the few jobs available were pretty much looking for native Chinese speaking call-centre people. I also looked for jobs in the IT sector and landed one with a well known American company. I've been doing that since October. I think I am pretty lucky to land a job like that, especially cos Ireland is in the firmly stuck a long way down the shitter in terms of finances and jobs.

I think I found it hard to adjust to Irish life at first: the fact that nobody understood me when I spoke Chinese (actually probably the same as when I was in China), the lack of Sichuan food, the over-indulgence in alcohol, the crappy weather (allegedly Ireland didn't even have a summer in 2008). However on the plus side, there are friends and family, good old Irish food like snack boxes and sausage rolls, and of course, the alcohol!!!

I landed home just before the poo-poo hit the proverbial fan. Then came the Freddie Mac/Frannie Mae (love those names) and the rest of the start of the financial crisis. The news here was just depressing: job loss after job loss, factory closure after factory closure. It was all doom and gloom. Then came the banks, and the drop in retail sales figures and then to top things off the government in all their wisdom slapped on a tax levy and increased VAT. The result of this was a mass exodus of shoppers north of the border, the weakness of Sterling catalysing this phenomenon.

Now it's June. There are not as many factory closures per week as before (maybe there aren't many left to close) but the banks are still in rag order. I don't think we've seen the bottom yet.

Talking to people in China last year, a lot of them didn't really feel the recession pinching. I think that has changed now. I've heard of factory closures and job losses. Their economy isn't growing as fast as before probably hugely affected by the fall in exports. However, they are probably in a better shape than we are in Ireland, cos I don't think their banks were let run loose as they were here. Maybe China will be bailing out Ireland in the same way they are bailing out the US!

There probably hasn't been much of a point/direction in this blog post. But at least it served the purpose of firing up my brain and prompting me to write something!