Granny 2.0

I rewrote my grandmother's website recently: www.gladysleach.com. My gran has been painting since before my parents were born, and is very well-known in Cork. She mostly does paintings of local buildings and landscapes. My aunt now sells her art through the website.

I originally wrote the website for my aunt back around 2003. It was a typical zero-budget, table-driven, non-standards compliant, ugly thing then. Not one of my more proud programming achievements.

I feel much happier about the new site though. It is at least fully standards compliant. I have been learning loads about XHTML and CSS in the last year or two, and I finally applied that knowledge in re-developing this website. I think the site also looks a lot nicer. I'm still no graphic designer, nor do I wish to be, but I think I did a reasonable job this time of making the site fairly attractive and easy to navigate.

To Burst A Bubble

Something monumental is happening in Ireland. The property bubble which has lasted this long decade, has begun to burst.And I for one, welcome it in.

Ireland has long watched the value of its property assets rocket skyward. House prices have climbed by double digits, year after year, after year. The government has toasted record tax receipts with champagne and multi-billion euro surpluses. Home owners have celebrated becoming accidental millionaires by buying BMWs befitting their new found wealth. Everyone with a stake in the market cheered "boom"!

Those with vested interests, property owners, market speculators, landlords, builders, real estate agents, and the government, were all being too blinded with cash to stop and wonder where the money was coming from, and how this apparent bonanza could be our ruin in the making.

At the same time, another segment of the Irish population, those not already on the so-called "property ladder", watched with despair as their chances of ever owning a home to live in vanished into the distance. For these young people, the "property boom" only made them feel poorer. This despite the fact that these were the same people driving Ireland to its new levels of productivity and international competitiveness.

Ireland has deluded itself these last several years, into thinking it was richer than it was, by imagining the value of its property to be more than it is really worth. And what is worse, it borrowed and spent all that imagined wealth away. For Ireland, it is time to face reality. The debt collector is at the door.