The thinking thread

johnfás wrote:

If I go to xe.com and I get the rate of sterling to euro, what rate will I actually get on my Mastercard, I wonder I wonder...

Terrible rate. It might actually be worthwhile to register as a day trader and get the currency at the spot rate. You'd save a good bit of money in the long run.

johnfás wrote:

What's on my mind right now?

Fecking hell, I was driving home from the girlfriend's house just there and a pedestrian (on his ipod) literally walked out straight in front of my bonnet. Had to swerve onto the other side of the road. Had he been a metre nearer I'd have hit him. Stupid pedestrian ipod listeners.

Have noticed this recently - if anybody is doing anything thesedays that does not require constant and immediate communication with another member of the human race - they will have earphones on.

Cant believe it , walking/running down the road, on the luas, reading books, riding horses (I kid you not) ,driving forklifts, sweeping and cleaning, waiting in receptions etc etc - am I missing something here - is there something hynotic and addictive coming over the airwaves

I'd go mad - have enough problems with the voices in my own head at times - let alone adding any more to the mix

It is really anti social too! I would suspect it contributes to the general breakdown of collegiality and neighbourhood that so many people complain about. You are never going to have a random conversation if you always have those things in your ears.

Worst of all I was sitting on the Dart the day before yesterday and there were two teenagers having a conversation both with earphones in their ears, both listening to different music while they did it. This went on the whole way from Dun Laoghaire to Pearse Station - most peculiar.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

johnfás wrote:

If I go to xe.com and I get the rate of sterling to euro, what rate will I actually get on my Mastercard, I wonder I wonder...

Terrible rate. It might actually be worthwhile to register as a day trader and get the currency at the spot rate. You'd save a good bit of money in the long run.

How do you do this? It probably isnt worth my while, I'm only spending £450! Just wondered what it was going to cost me.

Edo wrote:

johnfás wrote:

What's on my mind right now?

Fecking hell, I was driving home from the girlfriend's house just there and a pedestrian (on his ipod) literally walked out straight in front of my bonnet. Had to swerve onto the other side of the road. Had he been a metre nearer I'd have hit him. Stupid pedestrian ipod listeners.

Have noticed this recently - if anybody is doing anything thesedays that does not require constant and immediate communication with another member of the human race - they will have earphones on.

Cant believe it , walking/running down the road, on the luas, reading books, riding horses (I kid you not) ,driving forklifts, sweeping and cleaning, waiting in receptions etc etc - am I missing something here - is there something hynotic and addictive coming over the airwaves

I'd go mad - have enough problems with the voices in my own head at times - let alone adding any more to the mix

I'm of the same view as well. Whenever I'm out and about I like to listen to the music of life. People talking, cars rushing, birds singing, rain falling, wind gusting and everything else. It's far more pleasant, enriching and meaningful than Rihanna shredding your ear drum at 100 decibels while on Shuffle. I can't stand iPods or MP3s. If I'm listening to music it'll be at a concert, on the radio or on YouTube with friends and family. They are far better and more social venues for the enjoyment of music.

johnfás wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

johnfás wrote:

If I go to xe.com and I get the rate of sterling to euro, what rate will I actually get on my Mastercard, I wonder I wonder...

Terrible rate. It might actually be worthwhile to register as a day trader and get the currency at the spot rate. You'd save a good bit of money in the long run.

How do you do this? It probably isnt worth my while, I'm only spending £450! Just wondered what it was going to cost me.

I'd say the best bet would be to join those online trading companies. A lot of them do spread betting which is something different, but there would be websites where you can register yourself and engage in foreign exchange trading from the comfort of your own home. It's something like 888.com and PartyPoker.com. You get an account to go trading. If your travelling a lot, it might make sense getting the currency from the markets rather than letting some middlepeople at the bank bilk you with commission and an unfavourable exchange rate.

They charge a comission when you withdraw to your account I presume as well though.

I do have a sterling bank account but I don't want to flush that much money out of it. Especially given that sterling has weakened against the euro in recent times.

I'm getting myself this :

johnfás wrote:

They charge a comission when you withdraw to your account I presume as well though.

That's possible, but I'm sure it's worth it.

Quote :

I do have a sterling bank account but I don't want to flush that much money out of it. Especially given that sterling has weakened against the euro in recent times.

Is it with Northern Rock? What's comical is that it is the safest bank to be with in Britain these days. HBOS, RBS or Barclays could just go pop one of these days and there'll be ructions.

Quote :

I'm getting myself this :

Sweet. That'll mean more pretty pictures for the Machine National Gallery. Can you not get it here in Ireland with your Jean-Claudes? I'd imagine specialist camera shops would have something of that desciption here, if not that camera itself.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

johnfás wrote:

I do have a sterling bank account but I don't want to flush that much money out of it. Especially given that sterling has weakened against the euro in recent times.

Is it with Northern Rock? What's comical is that it is the safest bank to be with in Britain these days. HBOS, RBS or Barclays could just go pop one of these days and there'll be ructions.

Barclays and the Post Office. I might move it all to the Post Office .

Quote :

Sweet. That'll mean more pretty pictures for the Machine National Gallery. Can you not get it here in Ireland with your Jean-Claudes? I'd imagine specialist camera shops would have something of that desciption here, if not that camera itself.

You can but it is getting on towards 200 euro cheaper in the UK. Amazon.co.uk won't deliver electronics to Ireland so having to delivered to UK and I'll pick it up when I'm over at the end of August.

johnfás wrote:

Barclays and the Post Office. I might move it all to the Post Office .

The Post Office is a better bet. With Barclays crushingly bad results, they're looking at quite a tough time of it for the next while. You'd also be buying Irish if you move to the Post Office. Bank of Ireland has the contract to manage their financial services division.

Quote :

You can but it is getting on towards 200 euro cheaper in the UK. Amazon.co.uk won't deliver electronics to Ireland so having to delivered to UK and I'll pick it up when I'm over at the end of August.

Ah bugger. There's the catch. What your suggesting sounds like a much better plan. It's just ridiculous how highly priced some things are here. I'd imagine in this period of retrenchment that a lot of that swindling will be shaken out.

I started a long distance relationship today. Girlfriend of several years moved to Limerick to commence her Masters Degree. Happy days - I can go see the lads as much as I like now!

johnfás wrote:

I started a long distance relationship today. Girlfriend of several years moved to Limerick to commence her Masters Degree. Happy days - I can go see the lads as much as I like now!

Freedom!

unaligned wrote:

johnfás wrote:

I started a long distance relationship today. Girlfriend of several years moved to Limerick to commence her Masters Degree. Happy days - I can go see the lads as much as I like now!

Freedom!

Interesting ranking you've got there unaligned

Not freedom from my credit card anyway - just had to pick something up for her. I am getting the money back but yikes handbags are expensive.

johnfás wrote:

Not freedom from my credit card anyway - just had to pick something up for her. I am getting the money back but yikes handbags are expensive.

That they are, and they're so impractical sometimes. They're such dinky things that very little can fit in them.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

johnfás wrote:

Not freedom from my credit card anyway - just had to pick something up for her. I am getting the money back but yikes handbags are expensive.

That they are, and they're so impractical sometimes. They're such dinky things that very little can fit in them.

This one was a decent enough size. You would certainly fit your essentials into it.

johnfás wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

johnfás wrote:

Not freedom from my credit card anyway - just had to pick something up for her. I am getting the money back but yikes handbags are expensive.

That they are, and they're so impractical sometimes. They're such dinky things that very little can fit in them.

This one was a decent enough size. You would certainly fit your essentials into it.

Oh it's one of those Radley ones? My Mam has one of those and they are fairly pricey. That one would be able to fit lots of essential things.

Yea she got it with her last paycheck before heading to stab city. Just she didn't have time to get it so I picked it up today.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Edo wrote:

johnfás wrote:

What's on my mind right now?

Fecking hell, I was driving home from the girlfriend's house just there and a pedestrian (on his ipod) literally walked out straight in front of my bonnet. Had to swerve onto the other side of the road. Had he been a metre nearer I'd have hit him. Stupid pedestrian ipod listeners.

Have noticed this recently - if anybody is doing anything thesedays that does not require constant and immediate communication with another member of the human race - they will have earphones on.

Cant believe it , walking/running down the road, on the luas, reading books, riding horses (I kid you not) ,driving forklifts, sweeping and cleaning, waiting in receptions etc etc - am I missing something here - is there something hynotic and addictive coming over the airwaves

I'd go mad - have enough problems with the voices in my own head at times - let alone adding any more to the mix

I'm of the same view as well. Whenever I'm out and about I like to listen to the music of life. People talking, cars rushing, birds singing, rain falling, wind gusting and everything else. It's far more pleasant, enriching and meaningful than Rihanna shredding your ear drum at 100 decibels while on Shuffle. I can't stand iPods or MP3s. If I'm listening to music it'll be at a concert, on the radio or on YouTube with friends and family. They are far better and more social venues for the enjoyment of music.

The thing is I don't really view music as a social thing, except of course for concerts. It's great to have music in the background while hanging with friends and all but there's nothing about music that says you can't enjoy it alone. I do appreciate that it's bad for society in general when everyone just walks around on their iPods completely oblivious to the world around them. But no matter what way you want to look at it, sometimes the "music of life" is just plain boring. Not much exciting about the Luas at 8 o'clock on a Monday morning.

evercloserunion wrote:

Not much exciting about the Luas at 8 o'clock on a Monday morning.

You might be surprised. Just log onto overheadindublin and see the things people have heard!

Quote :

On the Luas, last Friday week, a group of 15-16 year
old boys coming from school got on at Bluebell. One of them complained
to his mates that his girlfriend had dumped him the night before. . .
by text! Highly indignant at this insult he said he was better off
without her anyway; all she was doing was costing him money. He went on
to detail all the money he had spent on her, bringing her out and
buying her presents. "I must have spent at least 400 Euro on her", he
announced to his mates, at which one of them piped up, "Jaysus for that
kind of money I'll be your girlfriend".


Overheard on Monday, 12th December 2005 - Luas to Tallaght by Anonymous

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So prick up your ears next time and you never know what you might hear! I always find the Luas is very good for listening to girls with nauseated mid atlantic accents saying the word "loike" over and over.

johnfás wrote:

evercloserunion wrote:

Not much exciting about the Luas at 8 o'clock on a Monday morning.

You might be surprised. Just log onto overheadindublin and see the things people have heard!

Quote :

On the Luas, last Friday week, a group of 15-16 year
old boys coming from school got on at Bluebell. One of them complained
to his mates that his girlfriend had dumped him the night before. . .
by text! Highly indignant at this insult he said he was better off
without her anyway; all she was doing was costing him money. He went on
to detail all the money he had spent on her, bringing her out and
buying her presents. "I must have spent at least 400 Euro on her", he
announced to his mates, at which one of them piped up, "Jaysus for that
kind of money I'll be your girlfriend".


Overheard on Monday, 12th December 2005 - Luas to Tallaght by Anonymous

Rating score (281) | Email to a friend

---

• latest quotes
  
  
  
  • quotes of the week
    
  • hall of fame
    
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• post a story
  

So prick up your ears next time and you never know what you might hear! I always find the Luas is very good for listening to girls with nauseated mid atlantic accents saying the word "loike" over and over.

Well I was always on the green line so it's pretty much just "loike" all the way in. Admittedly the red line can be very entertaining.