Not yet humpday

Seeing as it's month end here, life is pretty much taken over with work. So what's a blogger to do?

Er....write this instead of finishing off yet another mind-numbing report, it seems.

It's both good and bad to be back in Dublin. The weather is mostly crap, but it's obviously the middle of tourist season, as it's impossible to go anywhere in the city centre in a hurry; the crowds are "bleedin' massive", to use the local lingo.

The part of town that I work in is, to be perfectly honest, known for two things; substance abuse, and Guinness. Now I do realise that there are some people out there that will point out that these can be one and the same, but I'll guarantee that the pilgrims to the Guinness brewery leave there in more control of their senses and bodily functions than a lot of the locals leave their usual haunts.

But I digress...



This rather fuzzy image (don't you love traffic fumes in small streets) is the one of the most photographed parts of Dublin. The bit that's missing from this early morning picture are groups of tourists dodging the large number of horn-honking taxi's and tour busses that crowd the streets here on a constant basis. Just up from this gate is the entrance to the famous Storehouse, where the tour groups are hearded in and out in quick succession over the course of the day.

The bit that most people fail to realise is that the Storehouse is a teeny tiny bit of the Guinness empire. Take a look at this bit that isn't on the tour!

There's a giant loading bay about 5 stories up the wall!

The whole brewery complex covers 64 acres (there are 43,560 square feet in an acre) of prime city-centre real estate. It's mind boggling, when you consider that a small one bedroom apartment goes for over 350,000euro these days (that's the best part of half a million dollars for a glorified shoebox). It's estimated that the land alone is worth in the region of 700million euro. Explains why they're looking into selling off a few buildings, doesn't it?

Don't get me wrong though; there's still a massively huge advantage to working in this part of town. You're guaranteed a really good pint of Guinness.