High wind caused one of the oldest trees in the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin to fall at around 8.20am on the morning of the 31st December 2009. The tree was on top of the rockery in the Gardens.

We spent the weekend in Istanbul in Turkey. I got to practice my negotiation skills in the Grand Bazaar. We took a boat from Europe to Asia and we walked for miles exploring the sites. It is a very interesting city. Well worth a visit.

A new coffee shop called the Art of Coffee has opened up in the tall glass building on the corner of Grand Canal Quay and Pearse Street in Dublin 2.

The owner is an award winning Barista and needless to say, the coffee is excellent. The staff are always friendly and welcoming. It's well worth a visit if you are in the area.

In a strong vote of confidence for the Irish economy the World Bank has rated Ireland seventh out of 181 economies in terms of "ease of doing business".

One simple way to move Ireland even higher is to get rid of commercial stamp duty as we rank a woeful 82nd out of 181 for "registering a property".

I just got back from San Francisco. It was cloudy in the city all the time but not in Marin County. I took this picture of the Golden Gate Bridge.

This was taken on my Nokia N95 camera phone to show you the view from my office window on this sunny Friday afternoon.

I was surprised to hear that the Habitat stores in Ireland have been closed suddenly and without prior warning. The stores, located in Dublin and Galway, were closed on Friday and a note was posted on their doors. See the notice on their website here.

Rent issues?

Previously, the Dublin Habitat store moved from it's Stephens Green location to its College Green base because of high rental costs on Stephens Green. The rent they were / are paying must be astronomical.

Sometimes I wonder how businesses manage to survive at all in Dublin with the rental cost of retail space.

This was one of my favorites



This was one of the award winning ones. I don't know if Ireland quite has the weather for these outdoor living room type gardens.



I have a lot more Bloom photos in the photo album (pw required)