Category: Personal

  • Reflections in Bilbao

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    Tom Raftery
    in

    I’m sitting in the cafe of my hotel in Bilbao, sipping a cortado waiting for my lift to the airport to fly home. The sun is shining, a refreshing breeze is blowing, I’m looking at the Nervion flowing by lazily and the ediface of Gehry‘s incredible Guggenheim Museum is shimmering in the light. I’m very…

  • Happy birthday Enrique!

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    Tom Raftery
    in ,

    Enrique Luis Raftery Carnicero, my younger son, is one year old today. Happy birthday Enrique.

  • Dolphins in the river Lee!

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    Tom Raftery
    in

    I was waiting for the ferry between Passage West and Cobh this morning when I noticed a pod of dolphins in the river. I didn’t have my cameras with me (d’oh!) so I couldn’t get any decent shots. After I boarded, the dolphins played around with our ferry before rushing off to play with the…

  • America really is the land of extremes!

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    by

    Tom Raftery
    in

    Apart from all the tech stuff going on at Mix07 last week I met a guy there who really brought it home to me that America really is the land of extremes. It started innocently enough. I was sharing a breakfast table with a bunch of guys. I introduced myself and one of the guys…

  • Making up the rules as they go along!

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    Tom Raftery
    in

    I was talking to a friend in Dublin the other day who runs a software business. He received a phone call last week from Enterprise Ireland (EI) asking why his reported spend on Research and Development (R&D) had dropped from €300,000 last year to €0 this year! Well, because the CSO (the Irish government’s statistics…

  • Sex tourism in Cobh

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    by

    Tom Raftery
    in ,

    I was driving home from the city on Saturday when I noticed that the sign for the Cobh exit had been updated (see the icon to the right of the petrol below). Either the Cobh Harbour Chamber of Commerce has taken a more open view on tourism and lifestyles than heretofore or we have a…

  • Off to the sun!

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    by

    Tom Raftery
    in

    I am off for a week’s holiday in the sun with the family to re-charge the batteries. Back on the 9th. Don’t break the Internet while I’m gone!

  • Eamon O’Brien – great to meet you again!

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    by

    Tom Raftery
    in ,

    Eamon O’Brien was a neighbour of mine as a kid. Eamon is a couple of years older than me but we knew each other well. Before yesterday, I hadn’t seen Eamon in around 15 years but his mother and mine were very close so I was always kept up-to-speed on Eamon’s goings on. In the…