Ireland, Dublin. Cost of living.

Tax:
Ireland taxation of an individual's income is progressive. In other words, the higher the income, the higher the rate of tax payable. In Ireland the tax rates for an individual in 2007 are 20% and 41%.
1. Tax base (EUR) = 0 - 34,000; Tax (%) = 20%
2. Tax base (EUR) = 34,001 and over; Tax (%) = 41% on base exceeding 34,000
For more detailed information please see www.revenue.ie or www.worldwide-tax.com or www.irelandtax.com.

Average salary:
Software engineer - 36.000 EUR
Sr. Software engineer - 50.000 EUR
Project manager - 57.000 EUR
For more detailed information please see www.payscale.com

Property to rent:
I just have a quick look for properties rent and have to say you can rent 1bedroom flat for 1.000 EUR. It might be cheapest but convenience would be considerably worse.
For more detailed information please see www.draft.ie or www.myhome2let.ie.




Transport:
Dublin has a wide range on transport systems. Each system have different fares and prices. You can see it all if you follow by links defined below. However I just want to show approximate values. So please see:
Bus adult - 85 EUR
Bus+Rail - 119 EUR
For more detailed information please see www.dublinbus.ie or www.transport21.ie or www.transport.ie or www.softguides.com.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just want to say some lovely words about love this day. I get up every day and realize that I'm lucky because I have wife and her love. Sometimes It holds me when I have despondency and make me happy when I have a piece of good fortune.

I'd like to wish you BIG honest and open love that doesn't have limitations and rules, that gives you extra energy every day, that protects you and keeps you forever.

Who moved my cheese?

Every time I fly (i mean on the plane) I try to find some short-term entertainment. Last time (it was on Saturday) I bought small book "Who moved my cheese?". I was pretty impressed because it gave me big value in despite of small size. I spent above 2 hours to read it all but I'm thinking about such things until now. It just can give you kick and you move yourself and your thoughts.

The sense of the book is simple. it's just one story about mice that are looking for cheese all time.

If you're interested in such book and want to buy it or download it from somewhere, please read a few pages from it here. Or read review on wikipedia or see it on Amazon.

P.S. Next time I'll be in London or somewhere I'm going to read another books of Dr. Spencer Johnson that also very popular.

Tapas - Spanish appetizer

I was in London last week and had chance to visit Spanish restaurant La Tasca. It has amazing interior and brilliant atmosphere.

Anyway, this restaurant is well-known because of famous appetizer Tapas. I've ordered 8 tapas for two people. Also some tapas should be eaten with olives and olives served up on such plate. That's called "Huesos".

If you know Russian you will understand. :) If not this's filthy language.

Working time in your life

How many time do you spend at your desk and away from desk?
From time to time we should think it over.
There's time for work and should be time for relax.
Unfortunately, time goes by and we should plan recreation and entertainment.
Let's do simple calculation.

8 hours - sleeping time.
1 hour - come to work.
8 hours - working time. Sometimes it might be more.
1 hour - come home.

so it has leaved only 6 hours. If this time isn't planned you won't fill it.
There's so much books about time management. I even attended training.
I should say it's very instructive and useful.

A few links regarding it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management - just in common.
http://www.time-management-guide.com/index.html - good source
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/time.html - exact example and videos
http://www.managementhelp.org/prsn_prd/time_mng.htm - good source
and the last link http://www.sellingsalesmanship.com/time.html - good quotes.

Well, sum it up:

Money, can only be gained or lost. But time I can only lose.
So, I must spend it carefully

Best quotes

People have ability of thinking. The more thinking, the more thoughts.
The more thoughts, the more you work to improve yourself.
Sometime you can't explain your thoughts and there's no better way as put into words.
I'd like to share my favorite quotes:

Albert Einstein

• You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.
  
• The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

Anonymous

• Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.

Mark Twain

• Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.

Winston Churchill

• Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

Mahatma Gandhi

• Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
• Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Traffic jam picture

Please have a look. I'm shocked. There is no ANY driving culture here.

If everyone just a little thinks of someone on the road there wouldn't be such traffic jam.
For example it's not a secret that everyone in Ukraine can easily buy driving license for 200-300 USD. It's simply disgrace.

I'm just wondering about getting driving license in other countries. Do you have the same?