G'Day From Downunder

Happy New Year to you all; may 2012 make all your wishes come true.

The fat man in the red suit has come and gone and all that is left to do now is to pick up the disregarded wrapping paper... hopefully you haven't overdosed on the leftover ham and turkey?

However, I suppose you will, like me, be eating ham and turkey sandwiches for the next few weeks or so, like it or not.

Our usual diet for Christmas dinner Downunder here in this hot land is Barramundi, a beautiful northern Australia fish with what else but prawns.

Mistakenly this year we opted for the old tradition; hence, the abundance of ham and turkey sandwiches for weeks to come.

God help me; I'm going to end up looking like Santa if I ever get to the end of this lot and I reckon we will still have enough ham sandwiches leftover to open up a sandwich bar.

In this the land of sunshine with an abundance of mosquitoes and other critters that keeps the insect deterrent spray can industry flourishing, it's holiday time!

Time to head to the beach put on tight swimmers that you think makes you look like a younger version of Hugh Jackman, then just lay in the sun and wait for that suntan that makes us in this land of sunshine the envy of the English palefaces.

It's a time to forget about clocking in, clocking out, and all the other nasties that remind you that you are not a millionaire.

It's also a time when you can't open a bloody single newspaper without having about half of its contents dedicated to the game of cricket - a game that can take up to five days to get a result - so don't get me started on it, for if I do I will only drive you mad as it drives me mad.

I did try to describe the rules of this so-called Englishmen's game to you some years ago and I'm still suffering from the experience.

Summertime is a time to do one of the all-time Australian things of putting a shrimp or two on the BBQ and down a few coldies (local beer) and then thank the man above for good health.

Speaking of the man above, the rain gods sent us plenty of water over the last year and all without doing one rain dance.

Australia has been transformed from a drought ridden Continent to a Continent with an abundance of wildlife and birdlife.

Lake Ayre had been a dry pan for fifty years and now it is a massive inland sea with an amazing collection of colourful inhabitants and a once in a lifetime sight for some people.

I know all this talk of lovely sunshine and BBQs is not what you want to hear right now, as you are all rugged up in your two pairs of everything to keep yourselves warm and trying to look like you are still alive.

Only a few days ago as I was writing this article I gave Paddy McCarthy a quick call to wish him and Grahame Curtis a happy new year only to find them having an early New Year's drink in one of New York's finest establishments with them both having their bums stuck in the fireplace just to keep their circulation going.

The Irish that migrated here to help Queensland rebuild after the massive floods of last year and early this year are now counting their blessings, as are all the young Irishmen and women who came here to work in Queensland's and West Australia's mining resources boom that we are experiencing in Australia.

They are all receiving top salaries, averaging around one hundred thousand dollars and in many cases much more; salaries that should be well able to help them to establish a new lifestyle for themselves here and this in a time when things are not so good at home.

I hope that they will have learned from their experience of the Celtic tiger that the good times do not last forever and I hope they do what I saw the squirrels in Central Park do some time ago, that is to save for the bad times ahead.

Jim Stynes the Dubliner who is president of the Melbourne football club is the talk of the nation for his hero fight with cancer, he continues to defy the experts with his will to live.

He is holidaying in South America over Christmas with his family and no doubt preparing for another tough year.

Now it's back to reality again, the winter cold (in your part of the world) and the struggling world of trying to make ends meet.

Thank God, there is a Christmas as it is an oasis from the hunger for so many who do not have the privilege of having food on their table every day.

For the privilege of having food on my table every day I am very grateful and so my thoughts often go back to the hungry days of my youth, many years before the Celtic tiger and all the excesses of the modern day luxuries arrived in Ireland.

A time when simple things were important, things like understanding why Santa passed our houses as he was in a hurry to get to Africa to visit those who were worse off than we were.

It was a time of compassion, a time of being grateful for good health, a time to think of those less fortunate than we were, a time when all were happy just to see snow arrive for Christmas.

I remember it was also a time when it was no problem to stroll up to Dalymount Park to see a soccer match between Ireland and any of the fashionable International teams of the time on a Sunday without having to book a ticket a month beforehand as we have to now.

Of course, if you are in the corporate world and happen to know the who's who, then there's no problem getting tickets and the same applies to all the other major sports.

iPhones have replaced telephones boxes, jet planes have made us into international travellers.

Drugs and prostitution have replaced innocence.

Add to that the bankers who jumped into bed with the developers and became the fat cats of the nation.

The Clergy took away our belief to trust and then the crime of all crimes the politicians' brought our beloved nation to its knees.

A thought beyond belief to all of us who love this tiny patch of green that constantly receives a battering from the Atlantic Ocean and she who has had more than her fair share of troubles in her chequered history.

Yet through it all, she gave the world scholars poets and scribes and then she sent her children to the four corners of the world to educate, and help build other nations.

Ireland has had her fair share of tough times in her history and the time has come again to make a stand and elevate this proud nation back to her feet.

I met with An Taoiseach Enda Kenny briefly on my recent trip home and if his fishlike handshake and patronising smile says anything for the man, I would not be putting my money on him being able to help an old woman across a street safely not to mind expecting him to lift a nation back onto its feet.

The question I pose is does he have the belief and commitment in his soul to become Ireland's hero, or is he just another jester in the pack.

Enda I beg of you to prove me wrong for if you do, I will go to my maker a happy man.

Oh, how the world has changed in such a short length of time, it has gone from need to greed.

Until I talk to you again soon I wish you all good health and all the best for 2012. Be good to those who love you and Slainte from Downunder.

You can catch me at mike@globefins.com.au