ionapaul in the well

[Raoul Duke III]

Renowned life nit, steamer and Las Vegas regular ionapaul has graciously agreed to be lowered into the well.

Let us commence along our traditional route:

1. What's the largest animal you could throw over a crossbar?
2. What was it like having GAB as a boss? Honestly now....
3. Do ya play any poker at all these days? What is the status of your current relationship with the game?
4. Your wife is hotter than you, how did you swing that? What was your most effective chat-up line back in the day?
5. Isn't 'falling asleep in the jacks' in order to avoid paying your share of the bill taking life-nit-dom a bit far?
6. What do you make of your current industry's prospects for the next 5 years? Hasn't online poker pretty much eaten itself at this stage?
7. Buying a house! How much is that going to hurt your soul?

Fire at will.

[ionapaul]

Ha, this should be fun May not get to any of these tonight but will definitely get cracking tomorrow.

[Raoul Duke III]

Ha, this should be fun May not get to any of these tonight but will definitely get cracking tomorrow.

the distraction of CHD's sheep game probably makes this a sound move

One more question: why are Galway so un-clutch at hurling? Is it a Connacht thing? (thinking Mayo football here)

[Jam-Fly]

1. You have no prospects and no savings. You're on the dole getting €188 per week. A genie gives you €10k to invest/use (i.e. you can't just use for living expenses). What do you do?

2. If you could travel back in time, what advice would you now give to your 15 year old self? Same question for 18, 21, 25 and 30 y/o self?

3. Pictures of said hot (-ter than you) wife mentioned in OP?

Ty for doing this.

[Mickey Rosa]

1. Every job pays the same, what do you want to be?

2. If you had 20k to invest with any poster on IPB who would you choose and why?

3. Do you believe that people should be held strongly personally responsible for their debt and is there too much hand holding of those who have got themselves into debt.

[FeetMagic]

1. From what I can gather you work in marketing, specifically copy writing? How did your career progress to this point and could you give an outline of your general role?

2. I think you are from Galway. What part? Do you travel back home for race week? Favourite time to be in Galway?

3. Best holiday you have been on?

4. Did you drink Buckfest in your younger days?

5. What is your hangover routine?

6. Favourite dish?

7. Drink of choice?

[TheDrunkenOne]

1 .Would you rather be (a) Just scraping by financially with loads of laughs or (b) Minting it with little laughs?

2. House on fire and family safe and you can rescue one more item, Which would it be (a) Pet (b) laptop (c) Complete collection of family photos (none saved on lappie) or (d) other item and what would it be?

3. You walk into bar and a good friend is pissed drunk and is about to get his head kicked in by three drunks, What do you do?

4. What superpower would you like and why?

5. What advice would you give to yourself 10 years ago?

6. You find a lamp, polish it and a genie appears and says you have one wish but whatever you wish your partner gets exact opposite.What do you wish for?

[CHDad]

Why didn't you play Sheep?

[ionapaul]

Here we go:

1. What's the largest animal you could throw over a crossbar?

I'm guessing something like a large housecat/small dog. I'm trying not to hurt the animal, right? If I could go for a dead/unconscious animal and didn't care about hurting it, I'd go for something bigger, hold onto two legs and swing it up. Something like a big badger?

2. What was it like having GAB as a boss? Honestly now....

Well, you wouldn't describe him as my boss; he was the head of the operations side of the poker team at Paddy Power, while I worked on the marketing side. The team was small but we were divided along those lines. So my boss at the start and Noel were on the same level, reporting into the legendary PPP-Pitboss, who some will remember posting during the old boards.ie poker forum days.

I'm not sure I'd love having GAB as my direct manager, he'd be a bit too demanding I think Expecting the best at all times, no time for fools; you'd never be able to slip up! Hopefully I'm not making him out to be a monster, just would have thought he'd be fairly demanding of his underlings...

3. Do ya play any poker at all these days? What is the status of your current relationship with the game?

No, don't really play poker anymore. I made a few attempts to qualify for the Live Gaelic-PPP Irish Open 2014 live SNG sat earlier this year, all unsuccessful, and that's the total amount of online poker I've played so far in 2014. Will try to qualify for the IPO later in the year probably. The main problem with online poker for me is that I'm not allowed to play at any Rational Group sites, so my beloved PokerStars and Full Tilt are out of my reach. The worst thing about Full Tilt's 'rescue' by PokerStars in 2012 was the fact that we'd be blocked from playing at PokerStars, people were really down about that and me more than most! Haven't played at 888 or Party in ages but can't imagine they compare to the slickness of PokerStars or Full Tilt and it's no fun going from great software to only adequate or mediocre.

Live poker used to be my main hobby, for many, many years. I first played online (at Party) in the late summer of 2004, with my first live game being the Secret Santa boards.ie game in the Fitz that December. I remember my hands shaking for the entire experience, and I was there for a good while, going out just before the bubble. For the next four or five years, I probably played live an average of three nights a week, maybe more (lived in Sydney for 9 months in 2006/2007 and was a 'live pro' for most of that time, playing in Star City casino. 'Live pro' is a bit of a misnomer, I started out with a crazy hot streak at the lowest limit cash tables and had an average hourly rate of €30/hour at the end of my first month. By the time I left Sydney my hourly rate was down to €9/hour, less than half of what I earned working as a temp in an office there for a few weeks). I loved both the Fitz and the SE, both great spots in their day. I was never that great at poker, though only had a single losing year (my first), every other year have bagged a four-figure profit, apart from 2008 when I had my only five-figure annual profit. So it was a good hobby to have!

About two years ago I 'fell out of love' with poker, both live and online (and had been playing a lot online for the previous two years, mainly small buy-in tournaments on Stars that were quite profitable for me) and have barely played since. When I do play live, I'm struck by how far behind the good players I am (played last year's IPO and at one point was at pppspecial's table and just dreaded playing into him, I'm a total and utter fish compared to a player like him) and how the general standard of rec players is as bad as ever. My last live tournament was a €20 rebuy in the Fitz last summer, that I had gone two with two new members of my team to give them an experience of live poker. Managed to win the tournament outright when the student type I ended heads-up against refused to deal, despite my pleading given it was 1.30am on a worknight! HectorJelly actually dealt the final table that night, was fun. So it's nice to have my last game down as a victory, not sure when I'll play again.

I just don't have that 'urge' to play that gripped me for so many years and that most here will be familiar with - my main hobby now is what it was before I found poker, playing computer games. Never too old for that!

4. Your wife is hotter than you, how did you swing that? What was your most effective chat-up line back in the day?

I used to love using chat-up lines and meeting new girls in pubs and clubs, towards the end of my single days I would say that I got pretty damn good at picking girls up! Was dreadful in my teens and early 20s though, not confident enough, it's all about confidence as corny as that sounds.

Had a great, meandering chat up line that involved holding a girl's hand for about a minute and asking her some nonsensical questions about how 'the bunny gets across the river'. Really stupid stuff but good fun and usually would get a laugh.

Met my wife in that most traditional of places, the dance floor in Cafe en Seine. A close friend of mine met his wife in the same place over the course of the same summer, when I chatted up a group of women and she and he hit it off later in the night. Basically the Cafe is a good spot to meet the love of your life, despite how annoying most of the denizens of the place are!

5. Isn't 'falling asleep in the jacks' in order to avoid paying your share of the bill taking life-nit-dom a bit far?

To this day I'm not sure of how/why I was so badly affected by the booze that night. It was an awesome occasion and I was well up for it, but don't feel like I was going overboard at any stage, I'm usually very good at holding my drink. From the start of the meal onwards my memory is hazy, and the less said about how the night ended for me the better, really annoyed I missed out on so much fun. I know that Hitch also bowed out in similar style later in the night which makes me feel slightly less embarrassed.

On the last point I did ship my share of the cash to SP during the following week, would be hard to live with the shame otherwise.

6. What do you make of your current industry's prospects for the next 5 years? Hasn't online poker pretty much eaten itself at this stage?

Probably shouldn't go into this too much, but I'm neither totally down-hearted about it nor am do I think we'll see a return to boom time poker. I think the size of the market will continue to decline, with the Rational Group retaining a massive share and a number of smaller operators going under or being subsumed by the bigger players.

I'm not sure the game is beatable for many players, there are too many 'good' players who siphon off too much of the funds brought into the system by depositing players. If those players continue to get filleted within days of starting out, they'll just stop playing and never come back. The game can't survive with five sharks waiting at every table. It's not sexy, it's not on TV any more and that means it's really hard to get a younger generation interested, the widespread availability of really interesting mobile technology and games doesn't help either, I feel we are competing with the likes of DOTA 2/League of Legends/COD for the leisure time of potential customers and are finding it hard to hold their attention as a result.

7. Buying a house! How much is that going to hurt your soul?

Yeah, we've been looking for a while and it's not a fun process, prices have risen a good bit over the past year and it's tough to contemplate paying €X for a property that you could have gotten for €X-30% two years ago. Looking all of the place, from Dublin 3/9 all the way down to Dublin 18 and SCD, so not sure where we'll end up.

Also feel like we might be made a fool of by being reasonably cautious and not borrowing the absolute max to buy a bigger place, as I'm sure interest rates will rise at some point. We'll probably buy a property where we'll have a really nice LTV ratio, looking to put 30%-40% of the value in in cash to ensure we start off with the best mortgage product possible, and keep a year's worth of salary back for rainy day purposes. Just don't feel like cautious, frugal people are valued or protected in Ireland very well, we'll be the people asked to bail out the profligate over and over again.

There is zero political will to ensure that those who over-borrowed pay for their mistakes; there will be no PPR repossessions and things will be arranged for the benefit of those owning houses - so why not join them?

[ionapaul]

the distraction of CHD's sheep game probably makes this a sound move

One more question: why are Galway so un-clutch at hurling? Is it a Connacht thing? (thinking Mayo football here)

No clue about this, my interest in Galway hurling is marginal to be honest. My Dad's from Valentia Island in Kerry and I spent the first five years of my life living outside Killarney, with some of my earliest vivid memories of going to Kerry matches (went to both the 1984 and 1985 Kerry-Dublin All Ireland Finals, crawling underneath the turnstiles as was common for children to do then), so my primary GAA interest in in Kerry football, Galway is almost an afterthought. Get slagged a lot for this by friends though, jumping on the bandwagon, etc...!

My Dad's knows one of the Galway hurlers, David Collins, and usually tells me if he's spoken with him before the matches and about how confident he seems, and has never reported anything untoward so I wonder what the story is, why they keep outperforming at club level and then under performing at county.

[Iago]

Just don't feel like cautious, frugal people are valued or protected in Ireland very well, we'll be the people asked to bail out the profligate over and over again.

There is zero political will to ensure that those who over-borrowed pay for their mistakes; there will be no PPR repossessions and things will be arranged for the benefit of those owning houses - so why not join them?

1. Thoughts on this article relative to your point above?

We Irish are not alcoholics – we are everything-aholics. Of course we drink too much, but we also take too many drugs, eat too much rubbish, gamble too wildly and splurge too much money. And we can’t get to grips with these individual impulses because we don’t join them all up and ask what lies behind them. In particular we don’t ask whether there might be some connection between our guzzling and overindulgence on the one hand and our political culture on the other.

Every few weeks we get a new report into some aspect of Ireland’s terrible trouble with consumption. Last week, it was the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing which showed that almost 80 per cent of Irish people over 50 are either obese or overweight. Before that, it was figures showing that 32 per cent of Irish seven-year-olds are overweight or obese.
Last month it was the Health Research Board report that showed 75 per cent of all alcohol consumed in Ireland is part of a binge-drinking session and that 1.3 million of us are classified as problem drinkers. Before that, it was the revelation that between 2004 and 2011, 4,606 people died directly, or indirectly, from illegal drug use in Ireland.

Or, to look at reckless consumption from another perspective, 55 per cent of Irish credit card holders do not know what interest rate they are paying and 31 per cent depend on those credit cards to meet monthly household bills. No one of these things may be unique to Ireland but the combination of them all adds up to a strikingly dysfunctional absence of self-control.

When these reports come out, we look at them as individual problems. There’s a good reason for this. The researchers who produce them are not in the business of speculating about what common factors might lie behind them. This kind of speculation is, moreover, dangerous. It plays into stereotyped and essentialist ideas of Irishness, the colonialist notion of a wild people unable to restrain itself that goes back to the Norman invasion.
If we are to speculate, then, we have to be clear that we’re not talking about Irish “nature” but about Irish nurture – the ways in which a culture has been formed in response to real historical circumstances.

These dangers have to be braved nonetheless. We’ll get nowhere if we don’t talk about the underlying culture common to so many of our individual problems. Two things in that culture are surely relevant: an inability to think about the future and a sense of comfortable powerlessness.

One of the best-known experiments in psychology is Walter Mischel’s marshmallow test of “delayed gratification”. A child is placed in a room with a marshmallow and told she can eat it now but, if she waits until the tester returns, she will get two.

Ireland collectively would fail the marshmallow test. We know that it would be better for us not to open that second bottle of wine or eat that third cake or put down a deposit on that apartment in Bulgaria or put that impulse purchase on the credit card. But we don’t believe enough in the future not to stuff ourselves with what’s in front of us right now.

And this, surely, is not unrelated to our political culture. Irish politics doesn’t do the delayed gratification of long-term planning. It doesn’t do the future. Why? Because we haven’t matured enough as a society to have any confidence in long-term progress. Deep down, we still believe that if we don’t grab it while it’s going – whatever “it” happens to be – it will disappear.

It’s relevant, too, that “self-control” is, in political terms, another name for democracy. The problem we have with personal self-control mirrors the struggle, never really successful, to control our collective destiny. For all sorts of reasons, we’ve been very bad at constructing the institutions and practices (the Republic) that give us a sustained sense that we are truly responsible for ourselves.

We’ve outsourced our sense of control to a domineering church, to national elites and then to global “forces” – the market gods that we propitiate with sacrifices. And over time, we’ve come to feel comfortable with this lack of responsibility: just look at the pitiful way we welcomed the troika to make decisions for us, and at the political chaos that has followed its partial departure. The corollary of getting used to being told what to do is that you gorge yourself when no one’s there to stop you.

Which comes first? Is the lack of self-control the product or the creator of a malfunctioning public culture? Most probably the two are so intertwined the distinction between cause and effect is lost. But if they are so deeply connected, we need to find a way of making that connection in public discourse. The State is never going to get anywhere preaching to its citizens about responsibility, self-control and the need to think about the future when these are, to the State itself, alien concepts.

2. Why would you ever buy a house when the money can be used much more effectively to return an investment that will cover your rent and more?

3. What's your number?

4. How would you rate your chances of reaching that number in the next 5 years?

5. 10 years?

6. Ever?

7. How do you feel about sacrificing 40+ hours a week of your life for 40 years in the hope of accumulating enough resources at the end to actually do things you want to do for whatever period is left?

8. What passive income streams do you have, and how have you developed them over the years? What do you think they will look like in 10 years time?

9. What's the smallest amount of money you would bend down to pick up if you saw it on the street?

10. What's your average spend a month? How much do you think you could genuinely reduce that by?

11. Now what's your number?

Thanks for doing this, looking forward to seeing your answers during it

[AndyFatBastard]

Best book you've ever read?

[V for Vendetta]

Fair play Paul for taking the time.

Do you feel taking time out at various stages of your career has hurt your current earnings? future earnings?
If so was it worth it?

Frugality isn't rewarded and is counter to convention in Ireland but isn't the security and comfort that it gives you it's own reward? If it isn't enough for you what does that say about you? Do you need others to suffer for their profligacy for you to feel better about your decisions??

(Not having a go at you here but i catch myself having similar thoughts to what you've expressed above but then I feel like that is looking for external validation of my life choices which is a terribly negative thing in my view)

Who influenced you growing up and how?

What's your retirement plan?

Has settling down and marrying changed your financial focus? Have you eased off or gotten more focussed on saving?

What's your best story from your San Fran days?

Would you consider emigration anymore or is that ruled out now given your current house hunt?

You're a quiet guy but stand up for yourself when pushed. What's the biggest fight you've ever been in?

cheers

[ionapaul]

1. You have no prospects and no savings. You're on the dole getting €188 per week. A genie gives you €10k to invest/use (i.e. you can't just use for living expenses). What do you do?

Definitely invest the €10k in getting myself some marketable skills. I'd do a 1-year digital marketing or business administration type course - would then be starting at the bottom of the ladder but would be ready, willing and able to climb it I'd hope!

2. If you could travel back in time, what advice would you now give to your 15 year old self? Same question for 18, 21, 25 and 30 y/o self?

The obvious answer would be to invest in companies that we know have grown exponentially over the past two decades. Apple, Microsoft, etc...

To the 15 year old me, I'd recommend worrying less what my peers in school think of me, I'm not destined to be part of the 'cool gang' so just get on with my life without trying so hard to fit in. Probably give the same advice to the 18 year old me, and encourage me to start karate training again as it would be great if I kept that up!

To the 21 year old me I'd recommend spending more time in lectures and in broadening my knowledge base and less time playing 25 in the college canteen/bar! I missed a shocking % of my lectures during my BA studies as I found the course very, very easy and didn't need to make an effort at all, which is not good for someone in their early 20s. I'm still amazed at how much harder the Leaving Cert years were compared to my years in college, getting a good Leaving Cert (and I only got 450 points as I had my heart set on Arts in Galway so anything over 400 would do me) was sooooooo much easier than getting an honours BA and MA.

To the 25 year old me - I lived in San Francisco by this stage of my life - I'd recommend making a final decision on whether the US or Ireland was for me, and once the decision was made just getting on with life in either country. Spent too long going back and forth between the two.

As for the 30 year old me - maybe live a little more, stop saving so much money!

3. Pictures of said hot (-ter than you) wife mentioned in OP?

Don't think she'd appreciate that

Ty for doing this.

No problem, enjoying it!

[ionapaul]

1. Every job pays the same, what do you want to be?

Something to do with computer games I think. Involved in the creative side of things, maybe working on narrative and user experience. Definitely would like to get into that industry some day, hopefully I'm not leaving it too late!

2. If you had 20k to invest with any poster on IPB who would you choose and why?

Wow, this is a tough one. I think a lot of posters would be good choices, GAB, V4V, Iago. Guess it would depend how the cash was to be used - to be invested into a company they are starting up, to be invested into various opportunities they have identified but are at arms-length from, etc...

In the boards.ie days I was invited by another regular poster on the poker forum (the great and never-to-be-forgotten Culchie) to throw in a few grand with him to set up Vegas Baby Poker, a skin on some small Canadian network. I was too cautious to get involved but really wish I did - not sure if my involvement would have made a big success of it, but would have been great experience and a great story to have I think!

3. Do you believe that people should be held strongly personally responsible for their debt and is there too much hand holding of those who have got themselves into debt.

No, I don't think people should be dragged across hot coals or anything, I just think people who have borrowed against an asset and cannot repay shouldn't expect to keep said asset, it should go back to the bank. The person should then come to some mutually-acceptable arrangement with the lenders and continue on with their life - I think the American system of non-recourse lending (where the borrower is not personally liable if things go tits-up) is the way it should be, people shouldn't be hounded over bad decisions, they should be able to start again fresh.

In Ireland things have swung the other way though, with people unable to pay their debts and keeping hold of the assets, which is grossly unfair on others who may be unable to afford similar assets but are being asked to pay more to keep the banks afloat. It's a ludicrous situation.

[RoadSweeper]

1) You have €100k in disposable income to invest - What do you do with it? You have no mortgage, debt etc..

2) How does this change for €200k.

3) Have you any strong thoughts on asset diversification?

4) Are you vegetarian?

5) If not, how do you feel about eating food where an animal has suffered.

6) If you could move abroad to live and work tomorrow, where would it be? Why?

7) How should people live their lives?

8) How much control do you have over your life? Would you like more?

Interesting well so far, thanks.

[LuckyLloyd]

Maybe one you don't want to answer, but if I remember correctly you started in Full Tilt during early 2011 or so - I.e. were hired late enough before Black Friday. You stuck it out all the way through the redundancy process and all the way through to the eventual PS acquisition. Why? Correct me if I'm wrong, but there would have been very limited marketing activities during that timeframe - certainly after the gaming regulator finally took action and we were offline. I realised fairly sharpish after the redundancies that waiting around with little of consequence to do while uncertainty reigned supreme would have killed me. Were you content to clock in / clock out for a while or was it a case of really believing in the brand and not wanting to give up hope on the dream job?

[ionapaul]

1. From what I can gather you work in marketing, specifically copy writing? How did your career progress to this point and could you give an outline of your general role?

Good question. I 'fell' into copywriting, as I fell into most roles I've had! I did a MA in History in college, entirely by thesis, with the 2nd year of the two years I set aside to complete the degree spent at the University of California, Berkeley. I was accepted to that great university as a student on exchange in their reciprocal programme with the National University of Ireland system - I usually describe my time in Berkeley as being there on 'academic scholarship', as that's a pretty fair way of describing it, I had to undergo a proper application process to be considered as a potential graduate student there, and got my fees waived and a $6,000 bursary from NUIG while over there. Anyhow, my thesis focused on the Irish experience during the American Civil War - so I really should have gone to a university on the East Coast of the US to research things, not the West! - and I spent my time in Berkeley in the bowels of their amazing library, staring at Civil War era newspapers recorded on microfilm, writing my notes, drafting my thesis, holding down two part time jobs (as a front office person in the graduate dorm I was staying in - International House - and as a teaching assistant on an undergraduate Irish history course) and having the best year of my life.

I was there for academic year 99/00, right at the height of the DotCom madness. EVERYONE I was in college with planned to join a dotcom in San Francisco after they graduated; the news was full of stories of mid-20-something millionaires, stock options coming out their ass, it would have been impossible not to have been seduced by this! Plus I had always loved technology and the ever-improving future it promises. I had previously planned to try for a PhD programme once my MA was in the bag and eventually become a Professor of History somewhere, but I too decided to do my damndest to grab my share of the easy money and fun careers and stay in the Bay Area. The problem was my student visa ran out in summer 2000, so I managed to finagle a follow-on 12 month work visa, open to international students who had spent a year in college in the States.

Rushed back to Ireland at the end of my time in the States, saying a tearful goodbye to my new friends, and wrote up and submitted my thesis in record time (my adviser didn't want me to submit it as quickly as I did, but I was in such a hurry to get back to the States I ignored him and push the 'send' button as soon as I could). I was back in San Francisco by mid-August, well before hearing any indication of what result I could expect for the MA. Now to find my first real job...

I ended up turning down a few salesman-type roles and got into a company that ran third-party customer intelligence programmes for large high-tech firms. What does that mean? We basically interviewed our clients' customers, pitching ourselves as independent so we could get unguarded opinions (we'd make the feedback anonymous if the interviewees wanted that), and used the feedback about our clients' software, customer relationship management and pricing for various pieces of useful collateral. If the feedback was positive, we might write a case study or a sales collateral one-pager. If the feedback was negative we could use it to write up a constructive criticism report (sometimes the negative feedback was more useful to our clients than the positive stuff).

Our clients were firms like Cisco, Business Objects, Oracle, so my colleagues and I would be interviewing fairly senior people in their customers' workforce, Vice-Presidents of Development and CTOs, on our clients' products. This was a good first job for me! About 25% of my time was spent interviewing people over the phone, and the other 75% was spent writing.

Almost all my colleagues were in their early-mid 20s, mainly from Ivy league standard colleges and all strong writers. I got paid really well for a first job out of college, I think I was on $38,000/year (and it being my first job didn't know to negotiate when I was offered it, so could have gotten $40k), at a time when the dollar was worth more than the euro. My friends in Ireland were all on $20,000-$25,000 at the time!

I've some great stories about how crazy the dotcom times were, how people and companies were wasting money to beat the band, but this answer will be too long if that gets involved! The arse fell out of the dotcom boom, our clients had to cut back on marketing spend and a third-party customer intelligence contract was obviously going to be first thing to go. I had to go back to Ireland in mid 2001 to look for another visa, and by the time I returned to the States the company had to let me go (it shut down the following year, which is a pity as it really was a good idea).

I had found another 2 year visa, that required some 'creative' language to ensure that I fit the requirements to get it, and returned to San Francisco in November 2001, one month after the events that literally changed the world. It was much harder to find work, but I scored a decent job as an 'Office/Operations Manager' of a tiny medical processes/software development place. Much of my work for the next 15 months was mundane (answering phones, preparing invoices, etc...), but I again got to stretch my writing muscles by drafting software manuals, designing and providing content for a customer newsletter and a few other bits and pieces.

I returned to Ireland in mid-2003, and spent the next year working a throw-away part-time job and planning my future life in California, as I believed I was close to returning on a permanent basis. This didn't work out and so it wasn't until the summer of 2004 that I got my first 'real' job in Ireland, as a Marketing Executive in a small IT services company. Again, I got to write a lot in this role, loads of very technical tender documents (we got a big % of our business from government organizations), press releases, newsletters, case studies, the lot. Spent two years there before doing the standard year in Oz. Then joined PPP as a 'Online Marketing Manager' and again ended up doing loads of writing despite the somewhat misleading title - newsletters, player emails, social media content, promotional and educational webpages, I wrote the lot.

This all set me up well for the Copywriter role that I secure with Full Tilt Poker over three years ago. All of those roles had a sizable content element, and I got great experience writing in a wide variety of different styles and tones. A good copywriter should be able to turn their hand to so many different things, from writing a one-line error message to a light promotional page and the accompanying complex rules page. I currently manage the entire team (four other copywriters), which includes people management and lead copywriter duties, while still writing a fair bit when required.

Very long answer, hope that covers it

2. I think you are from Galway. What part? Do you travel back home for race week? Favourite time to be in Galway?

Other than the few years in Kerry mentioned earlier, the rest of my childhood and teens were spent in Galway city - the family home is in Knocknacarra, though very close to Salthill. The best time to be in Galway is right now, July and August are amazing, the few weeks covering both the Arts Festival and the Galway Races are really special - the place will be buzzing! Won't make it down till the end of August this year though, unfortunately.

3. Best holiday you have been on?

My honeymoon earlier this year, without a doubt. Had a horrible last day (delayed for a full 24 hours without our luggage in Washington DC), which was exacerbated by a series of mistakes made by United Airlines, but otherwise it was paradise! Five days on the snow in Utah, six days in Vegas (our favourite destination) and seven days in an all-inclusive resort in Mexico Probably won't ever spend that amount of money on a holiday again but totally worth it.

4. Did you drink Buckfest in your younger days?

Not really, but one of my younger brothers was always a massive fan. He still drinks it, I do so once in a while when I'm in Galway and there's a worthy occasion.

5. What is your hangover routine?

Loads and loads of water, some fresh air and just lying low until I start to feel better! Hate being hungover, am usually good at handling my liquor so rarely have it bad. Have never felt 'the fear' that people go on about here, sometimes wonder if it is a real thing...

6. Favourite dish?

Hmm, tough one.

You know, if we're not talking about individual amazing dishes I've had in different restaurants, I guess I'd have to say my wife's Cottage Pie, I absolutely love it. Really like bangers and mash too, assuming the sausages used are top quality. I've got a peasant's taste, what can I say

7. Drink of choice?

Love a nice cider, whether a sweet Kopparberg or something less fizzy and more 'appley' from England.

I also love champagne, though I'm sure some of that is from the taste of it being associated with many pleasant memories for me, so when I have a glass now I automatically think of good times and living it up.

I don't drink coffee or tea so am more limited when it comes to non-alcoholic drinks, I do like orange juice though.

[Keane]

Give a fellow Kerryman some pro tips on getting the best out of the races

[Iago]

I don't drink coffee

That's you & V4V that have serious issues so

[ITT-Pat]

I ended up turning down a few salesman-type roles and got into a company that ran third-party customer intelligence programmes for large high-tech firms. What does that mean?

I believe it was Mahatma Gandhi who was asked: 'What do think of customer intelligence?'

He responded 'I think it'd be a good idea'

[ghostface]

Renowned life nit, steamer and Las Vegas regular ionapaul has graciously agreed to be lowered into the well.

Clarification needed on the above....

[Raoul Duke III]

Clarification needed on the above....

He's a steamer and he enjoys nothing better than hanging out with his fellow steamers.

[rounders123]

Whats the closest you ever came to dying?

Do you eat 3 square meals a day?. Any bad eating habits?. Would you bring a lunch into work from home regularly or get lunch at work?.

Are you a price or sell by date watcher when shopping?. Does your behavior and speed when supermarket shopping alone differ from when your shopping with your wife?

Were you nervous proposing?. Did you ask her father for her hand?.

Whats your routine on a transatlantic flight?.

The most interesting conversation or coincidence with a stranger on a flight?

The most you've ever paid for a haircut?, and was it an unexpectedly high price?

Have you any hidden talents?. If not or even if so tell us something about yourself that nobody knows?.

[FeetMagic]

Excellent questions rounders!

[ionapaul]

1 .Would you rather be (a) Just scraping by financially with loads of laughs or (b) Minting it with little laughs?

Good question! I'd have to go with (a), though I don't think I have what it takes to be on the breadline and full of laughs, that's just not who I am! Definitely understand how you can be minted and not enjoying life though, that great documentary 'The Queen of Versailles' was fairly eye-opening in this regard. The family had so much money and so many possessions (I realise the patriarch of the family had the threat of bankruptcy hanging over him, but he was never going to end up a poor man, just a small-time millionaire rather than one of the real big shots!), and they still managed to be miserable and fight with one another.

2. House on fire and family safe and you can rescue one more item, Which would it be (a) Pet (b) laptop (c) Complete collection of family photos (none saved on lappie) or (d) other item and what would it be?

I'd have to go with (c) here, I really value those kinds of mementos, have a great ticket album with most ticket stubs that've passed my way since my first big gigs in the mid-90s, would really hurt to lose that. Have never had a pet, but I imagine if I had a dog or a (good) cat I'd have to pick that above any inanimate object.

3. You walk into bar and a good friend is pissed drunk and is about to get his head kicked in by three drunks, What do you do?

Try to talk them down, calm the situation, get my friend out of there. I wouldn't really be on for a brawl in a bar, not really my scene (is it anyone's?), wouldn't feel bad about getting the bouncers or the Guards involved either.

4. What superpower would you like and why?

The power over metal that Magneto has seems really useful. Some kind of invulnerability would be nifty too. No point being able to fly and try to be a hero if some chump can just shoot you down, and invisibility is just too creepy.

5. What advice would you give to yourself 10 years ago?

Think I covered this above.

6. You find a lamp, polish it and a genie appears and says you have one wish but whatever you wish your partner gets exact opposite.What do you wish for?

God...I haven't given this any thought, but maybe I'd ask for less of an interest in computer games and various nerdy pursuits. I'd still be fairly interested in that kinda stuff, and my wife would be more than she currently is, which would rock

[ionapaul]

Why didn't you play Sheep?

Just didn't have the time - much like many of the community games here, am always bemused at the excitement the Werewolves games bring - but know it's a lot of fun for those playing!

[eamonhonda]

God...I haven't given this any thought, but maybe I'd ask for less of an interest in computer games and various nerdy pursuits. I'd still be fairly interested in that kinda stuff, and my wife would be more than she currently is, which would rock

I assumed a big dick was the only answer here.

[Lord Sir Banter]

I assumed a big dick was the only answer here.

The opposite of a big dick is a small dick bro, not no dick. He doesn't want the wife having a small dick - or any, I imagine.

[ionapaul]

1. Thoughts on this article relative to your point above?

I think the writer is pretty close to the mark. I'm not one of these people who 'hates Ireland' and the Irish - we're pretty great most of the time! - so don't wring my hands and lose sleep agonising about our national character, I just acknowledge ruefully. I know we'll vote FF back into power at some stage, particularly if they promise us a lot of 'sweets' in the runup to an election, as a nation we're shockingly unsophisticated politically - but so are a majority of countries in the world! The little people everywhere consistently get the wool pulled over their eyes by the movers and the shakers, and I don't think that will ever change. Obviously I'm not very idealistic about it anymore - at this point I just want to join 'em, as we'll never beat 'em. Become a vested interest and get onto the gravy train somehow, do my local politician a favour so he'll remember me in the future, make friends with the fellas in the local golf club (don't play the game, so that might be a problem!), etc... Never delay consumption, as I'll be bailed out if I need it.

2. Why would you ever buy a house when the money can be used much more effectively to return an investment that will cover your rent and more?

I'm too financially unsophisticated to make the hard/smart choices in this regard; I'm sure I've the capital to start a business but don't have the drive or ambition to do so. Following the well-worn path of having a 40-hour a week job, reasonable mortgage and all the rest seem like the easiest way to get through life to me! I've always been quite lucky when it has come to my investments and have made some good decisions over the years, but recently I've been very cautious (believe the stock market is due for a correction at some point, but not willing to put my money where my mouth is just yet) and I'm probably collecting a 2% ROI per annum via dividends, with the capital portion standing still over the medium term. Not enough to live on for even two months of the year!

3. What's your number?

I'm not sure I understand the question - I'd guess you mean either a € amount that I want to earn per year, or a € amount I want my net worth to amount to?

I honestly don't have a number for either, I don't really plan ahead like that. I've always been more concerned with having enough in the bank to deal with months/years of unemployment or some kind of personal catastrophe. The savings and investments I've been building up over the past 20 years were always going to be used to buy a house and ensure that we end up with the smallest mortgage possible; every euro saved during that time was to save us paying four euros in mortgage debt down the line! Of course, we could go and buy a house in far-flung Mayo or Donegal or Kerry for cash, and live on the dole without a care in the world, but that's not something that would interest me, can't see myself living outside Dublin or Galway if in Ireland.

I know I don't need a very high annual income to be happy and financially secure, I'm not a big spender and the impact of the higher rate of tax makes killing yourself to earn more and more a bit of a fool's errand. My life wouldn't change in day-to-day terms if I were earning €20,000/year more than I am now, except that I'd save €10,000 extra a year and would probably suffer a lot more from stress! I'm a bit of a worrier anyhow, so might be at my limit in terms of career ambition; manage a small team, don't really want the responsibility of managing an entire unit

It wouldn't surprise me if I ended up a millionaire in terms of net worth at some stage in my life, but again, it wouldn't change my day-to-day life very much - I'll probably be retired or close to retirement at that stage.

4. How would you rate your chances of reaching that number in the next 5 years?

5. 10 years?

6. Ever?

See above, not 100% sure on the question so can't really answer

7. How do you feel about sacrificing 40+ hours a week of your life for 40 years in the hope of accumulating enough resources at the end to actually do things you want to do for whatever period is left?

I've always struggled with this - this is a reason for the 'career breaks' I've had over the years, I have often taken 6 months+ in between jobs to catch up on things (games, DVDs, you know, the important stuff!), might as well enjoy life while young, could be hit by a bus at any time. You gotta do the things you want when you can, go to Australia for a year (did it when I was 30, was more fun without having the financial worries!), live in different countries, etc... How sad it would be to work your ass off from the age of 20 to 65, only to drop dead a year or two later - happened to a close friend of mine's Dad last year, only a few months after the last payment on the mortgage, really made you think.

8. What passive income streams do you have, and how have you developed them over the years? What do you think they will look like in 10 years time?

Hmm, I get crazily small interest on the various savings accounts I have, a few in Ireland and one in Belgium (my 'starting again' money if Ireland really goes to the dogs!) and then most of my equity investments at the moment (other than GLD and SLV) are in companies that pay tasty dividends, so earn a few grand from them a year. Then the taxman gets his cut... Don't earn enough to live on, that's for sure!

9. What's the smallest amount of money you would bend down to pick up if you saw it on the street?

50c. Have picked up dirty and sodden fivers before, right out of the gutter, will never be too proud to do that! Anything higher is a bonus.

10. What's your average spend a month? How much do you think you could genuinely reduce that by?

Hmm, I probably spend about €1,500 per month, with €675 of that rent. I definitely spend about €200 of the rest on gadgets and other disposable crap I don't need. I'm pretty good about limiting the amount spent on phones (€20 billpay per month), TV (€45 per month) and all of that jazz, and don't have any bank loans and probably never will (apart from a mortgage and business loan if I ever have to). Can't believe people borrow money to buy cars, seems sooooo stupid!

Could get my monthly spend down to rent + €400 if I had to. But that would be a bit crazy!

11. Now what's your number?

Ha, I don't think I'm gonna change anything right now anyhow - I'm fairly bad about forward planning like that, my pension was only started in my 30s and up until recently was shocking!

Thanks for doing this, looking forward to seeing your answers during it

No problem, enjoying it

[Iago]

"Your Number"

Is the amount of € or currency of your choice at which point you feel you would never have to take employment again for financial reasons. So what net worth would make you feel "that's it, I've enough to cover my needs for the rest of my life, and I'll work for fun rather than cash if I work at all"

On the whole I think we have a very similar outlook to life, and with your average spend as outlined above, I think you're probably closer than you might think to being completely financially independent

[ionapaul]

"Your Number"

Is the amount of € or currency of your choice at which point you feel you would never have to take employment again for financial reasons. So what net worth would make you feel "that's it, I've enough to cover my needs for the rest of my life, and I'll work for fun rather than cash if I work at all"

On the whole I think we have a very similar outlook to life, and with your average spend as outlined above, I think you're probably closer than you might think to being completely financially independent

I think €500,000, assuming the house is paid for, would definitely be enough for me - if I won that in a lottery I'd resign from work the next day, would probably be unable to work out a notice as I wouldn't be able to concentrate on the job! In reality I probably could get by on less, as I've modest tastes. Would set up some kind of light touch business and invest in a broad range of equities and commodities and get on with enjoying life!

[DeadParrot]

He's a steamer and he enjoys nothing better than hanging out with his fellow steamers.

so you are seeing he's a steamers best friend?


ah school days, where pissing under a cistern at the urinal marked your sexuality

[DeadParrot]

I assumed a big dick was the only answer here.

smaller breasts ftw

[DeadParrot]

I think €500,000, assuming the house is paid for, would definitely be enough for me - if I won that in a lottery I'd resign from work the next day, would probably be unable to work out a notice as I wouldn't be able to concentrate on the job! In reality I probably could get by on less, as I've modest tastes. Would set up some kind of light touch business and invest in a broad range of equities and commodities and get on with enjoying life!

so €1million

[DeadParrot]

I realize I havent asked any questions and wasn't planning on it
but...

Sitting or standing while wiping?

Biggest adrenalin rush of your life?

What would you recommend for a modest (10K) investment?

How many bones have your broken on your body and how? Any stand out injuries?

You have one language you can become fluent in (bar english) what do you choose?

Magnets, how do they work?

fair play, some great answers so far

[Raoul Duke III]

€3.4 miilion.

(30 × 80k) + €1m

[Iago]

€3.4 miilion.

(30 × 80k) + €1m

Revise downwards

[Megatron]

Cheers for doing this Paul a great read.

What's your favourite anecdote that you tell down the pub from your time working with PP?
What's your Favourite off strip attraction in Vegas (not counting the Canyon)
Whats your most guilty pleasure in Vegas?
Whats the most Frugal thing you do on a Daily - Weekly - Monthly basis?
Have you any tips for living frugally?
Do you plan to retire in Ireland or will you retire overseas?

You're Honeymoon post in the Travel thread was a great read. Apart from the ending is there anything you would revise on it if you could do it again?

[ionapaul]

Best book you've ever read?

Hmm, another really tough one!

I've always been a big reader, was one of those nerdy kids who in 1st class was judged to read at a 4th class level and so on as I got older. When I think about 'favourite things' I try to consider how much I enjoyed them at the time, rather than now. For example, I wouldn't choose to watch Terminator 2 right now if I had to watch a movie, but there's no movie I enjoyed more watching for the first time (as a teenage boy, obviously enough!) than that.

So when it comes to books, I'd say The Lord of the Rings is up there, kicked off my love of fantasy (and latterly sci-fi) and of big epics. Reread it numerous times from my early teens through early 20s, though haven't read it in ages.

The first two Gormenghast novels are amazing, I'm actually due a re-read of them soon.

A Confederacy of Dunces and Catch-22 are both special to me, as are The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky.

I could go on all day about books, have so many that I love, I've always at least two books on the go at any one time and read dozens and dozens a year, and never get close to reading as much as I'd like to (same with playing games, watching TV shows and movies and discovering new music - we're all in the same boat there I'm sure).

[ionapaul]

Excellent stuff.

1. Do you still bring in two manky plain cheese sambos to work and toast them on a sandwich toaster in the canteen every day for lunch like you used do in the glory days of Airton Road?

Ha, blast from the past! I'm still somewhat the same person, so I have the same kind of lunch almost every day - a brown roll/brown bread sandwich filled with ham slices, turkey slices, either rocket or sweet peppers and a small amount of cheese. Sometimes toasted, though not during this hot weather! I'm definitely a creature of habit, I never get bored of that lunch (and this is in our subsidised canteen where there's a bit of choice, though most of it isn't particularly healthy). Have cereal each morning and almost each evening, love it and will never get bored of it - that's just how I am!

2. Would you rather work directly for me or PPP-PitBoss?

I'd rather work for you, couldn't deal with the mood swings of the other. Though I personally always got along well with her, she liked me, which would have helped!

3. Politician you admire and why?

If I can go for someone long dead, I'll plump for Abraham Lincoln. Read loads of books about him during my graduate studies and he's so easy to admire, he was am amazing politician and comes across as a genuinely nice, inspiring and honest character. Not many of them involved in politics anymore.

Harder to pick someone living to admire! Maybe Elizabeth Warren in the States. I kinda like Leo Varadkar's 'straight talking' persona, hopefully he's the real deal.

4. Politician you detest and why?

So many, where to start. Bertie was one of the worst, though I almost hate the fact he worked hard for peace in the North, which means he wasn't all bad! His mentor Charlie was surely much worse, grrrrrr. The more populist the politician, the more I hate them (I realise Lincoln was populist at times, don't worry!), since the people are almost always wrong!

5. Favourite journalist?

I've some time for Gene Kerrigan, though I don't read the Sunday Indo anymore and probably never will. I also have time for Matt Cooper in the Sunday Times; that paper has a good few decent journalists actually.

6. One book that everybody should read and why?

This is somewhat linked to my answer to AFB's question, but I'd go for something like Catch-22, which is fairly hard to get into (I'm sure about 50% of readers give up before the end of the 2nd chapter) but really worth it in the end, as corny as that sounds. Shows up the ridiculousness of war so well, and is genuinely hilarious.

Otherwise some kind of popular science book would be good, a Richard Dawkins book on evolution - one of the most amazing things you'll ever learn about and it's real! Though more fantastic than the plots of 1,000 fantasy novels combined.

7. Fav poker story?

Drawing a blank here... Have had some great, great nights in both the SE and the Fitz over the years and my favourite stories probably spring from both places. Some of my most memorable moments in poker have been butting heads with the legends of the live scene, Player X in my first few years in the Fitz, the Chief in the SE, various donks in both Galway and Dublin. I can't describe how much I used to love hearing Luke do the final table prizes spiel (wasn't it a list of roads down around East Wall?) back in my early days of poker in the Fitz, I'd always have a massive smile from ear to ear while listening, as did most of the other players to be fair!

Will have to have a good think about other stories, whether I was there or not.

8. Why do you love Vegas so much? What is the smallest trip that can work when doing Dublin > Vegas > Dublin on a short hop?

It might be hard to explain my love for Vegas...that city represents freedom and excitement to me, when I'm there it's all about enjoying life, going to shows, playing blackjack and poker, shopping, drinking, eating out at great restaurants, it's got it all. I get so excited before and during each visit, and am really lucky that Elizabeth feels the same way, would've been difficult if she hated the place! We have loads of favourite things to do there, outdoor drinks listening to the cover bands at Carnival Court, having lunch in the Earl of Sandwich at the Miracle Mile, going to see Absinthe every time...

Did a five day, four night stay in Vegas last year, wouldn't ever go shorter than that, it was a bit silly doing it to be honest, spent a fortune for less than a week away.

9. If you could perma ban one IPB regular poster i.e. contributes to the BBV at least occasionally, who would it be and why?

God, you know I'm a very diplomatic person, don't really like being put on the spot... I'll be honest and say that I don't have much time for the night crew's contributions during the early hours of the morning, I just don't get the 'tea' thing or all of that. It's probably because I'm getting old and grumpy.

I can say hand on heart that I've never put anyone on ignore, though have been tempted a few times. Wonder if I'm on anyone's ignore list?

10. largest ever sportsbet?

Would love to say it was on Our Conor but I was far too cautious. I don't think I've ever exceeded €100 on a single bet, though have been up around that mark a few times - defo put €90 on Klitschko to beat Haye a few years ago (watched that fight in a pub on the bridge in Shannonbridge, was on a Shannon cruise with my brother and a few of his friends, great night) as I thought it was giving money away. Not a big sportsbettor but am happy to report that a company called BragBet gave me a €25 free bet at the start of the year (for being a Connacht rugby fan) and I've slowly but surely turned it into over €350 - maybe I'll turn pro

11. fav night out?

You know, if we're talking in general I might go for a night at the Chef's Table in Chapter One - the first time there was with you and other poker heads. Have been there twice and both were awesome nights, you'd be trying hard to have a bad time!

Otherwise I wouldn't have expensive tastes and something simple like meeting up with friends and going for a few pints in a cool spot where we can talk without shouting can easily end up being one of the best nights possible. Would rather that than crazy nights in Tao in Vegas or wherever, I'm normally too worked up/tanked up for those and don't enjoy myself as much as I would have hoped.

Oh, have had EPIC nights in Karaoke places in Ireland and Oz, I've a terrible voice but love singing, really let loose with I've had a few and are surrounded by sympathetic friends. We should do an IPB Karaoke night...

12. fav restaurant?

Probably Chapter One, have had loads of great nights there and two epic Chef's Table occasions.

13. fav bar

Hmm, really liked South William (I think that's what it was called) on South William Street, the glass fronted place that closed down last year, that place was cool. Really like the Brew Dock as well, as does Hitch I believe. Loads of great bars in Galway, Roisin Dubh, Monroes, the Bier Haus, etc... Also love Carnival Court outside Harrahs in Vegas, never have a bad time when knocking back a massive cocktail in a plastic tube there!

14. Rule the world for one day - what do you make?

Probably try to break the hold of the super-rich on the reins of power, break up the scary hedge funds out there and ensure the little guy gets more of a voice... no idea how I'd achieve any of that! Loads of financial transactions should be outlawed, I know that.

Good luck and thanks for doing this. I will never forget your wedding anniversary - it was the day I fell and fractured my back!!

No problem, it's fun! Not the back-fracturing bit, just the answering questions

[bohsman]

I can't describe how much I used to love hearing Luke do the final table prizes spiel (wasn't it a list of roads down around East Wall?) back in my early days of poker in the Fitz, I'd always have a massive smile from ear to ear while listening, as did most of the other players to be fair!

Roads and well known places around there alright, add in the RIPs and the odd current event, regs new haircuts, cars etc. Never got sick hearing it playing or dealing the FTs.

No questions, great read. Cheers.

edit - actually now that you mention it, what did you have for tea?

[ionapaul]

Fair play Paul for taking the time.

Do you feel taking time out at various stages of your career has hurt your current earnings? future earnings?
If so was it worth it?

Not sure how much it has impacted my earnings - from finishing graduate studies in 2000 through to today, I've probably about 10 solid years in 'real jobs' and four years in part-time work or taking it easy in various ways. I've been employed in my current place for 3 1/2 years, which is a year longer than any previous employer. Apart from moving from the US to Ireland, I've commanded a higher salary in each new job I've accepted, which is the way you want things to go - would I be earning far more if I didn't take the time off? Probably, I think if I had stuck it out in Paddy Power I'd probably be the head of a channel at this stage and I'd guess I could be earning a decent amount more than I am now...though with a lot of responsibility! That said, I've really no idea, I feel like I've made an acceptable amount of progress with all my career changes and time outs, I might think I should be paid more than I am (who doesn't think this?) but try not to dwell on the negatives too much.

I've definitely enjoyed my various periods of time off in between jobs and wouldn't change things if I could go back - I think everyone should have a few months off every few years!

Frugality isn't rewarded and is counter to convention in Ireland but isn't the security and comfort that it gives you it's own reward? If it isn't enough for you what does that say about you? Do you need others to suffer for their profligacy for you to feel better about your decisions??

(Not having a go at you here but i catch myself having similar thoughts to what you've expressed above but then I feel like that is looking for external validation of my life choices which is a terribly negative thing in my view)

I definitely don't need others to suffer, though as I mentioned earlier I think the current situation of not paying your debts and holding on to the assets is made and thoroughly unfair. Loans should be provided on a non-recourse basis; this would mean far fewer loans are given out, and if things go wrong people aren't burdened with the debt when they need to start again. That's all I ask for!

You are obviously right that you will never be happy if you constantly compare yourself to others - there will always be a happier, luckier, more content version of yourself out there. It's just the human condition to do so. It's hard for us to appreciate how wonderful life is for most of us - I'm acutely aware that my life, as a middle class Irish man, is something that medieval kings and Roman emperors might envy; I don't have their power but I enjoy a better quality of life (and almost certainly a longer life!) than almost all of them.

Who influenced you growing up and how?

Obvious answer is my parents and siblings. The first biography I would have read was J.R.R Tolkien's, and would have admired him for a while, though in reality he was probably a pretty dislikeable character! I have always admired those who had the courage of their convictions to swim against the tide, particularly scientists who have done so, Charles Darwin, Galileo, etc... I was also a big Michael Collins fan at one point, though wouldn't give him much thought anymore, it's a pity that Sinn Fein have ruined any of the positive aspects of republicanism for me.

What's your retirement plan?

As mentioned in an earlier post, I'm really not great at planning ahead, I assume everything will work out as I'm a good saver and am a man of modest tastes, as is my wife. I don't have any date, age or euro amount in mind, just want to live in an average house, drive an average car, enjoy an average social life and have a few years' salary in the bank for emergencies, that's the limit of my desires for retirement

Think I mentioned in the BBV recently how my current pension forecast gives me a final retirement pot in the mid €000,000s, which seems low according to your analysis, so maybe I need to revisit things. I definitely put far far less than RDIII into my pension, and I believe we're of a similar age.

Has settling down and marrying changed your financial focus? Have you eased off or gotten more focussed on saving?

Nah, nothing has changed here, save the same amount per month and things haven't changed at all. My wife doesn't earn as much as I do, so doesn't save as much, but has the same kinds of tastes - we treat ourselves occasionally and don't scrimp on the important stuff, but during the working week we hardly spend anything at all, we're home birds who are happy to stay in during most school nights.

What's your best story from your San Fran days?

Hmm, so many crazy ones. I was going out with a girl who's Dad owned/operated a few hedge funds and at one point he gifted her a share in the management company, so that she was pulling in over $1m a year from this passive investment. Pretty sweet!

Also had a funny one when I went on a few dates with a girl, stayed over in her place and had to let myself out the next day as she went to work early in the morning. Wanted to leave her a note thanking her for showing me a good time, opened up her notepad to see the entire page covered with dozens, if not hundreds, of variations her name combined with my name. She'd obviously been doodling what her married name would be like! Mrs. Paul Burke, Mr. and Mrs. Paul & XXXX Burke, the whole works. Freaked me out something rotten, hopped on the BART back to Berkeley and got back to my dorm room only for my roommate to tell me that someone who 'really didn't like' me left a message on our answering machine.

Cue some scary voice calling me out by name and saying he was 'gonna fuck you up, you're a dead man'. Assumed it was the San Francisco girl's ex, some crazy American who was going to do a drive by or something. Promptly called up the campus cops and got them to listen to the message, told them the whole story about the overly-attached SF girl. They finally managed to convince me it probably was some random student in Berkeley who got their kicks ringing various internal lines and leaving sinister voicemails. Not before I called the girl and accused her of setting her ex on me!

It's funny looking back on it now...

Would you consider emigration anymore or is that ruled out now given your current house hunt?

Nah, I'd only consider it if Ireland really, really went to the dogs. I do love this place! Am very open to the possibility of moving to Galway in the future though, particularly if house prices keep rising in Dublin (though this would also be a strong indicator to me that we're into another bubble and that prices will crash again - the faster prices rise, the more likely we're screwed!).

You're a quiet guy but stand up for yourself when pushed. What's the biggest fight you've ever been in?

Never been in a physical fight, it definitely wouldn't be my scene though have come close a good few times when drunk and got aggressive with random idiots. I have also been the random idiot in this circumstance! Not into confrontation at all but don't have much of a problem giving out about poor service, telling people to cop on to themselves or the like. Obviously if my close friends or family were threatened I'd be in there like a shot, I've always been quite strong with all the gyming and such so hope I wouldn't be totally useless in a fight! That said, I'm also certain I don't have a ruthless streak and probably would be useless at doing the nasty stuff necessary to finish off a fight; my natural instinct would be grapple, rather than throw a punch or kick someone in the head.

[ionapaul]

1) You have €100k in disposable income to invest - What do you do with it? You have no mortgage, debt etc..

Gonna be boring and say that I'd invest it in a few different ETFs that are focused on dividend-paying companies (I'm currently in IAPD.L, XGS.PA and IEDY.L, would go for more of the same). At the present time I'd be happy to stuck the €100k somewhere boring and take in €5k a year in dividends. Hard to find anywhere else for the cash, some many things seem overvalued at present.

2) How does this change for €200k.

Doesn't change, would do the same thing in the short term.

3) Have you any strong thoughts on asset diversification?

Well, none apart from acknowledging it's a good thing! I personally would have my savings and investments split out into multiple savings accounts (each under €25k or so and one based abroad in case things really go crazy here), commodities via the GLD and SLV ETFs and then a variety of different equities (such as the other ETFs listed about and a few standalone companies such as Deutsche Telekom and RSA).

4) Are you vegetarian?

Nope, never! Love the taste of dead animal far too much. I try to avoid thinking about where the delicious meat comes from, out of sight out of mind.

5) If not, how do you feel about eating food where an animal has suffered.

It would distress me to think that the animal was in lots of pain or was terrified in the moments before the end, but as above, I try not to think about it. I don't mind paying more for free-range/corn fed food and would be happy to pay a premium to eat the meat of animals who had 'a better life' or death than otherwise.

6) If you could move abroad to live and work tomorrow, where would it be? Why?

If I could pick anywhere abroad to live and work... two places spring to mind, firstly London as I love visiting the place and regret having not lived there yet. So much to do, to quote Dr. Johnson: "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life".

Next up would be one of the really rich beach communities of southern California, Corona Del Mar (the nicer part of Newport Beach), Laguna Beach, love that part of the world. Would get sick of the 'good' weather fairly quickly, but would love to live in a kick-ass house overlooking the Pacific and just write...

7) How should people live their lives?

That should be a thread in itself! I've always had a lot of time for "do onto others as you would have them do onto you". People should live their lives holding the utmost of respect for themselves and others, trying their best to be decent (whatever that means!), kind and honest. Don't try to improve your station at the expense of others if possible, try to be a collaborator rather a competitor.

That's all a bit meaningless I suppose... would have to think about this one a bit more maybe!

8) How much control do you have over your life? Would you like more?

I've a fair degree of control; once you marry you lose some (though the benefits outweigh the burdens), likewise when you have kids I'm sure. Having a decent level of financial independence - being able to quit your job without a moment's hesitation as you've a few years of salary in your rainy day fund - is all important when it comes to feeling secure in having a bit of control, as if you absolutely had to up sticks and move somewhere else in the EU, nothing would be able to stop you.

For more control I'd need more in the bank, in order to live wherever I choose in a manner that suits me, so would definitely to get to that place - an Irish lotto win would do the trick!

Interesting well so far, thanks.

No problem!

[ionapaul]

Maybe one you don't want to answer, but if I remember correctly you started in Full Tilt during early 2011 or so - I.e. were hired late enough before Black Friday. You stuck it out all the way through the redundancy process and all the way through to the eventual PS acquisition. Why? Correct me if I'm wrong, but there would have been very limited marketing activities during that timeframe - certainly after the gaming regulator finally took action and we were offline. I realised fairly sharpish after the redundancies that waiting around with little of consequence to do while uncertainty reigned supreme would have killed me. Were you content to clock in / clock out for a while or was it a case of really believing in the brand and not wanting to give up hope on the dream job?

Well, I think things were different for people depending on the different teams you were in - we (in the creative side, copy and graphics) were fairly busy for most of the down time, though not all. I think we had a total of two months, broken into two equal periods towards the end of 2011 and in the mid-summer of 2012, where there was nothing to do. Remember that anytime that it looked like we'd reopen, which was about three different occasions, twice under our own steam and once when Tapie was around, there was loads of content to prepare, new promotions, emails explaining what was going on, etc... I can't tell you how much good stuff (in terms of quality of copy ) I got ready during the down time, only for it to be cast aside when circumstances changed yet again. So despite the company not operating in terms of the player-facing side, a few select teams internally were busy for most of the time, with others doing absolutely nothing and being bored senseless - also can't understand how those people stayed sane!

I also enjoyed the type of work I was doing, which of course made it easier to stay. I had always liked the brand but didn't stay because of the name (I had always been more of a PokerStars person in my playing days!), that didn't really come into it.

[Dice75]

Hi Paul, skip any asked already as haven't had a chance to read yet.....

Meaning/Significance of IonaPaul?

Favourite spot for a couple of quiet Pints in Galway lately?

Were you much involved with the Full Tilt Festival in the docks last year, how was it received in FT HQ?

Favourite Pub & Restaurant in Dublin?

I think you said you lived in/near Grand Canal Dock or that general area? If so, how do you find it, is there much of a community feel to it or just rack-em, stack-em.

Are you much of a sports fan (Football/GAA/Rugby etc), have you played anything / teams followed etc?

Fantasy 6 for a dinner party?


tyty

[ionapaul]

Give a fellow Kerryman some pro tips on getting the best out of the races

Been a few years since I've done the full 'races' experience in G-town!

At the track, don't waste your time queuing for drinks in the busy bars in the centre of the place, in or near the stands. There's a great bar all the way down at the 'far end', to the left of the stands if you looked at them straight on from the dual-carriageway side. Ah, looks like it's called the Mayor's Garden: http://www.galwayraces.com/general-i...taurants-bars/

You'll have a small bookmakers ring in front of you if down there, and be also close to various tote windows. Great spot to base yourself at the track - though don't forget to go for a few wanders during the day to spot the fine fillies in all their splendor Ah, nowhere in Ireland better to be than at the races on the Wednesday or Thursday when the weather is good, just magic! Going up to a bookmaker to thrust €20 on your choice when suddenly a meaty arm shoots over your shoulder at the same man, pushing €500 into his hand and instructing in a thick farmer's accent to "stick it on the nose"! Women from the length and breath of the country tottering around on massive heels, downing glasses of champagne and planning their adventures later in the evening.

At night, everywhere will be busy and lots of places equally good. The Front Door, Busker Brownes will be hopping, as with the Quays (though as a local I wouldn't ever go in there, that's for tourists). The cooler spots on Dominick Street will also be wedged, live music everywhere. The Radisson used to always be one of the main spots to see and be seen at, probably still is - the crowd will be a bit older but still well up for partying!

Actually, across the road from the track is the Clayton Hotel, have never been in there for race week but understand it's a bit mental (no where near Galway city centre though) - if you do find yourself there, check these guys out: http://www.classactpromotions.ie/Band.aspx?ID=6

They were the reception band at my wedding last year, they rock!

[Iago]

One more question, because I'm very nosey

Now that your married do you pool your resources or keep separate accounts? i.e. is the average spend you outlined above the total household spend or your spend? & do you consider it a joint net worth or individual amounts?

If individual, why?

[ionapaul]

Whats the closest you ever came to dying?

Wow, I've no idea. Had been in a few cars that have crashed or been crashed into a really low speeds, so that doesn't count. Have never had a really bad scare in a car, luckily enough. Have never had a bad cycling crash either. Just can't recall anytime I've been too close to death, I'm sure there have been some occasions when I've been close but totally oblivious to it!

Do you eat 3 square meals a day?. Any bad eating habits?. Would you bring a lunch into work from home regularly or get lunch at work?.

Yep, I don't leave the house each day without having a bowl of cereal, usually a Shredded Wheat with a sprinkling of Special K (or the Lidl version!) and low fat milk. I actually would rather be late for work than go without this, if the milk has gone off or something I'll head off to the local shop and rush back for a bowl rather than head straight into work.

Likewise, I always have a lunch (our canteen is subsidised, so I'll usually have some kind of brown roll or brown bread sandwich, or fairly infrequently have whatever 'dinner' option is given). I use the small gym in work most days I'm in, so wait until close to 2pm to eat.

Always have a dinner in the evening, usually a meat and veg combo. Don't really eat much carbs for dinner anymore, happy to eat half a pork fillet and a lot of boiled veg than have pasta or potatoes. That said, would eat carbs happily enough if back at home or out for a meal.

Then I'd very often have another bowl of cereal between 9pm and 10pm - this is probably my worst habit, as I know I don't need to eat at this point in the day but I'm a creature of habit and it's so natural for me to have bowl while watching TV. My other bad habits - well, we get free snacks of various degrees of 'badness' in work, bars, nuts, muesli bars, fresh fruit and soft drinks. I probably have one can of Diet 7UP a month, so am good there, but would have a few bars in week, less than one a day though. Always grab two apples or bananas in the mornings so hopefully balance things out somewhat. I'm not crazily strict about my diet, I'm not the healthiest eater obviously but also believe in moderation and do a fair amount of exercise so don't believe in being a strict as others at IPB are.

Are you a price or sell by date watcher when shopping?. Does your behavior and speed when supermarket shopping alone differ from when your shopping with your wife?

I'll usually look in the 'reduced price' section when in a supermarket or clothes shop, am would often pick something up that's going out of date when I know I will eat it that evening, but I'm not that frugal when it comes to food or clothes shopping. Again, it comes down to genuinely having modest tastes (I think most people here think of me as this weird life-nit, but I'm not like that - I stay in 5* hotels in Vegas, buy loads of gadgets and have no problem spending lots of money, when I think I'm getting value Honestly!), when you are not a big consumer you don't need to penny-pinch.

My wife and I are very similar in our habits, I don't shop differently when she is there and vice versa.

Were you nervous proposing?. Did you ask her father for her hand?.

I was very, very nervous! Have I told the story here before? I had the ring from the middle of the week prior to the proposal, and on the Friday night transferred it from my hiding place in our apartment to glove box of my car, where I locked it for safety. The next day we had planned to drive up to see Newgrange (had never been before, so it was going to be a fun outing) and then stop off in Howth on the way home for a walk along the cliffs, where I was going to do the deed. It was the start of December and it turned out to be an ugly day, light rain turned to more persistent rain as the day went on - so much for an amazing view in Howth!

We had fun in Newgrange, even though I was driven into a fit of suppressed rage by the OPW guide that showed us into the passage tomb's inner chamber. She was making wild suppositions about the culture of the people who built the tomb, basically painting them as saintly, pastoral 'guardians of the earth' types, felt like she was pushing some weird patriotic agenda. Then she turned the lights off to demonstrate how dark it is on mid-winter morning before the light of the sun creeps into the chamber. She mentioned how wonderful the acoustics of the chamber is... AND THEN REFUSED TO TURN THE LIGHTS BACK ON UNTIL THE GROUP SANG A SONG TO DEMONSTRATE THIS! Some poor Americans started laughing nervously, until it became clear she was serious and would not be turning the lights back on again. So the same Americans sang 'Edelweiss' (nothing's more fitting when you're in an ancient burial chamber that might have been the scene of ritual sacrifice then singing a showtune from a Rogers and Hammerstein musical). Fine, let's get out of here. Nope, the silly bint refused to turn the lights on again UNTIL WE SANG IT AGAIN, WITH FEELING I was bulling at this point but didn't want to make a scene as it might distract from my plans for later

By the time we got back to Howth the weather was bad, cold and wet, but I was full of forced enthusiasm for our walk and 'picnic' along the cliffs. We walked a few dozen yards along the path, then I remembered that I had 'forgotten my gloves' and rang back to sneakily open the glove box to get the ring (oh yeah, on the way back from Newgrange Elizabeth, for the first time in her life, tried to open the glove box in my car for some reason - she had literally never tried this before in her life, and then that day of all days! I came up with some bullshit why it wouldn't open - 'must be broken' or something). Continued up the cliffs and I'm sure I was acting strangely. Then at a rocky outcrop I dropped onto my knee, onto the wet muck and grass, and asked the big question One of the most nerve-racking thing a man can do I think! Thankfully I got the positive answer I hoped for

I didn't ask her dad, I don't believe in that - more importantly, Elizabeth would have been RAGING if I did, she would have flipped her lid, so it was all OK. At least one of her brothers-in-law, if not both, asked the dad previously so hopefully he wasn't put out! At one point Elizabeth didn't even want him to walk her down the aisle, didn't like the idea of being given away (fair enough I thought, but don't upset the man!), luckily she reconsidered this as I think it was important to her dad to do it.

Whats your routine on a transatlantic flight?.

Try to get as much sleep as possible, have my bags packed and double checked the evening before. Always try to get an aisle seat and once I'm on the plane I like to get my book out, my tablet out and anything else I'll need for the flight, and get them organised in the pocket in front of me. Would always have a glass or two of wine/vodka and 7up if it's going, to make the process go a bit faster. I'm a decent flier, like watching the movies and reading my books, but like everyone else I get fairly restless after a few hours and have to get up and move around a bit, stretch myself. I don't really sleep on planes, no matter how long the flight, too much noise and not enough room.

The most interesting conversation or coincidence with a stranger on a flight?

Can't really recall anything memorable, I don't like talking to strangers when I travel so will purposefully put on my headphones the second I sit down to discourage contact!

The most you've ever paid for a haircut?, and was it an unexpectedly high price?

Paid €20 once or twice before, which is such a ripoff considering what I am looking for. My haircut takes ten minutes at most, a blade 4 at the sides and back and a very straightforward trim of the top and fringe. I don't want it washed, don't use gel or other products, just want to get in and out as quickly as possible. Don't want a drink or a chat, just want my hair cut! €8 would be a fair price, have been paying €12 in the Grand Canal area for the past year though.

Have you any hidden talents?. If not or even if so tell us something about yourself that nobody knows?.

I can juggle three balls quite well, learned from a good juggler while in college in the States, know a few different techniques. Can't do Mills Mess though, and have tried!

I used to be a good classical guitar player (left handed so strings are reversed), completed my grade 6 exam, but that was years ago - I do own both a ukelele and an acoustic steel-stringed guitar, both stringed for left-handers, but am not a 'by ear' player so need the chords in front of me if I play.

[ionapaul]

Heading to Westport for the evening so probably won't be able to get to the rest of the posts until Sunday eve - promise to get to the lot though!

[ionapaul]

Ah, where was I...?

Back from lovely Westport, 42km cycle along the Greenway from Achill to Westport in the bag, let's get back to answering stuff!

I realize I havent asked any questions and wasn't planning on it
but...

Sitting or standing while wiping?

Standing I guess - more of a standing crouch I think!

Biggest adrenalin rush of your life?

The whole proposing thing was a major rush I'll tell you! In reality it probably was the tandem skydive I did in New Zealand a few years ago (2007 to be precise), some rush that - I would be far too scared to do a bungie jump but didn't have the same problems with a skydive, you've so much longer before you hit the ground, surely there's loads of time to sort out any problems that might arise!

I also had a 1 hour flying lesson in a small plane out at Weston Airfield before, maybe four years ago. That was great craic and something that definitely got the blood pumping when the instructor lets you have full control.

What would you recommend for a modest (10K) investment?

It all depends on whether or not you really need the dough and how long you'd have to work to replace it if you need to. If you're young and have great earning potential, I'd recommend taking a punt on emergent technology/energy stocks and see what happens. If you want to protect the capital, obviously you should go for something cautious; a simple ETF tracking the performance of blue-chip dividend paying shares isn't a bad idea.

How many bones have your broken on your body and how? Any stand out injuries?

Never broken a bone, maybe broken a toe or two over the years but wouldn't have gone to the doctor for them - they say that everyone breaks toes and just get on with things, don't think?

Have hurt my knees a good few times (the first time was performing squats in the gym, so haven't done one of those in about 20 years at this point!), and unfortunately twice I've had to go on holidays (once snowboarding and once to Vegas) limping badly because of the old knees.

Looks like I badly strained/slightly tore my Achilles tendon on the final day of our honeymoon earlier this year, that took me a good while to get over but back to normal now.

Been very luck injury wise over the course of my life I think! But again, would always have been a cautious person, my Mum has some funny stories about me as a baby compared to my next youngest brother, seemingly even when I was crawling I was very much risk-adverse and would peer over a step and consider things before moving down, whereas my brother would just barrel along and straight down stairs, etc, if he had the chance. These personality traits stay with you all your life! When playing GAA, soccer or whatever as a kid, I'd always have been a bit of a goal-hanger and not into the rough and tumble too much.

You have one language you can become fluent in (bar english) what do you choose?

Well, it's either Chinese or Spanish. Probably Spanish for fun/travelling and Chinese if I wanted to think with my future job prospects in mind. Did a year of basic Chinese lessons a few years ago, god that's a tough one to learn! Have pretty much forgotten it all at this point. You can use Spanish in so many countries, seems like a no-brainer.

Magnets, how do they work?

Hmm, positively and negatively charged atoms, attracting and repelling one another? Something like that? Love popular science but I never remember many of the details, too many wondrous things surround us, it's hard to stay on top of it all!

fair play, some great answers so far

No problems

[ionapaul]

Cheers for doing this Paul a great read.

What's your favourite anecdote that you tell down the pub from your time working with PP?

Probably different stories depending on whether or not the person knew anything about poker and the various folk inhabiting that world. Got to spend some time with Doyle Brunson during the very first IO I worked, which was only a few weeks after joining the team. We were in the bar at one point, Doyle and maybe three or four of the PPP crew, all enjoying a drink, and some random poker fanboy came up and seeing a free seat beside Doyle, asked the group if he could sit with us. Doyle looked at me to make a decision, and I instinctively went with "sorry, another member of the team is sitting there, kthxbye". The look on his disappointed little face was priceless!

Also had a very fun dinner in the restaurant at Citywest with Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly, there were definitely one or two other PPPers there, not sure if GAB was among them. Both of them were great dinner companions and good craic.

The time a few of us went over to London to attend a big party/function in the Hilton on Edgeware road for the live final of the Poker Million was cool, we got a top table in the room as our boy Big C made it to the final. The poker was being shown live on Sky, and the footage of the actual poker (filmed elsewhere) was interspersed with shots of the tables in our room, with different tables cheering/reacting when 'their' player did something in the game. There was a free bar and it was an extremely boozy atmosphere, so I'd love to have seen the state of our table towards the end of the broadcast, we must have been in bits!

What's your Favourite off strip attraction in Vegas (not counting the Canyon)

I go off-strip really rarely in Vegas... maybe the Fremont Street Experience?

Whats your most guilty pleasure in Vegas?

Not sure it's a guilty pleasure, but happily play a fair amount of blackjack in the Pleasure Pit area of Planet Hollywood, there's usually some good craic at any time of the day what with the scantily-clad croupiers and the younger clientele they attract.

Oh, maybe catching a Big Elvis show, which I do most trips - he's pretty awesome and it's funny to be there mid day with all of the geriatrics watching an obese dude sing Elvis classics.

Whats the most Frugal thing you do on a Daily - Weekly - Monthly basis?

Maybe avoid brand name food in favour of supermarket own-brands? Not sure if that's too frugal, but there's no difference in the taste of Special K and Special Flakes/Especially You/ etc or Avonmore Milk and Lidl Milk so I always go own-brand for staples.

I guess otherwise I just have a tight rein on my consumption, don't feel the need to buy too much shit I won't use, a new phone every year and that kind of thing. Though am a serious sucker for deals posted on the Bargain Alerts forum on boards.ie, buy a lot of cheaper gadgets that way

Have you any tips for living frugally?

As above, just avoid buying things that you in reality won't use. Nothing is worse than wasting money that way. Also learn to recognise the things that are worth spending money on (a nice meal out, a hotel, a pair of shoes, etc...) and the things that don't need to be expensive to be good (most food staples, computer games, many electronics, financial products like insurance, etc...).

Do you plan to retire in Ireland or will you retire overseas?

Am pretty sure I'll retire in Ireland, would only retire overseas if I'm already there before retirement age. Don't really like the hot weather (despite 4+ years in California and almost a year in Oz), I'm well aware that I'm personally best suited to living somewhere with an Ireland-like climate

You're Honeymoon post in the Travel thread was a great read. Apart from the ending is there anything you would revise on it if you could do it again?

I definitely wouldn't have played any blackjack on my final day in Vegas Wouldn't have made many other changes, we had such an amazing time...

[Guest]

My questions asked by others nice read Paul was sure you were from Tuam.
I like your attitude to life and think ahve only played with you a few times an interesting dude.

[ionapaul]

Roads and well known places around there alright, add in the RIPs and the odd current event, regs new haircuts, cars etc. Never got sick hearing it playing or dealing the FTs.

No questions, great read. Cheers.

edit - actually now that you mention it, what did you have for tea?

Ha no problem - actually had a reliable bowl of cereal for tea last night, just the thing after the hectic weekend in Westport. We had an almight session out in Matt Molloys, wedged right up beside the musicians but had seats thankfully - epic night! Not too happy about being back at work today.

Is Luke still working in poker, does anyone know? He really was one of the best TDs out there in terms of warmth and common sense, such a nice guy.

[ionapaul]

Another question.

Have you ever contemplated writing a book? If so on what subject?

I'm always been told to quit my job and write a book by my Dad. The same fella who often tells me to 'spend a bit more on myself', almost the opposite of the advice you'd expect to receive from a parent That said, he probably knows better than most the worries that an overly-strict parent would bring - his own father (my grandfather) refused to speak to him for two years in the 1960s after my Dad put being a teacher on hold for a while to be part of a reasonably successful Irish folk band. The band did fairly well, no shortage of gigs, appeared on the Late Late Show twice and were big enough for a picture of my Dad to appear on the front page of the Irish Indo when he graduated from UCD after doing a night-time Bachelors of Arts, so it wasn't like he was a penniless musician! Anyhow, his Dad was from poorer stock, and to have his son quit a pensionable job to be a musician was obviously a source of shame and anger. My Dad tells a sad story about that time, when he had returned to Valentia Island in Kerry for the annual regatta and his Dad walked by him on the street without acknowledging him People were pretty stone-hearted about these kinds of things! That psychological pressure worked anyhow and he broke up the band to return to the bosom of the Department of Education.

As to what I'd write about... if I went down the non-fiction route I'd be interested in doing something popular science-y about Irish scientists. We've had some amazing ones and it would be interesting to write a book tackling some of the compelling real-life stories in Irish science.

I 'd like to think I'd be an OK short story writer, though I know that it's a really challenging discipline. If I thought I could make a go of it I'd start with short stories and see where that would get me...

[ionapaul]

I'll get to the two last sets of questions tomorrow at the latest - then hopefully someone else's turn down here

[Raoul Duke III]

I'll get to the two last sets of questions tomorrow at the latest - then hopefully someone else's turn down here

It is the sole privilege of being in the well that you get to nominate the next victim. Consider this your last question.

[ionapaul]

Hi Paul, skip any asked already as haven't had a chance to read yet.....

Meaning/Significance of IonaPaul?

The first stock I ever bought was Iona Technology back in 1999 (might have been the second if the Eircom flotation was before this), made a nice return on it and set up my first Yahoo! mail account at the time so went with ionapaul for no particular reason. Have stuck with it since across many forums and email accounts - though am a bit nervous when giving my address over the phone these days, as I think people might associate the first part of the address with the Iona Institute! I was around for years before them, bastards!

Favourite spot for a couple of quiet Pints in Galway lately?

Usually somewhere on Dominick Street, the more 'hipster' part of town and formerly where all the crusties used to hang out in the 90s. We often start in the Bierhaus, which is hipster central but boasts a good range of craft beers (which is the reason for the hipsters no doubt), and go from their to Roisin Dubh or Monroes for live music. Galway has a great live music scene, so there's always a lot of choice.

The Oslo in Salthill, which is also a micro-brewery, is a great spot as well. Only a walk from my family home, so it's a good place to meet up with old friends at Christmas.

Were you much involved with the Full Tilt Festival in the docks last year, how was it received in FT HQ?

We wrote a lot of the materials needed for it, helping out with the festival brochure, website and press releases. It was a major focus for the company and was judged a worthwhile exercise as far as I can tell, despite missing the big guarantee. Went down for a day towards the end and got to hang out with Isildur1 and a good few of my co-workers, which was fun, didn't play any poker though.

Favourite Pub & Restaurant in Dublin?

Think I may have answered these before. Restaurant is Chapter One, still have a €150 voucher for there since last year's wedding, probably got to use that at some point over the next few months.

Favourite pub is harder to answer, used to love the South William when it was still going, and have spent many, many nights in Bruxelles, though not for ages as it has started to grate on me in my old age. I'm happy in loads of pubs in Dublin, the Brew Docks is a particular favourite, my type of pubs just needs to have a good choice of drink, be quiet enough to have a conversation without shouting and be lively enough to generate a fun atmosphere.

I think you said you lived in/near Grand Canal Dock or that general area? If so, how do you find it, is there much of a community feel to it or just rack-em, stack-em.

Yep, still live at Grand Canal Dock. I can't say there is much of a community feel, but it's a nice place to live. Nice bars, some restaurants around, not much in way of anti-social behaviour, easy to get to and from the centre of town. It can get a bit crazy on really hot days, with loads of the local kids from nearby council housing (I guess - hopefully I'm not judging here) turning up to jump in and out of the dock and mess around a bit. Likewise it can get crazy when the theatre is running a really popular show, the traffic can be a nightmare and there are often altercations between taxi drivers plying their trade, surprised no-one's been serious hurt so far actually.

Would be happy to buy somewhere similar to where we're living (a 3-bed duplex) but don't have the dough for that unfortunately! We'll hopefully be moving out soon, whenever we find somewhere else suitable.

Are you much of a sports fan (Football/GAA/Rugby etc), have you played anything / teams followed etc?

Have dabbled in loads of sports, mainly as a kid - my Dad was big believer in every child participating in at least one sport while at school. Played loads of GAA football (probably from ages 8-12), loads of soccer with the local friends on the green, rowed in the secondary school crew for a year, did karate for two years, played a lot of squash, started in the gym at age 16. Haven't done too much as an adult, go to the gym regularly as I'm too lazy to do anything that demands more commitment. I occasionally play squash with friends, that's great craic.

Am not a massive sports fan, but would be interested in Connacht/Ireland rugby (go a few times a year), GAA (try to see Kerry and Galway one or two times a year), nominally follow Spurs in the soccer but don't really care too much, watch F1 when I can and then other sports on an irregular basis. I'd rather play a computer game then watch sports, for the most part!

Fantasy 6 for a dinner party?

Good one! Assume living or dead? Abraham Lincoln for sure, big hero of mine. Frank Sinatra, would be sure to be good craic and might get a song or two out of him. Muhammad Ali in his prime. Stephen Fry. Scarlet Johansson, not only super hot but I reckon she'd be a good conversationalist. Might have to go with a scientist for the last pick, but who? I admire Richard Dawkins but wouldn't particularly like to have dinner with him, so he's out... maybe Richard Feyhman?

tyty

No problem, enjoyed it!

[ionapaul]

One more question, because I'm very nosey

Now that your married do you pool your resources or keep separate accounts? i.e. is the average spend you outlined above the total household spend or your spend? & do you consider it a joint net worth or individual amounts?

If individual, why?

Last questions

Keep individual accounts AND a joint account to pay for rent, food, joint expenses, etc... The figures I've used in posts above are my share of the joint expenses, so about half of the total.

Net worth isn't combined as yet but surely will be in the future, defo if we get a house and the related debt! Will always hold individual accounts for various reasons (nothing dodgy!) but I'm sure the longer we're married, the more our financial stuff will intertwine. For now, I don't see any reason to turn my broker account into a joint account and so on.

[ionapaul]

It is the sole privilege of being in the well that you get to nominate the next victim. Consider this your last question.

Have a semi-willing participant lined up... will think up some questions for the poor unfortunately and open the thread by tomorrow afternoon