Yours Truly Offline

Hey Ashley, how is it going?

That's what I think as well. Our health service is overcrowded as it is anyway, waiting lines are ridiculous. My mother has to have surgery done next week, if we weren't lucky enough to have private health insurance, she could have been waiting months.

Lol, so is Ireland. I try my best to understand it.

Watching highlights of Limerick's footy match earlier. We drew with Sligo Rovers, the champions and league leaders until tonight, which was good. I was there, but I want to see if the TV cameras picked me up in the crowd. You?

Yeah, I have relatives who live in the UK. It's a great system. They do have some problems with overcrowding, but, then again, what health service doesn't, really?

It definitely wasn't a good year. Ireland was in economic boom up until then as well, then we suddenly crashed.

Ahh, I see. The medical card system has been here for a long time now, but no-one's complained about it. Thing is, most European countries have a far better health service that's free for everyone. Look at the NHS in the UK for example, that's a good healthcare system.

Oh, that sucks. Yeah, the Dell closure was around the same time as well, maybe a couple of years later. The whole world slipped into a financial crisis then.

Ohh. You can only get free healthcare here if you have this special medical card, which you can only get if no-one in your household is employed. And that's true.

Ah, cool. Limerick was a major industrial city in the past, but around twenty years or so ago, we had a massive investment from Dell. They employed almost 10% of the city's population until a few years ago, when they shut the manufacturing plant down, moved it to Poland and laid off everyone who worked there. >.> And when they closed down, other local companies which relied heavily on their business had to close down as well. Not good.

Lol, the public healthcare here isn't even free, everyone has to pay for it. Private insurance is good enough for the most part though. And mental health care here is atrocious too.

Yeah, there's nothing open anymore. There's a big enough out-of-town shopping centre near where I live, but that's about it.

Ohh. I hope it doesn't happen either!

Ah, the medical sector was doing very well in the last few years, but it's slowing down slightly. On that note, the health service here is terrible as well. The city centre is pretty much bare, all the shops have closed. It's gone so bad that the Irish Government are giving the city council millions in grants to improve it. It's like a mini-bailout.

Ooh, stormy? It's still really sunny here.

Lol, well, I'm incredibly proud to be from my city, but, let's face it, it's a terrible place to live. We're one of the most economically deprived cities in Europe. Ireland in general is a terrible place to live at the moment though.

Ah, I see. Places like that don't always have WiFi. Well done on surviving some time without WiFi though!

I hope it does! I actually want to live there when I'm older.

Ahh, I see. Cool.

I can't believe that, in this day and age, some restaurants don't have Wifi!