Saturday, September 28, 2013

A chance meeting

 A misty morning on the Clontarf seafront
 This is the house where e200,000was hidden under the floor
 The Polish embassy


Today was a beautiful morning in Dublin.
Our electric kettle is blowing the fuse, so when I went to bed my clock was flashing to be reset.
So I just gave it one click to stop it flashing and fell asleep. I woke up at 8.15 which is not like me to get up so late.
I went downstairs and remembered not to plug in the kettle, filling a saucepan with water I noticed that the kitchen clock was at 5.15...Then I noticed that it was dark.
Then I remembered the flashing clock.
But I was up, so off to work.
My ramblings brought me up through the Dublin mountains and down to the foggy Clontarf seafront.
I often wish I could take better photographs to show you..but it was a massive dawn when it did happen I was up in the Dublin mountains.
I follow routes through the city which have irregular buses and where people can afford taxis.
Clontarf, Ballsbridge, Sandymount and Castleknock are my best hunting grounds.
Going back through Dublin 4 on the Merrion Rd I turned left on to to Ailesbury Rd. to do a U turn at the Polish embassy.
There was some guys fixing a gate and I asked them if they were lifting a few floor boards to call me.
The house just down the road was sold by NAMA and when the new owners lifted the floor boards they found €200,000 hidden there.
The house was owned by the guy who developed Priory Hall the apartment development that had to be abandoned as a fire hazard.
This was money he had forgotten he even had.
So I offered to help them if they were lifting any floor boards.
Then as I pulled in closer and told them about how much I admired the wonderful job that had been done on the Polish embassy across the road. One of the guys said thank you and then asked me if I would like to see inside his house.
I was delighted to accept but I didn't see the sign on the railings as I went in.
But WOW The interior was finished to such a high standard. Beautiful furniture "All Polish" he said. I told him how wonderful the house was and the quality of the finish was totally superb. "You are a very lucky man, I feel like the little boy who fell asleep and woke up in a toy shop"
It was only  when I came into the library did I see his picture on a magazine.
Then I realised that he was the Polish ambassador to Ireland Marcin Nawrot click here to read more.

It was a total pleasure for me to tell him in person about the fantastic work they had done in Ailesbury Rd.
A lot of modern buildings which were put up in the 60s and 70s were very bad design.hen so many buildings from the Georgian era had fallen into ruin. this building is like a Jewel in the crown.
A polish customer of mine later told me about what a great man he was, the other ambassador had caused the Polish people living here many problems.
But this guy made everything right.

The feeling I got inside must have been equal to winning a few €1,000 on the lotto.

I just thought that I would share that with you.

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