The notion of work - paid work, unpaid work, work in the home, homework – is a fluid one, dependent on place and time and individual preferences. Studying sociology in college I learned about the concept of paid for work versus unpaid (largely, women’s) work. One person’s pointless meandering through Facebook is another person’s dayjob – while mucking out horses may be fun for some but is definitely work for others.

We all have those moments in our lives that stand apart as landmarks. They might be a way of remembering a loved one or idyllic period, or they might be the marker of a turning point or an 'annus horribilis'. While they are moments that may be historically significant to the entire world, they can evoke a powerful individual nostalgia for that which is no more.

There are a lot of euphemisms about these days, masking unpleasant news. We're all familiar with downsizing, resizing and – the most recent word from the world of human resources – 'rightsizing'. De-energising is the latest one. Coined, seemingly, by the ESB, it refers to what the rest of us call 'disconnecting'. Last month, the state-owned energy company 'de-energised' 900 households for failing to pay their electricity bills. That's up from 500 last August.

As I drove to work yesterday morning, I was delighted to hear on the radio that a protest against the attitude of the Catholic Church to women is being organised, for 26 September. Finally, I thought, women are getting angry. I have been angry for quite some time at the treatment of women by one of the world’s largest organisations.

As a general rule, one of the compulsions we Irish tend to suffer from is the tendency to knock ourselves and those around us. If someone gets above their station, they're usually brought quickly down to earth. It could even be said that Corkonians have perfected the art of the 'put-down' and it's a solid advice to not have notions around a group of people from Cork.

Living in the city centre, I thought I knew everything that was going on in Cork. On my doorstep, I have the English Market, Opera Lane, Patrick's Street, historic Shandon, the Docklands, the genteel business district of the South Mall, all waiting to be discovered. And I have explored all of them numerous times.

They're at it again. Pesky politicians.
Politicians across the very narrow spectrum of Irish politics are incredibly predictable. We'll go through them, and you'll see what I mean. Fianna Fáil. They're lying low. Brian Cowen was off in the States recently proclaiming our economic recovery, and fair dues to him.

Cork City Manager Joe Gavin this week said goodbye to the city he's taken charge of for the past ten years. Mr Gavin leaves with a considerable list of achievements under his belt, for which he was widely applauded at Monday night's City Council meeting. A vox-pop of our readers carried out on Facebook and on the streets suggests that the majority of Corkonians recognise these achievements.

A week is a long time in politics, but a year is an eternity in the media. It's a year today since I officially took up the job of Editor of the Cork Independent. While this space is not generally meant for personal reflection, or for a Sex and the City-style "I couldn't help but wonder" thinkathon, a year is worth marking, I think.

An email I received yesterday morning from a US radio show interested in speaking to me about an article I wrote (Cork Independent, 3 June 2010), called 'Turning corners in a maze', only served to highlight that there is more debate on the state of this country outside it than there is inside. In recent weeks, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Economist have all written about Ireland's financial woes and the measures the Government is taking to counteract the recession.