A very tongue and cheek article from today's Irish Independent. Unfortunately they do not have a link to it as yet.
Side Line (Pg 25)
Our increasingly unhealthy obsession with property has now reached the point where we can identify Ireland’s number one internet porn site as MyHome.ie.
In home and office across the country, guilty types are snatching furtive moments online, fantasizing over five-bed semis in Malahide or looking for hot n’motivated sellers who are ready and willing to go all the way.
They’re unhappy with their jaded old home of ten years, the thrill has gone and they crave the raw excitement of that wild rollercoaster ride to emotional fulfillment or negative equity.
Frustrated wives are wondering why their husbands no longer seem to be interested in coming to bed at the end of a long day.
“Er – I’ll be with you in just a moment darling, I’ve just got to check something out online”.
While she listlessly leafs through some chick-lit, he’s getting something that she could never give him from an exotic online property agency with a new golf development in the Algarve.
And then she wonders why, in the rare moments of passion, he now calls out “Valderama!”, picturing the handsome latin features of Seve Ballesteros as he buys him a whiskey at the 19th hole.
Of course, some will soon tire of the soft-core property scene and start looking for the harder stuff.
Luckily for these deviants, there is no shortage of estate agents out there who are only too willing to punish and humiliate them for a hefty fee.
But it is a sad and pathetic life to lead. Constantly obsessing about the next property thrill, the next sexy Sunday supplement enthusiastically telling you just how much your home is now worth.
And in the end, when you are left hollow-eyed and spend with nothing to show for your obsession other than monthly repayments that would bankrupt a medium-sized African dictatorship, where do you go?
It seems strange, but we may soon long for those days when healthy young Irish men and women were obsessed with the traditional pastimes of sex and shopping.