Working on our different views

What do you see when you look out your window at work? Six workers tell BRIAN O'CONNELLabout their daily vista

Barbara Scully, a writer and blogger living in Cabinteely, Co Dublin, works from home

I work from my kitchen table that has a view over the garden. At the moment I am looking over my back hedge and there is a constantly changing landscape of brown piles of earth which shift daily.

There are huge earthmovers and diggers passing by the end of my garden. This is unusual as I always had plain fields to look out at and there has never been other houses or traffic. I also have a huge flock of seagulls that follows the earthmovers around.

My house backs onto a school for boys and they are re-doing their football pitches. If I take my eyes off the movement, beyond the hedge, I look out on a butterfly bush that is in full bloom at the moment. I also have birdfeeders outside my window. It’s all meant to inspire me to write wonderful things, with questionable success I might add.

Damon Oldcorn, originally from Carrickfergus, works in London and is a founder of iibn.com

Today I’m in Wilshire in my home office, which I rarely get to. I’m looking over the hills of the village and, basically, it takes you out onto Salisbury Plain. So I have the village recreational ground and then fields and trees and farmland in my direct vista. It’s a great view and hasn’t changed in 20 years.

I use an office in Carnaby Street in central London and, when I look out, it is a tourist trap and full of fashion, colour and music most of the time. It’s generally a younger hip generation outside the window, such as those working in the media and fashion world. I think there is a coming generation, just like my generation was 25 years ago. When we came to London first we were the hip people. It just regenerates itself.

Brian Nevin is a marketing consultant working in Ringsend, Dublin

I work on the top floor of an apartment. I’ve become self-employed in the past two weeks so I work from home now. When I look out my window, to my right hand side I see the Aviva stadium, which is about 600 metres as the crow flies from where I am standing.

I can see into Shelbourne greyhound track and if I look directly in front there is the main church in Ringsend and lots of social housing in a state of disarray.

To the back of that is Dublin port with lots of ships. There is such industry outside my window. There is a large plot of land below our apartment which is unused.

There is a lot of office space and young professionals so I watch them rushing around the place.

It’s a very interesting view. You can see the Dublin Mountains in the background some days and anyone who comes up here always takes it in. When I lived here 10 years ago this area didn’t exist at all.

Noelle McCarthy, originally from Cork, is a radio host with Radio New Zealand

I live in Auckland, one of the most beautiful cities in the southern hemisphere. The people who work around the waterfront get to enjoy some of the best natural real estate in the world. Up on the hill though, the view from my office isn’t quite as pretty, in fact I’d rather keep the blinds closed.

The Radio New Zealand building is located on Hobson Street, smack bang in the middle of some of the worst architecture ever commissioned in New Zealand or anywhere else. I look out onto a deeply unlovely hodge podge of dwellings that provide cheap rents for recent immigrants and foreign language students, and a visual migraine for everyone else. We’ve got the mayoral elections coming up in September. I’ll vote for whoever suggests we level the whole lot and start again.

Denise Maher, from Ennis, teaches English in Korea

As I look outside my classroom window here in Daejeon, in Korea, I see heavy rain that Ireland would be proud of!

Although it’s no longer rainy season, Korea tends to suffer with global warming also.

From the third floor of our building, we can see many little stalls that sell anything from watermelons to sportswear all along the main streets of the city.

There are many Korean restaurants selling “kimchi” (spicy Korean cabbage), the equivalent to our potatoes.

Sadly there are now many western cafes lining the streets too, such as Dunkin’ Donuts and Angel-in-Us cafes, which bizarrely haven’t been introduced to Ireland yet.

I teach at a grinds school from 2pm to 10pm, Monday to Friday and have a great standard of living. After being here only two days, I ended up with a phone, a lovely apartment, a job and a scooter! What more could a 23-year-old backpacker who just came to visit the country for two weeks hope for?

Edward Galvin, originally from West Cork, works as a banking consultant in Chicago

I live in the Lincoln Park district of Chicago. When I’m not travelling, I work out of an office, consulting to US banks.

Winter views include early visibility of the snowstorms from the west. However, I think the summer views are much more interesting. Lincoln Park and Wrigley Field are home to the Chicago Cubs baseball team, less than a 10-minute walk from my home and within clear visibility of my office. The baseball season brings fans from all over the US to see the Cubs play. This adds a lot of activity to an already bustling neighbourhood – think Croke Park and related chaos up to three or four times a week.

Another bonus of the vantage point on Wrigley Field is the summer concert series. Sting, Elton John and Billy Joel have all played there in recent times.