A helping hand

I caught this one in passing.
He has the hoop off, next he must jack up the car and take off the wheel and clamp with a wrench.
Pity that they photograph the car when they clamp it.
So he will pay anyhow.


French students take a break at Croke Park. They must be using one of the many function rooms in the complex for english lessons. I would have been happier if Madame Royal would have won in the French elections.(click the photo to enlarge it)

Brendan Behans house on Clougher Rd.Crumlin.
Brendan wrote a few plays Borstal boy and the hostage.
Among his other works are
Brendan Behans New York and My island.
Great scholar and wit wrote poetry in Irish as well.
He was an awful drunk and he died still a young man.
His last words were spoken to a nun who wiped sweat from his brow as he lay dying.
"The blessings of God on you sister.
May all your sons be bishops."



A flower seller on Grafton St. sets out her flowers for the days trading.
In the background is the statue to Phill Lynott Rocker.
The dealers of Dublin are great people. Great wit and use of language.
Some of which is not known by the clergy.
Changing times have killed Moore st.
They are tearing down and rebuilding the city and the stalls it seems will be moved on.
It is full of Chinese, Russians, Nigerians and Indians at present, it could be anywhere in the world.
Nothing really strange happened.

I had 3 guys from Holland in the cab. Dutch people know lots about trams and they are looking after the overhead cables. They told me that when the built the stops for the Luas(our tram system) the contractors never allowed for the longer trams.
So now the trams cannot stop at some stops because the carriages would block the road or the passengers would fall off because the platform is too short!.
Also the Red Cow roundabout which everyone said was a bad design is being rebuilt as a cloverleaf interchange at a cost of millions.

BECAUSE IT WAS NOT RIGHT.
EVERYONE SAID SO AND THE GOVERNMENT SAID WE WERE WRONG


Met a guy in from the Isle Of Man. Worked in insurance.Very friendly.
Well the Isle of Man is a great place to live in. If you ring for the police they come.
If a drunk breaks a window. He pays for the window, then he has to do community service.
If you urinate in someones garden. Trespass plus indecent exposure a fine plus 60 hours community service.

The TT races will be 100 years old this year. Motorcyclists from all over the world will descend on the island to display skill and real courage on the winding Manx roads.
It is not a race track and bikes that come off the road often hit stone walls.
Joey Dunlop from N Ireland was a real TT hero and I have a tape of him doing a live commentary going around the track."Flat out 160 downhill change down hairpin ahead"
He was killed in a freak downpour while he was racing in somewhere like Slovakia.
The heavens opened and he crashed. the other side of the road was totally dry.

He lived his life to the limit a fearless hero.

Norman Wisdom is another person who lives in the IOM. My passenger told me that even thought Norman is an old man now he has time to talk to the children and does funny walks and is so happy to meet them. He had a very hard childhood himself. His mother died and his father walked out leaving the kids to fend for themselves no social services then.
Other celebs are often openly hostile to admirers.(One would wonder why the wanted to become famous in the first place)
There is no speed limits outside built up areas.
You only pay tax on income UP TO 3 1/2 million,anything over that is tax free.

Peel ,Port of Erin and Ramsey are all worth a visit. But stay away from Douglas if you can.

I picked up a guy going to Croke Park and we had a good chat about how well things went when rugby was played on the hollowed ground of Croke Park. I got a return trip as well.

With the peace process coming to its conclusion in Northern Ireland we both felt that the change in the nation is palpable.
Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley sitting side by side.
I know history was made today when they sat in the Northern Ireland assembly.

One commentator said there is not one street or town in this province where there has not been a murder or a bomb. Each one a tragedy, the effects of war are everywhere.
Perhaps now there will be lasting peace, if it works here there is hope for other countries..

Backache is the curse of taxi drivers, if your back goes into spasm the pain is like a needle into your back. western doctors give you pain killers. My doctor gave me ones that gave me the shits and vomiting, as if things were not bad enough.
So I went to a Chinese doctor who fixed me in about an hour.
"If you are sore in the morning come back and I will fix you free."
Now my doctor could not fix me at all.
He would never guarantee his work either.
Try them and see.

I had a girl from Co Down who had trained in China and was going home to treat an injured horse. You see that sedating animals is not the best option.
She told me about how when they were working in a hospital in China the army came in to enforce the one child per family rule.
Children were taken away screaming. Parents were in total shock and the soldiers marched through the dining room where the sat and cocked their rifles. They conveyed to them in no uncertain terms that they should never speak of what they had witnessed.

On the way home she went to Nepal, on the flight home there was a man who had the most beautiful infant girl you ever saw. He was a fantastic father and the little girl played and laughed.
When things settled down he told my customer how his wife had died and he had sold the child to a German couple. He had to bring her to them as part of the deal, the man had never been out of his village before.
I suppose a German person with a new baby would not get past customs. Customs officers in Nepal would not ask why he had not brought his daughter back home.

I hope she has grown up and been well loved and cared for.

Perhaps here in the west we should think more of the third world, and what real poverty is like.

I have links on the side of my blog about people trafficking etc.Well worth a look.


Today I met 2 people who work in the social services, both wild as kids themselves, turned out well in the end.
Only hope I can get my own son back on the rails.

Here is how to not drive your taxi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRzcNN7HhY8

Perhaps sometimes it doesent matter how carefully you drive http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b3a_1178283898
I had to replay this 3 times. The clue is in the cranes at the start of the clip.