Surviving Dublin a city with more taxis than New York. Dublin is a passengers paradise and a taxi drivers hell
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
100 Postings
Two ALIENS stand at the entrance of a Lucan housing estate.
They caught me by surprise the first time that I saw them.
Clontarf, morning time at low tide at the wooden bridge. A lone mucker digs for lug worms.They must be valuable as they are always digging, they sell the worms to fishing tackle shops for bait, if you take the 130 bus out from the city you can go for a walk along the beach you will be fit to eat an Irish breakfast after that.
A fashon moment on fashonable Grafton ST as 2 models make their way up the street after a photo shoot.
Well this is my number 100. Hope I am not repeating myself.
Its funny how even the most alert and experienced of us makes a simple mistake.
The other day I was heading along the North Circular Rd heading towards the Mosque when I was hailed by a Chinese man. Great he is in a hurry home. He opened the passenger door wide."Wait here one second". The door was opened wide and If I drove forward the door was going to get bashed on the pole straight ahead.
I opened the seat belt to reach over to the door as quick as I could and get it closed.
Too late.
Out he came with a drunk woman, one hand on the collar and the other hand in the waistband of her jeans. He expertly landed her in the passenger seat in a few seconds.
If you were ever at the airport and you see people come out? Then someone comes out with a suitcase on casters, with one hand they effortlessly drive around all the people.
Well that was how expertly he steered the drunk into the front seat of the car.
Waaaaaa Waaaaaaa Waaaaaaaa. She roared Where are you going?
WAAAAAAAAA WAAAAAAA WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. WHERE ARE YOU GOING?
waaaaaaaaaa.MARBLE ARCH BAR.
After a few times bursting into fits of keening (no tears)
"Me poor mother,I buried her today" The journey continued amidst roaring and shouting until we arrived at the bar . The journey lasted forever.
"€8.60 Please" "Me pooor Mudder" as she tried to pull the money out of her tight jeans. I got out and helped he straighten up so that she could get her money out.
She picked up her bag and headed off to the bar. I grabbed her and said Money please? You have the money in your hand, says she. No thats the change for €20.00, I have it ready in case you gave me a 20.Once more she headed off.
Spinning her around again I blocked her path to the pub.So she pulled out 2 €20 notes. Great! were getting somewhere now,or so I thought.
Then she handed me a €5 and took the change from the €20 from my hand and yet again she made to make her escape.I put one hand on each of her sholders.(Never do this as it leaves your middle open for a punch)Look give me the €20 and you can keep the €5 as well.
Then you can go into the bar and I can go home.
No more messing, cash changed hands from both sides.
Then she picked up her handbag and walked off as straight as a die, not a step wrong and not a tear on her face.
I don't know if the whole thing was an act to this day.
On looking around I saw tough,hard men and women approaching,all with grim faces.
You could see that old scores and grudges would be settled for the better or for worse on this day.
Large Irish famlys often have deep devisions which can turn into open warfare at funerals and weddings.
Well here we had the making of World War 3.
I headed off and told a few lads at the rank to pass on the word on the radio to stay clear of the area for the rest of the night.
The moral of the story is never stop outside a bar as you are stepping into a well prepared trap. The barman will hold your door and shout into the bar to his helpers who have the drunk collered and ready for dispatch.
Then they come charging out and you have their problem.
Getting them out of the car can be a hell of a job, even with experience.
A drunk tinker is the worst nightmare ever.
One of the other bloggers has a hell of a story about 2 guys bringing a guy to hospital, Quick, only to find he has a butchers knife sticking out of the middle guys back, and theres a gallon of blood in the back of the cab!.
The taxi population has expanded beyond all reason,last Friday night you should have seen hundreds of taxis all with their taxi lights on. The queues went the full side of St.STEPHENS GREEN,all down Dawson St,College Green rank was full. There were no punters around even at 3am. It was like the Carlsberg ad .
You have to take the bad days with the good days, hoping things even out.
School holidays are nearly at an end believe it or not many of them drive taxis after school.
A Friend of mine in Queensland has sent me 3 texts yesterday, "Come on over were going to Kimberley for 4 months in motor homes, you'd be home for Christmas"
We have had so much rain that it would take very little to make me go "walkabout".
I was going to do a posting about Ireland's rich list from the Sunday Times, but there has been a big tidy up and its gone into the bin.
Sean Quinn is the richest man in the land,not bad for a lad who had to leave school at 15 when his father died.
Education would probably held him back.
But anyhow with all their riches if your health fails all the dosh in the world won't bring you good health again.
Piece of mind is another thing that does not come with wealth.
So keep your needs within your income and let the tax man worry about everything else.
Remember Monday the 13th we are supposed to have a fantastic metior shower, they say for best results you have to go out in the country away from the bright lights.
Well if its a clear night I hope it will be spectacular.
Have a nice week.
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if you end up in queensland (beautiful one day perfect the next) let me know. i'm only an hours flight away and i'll pick you up from melbourne airport and bore you to death in my little victorian country town. 6,000 people, 2 pubs and a club. what else could you ask for??? oh and 3 taxis.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great place, just a few more Curry houses and It might be be paradise.
ReplyDeletecongrats on the 100 posts John.
ReplyDelete