Saturday, May 24, 2008

Bruce Springstein


A nice old MG parked in Ballsbridge

This boat used to belong to Abramavitch.Its down by the IFSC.
Its a bit too small for him now.

Well we got some help with work from Bruce Springstein who played here over the weekend. Fans were wild about his performance 4 hours on stage.
The same age as me too.
I was driving past the Merrion hotel later when I saw the entorage getting into their limos to head off to party.
Bruce stopped for photos with fans for around 15 minutes.
Before he climbed into his Bentley.
I can appreciate any rock star who gives time to his fans, a lot of the guys forget where their money comes from.
The next fare left her bank card on the back seat,which brought me back to the hotel later.
At that time I met his guitarist on the steps of the hotel. Again he was chatting to the fans. Got a photo with my phone, rock and roll!!!.

The trains around Cork are on strike,some people missed the Springstein gig as it happened very fast with nothing on the radio to warn passingers.

Tonight I am whacked so I am at home. I might get up early, then I might not.
That is the thing about this job, no one to ask why you were not in at 5 am or whatever. But it does help to work.
Heading home on Thursday I stopped for a blind lady at the ha'pney bridge.
"Thank God you stopped for me"and for the next 40 minutes I got her life story.
She was going to Kilcock, a good step e48 if I remember correctly.
She had pillows and other big shopping bags.
I don't know why she could not have organized herself better, surely the bulkier items could have been bought closer to home.
Still what do I know.
She was blind and could not be taught when she was a child and she finished up in the Magdaline Laundry where the holy nuns treated her very badly.
One day she and another girl ran away to live in Belfast where she lived on during the troubles of the 70s and 80s.
She told of one soldier who used to search every time he saw her until one summers day he approached her. She stopped him and whipped off her top and pants. "Now are you happy I have nothing to hide".
The other soldiers jeered him and every time she came near a checkpoint he was on he got a ribbing from his mates. "I was never searched again"
Her redemption came when she met her husband, who taught her living skills and in her children, there is no doubt there was a book in that woman.
I must get a digital recorder and I could stick in clips of some of some of these conversations.(with their permission)

Problems of space at the taxi ranks continues. You can never fit 12,000 taxis into 400 or so rank spaces. With the rise in fuel we cannot drive around looking for work either.
Garda are writing tickets I have had 2 in the last month.

You should see the state of the new taxi drivers toilets at the airport.
They seem to have never been cleaned since they were opened.
The urinals don't have a flusher and the puddle of urine on the floor is unbelieveable.
This toilet is used by around 2,000 men every day.
4,000 taxi drivers have paid e400 each for the privelege of picking up passengers at the airport.

Do you want to see a photo?

Its really much worse in reality than it looks here.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous8:12 PM

    I got free ticket for Bruce on Thursday, he was GREAT!

    ReplyDelete