Its my birthday.

A statue of Brendan Behan over looking the canal in Drumcondra

The Harbourmaster bar.
It was there a girl lost he handbag containing her bank cards, e450 cash, her keys house and car her driving licence. she hung the bag on the back of the bar stool.
Be careful out there!


Well the protest at the taxi regulators office saw a good turn out of Garda including the Garda hellycoptor hovering overhead.
The regulator slipped out to lunch without addressing her drivers again.

Well I wonder where this will all end up?

I picked up a fare today an ex taxi driver,"gave it up last month,9 years,2 of my uncles who have each driven taxis for over 30 years have given up the game as well.
My new job gives me e200 cash in hand per night plus I have no car to keep and I don't have to put up with any nonsense".

This is getting more and more common.

While the NEW people coming into the game have no idea where the most basic of places are."You show me"
Or "I don't speak English".
The regulator is thinking of making English a requirement.
The latest thing is that you don't even need an Irish driving licence to drive a taxi in Dublin.

Back to work and a theme which came to light is that Irish people are very bad at service! Example when I was looking for a car I went to 5 Toyota garages and the sales staff were just chatting among themselves, just couldn't be bothered.
Well with the change in VRT and the new green taxes they are selling nothing now so perhaps they would turn around the next time a customer walks in.

A tillage contractor broke a part of his drilling machiene.

He rang the agent on Friday of the bank holiday weekend...no reply...24 hour number....No reply.
So he went on the internet, found a parts cataloge, found the part number.
Then he located an agent in Manchester on Saturday morning. he checked he had 2 on of them on the shelf. He flew from Cork to Manchester got the parts and had to get the boat back to Dublin, then a train back to Cork.
He told me it was the managing director of a large company who was working in the stores, "Agricultural macheinary has to have back up". He would supply our farmer in Cork with any part next day or the same day if the order came in before 10 am. If he had to get the part in Germany it would be sent directly to him and the UK agent would pay the excess carriage.
That macheine cost me over e60,000 and it is only used for 6 weeks every year at the most.
That guy in the UK will get all my business from now on and all my relations will hear about it too.

Dennis Mahonys garage told me that they would not sell me a new seat belt because I had imported my car from Japan myself!
Therefore it was my problem!
Murphy and Gunne in Rathgar got me the part in jig time,
"Oh I know she is an import but the way we look at it is, you will get the part whether we sell it to you or not. But when we deal with you and you see what a good service we give.
WE will be in the running to sell you your next car."

Now there's joined up thinking.

One problem everyone has is with drunks and I got badly caught in Waterloo road on Sunday morning. Girl and guy flagged me down, hold on the others are coming. Then it started. Where will we go? 3 of them wanted to go to Radio City and one didn't the discussion went on and on. Then the girl said I want to go home.Ranelagh so!
Then there was another change of mind on Leeson St...Ok Ok we'll go to Radio City but first I want to get some cigarettes. Where is open?
The Spar on Baggott St is the only place thats open for sure at this time (1.30)
So we drove back down.
The front seat passenger got out then the guy in the seat behind me started giving abuse and started calling me names.Charging them e8 (the fare starts at e4.10+ e3 for the 3 extra passengers)and now they are back almost where they started. The little voice in my head told me to get them out here and now.
In front of the Spar there would be plenty of people around but at the destination the trouble could be really big and they might decide not to pay at all.
There is no point in calling the police they don't care about taxi drivers.
I stood out and "Lippy" wanted to square up to me but the girl pulled him away.
A good blow to his solar plexus would have done harm to his beer belly.

Where would that lead to?

As I put the car in gear to drive off the smoker got in, I asked him to get out and he gave me a lecture about how I HAD TO DRIVE HIM. Then when he did get out he held the door, his next move was I figured to pull the door back off its hinges but I moved the car forwards three times.
Then he stood back leaving the door open. I darted forward just as a kick landed into the back of the car.
I saw the dent today.
You know if you loose your temper the mob wins!
But it is very very hard.
I could have reported the guy as a drunk driver, I saw him park his jeep!
Or I could have slashed his tires for him.

It put a cloud over the night to say the least.
Even the gabby blond girl who went all the way out to Skerries e47 did not lift the mood.
Her father has stopped driving a taxi too after 15 years.

Problem is that you must keep your temper at all times bad Karma will come to them.