A great week for the Irish

A man begging walks towards me at Heuston train station.
The taxi rank begins at that 30KPH sign, so I am running the risk of an €80 fine as I wait

Tango lessons at the Pillar Room

The back of the Rotunda hospital


A fine example of wireing on the facade of a Georgian house.


When you park badly there is someone on hand to help you get it right

Well Cheltenham races had plenty of winners in brilliant sunshine.

The St.Patrick's parade went off in great form.

Ireland beat England at Rugby.

We all forgot about the doom and gloom for a week.

Still a bit of work came our way, Paddys day for me was not great. Most times I can reckon on being at the right place at the right time. This year I missed it somehow.
After working for a few hours in the morning I went to have a sleep. When I went back out to work through the night the great Irish public were legless and falling about. So I went home and went back to bed.
The next day I had one of the best days of the year. Hitting bulls eye with every stop.Later on that night after the Rugby there were loads of Zombies going around when a hotel porter came over to me."Would you mind going to the O2 to rescue this gentleman". So i rang him and collected him.
There were hundreds of people there, The "Commitments" had been on stage and everyone was sober and very happy.So I went back again and again, a great show.

and a great great movie, of a Dublin that is no more.

Still luck is the name of the game.

Then on Sunday

A lady from the train was placed into my care to go to St.John of Gods in Stillorgan.
Poor girl sobbing and crying, she started talking after 15 or 20 minutes.

It is hard to know how much you should intrude, to comfort or reassure.
Poor girl had her shell removed and was a quivering raw jelly of sobbing hopelessness.
Before we passed Merrion Square I asked her to look to her right, and she gasped in awe at the Ferris wheel lit up and the bright fairground rides going around.

"Oh I would love to go on the big wheel and go higher and higher to see the bright lights and forget it all"
Sadly I just kept going, but we talked a lot and she told me I was the best taxi driver she had ever met.
Perhaps when she gets her head right I will be a complete asshole again.

The human mind is like a 6 liter engine in a Nissan Micra, it has immense powers and yet we should only use 10% of it at any one time, the body cannot withstand the full force of the mind and that may be why we suffer nervous breakdowns.

The human mind is like a fragile spiders web, complicated, strong and yet fragile.

But rest helps the body to heal itself, I hope you feel better soon.

Many people are under tremendous pressure, jobs going, negative equity.

As my poor old late father used to say.

"When poverty comes through the door, love flies out through the window"

The story goes that a farmer who lived alone heard a noise outside his front door one night.
He turned on the outside light and opened the door.He looked up and down the yard and saw nothing. He was just about to close the door again when he looked down. There standing at his feet was an old Jack Russel terrier, who just walked into the house.
So he fed and watered the animal and the dog became a lodger.
A neighbour was sitting in the kitchen one night and he remarked how "Bengie" was looking so well."You know someone just dumped him from a car to get rid of him and then drove away".
"That was a lucky day for me" replied the farmer. "For he is a great companion and I am sure he is a properly trained psychiatrist, he listen to all my woes and seems to understand,some people do not know the true meaning of a solid friendship"

Just as an aside I would never divulge details of conversations etc. which would identify any of my customers.
Most of what happens in the taxi stays there