Sunday, July 27, 2014

Sand Sculptures Dublin Castle




                              Good old Molly Malone is back in town

I dropped into the (Dublin) castle yard and saw that the construction of the sand sculptures is progressing nicely..
Go in and take a look it is free as well.
I spotted Molly Malones statue the other day, some feminist asshole threw red paint over her to make a point perhaps they were jealous of her assets.

A school teacher going to Foxrock from Drumcondra for a job interview, yes indeed and the shops are full of back to school bargains.
151 shopping days until Christmas That website will also break it down to Hours Minutes and seconds

Business is good,drivers are on holiday and Dublin is full of tourists,cruise ships are coming is 2 or 3 a week.
The weather has been brilliant.
While I passed through England on the train you could see that the hearvest is well advanced.

I see that Ireland abstained  in a vote on Gaza! Who do theese assholes represent?
Thousands of Irish people have protested on this matter and our leaders abstain.

Traffic is hectic with the Luas cross city work look at the map here

To really make a differance they should bring a rail link to the airport !
A simple spur line on the Luas near Malahide,cross country work, zip into town every 20 minutes.
This would free up hundreds of Taxis at the airport.

One of my mates was caught in a smash a few months ago.Going along the Quays at the SamBeckett bridge a guy went through the red light and wrote off his car,he then complained of whiplash as well..Telling my mate he had brokn the red light ! Police were called and just as they arrived my mate got a tap on the shoulder from another taxi driver who was driving behind the real guy who broke the lights.
''Here is my number bud and my passingers number as well. I have it all on video from my dash cam''.

Faced with this evedence his whiplash got better and he was convicted for dangerous driving..



I bought one myself it is in my sons house in Northern Ireland (Free delivery no customs charges)
I should have footage soon.
I don't know if you have ever listened to this guy,he is great and very deep,


You need to have high standards for taxi drivers.


Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Quick trip to London


        A beautiful dawn on Dublin bay

      12 Stephenson way, home to the Magic circle..Beside Euston
                              Euston station, London to Dublin by train and boat.

                                        George Stephenson inventor of the first steam engine..

       In Holyhead. Metal chairs wait for weary passengers going to the boat, they will break your back!

                                 Heading from the port to the town of Holyhead

Today I returned to Dublin from London. I flew over in the morning and came back on the boat.
God it was hot over there.
I went to London to look at second hand Toyota Prius cars, the spec in the UK is much better than the cars here. I had phone numbers but nothing clicked for me.
So I headed into the city center to Victoria and onward to Euston station via London in a black cab...3 1/2 years it took our driver to do the knowledge,

 and then we talked about the big row with HailO which is now called FadeO as the drivers have removed the stickers and deleted the apps click here.
Next big problem will be Uber.
But London has a much lower level of taxis so there is more work to  go around..But you should have seen the cabs ranked back by as much as 200 yards at Euston.

On the ferry there were loads of Polish lorry drivers in a big gang, all talking shop and preparing for the day ahead.
There was a guy on the train with a black tie on, he had it outside the back of his shirt.
"Funeral? " I said, yes me dad he died at 3 o'clock today . So I said a few words.

You know no one can afford what you have to pay for a last minute flight.
This poor boy, going home alone linked up with a few guys on the crossing who put him on the bus and train home.
You would hope that he would find some peace when he gets home.

I had a huge row with a taxi driver in Dublin port about over charging, I will not be told my job so the asshole was left standing at the rank while I went home in a different car.
The honest driver even got a €3.20 tip.
More about that later.

Another time

She was very quiet getting in.....................Something on her mind.
We were passing McDonalds and I said to my Russian passenger that Old McDonald is doing really well since he sold his farm.

"I don't understand"

So I sang a few verses.She never knew the song. She made some of the noises and I earned a €5 tip.


Saturday, July 19, 2014

Nelsons Birthday

It really doesn't matter where my customer comes from as long as I know where they are going. But it can often be a good opener to a conversation when you find out their nationality as well. A few weeks ago there was an African day in Farmleagh house. It was a very wet day but the African people were all dressed up to enjoy the day..We learned a little bit about all the many countries that make up the vast African continent.
If you ask a Nigerian where they are from they often become very aggressive (Perhaps its like asking what is their religion). Anyhoo the African lady who got in yesterday was from South Africa and she told me that it was Nelson Mandelas birthday on Friday if he was alive.The lady told me that she became an Irish citizen on the 4th of July which was the latest conferring ceremony. She was a lively thing laughing all the way, I think she said that she was a nurse, She should cheer up her patients for sure.
Not too many people outside Ireland know that a few workers in Dunnes stores moved apartheid to the front boiling ring of the cooker. Some workers refused to handle South African goods and were sacked, this lead to a long strike, it moved the rights violations suffered by the black majority to the front page of the papers. When Nelson Mandela came to Dublin he met with them and they were later flown to South Africa for his funeral.Take a look here
Mary Manning one of the girls involved in the strike has a street named after her in Johannesburg.

I don't know if I told you but Nelson Mandela when he went somewhere always brought his driver inside with him. "Excuse me I am not alone" and he would usher in his driver.

South African Rand, with Nelson on them all, different animals on the back.

If you keep your ears open you can learn a lot driving a taxi, many drivers do, others put money on horses.

I met a chef who had to come home for a funeral £200 sterling is what the airlines charge for a next day flight, £45 by boat and train.. He told me he went to Brussels for a weekend and went to a celebrated restaurant for a special meal..He ordered fillet steak and he got a tough rump steak.
He called the waiter to complain and was told that it was indeed fillet steak. So the chef was called out.
It almost came to the point where the steak would be brought away for an outside opinion.
It was not eaten.Yet the steak appeared on the bill which had the chef brought back in again.and it was taken off the bill.  Imagine the Irish chefs surprise when the Belgian chef gave him his business card, as if he could ever be recommended to anyone.Such a stupid man.
How to complain properly is a question I would like to know, without jumping up on the table.
I must ask Gordon Ramsey.
                                                 This was around 12 ft high


Good news the sand has arrived in the courtyard of Dublin Castle and the wonderful sand sculptures will be taking shape...well worth a visit and its free.

   The Dublin bike scheme is expanding at great speed.
 The Spire from Talbot St

    Paddy Power ready for the World cup

An interesting Italian girl here 8 years. When I asked her what she did for a living she said that she was a "Drug Addict"!  That made me sit up and take notice..No she said she really was a tourist guide.
Through the conversation she told me that she had been to Cuba and the poverty of the ordinary people is desperate.Its crawling with beggars and prostitutes, it seems like the Castro boys are a bad lot, with all his prisons through the island.


Saturday, July 12, 2014

July 12th

     Dublin's Little Italy
 Our Lady on the pole

In an effort to show smokers in a bad light these screens appeared at the airport.

Growing spuds, you plant them on the17th of march and dig them up on the 12th of July
Si its down for Paddy and up for Billy.
How are your spuds.?

I am in the process of doing my taxes.
Two things in this life are for certain   Death and Taxes....Both of these things are a real pain in the arse.
Still things are quiet on the streets, apart from the concerts which can be hectic for sure.
Garth Brooks was to play for 5 sold out concerts in Croke park in a few weeks.
Thousands of tickets sold, hotels booked and high expectations.

But the stadium was only allowed to hold 3 concerts per year....
They already held 3 concerts earlier this year, So the five concerts were not given permission, they were granted 3 nights but how could you  disappoint half the fans?
So the concerts are all cancelled and €millions are lost to the local ecconomy
I can see both sides, the people who live around there are barricaded into their homes for the duration and if the GAA had entered dialogue with them at the start some middle ground might have been found.

The government were getting a new cabinet together great fuss about it on the news.
Silly buggers they should have gone to Ikea.

Talking about business, I had one of the founders of  that huge auction website Ebay based in Blanchardstown in the car a few years ago.
He asked me where he could have a special meal for around 30 people? Had I any suggestions?
The Dylan hotel were doing a special "Taster" menu 10 or 20 small dishes to give the gourmet a sample of their kitchen.
Fantastic idea! get them to call me. So I went in, asked for someone to call.
I gave my number and his number, no one ever called.
I went back in the next day and they said the catering manager was very busy,
30 dinners at €60+ a head plus wine?
The person who asks at the desk may not be wearing a suit, but we deserved the courtesy of a call back at least.

I wonder if it happened today would the reaction be the same?

There is nothing planned for the future, my schedule is loose.
I did a lot of painting lately, no not landscapes, Walls and  loads of Magnolia paint.

Some day I will keep a score of the different nationality's who pass through my taxi. I remember a Philipena nurse, a Latvian mother, a Peruvian girl from Cork with her parents,6 or 7 Americans, 4 Swiss,several English Scottish and a Welsh.girl A lovely girl from Finland , a Nigerian lady and her daughter and a tall elegant lady from Italy.. There was a few Polish and a Czech girl as well (Named Walsh)  so we are all starting to blend in..


We all need a bit of magic in our lives.
Here is a video based on a book by Erdnase..AKA  ES Andre.(Backwards) When it was first published it caused quite a stir, but now YouTube gives it all away.
Remember these moves were created to cheat at cards rather than do a magic trick.





Wednesday, July 09, 2014

The marching season






The marching season is around 12th July.
When the Orange order demand that they be allowed to march in parades through Catholic areas.
So normal people quit the country.



3 photographs.

1 McDaids bar on Harry St., Formerly a Quaker meeting house.

2 A selection of screwdrivers in Nolans hardware store..I was stuck for a small screwdriver one day and went into Halfords all I could get was sets of screwdrivers..
Even the smallest hardware could offer you a selection of individual ones

3 This house is in the Terenure area, it is not a nursing home or a hotel.
A customer told me it is owned by a publican, he bought it from a property developer.
It is one hell of a house, no wonder the pint went up.


Great sympathy for the Brazilians here in Dublin.
Still they are strong people and no doubt they will be supporting Argentina.

 I have been working at other things for a few days. A little bit of work building and painting and a little bit of taxi.. Painting and building it is really strange how the muscles ache when you do something you are not used to doing.


I don't watch much TV, but I use it to sleep to.
The other day I saw this.

You can find more on you tube.

I suppose every country has its disadvantages Now here is a really nice time lapse clip showing Dublin


Saturday, July 05, 2014

Terenure college

 All this week I was restoring a stone wall which collapsed.
When that is not your line of work it is a hard slog, seriously, it nearly killed me.
Years ago I could go up on a 40 ft ladder and run across a roof, now I get dizzy changing a light bulb.
I know if I went back to manual labor the old muscles would kick in again.

 Tomorrow in Terenure college the old lady's of the motor world will gather once more.

Morris Minor will rub wheels with Lagondas and Rolls Royces. Jaguars and Hillman Imps will feature,

Be there or be square !

Last year it rained all day, Pray for dry weather.

Paddy Cole will be there

Could life be better.


In a few days SAND will come to Dublin castle and the wonderful sand sculptures will appear.
It is free and great value at the price.

I had a really nice couple from the ferry to the conference center from the ferry.
None of the other drivers would take them. It was not worth their while.
I was last in the queue and they were really nice people.

I had a couple from New York to the Ritz Carlton hotel in Enniskerry today.
That hotel was so superior that no one could afford to go there.......So it went bust...
It is now a Merriot hotel..
I told my customers that I brought a honeymoon couple there one day, all they wanted to know was how to get into Dublin again.
"Look folks, this place is paradise, breathe the air,look at the view, listen to the birds singing. Look no further"
I don't know if they listened

When we arrived my passengers climbed out and I pulled over a trolly for the luggage.
A porter arrived and the cost of the journey was €42. He handed me a €50 and when I squeezed it there was another €10 note inside. "Hey you are making a mistake" I said,
"No it's for you, thanks for a great trip out here"

Its great when people are more than fantastic.

It makes my job so satisfying.

Friday, July 04, 2014

Happy 4th July



Happy 4th of July to you all.

And here he is again as a taxi driver...!!!!!