Trick or treat ???

It is a strange custom Halloween.

An Irish thing that has gone worldwide.

I will be turning back my clocks tonight. The reason is that it will be brighter for the kids going to school.

But when I change the clocks I always remember a journey from the Hilton at Earlsfort Terrace to the airport.

I was reading the newspaper and the porter came out and blew his whistle like a madman, I moved forward but before I had stepped out of the car he threw the suitcases into the back. "Airport" came the order, no please or thank you. 

3 minutes later the woman screams out. "Wars your fucking game? I want to go to the airport not a sight seeing tour" 

The proper way to deal with this situation is to go to go down a side street and throw them out.

I will be happy forever that I held my course.

They were arguing like 2 dogs  growling at each other.

We arrived at the airport "That will be £19.00" I hope you left enough time for your flight sir.

Corse I av ya fuckin moron. 

Its just that change in the hour really fucked up my whole day.

Wats ya takin about?  The clocks went forward an hour last night.

The look on his face was like I had hit him, His expression went through the whole range.

Some call is Karma. But whatever it is it is great.

Israeli war

 That war Israel is really tragic, children dying and homes destroyed.

Now don't get me wrong , there is right and wrong on both sides.

But nothing could ever justify what is going on.

Palestine and Israel are the absolute centre of religions and there has been wars for 2000 years. 

Here is another thing that I came across in the paper. Fashion scouts were looking for beautiful black models and they found tall slim girls in the African refugee camps and brought them to Paris and Milan. Beautiful, slim. Wow. Then when they looked more closely it was noticed that they were skeletons. Only 6 Stone weight. What to do? Well if was up to me I would feed them up for a few months.

The fashion trade is cruel. They sent them back to the refugee camps to suffer.

There was a French lady living around the corner, I had not seen her for a while. I saw one of her neighbours tonight and asked about her. "Did you not hear? She died and her body lay undiscovered for weeks" In this day and age how can this happen? Just to go off the airwaves like that and no one asked where she was.

Then there was the case of a man who went away from his house, no one knew where he went. The house was boarded up as a derelict building. 10 years later they went into the house and there he was lying dead for more than 10 years.

I just can't wait to get back to work.

Your wealth is your health

 My wife is still sick Sciatica is the problem and we now enter week 8 with not much relief. We have been to 5 different hospitals and she is now on very powerful pain killers.

Still the end is in sight but I cannot work, I am her butler.

I would like to tell you some more about Chuck Feeney. There is a book called "The billionaire who wasn't by Colm O'Cleary. Worth a read.

A friend of mine went to San Fran Cisco and when he came back he called me and said. John I have 2 questions for you. Do you know everyone in the world? Not yet I said.

How the hell do you know Chuck Feeney? I was having dinner with the great man and he put down his fork. Do you know a taxi driver in Dublin called Paul Malone?

I said that I knew you well and he asked me how you were keeping. He sends you his warmest best wishes. Its a small world for sure.

One thing he told me and this is the time of year. Do your taxes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Death and taxes, you cannot avoid either.

I see that my book "The steering wheel university" was in the Amazon sale.

Many successful people connect with the ordinary man man to man. Chuck Feeney for one 

Arnold Clarke the biggest independent car dealer in Europe, Stephen Spielberg went to great lengths to disguise his identity. The guy who founded Google (Before we knew what Google was)He was an interesting man .I should have twigged as he had a private jet waiting for him at the airport. There was many more that I missed.

Chuck Feeney RIP

 My most interesting passenger has died.

Chuck Feeney got into my taxi around 2005. I brought him to the Berkley court from the airport and we had a conversation that was an education.

I would love to be a taxi driver he said. Any city I go to and I have a problem I go to the taxi rank. They will know or they will know someone who can solve my problem. Look you are not tied 9 to 5 and if you listen to the people in the back you might come up with a great idea.

He came up with a great idea and became a Billionaire, so simple. He invented duty free shopping. He had a vast fortune of over $8 billion and he used his entire wealth to help people around the world.

He built Limerick university and the school of hotel management in Shannon. He pays the wages of one professor in every university in the 32 counties. He financed a research project for dementia. He built a 200 bed hospital in Vietnam and he paid the running costs until it came on line.  Like me he wears a $10 watch. As long as it tells the time who cares how much it cost.

I will pass on one very valuable lesson that he gave me. If you earn €100 per week or €1000 per week. That is your limit, keep your spending in line with your income.

If you go to the States and you visit Costco, Wall Mart or any of the bid stores there are people in their 70s and 80s packing groceries, they lived beyond their means and to hold on to their re mortgaged homes and other loans, they have to work. But when they die the bank will clear out and sell their homes. Burn your credit card only use a debit card.

I stayed in touch with him for over 15 years. 

God bless you Chuck and tell God that I was asking for him.

October is here. Yippee

 Well Christmas is almost upon us, a few of the big stores have Christmas displays on view and I see the high end perfume people are advertising on the TV.

I was at the recycling depot  and I saw a high heel shoe made of glass. I went back to my car to get a photo of it when one of the workers told me that he had seen one of them one day and he brought it home to show it to his wife. She sniffed the perfume and she just had to buy it. €80 on the internet. He was mad, but she was happy.

Its all the rage this Christmas

So my wife is still ill and I am running up and down the stairs with tea and boiled eggs etc. It is very slow though not fatal. I have not worked for 5 weeks or so,

David my son has passed his PSV test, the Garda have vetted him, the money for the licence has been sent in and he is still waiting.
I was told by a Garda superintendent years ago that the Nigerian embassy will not vet prospective taxi drivers and that the government tells the carriage to pass them out unchecked. I told the union and they said. "There you are "It is upsetting to say the least.

In Spain for example you have to be resident there for 8 years, have no criminal record, be able to speak Spanish. Then you can apply for a PSV licence.

A couple of weeks ago I lost all my credit cards, driving licence etc,

Did you ever hear of a doomsday book?

An American couple 4 years ago showed me their plan. The husband carried the key to his wife's cards and she carried his code,

A list of the credit cards, the numbers, the help numbers just in case and they were covered.

I pointed out that if someone got the notebook they could clean out their account.

"Ah no you see every 5th digit has been increased by 1."

They were very bright.

I hope that you go to Grenada some day.