Dublin taxi

Magic

2012-02-14T03:53:00.000-08:00

Down around Dollymount strand.

I must say I am still stunned today after reading an article in the Sunday Times on last Sunday week.

Toyota motor corporation have told their dealers in the UK the following.

"If a customer comes in for a service while the car is under warranty you are not to fix faulty things unless the customer brings it to your notice".

So there might be "nothing" needs fixing this week (car is under warranty).
Next week (no warranty) you get a list of 12 things which need fixing at your expense.

In one part of the article a guy in the UK had sold 3 dealerships rather than implement their dodgy policy.

"I, more than anyone, wish for Toyota's cars to be safe, and for our customers to feel safe when they use our vehicles"
Akio Toyoda, Toyota president

That quote is only 2 years old.

I for one would be happy to be the one who made the best cars in the world !

Even if I never made any profit at all.

But I would be very upset if I destroyed the trust my loyal customers and ruined the prestige of the Toyota name by shafting them just for a few dollars profit.

Need a used car? look here.

Hooray for the taxi regulator enforcers.

They pounced on St. Stephens green and went thought the paperwork of all the taxis they had hemmed in.

I wonder what they found?

On this St Valentines day I hope some magic comes your way.

Speaking of romance, did you hear the one about the lady that suggested to the Dublin taxi driver that they have sex in lieu of payment for the taxi fare?

Well says the driver.

Its been so long since I had sex that I can't remember which one of us has to get tied up first.

And they say romance is dead!

Not long until Blackpool magicians convention this weekend.

Blackpool has loads of live shows on through the Summer and into the Autumn so there are loads of dance groups around the area.This is the Hounds Hill shopping center.

Dancing in Dublin

Rewarding bad service.

2012-02-09T04:04:00.000-08:00

Saturday night party dresses

inside Clonliffe college

2 Garda cars on a breakdown truck.
Did you ever buy one at auction?

Big tower inside Guinness

Here is one worth running past you.
It sort of shows you how the human mind works and yet it makes no logical sense.

A taxi is at the rank at Heuston station and 2 guys walk up to it and ask "Do you know where The Dublin industrial estate is? Are you sure you know? How much will it be?"
On hearing of a ball park figure they got in.
The driver asked them why they were so hesitant.
"Well yesterday we got a foreign driver who drove off and he was getting directions from someone over his mobile phone, he drove us all over the city and we were very late getting there."
The ride had cost them €35, but they gave him €40 because they felt sorry for him, they didn't get a receipt because his printer was not working either.

So the other taxi pulls up with at their destination in 1/2 the time, €16 on the meter, they get a receipt and €4 change and off they go.

So they reward bad service, such is life.

A Chef from Donegal hopped in. Her boyfriend was ill all night long and she had been acting as nursemaid. The taxis are needed when people are late.

She told me a tale about when she was younger. She had an awful stomach pain and went to Letterkenny hospital. They took a Scan and the "doctor"gave some stomach powders and suggested indigestion.
No matter how much her father protested it made no difference.She even drew a stomach full of gas, just to illustrate her point.
No second opinion was offered so he grabbed the scan and scoped her up and drove to a hospital in Derry where the operated straight away.

The scan clearly showed an obstruction in the Bowell and her intestine was about to burst.

So I asked her if she had sued the hospital?
"Well no" she said
She went on to explain that she had been told that it might take up to 10 years to come to court. She also felt that money gained that way was not lucky.

I told her that had her dad not been so strong willed that she would have died.
Insurance is paid so that if the doctor is not fit to do their job the patient gets some compensation. Also by not taking her to court she stands in incapable doctor impostor who is making life and death decisions.

If she felt that the money would be unlucky for her she could give it to charity.

Remember a doctor was suspended from Letterkenny hospital when it was discovered that she did not know how to take a patients pulse and she did not where the pulse could be found.

Like the rogue taxi driver she does nothing about it so they can just do it again.

From a strictly legal point of view.
"A missed diagnoses is no indication of neglectful or careless behavior. Therefore strictly speaking you would not have a case in law."

So Last Monday week I got a lady going to a clinic for the Mater hospital off Upper. Drumcondra Rd.
Right from the first minute I got the war cry "You're going the wrong way, turn around" etc.
I knew the actual place she was going to and I also knew that Upper Drumcondra is at the bottom of the hill and higher up at the canal end is Lower Drumcondra Rd.
In the end I pulled into the little street she was going to and stopped outside the clinic door.
"Why did you stop? I'm going to be late."
"Look at the street sign ! Look at the name on the door, just pay me and get out."

So she did just that saying "I never would have made it here on my own"

Your right there I thought to myself driving off.

Herring days

2012-02-06T14:47:00.000-08:00

Docklands, part of the new Dublin

Hatch St, steel and glass.

Ireland on the move!

The movers are emptying the office of the taxi regulator.
I wonder how many millions of Euro that office has wasted.

"Herring days"an expression from the London people who when times were hard they had to eat fish as there was no money to buy meat.

How was it for you?

Well the rugby was a classic example of what happens if you don't play right to the very end of the game.
Ireland were ahead and the Welsh slammed in a try in the dying minutes to win.

The economy still has me beaten though.
I heard today that the management style of Brussels is of the "Seagull style" They swoop in from nowhere, flap around all over the place,do nothing, then go away again leaving shit and feathers all over the place.

Brother believe me when I say this to you.

The Greeks can't pay and the Greeks won't pay.

Followed by the Portuguese, Spanish Irish and the Italians.

Try to find out what happened in Argentina when the money collapsed, and Iceland not long ago.

One thing for sure is that if I am asked to pay back a debt which some multi Billionaire who lived in Dublin 4 ran up.

I totally refuse to do it.

Even though Government ministers and other politicians were totally involved in the scams which brought us here, is all the more reason not to pay.

It is not my personal debt, so why should you or I be asked to pay ?.

Have a look at the content here.
There is content here which will point you in a somewhat different direction.

There was a thing in the paper which shows how low the quality levels of journalism have now fallen to here in Ireland.
A Polish girl living here wrote an article for a Polish newspaper in which she spoke about living on the dole and the beauty of Ireland and what a delight it was to live in Doneagal beside the seaside where she could walk for miles along deserted beaches at dawn and so on.

Well an article appeared in the Irish Independent newspaper which was supposed to be a translation of the piece. There was sections where she was calling Ireland a "Shit hole" and all very negative stuff.
Then the Polish ambassador came on and translated vast sections of her article which told of her love for this fantastic country and its friendly people.
The Polish girl herself came on and spoke about her article.
Polish girls article bore no resemblance to the article written by the Irish Independent journalist whatsoever.
I do wish that the reporter who "made up"the story was brought was in to explain her racist slanderous article.

Years ago in the year 2000 at the height of the boom Manchester United signed a lease for the MU shop.
The rent was €507,000 per year and the shop and "Reds" bar closed 16 months later.
But the lease was for 15 years and the bar which now operates on the site is paying €340,000 in rent leaving €167,000 loss to the football club until 2015.
It will take a lot of football jumpers to pay for that mistake.
Still they were a bit silly to think that Irish people would pay €15 for a mug or €50 for a clock.

One of my first people today was a guy from Kansas city working with Yahoo. With Google,Facebook, Microsoft,Ebay,Intel and Paypall we are world leaders at the coal face of Internet technology.
But be warned we are only in the lead because we offer these companies a better tax rate than they can get elsewhere in Europe.One thing for sure is that Europe would love to make an level playing field for business within Europe, increasing our corprate tax level would do it and it will be a very bad day for us if that happens.

The Welsh are here.

2012-02-04T15:34:00.000-08:00

Today the Welsh dragon flag is flying all over Dublin.

Rugby

A Welsh Male voice choir.

A nice bit of a brass band and you're home with Cathrine Zeta Jones and her grandfather Tom!

I will admit that the pride the Welsh have for language and country has to be admired.

Just one more thing to share with you.

My friend and neighbour Mabel has a landmark birthday today

102 and going strong.

Wrong taxi ?

2012-02-03T22:36:00.000-08:00

Lir, our college of the preforming arts.

A fine vintage Merc with a ladys shoe abandoned beside it..

1880, so its been there a long time. Where is it ?

Smithfield viewing chimney.

A Cinderella carriage for hire on your wedding day.

A paper was published for discussion last week.
Among the proposals was a ban on renting taxis, or making the renter be responsible for knowing who is driving his car.
Credit cards in all taxis.
Income tax cross checks to be made of drivers.

Etc etc

Then wonders will never cease.
A swift clamp down in Westmorland St caught 6 illegal taxis in less than an hour.

On Friday things were working out for me fer sure. For the previous three days I was not well but thanks to our government incentive scheme I was able to work for a few hours in the morning. Then home again and back to bed.

If you are self employed over here you get no benefit if you are off sick, so your incentive is to work or to starve.

I had come home when I got a phone call from an insurance assessor I know.
A fire on Camden St. Could you bring me over?
There is nothing like a fire to gather the trades together.

So when I dropped him off he told me he was going to call me for a run to Malahide later.
Both together cost €60.

When you look after your customers your business should look after itself.

Around 5.30 I was rattling down Pearse St when I saw 2 girls with cases. I turned off the roof light and they hopped in.
Some people will drop you a subtle hint that they are a bit odd !
For her destination she gave a "### Terrace" as her destination, no hint as to where it might be.
But just then her phone rang.
"What do you mean? You've arrived? I'm in the taxi!"
Well I got a broadside from her tongue, things like. "You knew we were booked and you swooped in in front of the other taxi to steal his fare!"
And a lot worse.
"I was driving along with my light on, you hailed me and I turned it off."
I will not go into it but to say that I told her that she could pay me now and get out, then ask the other taxi to drive along and pick them up. But that my entire fare would be little more than what is on the meter now.
(In most country's there is a minimum charge which covers the first kilometer)
I also told her that she should have asked if I was the "speedy Cabs taxi" we booked?
And also look to see if it had their company logos all over the taxi.

An Arctic silence descended for a while, then she started giving the other girl a guided tour of our fair city. She was a visitor from Portland the USA.

I spotted that she had forgotten St.Patricks Cathedral and our Huguenot heritage.
So we arrived and I was getting out of the taxi I was taking the bags from the boot.
There was €10.50 on the meter, she put €10 into my hand and said she had no more money.
Perhaps I should have asked her guest if she had any money as her host was leaving me short.

Well I do believe that you make your own luck, the person who is up above dishing out good fortune will not smile on her actions today.

Some people might have said say something like.
"I hope your bead and breakfast arrangements are in order tax wise?,
no one is above the law when the tax man calls"

Ah well for every toxic person you meet there will be 100 positive well behaved people.

A long time ago I had a nasty piece of work who refused to pay me when I brought him home past Sandymount, he called me names, but I had the doors locked. When the idiot made a swing at me I spun the car around and he was back outside the Card Club on Merrion Square again in double quick time.
He still refused to get out of the car and the rain was coming down in sheets.
I pulled over to the Natural history meusm (dead zoo)where a garda came over.
He listned to us both, then told him to pay £6, I had only asked for £5.
Then he told him to get out of the taxi and if he could get another one he was to behave himself and pay to pay up when requested. I blew into the base at Metro via radio and told the dispatcher that the fare had refused to pay and tried to assault me. "Thanks for that 86, he's barred again"

You have to respect yourself a bit and not take bad manners.
This was the best advice I ever got from a customer one day.
"You respect your customers and are polite to them.
Accept nothing less from them"

I stopped the tsxi on 3 occasions to vacate the seats since then.
It works wonders, a big wake up call for some ignorant people who think that they can go through life bullying people.

I must be slipping about not noticeing that places are closing down all over the city.
William Searsons pub on Baggott St has closed..Then I was told that it closed before Christmas
Next thing was that I was told that the rent was too dear €8,000 per week !
You would have to serve a good few pints before you could pay for stock staff and other costs before you could show €8000 clear profit to pay the rent.

As establishments go this one was run in a "tricky" manner.

The prices crept up all night long. The tills were programmed to change every hour, you could be paying 80% extra at midnight on the price you paid at mid day.
It was being run as part of the Thomas Reid group who are in rapid decline.
For any pub to survive like they were trading the economy has to be out of control for them to survive.
Take the chain Wetherspoons in the UK for contrast. Cheap food cheap beer and a good standard of pub.
I know he buys food and beer with a short shelf life, but then again it is not long in stock until it is sold on.
We are all counting the pennies now for sure.

Imagine if this was true

2012-01-29T15:06:00.000-08:00

Wooden sheep in Smithfield

Pheonix park is 350 years in business

Garry Rhodes restaurant is closed. A hard town to do business in.

Everywhere in this modern world workers are being made redundant and "sub contractors" on a lower wage get their jobs.

A man comes home from work and when he steps from his car he smells gas.
He asked his wife and she says it came an hour ago and she thought it would go away.
So they ring the gas company.
45 minutes later the man from the gas company arrives.
"This is far too big for me, I'll have to call up reenforcements"
So 2 hours later trucks and vans with diggers pull up ito the street.
They had cut off the electricity to the houses as a perecaution, now it was getting late.

The people in the houses had been using candles to get around their houses in the dark.

The lady in the house next door went upstairs to go to bed, with her burning candle in her hand she opened the bedroom door.
The gas had been coming in through ducts and travelled up inside the walls of the house into the room and with the flame from the candle the gas exploded the cavity wall full of gas also exploded blowing the entire front wall out of the house.

She is critical in hospital with 97% of her body burned.

So a safety inspector called to the site of the explosion!

He looks around and calls up the first guy on the scene.

Would this be what is called a first class emergency?

Defenately said the man from the gas company.

The very first thing you must do for a first class emergency is evacuate the entire area.

WHY WAS THIS NOT DONE ?

It is incerdable, but you see no one was in charge.

So you might have a cruise ship worth millions, with thousands of people on board.
The captain decides that he will sail a bit closer to the shore to wave farewell to his pal,7 other people are on the bridge .
Well he has done this before and the local coastguard didn't make much of a fuss at that time.
But now his luck was not in today and he runs on to rocks.

The staff run around like headless chickens and it is said the that the "Abandon ship" was not sounded. Staff even told passingers that "all was OK" and that they could go back to their cabins.
Crew scramlbled past passingers to get into the lifeboats.
The captain "fell" ito a lifeboat by accident while hundreds remained on board.
It was a little hard to believe his story of a fall as he had his 3 laptops and 2 mobile phones with him at the time.

One hell of a lawsuit is on the horizon now.€297million from the Americans who were on board for a start.

One other example I had from a crane driver I had a few years ago at the height of the building boom.
You need to have a driving licence to drive a crane,you have to know your loads and tolerances to lift different weights. For example you can lift 20 tonnes and move it around close to the base of a tower crane. But as you move the same load out along the boom the leverage can pull the whole crane over, wind is another factor.
So he is there minding his own business one day when a foreign lad arrives in the cab of the crane. "The boss sent me up here to learn how to drive the crane"
So my man gos to the back of the crane and removes the fuses, knocks the boom out of gear and climbs down.
He went over to the gaffer and told him he was ringing health and safety to have the site closed down.
Un qualified personell on the crane.
The site was closed until an audit of safety was done, toe boards on scaffolding, safety helmets and boots had to be put on and a promise to behave themselves in future, then they could start work again.

Could you imagine that taxis could be rented from someone from the newspaper, then the person who rents the taxi allows 3 or 4 other people to drive this taxi except no one else is insured to drive except the one who rented the taxi.
The others have no PSV licence, some of them have no licence at all.
This practice is widespread here in Dublin.
People who have no insurance to drive a car,never mind drive a taxi.
People whose past has never been checked out, drivers who have not one clue of where the villages of Dublin are.
One girl told me last night that she was going to Palmerstown and fell asleep, she was coming to Glendalough Co.Wicklow when she woke up. Lucky for her it was her boyfriend was a detective on the phone and he rang her to see if she was OK.

Lucky for her they were able to get a police car out to her home and bring in the driver to test his geography..She didn't know what happned to him.

When the enforcers pull on to the rank at Heuston to inspect the taxis 3 or 4 cars pull off the rank.

My question to the "Enforcers" is this.

Why are the rogue taxis not pulled over?

What is the point of being legal if the illegal drivers are being allowed to ply for trade with complete immunity ?

There be more Dragons

2012-01-26T12:42:00.000-08:00

I AT LAST FOUND THE WEBSITE FOR THE CHINESE NEW YEAR CLICK HERE.

Great video ?

€1.4 Billion house.

2012-01-24T09:19:00.000-08:00

No the house prices have not gone mad, its an art instillation.
A house made from shredded bank notes.
I was down there yesterday and couldn't find it, even though I asked a workman who was only yards from it and he knew nothing.

Today I found it.
It is in a shop at Crane Lane which is at the Liffey end of Smithfield, beside the coffey shop

Oh boy but spring is coming on quickly now, look at the lovely daffodils, they have been open since before Christmas.

On that poor guy who took a court injunction to prevent 6 newspapers from naming him wrongly in a newspaper article.
The legal costs I have heard will buy a house in any part of the country.

I would have thought that if he rang the editiors office and privided proof that then he could sue if he was libelled in the paper.

Happy new year

2012-01-22T14:56:00.000-08:00

To all my wonderful Chinese friends.
龍年5月帶給你的祝福

Now don't make those silly mistakes tomorrow !
When you are writing a check don't write in Rabbit Its Dragon now.

Student protetests his innocence

2012-01-21T07:23:00.000-08:00

There are video cameras everywhere,
So if someone who looks just like you does a runner in Japan you might get the blame.

Now you might be in Japan at the time yourself and get blamed "perhaps"in the wrong.

You might have to go to the high court to get an injunction ! Just to protect your good name.

From the Examiner newspaper.

Student back in High Court in bid to prevent being named in video case

Saturday, January 21, 2012 - 10:52 AM

A 22-year-old is back in the High Court today in a bid to stop six national newspapers from naming him over a video he claims defames him.

Eoin McKeogh, a student of business and Japanese at DCU, denies he is in the online video which allegedly shows a young man evading a taxi fare.

His lawyers told the High Court he was in Japan at the time.

Last week he secured an injunction against internet giants such as Facebook and Google, stopping them from rebroadcasting or publishing the material.

Following reports on the court proceedings, the 22-year-old student is now seeking an order stopping the Evening Herald, the Sunday Times, the Irish Examiner, the Independent, the Star and the Irish Times from publishing his identity.

His counsel has argued that by identifying Mr McKeogh, the newspapers have circumvented the terms and spirit of the order.

One way or another it was an expensive taxi ride for him.

Le weekend encore

2012-01-20T08:32:00.000-08:00

This video was made by me 2 years ago.
Tonight it will be shown at a council meeting in Italy.
It will illustrate one negative aspect of de regulation.

All the cars on the left are taxis trying to get a fare at Heuston station.

I do concede that there are big gaps in the queue, some drivers must have fallen asleep.

But there are far too many taxis in Dublin.

Sometimes I feel like the small boy who is playing with Charlie.

Have a good weekend.

Bad choice that

2012-01-19T15:03:00.000-08:00

A big white envelope arrived a few weeks ago.
Whenever there is a change in the rates new fare cards come.
Then we are ready to display them when the change comes.
So I popped them into the taxi.
I felt that there was something wrong with the cards.
There was no change in the rates, so why the new cards?
I didn't know what was up.

The other day I was alerted to the problem.
THE CARDS ARE TOTALLY IN ENGLISH.
Every official notice has to be in English and Irish.

The whole lot will have to be thrown out and re printed.

It is said that it was printed by a brother in law of a high up official from the taxi regulators office.

I think even a 12 year old child would look at a previous lay out before doing such a reprint.

But theese whiz kids who lay down the law are not lyable to pay for their mistakes from their own pockets.

Make that 4

2012-01-13T04:20:00.000-08:00

Make that 4 people who rode for free!
I picked her up on Beaver Rd. She had a roloarator and she took forever to get in.
I popped her contraption in the boot and we were off.

She had some sort of motor neuron disease and her right hand had stopped working.
That bossy fecker who dropped her glove last week ?
It just found a new owner.
The bank on Baggott St. was our destination.
She had run out of money and her late husbands account was in that bank.
I told her that she should get a bank link card and she could draw down the money in the supermarket.
If you are ill or suffer any illness which effects your mind or body. This society is a hard place to live in.
We passed a beautiful girl waving for a taxi in Donnybrook on the way, Oh Boy !

When we arrived at the bank it was closed. 10.30 the bank opens on Thursday
So I told her not to worry and go into Burger King and wait there until the bank opened.She could have the trip on the house.

Then back to Donnybrook, where the beautiful lady had vanished.

That poor lady who was ill needs a little bit of care,it would take very little effort for the bank teller to suggest to the lady that she should have a bank link card and arrange it there and then..
Still no one has the time or the humanity to act any more.

The mad part is that we have to take these drunk people home.

I sometimes meet Neil Tobin in our local supermarket.
In reality he is a hell of a guy.

The questions kids ask !

Cracking up I am

2012-01-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

All the Christmas decorations are being gathered up to be put in the attic until next December.

Years and years ago we had a French lady staying with us over Christmas. She was very prim and proper and the kids were very young.
Soon the "crib" consisted of Mickey Mouse, He Man and a scattering of Lego men and toy soldiers.
She flipped when the dog had eaten the baby Jesus !

Then one day a courier arrived at the door!

A parcel for Madame !

With great care a Nativity scene unfolded.

"You see not everything happened at once!
First there was the stable, with the Shepard's and the animals.
Mary and Joseph made their way to Bethlehem, every day getting closer.
Then on Christmas Night the youngest person in the house puts the baby in the crib.
Later on the wise kings come with their useless gifts.

Then someone warns them to escape.
So they flee.

This year the wise kings never made it off the piano

The month is hardly 1/2 over and I have given 2 free rides!
Well you judge, right or wrong?.

The first one was on Cork St. A woman on crutches with 2 super little kids a buggy and her partner. They were going to Castle St.. There is a supplementary welfare office there. Her story was that she had lifted her benefit money and as she was coming out of the Spar shop a Junkie jumped her. She does kick boxing to stay fit and she "creased" her attacker. But there was 3 others and one had a bicycle lock on a chain and beat her to a pulp. She had 2 black eyes and a broken ankle.
She was robbed, but she had signed over her social welfare to her mother who was sleeping off a hangover and wouldn't meet her to "lift " her money, so we were heading for Castle St.
So when we got there they said "What do we owe you?" I said you owe me fuck all, you have had a bad start to the year, take it a a present from me.
There was loads of protesting but I said "Don't throw my gift back in my face"
"Jesus mister do you know this will come back to your a thousand times over"

But you and I know that even if it doesn't I never did it for that reason.

So there I was in the electrical wholesalers and a woman came and asked for Joyce rd Fairview. Everyone thought it was in Drumcondra. I got my map from the car it was indeed there and then she said she would get a taxi!
Well I stepped up to the mark and offered my services.
On the way over she told me how she had been married to the same man for 40 years and then he threw her out !
She never saw it coming and now she had spent a few nights in sheltered housing and was looking for this place.
She had been in another taxi who couldn't find it. In the end he turfed her out.
Yes folks he charged her for the scenic trip.
From Joyce St. we started to make phone calls, "Off Philipsburgh Ave., Griffeth Court.Even when we were in Griffeth court there was no sign post. But we found it.

Once more the same argument.

Boys and Girls I ask you . After 40 years of marriage to be fucked out on the street and afraid to go back home again, after being charged Gods knows how much from the last taxi ride.

Charge her? or no charge?

So I have gone soft in the head????????????????????????????????

I was scrolling through youtube looking for Tango music from the Gotan Project group when I fount the following clip.
I hope you enjoy Buenos Aries.

The city looks so big, its like Dublin is a tiny village

Then I checked. With its suburbs it has 13 million people.
Great to see they have a bridge like our Sam Beckett Bridge.

But I still love the U2 version for Dublin

Northern lights

2012-01-08T15:53:00.000-08:00

A Christmas tea ad on a bus shelter.

Howth head and the Baley lighthouse, view from Clontarf

Cups and balls in Covent Garden. (Best ever)

London skyline

You are never very far away from a vandal

Many awards for Blazing Salads

Shireff St

If you a re lucky you mightb see strange lights in the sky.
No you are not in Norway, its the Aurora Borrrralis or the Northern lights.
There are wonderful sunrises and sunsets at present. Last night the moon was the strangest colour I ever saw fir any satalite.
You know we miss the simplest pleasures.

Yesterday I picked up a young guy in James's St. He was going over to collect his unemployment benafit in Crumlin. He was telling me that he had to get a taxi because the gangs in Drimnagh would kill him if they saw him on their patch.
We had a discussion about how Dublin is fast becoming like Los Angales with gang culture ruling the ghettos. He told me in no uncertian terms that it has been like this for a long time.
Part of the problem he said is that if you come a bad area no one will give you a job.
In spite of his rough looks he was a good auld skin, I hope he gets his act together.
Everyone he knows is unemployed, so drug culture becomes the norm.

Years ago I picked up a couple, they were both washed out having spent a life addicted to heroin. She was now HIV posative and though they had seperated a good few years ago he had come back into her life to help regement her drugs.
"Son, our lives have been hell. Only now as we are nearing the end do I realize how much I love our son and each other and I hope you will cherish the ones you love, theres only one chance in this life"
So he went on to tell me about their son who lived in the UK.

Their son was working for the council when found a dead person in a house.
The body was taken away and no next of kin was found, so the council workers cleared out the place. Some good stuff was thrown out.
Their son had a bright idea and set up a company where they would clear out houses, sanatize the property all for an agereed fee.
The TVs and video players he displays in either of his 3 second hand shops.
Sometimes he even finds money !

The old guy (Still under 40) said "He grew up so well because he could see how badly we had done, we gave him ambition"

I just spotted this film traler which started that trend of thought.

They say that travel broadens the mind.
Well it certantly slims the wallet.

Eve Arnold RIP

2012-01-05T03:42:00.000-08:00

Eve Arnold has died 1912 to 2012 not a bad innings.

She was one of the famous photographers who was a member of the Magnum photographic cooprative in Paris.

Just have a look at her work, she put in a great life looking through her lens.

Go back and look at the portfolios of the other members.Steve McCurry and the founder Henri Cartier Bresson.

My eye infection I had is nearly gone after 6 or more weeks.
Taxi drivers if they are lucky have to handle money, then you have a tear in your eye and rub it off with germs on your hand and infect your eye.
Some people thought I was crying, it was all a bit odd really.
So the work is now gone, along with the eye infection.

A foreign driver had a problem at the rank because he didn't now where Gorey was. The other taxi driver behind him told him that it is one of those places that is hard to find, so the passenger went with the other driver all the way to Co.Wexford.

We don't know all the streets for sure, but all taxi drivers should now where all the hospitals are, most of the Embassies and all the villages which make up our city.
One taxi driver told me that he was flagged down near the Summit pub in Howth. Hello I am looking for the Portmarnock sports hotel said the driver. He asked the lady(who was English) where she had come from. She had come from the City center and there was €36 on the meter.
He told her that she was now further from her destination than when she started.
He had people in his car so he couldn't take them, so he gave directions and told them which landmarks to look out for and he also told the driver that the journey should only cost €26 and told the girls not to pay one cent more.

This is a problem which is commonplace now in Dublin as illegal drivers share rented taxies, perhaps only one driver is insured. But you need to know that your driver knows the city, you need to know that his past history had been checked out, that he has no criminal record etc..
So if the driver is illegal, he is nor insured or his past is a secret.
Checks were not being done very well in the old days either. The man at the center of the X case. (Sex with a minor who became pregnant)He got a PSV licence and the Garda had the gall to say that they only checked him back to the address he gave them.
The fact that he had been reported to the carriage office as being a sex offender by other taxi drivers who knew him and was not stopped before he raped yet another young girl. The reasons why nothing was done would be a story worth hearing.

Here is a useful link to help your taxi journey wherever you are in the world.

I just thought I would stick this in for your enjoyment.

As you can hear Papa (the baker) had a good voice as well

For my Brazilian friends, fellow blogger Taaxitramus

Missing person

2012-01-04T12:58:00.000-08:00

A Garda got out of a van and approached the long queue of taxis who were waiting at Heuston station. He started giving out flyer's and as he worked his way past me a driver flipped and started giving out.
"Why the hell do you come here now looking for our help? we have been complaining about illegal drivers for years. You refuse to investigate them when you catch one. Now you are wondering if we can find a missing person?"
The Garda was not expecting to meet with this response but he defended himself as best he could.

Still tempers will be rising as you cannot fit the army of taxis that exist in Dublin on to the ranks which were in situ to cope with 2,500 taxis which were in Dublin. The taxi numbers have increased 10 fold where the ranks have increased by 20% on the old number of places.
One driver who gave out to a Garda in German.
Then he translated.
"You are like the Third Reich!
You forced us to put a yellow sticker on our cars !
You believe that it is like the Yellow Star the the Jews were forced to wear, this you believe gives you the right to persecute us !
We will not lie down to such persecution !"

The Garda put away his pen and walked away.

We all have a job to do, I hope she returns home safely, she has been missing since the 20th so things are looking very bad for her.

When you apply for a PSV licence your mobile number and your e mail should be put on a data base.
"Garda message...Port tunnel blocked going North"
All taxi drivers allerted straight away!
Easily done from a computer.
"Serious assault Blackhall Place 22.00 tonight, did anyone see anything? ring 123245"
Easy peasy. After all this is the age of instant communications.

look after yourselves

1/1/2012

2012-01-01T09:07:00.000-08:00

If I go to Argentina this summer I will bring these rare bandoneons with me

Crossing back from the Bull Island in a storm

The Christmas tree at the conference center

My dog,she always laughs at this poem

Well last night there was a big New Year concert with Paul Brady, the Coronas etc.
I went out around 8pm and drove around and got no business. So I went home and had a frozen meal. I started to watch TV, I got a DVD called "Senna" a documentary about the life of the racing driver from Brazil. He tried all his life to help the poor people of his home country, he gave a lot of money to different charities, but he wanted to insure that the money was going where it was needed. He set up a charity which is being overseen by his wife,sister and Alan Prost his arch rival.
That charity has educated more than 6 million children in Brazil.
That is quite a legacy to leave behind.

If you go to the motor museum at Donnington Park and at Prince Rainer's motor museum in Monaco you will see grown men and women cry at his shrine.

I understand now some of the reasons why they were crying.

So I broke myself away and had a charmed night, just like the old days, there seemed to be no buses and there was a fair Garda presence.
I did notice that there were people back from Germany, USA, Canada and Spain. Migrants from our economic mess.
Around 5am I came back into the city and the streets were deserted, so I made my way down to meet the ferry for 5.55am. One girl came out and got a taxi. After a while I went into the office and asked. There were only 15 foot passengers as public transport is not operating in the UK.

Still I am happy with my lot as for so many people facing into this new year the future is very bleak indeed.

So turn the radio over to classical music, shun the doom and gloom merchants and remember that none of this was your fault.

On the way home from the ferry on the Clontarf Rd a car which was parked pulled out in front of me. No lights, no signal. He didn't look and if he had he wouldn't have seen me he was drunk out of his mind. I blew the horn and overtook him, 50 yards down the road he got back on the correct side of the road and turned on his lights. I turned down Seafield Rd and I noticed how he nearly hit the curb on the opposite side of the road coming around the corner. For me the shock just made me feel so lucky to have survived such a near miss. Perhaps I should have stopped him and called the cops.

So now in the first day of the new year it is time to take your life and give it a shake.
Take stock of things and chart a new course using a different star to guide you.

So I will set some new goals for myself.

I do hope that you achieve loads in this new year.

.
From the man who wrote the book The monk who sold his Ferrari

Out with the old

2011-12-29T13:42:00.000-08:00

All set for the big feast !

Occupy London

I had a "Curb your enthusiasm" moment with this.
Yes we do have it, but with chicken !

Taxi sign in Dublin...He works everywhere !

Well if anyone still reads this blog I will just pass on some of the wisdom gained in the past year or so.
I am the person who observes the world as it passes along, my passengers who passed their gems of knowledge to me I give thanks.

I am amazed by what has happened in the financial world during the past 2 years, there WAS fraud, yet the guilty are being propped up by the state, more than one developer is being employed by NAMA on a wage in excess of €200,000 to sort out his mess.

Its the young people need help, families stuck in negative equity, not only here but in many other lands.

I have said it many times our leaders were feeding at the trough with the bankers and the developers, nothing will be done about this disaster because the corruption started at the very top.

Therefore nothing will be done.

So the small man will suffer, the teacher, the ill people, children with special needs and all the needy people will have to shoulder gigantic cut backs.

While our "leaders" will pat each other on the back and say
"Didn't we do well?"

There is no solution to this so don't get yourselves into a sweat thinking about it.

"No answer to the problem?" That must be a first from any taxi driver ever!

I went to a funeral on Christmas eve up in Bailieborough County Cavan where I came from.
It was the Mother of a childhood friend.
Her son lives in Sydney Australia and had to leave home with very little notice.
Without a doubt it was a mad dash, so close to Christmas with no reservations made.

It was a very nostalgic journey for me as well.
Everything has changed I knew almost no one and the town itself is a shadow of its former self.
Tesco built a huge supermarket on the edge of town and it has sucked all the retail business from the local shops.

That's progress, I wonder?

Perhaps this movie I found will educate you.

But I am an optimist and I hope that this coming year 2012 brings you wisdom and hope for the generations coming after us.

Hugs and kisses. (Except for you, ugly brute)

Christmas day

2011-12-25T01:37:00.000-08:00

Here it is, Christmas day.

I hope it is a great one for you all.

Remember that a dog is not just for Christmas.

Have a good one.

The last Christmas cheer

2011-12-19T13:28:00.000-08:00

Where would we be without this mad song

I hope this comes out.

something from Ry Cooder.

So my wishes and hopes for the future is that we will take better care of each other.
I also hope that we will have the courage to speak up on behalf of the opressed.
I hope that we can do something more to help young famlys who are stuck in negative equity, that is help the banks less and people more.

I hope Santa brings you everything you wanted.

See you all in 2012.

Lost property

2011-12-18T06:27:00.000-08:00

To all Dublin taxi drivers

On Friday night 2nd December, my mother left her phone in a taxi which she got from South William St. to the Gresham hotel.
It’s an old Nokia-battered and not really of any value whatsoever.
Ordinarily we would just let it lie. However, on her phone are photos of my little sister who died in September and, as happens to us all my mother had not gotten around to saving them anywhere else.

I am asking all taxi drivers if they picked up a couple on South William St. on Friday night around 11 PM on 2nd December. Going to the Gresham hotel.
Please check down the back and under your seats. As we say it has no resale value, but it is so precious to my Mother.

Kate Clarke 087 2676747

Mary Leonard 087 6497587

Best wishes

2011-12-15T03:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks for reminding me of that Paddy I have put it up for a few years now.
So lets give it a lash and put the rest up.

Happy Christmas to one and all.

Safe driving and happy passengers to you all.

Not long to go now

2011-12-12T15:10:00.000-08:00

Dressing up for the occasion

Big cheese in East Wall

Early worker waits to be let in.

Toys for sale

Covent Garden

I drove over towards the Westbury to get a cup of coffee at the paper shop across the road. Not a chance to park, so I looped around and picked up a customer as I went around the corner. The guy had loads of bags and as he was getting in a car behind blew his horn.
"Mind these I'm going to kill that bastard".
I calmed him down and told him that sometimes arseholes begin at the top of the head and continue to their heels.
He began to settle down.
"He will get home and find a summons for speeding or a really big credit card bill he wasn't expecting" Drawing bad things towards himself he is, that's all.

He told me that he worked the doors at a casino on Auinger St. His mate was across the road talking to a big Russian guy and it looked like the situation would boil over, so he went across and dragged his mate back across the road again.The Russian guy who was out of his mind was insulting both of them so he dragged his mate back to the casino. The Russian followed them taunting and whistling at them. "So I told him to go back home to Russia where there was plenty of idiots there like himself he could fight with"
The guy then went off.
20 minutes later a police car came over to the casino. "Did you see a Russian man with a brown leather jacket, he held up a taxi driver at knife point and robbed him"
Well he had walked over to the casino where the cameras had picked him up.
He had even looked up into the cameras.

So the Garda have him in full technicolour.

I think I will go to the casino myself and get a copy of the photo for the Kesh (taxi holding area at the airport)
He is probably wanted in Russia as well.

Heading home the other day I picked up a girl who works in one of the children's hospitals, she was working in South Africa before this and her partner wanted to come and work in Europe, so they quickly married so he could get a green card and work in Europe.
A few weeks later he took a seizure and collapsed.
He had never had a headache, no double vision,nothing.

He had a brain tumour..After the operation he is fine again.
Her mother had a brain tumour only a few months before all this happened.
Now she thanks God for every day and takes nothing for granted.
She is a wonderful calm person in spite of it all and loves Ireland and the Irish welcome.

I hope the Christmas lights she bought in Woodies work well.

Another lady I picked up in James's St going to Liffey Valley, she was just going to Atlantic homecare and back. I told her that I would pause the meter while she was in the shop and bring her back home.
She had a story that would make your hair stand on end.
A neighbour of hers is a complete headcase, she has started a feud with another family. Instead of getting together over a pot of tea the situation has escalated to the point where a bomb was placed outside the flat.
The device was spotted and the bomb squad was called.
Everyone in the complex was evacuated for a few hours.
She told me that the army said that if the device had gone off it would have completely demolished the woman's flat the one next door and the one above it.

Wow that is a feud and a half.

One other passenger told me she was working in a well known top of the range department store, sales were low and management started threatening staff, cutting hours and laying off people.
She herself was breaking up with a long term relationship.
She read a book called The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma. She saw what she should do and handed in her notice and started work in Kildare Village.
Her life has become a dream. She enjoys her work. The new boss praises his staff and talks to them, looks for suggestions. Everyone is happy.

Happy staff= happy customers=higher sales

4 out of 5 who kill themselves are men

2011-12-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

Girls toolbox with pretty feathers etc.

Pearly Kings

A bicycle for 6

A car tied up in cling film.

5 Dead on the roads in 24 hours yesterday.
Each one a tragedy, a mother taking her daughter and 3 friends to a dance skidded on black ice and went into a river killing the driver and her daughter.
Take care,slow down, better to be late than dead.

Christmas for me is not a good time, my skin gets thinner and I see the guys selling drugs to kids. The desperation in the family's where they have fallen into debt and Christmas just around the corner.All the lonely people on the streets, and the drinking to complete excess sickens me to the core.
I do suffer from depression,I am by polar.
Just so you know, depression is more like a bad dose of the flu rather than feeling sad, when you have it you cannot function. I take Lithium and it levels out my life. But I see so many people who have no one to love in their lives and they walk the streets of our cities in desperation seeking solace.
The true measure of any society is how they look after their young their sick and their elderly people.We do very badly on this.
I don't dwell on the doom and gloom that's going on at present, but there was a horrific case on the news the other day where a father and mother abused their children through their youth. One daughter bore two children by her father. Thank God that the Garda team had the tensity to follow the case through to its conclusion.
The father got life in prison, the mother was also locked up. I hope the children get the best of care.

For a crime like this against children a bullet between the two eyes would be the better solution, low cost, problem solved.

Ray Darcy had a slot about suicide he has put up a podcast.
Have a listen here. You are looking for the podcast of Dr.Harry Barry.

Did you follow that link on my last posting to send a message to a political prisoner?
Think about it, better than sending a card to someone you don't like.

Just as an afterthought. There was a guy who was kidnapped in our fair city and turned up dead a few days later.
Word on the street is that he was told to look after some drugs for a local gang. He hid it in the Green bin. But his mother didn't know that he had done this and she put out the bin for collection.

Short measure

2011-12-11T03:04:00.000-08:00

Well most taxi drivers started using this petrol station again after it went from the dearest petrol to the cheapest,

From the Irish Times.

A service station on Dublin’s south quays has been fined €14,000 in the District Court today after pleading guilty to using fuel pumps which were “under-measuring” the amount of petrol and diesel being sold to consumers.

In an action taken by the National Standards Authority of Ireland’s (NSAI) Legal Metrology Service (LMS), the service station, trading as One Oil pleaded guilty to twelve charges of breaches of the Metrology Act, 1996.

The petrol station, located on Ushers Quay in Dublin, pleaded guilty to offences connected to the use of an unverified instrument and short measure on sale of motor fuel under Sections 13 and 28 of the Act, respectively.

The action was taken after the NSAI received a number of complaints from consumers about the petrol station.

In August 2010, LMS inspectors visited the station to inspect the premises and verify instrument compliance. A significant number of non-compliance issues were uncovered and reported to the garage owners, who were instructed to immediately rectify the non-compliances.

However, in response to further complaints from members of the public in February 2011, LMS inspectors revisited the premises and discovered that the previously verified and rectified fuel pumps had broken seals and were significantly under-measuring petrol and diesel being sold to consumers.

According to Maurice Buckley, the chief executive of the NSAI, its Legal Metrology Service visited almost 4,000 trader’s premises and tested more than 17,000 measuring instruments - such as supermarket weighing scales and taxi meters - where the correct charge or cost to consumers is dependent on accurate quantity measurement.

In addition, almost 8,000 fuel pumps at 1,300 service stations were also inspected last year. More than 2,000 warnings, which require corrective action such as minor adjustments or recalibration of equipment, were issued to traders.

There were also 13 prosecutions taken for non-compliance, where a trader did not take appropriate corrective action following a warning, with 10 of these resulting in conviction. Each of those prosecutions was related to non-compliant taxi meters.

Magic Paul

2011-12-07T13:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday saw the arrival of the celebrity magician Paul Daniels with the lovely Debbie Magee, she has Irish roots and she brought her cousins along to the magicians club.
He gave us a good talk about presentation and giving good customer satisfaction.
He is as quick witted as ever, a very entertaining man.

When we first met years ago he called the group to attention.
"I want to introduce John to you all. Note the way he is dressed,this is important to note, this is a sure sign of a wealthy man. He doesn't waste money buying good clothes like you lot do"
When I met him through the years I took a photograph of us both.
This time I decided not to take one as we were getting progressively older each time we took the photograph.
So to stop that ageing process I didn't take the snapshot.

"Magic is the best fun you can have without taking your clothes off" So he says

Here is a good thing you can do for Christmas.
Go to this website and write a Christmas card to a prisoner of conscience.
No this may be someone who spoke out against a corrupt politician, or policeman and now find themselves in prison.

Think about it at least.

Another thing coming up today is an art exhibition for the CFCP connecting the immigrant/experimental/emerging artists in Ireland.
You do know that when you find an emerging artist and buy their work your investment goes up fast.Plenty of Polish artists represented here.

I have an eye infection, I have been to the doctor and it is worse now.
The last time this happened a doctor in the eye and ear hospital told me that handling money is deadly.

Never wipe you eye with your hand, use a tissue, one end for each eye and discard it at once.
He told me at the time that I was only days away from loosing the eye as my resistance to infection was very low because the eye had become re infected several times.
Perhaps I will go back there tomorrow.
Talking about magic.

Did you ever hear of Ricky Jay?

Our great leaders

2011-12-07T07:58:00.000-08:00

He looked at my ESB bill which was lying on the dashboard as he got into the taxi.
I thought I recognised him, though I couldn't’t put a name on him

“Hello Johnny, I hope you’re well”

From then on he was like a long playing record, no stopping him.
He just talked on and on.

At some point I recalled that he was one of our “Elected representatives”
.
When I got a break in his rant I asked him how he could put with all the abuse he gets from the members of the public when he went out canvassing for election.

Well his mouth took off as if it was in overdrive, he was in great form.

Why do I do it all you ask for the measly sum of £34,000 a year?
(£34,000 in 1981 was a lot of money more than 3 times the national average wage)

The £34,000 is not the issue for me.
You see I am also on the transport committee for which I get £16,000 a year.
The housing committee for which I get £14,000 a year.
I’m on the education committee for which I get £14, 000 a year.
Plus the lighting committee for which I get £12,000 .

I don’t even know what the lighting committee does, but they pay me anyhow.

This is in Irish Punts, the Euro has not arrived…

Real money

Now that brings my income up to £90,000 a year.
Now you might think that is a lot of money..

But it gets better.

Did you ever hear of appearance money, they call it attendance money, but I prefer to call it Appearance money because I consider myself somewhat of an artiste !

I get £116 per day for appearing in the Dail , plus travel expenses and subsistence allowance.
Plus a subsidy in the Dail bar and restaraunt.

Now you remember the committiees?
The Housing
The education,
The transport and we must not forget the lighting committee,

They sit on the same day as the DAIL.
I get appearance money for all the committies as well.

It all adds up to £51,750 and this on top of the £90,000 and you know what its all tax free!
That’s
£116 for the Dail
£116 for transport committee
£116 for the housing committee
£116 for the lighting committee
£116 for the education committee

Per day.

There may have even a few more committees as well !

Now we only sit for 90 days, so my yearly income I earn in 3 months.

But it gets even better….

Expenses !

£82 a day !
Over 90 days that’s another £7380
Now add the 4 committees £36,900

Now that tops my income up to roughly to £152,100 per year.

Nearly 10 times the national average!

Where would you be without the expenses ?

You need the expenses.

Sure I have to take taxis from the Dail to the transport committee then to the lighting committee .

Yous lads are not cheap either.

Then there’s my constituents calling to my house,

I converted the garage into a small office, the clinic its called. I put the electricity and gas meters on to the wall of the garage. So now I can claim for my heating water rates and electricity , even helping out with the old mortgage,
All legitimate expenses.
And sure if you need to extend the house you can say that it is to compensate for the space you lost by converting the garage…Of course you know who foots the bill?
Then I have to take out public liability insurance in case one of my constituents fall.

Another expense.

Who pays for that ?
The tax paying voting public that’s who pays.

Do you see the security cameras and the top notch alarm system ?
Who paid for that ?

Then there’s the phone in the house, in the office, the 3 mobile phones and the secretarial wages even though its my wife who looks after most things here in my house.

Did you ever wonder how we dress so well?

WE GET A CLOTHING ALLOWANCE !

Yes its very important that the people you elect dress well and look well groomed.
Well when you get your clothing allowance you can still claim for tax on the money you spent buying the clothes. Add to that the laundry, dry cleaning.

Now if I could only get the clothing allowance for the wife!
No she doesn’t get that .
But she does get tax deductions on the dresses and shoes she buys.
Its an expense you see.

And then there’s the jewellery allowance as well..

Well she has to dress the part.

Then there’s the charity functions, there good too.

Did you see me in the paper giving the personal cheque to the Simon community the other day ?

Refundable from party funds !

Then there’s the charity auctions, you get your picture in the paper, you get your money back and you get to keep the item, Not bad at all.

So I do 3 months work for which I get £152,100

If you could do a years work it would be worth more that £608,000

Now remember he was only a back bencher, not a minister.

He might only "Work" for 4 years and then he gets a pension for life, not when he stops working or becomes elderly.

But that was in the dim distant past, or perhaps it was all in a dream. I mean it couldn't’t be true, or could it ?
nd that is why our taxes go up and hospitals close, the elderly are asked to survive on less, just so they live like the fat cats.

Better cars and better drvers

2011-12-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

I found the full clip of the Roma taxi drivers perfect day.

Boys and girls have a great weekend

Where did the big wheel go ?

2011-11-26T16:01:00.000-08:00

On my sons fridge 2 bunny rabbits. Salt grinder and pepper mill

St Pauls cathedral at dusk.

This is the site of William Shakespears house! Ireland Yard, so he is Irish

Count down until the olympics in London

Ship in a bottle at Trafagar Square

Well here we are !
The Christmas tree in O'Connell St. is on and everywhere is Christmas.
In 4 weeks it will all be over.

But on Sunday they took away the big wheel.
It was erected in the wrong place from the beginning, very few visitors came to it.
That girl who fell from one of the pods and was killed didn't help matters either.

Those who rode on it just got a view of the docks, it is a pity it was not put up in St.Stephens Green from the start.

The taxi driver who was killed last week was buried yesterday, there will be very little of the Christmas spirit in that household for a long time to come.

In reality any driver who goes out to pick up total strangers and allows them to sit behind him in the dark has to be a bit crazy.

There but for the grace of God go any of us.

Things are warming up for an interesting Christmas for sure.
The budget will tax the poor, who can't pay.
They reckon that a hike in VAT is the answer !
All roads lead to Newry.
(which is in the UK)
If you are trying to get out of a hole you have to stop digging.

I am working on a piece about a politician,watch this spsce. Its really good.

More of that in a few days.

Now perhaps you will understand what will happen to that lady who gave out to me last week.

A piece of stone ?

2011-11-24T13:49:00.000-08:00

What a varied and different day.
By that I mean that no one moment was the same as the next and the contrast between situations were so so strange.
I started on the Clontarf road where I picked up one of my favorite regulars.
Today as it turned out she wanted to go by bus as she had no money.
Well this may be end of our friendship as I told her she could pay me another day.
She is Polish and has the most wonderful laugh. If you make her laugh on her journey it creates ripples in your very soul, these ripples make me happy all day long.
I dropped her off and headed for Sandymount then back into town, from there to Heuston station. The station has become so bad that you cannot get on to the rank most times.
So I got on and picked up a lady in obvious pain. Walking with the help of a stick, she got in and we headed off for Vincents hospital.
She had a morphine pump to eases the pain in her back and with the drugs she is on she has put on 7 stone. Now she was not at all complaining of her condition.
Her mother and father are living with her family, her father has Alzheimer's and is difficult (to say the least)He jumps through decades all the time. Her mother had a bad fall so is in hospital for respite care and she put her father into a nursing home while she is going up and down to Dublin hospitals. Problem with her father is that the carers don't know what to do and keep asking her to come over and give them a hand. The people in the nursing home are supposed to be the professionals after all. This wonderful lady never complained about herself once during the journey, though she was in a lot of pain.
She told me that she had a thriving business selling bridal wear, but as she was ill she had to give it up. "I have a big storeroom full of the most beautiful Spanish wedding dresses, I don't know if I can ever get rid of them."
At the end of the line it was €14.20 I said €14. "Here keep the change"When I looked she had given me a €10 and two €5s. Look you have given me €20 take back the €5.

No keep it and thank you.

Bits and bobs later I had to visit Mabel my 101 3/4 year old friend, she is dying and wanted to talk to me about her affairs. Where she wants her ashes to go etc.
I told her a few tall yarns and we had a few jokes together.
"Mabel I will miss you but you have had such a full and long life that I will be happy to see yo go to meet Jack and your daughter Barbra again". She is a very romantic person and says good night to him every night, though he is gone for more than 30 years.

Later on that day I picked up a lady going to Blackrock. As we crossed the bridge going on to Northumberland Rd. A bus in front of me stopped short, which meant that my back wheels were on the pedestrian crossing. A young enough lady banged on the window and abused me. It went on for a while, my passenger was shocked by her bad behavior. I suppose you don't thing of the right thing to say at the time. But, I had just spent 2 hours with a dying friend. People do snap sometimes, she should be more careful.

What did I say to my passenger?

"Did you ever read a book called the secret?"

She had.

"Then you will know that she is attracting all kinds of negative shit upon herself?"

God I really don't know what happened after that, I started getting one fare after another for the next 2 hours.
I didn't get home until around 9pm.

but I am up at 4am for an airport run!

Now for a bit of trivia.

The first photo is of the archway at the top of the Mall in London, Buckingham palace behind you.

The second is of a piece of stone which protrudes from the right hand side of the left archway.

OK boys and girls what is its significance?

Ron McMillans 40th

2011-11-23T13:51:00.000-08:00

At this time of year we remember the magician Ron McMillan.
His son runs the magic shop on Clerkenwell Rd.
The convention is held at the Mermaid theater at Puddle dock.
Georgina and Martin and the Mother are the nicest people you could ever meet.

A great line up, a wonderful city.
Great to see my oldest son as well.

They kept that take in instead of cutting it and put it on the show, every time there is a blooper show it has been repeated. The royalty checks keep coming in.
One of the greatest highlights was to be there on the night when Murray met David again after 20 years.
Murray even brought his jumper that he wore on that day...

There is a lot more to life than driving a taxi you know.

On this day 1963

2011-11-22T14:48:00.000-08:00

Yuri Gagarin a statue in London

Another time.

Another place
I just had to remember that on this day the world was shocked by the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
We are as wise today as to what the exact circumstances were as we were back in 1963.

Occupy the streets London

2011-11-21T14:37:00.000-08:00

Soon every crackpot in the England will come to St.Pauls to protest.
The problem is that there are so many oddballs there it is hard to take it seriously.

Where has all the money gone ?

2011-11-16T11:12:00.000-08:00

Well it has come to pass that the police broke up the "Occupy Wall Street" protest.
It is also in London and In Dame street Dublin

There you have it again the might of the state oppressing legitimate concerns.
I remember the well fed white cops beating black people in America to deny them the vote and the troops shooting people in the towhships of South Africa, its time to stand up for ourselves.

So I am off to the bright lights of London until Tuesday.

Look after yourselves.

Meeting new friends

2011-11-15T05:11:00.000-08:00

The biggest chess set in Dublin is Google HQ on Barrow St.

Oh what a beautiful morning !

Superman on a wall beside Crosby's house, there is a vacant room where U2 like to practice.

In LA this means you are near a crack house.

Sam Beckett bridge a Mecca for photographers.

After "Where are you going?" the next question is often "What country do you come from?" A very exotic lady I spoke with the other day, very beautiful. She was Kurdish. A much persecuted people, a race who do not have to seek their troubles.
Still we had a great laugh and she told me that it was the best trip she ever had in a taxi in her life. The pleasure was mutual believe me.

Here is an example of what I mean when I say she had a certain Exotic look.

Today I picked up a lady from Ethiopia she was a leaving cert student in Crumlin. Soon we were like old pals chatting away. Another country where evil stalks the land. War is a constant thing, famine follows through the region all the time.
Her father was killed in the war of 99, her mother never remarried, his second wife who was younger married again. But before she remarried she gave her baby brother to her first husbands maiden sister to bring up the child.
This leaving cert student saves $25 every week to support her aunt and 1/2 brother.
Every month she sends $100 to them.
The Arabs have a great love for charity, they give away 10% of their income to help people less fortunate than themselves.
As you know Allah will reward you by giving you greater blessings.

But the world is changing and mankind has started to worship money and power instead of God.
"A cup of tea and a biscuit will taste the same in the Sheraton hotel as it will in your own house, but think of the difference in cost" she declared.

I was very glad to have bumped into both of them in my journey around our fair city.

Google is hosting a big meeting at the conference center today and yesterday.
It is mostly facebook people. The first guy I picked up wouldn't even tell me what it was all about. The next guy asked me what I thought of Facebook ?.
"It's all hype, nothing more"
Although he works for them he was inclined to agree.
Ebay for example is providing a service to buy and sell, money changes hands.
Even the advertising that is hosted on Youtube and Facebook sites, I don't think it is so very effective.

Companies need to work on their customer service and look after existing customers.
In recent times I have found that I am far from happy after calling to a bank or utility company.

Like taxi drivers, if you don't work on your ability to communicate with your passingers they won't be taking your number and calling you up sometime.

Wrong way

2011-11-12T00:52:00.000-08:00

Woolly hats for sale on O'Connell Bridge

This is the better view to the right of the other photo from the last posting

Englishmen arrive for a Stag do.

Guttering emerges from a forming machine in the back of the truck.

A poor Injuin out in the wind

One thing about driving a taxi that is very annoying is when your passenger says "Driver,why are you going this way? I have never been brought this way in my life! I know the way to go. You are going the wrong way."
The problem is that there is no right way to handle it.
And so it came to pass it happened to me yet again!
She got in near Zhivago's at the bottom of Parnell St.
She was going to a clinic on Westbrook Rd.in Ranelagh.
If she had stopped me 20 yards further back I could have gone up Capel St.
After a few hundred meters it started.
"Why are you going this way?
I know the way, I have never been brought this way before.
I am late and now you are making me very late."

Today I would stop the car and ask her to direct me to go in whichever direction she wanted me to go or get out and go in another taxi,yet you try to remain calm.

She was still pretty frantic as we went up Charlemont St., so I stopped the meter at €10, in spite of this she was insisting that she had never paid more than €8 for that journey !
There must be a formula for dealing with this ?

Once late at night I had a young girl did direct me,left, right and straight ahead until we reached her house. I laughed to myself because we had followed her bus route exactly, in and out of housing estates etc.
But I do know the feeling when the taxi driver starts taking the scenic route.

My most favorite recollection of just such an incident happened at the Conrad Hilton on Earlsfort Terrace many years ago.
I had stopped at the rank on a Sunday morning.
A car pulled up beside me and asked me for directions to Baggott St. As I was showing her the way the concierge started blowing his whistle.
I drove forward and he put the bag in the boot.
The man and woman got in.
"Airport" (No please or thank you.)
I told them that they were making a movie around the corner with 1920s cars and buses, so I drove them past Fitzwilliam Sq to see the sight.
As I got closer to the square the "lady" leaned over.
"Driver were not fucking stupid, you're going the wrong way"
I told her that I would follow any route she wished but to get to this point where we were I would have to go the wrong way down 2 one way streets.

Now in fact what I might have done was to stop and tell them that they have to get another taxi.

"You are telling me I am a dishonest person so we must part company"

I drove on anyhow and turned on the radio.
They were having a row, it was like the rumbling of a cement mixer going on all the time.
When we got to the airport I knew there would be no tip in in for me.
As I handed him his change and suitcase I said.
"I hope you are in time for your flight?.
The change of hour really fucked up my day"
"Whats you fucking talking about?" says he
"The clocks, they went forward last night, its Summer time"

As reality sank in the expression on his face changed from rage to horror in slow motion.

So you see what happens if you don't moderate your behavior.

Shit happens !

I did tell an actor once that he had too high an opinion of himself if he thought I would drive him around just to get a few extra pence, what I want is to be rid of you as quickly as I can and get on to the next job.

Strange thing happened I met the girl with the flat battery again yesterday, this time she was off to see her sisters new baby.

Today we are having the most beautiful morning ever.

This is the one I was looking for

First frost

2011-11-07T14:58:00.000-08:00

View of the city from behind the Casino in Marino

Autumn frost in Fairview park

Elephants and Buddhas adorn a Dublin taxi

I reckon the person who never made a mistake never made anything.
On Sunday I did make a mistake !
A young girl going to Cappah to a boarding school.
We arrived in Cappah and she did not know where the school was. So in cases of difficulty you phone a friend...No good either. So we went into Cappah hospital and she suggested that it was in Cabra, just after you cross the railway line on the right hand side. Sorry to say I was still wrong, so I phoned another friend who suggested it was on the Navan Rd. When we went around the corner she knew where it was and directed me directly to it.
She was deaf and was lip reading as we went, to help her I had the light on in the car.
I would say she was 16 or so, a bubbly bright girl.
She told me she had 5 sisters and 3 brothers, so he came from a big family
So look in the mirror and say Cabra then say Cappa (as it is pronounced). There is hardly any difference.
So I had turned off the meter in Cappah and drove back and charged her €15
I did ask her to write it out on a piece of paper for the next time.
"St. Marys school, Navan Rd, after the Garda station and before the church on the right hand side, through the arch"
Evelyn Glennie the Scottish percussionist is deaf also, she feels the vibrations through her body, just like my girl does.
The joys of Youtube...

Some of us never even try to reach our full potential others excel in their endevor

I have replaced the battery in my car and my wife's car this week.
I think it is the frost that makes the weak batteries give up the ghost, but they have come down a lot in price over the years.

So it was no surprise that my first fare of the day was a schoolteacher who's car would not start.
Artaine motor factors carry a good range of batteries on the North side of the city and in Bond St behind Guinness Garry in the Harbor radiators will see you right.

The first frosty morning I saw 3 cars rear end each other 2 were new cars, a Volvo and an Opel brand new and shunted.
First frost can catch you out, like rain after a dry spell makes the road slippery you must take care.
Still it is nothing like that multi vehicle pile up in England last week.
One of my passengers told me that he has to go to New York on business once a month, then he hires a car and drives down the freeway for 6 hours. Bored out of his mind just sitting there while the car goes at 80 mph in 5 or 6 lanes going each way.

Poor old St Christopher has his hands full keeping us all safe.

What about the poor old taxi drivers in Australia ?,

Paste this to your browser.

http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8369595

Thank you Sam for that.

Checkout operator

2011-11-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

The wall has moved out by 4 inches, I thought that the trees might have pushed the wall out. The engineer I spoke to thought that it is roots of the trees that is holding the wall up.

Its mustache month !

You see! Jack L was on
Such is life, the ebb and flow of people coming and going in Ireland.
So many Polish and Latvian have gone home.
Today I had an Italian guy going to UPS to send his luggage home. He is heading to Italy and then to Barcelona to do his PHD, I suppose I will all have to call him doctor the next time we meet.
I have become something different after driving a taxi, I greet and talk to people without any inhibition. The staff in Aldi and Lidl for example. When you learn something about a stranger sometimes it leads you to a new startling discovery.

In Aldi on 4 occasions now something strange has happened.
I would greet my usual girls and ask them how they were going on etc.
Then as I approach the checkout one of them might say, "go to checkout number 6"
She would then open the checkout, serve me and close it when I am finished.
They tell me that I am one of the few people who talk to them !
I ask you !
What have we become when we don't talk to checkout staff ?

I have spoken to the most spectacular people working at the most menial jobs.

These people are often really well educated intelligent people. Just because the are on a checkout doesn't make them a lesser person.
Anyhow 3 of my checkout girls are moving on. I appreciate that they came to me to say goodbye. Perhaps we will stumble across each other again in a far flung land.

I was saddened when one of my serving Lady's told me she was going home and wanted me to collect her and bring her to the airport.
It is fantastic that once again she will be back with her people, though perhaps I feel sometimes like I am loosing a friend and a missed opportunity to learn more about their country.

A pal of mine once put this perception of what you are in others eyes.
"Are you mad buying a taxi? People will now look at you when they hear what you do for a living like the way they look at a piece of dogs shit that is stuck on their shoe. " Some did, some of them were bankers, now they know how I felt.

I have just noticed that I am like a boat with a broken rudder, drifting here and there. A ship with no destination, no star to follow, no destination in my sights.

Now that in itself is not a really bad thing BUT I should put a plan in place for the future.
Set my sights and get a plan in place for my life.

Perhaps I need a life coach.

Marathon over

2011-11-01T16:54:00.000-07:00

A seasonal portrait at Nixons studio on Clontarf rd

A marathon runner looking dejected. Like a turkey looking for a warm oven

Halloween has come and gone, I am sorry but I can't stick a camera into peoples faces and take photographs. But some of the costumes were great.

The marathon on Monday kept things alive.
One comment from an English couple was that it was not well organised.
There was NO water at the 1/2 way stage and the wait to get their goody bags and clothes took forever. To cap it all they only had small size tee shirts.
The water thing is crucial and a very serious error.
I told them to fill a hot bath with Radox bath salts and get in together, it would do them good and they would enjoy it.
"Seems like a good plan"

A taxi driver frend put it well.
"They only look after the elite runners, but without the thousands who have paid €70 per head there would be no prize money at all for the big runners."

The Schools are on holiday and this morning I drove for more than 15 miles and got one fare of €7.50. It would be very tough if you had outstanding loans and kids to feed for sure.
I had to come home to meet a drain guy. A high pressure drain clearer on a truck.
With the covers lifted the jetting of high water pressure water began. A substance like oil came out at first then with the sheer pressure the liquid burst throught the concrete the surface.
"Broken pipe! Dig there, so there I will dig.
When I was hosing everything down I saw where an earlier attempt had been made to do repairs at that same spot.
If I was to get in a company to do what I will be doing tomorrow it would cost around €2,500. With the money I am making at present my Christmas money would be gone.
I guess most trades have gone underground at present, "Sorry I don't do receipts", or it will be 40% dearer if it goes through the books.

To be quite honest if I did all the work that needs doing around the house I would not drive the taxi until the new year, on the other hand I am by far the best and cheapest person to do this work.

There is a bit of scouring at the foundations of a railway bridge on the Dodder which is effecting the Dart service. But with the holidays it is making little difference for the taxi trade.

There is loads of things going on. Jack L was in concert. He has a powerful voice and a great drummer in his band. His drummer was in my car twice, the second time he remembered me, he tips well too.

Very few taxi drivers would agree with the sentiments expressed in that song.
Its great when someone new comes along and you find them before they become too famous, when tickets become expensive and hard to get.
Their act might become careless as well.

Just one other thing as Colombo might say.

Listen to the drumming on this song. Good ?

Web Forum

2011-10-27T16:17:00.000-07:00

I met them in Fairview, 3 girls from Mexico looking through the window of the bridal shop. One was trying to take a photograph of the other with the bridal dresses in the background. I know the girls who work inside and I knew that they would get a good reception. So I ushered them inside. It is wonderful to see those pretty exotic girls so happy with life !
They told me that I was such a kind man, sure why not? Its good to be nice.

Just a chance shot of a lady passing by with 2 little baby's in the trailer.

A big web forum is in the RDS this weekend, one of the guuests is the man who invented Skype1 He was on the radio talking about innovation.
He had failed with 2 business ventures and was reluctant to risk more money, but his wife helped him on. So he tried again.
Skype took off and he sold it for $3.5 Billion US
Then the buyer decided that it did not fit into its business plan and put it up for sale. So he bought it back again. 5 years later he sold it again to Microsoft for $8 billion. Not bad for a guy who failed twice.

But he said that failing is OK as long as you learn from your mistakes.

I saw my first Christmas shop window today.
Is this a record ?.

I had an enchanted day, one after the other they came to be driven. Coming home for dinner I was 4 hours late. Must not complain.

In my local supermarket I saw a lady that I thought I knew. I feel sure that I do know her but I can't place where or under what circumstances we met before. She is Hungarian and lived in this locality. Like me she felt she knew me but couldn't remember from where.
I must be getting old.
They say the memory is the second thing to go.
I'm damned if I can remember what the first thing was.

Today again the dart was stopped and I picked up a stunning German blond going to Google. Very healthy fit looking, wonderful blue eyes and quite clever as well.
She and her mother had gone into west Berlin when she was 6 years old. The reunification of Germany was a fantastic feat. They rebuilt the east, roads power lines,airports, even cities and telephone networks.
This was done while they exchanged eastern marks for western Duchmarks. In effect devaluing their currency by more than 50%
High taxes followed.
But they did it !
Now the Greeks and the Italians and the Irish are begging to have thoughts of debt forgiveness, all because co corrupt politicians and greedy bankers.

I would like to introduce to my friend Ted.com
He is a great source of education and fun

Brazil taxi

2011-10-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

If you click on the link for Brazil taxi you can read this story in it origonal form.
Until today I couldn't follow it until I found Google translate.

This story shows me how lucky I am, I hope you are lucky too.

Chronicle of an abandonment

It was past midnight, the taxi driver John Person down the avenue when he saw the couple making a sign on the sidewalk. The man was holding a guitar case, a woman, clinging to his arm, looked cold.

He was a musician, had left the bar he was playing in to solve a problem with the woman. He tried to convince her that she had done the right thing. He was married, she needed to understand. He promised he would get the money she needed. Had taken a loan. The proceeds would she buy a shack in the village. He also promised her a job in a firm friend. Everything would be fine.

She said nothing, she was drugged, doped. He tried in vain to dry up a runny nose that ran down his nose. Dry eyes. It was not cold, it was cold. She wept in silence.

The man spent the money for the race and asked the taxi driver take the woman home to Garden Village. Before landing, embraced her at length, asked her to take the medicine and slept as much as possible. He swore he loved her.

She was not home. He asked the taxi driver to take her to a brothel in the neighborhood Navigators. There, the girls already waiting at the door. When the woman told what she had done, the prostitutes are mad. Neither the left of the cab. Play all embarked and sent to Joao Pessoa Avenue, before it was too late.

The women all spoke the same time. They said he could not get any money, no job, he would disappear from her life. She could be a whore, junkie, not home, but had friends. They will find a way.

The woman was stunned. I did not know what was the exact container - the damn garbage containers were all the same. Fortunately the truck collection had not yet passed.

A taxi driver and four prostitutes in a desperate search for multiple containers, until they found the newborn child, abandoned, innocent, sleeping between the plastic bags as if nothing had happened.

Posted by Mauro Castro
Sunday, October 16, 2011

Broom Bridge Cabra

2011-10-26T15:11:00.001-07:00

Christmas is coming !
Aldi and Lidl have had Christmas cards, puddings and cakes on the shelves for the last 4 weeks.
My house is full of clutter and the long haul begins to tidy up for the big day!
Yes folks it all begins NOW.
One of the best tips you could ever get for this time of year is to empty your freezer and clean it out.
Why?
This time of the year you will have power cuts, as a result you may loose the contents.
Plus.
This the hot tip !
There will be bargains as Christmas approaches. Plus you will have room for your Goose.

What about this for a coincidence?
I picked up a lady in Stoneybatter with a load of shopping.
I had to say to her that I found her accent had me puzzled.
It was mostly Irish, but there was something in the mix, I had to ask.
I have lived here for 17 years, I am Swiss.
I came here to look after 3 children long ago.
Now I have 3 children of my own.
I brought her up to Cabra park and headed of to Cross Gunns Bridge where I clicked again. "Go back this way" she said. She gave me a destination which I did not recognise. So I pumped her for more information. Then it clicked! Broom bridge station.
She was trying to go to Manooth by train and the station in Drumcondra was closed. She wanted to get cash and when she went into a local shop I asked one of the local deadbeats where exactly the station was. They told me that the station was closed owing to flooding.
So when she came back I told her that we could go to Broombridge and it may be closed or, we could go to Ashtown station which was operating.
So we went to Ashtown.
She had an accent.
Where was she from?
Why do you ask ?
I am from Switzerland I have lived here for 22 years.
Now she too had an Irish accent except for the letter D, that was slightly different

I really love when you hear some slight inflection in an accent.
Then you find that the person has a past which took them from Peru to Scotland to an education in Oxford.
The result?
An accent rich in musical inflections.
One of the best I ever heard was a South African girl who had moved to Scotland when she was 16 or so.
What a beautiful accent, it was music to the ear.

Such is my life, like a bee sucking nectar from the different flowers which come my way. Without that I think I would give up.

Do you know the importance of Broom Bridge to the world?
Well, there was a famous scientist caller William Rowan Hamilton who was walking with his wife along the canal. He had been working on a formula and he had a Eureka moment!, but he had no paper to write down the formula.
So he scratched it on the side of the bridge before he forgot it.
The theory is very important to science.
Look here
So there you are.

WATER LEVEL FALLS

2011-10-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

If I ever have to live another day I would hope I would never have to live through that storm again. The scary part is that the flooding was caused by blocked drains !
At no point was the flooding caused by the sea jumping on to the road.
A Philippine nurse drowned in her apartment and a young Garda who was off duty died in the deluge as well.

God bless and RIP

When such a crisis occurs you get trapped with people for longer than you might expect, tensions are heightened and they tell you things that they would not tell their lovers !
Its true.
The lady in question was from South Africa she was 40 and now she was pregnant.
She told me of the time she was at university and "Fell" pregnant when she was only 20, I have a beautiful daughter at home.
I came to Ireland to work and one day I met a man. It was like a lightning strike for both of us. I have never thought that I would meet such a man in my life!
My partner and me decided that we would never have any children, but it wasn't just sex we fell in deeply love in a way that you would never dream could happen.
So we decided to have a baby and now thank God I am pregnant. I can deal with any problem, we are living in a dream.
We never have been so happy in our lives.
Now my life begins again, not that my past life was bad, no, but now things are so different now and I pray to God every day for blessing me.

So you enter an immigrant workers life for 1/2 hour and you see another side to your world.

You know people who come here with nothing willing to work,they appreciate the chance thay have, their grandchildren will be giving our grandchildren jobs.

On the other hand the ferries were busy and all the dart services and Luas were in chaos that all kinds of work came our way. I had a few early starts(5.30) and I had to go to bed in the middle of the day.

I DIDN'T TURN OFF MY ROOF LIGHT AND HAVE A FLAT BATTERY.

So at present I am in dry dock as I can't find my battery charger.

I picked up a lady on the coast road, we had met before several times.
As per usual she had to stop for cash on the way. Then into town.
I spoke about the lady and man who had been knocked down last week.

"I think you know my partner" she said
Then she went on to explain that he had been struck by a car while crossing the road.
Broken ribs, vertebrae, skull, leg etc..
He is in a full body cast in hospital.
I should have asked if she had a photo on her fone as I probably did know him.
Some people you meet week after week.
Then they go.

You never know where.

Sometimes you meet them in a bar somewhere and you both stop and think, then walk on.

So you see boys and girls.

Pay attention, if things are bad they might get worse

Then there is The TANGO

Rain Rain

2011-10-24T13:54:00.000-07:00

The presidential candidates arrive at Google HQ to have a debate !

This was the road home !

Hows about this for a traffic report !
Last Updated: 24/10/2011 21:22:59
Dublin Summary Report

* Expect heavy traffic around Dublin City and County due to the exceptional weather conditions. Do not make any unnecessary journeys. *TRAVEL* *LUAS* Luas Red line services are only running between Tallaght and Blackhorse. Luas Green Line services are only running between Brides Glen & Beechwood due to flooding on the lines. Dublin Bus are honouring tickets. * Drivers are being advised not to drive over the Luas tracks in Saggart. *IRISH RAIL* All Northern Commuter, Belfast Enterprise and Sligo and Maynooth Commuter services have been suspended due to flooding. All DART services have been suspended and will be for the rest of the evening due to flooding. * The M50 is closed northbound between J14 Leopardstown and J12 Firhouse due to heavy flooding. Also flooding southbound at J6 Blanchardstown. * Traffic is down to one lane on the M1 from the Airport to Balbriggan.

* The following roads are impassable or barely passable due to flooding: * Gardai advise that N81 is impassable between Citywest & Jobstown. * The Ballybough Rd is closed. * The Rock Rd is closed. * The Grand Canal Quay is closed. * The Dodder Rd is now closed. * Blake's Cross to Lusk Rd is now closed due to flooding. * N7 Naas Rd is down to one lane both ways between J3 Citywest & J4 Rathcoole. * Rathcoole & Saggart Villages are impassable. Robin Hood Rd & Nangor Rds are closed. * The Crumlin Rd is impassable between Dolphins Barn and Sundrive Rd jct. * Avoid Kilmainham completely. Conyngham Rd is impassable as is Old Kilmainham Rd. * Blackhorse Avenue is closed. * In the Crumlin area Bunting Rd is closed, as is Balph Rd East & Harty Ave. * Motorists trying to exit the N4/Lucan Rd for Ballyefermot should drive through Inchicore as the Ballyfermot Rd and the village itself are impassable. Cold Park & St. Laurences Rd are impassable.

* Impassable at the Cookstown Industrial Estate. * The Strawberry Beds in Lucan are impassable. * Parkgate St outbound is flooded before the Infirmary Rd jct. * Flooding on Seapoint Ave in Monkstown and also on the Rock Rd at Booterstown Ave. * Carysfort Ave in Blackrock is almost impassable. * The N11/Stillorgan Rd is flooded at Fosters Ave. Further out there's flooding at Cornelscourt. Flooding on Dodder Rd. * Reports of flooding on the Belgard Rd approaching Mayberry towards Clondalkin. *NORTHSIDE* * Flooding in the north and south bore of the Port Tunnel. The tunnel remain open, however. * James Larkin Rd inbound is closed to traffic due to flooding. * Flooding on the Howth Rd at the Clontarf Rd jct. * Avoid the Phoenix Park. The N3/Navan Rd is badly flooded at the Church.

* Flooding on the N1/Swords Rd outbound before Santry Ave. Severe flooding on Griffith Ave approaching the Ballymun Rd and the Collins Ave jct.

A very stormy night !

2011-10-23T04:07:00.000-07:00

The Sam Beckett bridge at night, not too bad a photo.(click on it to enlarge)

A Danish sail training ship

When you buy a bike you must buy a good lock or it might get stolen!
Everything was stolen but the frame .

And now an app for your fone to tell you how long the next bus will be.

Tonight we have gale force 9 on all coastal waters, sailings canceled, OH THE LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE !

Tears in Paris while there is dancing in the streets of Wellington New Zealand.

Such is the world of sport.

France 7 New Zealand 8 Rugby world cup comes to an end.

Did you ever see this clever advert for Toyota ?.

Last week there was a woman knocked down by a car.
This week a young guy ran straight into the path of a truck !

It must have been very bad because they closed the quays and brought the emergency services up against the flow of traffic.

I had come into the situation after dropping off a chef on Sycamore St. then I came out by Fitzpatrick's pub. My new passinger was very glad to see me.
"Quick down to the four courts,I might be late, there was a fucking eejit back there who ran head first into the path of a truck,he didn't even glance to where he was going. He bounced twice on the road he got such wallop,he won't be getting up again!"

Such a heartless reaction to a person probably being killed,a big contrast to last week.The lady that time was so upset by what she saw that she wanted to abandon her trip to England.

As Colombo might have said."Just one other thing"
The Jaguar E type is 50 years old this year, If you have ever seen the Jaguar XK it would remind you of it BUT IT WOULD BE A LOT BETTER THAN THE E TYPE
There is one featured Snday Toimes motoring section. There is often one parked in Sandymount Green. I spoke to the owner one day and he told me that I would be surprised at how little a second hand one would cost.
But with fuel the price it is a 4.2 litre engine would drink fuel and tax and insurance would be a nightmare. Lets leave it to the Clarkesons and the J Lenos of this world.
Still a nice car

Why Fly ?

2011-10-21T16:05:00.000-07:00

Well,
The other day my youngest son was to fly to London.

Everything arranged for weeks!

So there he is playing computer games and I ask. "Have you got your passport ready?"
Much later on I asked again.
His reply was "Dad you don't need a passport to go to London"
The problem is that with Ryanair you do !

PANIC set in !

The entire house was turned upside down.

NO PASSPORT !

So up to the Garda station, forms filled in, up to Tesco for photos and off to the passport office to be first in the line.

Now boys and girls of the passport office.

Put the hours of business on the website and cull the bullshit !

According to the guy on the door.(who spoke to us through a sheet of glass with his mike off and a television blareing on ous side of the screen SO WE COULDN'T HEAR)
The doors open at 9.30 and the staff don't see people before 10.00 Not much feckin use if you are trying to get to Gadaffis funeral on time !

Not nearly good enough.

So with my great knowledge of logistics I speeded to the ferry wher I put the lad to be sent by ship and train to London Victoria return for €85...Not bad.

I think he was only 3 hours longer arriving.

So let it be a lesson to you all.

Boy scouts motto.

BE PREPARED.

Why do I mention this ?

As I speak a Volcano is rumbling and it is about to ?????????????????

Taxi driver beats the tabloids ?

2011-10-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

A Dutch style house in Youghall

The Irish navy is in town.

A tight little alley

A modern build

Oktoberfest beer garten

There is defiantly a shift to winter today.
The fantastic blast of warm weather from last week is well gone.
I was up in Northern Ireland yesterday, we had planned to go to see the Giants Causeway, but we decided to wait for a time when the weather would be better.
Still,it is good to see the folks again.

On the driving front ?
The schools are long back and people are on the move in the mornings again.
Also the teachers who drive taxis in the summer are back teaching again.

Big news with regard to people renting taxis.
There is to be a big tightening up of that side of the industry.
At present one guy goes in to rent a taxi and 5 people drive it in relays, only one person is really insured. It is so dangerous and so SO wrong.
Still this industry is like living in a game of Chinese whispers, loads of rumors and nothing happens,but I do hope this aspect of taxi life is tightened up soon.

Johnny Walker is 76, still driving his taxi and refereeing foot ball matches.
I met his brother today, he told me that Johnny was in Spain for a birthday party, refereed 2 football matches at the weekend and flew to Sunderland today. He is still one of the main wheels which turn for the taxi drivers special day out for children.
Not bad at all for 76.

Up at the Westbury rank a taxi driver came around the corner and saw that there was no space to pull in, so as he drove around the small block he saw a space at Starbucks, but before he could pull in another car shot into the space. The taxi then noticed that there was now a space on the very end of the rank and drive into it. He shouted over to the guy who had darted into the space that he should be proud of his driving. The taxi driver locked his car and was heading off for tea when he was head butted so badly that he was knocked out. Thank God the other taxi drivers saw it all and caught the fucker before he made his escape.
The taxi driver as well as being concussed has a compound fracture of his thumb.
The assailant was of perhaps Moroccan origin. He has created a load of trouble for himself for sure.If he has no work permit his boss will suffer as well as the taxi drivers knew where he worked.

At the O2 on Saturday I picked up a girl going to the ferry, she was panting, though not out of breath. Then she told me of her plight.
She thought she could walk from Connelly station to the boat and set off along the quays.
As she passed by the Milano restaurant she heard a horrible scream and she turned in time to see a woman's body being flung into the air and it went right over a car and landed on the ground with an awful thud.
Whether the woman ran out from behind stopped traffic, or whether the car which struck her had broken the lights she could not say. She was in a bad state of shock.

Pedestrians walk blindly into traffic, cyclists go through red lights and accidents happen.

So lets take it easy.

Like the guy who jumped into the taxi at the Sunset House going to Vincents hospital. "Hurry hurry I am late"
I have a new policy on this, since the last time.
I told him that if he wanted to try another taxi he was welcome to leave with no charge, but that I was breaking no speed limits or red lights for him.
But we made it in good time in spite of him stopping me from making 2 good short cuts.
The cost was €11.90.
He hands me a €20 note and says "Just give me €10 back, because I am now late"
Well need I say my reply was mostly in a form of French which is the preserve of Algerian sailors. Then he headed off with a fist full of the smallest denomination coins that I could find in my coin holder.
I shouted after him that I would drive past him if I ever saw him again.
(Which none of us could ever afford to do)

Is this a first? Even before the tabloids?

A young couple were getting married and they had booked a castle for the event,
Then the hotel rings them up to say that another party wanted the castle for the same date.
Would they move to a different venue?
The other party would make it worth their while.
They said NO !
Then an offer of money came if they moved the event.

They still said NO ! The wedding was arranged and they would stick to their guns.

ONE LAST OFFER CAME.
How much is your house mortgage?

WE WILL PAY FOR YOUR HOUSE AND WE WILL PAY FOR THE RECEPTION IF YOU PUT IT TO ANOTHER DATE OR ANOTHER VENUE !

Now I can't say who it is, it's not a wedding it's a christening!
No he is not a film star, he's a footballer and he doesn't play for Manchester United any more.

Is that a first?

A wall to keep out the sea.

2011-10-13T15:51:00.000-07:00

People of Clontarf are up in arms about plans to build an 8 ft wall along the sea front from the Bull Wall to the Alfie Byrne Rd.

Also with this great plan is a proposal to raise the land bank by up to 5 meters.

This would block the view of the sea and create a corridor where joggers and walkers could not be seen from the road therefore making them liable to attack by mad southsiders !
Take a look for yourself here

But I do feel I know what this is really about.

The Clontarf people have been blocking the infill of 50 acres down at the port. The were foiled at every turn by the late Sean Dublin Bay Loftus, now we will be told that if the 50 acres were filled in the sea would be kept at bay and the defenses would be reduced.

"Wouldn't that be better boys and girls?"

All those lovely sun rises lost forever.

Luas kills man

2011-10-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

Look at this ! Barley for Guinness all the way from Poland.
How many days driving was that?

A nice bit of design ? Still you can't run down the stairs in the nip.

Tea break in Sandymount.

People are going for job interviews !
Great.
I had 3 this week.
I hope they did well.

The Dublin theatre festival is in full swing with all kinds of events taking place on the fringe.
I had 2 ladies heading off to give a workshop. One of the Ladys must have been "someone" as she was going to have an assistant assigned to her for the duration of her stay.
One thing I did overhear from them was that they do not give out free tickets to shows any more. When they did give out free seats people didn't come. So now they give reduced price seats.
If you give something for nothing it will not be appreciated, how very true.

People will walk out in front of cars and buses, earphones turned up to the max, moving in a world of their own tonight the Luas claimed its first life.
A man in his mid 30s.
It happened on Stephens Lane which runs up the hill to Jameses st from Heuston station.
It might be no harm for the police to pull up a few padestrians for Jay walking and walking out in front of traffic just to waken them to the dangers if nothing else.
I for one am sick of it,just walking out in front of traffic when you have a green light. Then if you stop you have to wait for the lights again.

You know we have to take life as it comes, there is no point in complaning about the weather, of how bad business is either.
Just try to change the things we can change and ignore the things we cannot change.

I met up with Seamus a retired taxi driver tonight. We spoke about taxi driving.

He told me about the worst drive of his life.
He was working for Near cabs and got a call to go to Navan.So Seamus picked up this lady in her mid 30s and she was saying that her husband was in hospital, he had had an accident on the way to work.
Earlier that day he had heard of an accident around Navan, later on he found that the driver was dead on arrival in Navan hospital.
In a few seconds Seamus had put 2 and 2 together. Turning off the radio and playing tapes all the way to Navan.
She was giving out yards that she was going to kill him when she got to the hospital.
She never liked him using the minor roads, but he was always late leaving and to avoid the traffic went the back roads.
He let her have her head and when she arrived at the hospital her husbands boss paid the taxi fare.

Seamus spoke about how their lives had changed since he left home that morning.
They had small children to be collected from school.

He sat in the car park and smoked 2 cigarettes before he went back to Dublin.
Perhaps we taxi drivers sometimes think to much.
Perhaps the others think too little.

There is an expression here. "He has a great face for radio"
Quite a great performance but very hard to watch

It should be stated here that the definition of a gentleman is someone who can play the accordion and doesn't.

Or that the definition of an optimist is a gentleman who plays the accordion and feels the need to buy a pager!

Nice though,

I am sure that I have bored you with the concept of the Sundance festival where writers , directors and actors get together and make something.
Here is one of the very best.
The actors, timing and music all perfect and a story line that unravels seamlessly.

Walking in Dublin

2011-10-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

Anyone for a walk !

Good is'nt it

Darker mornings.

2011-10-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

I went into the Oktoberfest tonight to have a look, loads of people, beer and sausages.
The recession must be over !

On the work side I picked up 2 guys from the Cork train this morning. They were tough as tough can be "Langers" is a word that came to my mind.
North circular rd. mister.
Its a long road, which end are you going to.
North circular Rd. mister said the other guy.
Where abouts on the North Circular Rd. are you going to? Its a long road.

Oh I see St. Patricks (juvenile detention center)
They had come to visit a pal who had been sent away.

On Friday I picked up an old regular customer, a Polish girl. She had changed her hair and I nearly didn't recognize her.
As she was getting out I said a very strange thing.
I wonder what kind of person I will pick up next?. To which she said. I hope it will be someone nice. Then I said, Perhaps it will be little red riding hood going to her grandmas house.
Down in Mount brown a girl with a red shawl over her head waved me down, she had red hair as well. I told her what I had said to my last passenger. I had better look closely at grandma when I get there so.
She was a financial controller for a large store.
The next guy was a financial adviser to a large telecommunications firm. He spoke about Nick Leeson the rogue trade who brought down Bearings bank.He knew him, he lives in Galway now, it is odd how he not only knew of him, but he had talked to him many times.
Trading floors are still policed in a very lax manner today. Look at the massive losses in UBS bank a few weeks ago. Even the smallest sweet shop in the land would have some way to prevent such a happening.
But little has changed as he said.
Today I picked up a lady on Whitworth Rd going to East Wall Rd. A couple of phone calls to arrange babysitters and she turned off the phone. Said she was sorry, but she had to get things fixed. She was off to her brother in laws funeral. 60 years old, dropped dead on Tuesday.He had had a heart attack earlier but continued to smoke and drink. Then he just keeled over dead. Me sister is in bits.
Still he had plenty of warnings to mend his ways.
Sad part is that all her kids have left the home, now she has an empty house, I can't get any of mine to move out. Now there's grandchildren as well.
Even 60 is not a bad age, there is nothing worse than burying a child.
Jesus you're right there my little girl was a week off her 8Th birthday when we buried her. She is at peace beside my mother in Glasneven. The only good thing about today is that I will spend some time at the grave.
Here we are now 8 euro. There's a 10 keep the change and God bless you.

There is a lot of humanity in decent working class Dublin women. Salt of the earth.

2 girls for Uruguay in the taxi tonight, not bad looking at all.
What do you know about Uruguay?
Well in Montavedo a young music student gave a transcript of a tune he had written to a local tango band. That song he then sold the copyright for the price of a packet of cigarettes.This tune is the most popular Tango tune in the world today.
Bravo ! You are a very wise taxi driver.
Here is a very good clip for you.

I bet you won't be able to guess what happens next !

So I went on youtube to see Dave Young ?

Yes he is there
The next time we meet he will be buying the tea, again.

Here's a piece I found about an English horse fair.

You see there are good Gypsies and the forth coming war on Chalk Farm will paint all Irish travellers as scum.

Steve Jobs RIP

2011-10-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

Dublin City falling down

Artistic bus

Adare Co.Limerick

Sad to hear that Steve Jobs founder and the brains behind Apple computers has passed over.
I still have one of his first computers in the garage, I bet it still works too.
The first computers with their green screen never crashed and there was no fans roaring away while you tried to work.
Microsoft stole the edge from him for a while, but it was with I pods and the new I fones that he bounced back, giving the kids Gigabytes of music.
Sorry but the older the fone the better for me. But I see my kids flicking through pages of information all thanks to Apple.

You must all know the story about how he started off building computers in the family garage. He had found out that some people did not want to build the computers themselves, so he went into production.
Now things were getting hectic in the garage so he rented a factory unit.
Then came the big day to move his boxes of tricks out. So he hired a driver and a van to give him a hand. He was strapped for cash and offered the driver a share in his new company, Apple.
The driver must tell the story over and over again !

HE HELD OUT TO BE PAID IN CASH !
THE SHARES WOULD BE WORTH MILLIONS TODAY.

So whether you are rich or poor spare a thought for all the people around who are fighting Cancer, a special prayer for you Nancy, I hope your results are good.

Your health is your wealth, and all the wealth cannot buy your health back again.

So what else is happened to me today !.
A lady coming from a personal trainer nearly dying !
She is getting married soon and went to get toned up.
"MY God he nearly killed me! I had no idea I was so unfit"

A retired teacher from Galway who taught a Polish girl for her Leaving Cert. She got an A in Irish, she had only done the subject for 2 years as well.
I went through my usual rant about how the migrants are the ones with ambition, they work at 2 or 3 jobs just to give their kids the chance they never had. Boston is a great city to see how many of them have propelled themselves to excellence in the Legal, Medical and Financial institutions.
Yes we know many have fallen by the wayside,that's life, many more have progressed though.
A Polish man drinking Red Bull wearing a suit. He was going for a job interview.
The Red Bull was causing him to stutter. I hope he got a bottle of water to drink before he met the panel.

Young electrician going to hospital for tests. Bemoaning the fact that in spite of paying taxes while he was working. He now finds himself in the position where he is out of work and he is entitled to no unemployment benefit.
Even though he has always paid taxes on his work.
Then to add insult to injury he sees refugees coming into Ireland and they get houses and every damn thing handed to them.
So Australia is calling him and when he gets the all clear he will be away.

Another young girl off to Frankfurt, her job were looking for people and she saw the chance to better herself. Lucky girl things are on the up and up.

Two really funny women off to Pearse St.
They were just after a really hot curry.
I just had to say "If you think it was hot going in wait until it comes out and burns your arse!" This lifted the mood no end.
They were in tears getting out with the laughing, €4 tip for the good of it all.

This lifted my mood as well and I can reveal that more business came my way as a result.

On the news,
A woman who refused to allow the electricity company on her land was released from jail today, she had spent 22 days locked up because she refused to allow the ESB on to her land to cut down her trees. The court ordered her to let them on the land, she refused and had to go to jail. The neighbors and other protesters occupied the land and prevented the work from going on. So in the end they let her out.

Compare this with the Billions which have gone missing from the banks. 2 years later not one person has gone to jail. Many have retired with multi million pensions golden handshakes and gold wrist watches to boot,all because of greedy bankers, corrupt politicians, incompetent and corrupt civil servants.

Did you see that 5 people had been sacked from the income tax office? They had been lowering the tax rates for family and friends.
One woman crippled her ex husband for tax.
In their defense they said that everyone above them was doing it.

Not a great defense in a sacking situation.

I had a great evening with my Chinese friends and their 6 month old baby girl.
Really wonderful people. My wife is learning Cantonese from Judy, just for fun.

"I went into a restaurant and ordered the entire meal in fluent Chinese.
All my friends were impressed, except for the waiter.

It was a French restaurant"

Tommy Cooper

Stolen property

2011-10-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

There was a big discussion in the Magic club last month about some magicians "stealing" others tricks.
I once saw a guy do another persons complete act, he did it very well but he is nowhere to be seen now and the original guy is still going strong.

I knew another person whose sister used to manage 4 comedians and there was war all the time when one stole anothers gag.
But it is difficult to say who owns what to a point.

o!

In the movie funnybones the main characters father comes on stage on his sons opening night in Las Vegas and tells all the sons jokes. The son then comes on to the stage and dies on the spot when his gags are met by silence.

On the other hand in Greece you can buy a pair of Chanel sun glasses for €5 or a Rolex watch for €10
If this continues there will be no point in putting adverts in the magazines to sell top of the range products.
China will copy, there Copywrite means" Make no mistakes copy it right"

If you can't do things well.

The least enjoy doing things badly.

OK everyone sing along !

Oktoberfest

2011-09-30T04:16:00.000-07:00

One thing ends and another begins.
The guy on the island is gone and the Oktoberfest begins.

The local scrap yard guy has a Porsche!

This is the view from the lake view hotel..Not bad?

Back in the "Big Smoke" again.

While I was on my travels in the rain and mist,Dublin was bathed in glorious sunshine.
We spent 2 nights in Youghal and a day in Killarney before coming home.
We found out that a friend who lives there had turned 60, so we went to him to wish him well.
Youghall is doing very badly at present. Lots of shops closed up and a feeling of despair all around.
There is only one hotel in that town the Imperial hotel, so we went there for a meal.
My wife has a few limitations with regard to diet, nothing too difficult though.
Boiled or roast chicken with boiled vegetables and boiled spuds. Nothing added.
No, there was no boiled potatoes, chips or mashed or wedges and that's it.
No, they couldn't chop up a spud and cook it.
Rice? No we can't do that.
Cous Cous? I see it comes with herbs and lime juice, could you cook some and serve it plain? No!

We did manage to arrive at some kind of compromise in the end but I can tell you we will never set foot in there again.
I had a guy in the taxi who knew his way around a kitchen and he told me that this place might have a cook who comes in once or twice a week. The food is then cooled down and put into the fridge. Then microwaved as needed.
That makes sense, but not great food.
In Killarney we went to the lake hotel a 4 star hotel. The view of the lake and the service was better than you could get at home.
The server came back 4 time during the meal to see if all was well.
In Youghall the server was sitting in the bar talking to the customers while we ate,she only came back when we were finished.
To cap it all the 4* hotel was cheaper.

So do you want to make money ?
Open a really good restaurant in Youghall---There are plenty of empty places to set up in.

Going back a few years ago a man walked into a small hotel and asked for dinner.

"Sorry sir we are finished serving"
Then the customer said.
"Could we have a sandwich please?"

"Sure I can organise that for you, Tommy! Stop scratching your arse over there and get up and make these people a few sandwich's"

Things have moved on a good bit from then and got much better. But things will slip back fast enough if managers don't keep an eye on the staff at all times.

Man on an Island

2011-09-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

Theres a man who is a castaway in the middle of the Liffey.

Every taxi driver in Dublin will remember the moment when he saw this house.
Tucked away in a suburban housing estate with its dragon gates.
Well as you see it is for sale, 8 bedrooms and all that.
Other properties for sale can be seen here. One of note sold in 2005 for more than €58 million in its day is going now for €15 mil. But if you had a good bit of cash you would get it for 7.
The ones I feel sorry for are the young people who bought for say €700,000 and now they have a house worth €450,000. They cannot sell the house and they cannot buy it either.

There are auctions taking place of "Distressed" properties. They sell your house for any price they can and you are turfed out. Then they present you with a bill for the amount owing to the bank.
The big developers on the other hand have had their assets taken into care by the state to protect the banks.
While all this was going on the bankers were paying themselves huge salaries and bonuses, yet they get off Scott free.

The only reason that stiff prison terms were not handed down is that the gouvernment ministers were getting big backhanders (Brown envelopes) from the developers.
Its enough to make you spit !

In America they are going through this as well. A friend told me that the system they used to determine if someone was fit to get a loan was. "Can they fog a mirror?" ie if they are alive they get the loan. Though in the USA you can give the keys back and owe nothing. People were doing that, then when the bank sold the property they bought it back themselves.
Nice one !

Do you notice a lot more road rage going on?
A guy on a bicycle outside the Kevin St.Garda station. Punching the car and calling the lady driver a stupid and dangerous. He could find himself in big trouble some day. She may not have a gun, but plenty of ladys carry Mace. Some other driver might have decided to come to her rescue. But it was all over in less than a minute.
People who behave like that cause great harm to come their way.
Did you ever herof the law of attraction? Or "The secret?"
By thinking peacful posative thoughts and being in a positive mood will attract positive things to you.By raging and causing distress to others you attract bad things to yourself.
I don't know if it works but there are plenty of people on the net selling courses.

There is a big grain of truth in it all, but the snake oil sales men push this one too far for me.

On a different subject. What would you do if you found out you were going to die?
At the Tango Fiesta last weekend they paid tribute to one of their pupils.
She took tango lessons all through her illness, she never complained then at 29 she died.
Julian and Kristina danced at her funeral as a tribute to her bravery.
Here they are. Good ?

Here is a clip from an eirlier Fiesta. Geraldene would be one of the very best tango dancers in the world. I didn't know it was on youtube..

Mental health.

2011-09-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

There was a tough decision to be made this week.
None of my business you might say but I felt that a moments intervention might avert a disaster.

There are a lot of mentally ill people going around this city. In Fairview there is a large mental hospital which provides day care and full residential care.
They are often seen by their minders being taken for walks around Fairview park.
Many are happy and docile others can be way out of control.

So I come back to my dilemma.
A girl who lives not far from my house suffers from schizophrenia, she is on the higher scale in severity of her illness.
Well I saw her throwing up on the grass on Sunday morning as I went for the paper.
I thought straight away "morning sickness".
What should I do?

I mulled it around for a few days and then I saw her father pulling in at the house, so I stopped and went over. The way I put it to him was that she might be vomiting up her medication and just to keep an eye on her.
He thanked me for my observation and said that they would keep an eve on her for a few days.
The poor man then gave me a brief synopsis on what it is like living with her.
It is a very difficult situation all round, she is not attending a day care center and her life is not structured in any way, so she is decking by the year.

She is really good looking and the thoughts of some scumbag taking advantage of her mental state to have sex with her really upsets me. You have to take into account that she cannot make a rational decision for herself.

Getting back to the state of mental health.
I know someone who is suffering from severe paranoia, she has cameras and alarms all over the house. "No they have come in and they have taken away my papers, everything has been moved around. No they have a way of interfering with the CCTV footage" So it goes on for the past number of years.
A doctor cannot sign anyone into a mental hospital against their wishes. So she is going nowhere and will not admit that there is any problem.
The result of all this will be that she will either have a complete breakdown or she will die by her own hand, she lives alone.
One thing about this lady is that she was a wonderful painter, her paintings would sell for good money. She can't paint now at all.

On the other hand a woman was found stabbed to death in the midlands a few days ago. It turns out that her mentally ill son had knifed her to death. He had been refusing to take his medication.

It all makes me thankful for the little bit of sanity that I hold on to and the ability to laugh off the troubles of the world.

Another good idea is to listen to Lyric FM during the morning and Ray Darcy on today FM.
That RTE with all their doom and gloom just causes anger and stress.

Here is a good website to find help. http://www.mentalhealthireland.ie/finding-support

I just thought I would share this with you in the hope that you might be a bit kinder to your fellow man.

Happy birthday Arthur.

2011-09-21T04:26:00.000-07:00

What a weekend for the Dublin people that was.

They beat Kerry in the all Ireland and suddenly the sun is shining and our mood has lifted.
So its Dublin for "Sam" and Kerry for the holidays.

Now tomorrow the patron saint of porter Arthur Guinness is having his birthday party and there are many events planned. Remember I picked up Bryn Ferry off on his way to the Hop store last year?. I wonder what is planned for tomorrow? Look here

So there you are everything is booked up.
Perhaps if we help carry in the amps for the gig and then say we are with the band we might get in.
When you live in a city you don't seem to tap into what is going on around you but thanks to Google and the Internet you can find out everything.

Business is up a bit and though there are more people around it is totally down to luck, sometimes you are lucky.

So we had my son and his girlfriend over from London, a week goes very quickly and they are gone again..I was having computer problems but as it is there was no time for him to fix it, so no photos until next week.

While they were here they showed me this video.
The guy wears a bat suit and has to fly through a gap in the mountain.

Now get ready for a big Adrenalin rush.
He is wearing a winged suit with no margin for error.

Irish Sport GAA

2011-09-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

The GAA stands for the Gaelic Athletic Association.

It was invented to stop Irish people playing English games like Cricket or Soccer.
They would ban you from playing GAA sports if you played soccar as well.
But its not so very strict now.
Hurling after ice hockey and shooting is the fastest sport around.
I Had an Italian man in the taxi once who had been to a hurling match, he was almost passing out with excitement.
Click here for a taste of GAA

Today Dublin will meet Kerry in the all Ireland football final.

This year has been a fantastic year for Dublin, for myself. Lets hope for victory.

Good luck to you all, we need something like this to take our minds off the news of the day which is all doom and gloom at present.

Tango de la luna

2011-09-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend onSaturday the tango festival de la luna is taking place in the pillar room of the Rouunda.
Among the stars taking part will be the following.

You will have to go here to book and places are limited

Tango De La Luna

The Tango Festival Ball is a huge celebration of the Tango Legend , our wonderful teacher the late ,

Esther Pugliese.
The Tango Festival Ball
The Pillar Room,
Parnell Square
8.30pm -late
Only €25

The evening will a spectacular display of Music and Dance performances

2 10 minute Tango Shows from

The Amazing
Miriam Larici
and
Leonardo Barrionuevo

check out the rave reviews that they received from Negracha Tango, London

Negracha Tango London posted in London Tango.
Sleeping off last night's lovely Milonga....
Negracha Tango London 11:15am Sep 10
Sleeping off last night's lovely Milonga. Miriam and Leonardo were absolutely incredible and El Farabute played beautifully. Looking forward to next Friday's milonga!

Musical Performances from
Argentinian Cultural Ambassador
Sebastian Pecznik

And Sensational Gypsy Musicians
Oleg Ponomorev
and
Drazen Derek,

Plus

Our Surprise Musical Guest Star,

We will also have the fantasic Argentian Cafe

Cafe Bondiola,

who will be serving authentic Argentian cuisine and wine.

All Proceed from the entire Festival go to
Mingo Pugliese to help him deal with the huge costs of bringing Esther back to Argentina.

The workshops are almost full,
(very very limited availability:)
We have people booking from
Greece, Uk, The US , South Africa
and all over the globe.
So there will be a fantastic international atmosphere at the event.

We are looking forward to seeing you all again,
Thank You All For Your Support,Happy Dancing,
Lots of Love,

Kristina and Julian
www.tangofiestadublin.ie

Celebrate your freedom

2011-09-12T03:29:00.000-07:00

Albania(Click on the blue) has problems too.

Have a look at the stop the. traffic links and the anti prostitution sites which I supported for many years on the side of the blog

Polish 'slaves' found at UK camp

Police in Bedfordshire, central England, are questioning five people after a raid on an Irish 'gypsy' camp revealed some two dozen 'slave labourers', three of whom appear to be Poles.

Two hundred officers were involved in yesterday's raid, which took place at a long-established travellers' camp in the town of Leighton Buzzard.

Police have revealed that at least one of the captives had been held for fifteen years, while others had arrived only weeks ago.

The prisoners were found to be living in appalling conditions, with some living in horse-boxes and dog kennels, others in old sheds.

It is understood that captives were lured with the promise of paid work and board. Invariably, the victims were picked up at soup kitchens, benefit offices and hostels for the homeless.

Of the 24 captives, three are said to to be Poles, two are Romanians, a further two are Russians, while the rest are British nationals.

The liberated workers were taken straight to a medical centre for examination.

"The men we found at the site were in a poor state of physical health and the conditions they were living in were shockingly filthy and cramped,” said Detective Chief Superintendent Sean O' Neil, in an interview with the BBC.

"They're recruited and told if you come here we'll pay you £80 a day, we'll look after you give you board and lodgings,” he said.

"But when they get here, their hair is cut off them, they're kept in in some cases [in] horseboxes, dog kennels and old caravans, made to work for no money, given very, very small amounts of food.”

Police have admitted that 28 people have made accusations against the travellers since 2008, and questions are already being asked why action was not taken quicker on the matter.

The Police knew this was going on since 2008 !

For myself any time I suspected anything was going on I came up against a brick wall of bureaucracy, I hope things are changing.

Johnny Walker invites you

2011-09-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

Johnny Walker invites you to the big day out for the Dublin taxi drivers and our special needs kids.

So on Tuesday be with us to bring 1400 special kids from their 43 venues for that big day out.

Phone Neil 086 1581111
Or Glen 087 1213344

Don't leave any kids behind this year. OK !

9/11/ 2001

2011-09-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

Today we remember 9/11 2001.
Ten years on.

Thousands of innocent people killed and maimed for eternity.

It was strange then to understand this utter madness of the event, even now I struggle to comprehend what madness will turn what must have once been rational people at one time into such mass hateful cold blooded killers.
What those actions could achieve in this world or the next by doing such vengeful act defies any logic. Blowing up a missile base or attacking an army would be more logical.
But killing unarmed innocent civilians is horrific in the highest degree.

To all the bereaved I offer my condolences, to the people still hurting I hope that time will has allowed you to see the period before 9/11 as a happy treasured moment, and that every day the healing process works to give you peace.

God bless you all and may your many Gods walk with you always.

575 jobs gone.

2011-09-08T15:21:00.000-07:00

A bathroom showroom in Davies. Made me feel so much in the halpney place

Up the Dubs Forever !

A tennant moved out and the corperation did not secure the house. So it was vandalised.

Leaving Dublin Port.

James Connelly, Labor leader who fought and died for Irish freedom.

Landsdowne Hotel !

Well I think I will have to buy the smallest violin for that person who commented last week.
"I have no sympathy for taxi drivers".
Well the old brigade are mostly retired and are sitting in their villas in Spain and Thailand. The guys and the girls who took their redundancy and bought new cars and taxi plates are the ones in trouble today.
The system was wrong that they didn't increase the numbers by degrees, not open the floodgates and we finish up with a situation where Dublin has more taxis than New York, a city with a population of more than 19.5 million people.
You would have to understand that what we are saying is that the business is not being policed.
Think of this the next time you get into a taxi and the driver has not got one clue where he is going.
Then he tells you he has only been in Ireland 2 weeks!
Thank your lucky stars that you don't crash because you might find you have an uninsured driver at the wheel.
There are a few stories going around about drivers doing a runner after an accident.
Not much good for the victims that.
Think of anyone getting into a taxi with a driver whose past has never been checked out. When I first started driving it took 6 months for my past to be checked out and I had lived in Ireland and England up to that point, only then could I apply to sit the test and I was asked to produce my P45 to show I had no other job.

Though perhaps things are starting to change.
My local community garda told me she confiscated 2 taxis a few weeks ago. They had a road block and a back up one to stop the ones who turned around before reaching the checkpoint.

ON THE OTHER HAND.
575 people lost their jobs in "Talk Talk" down in Waterford, without any notice the carpet was pulled from under them. The reason is simple they can get people in the Philippians to work for €80 a day less !
Oh yes and it is great to get cheap clothes when you have child workers working for €3 a day.
Here is another example of how to get it cheap.

Everywhere the Yellow Pack worker is here to stay.
Wages and standards are falling fast.

Politicians do nothing apart from doing what they do best, draw big fat salaries and build massive expense bills and we the biggest mugs of all elect them time after time.

Sept 7th

2011-09-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

I approached a guy on Grafton St. the other day, he is one of the most famous people who frequents the street, providing a distraction for for the passer by.
I asked him how things were going for him and he opened up like a burst dam.
His partner had left him after 15 years and 2 kids and she was now using the children as pawns in the bitter seperation /divorce battle.
You know Love is such a strong force that when it turns bad it becomes the most devious and vicous thing.
Each person knows the others strengths and weaknesses and both sides go for the jugular.
This is not a gentle parting of the ways.
I listned and bought him coffee, what can you do?
I suppos in a few weeks it might be better but for now it is really bad.
"I lined up the tablets 26 should do the trick," Then the phone rang
It is really that bad for him and I am sure if his partner stood back she would not want him dead either.

I know I work so hard and am at home so seldom that my own wife would divorce me if she could remember what I looked like.
Taking that point a bit further I worked with a Dan O'Connell years ago, he used to work every moment he could. One night he went home late when everyone was in bed and the dog bit him on the leg !
You couldn't put it in a comedy script !

I am not fuly back at the taxi yet, but I am surviving, but some are not.

I got a text today to urge all taxi drivers

Sept 7th is world suicide day.

All taxi drivers are asked to assemble at the garden of remembrance at 12 noon.
Then we will drive to the dept. of transport to hand in letters.

It is so sad that so many taxi drivers are so desperate to have their voices herd that they have taken their own lives, this is no solution at all.
What have we become of us all that we elect people to represent us whose only purpose is to gouge out massive pay cheques for themselves and never give a thought to why they were elected for in the first instance?.

Lads don't even consider killing yourselves.
Think of your great kids and how they will miss you.
Give yourself a good kick on the arse and work it out.
It can be done.
Start with MABS.
God bless you all.

Do you know who is the Patron saint of Taxi drivers?

I Know, do you?

Third level coming back

2011-09-01T15:09:00.001-07:00

Did you ever see the likes of this ?

Well we had the annual Liffey swim at the weekend and the GAA Hurling final.
On this Thursday the racing on the strand at Julianstown takes place.
Here is your racing card,I wish you good luck.
The summer school teacher taxi driver are going back, and business starts to lift.

Today we drove up to Northern Ireland to visit my son near Lough Neigh. The roads are great now, journey times are more than halved what they were 20 years ago.

The border posts and army checkpoints are gone as well. A lot of good things have happened since the bad old days of the hunger strikes and the H blocks.
30 years ago 1981 !
I hope and pray that we never decend into that time of terror again.

Taxi times seem to be improving a bit.
The dawning of a very violent chapter is about to unfold in England when something like 800 Irish travellers are about to be evicted from an "illegal" settlement.
People are travelling from all over Europe (not to support the travelers) for a big fight.
There is a lot of unease in society and something like a mass eviction draws the ringleadrs of the ultra left into play like a big magnet.
They say that they are ready with bulldozers to flatten the place. But many travellers have guns as well as bulldozers. There is tough as they come and tougher than anything.

As they say watch this space.

Just a small taxi story before I let you go.
The first taxi on the rank says to the second guy. "I have a job coming out in 15 minutes, I only need a short job if one comes out. OK?"
The reason for this is that if a short job comes out he will pass it back to car 2.
So as luck would have it the first customer comes out going to the airport.
The driver asked the passinger if he had booked the taxi?
"Why no" came the reply.
"Thats grand so get into my taxi he has made a booking"
No matter how much huffing and puffing the first car driver made it was useless,
he had shot himself in the foot. As they say.

A day out

2011-08-31T13:23:00.000-07:00

Today I took out my oldest friend Mabel (now over 101 1/2 years old)to the butterfly farm which is down by the K club at Straffin.
We got a great welcome from Iris and spent a good hour looking at butterflies.
I was telling Mabel how we brought our boys here when they were very small and Iris's son took out spiders from their cages and Geckos and the snakes as well.
I bet that was one of the best days of their lives.
This is the last day for them as it closes for the winter.
We will come back when it opens up again next year please God.

Thank my sweet God.

2011-08-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

My life wil return to normal next week. DV
I can't tell you what was happening but it all worked out in the end.
All I can say for sure is it is a complete wonder to me that there are not a lot more headcases wandering the streets of Dublin, after what I encountered.

Think about this "Instant penis enlarger on ebay €50. The bastards sent me a magnafying glass."
Your joke for today.

Look I will be back soon.
But if you realy want to hear somehing really great about taxis?. Click on "Save the yellow cabs" Its on the right hand side of this blog. Yes moron you wil need sound to hear it.

Street art ?

2011-08-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

Well it used to be something to be frowned on, now graffiti is art.

It is strange the more you look for work the harder it is to find. Then you decide to head for home and you see the hands rising in the air.
Happy days.
I got 2 runs to the airport and Swords while I was just heading home.

One of the guys had a story for me about a small builder in Galway who was working on a job for a Garda, building a small extension.
Well just as he finished work he went to the pub for a pint and as he drove back to his home he was stopped by the said Garda who breathalysed him, and he failed the breath test.
The Garda it is alleged, looked at him straight in the eye and said.
"This is very serious, you are well over the legal limit.
But you have a large bill for me. So if you forget about your bill I will forget that you were ever breathalysed"
The builder was never paid.

If it was me I would hope I would be brave enough to present my bill a week later with my mobile phone turned on to record any conversation that might take place.

Some of the things that go on when corruption gets a foothold would baffle the best of minds.
Garda planting drugs and guns to get a conviction.
In Ardee they allowed drug dealing to go on provided the main gangster gave them the details of small time dealers. They had to be getting a good backhander too.
Beating up drunks who are after all just helpless idiots.
It makes you wonder where we are all heading to.

When a bad apple was caught they sent them to Donegal, then the bad apples got together to produce a mad cocktail of crime and deceit.

for more
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/836411m-in-payouts-for-55-victims-of-donegal-garda-corruption-1456282.html

Would you like to do Magic?

2011-08-24T15:14:00.000-07:00

look at this!
It is like a magic convention, brought to you in your own home.

But if you really want to do do sometinig magical next month why not join up with me for the special childrens outing.

You will not believe that you could bring such joy to the faces of children who have to fight for every moment of happyness.

So will you be on the rank or at the party on the 13 th Sept.?

Another week away from the wheel

2011-08-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

Well I got my first flat wheel since I bought my present car.
Now I am expecting a spate of flat wheels, at least 3 more until it all settles down again.
I don't know how it happens, but life goes like that.
You can go for years without a single speeding ticket then get 2 on the same day.

As they say some days you are the pidgeon.
Other times you are the statue !

You can't get near the train stations or the taxi ranks,the hangover from Heuston is chronic.

This is a video made a while ago showing the tailback at Heuston station on a Sunday night.
Note the gaps where drivers have not moved up. It is very hard for all concerned.
By the way 70% of the cars are well off the rank, I.E. there is only rank space for 30% of the taxis shown in the clip.
Look at the taxi that is in front of me as we pass the taxi rank. He is stopping just in front of the queue of taxis to steal a fare !
It is really really bad.

How do you know when there is a taxi driver on the plane?
The whineing noise goes right on into the terminal building.

Anyhow I have been painting windows cllings walls and skirting boards, not to mention doors.
When you start a project it sometimes develops a life of its own.
Thank God this job is now drawing to a close.

I am really lucky that this job intercepted me. People outside the taxi trade would not really appreciate how bad things have become for us just now.

I keep looking around for the next big thing, will someone tell me when it arrives?

Night courses are starting soon and it will be web design for me.

Either that or I will be joining the "Chippendales"

I missed a run to Dundalk the other day. The guy in front of me did it for €80. I would not undercut his price. Though the passinger asked me if I would do it for less.
You have to have some kind of standards in this life.

Strange thing happening around our house, my wife and son have picked up a really bad cough like whooping cough, it goes on and on. The Sea lions from the Zoo keep coming to the house as they think there is a female in heat, they think that the cough is a mating call.
The taxi fare back to the Zoo is €8.60 + 4 mackerel

I got it myself then and spent 2 days in bed over the weekend, but I am better now.

Computer problems prevent me from bringing you some photos.
But my biggest son will be coming soon from London and then perhaps he will put the drivers back into the big computer that he took out of it last year.

Gosh! this morning I picked up a young nurse in Clontarf going to Phibsboro, she was a really interesting person to talk to and I felt that there was something special about her.
Let me explain,
A few months ago I head deaf girl who overslept her alarm clock !
As she was deaf we had a great laugh when I told her that she had the best excuse in the world for being late. She may have been deaf but she lives her own life to the full.
Beth Ann Collins is totally blind and yet she produces the radio programme on RTE called audioscope.
She is also a very bright person to talk to with intrests in many subjects.

The Scotish precussionest Evelyn Glenny lives her life to the full in spite of being totally deaf.
She feels the vibrations through her body.
Good eh ?

People like this are an insperation to us all.

Now about my girl ! It turns out that she has slight cerebral palsy which effects her right side. Yet she is a fully qualified nurse.
This is great, a nurse who is helping you who has overcome a slight handicap herself.
Now the patient can empathise with their healer.

Good luck to you girl,

And the autumn leaves were turning to the coulour of her hair.

2011-08-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

Slovakia shop on Capel St

Everyone is cashing in as the GAA finals draw near.

There is a definite change coming in nature. The trees really are starting to turn, there was no Summer again this year. Though the farmers in Ireland are laughing, bumper harvests and prices are high. On the horn of Africa 12 million starve, while we in the civalised world worry about the balance of payments.

As I pass through this life driving a taxi I have a wonderful opportunity to observe the human condition. From cradle to grave and loads of times in between I observe and make no comment.
As I pass a building or a junction I recall a journey taken long ago.

When I pass the taxi regulators office I think of the Greek girl who was going for a job interview. She got into the taxi on Parnell St.,so I had to go around Parnell Sq she was going to the Conrad Hilton for a job interview, a truck decided to turn as we came up to the taxi regulators office and this Greek volcano let fly.
"Good God I will be late"
"Why did you come this way you MORON ?"
"Look at the cost on the meter as well?"
"If this was in Greece it would be less than half of that"

So she had pressed on a few sore spots there, "Will you be getting Greek or Irish wages in your new job?" I asked."Irish" she said of course.
"Then let me tell you that you will pay every penny that is on that meter, If you don't I will bring a Garda into the hotel to have you taken out for underpayment to me, further to that, if I had a job interview I wouldn't be getting into a taxi on the other side of the city 20 minutes before I was due in the Conrad hotel."

"What is the job anyway" She said "Event planner"

I had to say to her that she couldn't plan a piss up in a brewery.

Some people never tip.

There is a guy 4 doors up from me. He was the biggest event planner in the country, he is not very busy at the moment as I write today.

On the Joe Duffy show(Thurs) a few taxi drivers had their say.
They spoke about how bad things are, but no one is listening.
But just let me say there is no living to be made in driving a taxi in Dublin!
How could there be, a city of 2 million with more taxis than New York ?
Illegal taxi drivers (by that I mean drivers with forged papers)have become a large section of the taxi community. If one ot these drivers has a crash then they run away leaving the injured parties to sort out their problems.
The other day in the Evening Herald there was advertisements for 22 taxis or taxi plates to rent!
Who will be driving these cars ?
The Garda have been hard on the drivers who are legal, you get tickets for overhanging a rank at Heuston station for example, yet there was, up until now very little attention being paid to cars who drove away or turned around until now to avoid the checkpoint.
My local community Garda told me she had seized 2 cars the other night. These cars had avoided the checkpoint, she was the back up.

So perhaps like the seasons there is a change in attitude,I hope so.

I try to find other projects which I can incorporate into my life. This year I hope to go back to finish a course in web design. I started one before and the "Teacher" spent the class talking to a French girl who worked for Google. While our work for4 the night was on a web page that was displayed on the screen.
Now we have "Flash" and "Dream weaver" to add to the wonderful box of tricks that is web design.
The main problem at that time was that my Mother was dying and so I missed a few sessions.

Now that I am a bit older and a lot more assertive I will give it another bash.

One guy who was really high up in IT told me that things are moving so fast in that business that everything he knows today will be different in 3 years. Now this guy was going to his private jet! So I reckon he knew a thing or two, a really nice person to talk to as well. Some people think that the CEO of a huge corporation will be very hard to talk to. I spoke to some of them, the best ones are approachable and friendly. They really need to know what is going on like the rest of us.The CEO of Cisco Systems rang my oldest son to find out how the course he had just completed had helped him, or if it could be improved in any way?.

Warren Buffet starts at the bottom, talks to the cleaners, the lift operators, the supervisors etc. When he meets the directors he knows whats what about the company.

A girl told me that a company from Icenland had come over to buy another company she had worked for. They asked all kinds of questions and were snowed under by forecasts and projections.
It turned out that they spoke to the taxi drivers while they went from venue to venue.The information they were given was 100% accurate in every respect, they didn't buy her company in the end.
I guess they didn't see that their own economy would collapse in the near future.

A "bum"on the street

2011-08-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

Street art.

A memorial to someone who died on the street.

On Baggott St. to a nameless homeless man who died there.

This is the guy I found, with hundreds of people passing him by.

So here we are Summer is nearly over and some schools go back on Monday.
The moon is big and bright and for those closer to nature Harvest thanksgiving has arrived.

I had brought an Irish girl out to Swords to start a 13 hour shift as a social worker, we discussed the case of my alcoholic homeless social worker from last week.
It is tragic how the turns that life might brings might lead a very differentr destiny that you might have expected to have, it might even be a tragic ending.
But it happens to the best.
The ex archbishop of Canterburys grandson died from a drugs overdose, I read in the paper last week. You would think that everyone involved would have had the very best advice available, but the kid was dead for a few days before his body was found, sad and tragic for alll involved.
So it was with this thought on my mind when I saw the person above lying on the footpath outside St.Patricks Cathedral. I said to my passinger from Venezuela that Ireland was not always like this. People used to help the fallen ones who were on the ground, we used to help old ladies up from the ground and help bring blind people across the street.
So when I dropped her off at Blooms hotel I went back, he was still there.

So I dialled 112 and the operator was a bit of a fucker to say the least.
She seemed to imply that I should not be bothering the ambulance service unless I knew the precise depth of the patients condition!
The ambulance service were a bit better.
Has he a pulse?
Is he breathing?
Well if he was't breathing he wouldn't have a pulse, would he?
But he was warm to the touch.

The best place to take a pulse is on the neck at the side of the windpipe.

Now a girl from America who was passing spoke to me.
"I thought he would attack you when you touched him"
I told her he was too far gone for that, but that help was on the way.

The next couple were Swiss, you know even is Switzerland we have big problems with drugs.
Yes I said "NEEDLE PARK"Indeed she said and walked off.
I really don't know what the awnser is. look here.

A few years ago I had a guy in the taxi who worked in Minsk which is in the old USSR. In the winter if you fell down you are dead in 1/2 an hour. So if you were found in a state of collapse you are brought in and in the morning you are hosed down with freezing water.
Then you must pay a fine and attend a treatment canter.

So today I stood up to the mark and did the right thing.

Greek Contagion

2011-08-13T01:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a very well written article about the Greek debt chrisis from the Epoch Times, which I thought you would enjoy.

Now don't forget that America has a huge debt chrisis after years of Bushes incompetance.

Deal Fails to Cure the Greek Contagion

Eurozone at risk as cost of bailout climbs

Cancer, which starts with a few small, isolated cells, is a formidable disease. Early detection and removal of the malignancy generally leads to recovery. But left untreated for too long, the malignant cells spread to engulf and destroy the entire organism.

In a similar way, untreated financial dysfunction can engulf and destroy entire economies. Early in 2010, it became clear that Greece, with its out-of-control deficits, bloated and militant public service, business crippling bureaucracy and endemic corruption, was far too diseased to recover.

News that the Greek government had fraudulently gained entrance to the Euro-zone by hiding real debt ratios that were well beyond the limits required for membership gave Brussels ample justification for cutting Greece away before the disease could spread. Instead, the EU and the IMF opted to pour €110 billion (US$156 billion) down the dark hole that is Greece’s terminally ill economy.

Now, having burned through those funds in little more than a year, comes a new €109 billion (US$154 billion) injection of life support.
Always Blaming Someone Else

University of Athens Professor of International Relations Theordore Couloumbis rightly diagnosed the root cause of the country’s malignancy when he stated “The big problem of Greek society is to consider someone else responsible for everything that goes wrong.”

This contagion effect has seen bond ratings collapse in both Portugal and Spain.

Given its fraudulent entry and entrenched irresponsible behavior, the really puzzling question is: why would other Euro-zone countries transfer the hard earned wealth of their responsible taxpaying citizens to bail out the dysfunctional, ungrateful, and often rioting Greeks?

We can only imagine how perplexing and frustrating this question must be for German citizens, who are footing the bulk of the bailout bills. Ironically, the Euro-zone’s failure to cut away the Greek cancer when it had the chance has turned the prospect of a Greek debt default into a contagious pathogen threatening the entire 17 member Euro-zone. And the reason for that has everything to do with who holds Greek debt.

Greece has a sovereign debt of €340 billion (US$480 billion), more than half of which is held by French, German, and British banks along with the European Central Bank. German banks hold about €40 billion (US$57 billion) in Greek government bonds, British banks hold about €19 billion (US$27 billion) and the European Central Bank holds €49 billion (US$69 billion).

French banks have the greatest exposure at €65 billion (US$92 billion). No wonder French President Nickolas Sarkozy let out a sigh of relief when his Finance Minister Christine Lagarde was chosen as the new head of the International Monetary Fund.

At more than €30,000 (US$42,000) for every man, woman, and child, Greece’s debt greatly exceeds the value of the country’s assets. And it’s a deadbeat debtor with negative future prospects. Without Euro-zone backing, the market value of Greek bonds would fall to almost zero, wiping billions of Euros off the balance sheets of European banks whose health is critical to Europe’s fragile and faltering economic recovery.

Even as the cost of Greek life support moves to €219 billion (US$310 billion), it’s apparent that won’t be enough to save the patient. And given their costly and politically divisive struggle to save the comparatively small Greek economy, financial markets are understandably skeptical that the Euro-zone could help much if any its larger members edge toward debt default.

This contagion effect has seen bond ratings collapse in both Portugal and Spain. Now the Euro-zone sovereign debt disease has entered a dangerous new phase as Italy, the zone’s third largest economy with a debt over five times that of Greece, moves under the market’s microscope. These four countries, together with Ireland, represent a whopping 40 percent of the Euro-zone economy.
Cutting Greece Loose

Sadly, these events were easy to predict, and to prevent. As I concluded in a column last February, “There is a much better way to ensure the Greek pandemic doesn’t infect the whole Euro-zone. Cut them loose.

Related Articles

Greece Should Exit Eurozone, Expert Says

The economic crisis triggered a series of bailouts protecting companies, individuals, and unions from the consequences of their actions. Now, countries themselves are expecting to be relieved of that responsibility. An EU bailout of Greece would surely lead to the rampant spread of disease deadly to the future of the world’s largest economic zone.”

The moral of this sad saga is that whether it comes to personal, corporate or national health; failure to act decisively when we have the chance almost always leads to lasting regret, and sometimes to our complete demise.

Gwyn Morgan is the retired founding CEO of EnCana Corp. Troy Media Corporation.

A really good comparison that Like Cancer you should act with purpouse and stop it spreading.
The problem with polaticians is that they dilly dally while the iceberg gets closer.

The sick note

2011-08-12T14:57:00.000-07:00

Here is something for the weekend.

The cruise ship AIDA came into Dublin for the day.
She looks so happy

Just to say . . . . . .

2011-08-11T01:39:00.000-07:00

I just had to put this down to try and reconcile my thoughts in my head.

On Nutley lane a very tall woman stopped me.
She was lost and was looking for a house which was close by.
The problem was that she was told to go to 77 and the houses only went up to 75.

There was a break in the traffic and I told her to hop in and I tried to help her.
So we drove along the houses and there was no 77, the last house was 75.
Than a car stopped at 75 and I went over to ask the driver.

Street names can be Nutley lane, avenue, street, close or place.
So she thought we had the wrong street.
She only worked in the house she was stopping at and she called out the owner.

My passenger told her that she was sure that the street address was right.
Then the householder asked her who she was looking for. "Her name is Mary, I am a nursing aide and I have been sent to help her"
With that the woman told her where the girl lived, just a few doors down.

At around that time another lady arrived from the agency and they both got back into into her car and drove down to the house.

What is really bugging me is that although I had no intention of charging her for my time helping her.

I had said it to her,that this is on the house, my good deed done for the day.

But neither she or the other lady from the agency said one word of thanks.

After all there would have been a good €5 on the meter and we had established where she should have been going.

It would be sad if other peoples bad manners made us all become unkind to strangers.

Well karma will say what goes around comes around.

Yes YOU are lucky.

2011-08-10T15:27:00.000-07:00

If I entered this in a photo competition they would say it was made up.
It isn't

Botanical gardens

Fly eating plants.

Before I start.

Happy Birthday Bobby. My first baby is 30 today !

Sometimes you find a stone and sometimes you find a diamond like Mabel.

I had taken photos of the sand sculptures that we saw that day and she phoned all her friends who came around to enjoy the event with her.
The thing with Mabel active in mind and limb is that she knows anyone that is worth knowing.
I told her about a person I had brought in the taxi once. A couple of days later a friend of hers had contacted that person and a phone call came back to me from them.

Mabel doesn't do doom and gloom,she lost many thousands of euro in her bank shares,she refuses to worry about it.
Perhaps we could all learn a little from her.

"Where to?"
"Temple St. Hospital please."
Well I am like a sponge for absorbing information so after 5 minutes I had found out about her patient.
Her brother and his family were over in Donegal from Scotland for a wedding. They stayed in her house and went off to the wedding. She gave me the name of the hotel (which I forget)
Anyhow their daughter who is 3 1/2 was standing on a balcony which was surrounded by a sheet of glass. She was stroking the glass with her arm when the glass fell out and she fell off the balcony down 15 foot on to a concrete path on top of the broken glass!

Thank God she has only a fractured cheek bone,jaw bone and shoulder.
There is no brain damage.

There is no substitute for quality work.
The guy that put in that glass must be an EJEET.

Still, kids of that age don't tense themselves up before impact, so the injuries are not as bad as they might be.Thank God she didn't come head first.

The other thing that I will share with you is in regard to child abuse.

On Today fm the last word the other day they were talking about it.
A woman was talking about how her maths were giving her problems and she was sent to a maths teacher who lived across the road from her. He was touching her in an inappropriate way.
She told her mother and her mother said that she was making it up to avoid her maths grinds.
Later on the teacher raped her and the abuse went on.
She felt that because her mother whom she had loved and trusted had not believed her that no one else would believe her.
She is living in Ireland now and got help through the one in four group.

Believe it or not she is a comedian.

"Your not laughing now"

So folks, when your kids are trying to say something.

LISTEN

101 1/2

2011-08-07T15:03:00.000-07:00

Mabel with her special 101 1/2 birthday cake
Well that is quite an achievement to live so long and be as healthy as a trout !
My oldest friend Mabel reached the fantastic age of 101 1/2 on Friday. I rang her up and asked if we would go to Dublin Castle to see the sand sculptures. "I'll be ready in 10 minutes"
God has been good to her, sound in mind and limb. She is drug free, cooks for herself, cleans her own house.
A great friend and good example of as she is living life to the full.
One in a million for sure.

Horse boxes parked along Ailesbury road
The horse show has now ended and I wonder what big thing is on our social calender ?

A Chinese weddding party departs the Botanical Gardens after photos

In case you thought all the beautiful girls were Polish,Brazilian and Irish!
Viva Mexico.

You know it is hard to keep going on. On Sunday I drove around cruising for 2 1/2 hours. I did 30 kilometers and got not one bite on my line. There was a monster of a cruise ship and a smaller one in the port and not one of the guests were taking taxis, they were walking.

Still I don't take it personal.

Thanks to the guy I brought into work the other day.
There were no bank link machienes working, so I told him to leave €10 into my local pub, with Owen I said. Problem is that Owen was on 3 weeks holidays.
Well he dropped in a €20 tonight..
Thanks a lot mate. Nice one!

Here is a nice beer advert.

Best magician?

2011-08-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

Someone asked me tonight "Who is the best magician?"

Well here are a few good ones.

Lance Burton

Channing Pollock was supposed to be much better.

David Copperfield ? Don't thik so.

Rene Levand with one arm ! Perhaps.

Juan Tamariz, a really funny guy. But watch this for a really good magic effect.

Keith Barry?,
You have to love this.

Tina Lenert does a fantastic silent act which has taken her around the world many times.
It is really beautiful.

Men in Coats ! Why not?

Last of all I will leave you with Bill Malone.

So like everything in life things are varied so don't look for the best just enjoy them all.

The Dublin Horse Show

2011-08-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

The Dublin Horse show is on !
Show jumping, Cossack riders loads of fashion and fun for all.

Yes it is that time again where sand sculptures appear in the courtyard of Dublin Castle.

"Little princesses come here"

The burned out Players Lounge. At least 20 people have lost their jobs.

Over the weekend Celtic were playing football here in Dublin. The Players Lounge in Fairview put on a good welcome for the fans. Breakfasts were provided, ballad groups played all weekend, courtesy buses were provided. The owners son plays for Celtic.
Well on Tuesday morning at 2am. there was an armed raid and cash was taken.
Then the pub went on fire. The details are not yet clear.

This is from Yahoo.

An armed gang has held up the sports bar belonging to the father of Celtic star Anthony Stokes.

Up to four men tied up a member of staff at the Players Lounge in Fairview, north Dublin, at about 2am and made off with a sum of money.

A fire broke out in the premises at around the same time and gardai are looking at the possibility that the robbery and blaze are linked. Nobody was hurt in either incident.

Players Lounge owner John Stokes was charged in May over allegations that he threatened a business rival.

The 54-year-old appeared before a special sitting of Dublin District Court where he was accused of ordering another publican, with menace, to cease trading within 24 hours.

It is not known whether he was in the bar when the robbery took place.

Earlier this year, Stokes was ordered to remove a massive 40ft banner barring the Queen from his pub during May's historic state visit.

He said he reluctantly agreed to take it down after a senior garda threatened to object to his application for late licences.

Where cash is involved you should use a cash in transit co. to empty your tills and safes frequently. Bookies, supermarkets, filling stations and shops all have to make plans.
Taxi drivers have to split their money so that if they are hit the can hand out the money in their shirt pocket quickly. keeping the rest in their sock.

Sometimes it can be a bit like the wild west here in Dublin.

I kid you not, a Taxi driver would not be worth robbing in these present times.

I didn't do much work at the taxi lately, but I dropped a passenger off in Blackrock the other day and I came back on the Strand Rd. towards Sandymount.
They have taken a few buses off on this route now so there are a few people looking for taxis again. As I was coming along I saw someone I should know. For a split second I faltered and drove past. It was Polly Devlin and her husband the poet Seamus Heaney It is funny I just wanted to ask her a burning question which was on my mind since I read her biography.
She was at a dinner with the rev. Ian Paisley years ago, chatting nicely as you do(A highly educated young lady she is)
Ian Paisley said "What is your name may I ask?"
She replied "I am Polly Devlin"
"Devlin, Devlin.(A Catholic name) You have come a long way." With that he turned his back on her and did not speak another word ot her all night.

I have often wondered if they ever crossed swords again?
I am sure if they did meet it would have been fun to be a fly on the wall.

Ah well perhaps we will meet again once more.
I was looking at washing machines in Power City a few years ago. She was fitting out an apartment at that time.The assistants were busy and she asked me about a washing machine and dryer. I remember telling her that you can get one combined. But to insure it is a condenser dryer. (Or you will have to make a hole in the wall to let out the steam.) That time I remembered who she was the next day.
Such is life!
You see a strange stone, you throw it away. Someone comes along and sees it for what it is.

A diamond.

There was the case of a doctor who was appointed to a Sligo hospital. She was qualified and she has the papers to prove it. Well, some nurses expressed concern as they watched her working.
Then a more senior doctor asked her to take a patients pulse.
Guess what! She had no idea how to take a pulse, never mind calculate the pulse rate.
She is suspended of course, but she still carries a licence to practice.
How she got the job when she had never served an internship we will never know.

Makes you think.

Remember that doctor in Wicklow St.who looks up your symptoms on the Internet?

Did you hear about that Boeing that went down while heading to Brazil?
There is going to be huge litigation about it now that the wreck has been located.
From the beginning it was reckoned that the tube that measures air speed had become blocked with ice. This gave a false reading and the plane started to stall.
In a Boeing or any big plane the controlls light up like a Christmas tree well before stall speed is reached.
Now the manufacturers are saying that the crew did not turn off the auto pilot because they did not know how to fly the plane manually.

WOW ! Just shows how things are allowed to happen.

I got one of those O2 money cards, great ! I thought I can put a few bob on it and give it to my son, he is 19 now so he can book flights and buy things on line.
It never worked !
You have to pay to put money on the card, a charge is applied for the card too.
So I tried to get help, help is all automated.
So instead of trying to get them to help any further. I tried to empty the account using interbank transfer and cancell the card.
That didn't work either.
It kinda makes you wonder why if a customer is having a problem with a product that they don't deal with the problem itself, rather than loose a customer.

I would imagine that the problem was a trivial technical one.

Anyhow they seem to have a big advertising budget.

Sarah Wilson was on to me . She is looking for host families in the good old USA to help her out. So if you can help look here.

Am I changing or is Dublin Changing ?

2011-07-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

I lived in Sandymount around the corner from this house.We never met !

What a beautiful VW ! It is owned by a lady I spoke to her a few years ago.
It is hard to believe that it was made in 1968, thats 43 years ago.

href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kodwfmBBv8o/TjXGuoSXpuI/AAAAAAAAElk/ShCaoVbB_gs/s1600/IMG_8957.JPG">

These buggies have been abandoned at the ferry terminal. The people who owned them could not be "Arsed" to fold them up and put them on to the buses. The Social Services will give them new buggies next week!

I told you how that thief of life called time has been playing tricks on me!.
Well Harrods in London has opened its Christmas shop.
Back to school bargains are on the back of the buses and "White Christmas" is coming to the Grand Canal theater.

I thought I saw a light at the end of the tunnel.
But it was just a guy with a miners lamp on his head with 2 buckets of shit for me.

I have a broad back, I can take it.

"Thank God I'm an atheist"

The way things are it will soon be like it is in Australia. I thank my childhood friend Sam for this click here
Over here in Ireland there are hundreds of illegal drivers with forged papers at the garda check they drive away.
Why in Gods name they are not stopped before there is a murder is the question.

Thumbs down

2011-07-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

St Pauls London

Corfu Greece

98 FM Dublin

I went to Keith Barry's 8 deadly sins last night.

Sorry lads this did not work for me at all.

There was a lot of sexual content where it was not needed.
The magic and mind reading were great.

But when a Monk pulls up his gown and exposes a long penis, then stretches it out towards a (she said) 17 year girl. Then he lets it go to show it was made of rubber and dangles it in front of her face!.

The entire show cannot go anywhere.

Unless it is for Hen Nights or Stag Nights.

I know the show was over 16. But it lacked direction and taste.

As my old teacher used to say. "Could do a lot better".

I don't know how it happened but time seems to have jumped forward.
I can remember a time before television.

( A thing with black and white pictures and shutters that closed over the screen )

The radio used to be closed off during the day and shut down around 10pm.for the night.
Then we would screw the dial around to Radio Luxembourg.

Later on,how could we forget "the pirates" Radio Caroline being the best of the lot.

Suddenly time has moved on and people download music and films on to Ipods or mobile phones. People walk under buses as they shuffle through their songs.
Kids on bicycles drive through red lights not hearing the ambulance coming through the lights on green!
Youth lives in a world of their own.

New TVs are now linked into the Internet and are as big as a front door, I have an Internet radio which picks up every radio station in every country in the world.

I had a crystal radio set when I was a kid.

Now you can go on the net and podcast TV programes and radio shows from all over the place.

RTE 1 this morning had John Sheehan from the Dubliners on.

He was the non drinker and a great fiddle player.

You do remember the Marino waltz?

When I was just a lad working in Charlemount St. Martin Brennan introduced me to Luke Kelly.
There was a grocery shop across the road "Caddens" and beside it was"Blacks"the home of the fantastic Mary and Francis Black.
I was immersed in greatness then only few of us knew it at the time.

My son David was supposed to be coming with me to the magic show. He had band practice and declined. I rang a friend who has a mentally handicapped daughter. Later on he told me how the whole family were slipping deeper and deeper into despair.
While at the same time as politicians are laughing at us from their mansions.

You can tell the value of any society by how well they take care for their sick and their elderly.

Then tonight around 8 pm there was a great programme about Russian Caviar !
I think that was on Lyric fm.

You think of a thing and Google it, suddenly you have 30,000 reference points and you have it sussed.

There was 2.500 taxis in Dublin 10 years ago, now there are 15,000 taxis trying to fit into the same number of spaces.

Though for myself I think it is time to step back for a moment.

It is not for me to be upset when I let a car across the traffic and they don't give a wave.
Why should I be upset when a blind man is not offered help to cross the road?

Today a guy cut me off at the 5 lamps, I slotted in behind him and then gave him a hoot of the horn as I drove down the bus lane past him by 50 yards.

Perhaps I am turning into an asshole too!
(No, I always was one)

I do suppose that life is all about going with the punches and not taking anything personal.

Bank holiday weekend coming

2011-07-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

Birds of prey on display in the Rose garden festival in St Annes park, they are used to keep birds away from airports and rubbish dumps.

Lost Russian sailors

Well here we are, the Galway races are in full swing and so is a photographic event.There are so many things happening that you should look at a few websites and plan ahead.
Tomorrow I am off to see Keith Barrys show in the Olympia, it should be good.

I have known Keith before either of us were famous.

As Paul Daniels once said "I love magic, it's such fun!.
The only way to have more fun is to take your clothes off"
"But in your case John, keep them on"

Anyhow enough name dropping.

Did you know that FISM, the Olympics of magic will be taking place in Blackpool next year?
If you are into magic this will be your Mecca.
It will be massive.

Do you like magic?
I once got a massive tip for showing a client a simple magic trick.

we should all have a party piece.

Do you like this ?

Because both of these are a silent acts they can work all over the world!

I saw an illusion done on TV by a French magician once, he was at Blackpool last year but he was a complete ashole in person. (this happpens)
Anyhow he did this fantastic trick once where he took a piece from a matrix of pieces, spread them out and they all fitted back into the frame,even though one piece wasw taken out. There was no spaces. Then he scattered the pieces again and re assembled them once more.Once again fitted into the frame without gaps. Yet again he had removed one piece.
Fantastic I thought, so I asked and I looked on the magic sites.
I even asked in magic shops when I was in France.
Then my friend David Bishop who lives in France gave me the name of the illusion.."Puzzle paradox"
So I bought it on ebay.
From Indonesia.
It came with a little plastic bag inside, with this message.

"Thank you for buying this product from us. We are graetful that you chose to buy your product from our store when you had the whole world to choose from.
I enclose a stamp from our country as a gift.
May god bless you and your family"

Now isn't that nice ?

Its a lot better than a shop assistant popping your change into your hand and saying "Next"
Or a taxi driver who leaves you 50cent short and drives off with a grunt.

This shouldn't happen like this.

2011-07-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

Well things are moving on and now I see an end to the seemingly endless task on which I have been working.
I must have become a magnet for hopeless lame ducks in sharp decline.
I saw her standing there holding on to a lamp post. 60 ish slim and drunk.
Times are hard so I stopped. She was going to a late night chemist on the Malahide Rd. but it was closed.The only other place I knew of that would be open was in O'Connell St.
So off we went and she told me of how bad she felt about being drunk.
"I went back to school at 46 and did a masters at UCC, and I never touched alcohol until I was 48, that was the day my husband of 30 years walked out on me".
I kid you not folks she has had a tough life.
I turned off the meter at €20 but she was insistent that I turn it back on. (You can't restart a meter from where you left off)
What do you want to hear ?
How her father a police man walked out on her mother and 3 kids ?
How her mother used to beat them with a stick, she would take the brunt of the attacks to protect the smaller infants. "After the beatings I could push the blood around which was lying under my skin"

After she got her Masters degree.
She worked as a social worker, helping aids victims, directing help for the homeless.

Then one day she was on outreach for vulnerable children, "The girl was not bad, just wild. I told my Superior that I had gained this girls trust and I wanted to go to her on that day.
My Superior told me to go to Cabra on a non urgent case as it turned out. That was the day the 14 year old girl was killed.
They tried to push the blame on to me. Then I really started to drink"

So now she is in emergency accommodation for homeless people and her life is full of woe.

"I always thought if you were a good person and you tried hard to do the best thing you can for yourself and your family, that things would work out fine"

€5.20 for water ?

2011-07-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

Photogenic in Dalkey

Outside the Bondiola Argentian restraunt on Baggott St

The biggest cruise ship I ever saw.

I have not been working much lately.

Remember a month or so ago I fell asleep at the traffic lights?
Others whom I have worked with in the past have had heart attacks.

Time to take notice of whats happening and flow with the current for a while.

I have to supervise a project for a friend who is away, just a hour of work in the morning with the taxi and anyone I can pick up as I pass along my route.

Well that photographer in the last posting had a really good website.
Look at this one. The leaflet came through the door and for once it did not go straight in the bin.
An oriental restaurant should be red and yellow..With Dragons. This one is in black and white it also says that the meat is Irish, and healthy options, we have a cookery school !
That has to be the best idea ever.
It says our kitchens are so clean that you can come in and meet the cook and he will teach you.
The other chef Conrad Gallagher who opened a cookery school has had to close 2 of his restaurants ! He omitted to make a tax return.
Years ago there was a character called Sean Gallagher, he rang a restaurant called the Mirabeau, there was no prices on the menu, "If you have to ask the price, then you can't afford it" He did quite well until the tax man went through the books...He was busted !
Then the memorable quote came into being.
"Sean was a really good cook, meat,fish,game anything. But he was useless when it came to cooking the books". I met his chef one night, an x cruise liner chef he was a really good guy, very entertaining.
On the subject of charging what you like.
I wrote about Blackpool where a Sunday roast with a pint costs £5, well a friend of mine was at a wedding, he doesn't drink himself, so he bought a vodka and coke for his wife and a bottle of water and a splash of blackcurrant for himself. he gave in €20 and looked at the change, when he looked at the receipt he noticed that he had been charged €3.90 for bottle of water and €1.40 for the dash of blackcurrant. He prosted and the manager was sent for.
His attitude was that that was the price and that if he couldn't afford it he should go elsewhere, now Liam could well aford it but, he handed back the water and got a refund.
The managers attitude put a seed of poison into Liam and he went away to the local off licence and bought 2 bottles of Vodka and 2 large bottles of Coke and put them on the table for the guests.
The manager came back and protested.
"Sorry mate this is a private function, unless you can show us a notice to the fact, this is the way it is, and one other thing the VAT has been reduced by 4% since this wedding was booked !
I will be looking that the reduction has been passed on to my sister

Don't try to rob people,it will come back on you big time"

Big panic the other day, a booby trap device under a jeep on Seville place! There is a bit of a conflict with a few families down there.Traffic in a jam, not one diversion notice in sight, Same old crap. You spend 30 Min's. getting there just to be sent back.

What they should do id to DIVERT THE TRAFFIC AWAY.

Wow! I had another girl in the car with a magical voice ! I couldn't place it. But she was French to an English father. But she worked all over the world. I could hear South African, then Indian and a complete seamless blend. I met a guy who had worked on cruise ships for 30 years and something like that had happened to him.
But in this case we heard the Goldberg veriations,her voice was music.

Do you believe in God ? a passinger once aske me.
I do indeed.
But not like your God, my God is female, she would make you smile, she tells me I am the most precious ting to her.
When she is near I am calm and I can smell her perfume.
I canot stand that God who is spiteful and allows his servants to abuse children.

I am glad for you she said.

New Irish

2011-07-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

Today I took a moment off to meet Agata Stoinska "Irish business woman of the year". When I read about her victory it got me thinking about the new blood coming into Ireland, these people staffed our hotels and shops at the beginning. Now they are moving up in the world.
Agata was a an architect but then moved to her passion which is photography.

Her studio is above a garage on North Great Charles St. (I had to find it with the sat nav.)
I have brought 4 lots of people to it now.
You can rent a space to do a shoot or rehearse a play.
The studio also hosts exhibitions Plus they do a photography course.

On top of that she makes films and documentaries, here and in Poland!

Agata I am glad you came to stay.

666

2011-07-16T04:29:00.000-07:00

Down by the 40 foot

Office workers relax and eat "Al fresco" on the canal Mesbil Rd

666.
I just see the number of posts I have done.
That is the number of the Devil.

Child abuse by the clergy is once again a top news item.

Ian Paisley in one of his rants shouted. "Satan lives in the Vatican"

How so many good people can be misled by corrupt officials I will never understand.
The well being of a child should surely be the most important thing on this earth.

If you believe in the fluffy cloud heaven, then the angels must be crying in despair.

Another scandal came to the surface when a 47 year old traveller woman was sentenced to 24 years in jail for a catalogue of cruelty to her 8 children, beating, stabbing, scalding and starving them over a 12 year period. The poor judge who had to listen to it all could not understand how it was not noticed sooner, or why it was not stopped by someone earlier.

Another scumbag beat up elderly patients in a nursing home. He terrified the Filipino assistants and told them that their working visas would be taken away if they said anything.
I spoke to a customer who had assessed a few of the victims. Well I hope we have somewhere nice to put this scumbag, in with a load of psychopaths who will teach him a bit of respect for peoples personal safety.

I am amazed by mankind's ability to do fantastic good deeds, people like Mother Theresa or Christina Noble or that priest who fights the corrupt officials in Thiland to save young prostatutes.
I am equally shocked and horrified at what evil deeds we are capable of.

Perhaps the way the tabloids tapped into voice mails of 911 victims.

Rupert Murdoch just says he is sorry that he was caught hacking into the voicemail of a murdered child Millie Dowler, or that indeed he is sorry he was caught trying to listen into the voicemail of 911 victims.

WHAT A PIECE OF INFECTION HE IS.

It is so offside to hack into the voice mail of a murdered schoolgirl.

No boys and girls, we must stand by our own principles and not be ruled by the mob!

Years ago I saw a photograph of a beautiful lady sitting on a hospital bench at Loughlinstown hospital in complete shock.

Front page news!

Her husband had been caught in fishing nets and had been pulled overboard.
She had come to the hospital to identify his body.

So some low life took her photograph!

I very very seldom buy that paper.

12 million people facing starvation in Africa, very few people care. (that's not true) but the people who do care are not heard.

A girl once wrote a piece about me .
Gave my name, she told the people how I wrote about the personal details of my passengers, I was so angry at the time, so I asked the people who read the blog if that was true.

What I write about is the human condition, how we are different etc. and how we contrast.
Nothing more.

Back to Corfu. Ken is our MC He is funny, he knows one of the guests, he introduces him.

"HOW MANY RECORDS DID YOU MAKE ? 22 ! THAT'S FANTASTIC"

"We were shite" the lad said

"No 22 that is good"

Ken had a a few great lines in comedy. "Ladies and gentlemen, today we have a big plastic bucket of the finest wine for your enjoyment, I know it it good, because we were using it as paint stripper, but it was damaging the sink! No No it really is a great vintage, at least that's what it said on the tin"

So later on I talked to the guitarist about fame and how some people can't handle it when it comes. He told me that what his limited success had done for him was to allow him to work as a session man for many great groups and to go on tour with them around the world.
He had become great friends with many of the greats including a lead guitarist who had a worldwide 2 times Platinum hit record.

Fame destroyed him, he turned to drugs and descended into the abyss.

The other guys in the group(which I won't name)became millionaires.

Some of his friends helped in the the addicts rescue, the richest ones did not.
Then lets call him Mike decided to try and rescue his old muse, if I told you the name of the song no matter which country in the world you lived in you would know it.
So he was now in Corfu away from his drug pushing "friends" and Mike was taking a cruise with us to have a bit of a chill out.
Mike was saying that he regrets the loss of such a talent to the world.

But that is the cruel side of life, you get one thing and you loose another.

I picked up an old guy who used to work with me 20 years ago.
I instantly recognized him.
"We buried 5 of out colleagues last month" he said
He also told me about a guy who worked with us.
Well this man went off for the day and while he was away his house caught fire. No,it was in the countryside and it burned to the ground.
All he was left with when he came back was the clothes he was standing up in.

Foolish man to say the least, he had no house insurance.

There is always someone worse off than yourself.

I have been working too hard. The pressure of not making any money was stressing me out.
So I'm taking time off for myself and the painting. Doors and ceilings mostly.
No landscapes for me.

In the Kesh where the taxi drivers wait to be called up there is a list of around 6 A4 sheets of paper giving the taxi plate numbers of school teachers who are driving taxis, also which schools they teach in.
The font size is quite small, so there are a lot of names on it.

I was coming home when I was stopped by a girl who has fibromyalgia. Poor girl she is in constant pain and she told me of her ills. Young enough, 22 perhaps her entire life is on hold. Friends who have not sen her for a while pass her in the street as she has changed so much. Indeed her hair is falling out and because she can't exercise she is putting on weight.

Good on her she put my own tiredness into perspective for me.

God bless you kid.

I really hope you get better soon.

Keith Barry

2011-07-14T15:52:00.001-07:00

Keith Barry has a show running in the Olympia.

better than Riverdance for sure,

Duffys Circus in town

2011-07-13T23:15:00.000-07:00

The old property developers are dropping like dominoes.
Bernard McNamara is in the news again. He was one of the high flyer's in the property boom. Now he is being forced to sell trophy properties on Ailesbury rd. at more than a 2/3 discount, if he can indeed get that price at all.
Then there is a house in the UK called Uptown Court. It was put on the market for £70 million. Now our NAMA is going to sell it. The Irish Nationwide has a £50 mil mortgage on it.
The house has 11 acres of gardens,46 acres of woodland.
It has 24 en-suite bedrooms. 5 swimming pools,stables. Tennis and Squash courts, a bowling alley, a panic room, a cinema and garage space for 8 cars.
Enough marble to cover 3 football pitches went into its construction.
Just to give you an idea of what such a house costs to run, heat clean etc £500,000 a year.
He claims to be talking to 3 possible buyers as I write.

Still Someone in the UK bought the winning Euromillions ticket.
€185 Million prize !
Well done, with this amount of money,the secret of your success is complete silence.
Become a secret million are, helping people as you go.
Remember three people can only keep a secret when the other two are dead.

All that money! and 12 millions starve in Africa.

Well a lady from Boston stopped me, she was going to the US embassy trying to get her visa renewed.
I asked her to find out if my old taxi plate 2473 is still hanging up in the Crossroads bar on Beacon St. When the numbering system changed I brought them over to America. One side is in Boston the other in New York. I didn't want to throw them out so I gave them away.

Her roots are in Wexford, so I told her about a great book I have about the Wexford people who settled in Nova Scotia and we had a great conversation about the Irish when they work abroad. The are sometimes inclined to stick to their own people. Drink in Irish pubs, play Gaelic games and go to Irish clubs.. Well not her or her husband. They just love the mix of cultures in Boston and they spend their time with their friends regardless of race ,color or creed.

THAT IS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE.

I also told her about the Irish girl going to Poland a few years ago now. She was also a civil engineer, she had a company with her brothers building roads etc. he Celtic Tiger slowed down and the funding stopped.
She told me that they had a staff meeting and the Polish workers begged them not to liquidate the company. So they went to Poland and they are building roads there. Their staff rose to the challenge and it is a great success. Whether you know it or not, that Polish girl making your coffee is really well educated, the trades people are very good too they turn up on time and work to a finish.
On that trip I told her about a customer who was being bullied at work.
She had brought over an Irish engineer, and he in turn started to bully 2 Lithuanian lads.
He was called in to the office and warned twice. Then he got a written warning.
Then he got the boot.
"He is sitting on his arse at home in Limerick now with no job, saying he did nothing wrong"

I would say that her ship is well run.

Things are going from bad to worse in the taxi game.
I seemed that a few feathers were ruffled when the Prime time on the taxi industry was shown, now the industry has started to Delcine further.
The taxi rank at Jamese's St. hospital has been taken over by a private taxi company, Global taxis.
Private company taxis park in front of the D4 hotel which means that the customers do not walk out on to the rank at the road.

Some of this has been caused by bad manners and rudeness by certain drivers. But it is very drastic to close access to work for the other honest and well behaved taxi drivers.
The taxi council which has been brought together has not got one taxi driver on it. Instead it has fleet owners and radio taxi companies on it.
Ireland's taxi industry will be like New York's. The Russian Italian and Irish Mafia will own all the plates. They will pay bribes to officials. If you want to work you pay your days rental, regardless whether you have a good day or not.

SO IF YOU BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE.

contact joecostellotd@gmail.com

pat.rabbitte@oreachtas.ie

or Leo Varadkar our minister of transport.

minister@dttas.ie

There will be a blitz on illegal taxis for the next 4 weeks, or so I hear.

Lets hope it happens.

They were on the Sackville place rank today.

Why they do not follow the guys who pull off the rank when the garda appear defeats all logic.
Instead they go through the paperwork of the guys who remain on the rank.

Talking about bad manners.
Irish manners has become so bad.
I had a shouting match with a guy who would not pull back and let me into traffic. So I got out of the car, the traffic was stopped anyhow. After a few more insults were thrown I reminded him that the penalty for talking on his fone while driving was €80 plus 2 penalty points. Since he was still talking on the fone at the time I told him he should go to the circus, as they are always looking for clowns.

I did feel a bit better after that.

But perhaps I had sunk down to his level.

Man on a ledge

2011-07-08T14:49:00.000-07:00

For hangig up the socks, I call it a socktapus.

A new venture cycling ice cream sellers

Bless them all big and small

I was heading home through Fairvew, a man put out his hand and I checked if he was trying to stop a bus behind me.
I was hired.
He started talking and what he said made sober listening.
Jesus I am in a bad way son. I found a couple of days ago that my hand was shaking so much that I would spill half of a cup of tea as I was drinking it, I was in a really bad way. I asked if he had had a mild stroke.
No son my doctor told me I was having a minor nervous breakdown. Nothing too serious, but he would have to do a lot of tests to make sure I was on the right track again.
He lives alone and has not worked for 6 years, he had a triple heart by-pass and he is a diabetic. He takes a very strong sleeping tablet (30mg) and last night he put 20 tablets in a row on the kitchen table and was just about to take them all. His neighbor walked in and looked at him. Seeing the look on his face he told him that he should go to see a doctor. Then he saw the tablets on the table.
His neighbor was shocked and scooped up all the tablets and took the rest of the drugs from the house. The next morning he drove the poor bloke to the doctor.
He had rung the Samaritans that night and a lovely woman spoke to him very gently, when he had composed his feelings she made him promise that he would seek medical help. She was very good,
I asked him if there was anything that pushed him over the edge?
Yes he said, my sons are always coming over and telling me their troubles, relationships, money and no work. I can't help them, I am worse off myself.

I am the oldest of 15 children, the doctor told me to think of how this would effect their lives and the lives of all the other people around me.

What frightened him most of all is that he seemed to be acting against his willpower.

He told me he didn't listen to our national radio station, which is full of doom and gloom. But he was a television addict. Loved listening to Nat King Cole and Mat Monroe. (A bit of an old romantic)

I hope you will confront your kids and tell them to fuck off with their problems. The doctor told me to do that as well, yous are right.

He was clearly shaken by the events, but I will say a prayer to my God, tonight perhaps we will say a short prayer to all our different Gods all over the world for the people standing on window ledges ready to jump.

Perhaps we should all stop moaning about our own problems a bit more and listen out for others.

Cinema

2011-07-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

GET THE POPCORN OUT.

A MORAL TAXI TALE.

Cats

2011-07-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

Wow what a car this is.

A street that changes name 1/2 way along ? Thats Mad

Wow boys and girls ! What about that €170 million jackpot not being won..Next one €200 million or more.
Good luck and if you win, don't forget the hungry in Africa.

I was all in a heap last week, the Tango Fiesta took up all my time.
You had to see it, dance is poetry in motion for sure.

I have worked all my life, in factories, with horses,in electrics, cash in transit.
So now I have decided I will work to live and enjoy my life a bit more.

Nothing bothers me more or less.
If something comes up I go with the flow.

So anyhow I had a trip lined up to Monkstown and on the way I called into Sandymount where this fantastic cat was lying by the curb.
A black E type Jaguar no less!
1960s and all that.
What a beautiful machine, I just had to photograph it.

I spoke to a man sitting at the table. "It represents 10 years work" he said.
The proud owner, 15 minutes of praise was loaded on to him.

So when I had picked up the fire I remembered Mountown Motors which was not far away.
So I drove over to the place. Doug Skakie is a classic car "anorak". He saw the photographs I had taken and he knew so much about that car that he nearly knew the chassis Nr. of the vehicle.
So we discussed cars for quite a while!
Now you can take your car to a garage and a guy will work on it. Fair enough. Or you can find a guy who is passionate about cars. He knows the difference between a dipstick and a big end, as well as that he has an interest in what he is doing.

So on Thursday I will be getting my transmission fluid changed and my plugs.

I am a bit like the wolf who hunts alone, some work for a radio company and give 20% discount(the driver not the radio company) Others work the airport and pay €420 for the pass to pick up people. You used to be able to apply a "pick up charge" but not any more.You might have to wait 2 1/2 hours for a job of €10. These guys just go back again for more.
The taxi rank at the James's St. hospital is gone to private hands. Yesterday I found out why.
It appears that taxi drivers were coming up and getting "Last" from the car in front and then driveing away.
The driver would then come back later and demand his place back in the queue, there was fighting all the time and the hospital had had enough.
Customers of mine have told me that they walk past certian taxi ranks because they find the way the drivers behave intimidates them.

A ship passing

2011-07-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

Just a random observation.
I picked her up in Blackhall Place, she was going to a doctor in Cabra.
Doubled up in pain with a very sallow complexion.
Junkie came to mind, pregnant too.
She was crying out in pain, tears rolling down her face.

"Look shouldn't we go to a hospital?" I said

"No mister,just the doctor"

I reckon she was having a miscarriage.

€5.80 on the meter.

"Just give me €5"

I lead her to the footpath
"Theres €7 and God bless, you are a great person."

So there you have a casual observation.

A really pretty girl on perhaps on drugs, perhaps loosing her baby, she is kind and compassionate.

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-04T05:17:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July to all my American readers, cousins and friends.
I was in Boston a few years ago and saw 1812 being performed on the banks of the Charles river to fireworks. Sad to say it was in heavy rain.
I often hear visitors to Ireland are dismayed at how this is just another day for us, nothing special.
Have a click here

Well the last posting did not take so I will try again.

Here is one of the most watched

Yes,there is a reason why you should drive slower.

I hope this will purge my contempt your honour.