Into the weekend

Sorry if the last posting was a bit depressing, but it had to be told warts and all.

Perhaps we should all take some time out with our kids while they are young.
We could do without the new Merc or the plasma screen TV or that trip to the shops on Sunday.

Tempus fugit.

Yesterday I met the lovely Lisa Fitzpatrick who was on her way to an awards ceremony, she was in the running for most stylish lady in Ireland.
Lisa is the fashion guru on TV3 and when I Googled her I got loads of info.
She had done the makeup and was on her way to do the hair.
You looked great Lisa !.

Guess what she won first prize, VIP magazine will have all the info.

One of the perks of the job meeting interesting people.

I dress down as if I look too well dressed I will get no tips.
(recognition of a job well done)

Today was one funny day I had a spate of one fare after the other.
One getting out,next one waiting to get in.
Never got home for a break which is fine because when the going gets slack I will be at home.

Near the end of the day I picked up a lady who said "Your going to kill me, I want to go to Bray"
I had met her before and I told her what I remembered about her.
She has a fantastic musical tone to her voice.
Born in Scotland reared in South Africa and educated in England.
The Scottish accent is the strongest but the effect of her voice is like hearing beautiful music.

She is very tall and her story is one of a very brave persons fight to regain her health.
She was paint balling and got shot twice on the shoulder. Thought nothing of it but her shoulder was really sore. A friend looked at the bruising which looked really nasty and told her to go to the doctor.
The doctor sent her to hospital and to cut the story shorter she had to have a skin graft.

Then the story took a sinister twist , she picked up the MRSA virus, her weight dropped to 5 stone (she is 6ft 4).
Thank God she survived but she is still fighting to regain her health.

Strange to say she works with the people who are homeless and addicted.
I sometimes think God has lost the plot.

Get well soon.

I took a few snaps of the fine houses out in Bray before heading for home.

On the way I stopped to snap Jim Rocks Farrarri, he is a car dealer who is not afraid to talk to the public.
I don't know if you ever have been embarresed by being snubbed at a car dealership.
Guys, we can go to the internet and buy cars, there other dealers who can step up to the plate and do the business.(just an aside a popup came on my screen carzone.ie and Jims car came up, the price is POA) I also picked up his cousin from Galway who is also a boxer.

Just back in Booterstown picked up a fare to Tallaght, the punter works in computers speccific to the pharmacy trade, the system is fantastic it cross checks that if a patient is on 2 or more drugs that there will not be a reaction between the two drugs.It also makes up daily doses and labels everything.The system orders drugs for when they are needed, the only thing it won't do is make the tea.
The traffic from Tallaght to the end of the M50 was a car park so I went back through town.

Last fare of the day was a man going the Ardmore hotel in Finglas, the address that was given was a bit off but I knew the place.
The guy was a motor mechanic and we had a bit of banter about how cars nowadays are not serviced manually, but plugged into computers and they are so complicated that they are mental.
My wifes car has no spark plugs or distributer! But it works.
Turns out he is going to a reunion of ex cancer patients.
Getting cancer is a good boot up the arse, making you re assess your life and makes you value what you have.
Hope you have many more reunions.


Have a happy weekend.

Stop the traffik ! (people) www.stopthetraffik.org

Old hand

Whenever you pull up, someone gets in, tells you their destination and then,sometimes something else happens!

Seldom it is really special, like the time I met Chuck Feeney.

Sometimes it is really thought provoking as in this case.
I come in the Clontarf rd. most days, If I have not picked up a fare I park up at Connolly station.

A gent in his late 60's got in and asked for the Charlemont clinic. The banter began and I told him about the book on old Dublin I was reading called Dublin tennement life by Kevin C Kearns.
It tells about old Dublin and features people like Bang Bang and Johnny fortycoats and Lugs brannagan.
He had been a Garda serving under "Lugs Brannagan" and spoke of the annamal gangs of the 60's and how the Garda had fought a pitched battle with them at the Harolds cross greyhound stadium, he was there that day.
The Animal gang got a long time in prison and then the conversation turned.

Drug dealers sell drugs openly on the streets and It may have been a remark that they should be stopped which started him off.

I had 4 daughters I really wanted to have a son.

Did you ever hear the saying "Be careful for what you wish?"

Well my son arrived and my life was complete, he was a great kid, Everyone loved him,he was the center of our lives.

Then at 14 something happened..He became unhappy, disruptive and a rebel.

I was working progressing throght the ranks.

Then one day things had gotten out of hand, we needed help.
We went to shrinks, took all the help that was on offer.
Things then really took a turn for the worse.

He found, no he embraced drugs!
He went from being my most loved person in my life to becoming this robbing lying fiend.

People told me to lock him out until he regained his senses! He stole from the house until I had to throw him out.
The logic was that he would see the error of his ways.
He broke into the house twice until we had a security system installed. Can you think how bad things had become when we had to protect ourselves from our own son.

The time passed. Things moved from bad to worse.
The lads from the station kept a lookout for him and time passed, then one day my wife is on the upper deck of the bus home and she saw three down and outs on the street.
One of them was gaunt and skeleton like and she recognised our Tommy
.
She ran downstairs.
But by the time the bus stopped and she got off Tommy had gone away.

Her shopping and handbag were on the bus.

We looked for Tommy for the next 3 weeks, Marys health got really bad.
Did anyone ever tell you about the Camels in Africa, when they decide to die?
Well Mary just died, she died of a broken heart.

He turned up a month or so after the funeral, I wanted to talk to him, our time for talking had passed.
The girls tried to get through as well .So I gave him money and he went away again.

It was the guts of a year later when I had a knock at the door..

2 Garda, "Bad news, we have found your sons body in a squat"

Thank God I said. "No more worry no more pain for him and for us."
He had put us through hell, but the hell he put himself through was 10 times worse.

I laid him out to rest a month ago and now he is beside his mother, they have both found peace.

I am off to the Charlemont clinic now, I have cancer.

I have sons myself I told him, what happened to his family was awful.

Did you ever think of talking against drugs to kids in schools ?

Well no, perhaps that might do more to encourage them rather help them.

He got out and I wished him well.
I said that a holiday on a cruise ship might give him a rest from the heartbreak he was suffering..

We would all die sometime, but he deserved a break.

Spring !

I have been distracted, whats all this fixation with muggers, prostitutes and junkies about?
Well nothing really so I will shut up about them, for a while.

The clocks have sprung forward and Summer will arrive with all its splendor.

Well things happen and sometimes it just works out right.
I pulled up at the rank on Earlsfort terrace the other day. A car stopped to ask me directions at the same time the porter at the Conrad hotel blew his whistle, I gave the directions to the lady before picking up this middle aged couple.
Airport please. No problem.
I will bring you past Fitzwilliam Sq, they are making a film there and there are some fantastic 1920s cars and buses there..
The cars and the bus had moved into the area where the filming was going on. As we passed the sq. the lady piped up in her best Cockney accent "do you think we are F++++ng stupid ? Driving us round the ouses".
Well I suppose we could have driven down a bus lane the opposite way and down one way street against the traffic.

Today I would have stopped another taxi and sent them packing,but I kept the head down,

Listened to the radio and arrived at departures. Took out luggage! Hope you have plenty of time for your flight I said.

Yes we have.

The clocks went forward today and it has made my day crazy.

What do you mean?
Summer time, the clocks went forward.
So what time is now?
5.20!

The look of shock said it all

Happy days!

I would never wish bad on anyone who did not deserve it, but she got what was coming.

The Merrion hotel and all the high priced hotels I will refuse to pick up at them if I can.
As the guests slip the porter a 10 then refuse to tip the taxi driver. You are much better picking up someone off the street.
A young girl working in a shop will tip 10 times better than a business man on expenses.

Once I had this guy who said make the recept for 20.00,
Where is my change he roared.
So as his friends jumped out of the taxi, I pulled the recipt from his hand , I ripped it up. Wrote him (slowly) a new one and gave him his change in shrapnel.
And as he rushed off I called him right back.
Thinking he had lost something he came back.
"Have a nice day"
If looks could kill.

I had a couple from Mauritius that fantastic honeymoon destination ,it seems such a lovely place, later that day I picked up a lady from Spain who runs a language school and she was going to the same hotel so I told her to tell the girl from Mauritius that that old taxi driver was going crazy about her.
Turns out that they will be touring Ireland together for the next week.

I want to go too.

The 2 euro coin is just the same as the 10 bat coin from Thailand I have one and when I next work late someone else will have it!
I had a lesson in race relations from a Thai girl today.
You know when you look at someone and then she looks at you looking at her.
Then she walks over and gets into your car (Then you remember your driving a taxi)
During the drive we had a deep conversation
She told me that in Thailand men prefer women with lighter skin!
This is something I would never have thought of.
To me (if you are reading this) beauty comes from within, The great Beauties of this world are nothing if they have nothing to say or have no sense of humor.
Your skin color matters little ,its whats inside that counts.

I have been fussing around,not getting much work done and when I get back on track I will have something to say.


I have another tale to tell but I must wait until it matures.
I would not like you to have a story with a sad ending.

Just something to think about

three websites to make you think.

www.stopthetraffik.org
www.afruca.org
www.thetruthisntsexy.org

There is nothing more I can do except buy a fairtrade easter egg.

www.museum.ie

Took a little time off to explore Collins barracks museum. The theme is the Irish at war since 1550. Its called Soldiers and chiefs. Its good.
For in foreign fields from Dunkirk to Belgrade, lie the soldiers and chiefs of the Irish Brigade (Thomas Davis.

Right way ,wrong way

A few weeks ago I put a photo of this beautiful building in Ringsend. Built a couple of years ago on the banks of the Dodder river, it has never been occupied.
The reason is that the foundations were never "tanked", a process which would stop water from seeping under and into the building .
When the tide is in, the basement is flooded.
Local people have all told me of this sorry mess. A consultant team of engineers from Germany have inspected the building and recommend total removal and a rebuild.(Its a big one)
The lawyers will be the big winners in the end.
Today one of the windows shattered as the building starts to list.
So its days on the Ringsend skyline are numbered.

Spring Forward

The first shot is of the Aras an uictaran. the home of our president. Mary MeAleese.
If you click on it to enlarge the picture you will see the light in the window which was started by Mary Robinson. "I will put a light in the window to help our emigrants find their way home."
Well times are better and many have returned.
Whether it is a better place for all the extra money is a hard one to argue.

The second photo is a group of soon to be doctors who are studying medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons. They are outside Vicker st where they are taking patr in a charity show.
I hope the girls remember to subtract at 40 when they are taking the pulse of old guys like me. They will have to do this compensate for their good looks and to get an accurate reading.
The RCS attracts people from all over the world and it has a great reputation.
When I was young they used to have open days where you would get a walking tour, I don't know if that still goes on.
A great old Dublin thing was to sell your body for science. They gave you a few bob and then they buried you later.

Years ago my brother were passing the side entrance when two undertakers came out carrying a coffin. After they passed my brother said."So much for the second opinion"

Here we are at the change of seasons, clocks will spring forward one hour and before you know it the Summer will be here.

As I write the birds are singing like mad. When you are doing the all night it is a great time(6am).You are finishing the shift and on some high point over the city you pull over and take in the panoramic view of the city in the dawns early light. Some wahere near Bohar na buaina near Tallagh or Howth head.

Did you ever read Strumpet City By James Plunkett ?.
He talks of the great strike and the lockout in the times when workers had no rights?, how things have changed when the Irish now exploit foreign workers.

Irish shipping lines have been caught paying workers just a few euro per hour.
The seamens union have had ships impounded twice to have the men paid.
The deckhands were not union members because the Russian mafia who employed them would not like that.All of the workers were from non EU countries.

The employers say "Not us, we subcontracted the labor from another company"

A Latvian guy who was working as s trainee(dog walker)won back pay and costs. His employer claimed he was a "traineee" So he was not entitled to minimum wage.

Hotels are doing the same. Cleaners, porters etc.
Trainee managers are paid buttons just to get work experience.

So when you get that cappacheno, TIP !

If you don't speak up you would soon become a doormat.

I just fixed up the link to New York taxi shots have a look great photos

Have to get out more.

Its 7 am HAVE A NICE DAY

Then Mothers day

Well St.Patrick's day seems to have been a big hit in Dublin, New York, Cumbria, Canada and wherever Green is worn.
This BIG telly was for the big rugby match.
Now when my lotto comes in this is the kind of telly I will get, .
F*** those ones who boast with their flat screens.
The second one is from my camera phone showing the snowstorm that struck with thunder and lightening on Sun. Sent all the shoppers into taxis.
Mannah from heaven.
Then on Monday night thousands of people descended from the heavens with delayed flights.
There must have been 3/400 people at a time waiting. Our airport has no rail link.
I did what I could but we were all dead beat after the few hectic days.
You know that if we had brains and refused to pay for the pick-up permit the DAA would be forced to let taxis in for free!

I got a letter from the Samaritans today with window stickers for taxis.
A couple of years I had a beautiful girl in the car who as it turned out had just slashed her wrists.
She was going to the hospital and as we were going there she told me her story.

I really couldn't help her but I asked her if she had ever herd of the Samaritans?
She had never herd of them and I had not got their number.
It was a fantastic sunny day and I spoke with her for about an hour,me sitting in the doorway of the Scudo taxi her on the back seat about 4 feet away,I had my back to her most of the time so as not to be a threat.
I get a lot of stick when I say she was the daughter I would have loved to have had (I have 3 sons)but yet again.
It is true

She had a lot of problems a lot of her hurt came from the way her parents were dealing with her.

When she got out of the taxi (another freebie) I went home.

I looked up the Samaritans and wrote to them asking them to print out business size cards with Samaritans details.
Taxi drivers could carry them.
Because you never know what will happen next.
Perhaps an A4 poster for every doctors surgery would be a good idea !.
Now they have issued stickers for taxi back windows.
All thanks to me.
Mind you its not me but what drives me!

I hope she gets the help she wants, or peace in heaven.

The same number of people die in car crashes as die by their own hand.
People who kill themselves leave such fear and despair behind them.

4 good people who I knew and one who I had spoken to just before he died.

Ruari a good guy, great job,beautiful wife and fantastic house.
Laughing and joking asked me to come for lunch." Some other time" I said "Its now or never" were the last words he spoke to me.
An hour later he was dead.
Hung himself.
It was 2 weeks later when I knew he was dead.

People who have decided on this course of action get very elated and it is very hard to pick up that they are happy because they have found the solution to their problems.

So sometimes when you are driving around try to take in the bigger picture.

Think Why is this person going to Beachy Head. Or the Severn Bridge, or even Howth Head.

Get a small business card from your branch of the Samaritans, keep it on the dash.

One last thing.
Young people have run up incredible debts.
Go to the bank they will negotiate with you.
Failing that go bankrupt!
They fear that the most.

But don't top yourself because they gave you money which you couldn't afford in the first place.


Lighten up!
This chap sees the sign .
suits 10.0
jackets 6
trousers 4

So he walks into this shop in London.

I want 2 suits.
4 pairs of trousers
and an overcoat!

Your Irish aren't you says the shop man?

How did you know that ?

Very easy really ,this is a dry cleaners shop