Chill out

I am under a bit of pressure today but I wish to send greetings to the workers on this May day the workers holiday.

Boys and girls chill out don't snap

Something from Sam in Sydney

Cabbie charged with assaulting cyclist who had leg amputated
Last Updated: Friday, November 21, 2008
CBC News

A taxi driver is facing a number of charges, including aggravated assault, in connection with an incident in which a cyclist was badly injured.

The 36-year-old cyclist, who has not been named, was crushed between the taxicab and a hydro pole.

His injuries were so severe that he had to have a leg amputated.

The incident happened at around 2:30 a.m. at the corner of Dovercourt Road and Argyle Street on Nov. 14.

Witnesses told police they heard shouting, followed by the sound of a crash. Then they saw a Beck's taxi leaving the scene and a cyclist lying at the side of the road in obvious pain.

A few hours later a taxi driver contacted police and said he had been assaulted just before the crash.

After investigating for a week, police have now charged taxi driver Sultan Ahmed of Maple, Ont., with criminal negligence causing bodily harm, dangerous operation of a vehicle, failure to stop at the scene of an accident, obstructing a police officer, aggravated assault and assault with weapon.

Ahmed was scheduled to make a court appearance on Friday afternoon.

All work....Lets play

If you never go to veryfunnyads.com you might not have seen this.
Its very good.

But how could anyone have thought of this?



But what was this person on to think up this advert.?



And to finish...

OK just one more..



Have a nice day

Protesting again

Today the protest took the form of a drive around Merrion Square through St Stephens green down to O'Connell St and back again. and there were a lot of scabs.
Taking things from an Irish angle this is what James Connelly said.
While your comrades are protesting any decent person would not work, after all it is not like we the strikers are looking for anything more than the people who choose to work.
The bus protest ended today and the buses rolled again,people hate to be delayed or to have their travel plans upset, but there was a holiday feeling around all morning with the buses gone. Some drivers decided to cross the line and take buses out, some of these buses had their windows broken, so they went back into the bus depot again.

Unlike the bus drivers we are not on an hourly rate, nor do we get sick pay or holiday pay. Though I do respect any workers right to withdraw his labor. If you do not make a stand standards will slip to a level where workers are being paid very badly.
Not even minimum wage, less than that.

Taxi drivers are protesting because there far too many taxis in Dublin, we have more taxis per head of population than anywhere in the world.
New York has around 12,500 cabs Dublin has around 16,000 our city's population is only 2 million.
It is like a pyramid scheme collapsing, everyone who lost his job has a taxi and for each new taxi that comes on stream the incomes of the rest falls, it has to happen that way there is a limited amount of work to go around.
To make ends meet drivers have to work in excess of 60 hours per week, some resort to cheating, Parking in front of Heuston station and walking up to the entrance,"Need a taxi?"(Touting)Or even cheating the passengers in other ways.

As the race to the bottom continues the vetting of new drivers has become non existent. When I applied for my PSV licence 20 years ago I had to wait for over 3 months to be vetted by the Garda,yet there are people driving taxis who were never vetted by the police, some are driving their cousins car which was rented from someone else and its the cousins licence which is on the dash, if you remark that the photo is a poor likeness they say "Its that Oil Of Ulay Ive been using". Brazen is not the word, they know that they won't ever get caught.

Cloning of cars is going on as well.

The taxi regulator sits in her multi million Euro office, with her staff writing great fictional diktats about the size of smoke rings on mars,or other subjects which bear no relevance on reality.These are printed in 7 colors on A1 sheets of paper and sent out around three times per year, at great cost to the taxi driver.

What taxi drivers are marching about in a nutshell is a listening ear, not a lot to ask. A responsive person who is capable of taking action.

A simple thing to ask for.

Its not a lot to ask that someone be accountable for shortcomings in their office.

Well we have local elections and European elections not to mention the other referendum which we voted against the last time.

A few months ago at night the Garda started stopping taxis in block and went through their details, within an hour 1/3 of all the taxis were gone off the streets.

If the number of illegal taxis is so high why is there nothing done about it?

The Garda don't care, its too much bother, they write tickets for taxis which are overhanging the rank while heroin is being sold 50 yards from where they are standing.

There is an interesting case going on at present where a convicted drug dealer was given a haulage licence which had been taken from him. He applied for the new licence in the Irish form of his name.(This is the same guy who was operating quite openly in the area with the local Garda givink him their blessing,the case is currently under investigation)
Well now the Garda in Ardee have to explain how they did not know that this was the same person as the one they were forced to arrest a few months ago.

I need to tidy the house so I will publish and be damned and I will edit it later.

Bus strike.

Citroen 2CV "Dolly" a great car in its day.


A "Frog Eyed" Triumph


Morris Minor "Countryman"



If you know your New York you will know who lived here.


Today we had a bus strike and in the nature of these things the news that Clontarf bus station was on strike leaked out slowly.
Many people were standing at the bus stops as empty taxis passed them by.
I stopped at one bus stop to tell the lady there were no buses, all she wanted to do was to have a big discussion about it. (Shut up and jump in already!) I got 3 at the next stop.
Because of the protest tomorrow Tuesday 28th of April there were a lot of taxis around today, but then there are a lot of taxis around every day.

I heard a story the other day which fits well into the "taxi legends" section.

I picked up this lad a few years ago and he just got out of the taxi and straight into a house. I waited for a while, then I rang the doorbell.
A lady came out,very cross she was. "Why are you ringing on my door at this hour of night?"
A man came in here a while ago and he didn't pay the taxi fare.
"There's only myself and me father here" says she slamming the door.

Well I went down to the Garda station and came back with a senior Garda.
She opened the door again.
"Look Garda there is only me and me father here",producing an old man.

"Garda the man I brought here was 20 years younger,he was very well dressed and polite. I waited for him to kiss his girlfriend good bye before he got into the taxi, he said he was sorry he had delayed me so long."
"With that her angry face changed to rage as she went back into the house, this time kicking the poor husband out before her.
He was a sorry lad he hadn't paid me and he offered me 20 Quid extra to tell his wife it was a lie, but the Garda had other ideas for him.
It is an offense not to pay a taxi fare".



Taxi Drivers For Change





Press release for immediate release





Taxi Drivers For Change intend to surround the houses of the Oireachteas from 15.00 to 16.30 on Tuesday 28th of April to further highlight the ongoing and worsening chaos in the Taxi industry. It is anticipated that this will cause some traffic problems. There will also be separate protests conducted by our supporters around the rest of the country.


TDFC have put together a constructed and mandated list of solutions to solve the problems within the industry but Minister Dempsey persists in denying TDFC the opportunity of putting those suggestions forward by not meeting with us. Drivers are experiencing the worst working conditions ever seen in the industry and are angry at the Minister's lack of interest in addressing them. Minister Dempsey continues to ignore the plight of hardworking Taxi drivers and their families and should take note that this will not be forgotten come election time.


Spokesman for TDFC Frank Byrne comments." We've had enough, our drivers and their families need solutions not rhetoric about reports and studies, our patience has run out".
Oh yes the house Irving Berlin no less.

Houdinis car

I am off to bed after working through a mostly wet night,I just thought I would post this photo of Houdinis car, safely clamped in chains and padlock, when the clampers went away the car just threw off the clamp.

Lucky guy,

Whats the chances of that ever happening again?

Because of the weather I did OK, nothing mad but I got 4 trips out to Firhouse direction at around e20 a pop they paid the rent.
The rain meant that few people were walking, long may it continue.

I saw a red Avensis going round last night with his yellow sticker on the bottom left of his back window and below the mirror in front.
I think this is an illegal taxi,

Where are the enforcers now?




Its that time of the year when you fire up the Massey Fergasun tractor to pull out your boat and get it launched for the summer. The crane is on its way to lift the boats over the sea wall.
When the swallows start to leave the boats get lifted again in the fall.

Here is a very positive piece, quite uplifting really because Evelyn Glennie is totally deaf.
She feels the vibrations through her feet!

I love her voice. Have a look at ted.com

Last term

The rubbish piled up outside a garage door may not mean much, but this is what you see when a tenant moves out.

Polish gone home?

Asylum seeker deported?

Home owner evicted by the banks?

Social change is everywhere. That TV probably works, but its not a flat screen plasma job, so no one wants it. The bike could be fixed up too.

The banks and building societies are bullying people who are behind with their payments. Just a few months behind in payments and the bullying begins. When they turf you out on the roadside and they sell your house at a substantial loss, you will still have to pay all the money outstanding to them plus their costs.
The bankers have paid themselves well, huge pensions and bonuses at a time when they were ruining the financial sector.

Yet their action are going unchecked.

The banks have received huge bundles of cash, but they are not lending to anyone which makes the decline worse.



Perhaps the people will be turning to religion?
Well the relics of St.Threse of Liseaux have come to our local church and people are flocking there. There is a caravan stocked up with holy pictures, rosary beads, and Red Roses.
Business is booming.
Its good to see that people believe in something other than the mighty Euro.
The last time I saw such interest in religious artifacts was when the statues started to move in Ballinspittle many moons ago.
Times were hard then.
It was a kind of mass hysteria, but it did no harm to anyone.

Some gurrier from Ballyfermott went down with a hammer and smashed the statues to pieces,he said it was against Catholic religion to worship statues.

That put an end to that.

In the time of the troubles the IRA were finding it hard to move around Templemore and it is alleged that a statue of Jesus started to bleed real blood....Suddenly sick people were healed and pilgrims started to converge on the town form all over. The police could no longer look for the IRA suspects, instead they had to police the hordes of people.I read an account by someone who was around at the time and he said.
"It was a great thing to see the look of hope on desperate faces, children who had been given no hope were brought by desperate parents, I felt so bad knowing it was a cynical plot to distract us from out duty, that in reality there was no hope there, TB,Polio and other diseases were rampant in Ireland then. It was an awful cheat on peoples trust"

Its hard to understand but if you are dying you will reach for a relic for that special blessing.
I went to south west France once and used Lourdes as a base, cheap hotels good air links to Dublin. The procession of the sick and dying to the Grotto in the morning would soften a heart of stone. The dying children were the hardest on the mind.
But the look of devotion on the faces of the nuns and nurses was something to see, they did believe.I know all religions have places of pilgrimage, Mecca etc

and McDonalds for the heathens.


Just 4 weeks in the school year.


As they say "I used to be an agnostic, Now I just don't know"



Taxi Drivers For Change Protest Calendar





The following are protests planned for the coming weeks:



Tuesday 28th of April



Drive protest from 15.00 until 16.30 start point at Merrion Sq west (Government buildings) to follow a route up Merrion St, Ely place, St Stephens green, Dawson St, Nassau St, Leinster St, Clare St and Merrion Sq. All cars to be available for hire on this route for the period of protest.



Saturday 9th of May



Wives , Partners and Families protest walk. Start from Parnell sq at 12.00 ends at 14.00 at Molesworth St. Speakers will include wives, partners and families. Time to let our families vent their frustrations at this Government and its Minister's arrogance.



Next Protests



The next protest will include a Saturday night protest to let the Government employees working in the industry know that we're not forgetting about them. This will be in mid May (date to be confirmed).



Towards the end of May we will be organising a trip to Trim to emphasise our unhappiness with Mr Dempsey and to let his constituents know how unhappy we are. (Time and date to be confirmed).



CAP ON NEW LICENCES



REVIEW AND RESTRUCTURE THE INDUSTRY







A fund has been set up to pay for anyone's car being clamped or towed away. It costs 20 euro if you wish to join up just contact a committee member.

Spring advances

Dawn over Fairview park, mist on the football pitches, a beautiful day dawns.


The Spanish girl has dark hair, wouldn't you like to drive them to Tara?

If you haven't seen this take a look.

Talent exists in the most unlikely people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z0h1NNk1Ik&feature=related

Or who would remember the phone salesman Paul Potts?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

Its a pity I couldn't embed them but they work fine with a cut and paste.

Well Friday was bad instead of working all night I threw in the towel at 2.00 am and went home. I did not even go out until midnight on Saturday as there was a good old movie on TV about 2 man eating lions killing workers building a bridge in Africa.

There was a big fire on Auinger St, The Capitol pub I believe. This closed off the street from both directions and in true Irish style the traffic was going up to the closed section, turning and coming back down. If anyone had brains they would have stopped the traffic going up at the junctions at either end.

Lucky for me I got a run to Tara Co Meath the ancient seat of the high Kings of Ireland for an agreed fare, anything to get me out of the traffic.
I had 3 girls 2 form Paris and one from Spain.
Well I had a very pleasant 45 Min's trip, one girl had learned English here and still misses the place. Good company shortens any journey, as they say and I would say it was a good trip down.
I told them of my time in Paris learning French, but sadly in my case I forgot it all.
Paris is a beautiful city, the food is great I bet you you won't walk past many of the patisseries in the morning either.The fashion and the beautiful buildings. If you ever wanted to drive F1 have a go on the perifireque, a ring road around Paris.
The people can be a bit of a problem, but when they get to know you they treat you OK.
Just don't take any bullshit when you are there.

What made the bonus is that I got a e35 fare on the way back into town.

Saturday night someone in Dublin won around 14 million euro on the lotto.

Good luck to you whoever you are, look after the poor!

I went down to the ferry and went to take a photo of showbiz coaches going on to the ferry. All blacked out windows around 8 of them. Then it came to me it was Disney on ice moving on. They were traveling in style.
While I was taking the photo another taxi drove past me to the other ferry spot.
When I arrived there he was first I was second.
When the boat emptied he was the only one who got a passenger.

So tonight we had all the people who were off for the duration of the Easter holidays coming back to town.
I didn't have much luck at the train stations as I could not get on the ranks, but there was a concert on at the o2. They were getting into line at 6 am, the concert started around 8.30 pm.
P!nk, never heard of her.
Everyone said it was a great show and they were going to see it again when it came back.

To anyone who has never been to Dublin it has just become incredible how many taxis there are in this city.

Perhaps I should post less, but I thought the French girls would like to see their photo.

Thank your stars.

A fine house on Park Ave

Ferry across to North Shields

I jumped the gun a bit the other day, I meant write about the protest and then finish it tonight,but I pressed the publish button instead of the save one.

I am preparing for a big birthday I will be 60 in May!

I booked a meal with my family, had to organize for the other day..We might not meet all together for a long time.

You know restaurants claim that times are hard,but you try to book a meal for 10 or so and they start to add surcharges etc.

Guys don't bother we went elsewhere!

At a dinner with Paul Daniels the magician once,someone asked how old he was? his answer was that inside he was 12 but his body was considerably older.

That's the way I feel to, but inside I am 14.

I updated the links at the side of the blog and I will be looking at them again, so if you have stopped posting you will be gone off the sidebar for sure.
Glad to see the DC cabby is back at the wheel again.
I put the save the yellow cabs link up..Its a radio show, some of those old gravely voices are great, its a really good show,gives you a great view on taxi life.

I had a magazine clipping from a friend about British cabby's, a really interesting bit of work. One guy was Iranian and he said "Whenever things get really bad and I need a break I just load up the cab and drive home....To Iran, that would be a drive and a half, I wonder what would be on the meter?

Tonight my Mojo is not working, I am driving like a ship that is cursed as I cruise through the streets of our fine capital, I know it is not me but the 16,000 other cabs that keep driving in front of me.
So I dropped anchor and went for a pint of Guinness and I wall try again tomorrow.
I know I have said it before but its very like fishing. Turn left pick up a fare, turn right nothing. Like the fisherman I am casting left or right.

I had a few interesting people and if you yourself do not feature it doesn't mean I think any less of you.
I picked up a lady at the Westbury hotel going to the Gresham hotel in O'Connell st. She needed to talk, about traffic, weather, about anything.
Suddenly she said that she had 5(I think) kids but 2 of them had died. She spoke about a precious 5 year old child who spent time talking to customers in their chemists shop."He was a lovely child,I'm not just saying that because I was his mother. He was killed in an accident and we told the family to come home that he had a broken leg, we didn't want to alarm them, My eldest daughter arrived home to find the black ribbon on the front door. She developed anorexia nervoza from the shock and died shortly after. I lost my youngest and oldest in a very short time."

You know if you think you might have had problems balancing the budget etc. ? Try carrying her load for a few days, add to it a sick husband and cut backs in the health service.

Another lady I picked up on East Wall Road today, she had just finished acupuncture and was heading back to Galway. She had been in a car crash and he road to recovery was a long one. She told me how a car had crashed into her and turned her car into a Cortina (She meant a concertina), One way or another the alternative treatment was helping, but it is a long process.

Your health is all you have.

On Easter Sunday a guy of 23, who was just become engaged was eating Pizza and playing cards with his mates. Then he took a taxi from the bottom of Mount Prospect Ave. Some say the taxi missed the turn for Victoria Rd. But the young guy paid off the taxi and ran over the road towards the Yacht pub only to be killed by a car heading into town,he probably only looked one way before crossing.

You need to be so much on your game all the time, it only takes a second to be killed.

Take care of yourselves and your passengers,

So remember the Lotto will be 12 or 13 million on Saturday, if you win say nothing
to anyone and as they say. "Don't forget the homeless"

Aw Cheer up