Broom Bridge Cabra

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

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

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 !

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 ?

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 ?

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.

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

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.