Le weekend encore

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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