STOP PRESS.

A report just in.
It appears that the taxi regulator Kathleen Doyle has been kidnapped,

A radical Pakistani group with links to Al Kyiada seem to be responsible.

They have made varied demands, but the nub of their demands is that unless they get e10,000 before noon they will burn the hostage.

Taxi drivers have been swift to respond.



They have collected 600 gallons of petrol,,,syphoning continues through the night..

A line in the sand

The TV on O'Connell St.

Today we are having our 24 hour all out nationwide strike.
It is a line in the sand and drivers must decide on which side of the line they stand.
The Garda have been instructed that if this action took place they were to adopt a zero tolerance stance with us,perhaps it will be like the miners strike in the 70s workers versus Police.
I hope not.
The powers that be at the airport phoned around asking any taxis that could do so to pass the picket and pick up passengers.Even those taxis which had no permit.
The word soon went back to them that if this happened the taxi drivers would blockade the airport.

Good to relate that a bit of common sense prevailed.

It was a very successful strike in so far as very few drivers worked.

Lads if you did work for one of the big radio companies more fool you.
These companies are reducing your fares to build up their business, all that without giving you a 20% reduction in base fees. Don't kid yourselves we saw you pulling into loading bays with your for hire lights on.

I went to Heuston where I did 2 hospital runs to Blackrock clinic and Vincents hospital, they promised to make donations to the value of the fare.

I hope the next time there will be better emergency cover, its wrong to refuse transport to a cancer patient. You should give it free if you are on strike.

So now the line is drawn on the sand its time to stand together or to go home and sit in the corner.

Sorry lads I have tried to read the Goodbody report, still haven't made sense of how we need 6 times the ratio of taxis per head of population here than in any other city.

The TV reports again said the Taxi Drivers For Change are not a trade union.

As if you have to join a union to make change happen

O2 blues

Browns restaurant St.Stephens Green


Archers garage an "Art Deco" building knocked down and re built under duress.


My only photo of the O2 building


Saturday today I only found out that when I went to buy the paper, I thought it was Sunday. Its that old Dejas Vous feeling again.

Last night Tina Turner knocked out and wowed her audience, she has 3 or 4 dates booked.
Everyone was in awe of the show and everyone could not believe that a woman of 69 could do so much so well with so much energy and look so great as well.

Well as for the O2 venue I am not happy at all about at how the taxis or the punters were treated.
They plan to build an extension to the Luas tram to the point, but the line is under construction. So they ferry the punters back down to and from various locations via coach.
All fair and well,
BUT they won't allow taxis to pick up or drop off customers at the venue. I joined a queue of taxis waiting for the concert to end last night, just as the first customers came out a Garda car came along with his blue lights flashing and moved us all off,Empty. I drove down Sheriff St and back around via Glenforbes rd. A Garda came down and moved us off even though some of the other guys had meetings arranged at that spot.
The limos and private cars were allowed to stay.
Down the quays and back across and around again, waiting on East Wall road until the trickle became a flood of people I drove back up towards the 02 again this time I got 4 people heading into town, I had to drive up to the roundabout and back again and when driving past the Garda one of them ran forward an shook his fist at us, my group were 4 ladies 2 from N.Ireland and 2 from Cornwall and to say the least they found it intimidating, but as I said at the time if I had shook my fist at him I would have been arrested.
When a crime happens they ask if anyone would come forward and wonder why taxi drivers are reluctant to help.
On dropping them off the first couple gave 1/2 the fare to the second couple, the second couple then paid me the total fare at the end of the journey,, when I checked the change not only were they not correct , but they were short a euro, after all that effort e5 tip would have been well in order, after all I had brought them the quickest route home.
I was threatened with a parking ticket a few weeks ago at the o2, I told the lunatic Garda that I had a lady in a wheelchair, she didn't care, I said I was unloading anyhow. Then I said that the Lady's niece was a judge so if she did write the ticket we would be seeing her in court. Before she had written the ticket another Garda dragged her away.
A mate of mine Seamus got a e60 fine for dropping 4 lads off, no mercy there.

Tonight is another chance for them to catch me.

If you know someone in planning or in transport perhaps you could help to get proper access for public transport to that venue.
I feel that bribes must have been paid to allow this situation to arise.
It is not right that people in wheelchairs cannot get a proper pick up and drop off spot.
People on crutches or infirm people wobbling round, its dangerous too.

Mr Tommy Gorman our union leader has been made aware of my concerns since the first opening show.

Well I won't expect any action from him.

Anyhow these shows will boost our business before concerts and with a bit of luck we will get something afterwords.

Look boys and girls, the tv news is not carrying this story, Or the newspaper either.

There is an all out taxi strike on Monday from 3AM to 3 AM Tuesday, if you are making plans keep this in mind, this is a nationwide all out strike.

One thing to remember if you are self employed you are not allowed to join a trade union, if you are employed by a company you may join a union. If you have a trade and are self employed you may join an association. Many of the "Hacks" do not know this ands they say this group are not a recognised union.

Part of the plan might be not to mention it so as to anger the traveling public.

Just because you are PARANOID DOESN'T MEAN THEY ARE NOT TRYING TO GET YOU!

Dracula, a story for Dublin

Monkeys playing billiards where else would you see it?



This country cottage is right in the heart of Dublin.
Do you know Where ?



Apartments for sale,not one sold..

That Italian lad I met the other day has a blog find it hereHis photo album is very good. He also gave me a very good website to see photos on www.pbase.com Some great photos there too

There was an advert in the paper from the taxi regulator inviting comment on the Goodbody report.
You should order your own copy of the report from 1890 347 347 or go to the website www.taxiregulator.ie.

The report has made no reference to the ratio of taxis per head of population, I had some figures once, at that time we had the highest ratio in Europe, the next closest had half the ratio. ie. Ireland had say 6 taxis per thousand, Hamburg had 3 per thousand and London had 1 per thousand.
When I get those figures as Sarah Palin once said "Ill get back ta ya on that n"

One thing which sticks out is the introduction of tachometers which will record drivers working hours,,,big brother will really be here then.

My day off Tuesday was spent mowing the lawn the first time this year and fixing someones burglar alarm. People are getting more security conscious now after a guy got stabbed by an intruder in Ballybough the other day.
They held on to the robber though.

You know the older I get the more I see the need to bring back the BIRCH, Ah a good whipping would work wonders on the likes of petty thieves and handbag snatchers.

Judges seldom get broken into as their houses are well guarded and alarmed so they have no idea what it is like to be robbed.

There was a judge here in Dublin who was very lenient with young offenders until she had her handbag stolen. In the snatch she was spun around and broke her hip.

On her return to the bench a young handbag snatcher on his first offence got a 12 month sentence, he would have got a caution before she herself was robbed.

I had a guy in the taxi today whose own business has picked up no end,he took a phone call,"Well if those assets are yours all you have to do is provide us with paid invoices and we will allow you for them,, no I can't allow that.
At 10.30 I will be in court for a winding up order, Its 9 am now"

He was of course "The liquidator"

A very well paid job.

And he knows a guy I went to school with. Derek E***.

So you see every cloud has a silver lining ....For someone.

South Circular Road to North Circular road Hanlons corner (Methadone clinic) then to Raheny post office for payments, then back to South Circular Rd...e40...unemployed heroin addicts with more money than me.

It must be a good job.

No! not for a minute, but I would love to know how the system works.


Did you see any of the adverts around ?, "One city, one book,,,,Dracula"

The guy who wrote the book Bram Stoker was a Clontarf man and they are projecting the idea as a kind of tourist attraction......

Wait a minute!!!!
In my mind this is a story about drug addicts,

yes.

The pale gaunt ones with sunken eyes who move on the edge of society.
They infect one another and become the living dead.
In order to carry on they supply drugs to other vulnerable people, who in turn create even more addicts.

They are not seen to eat much and live off the blood of their victims.

Do you get the idea now?

I will be like the guy in the movie I will keep a crucifix on the dash and a wooden stake and a hammer in the boot.

Try explaining that to the judge !.

Or perhaps it is this job, driving around in an empty carriage looking for the living while Dracula our evil master,who lives in her big castle on Fitzwilliam square speaks in words which make no sense.

Taxi drivers for change have called for an all out strike on the 30th of March.

KATHLEEN "ITS GOOD TO TALK" Some of these protests are getting violent.
Lets hope you don't have an appointment in St.Lukes cancer hospital on that day.

Monday Monday

Manny's the person thought they woke up here today



Getting ready for the big welcome home party.



The weather over the weekend was fantastic and the trees and flowers are blooming too. Gives your heart a little lift.

Well what a roller coaster week that was.
Ireland beating Wales by a heartbeat to win the triple crown and the Grand Slam.
First time in 61 years.
Bernard Dunne won the WBA world champion boxing belt.

Both contests were close to the end.

To hell with the recession.

I would say a lot of people did not turn up for work today.

I met a fan the other night, 2 girls going up to Drumcondra when the conversation suddenly went quiet.

"I am going to ask you something which may sound odd.....Do you write a blog?"

Fortunately she liked it and reads it twice a week. Wow I have 4 readers including you yourself who are reading it now.

Today I had a girl going from Kilmainham out to Cherryorchard methadone clinic and back,on the way over she said there was a strong smell of urine from her jeans saying that the laundrette mustn't have washed them well.
When she came back into the car she went ballistic "Its from this fucking car"
She ranted on about how she was going to have to wash all her clothes and have a shower to get the smell off herself.
I let her off e5 off the e20 fare and went home to investigate.
I asked my wife who has a keen sense of smell to sit in the back.
"Yes there is a smell, its PVC from the new seat covers"
It may have been a guise to get out of paying anything, she had more money in her pocket than I had anyhow.

Kinda upset my day that did.


Interesting guy from Holland heading to Bullock harbor who has a hairdressing business. He spoke about rents and how much you have to make before you make any money at all. I am going to cover it later.


For the danger of drink look no further

Today was a better day than any of the so called busy days over the weekend, perhaps the run to the airport to Ryanair offices and call back in 1/2 an hour and back into town made up my day.

Last trip of the day I was on the way home when I got an Italian lad going to Barrow st..He works for Google and was just hitting the wall with regard to jet lag, He was just back form New York, when you come back you have a hell of a long day and thats for sure.

There is a bit of gang warfare going on in Limerick at the moment.
Things were getting out of hand so one of the gangs bought 2 bulletproof BMWs,
The CAB (criminal assets bueau) decided that they were the spoils of crime and took them away.
Then to add insult to injury Philip Collopy was demonstrating the correct way to kill a victim with a Glock pistol and shot himself dead.

You should ALWAYS treat a gun as LOADED.

Photos from around Newcastle

These photos did not copy to the post on Newcastle.
Just when I checked the blog again the photos appeared again.

Hows that for the price of a pint !

The Tyne". This lifeboat saved more than 1,000 lives before she was retired.

The angel of the north.
Her wingspan is wider than the statue of liberty is tall, near Gateshead.
Those dots at the base are people, if you click on the photo it gets bigger.

All ayes are turning to Cardiff where Ireland play Wales in the 6 nations cup.



"Come on Ireland"

Fridays march

The weather vane on the top of South Shields town hall reflecting its proud naval past.


The wearing of the green.



After all that time I spent training those chimps not a word of thanks.
why do I bother?

Taxi protest at 8 am Friday, another drive from Airside and Stillorgan,
Look here

I spent a good bit of time reading through the Goodbody report,its tough work, its just full of cotton wool and jargon.

None of the real problems have been looked at.
Nowhere in the report does it ask why some taxi drivers do not know the major streets of Dublin?

Or how well the new drivers are vetted who are entering the business?

We did have a rape and a sexual assault here last year.

In London a black cab driver may have raped in excess of 100 women.

How well would our present system work?

The regulators door is locked to the taxi industry.

She speaks through a PR company and never speaks until she has a well scripted piece.
Her office should field the Irish cricket team, she is all spin.

One point in the report says there is no reason to cap the number of taxis.
And the report states that new entrants will make a good living.

What planet was this report done on?.

Why have we more taxis per head of population than any other city in Europe?
I would like to see someone try and treble the number of taxis in Paris, there would be blood on the streets.

Taxi drivers can't get on to ranks and face tickets, the new ones are e250.
"Plying for hire in an unapproved Place" He was waiting at Connelly station.

Well did you go to mass on St.Patricks day?



I was heading up towards Lidl in Coolock when she waved me down, a slim girl with jeans and a red top, "Just down to Edenmore to the chemists then back up to Greenwood".

There was something about her that I couldn't put my finger on. You have to listen for the clues and I had missed one.

I'll be back in a minute and she went into the chemist, I stood out of the car to stretch my back, later when I looked into the chemists to see what was keeping her I saw her knocking back her methadone.

Methadone has a bad taste since they stopped giving it in sugar syrup (which is why so many druggies had bad teeth) She came out with a look of someone after sucking a lemon.

"Oh I forgot I need to buy credit for my mobile".

She went into the newsagents, when she came back she said I have to go to the other newsagents their machine is not working. She put her backpack into the taxi and went off, ten minutes later I walked around the corner to see her on one knee dialing her phone "I couldn't see it in the sun mister, well be going in a minute"

A few minutes later 2 kids of around 10 years of age pulled up, she ran over and gave them the money and got her drugs, so off wen went not mentioning anything unusual.

What I should have spotted firstly was her skin it was like a mask, junkies look like that, I don't know why.

The fare? e11.20.... easy money.

Today I was telling a young guy this story, "I don't know why people take drugs, after all they must know what it will do to them.
My own mother went on drugs when I was 6."
A story followed on of neglect and cruelty.
He was reared by an aunt, "My mother turned up once,but her brain was fried, we couldn't get much sense from her, then she went away again, I don't know where she is now"

He is a great young lad, doing sound engineering, recording studios etc.
I wish him the very best for the future.

Success often comes from a rocky start, sometimes it makes you focused,try harder and concentrate better.
Other times it destroys you too.


Did you hear about the dislexics who marched on the Dail to protest about the cutbacks ?


They finished up in Aldi.

St Patricks day greetings.

Then there is this


And this





Happy St Patricks day to you all, to my right, Australia etc, who have had it to my left to America and on to Hawaii who will have it soon.


Must go.

Newcastle

This pub was as old as time,serves "real ale"


This lifeboat saved more than 1,000 lives before being put on display.


Angel of the north, those dots at the base are people.





Just back from Newcastle, a rum place no doubt, ya wouna went ta bea tat fast day at English mon like.
A very strong accent.Every one of them talked like Jimmy Nail

The Angel of the North was something to see near Gateshead, built with 200 tonnes of steel,its wing span is longer than the Statue of Liberty is Tall, which is a fair span.
Another town close by was Jarrow the starting point for the famous Jarrow marchers, who marched to London in protest over jobs.

It was a tough town, I was in a pub on Saturday night for a nightcap and around 15 people in the pub had black eyes and 4 or 5 of them of them were women. You would have to be tough to live there though as the wind cuts through you from the North Sea.
I was in South Shields and the police cars were going up and down Ocean Road breaking up fights all night. A lively spot for many of the wrong reasons.

On the way to the plane I was walking beside Nial Quinn the footballer, he is a good guy, supports children's charities. He gave the money from his testimonial football to 2 children's hospitals. He has his feet on the ground, As I often say it must be great to be good at something which comes easily, to get well paid for it is a bonus and to be well liked for what you do must be the icing on the cake.

Anyhow I am back and we have a big day tomorrow StPatricks day.

Newcastle

David Meade RIP calls for silence at one of the marches.
We are better for his actions and we must work on to make things better in his memory.


An old girl a V8 Rover in great nick.
A rare car.

Its hard to believe that David has passed on, our struggle to turn around the mess we now find ourselves in must continue.

Hello to the girl from Sydney was was in tears .
Her story was this. She had come here to Ireland on a working visa and her plan was to move to London for a year and work there.
She was told by the embassy to apply for the UK visa when her Irish visa ran out.
She went to apply and was told that as here Irish work visa had expired she was no longer a resident of Ireland and she should have applied before her Irish visa ran out.
Which was not what she was told.
Now she has to fly back to Australia to reapply for the UK visa.
There was no process of appeal.
She was in floods of tears, don't blame her either.
An older person would have spoken to the person face to face and noted their name, No harm to bring a witness with you in case you miss a point.

You know Homeland Securities who look after entry to the USA are so rude that I for one will not be making the effort to go back there again. I think the people in charge should look at the manner and demeanor with which they "confront" the visitor. There is no "Welcome to America" there at all.

I had a lucky one the other day, fed up waiting for work at the rank I headed off and caught a fare on South Great Georges St going to East Wall. Just dropped him off when a Merc flashed me to stop.
I thought he was lost.. no. "Do you know Phil Coulter the songwriter? Well I want you to bring this to his house in Bray."

Happy days.

Phil has written many songs,It was a bit like being asked to go to Paul McCartneys house, one song he wrote was this one. Thoughts about his downs syndrome son. Sung here by a very young Luke Kelly.

As far as great songs go there are few songs more powerful than these 2.



Another of his songs about the troubles in Derry much loved by John Hume.
The town I loved so well.



Great songs without a doubt.


Here is Phil singing it himself a bit of footage too.

It must be a great thing to be able to create something, which comes to you without effort,which provides you with a living and just by saying your name you can get a table in the restaurant, that's the bonus.

Well I saw a magic convention was on in South Shields months ago, so I booked my flight and Friday is the big day.
Never been to Newcastle before,The angel of the north's artist is building us a landmark for the Liffey soon.

Looks like I need a rest too much negative things going on a present.
All the doom and gloom is getting me down.(Must be a song there)
Perhaps I will find a way to make the regulator vanish, I hope so.

Goodbody report

My sympathy to the family and friends of David Meade who died the other day.
David is one of the founder members of the taxi drivers for change.

He felt it his duty to speak out and organize when the unions and other leaders had abandoned us.

I hope his spirit will lead us forward as we move into the next stage of our protests.

God bless and protect you and your kin.

Keep an eye on us.

RIP.



The taxi industry had been waiting for the Goodbody report on the taxi and hackney industry in Ireland.

I got a copy and started to read it.

It is total fiction !
Speaking of what a good job the taxi regulator has done..

Wait a minute...Taxi drivers not even knowing where O"Connell St. is ?.

I had that from a Senator the other day.

Taxi queues a mile long and he says there is no need to cap the numbers?

Hello !

On page 7 he says Cab drivers have to work longer hours to achieve their income targets and on an hourly basis they are earning well below the current average industrial wage..

They do not even reach the basic minimum wage.

Also on page 7 he also says that the guys who work part time do between 30 and 45 hours at their day jobs. And (wait for it)Some (1 in 5) work in excess of 75 hours in total........
Imagine your kids getting into a taxi where the driver has worked over 70 hours.


Is this guy on tablets?

Or has he forgotten to take them ?

There is nothing in this report that is relevant to the situation we are now in.

If the taxi fleet in Dublin was halved today there would still be too many taxis in Dublin.

There are 18 million people in Manhattan.
They have around i3,000 taxis in New York.
We have 20,000 taxis in Dublin pop 2 mill
They have 13,000 taxis.
We are the highest taxi ratio per head of population in the world!

Why are more cars allowed on the streets ?.

He also says in the report that anyone entering the trade will make a good living.

The person who drew up this report is badly deluded, or dishonest.

I am not qualified to go through it. But how in all honesty anyone could study the chaos of the taxi industry in Dublin and could write such a report is beyond any logical explanation.

Perhaps we could employ some expert to read it and draw the correct conclusions.

Mary Lou McDonald says its crap too.
This report pushes taxi drivers backs to the wall.

The taxi protests over the past few weeks have cost other industry's thousands of euro.

This report is like throwing a match into the explosives shed.

Would it not make more sense to talk?

I mean dialogue, not "this is not in my remit" Stone wall talk



A professor was studying a circus flea.

He said "Jump" and the flea sailed through the air for one meter.(He measured it)

He wrote his notes.

Then with a tweezers the fulled off one of its legs.

"Jump" He only managed 78 cm.(He took note)

You get the gist.

By evening time the poor flea had only one leg left and at the command it only managed a millimeter.

On the removal of the last leg the flea remained where it was..

His report read that the flea became progressively deaf with the removal of its legs until it was totally deaf!!!!

Bit like this report.

We are not making contact.

Murder

I am in a state of shock over the murder of two off duty soldiers in Northern Ireland yesterday evening.
The were due to go to Afghanistan today and tried on their desert uniforms, then to celebrate their last night in Antrim they rang Dominos pizza.

When they came out to collect the pizza gunmen opened fire, when they were on the ground the gunmen came forward and shot them again at point blank range.
The gunmen then shot the pizza delivery men and two other civilians who came out to see what was going on. One of the delivery men from Poland is critical.

The delivery men were shot as collaborators with the British forces.

This is a total dastardly act of terrorism.

There is no place for it in any society.

Just like the Omagh bombing which killed 29 people whose only crime was to go to buy clothes for going back to school.

It is very hard to fathom what is going on in the minds of these twisted evil people.

This was not done in with the wishes of any Irish person I know.

My deepest sympathy to all their relations and friends.

Anyone with a voice should shout STOP

Nothing Doing.

This is how the Garda park, out of gear,handbrake off.
If you want to get out you have to shunt the cars.

A fine house Harcourt Tce

Long Hall pub


Well I got measured up for new glasses the other day.When it was raining at night I had a slight problem looking into the shadows.
I am glad I did not go to this guy.I did however change opticians and the new glasses are spot on.
The last optician who tested me said the glasses were right, though I felt they were wrong.
Its hard to hold on to customers when you fob off their complaints like that. It would have cost them very little to do it right, a good job is better than a whole advertising campaign, at least I think so.

Andrea Bochelli was on in the O2 the other night, 3 people from my house went one in a wheelchair. Do you know that there is no designated area for dropping off or picking up a wheelchair, nor is there proper access for taxis after the show. Some of the people I saw were elderly and on crutches and were no way fit for the wait for buses or the walk home..
On the way back my wife asked a Garda where Castleforbes Road was, he didn't know, him standing 20 yards form it.
Taxis can't get up there and there is no rank anyhow.

What kind of a planning department have we to allow such a chaotic situation to arise.

Tonight Saturday night I am back home, too many taxis and not enough customers.

Crunch time for many drivers now as tempers flair at the ranks. With so many Taxis with bald tires and faulty lights I see standards slipping every day, then again it might just be me.

A good job well done Kathleen Doyle, taxi regulator..

Spoke to a guy who sits in the Shanad, got into a taxi on the Stephens Green rank and asked for O'Connell St.The driver didn't know where it was and when the customer pointed the direction the taxi shot down Grafton St, a pedestrian area for 30 years.
A Garda sent him back up, every time the customer told him to turn he went the other way. On arrival in O'Connell St. there was e20 on the meter.

"I gave him a e5 and told him to buy a map"

I do believe him even though he is a politician.

I met a guy who sells photographs on Grafton St. the other day, an interesting guy he has a photograph of the Christmas lights on Grafton St at night, with no one in sight. You can see the care he took as the shot is so clear and sharp in focus.
He explained to me that It did not happen by accident, he had to meter the light and set the exposure, also he used a special film ans then he had to wait until the street was empty.But its a good shot, I think I will buy a copy.

I love photographs look at this siteClick on the top bar photographers, then on the names then click on the portfolio, I bet you will have seen many of the photographs before.
Bloomsbury auctions in NY have sales,the prints often make $2,000 a piece.
You can buy prints much cheaper than that though.

I heard a thing on the radio. The air sea rescue in Ireland is run by a Canadian company at a cost of over e20 million every year. We have an air corps. They used to do the job until their helicopters became obsolete. Then the job was given to the Canadians, then the Irish air corps got new choppers,, which can do the job, but the tender was never given out again, so the air corps ferry politicians around to attend meetings in style.

Its no wonder we are in a bit of a pickle.

The other day at the Westbury hotel this (Brit)Geezer came along. The oldest swinger in town 66+ wanted to have a fight with the toughest taxi driver there, no one took the bait and he said "I'm an entertainer" as he staggered into Little Cesar's restaurant, from which he was ejected, then in the other door from which he was ejected again. A few minutes later I left the rank to see him being given the bums rush from another cafe.
He looked like but was not one of the Rolling Stones, in this day and age of cameras on phones he should be more careful (could he have been Rod Stewart) Wow I could have hit him and had a paparazzi moment at the same time...
Drink is an awful curse.

Thank God I have not had any near life changing experiences to report, but if I do I will report them DV
I know that when I publish I will remember what bit of news I had to tell.

I heard that the dislexics had a march on the Dail .

But they finished up at Aldi

The drive to town

The inside of a model T.
Note the pedals are marked B and C

Another fine Ford.

The Northside taxis assemble.

Yet another protest today, but this time instead of marching....We drove into town from 3 locations. Surprise Surprise it made all the newses!
The other marches got no recognition at all.

The union leaders said that we should not march!

We should wait for the Goodbody report(or whoever it is) to come out.
Delaying tactics is not an option, Taxi drivers in Dublin cannot make a living any more.

Taxi drivers are now coming into the business not knowing where O'Connell St is.
Imagine being in New York and the taxi driver asks you to show him the way to Penn station? Its gone mental.

Just wait until there is a murder, then people will be asking questions.

Why wait until that happens, tighten up the rules now.

I had a politician in the car the other day.He told me that he got into a taxi in Stephens Green and asked to go to O'Connell st."Where is that"asked the driver.
He pointed the direction and the driver headed off down Grafton St,. and only a Garda stopped him he would have gone down the whole way. Every time I said left he went a different way until we arrived in O'Connell St with more than e20 on the meter.
I gave him a e5 and told him to buy a map.

This guy will be telling Kathleen Doyle this story soon, and she will say" No Problem" "That's her answer to everything" he said

You know I think this guy is on our side.
I had to leave the demonstration at 3.pm, but all the people who spoke to the press spoke well, I hope that someone in power listened too, after all we may not have a voice .

BUT WE HAVE A VOTE.

The sequal

If you don't know what it is then it must be modern art.

Well If you have not read the posting which won My own personal Blog Oscar you should read it on the proceeding page first.

Before you read this one.


The Wrong Guy

In my last post ("Doctor Evil") I mentioned someone whom I realized I once had in my taxi back in 1999. You know this person, too, or at least you know of him. You may have never seen his face, but you have spoken of him from time to time.

Has something like this ever happened to you? You are walking on a crowded city sidewalk in a pretty good mood, just minding your own business, when someone walking in the opposite direction bumps into you and knocks you off balance for a moment. But instead of apologizing to you or asking you if you're all right, he turns back and says, "Get the fuck out of the way, asshole."

Or this? You are waiting in line at the QuickChek and someone a foot taller than you blatantly cuts right in front of you with his beer just as you were about to step up to the cashier. You think of saying something to the guy but he looks like a thug, so you just keep your mouth shut and stand there with your half-gallon of milk.

In both cases your urge to react in a forceful way is suppressed by the consideration of what the consequences might be if you did. You might be injured. Hell, you might be killed. You might be arrested and charged with assault. You might have a lawsuit on your hands.

So you stand there and take it. But you soothe your anger by thinking this thought: "Someday that guy is gonna meet the wrong guy." The wrong guy is not you, so you let it pass. But you know he's out there somewhere and it's just a matter of time before he evens the score with this sub-human who was just so incredibly rude to you.

It was the "wrong guy" who got into my cab that night in 1999. I had taken a fare out to Jackson Heights in Queens at midnight on a Saturday night and was heading back toward Manhattan on Northern Boulevard. Suddenly a man came running to the street waving his hand at me. I stopped the cab, he got in, and we drove off.

The first thing I noticed about him were his physical characteristics. He was short - maybe 5 feet, seven inches - thickset, muscular, probably close to fifty years old. He appeared to be Hispanic-American and spoke without an accent.

The next thing I noticed was that he was in a state of extreme agitation. Without any prior conversation these alarming words came shooting out of his mouth: "FUCKING BASTARD! DAMN FUCKING BASTARD!"

"What's the matter?" I asked.

His answer startled me again. Not only because of what he said, but the way he said it. He actually started to cry.

"Oh my god," he sobbed in a lowered voice, "I hope I didn't kill him."

"What happened?" I asked.

"THAT STUPID FUCKING BASTARD!" he screamed. "WHO THE FUCK DOES HE THINK HE'S TALKING TO? I WAS IN NAM, I DON'T HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THIS SHIT!"

"What happened??"

My passenger began crying again. "I think I killed him," he blurted out as he covered his face in his hands. "Oh, God, I hope I didn't kill him."

To say that this guy was "upset" would be an understatement. He was riding on a wave of emotion that went up to anger and down to grief like a yo-yo, back and forth. He was literally inconsolable. It took the full ten minutes of the ride for me to piece together what had happened.

He'd been sitting in a bar, alone, minding his own business. Just having a couple of drinks and brooding to himself about his own troubles. Three rowdy guys entered the bar and sat nearby. One of these guys decided it would be a good time to have some fun at my passenger's expense. He began making belittling comments at him while his buddies laughed. He wouldn't let up and it led to a brawl.

The fight was no shoving match. It was an outright slugfest which ended with the rude guy collapsing on the floor from a chop to his neck which may have crushed his windpipe. He gasped desperately for air before slumping over, unconscious, possibly dying. My passenger ran out of the bar to the street looking for a taxi. My cab became his getaway car.

What the sack of shit didn't know when he decided to forget his manners was that he had finally met "the wrong guy". His object of ridicule was an ex-Marine who knew martial arts and was in no mood to take crap from some punk.

When we arrived at his destination, I advised him not to talk to anyone else about this incident other than a priest. Not to let his feelings of guilt put him into a jail cell. He thanked me and disappeared into the night. I never learned any further information about what may or may not have happened that night.

I found it interesting to observe that, although he may have just killed someone, I felt no fear in being alone with him in my cab. He wasn't my wrong guy. I don't have a wrong guy because I don't go around intentionally insulting strangers.

But we've all met people who do. And it was fascinating to meet the guy they will eventually run into.

Protest drive through.

Taxi Protest, Thursday 5th March @ 12pm

Copied from Roy

From, Taxi Drivers for Change:

Protest Drive, Thursday 5th, March 2009

Assembly Points:
Northside - Airside Retail Park
Southside - Stillorgan Shopping Centre
Westside - Liffey Valley S.C. @ Marks & Spencer

Drivers from the Southside - assemble at 12pm and drive to St. Stephens Green
Drivers from the Northside and West - assemble at 12pm and drive to Merrion Square

(for a rally at Government Buildings).
Please co-operate with the stewards and continue to protest with dignity.

Remember to leave Access for Emergency Vehicles.
Place your Roof sign sideways on
The Demands;

* Suspend the issue of new licences Now!
* Allow us to participate in Root & Branch review and restructure of our own Industry.
* Save our Jobs!

One Driver - One Car………and…………………

Bring your Banners

Blog Oscars!!!!

This building had the floors put in and then the recession hit.
So they "wrapped"The building, to show just what it would be like when it would be when finished.
Lets hope they will finish it soon.


I have read a good few blogs as well as writing this one.

There was a Blog Awards a few weeks ago, also the Top 100 Blogs and the Oscars.

This set me thinking.

Which Blog do I like the most?

And which was the best post I ever read?

The best blog is "Cabs are for Kissing"

And here is the posting which is the deepest one I ever read.

Its like a dangerous adventure!!

With a sequel.

If not for this post,but for what followed.

So here it is from New York Mr.G.S.


Doctor Evil
Halloween is a special time in New York City. It's one of the most celebrated holidays of the year (even though it technically isn't a holiday at all), right up there with Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July. If it falls on a weekday, as it did this year, there are actually two Halloweens. The first is the Saturday before Oct. 31st, and the second is Halloween itself. The Halloween parties occur on the Saturday. The Halloween parade in Greenwich Village (which drew nearly a million people this year) and the children trick-or-treating take place on Oct. 31st itself (a Tuesday this year).

I'm telling you, it's a big deal.

One of the things I find fascinating about that day is how quickly people can adjust themselves to a new reality. Some guy is walking around dressed up as a pack of cigarettes and some girl is crossing the street in a bumblebee outfit and nobody looks twice at them. Because it's Halloween. I think if suddenly the accepted fashion became wearing a red ball over your nose like a clown it would seem perfectly normal within just a few days.

Anyway, now that I'm blogging I thought I would take pictures of all the people in my cab who were wearing costumes


like these guys

and this guy

and maybe have a best-costume-in-my-cab contest. But an incident occurred at around 2 AM of the first Halloween night (Saturday) that took away all my enthusiasm for taking pictures of people dressed up like draculas, batmen, and wicked witches of the easts. And for a couple of days I was in a rare funk, hardly communicating with anyone at all.

Disturbing incidents almost always breeze right over my shoulders and glide on out into the universe. After 29 years of taxi-driving I have developed an immunity to them. I even look at the occasional jerk who gets in my cab as being a part of the Parade of Humanity and try to find something about him that interests me. But this particular jerk on Saturday night... this guy... he must have slipped in through a crack in the floorboard. He really got to me.

Even so, the truth is I wouldn't choose to write about it if I didn't have a point to make. And the point is this: the thing we call "civilization" is held together with a glue called "restraint". Here's what happened...

I picked up three thirty-something people - two girls and a guy - coming out of one of the trendy clubs on 27th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues. They were all in costumes. The guy wore a red, white, and blue jumpsuit which I thought was supposed to be some kind of super-hero thing like Captain America, but it turned out to be an Evel Knievel (a famous motorcycle stuntman) outfit. In fact, the guy even looked like a young Evel Knievel. The girls - I don't know what they were supposed to be, but they were wearing fishnet stockings. Their destination was Murray Street in lower Manhattan.

I thought I would strike up a conversation with this group as I was interested in taking their picture at the end of the ride. But it was one of those fares in which the passengers were just into themselves and had set up a mental barrier to keep the cab driver out of their world. And most likely they'd been drinking or were on drugs. I asked the guy early in the ride if he was Captain America and got a reply not from him, but from one of the girls, that he was Evel Knievel.

But other than that there was no communication between us during the ride. I had already decided against asking them to pose for a picture and just drove along listening to the radio and wasn't paying much further attention to them, except to notice that the guy and one of the girls, who I assumed was his girlfriend, were bantering with each other and it was souding like an unpleasant, low-level argument.

It was when we arrived at their luxury high-rise on Murray Street that things suddenly got ugly.

The meter was $11 and the guy tells me he has to go into his building to get the money. This is bad taxi etiquette because he has waited until the end of the ride to make the announcement. If he'd been by himself the immediate suspicion would be that he's trying to beat the fare. But since he was with the two girls, it was no big deal. The girls wait in the cab with the meter running until he gets back with the money. Happens all the time. As long as he doesn't take too long, it's not an issue.

But then, without any explanation to me, he orders the girls out of the cab, telling them to wait on the sidewalk until he gets back.

What??

In all my years, no one had ever done this. It struck me immediately as being completely out of bounds and I turned around in my seat a bit to tell them that normal procedure was for the girls to remain in the cab until the money arrived. I had to raise my voice slightly to be heard as I was being ignored. Then, quite out of nowhere, Mr. Knievel went ballistic on me.

Now I am not one to repeat vile profanity, but if I was, this is what I would tell you he screamed at me:

"No, they are getting out of the cab, you fucking piece of shit. They're getting out of the cab, asshole."

Whaaat??

Needless to say, I was stunned. If anyone ever talks to me that way, which is never, I would probably know what had provoked it. But this came out of the blue. He ushered the girls out of the cab and told them to wait right there and then started walking toward his building.

"What do you think I'm going to do, drive away with them?" I said to him before he was out of earshot. Some sarcasm was the best I could come up with.

"That's exactly what I think you're going to do, you fucking piece of shit," he called back, and then walked into his building and was out of sight.

It's one thing if some moron is a semi-coherent drunk and throws an insult in your face. You know he's drunk and can be tolerated. But Evel wasn't semi-coherent. Evel was evil. The suddeness of his verbal assault and the perception that he knowingly wanted to humiliate, belittle, and degrade me restimulated an anger that was powerful enough to make my hands tremble. It's the kind of anger that can immediately escalate into violence, with the point to be made being, "You can't talk to me like that!" It's the kind of anger that brings you right to the precipice - the desire to strike back vs. the consequences of striking back suddenly becoming a monumental struggle. It's the stuff that manslaughter is made of.

The two girls who were now standing on the sidewalk up to this point had not said a word. I vented some of my anger by telling them their friend was the most insulting person I'd ever met and wasn't a candidate to live a long life. And then one of them shed some light on the situation. She told me that the other girl standing there had been in a taxi a couple of weeks ago and passed out in the back seat. She woke up to find her driver molesting her.

Whoa.

Okay, that was terrible and I told her I was sorry that happened. But it didn't excuse his acting like an asshole as, obviously, I wasn't that guy. And I told her that. Which maybe wasn't the right thing to say as now she felt a need to be defensive on his behalf and so she starts to critcize me for being mad at him. I was becoming numb with rage and realized I'd be better off just getting the hell out of there, so I told her to tell Evel Knievel he could keep his fucking eleven dollars and I shifted the car into "drive" with the intention of leaving.

But she wanted to keep the game going. She leaned her body against the side of my cab and latched onto my side-view mirror, making it impossible to drive away without knocking her over. And then she said something which turned out to be fascinating: "He can pay the fare and he can buy your cab, too, if he wants to, asshole. He's a plastic surgeon and makes plenty of money."

At this point Evel - "Doctor Evil", the plastic surgeon - returned with the money. He came up to me on the side of the cab, taking the space where the girl had just been. Now, in retrospect, you would have thought the guy might have cooled off and possibly might have even been apologetic for the way he'd spoken to me or would have at least offered an explanation for his incredibly bad manners. But instead he just continued where he'd left off.

"How much is the fare, you fucking piece of shit?"

A crisis point had been reached. My desire to strike back at this guy, to see him lying on his back in agony as my foot stomped down on his nose (requiring plastic surgery) had reached a crescendo. It wasn't really his words that infuriated me. It was the unmitigated evil I perceived in him. I wanted to hurt this guy very badly. But before I tell you what happened, I'm going to step out of this scene for a moment and do a bit of reflection.

Whenever I've had the misfortune to run into somebody like this, it has always amazed me how they could live past the age of, say, twenty-five. Because the odds are against it. You go around insulting total strangers - somewhere down the road you're going to meet "the wrong guy". And that guy is going to kill you, Charlie. Just like that. It's sort of a filtering process that the human race has installed upon itself.

Consider this: I am a total unknown to Dr. Evil. He has no idea what my tolerance for being insulted happens to be. He has no idea that, although it is illegal for taxi drivers in New York City to carry weapons, various objects that are associated with the operation of the vehicle, such as a tire iron, for example, can be used as weapons. And that I have just such an object at my fingertips. He has no idea that, although I am not a big guy, I have the ability to put him in either a hospital or a hole in the ground within seconds. And he is basically begging me to do it.

So... what did I do?

I drove away without saying another word and without accepting his money.

And, as I said, I was in a funk for about two days. You didn't really want to be in my cab during that time. Not that I was rude to anyone, I just wasn't my usual semi-cheerful self and certainly didn't want to have a conversation with you. I was too busy playing and re-playing every detail of the incident in my mind. But the mental mass associated with the episode finally did move away, and I was glad I had come away from it losing only some pride and not facing charges of aggravated assault or murder.

Plus I did have an insight that I'd like to share with you.

In reviewing this guy's behavior, you might think, yeah, well, he was just upset because one of the girls he was with had been assaulted by a cab driver. But it doesn't ring true. Obviously, one person in a profession is not another person in the same profession. And this guy wasn't lacking an ability to distinguish that. What he was doing was seizing an opportunity to dramatize some kind of transgression that he himself was guilty of while trying to make himself look righteous in the eyes of his friends. His behavior was a facade.

How many times have we seen it turn out that the righteous person on a crusade against evil-doers was himself guilty of the same crimes he rails against? I had inadvertently learned that this guy was a plastic surgeon. Isn't that someone who might find himself in a position to molest unconscious females?

Dr. Evil would be wise to wear a sign around his neck that says, "The reason I'm insulting you is because I have committed crimes I don't want you to know about". That way, when he meets "the wrong guy" - as he will - perhaps his life will be spared.


Now How can you follow that???

Well Gene trumped it in Spades.

More to follow

Synergy.

Pickets at last weeks march


Garda placards ready for their march last week.


First of march and the Mad March Hare dances in front of the bank buildings on Serpintine Ave. Ballsbridge.

What is that ?
Synergy (from the Greek syn-ergos, συνεργός meaning working together) is the term used to describe a situation where different entities cooperate advantageously for a final outcome.

The opposite of synergy is antagonism, the phenomenon where two agents in combination have an overall effect that is less than that predicted from their individual effects.
(according to Wickipedia).

Well I was told it is when planets line up in a certain way so that their influence causes things to happen. "When the sun is in the seventh height and Jupiter's lined with mars etc"...
Well we had Snow Patrol in the O2,
We had a great close rugby match where Ireland beat Beat England 14/13.
The first pay day where all the wages where the wage packet was not eaten up by the credit cards.

The Result.

Busy all day and Night Friday and Saturday.

A big change from all the bad news day after day.

I worked my shirt off, dropping and picking up straightaway for a few hours, the slack times just meant that the backlogs were gone off the streets no full stops.

A poor girl I picked up at O'Connell bridge had the total weight of the world on her shoulders, she was a special needs nurse and she felt that it is so unfair that the handicapped in our society should be the first to suffer cutbacks.
That's life and its why the poor and sick are so easily kept down, they lack a voice and an education. Plus the do not know their rights.

Taxi drivers have a voice but they have no ear to listen to their fears.
Therefore next Thursday the fight continues.
A drive through the city.
This will bring the traffic to a standstill..

Look here for details.

Come on boys and girls who make all the rules.
SPEAK TO US NOW.
SILENCE IS NOT AN OPTION.

I am writing to all the politicians who claim to or would like to represent me for divine intervention.

You won't find till they will be gone for 15 or so weeks holidays again.
I will write up a more social post next time.