Sunday, October 31, 2010

Bang


What a great family portrait from Mark Nixon in Clontarf,


















Most of the outfits would not have passed the cencors anyhow.

Well the Saturday went with a bang ! (in a good way for me)
It was the first all night I have worked in many months.

The problem with late nights and me is that there are an awful lot of illegal drivers at night time. Illegal in the sense that the drivers are not licenced PSV drivers. They are driving a taxi which is owned to someone else and rented out.
Then it is passed over to some cousins who drive the car 24/7. Problem is that though the car is insured, the driver is not.
Then you have the taxis from more rural areas driving into the big city to pick up the extra work at weekends.
There is nothing strange to be stopped by another taxi to be asked the whereabouts of a really big popular hotel. They have not got one clue.

Then suddenly there is a gangland shooting and the checkpoints go up.
The ghost drivers vanish, then the work comes back on to the streets.

But I am not here to complain about other people not doing their jobs, I just give you an insight into mine.

The photos did not work out well. It was a very wet night and I got 3 long runs back to back. Now I don't mind doing runs of €20 or €25 , But they do take you out of the loop for over 45 mins. In the city you could do 6 jobs in that time and make more money.(If our situation was normal)
Sometimes they just have to explain the most boring point to you in great detail, just as you have given them the change.

There was a really nasty row at one point in the night. 2 women and a guy got in, all buzzing great conversation, very friendly. Then the first girl arrives at her stop and trys to give the others money for her share of the fare. All this no No No, take it. Then as she is getting out she throws money in the door. The girl in the car screws down the window and throws the money back out.
I drive forward and when the girl picks up her money and I drive on.
On reaching the destination the fare is 15. and they have not got 15 between them.
The bloke has 10 and he really explodes. "You gave her back 10 when you didn't even have any money yourself, you stupid fucking cow" He almost hit her and jumped back into the taxi to drive the 200 yards to the bank link to get a 20.
I offered to drive him back down, but he wanted to walk home.
This couple were professional middle to upper class people.
How I ask myself had they spent every last red cent?

People live their lives in conflict. Both sides seem to need it.
I can never understand it but I often see it in the taxi and every taxi driver sees it all the time.
If you see a man beating a woman, be careful. He may be attacking a stranger.
But he may be beating up his partner ("Its all right she's my wife")
The wife will then attack you. If she doesn't she will get it when they get home. For not sticking up for him when he needed her too.
The whole thing is a vicious cycle as the children grow up damaged too.

Just as I broach on human behaviour we have had another case of massive child neglect and abuse come to light recently.At least this time the Catholic church were not the abusers.
My last run of the night was out to Malahide and the lady told me horror stories all the way about her experiences with some taxi drivers. If I told you the kind of stories she related to me you wouldn't ever get into a taxi again.
She has reported each of these incidents to the taxi regulator and no action was ever taken.
So I bent her ear for 10 minutes while I told her of my efforts, all to no avail as evryone says this is not within their remit.


I hope it is not you dear friend who ends up dead..

I tried to prevent this,,I will put it in your obituary....

No I DO like people...

Friday, October 29, 2010

Halloween is coming


A very "French" structure near Royal hospital Kilmainham.


A traditional Gypsy covered wagon.


Just walkin in the rain


A bicycle with a good lock is picked clean

I am just waiting for the glass shop to open.

I had to cut a window in a studded partition wall to allow more light from one room to another. Natural light is free and I hate dark corners in a room.
I cannot afford to get someone in to do it, but I know I can do it myself, so it is nearly done now.
But I look forward to the weekend.

Happy halloween !

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Still painting

I had the taxi roof sign for a while today and I picked up Sean Sexton who has an exhibition of his photographic collection in the gallery of photography.If you have any old original photographs he will buy them.
I will go to this as the photos he had with him were really great!
He had a vintage camera with him as well which was a work of art, brass wood and canvas bellows. "You can buy something like this for €120." He told me.
I told him about a museum to photography which is in Versailles near the palace.The guy who runs the place is as mad about photography as I am, we spent a lot longer talking than we had on our agenda at that time..

But the next time I go to Paris I will hunt down the Magnum photo agency.

You do know the photos of Eve Arnold don't you? and
Steve Curry from last Summer?

I don't know how he photographed a dying child?

I hope I would have been giving her some food.

Though I know that photo woke up a lot of people.

Henri Cartier Bresson its founder was some happy snapper.

Sometimes the cheat gets caught.
I would like to see this happen more often.

Enough to make a cat laugh..


Just in case you thought that taxi drivers love cyclists, think again.



So I am still painting!

I will try to get out with my camera and catch a few ghosts or ghouls at Halloween..


There are 5 Fridays Saturdays and Sundays in this month !
You will have to wait 800 years for this to happen again.



I conclude that someone has too much time on their hands.

Monday, October 25, 2010

A store is born


Gone

Reborn





My oldest boy has gone to London to look for work.
He spent the summer there and found 2 jobs, but they wanted something more long term than just Summer work.
So he came back home to start college.
Now he knew he had 3 modules to finish over the summer break, but his long finger was put to use and the work never was done. So he was OUT.

Life is a series of such things which makes us grow up, sometime.

Now he on the lookout for a permanent job.

My taxi sign stands in the hall as I have a load of work to do around the house, if I had the taxi sign on the roof I would pick up the first person who held their hand out. Then I might get into a run and not get home for hours.

I have promised that this work would be done NOW.
So it will be finished before the first snow!

Just while I am the subject of the Global village.
Here is a link to a documentary which was on our radio station about the Irish Jews.
It is about the life's work of Stewart Rosenblatt who has worked on the family trees of the Irish Jews for years.

Or try this one in 1630 when the entire village of Baltimore were captured by pirates and sold as slaves in Algeria.
One of the survivors of that raid was called Joyce and it was he (So it is said)who designed the first Claddagh ring.

There is a book called "Wherever Green Is Worn" By Tim Pat Coogan, look it up in your librurary, it goes into groups of Irish in Cuba and Argentina and almost all over the world.
In Iran there are a group of Berbers, some of them have red hair and the name Seamus is common among them,Plus they look Irish! However that happened.
So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Once I picked up Eddie Jordan the now x racing team owner. I looked at him and said, "You look like"........"I know what you are going to say" said he "Eddie Shoemaker"
"No I nearly said Niel Jordan"
We joked about it and then I said.
"Whether you are Eddie Jordan or not, I have a lot of time for him, few people could have done what he did. Breaking into the most exclusive sport in the world and he or you excelled at it so well."
Well I never pressed him to declare if he was the one and only, but he thanked me for my vote and said if he ever met Eddie Jordan he would tell him.
In the Sunday Times Homes section there is an interview with him, he speaks about the time when the bailiffs were going to take his home from him, then he had a chance and later sold his F1 dream and walked away.
He is supporting this charity and he recently opened St.Paul's House which provides free accommodation for families of children and young people who are having cancer and leukemia treatment in London.
It is great when people give back to the community.
While I am at it there is a car reviewed called an Ariel Atom 500V8 and it does 0 to 60 in 2.3 seconds. Sounds like fun.

Our local hero is Brian O'Driscoll and he would do anything to support Temple St children's hospital or many other good causes. His Daddy now looks after his affairs, so he has to say no (In the nicest way) more often.

Other celebs like Paris Hilton and Katie Price behave like total assholes.

I know a lot of taxi drivers behave like morons too, guess you don't have to be famous to behave badly.

Did you read about the German heiress who's husband filed for divorce in the UK?
He did this because in the UK there is no law on Prenuptial agreements, i.e. they are not legal there.
His wife was worth €113 Million, so his settlement was around €5 Mill.
Well the case went to the supreme court in the UK. It turned on the point that even if Pre Nups are not recognized in the UK, that that this was the legal agreement that they both had entered into in a jurisdiction where it was a legal fact of life.
It is only there to protect either party who might be wealthy so that the other party cannot enrich themselves through the marriage.

Well no one will be after me for my money, that's for sure.

So the judges agreed and set aside his settlement.
I wonder who will pay the legal costs of the trial?

In a discussion on the BBC someone spoke about how entering a marriage is something that you should with trust and an open heart. Not with such preconditions.They gave the example of a bride with most of the arrangements being completed being presented with a Prenuptial agreement which would be like a blackmail demand.
It would be a bit like a taxi driver being paid in advance and then demanding to be paid again when they reached their destination.

Anyhow if you don't see me on the streets for the next while I hope another taxi comes soon.

Here is a bit of London as seen from a motorbike look out for the red taxi.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Tidal flow of people.









This building is at the bottom of Vernon Ave. Clontarf.
Strange structure, it won a prize.
What is inside ?
Pipes, valves and pumps...

Meeting (pleasant) people from all over the world is one of the big perks to my job.
20 years ago we were an island surrounded by water on the west coast of Europe.
Then the EEC came and with it prosperity.
Suddenly Ryanair arrived with cheap air fares.
Then there was extra jobs which soon took many of the jobless in. Back then you would never guess that other jobs would be filled by people from outside Ireland. Latvia,Estonia,Poland,Spain and later Czechs Slavic's and Romanians all came.

I can't help thinking we will have very good looking grand children.

Listening to accents and guessing where they came from is a little bit of fun.
But today I really surprised my passenger.
Before she said a word I said. "Are you Spanish?"
She thought it was really strange as she had not spoken.
"But how can you know?"
You have a classic Spanish look.
"But I am blond and Spanish people have black hair"
No in the Catalan area all the beautiful blond girls look like you.
"I don't know how you guessed it but I am Catalan"

It is strange, but tribes have certain looks.
The first time I guessed that a Mongolian guy was not Chinese he thought it was fantastic, until I pointed out that he was speaking Russian at the time.
I do not speak either language, but to any listening ear the sounds are different.
Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese all have subtle differences.
Through time I will have refined my skills.
Many of the Latvian people are blond, some have fantastic blue eyes. We think of the Swedish people as the classic blue eyed blond, Many Swedish are very dark haired.
Most of the new continentals carry themselves very well, shoulders held high, no slouching around!
Did you ever meet someone from the very north of Greece for example?
Very wide foreheads black dark eyes, very exotic.
I met a woman from Iran the other day, I just couldn't place her features. There are a lot of Iranian people who fled at the time of the fall of the Shah. One guy told me how he had paid 1 million euro in tax and he still owed them 8 thousand.He asked them if they would accept a post dated check for the balance and they told him that they were going to find out how much interest and penalties they would charge him.
"Imagine I took the risk,I made money, I invested again, I employ around 60 people. We all pay taxes, but the government do no work at all, take no risk. Yet they cannot accept a post dated check, Money will be on the move out of Ireland next year my friend".

Some week I will try to keep a tally of where everyone came from.

Temperament is another thing that runs in a race of people, Cypriots and Italians are very fiery. South American people have this electric sparking temper.

There is a lady who lives close to me from Columbia, one day she came from the local church hall screaming and shouting at her daughter who is around 9 years old.
The lady gets into the drivers seat and fires up the engine. The daughter has the door open, but before she has a chance to jump into the people carrier the mother zoomed back with the daughter hanging on to the door. Now she was flooring the pedal.
If any kid was behind the car they would have been killed, as it was the daughter managed to hold on to the door until she stopped to go forward.
It is really strange how some people loose the head with no thought of tomorrow.

A couple of weeks ago an English man was hit over the head by another motorist for driving too slow.The man died a few days later.
In the leafy streets of Sandymount you would never think such a thing would happen there.
I had an Irish guy in the taxi who is working in Moscow.
He was going to Sutton and as we passed Connelly station a group of women stepped out of a lane of traffic. I had seen them ,but he couldn't believe it.
He said time and time again "They didn't even look!"
You see in Moscow you couldn't stop so fast.
He wouldn't tell me what he did for a living, he had been there quite a while. "I work for Putin" is all he would say.
Later he told me he had written a book called"The Russians are coming"It looks like an interesting book.

I dropped him just round the corner form Phil Lynotts house, so I went to see his mother.

She is another of the worlds greatest people and guess what?

She is 80 this weekend.
All the folks are coming from the 4 corners of the world to Rock and roll.

Happy birthday from me too Philomena.

Philos grave in Sutton graveyard.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Tango Passion



Well I told you that the Tango passion show is on this week.
Tonight our tango school went to the show and then we stole the cast and we brought them back to the Pillar room for a bit of a hooley.
First of all let me say they are the strongest fittest group of people I ever saw.
You couldn't believe how the men lifted the female dancers right up over their heads.
I would find it hard enough to lift up a 4 year old like that.
If you miss this you will have to wait a long time for something else as good as it.

Anyhow 3 performances left and then they will be heading towards you.
The lighting was very bad, but it gives you the mood of the after show party.







Here is a clip of the show from you tube.A bit different too.





Fancy footwork for sure.
Good night

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Convention time





Ali Cadabra as 2 different types of character magician


Marc Oberon demonstrates his floating wand,


Adrian Sullivans table of magic delights.


Good stuff ?

Well time flies as they say.
You put a ring around a date and next thing you know its tomorrow!

The old taxi drivers knowledge test was last week, today was the "Mystics"convention in Drougheda.

Its hard to believe that you can get up to Drougheda in 40 mins from Dublin with the new M1.

Well there I was late as usual,but I caught Ali Cadabra's lecture.

Lunch break followed with a trip to the dealers hall.
Adrian Sullivan does some great magic and he was selling loads of simple to do magic props. He had a great "Pen through banknote" which leaves no hole in the note.

Anyhoo I went to the Marc Oberon lecture and I fell asleep !
Not that it was a bad lecture by any means, but I was exhausted.

So I cut my losses and skipped the last lecture and the gala show and went home.




Next big magic event is in London, followed by the Blackpool convention in Feb.

Then there will be the FISM in Blackpool in 2012. The Olympic games of magic.
While I am at it why not visit the Castle of Magic in Clontarf.

This ranked ahead of the Guinness Hop Store as a place worth visiting.

Note to self Work less, rest and Enjoy life more.

Next week a tango spectacular opens in the Grand Canal theater.

This tango show is supposed to be fantastic, people from New York told me so, people from New York are always right.

Look at this,Every Tango teaches says "The man always goes forward forward.

You never step backwards" Look at this.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Going home RIP

Things are tough for sure but at least we do not have to "delete" any of our children.
I went up to Coolock to buy fish from the Kish fish outlet today.

I asked if they had a collection box and they gave me an envelope.

The guy who was killed on his way to work in Kesh fish shop is being brought home to be buried on Thursday. The least anyone can do is to drop in a few bob to help cover expenses.
They told me that the guy who did it is the brother of the guy who stabbed 2 Polish guys to death with a screwdriver in Drimnagh a while back.

I don't know what kind of twisted minds these guys have.
I hope he gets a good kicking in prison.

Here is the piece from the Irish Independent.


A Polish man attacked on his way to work has died from his injuries, gardai said.

Lukasz Rzeszutko had been fighting for his life since being severely beaten in north Dublin in the early hours of Saturday morning.

His family, who flew in from Poland, were at his bedside when the decision was taken to turn off the life support machine.

Earlier, a man appeared in court charged with assault causing harm in connection with the attack.

Edward Byrne, 20, originally from Coolock, the same district where the attack took place, and two teenagers were arrested on Sunday in relation to the incident.

He gave his address as the YMCA hostel, Aungier Street, in the city centre.

It is understood Mr Rzeszutko has lived in Dublin with his brother since 2007.

He was on his way to work in the Newtown Industrial Estate, Coolock, in the early hours of Saturday when he was attacked.

He was left on the road until a passer-by saw him and called gardai.

The Court Service said Byrne was taken before Dublin District Court where he was remanded in custody until Friday. He will appear again in Cloverhill Court.

This piece refers to the killing of the other 2 Polish men in 2008.
Just look at how many previous convictions he had.
These guys should have not been on the streets in any normal society.

A father-of-one was out on bail for several crimes when he attacked two Polish mechanics with the man who murdered them.

I just Googled this in the Irish Times,This is the report on the 2 Polish guys killed in Drimnagh in 2008.
It makes strange reading, like the guy was a saint and not at all a thug.

4 years ! you would get that for cursing at the Judge.

Seán Keogh (21) of Vincent Street West, Inchicore, was sentenced to four years in prison today for kicking Pawel Kalite in the head, seconds after David Curran had stabbed him through the skull with a screwdriver. Curran, of Lissadel Green in Drimnagh, then stabbed Mr Kalite’s flatmate, Marius Swajkos, in the same way. The 19-year-old is serving life for their murder.

Earlier this month, a jury acquitted Keogh of murdering both men on February 23rd, 2008, outside their home on Benbulben Road. He pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Mr Kalite, a charge put to him just before the jury began its deliberations after a three week trial.

Detective Garda William Ryan told the Central Criminal Court that Keogh had 75 previous convictions.

He said that on May 26th last year he was sentenced to five years in prison for two counts of endangerment. He also received a five-year sentence for criminal damage, three years for the unauthorised taking of a vehicle and six months for driving without insurance, with his driving without a licence taken into consideration.

He was banned from driving for seven years for dangerous driving on the same occasion. All sentences were concurrent, with the last two years suspended.

D Gda Ryan explained that Keogh got bail on these charges on August 30th, 2007 so was out on bail when he kicked a dying Pawel Kalite in the head.

Mr Justice Liam McKechnie noted Keogh was not part of the "inconsequential scuffle" that took place outside a chipper before the attack on the Polish men. “It was none of his business to get involved in the aftermath at all,” he said.

David Curran was summoned to the chipper after this scuffle and Keogh was with him.

“A decision was made, which I’m convinced was to the effect in Seán Keogh’s mind to get the men involved,” said the judge. He said that he and others accompanied a screaming and roaring David Curran to the Polish men’s house and that Keogh knew Curran had a screwdriver.

“He saw David Curran, with frightening speed and deadly accuracy, strike Pawel Kalite at least once,” he said. “Seán Keogh then delivered a vicious kick to Pawel Kalite.”

The judge noted that Keogh delivered the kick to the most vulnerable part of his body, the head. “He was a dying man. He was utterly exposed and defenceless, without any protection,” he said of Mr Kalite.

“It wasn’t enough that David Curran had stabbed Pawel Kalite to satisfy Seán Keogh’s lust for harm. He had to feed his own lust and did so. He showed utter contempt for a fellow human,” he continued. “It showed a deep and sickening sense of personality to which society should not be exposed. On any level it was pure thuggery,” he said.

“If he’s capable of doing this sort of thing, what else is he capable of doing?” he asked.

The judge said that the law and courts had to deal in an aggressive way with this and provide a level of protection. Condemnation was not enough he said; action was necessary and sentence was the only available action.

Having been told that five years was the maximum sentence, the judge said a sentence of four and a half years was appropriate.

He noted a number of factors put forward by the defence as mitigation, including the evidence by the partner and mother of Keogh’s child, Sarah Adams. Ms Adams told the court that she and their three-year-old daughter visit Keogh in jail every week.

“She said he’s matured in prison,” noted the judge. “I only hope that she’s right.”

He noted that their daughter was about nine months old when her father committed the assault. “I wonder what regard he had for (the baby) then?” he asked. “I wonder why he wasn’t at home then looking after his daughter of nine months. I suspect she is wondering the same.”

He took Keogh’s fatherhood into consideration along with his remorse and willingness to tackle his alcohol problems, and he suspended the final six months of the sentence.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

PSV test


As the taxi driver said to the Hooker "A hundred pounds? If I had that much I would take a photograph of it.




The Pillar room of the Rotunda, what a fantastic room.
It is now sub divided.


The new HQ for the Anglo Irish Bank. This bank broke the nation and it will probably never be finished.

Well today I was tested for the knowledge of the PSV rules in Barrow St.
45 mins including check in time.
I got a letter telling me to apply for the manual a while back, then I lost the letter and they told me that they would not give me the manual without the letter.
Now the only letter I got was the first letter telling me to apply for the manual. I never got a second one with the hologram thing on it.
"No letter no manual" So I borrowed a manual and read it at the rank one day.
What do you know, I passed !
For anyone who has been driving a taxi for a number of years it is a total waste of time. But it is free if you do it before a certain date.
Death by 1,000 knife cuts.

I must tell you about a Japanese girl I met coming back to Ireland on the ferry.
She had a really good English accent, so good that I had to inquire further.
She is an interpreter and she thought it quite funny that I thought it unusual that her accent was so good. "Imagine if your interpreter spoke English so badly that they couldn't be understood?"
But her accent was quite a mix. Then she told me that she had worked in New Zealand, that was the extra zing to her accent.
She was a bright you thing and she worked for an Internet company which would help small and medium sized companies promote themselves on the Internet.



"Look at this doll, do you know its significance?
Well it is called KOKESHI doll KO meaning child and Keshi meaning delete.
Many years ago in Japan when people had large families if there was a famine the people would have had to sacrifice a child, just so that the others would have enough to live. Then they would keep the doll in memory of the lost child."
I Googled it and it seems to be more of an artisan craft now. Strange to say we have a proper one but we used him for darning socks for years (not now as socks are cheap)

Just a minute with regard to sport. Football is so over rated.
This has to be the best spectator sport of all time.


Sport its all some men think about.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Urgent Garda notice




Once the entrance to a fine house


The last journey to Hammond Lane

October fest





It is sad to note the passing of Dr. Maurice Nelligan the wonderful heart surgeon.
His skill and great humanity will be sadly missed.
There are a lot of people walking around today thanks to his skills.

It takes a brave heart and a steady hand to do open heart surgery.

I hope he is re united at last with his daughter who was murdered a few years ago. That terrible act shook him to his foundations when it happened.


A copy of the Taxi regulators newsletter arrived in the post the other day.
Along with it came 2 notices about serious crimes which took place in the 18th Sept and the 26th July.
Can anyone remember that far back?

One would have to wonder what the logic is behind the action of sending out urgent information like that.

Last time I looked it was 2010, the age of Internet and mobile phones.

I can send a text message to all my friends from my computer, I can send 400 texts free every month.
If every Dublin taxi drivers mobile numbers were on a computer and there was a shooting or a major incident you could text every mobile phone in a few seconds.

"Blood doners urgently needed".
"M50 blocked at Blanchardstown exit" Etc

This is not rocket science, its instant and it costs little or nothing.


Also in the newsletter is the facts and figures in respect of the taxi industry.

44,775 active driving licences.

Of Limos she states Carlow 1,Cavan 2 and Leitrum 7, surely there are a lot more? counting funeral cars as well.

I do not believe for one minute that there are 11,465 active taxi licences in Dublin.
If there is only that amount then there are hundreds of illegal taxis working the city streets at night.

It will be interesting to see if the regional stickers will prevent the other drivers from operating in the Dublin area.

Her record for enforcing the law is quite a joke, 2 forged identifications.
I could get her 200 in one night.
Standing for hire at a place other than a taxi rank..82 Look at the illegal rank at the bottom of Grafton St.
Ah well I could go on but no one would listen.



Friday, October 08, 2010

Happy birthday John

Just a note to say that if John Lennon was alive today he would be 70 this weekend.

Sometimes you blink and a whole era vanishes.

Well more violence.
A girl was attacked as she walked home past Fairview park at 3am the other day. Knocked out she was then raped by 3 or more men.
It was not on the news and there is no big sign up requesting information.
There are groups of thugs going round all the time, be careful and lucky.

The Polish guy who was beaten up on his way to work died as well R.I.P

Its about we put the vigalinties back on the streets.

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Magic Moments





















We all could do with a little bit of magic in our lives from time to time.
I went out to the magic club and saw a lecture by Michael Ammar the famous American master magician and this morning I brought him and his assistant Jeff Kaylor to the airport. 19 lectures in 19 European cities in 21 days. That's show business.

I likes a bit of magic I do!

I tried 3 times to get in at Heuston but each time I drove past as I couldn't get on to the rank. It is very annoying to find that there are spaces along the queue where drivers haven't moved up.

So I went up to the Westbury to get some refreshment.

Big excitement Rosanna Davidson the former miss World and daughter of Chris De Burgh the singer.
There was a Rolls Royce and a beautiful vintage Jaguar car
Then out came Hammond of Top Gear fame.
The fuss was to promote the Top Gear show which is coming back to Dublin.
Then there was another big photocall to promote the Toys 4 big boys which is a bit of a diversion from the gloom and doom.

The TV show about the taxi industry was not great. a lot of comments about how grat it is that you can get a taxi now and not enough attention on un licenced and un vetted drivers moonlighting on the streets, without insurance and paying no tax.

Perhaps after a murder people will waken up, but by then people may be too afraid to ever use taxis again.



Ok for the restv of us here is something in Engrish.


We knew each other when we both had hair.

Just in case you thought all the mad drivers were Irish taxi drivers.

That was agreat kick.!

Monday, October 04, 2010

Coming soon


Just couldn't resist it.

A site for sore eyes!!!! Boom Boom

For my Irish readers tonight at 10.30 RTE TV Frontline is to feature the taxi industry.

Saturday, October 02, 2010

Octoberfest






The first Santa

Dundrum cycle club gets a pep talk before setting out.

You go back to the future and your car breaks down

I don't know about you lot out there.

But I am just fed up with the way society over here in Ireland is going.

Violence is everywhere or so it seems.

Where will I start ?

Well in Longford a group of thugs surrounded a house belonging to a traveller family and threw fire bombs into it. A young girl aged 11 years is in Crumlin Children's hospital with burns to her face arms and chest.

A road rage incident in Sandymount where a guy battered another guy over the head with a hurley stick. The guy who was beaten went home and then went to hospital where he later died..Madness.

On Monday I picked up a girl on the SCR at Camden St., She was going to Jams es St. Hospital. She had been stabbed in the leg as she walked on the board walk the day before.
No,she had not been mugged, the guy just walked past her and stabbed her in the leg as he passed.
She didn't even get a look at him.
Now one problem I have with that is that suppose she was pregnant and he stabbed her in the womb?

Then there is another murder suicide in Northern Ireland.

Today I hear that a young Polish guy was found unconscious in Coolock, It is not known at present if it was a hit and run or an assault, he was on his way to work.
Garda in Limerick responded to a call where they found a guy with head injuries, he has died today.
Last week a taxi driver was murdered, not in the line of duty though.

There was no gang shootings this weekend,for a change.

If Al Capone came back he would feel right at home in Dublin.

I don't know where we are going.

Perhaps I should get the bumper sticker.

Make love not war.
Ask driver for details


I really can't solve any of those big problems, so I will just get on with my life.



Bill Biley was at the O2 and he helped us make a few bob.

Of the people I met?

I have to say I met loads of interesting and fantastic people this week!

Well one guy and his daughter who was starting her medical degree in the college of surgeons.
They came from Trinidad.
She had to buy a whole new winter wardrobe, its summertime at home.
He asked me if I knew where it was. "West Indies" I said.

Well it off the coast of Venezuela and it has gas and oil!
He asked me a strange question.
"Will you retire soon or keep going?"
I said no, because this is a job you can do without much effort and you can work just a few hours if you wish, you meet loads of interesting people, but you don't get rich.

Wow a place Trinidad,with good weather and mineral wealth.
So I boasted about my internet radio and when I got home I tuned in ....Reggie music.

Like the Australian special forces guy who told me about attempted muggings he has had to endure.
"Sure if you know what you are doing the whole thing becomes something else.
The attacker suddenly thinks this whole thing was a very bad idea"
When I told him he might have been watching too much Crocodile Dundee movies he told me he had been trained as "special forces "in the Australian army.
He has been in my taxi two or more times.
The lady who runs the Gaity school of acting, she is also involved in the Smock Ally theater.
This is a busy week with the Dublin theater festival

I must keep a note book because I only skim the surface here giving you small samples.Forgetting so much.

One thing I would like to say is that for many of the other taxi drivers times have become very very hard. I would not pay the €400+ to have an airport pass.
This pass allows you to pick up passengers at the airport.
The waiting time between fares is between 2 and 3 hours.
The guys who work the Aport have aged so much. It is like one year has cost them four. Young guys a few years ago are now old men.
Not that am a young sex symol myself.
One big problem we are having is that we have no say in what is happening in the industry. From the smallest thing to the biggest thing, we have no input.

The 10 year rule is coming in. Super S class Mercs with air con etc. must now be put off the road.They have all the bells and whistles that you could dream of.
They are road worthy, would pass the NCT..
Leather seats etc.

Over 10 years...OUT

If I sell you my taxi licence you must put it on a car less than 3 years old and then it becomes non-transferable. So in effect my "asset" is devalued.

Banks etc will not lend money to buy new taxis, they reckon that it is a dead duck and they will not give any money.

Sadly a lot of taxi drivers have been killing themselves.

In the name of God, its not worth it, it is no solution as your kids and friends will be so scarred for all time.