Taxi Tango

One dancer with 3 partners. Which is the best and why?
No the y are all good.

Now the "Silver fox". What of his style?.

I intend to take the tango lessons up again after Christmas.

Don't be shy I would really like to know which performance is the best and why?.

Taxis in Dublin are doing the tango in the snow tonight.

Let it snow,Let it snow,Let it snow

Garda wait at government buildings to defend democracy.


The marchers set off from Wood Quay


Banner on Liberty Hall. Marching for a Better Way.


Ringsend in the snow.

My taxi safe and sound in the drive.

The tree outside my house in the snow

Well today was a really good day for me. There was thunder and lightening through most of the night then at 7.30 am an almighty crash of thunder and lightening shook the house. It tripped the ELCB (Earth leakage circuit breaker) and my alarm clock went blank, every burglar alarm in the area was kicking up a racket,including mine.
So I turned off the alarm, turned on the power and headed out. For the first 10 mins I had no luck. Then I turned to go back in the coast road again and I found that a bus had skidded and was blocking all the other buses.
Then I got my first job and as I passed the same people again they all had their hands out to get a taxi. Its a pity I wasn't a bus, I could have brought them all. But I went on.
Later I found out that the Dart had been stopped on the North side of the city.
I had an enchanted day, like the guy who was king everyone was waving at me.

There was a big demonstration today against the governments plan to sink the country under a sea of debt. Some say 50,00 others say 100,000 came, considering the weather it is a brilliant turn out.
Sin Fein won the election in Donegal and everyone except the people who are in power now will be elected in the next round.
The problem is that the more radical you are the better chance you will have of being elected, people are madder then hell..

The Garda defended government buildings.
THEY SHOULD JUST GO INTO THE DAIL AND ARREST THEM ALL FOR QUESTIONING.
They are fighting the wrong people.

Well that's what I think anyhow.





Well this year the embedding has been stopped. so you have to click here.

Here is someone you don't here much now.

I brought her out to Blackrock a good few years ago with a much older man, he went in to the petrol station to get cigarettes in Booterstown and I chatted with her while we were waiting, I do remember saying she really nice curls. The one thing that stuck in my mind was that they were an odd pair.
It was a strange situation, he was her manager as it turned out.
One other thing is that her father is a Russian doctor working in Belfast.
Now look at her features again. To my eye she looks Turkish or Greek.
I hope she comes back into vogue again I love the tone of her voice.
Sadly I only recognised her weeks later.

GATSO van attacked

This fixed camera is to catch you breaking the lights crossing the South Circular rd heading for Heuston.


The barnacle geese are back for the winter.

The Martians have landed


De Veci terrace in Queenstown (Dun Laoighre)

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This seems to be a bad mix for the punter !

Today the first "Safety camera van" was attacked and burned out!
The van was parked near Dundalk on the Carrickmacross Rd. The lads smashed the front windscreen and threw petrol into the van.
At least they gave the operator time to get out before the bonfire.
If these cameras were supposed to prevent accidents they would be on minor roads where deaths have occurred. According to the maps I have looked at the cameras seem to be on streets where there has never been an accident.
We also have many unmarked GATSO vans all over the place.

From Carrickmacross to Crossmaglen it is no place for honest men.
Others say.
From Carrickmacross to Crossnaglen there are no rouges, but honest men.

Two old schoactol friends meet and decide to go for lunch. One is rich ,a Millionare in fact the other has not been as lucky.

Who pays for the lunch?

Well the bankers of Europe are in town and they expect us all to pay 6.7% or more for our loan, this is the money to pay them back for the other money they gave us.

Things are up in a heap to say the least. Billions of euro have vanished, or so it seems and no one seems to be held accountable !

I feel that the reason no one has been arrested is because many of the politicians have been accepting bribes from the developers for many years, someone had to have been allowing the banks to give out more money than they had in reserve.
People are angry and the police are being trained in riot control up in the Mosney holiday camp as I write.

We Irish find it a bit hard to accept law and order, to put it mildly.
The British must have been glad to be rid of us back in 1916.

Modern world wide terrorism has its roots back to the struggle of the Fenians and the IRA through the years. I had a guy in the taxi today and we spoke on this subject. The knew all about the Phoenix park murders back on the 6th of May 1882.
Now if you go to the spot on that date you will find 2 small crosses on the spot.
Who is the person who puts them there? It is a mystery.
The exact location is on the left hand side going towards the Phoenix monument,right at the point where you can see the presidents house on your right,look along on the grass verge and there is a cross marked out in white marble chippings. This marks the exact spot.
There is a great book on the subject Moloney, Senan (2006). The Phoenix Murders: Conspiracy, Betrayal and Retribution. Dublin: Mercier Press
When you read the book you can see how nothing new has been learned in the fight against terrorism.

But he told me that the "handbook for hanging" was devised by an Irishman called Samuel Haughton. Height weight =length of drop to snap the neck and give the victim a quick death.
A craft much practiced by the Pierpoint family.

A pair of druggie types in the taxi the other day, she had been attacked by 4 men near the canal. She was like a wild Doberman and gave them a good hiding, kicking one of them in the nuts and booting him into the canal she fought the rest and the Garda came and arrested 2 of them. But her blood was up and she had given them such a beating that the Garda told her she would be done for assault. "What about my money and me phone" Some Garda are very thick.
When she was in a house doing a deal her boyfriend who was around 2 meters tall showed me where he had been mugged with a knife. there was 3 big slashes on his neck, from the back to the front. "If he had cut me going back from the front he would have cut my Jugular vein, they got me rings and a gold chain" All I could say "We buy gold no questions asked" They live in another world these people.

My old mentor told me "John be very careful and over respectful when you are talking to a Garda, they are a very big animal with a very small brain"
Very good advice too.

Happy Christmas

It is that time of year again folks.

Credit blues.

Thanks to my friend Sam Clarke in Australia for this..

Linda is the proprietor of a bar in Cork . In order to increase sales, she
decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are unemployed
alcoholics - to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks
consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).

Word gets around and as a result increasing numbers of customers flood into
Linda's bar.

Taking advantage of her customers freedom from immediate payment constraints, Linda increases her prices for wine and beer, the most-consumed beverages.
Her sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes
these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Linda's borrowing limit.

He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics
as collateral.

At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert bankers transform these
customer assets into DRINKBONDS, ALKBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities
are then traded on markets worldwide. No one really understands what these
abbreviations mean and how the securities are guaranteed. Nevertheless, as
their prices continuously climb, the securities become top-selling items.

One day, although the prices are still climbing, a risk manager
(subsequently of course fired due to his negativity) of the bank decides
that the time has come to demand payment of the debts incurred by the drinkers at Linda's bar.

However they cannot pay back the debts.

Linda cannot fulfil her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.

DRINKBOND and ALKBOND drop in price by 95 %. PUKEBOND performs better,
stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %.

The suppliers of Linda's bar, having granted her generous payment due dates
and having invested in the securities are faced with a new situation. Her
wine supplier claims bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a
competitor. The bank is saved by the Government following dramatic
round-the-clock consultations by leaders from the governing political
parties (and vested interests).

The funds required for this purpose are obtained by a tax levied on the non-drinkers.

Finally an explanation I understand...


But what I don't understand is the HOORAY to the fact that the Germans and the Others are lending us billions so that we can then pay them back the money owing to them

Relax

After all that doom and gloom we all need to see The men in coats.



Then there is the terrorists.



You deserve a second dose of that.



Then a bit of magic into your life.



Ricky Jay brings a wonderful bit of verbal finesse to the cups and balls.
I bet no one saw how he got the potato, leamon etc into the cups to finish.

"Open the books lads"

Limos wait for our European cousins to take them to open the books.

"Buddy can you spare a dime"



A model waits in her bridal gown,the photographer fumbles, she looking great though.


The number fo children that should die is ZERO UNICEF


Pierse St


Unpaid workers protest at the airport while the new terminal opens up.




Well as they say at the taxi ranks "Shit happens and I hope I am not there when it does"
I couldn't have prevented the murders of the last few days so I must detach myself from the proceedings.

I go back to a woman I met coming to the school on Sundrive rd around 6 years ago.
She was a criminal psychologist and had studied the murderers of Britain over the last 20 years. (Oh yes some are still locked up even after 20 years)
She asked questions as well as explained points which I had not understood, such as why the Yorkshire ripper took so long to be caught.
Then as to the type of killers there are. Insane. Jealous. People with no scruples at all, they show no remorse, as if they had just killed a fly and not a person.

In the end she asked me what I thought.

"People are complex, we have the ability to love a person and later to hate that same person with equal passion so much so that we could kill them, throw drugs and insanity into the mix and you have a potent mixture. But I do believe in a force of evil, the Devil if you want to call it that. If there is a force of good called God there has to be a force of evil. Not that I would allow that as an excuse for letting a killer free"

"That is the one thing I have learned through all my years of study, some people are pure evil" she said.

She was giving a lecture and asked me to attend, but alas I declined,I am still learning.People are so different from each other every time I see how different.

Never hold the hurt close to yourself, you have to let these negative feelings go, holding on to the problems of the world can cause cancer and nervous strain to say the least.
Mercier St the other day a woman with a shopping trolley going to Bride St she had angina and couldn't pull the shopping trolley. When we arrived at the door she wanted me to take €10 for the trip even though there was only 10cent over the €5 on the meter. I told her it would bring me bad luck all day if I took so much for a tip.
I had a business suit earlier in the day and his fare was €9.90 and when he took his 10 cent change the meter had gone to €10.20!

Then I missed a golden opportunity to do a good turn. A woman with a very sick boy going to Crumlin hospital, she was talking about how hard it was to get to Dublin from Galway for his appointments,she was a single mother and had been laid off from her job as part of the government cutbacks.
No,she wasn't trying it on with the poor mouth. When we arrived at the hospital there was an incubator coming off an ambulance whith a Filipino nurse directing operations. I spoke about what great nurses they were and she had paid me before I had the chance to say "Have this one on me"
Which I should have done, and if you are reading this,my thoughts are with you both.

Someone once told me that when this happens it is a wake up call to help the next person.

My big work in progress will come to an end tomorrow and then I can get back to driving my taxi again.

I got a book the other day called the Russians are coming it was from a passenger called Denis Sugrue who was in the taxi a few weeks ago.

A true story it tells of the time when he was held by the US Government as an international Russian spy. It is really good.

Thank you Denis.

My laptop crashed the other day, I don't know how, it was just sitting there.
Everything that was on it was lost.
Do you ever back up your work ?
Me neither.

When I went to turn it off last night it had 46 updates to load !

2 families 7 dead

Tonight I am in shock and am refusing to listen to the news bulletins.

Two families were wiped out by murder yesterday.

In Newcastle west Co.Limerick a 5 month girl a 3 year old boy their mother and a family friend were stabbed to death. A man is being held.

In Ballycotton Co. Cork a 6 year old girl and her 2 year old sister were suffocated.
Their father was killed when his car crashed and burst into flames, some say he was bringing back petrol to burn down the house when he crashed.

Whether it was jealousy madness or drugs we may never know.

The angels in heaven must be crying in despair as I write.

Say a prayer for the innocent angels and thank your God for what you have.

Speed camera Blitz?

Big yellow sand bags still line the mall in Clontarf



Could this be a camera to catch the drivers turning left?
The cameras are on the top of metal poles behind the no turn left sign they are the size of a small torch

Speed cameras will be rolling out in the next few days, a private company.

Well I took a trip out this morning and went back to my fixing up job by 11 am.
First job of the day was that wonderful Polish girl who was bullied out of her last job. It was very upsetting to both of us at the time, but when you Google bullying at work there is a lot of legislation in place to protect workers.
She is so lucky as she found another job, so I am her official lucky mascot.
She tells me things about Poland when we meet that I never knew.
Like the biggest statue of Jesus in the world, built at a time when people were starving.

A clever girl she will go far in life.

Don't Google it ASK ME (T shirt)

I had a guy who worked in Google the other day. He was from Lebanon.

"It must be a great place to live in, all that whole area is so important to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike,living by the rules of Love thy brother etc,"

Yes indeed if a space man came down he would think he had landed in hell for sure.

Everyone killing each other.

Religion me arse.

I had just dropped her off when I was stopped by a German couple heading for Trinity college. The man was really taken by my Prius engine management system which is in Japanese.
I bought it in Japan from IBC, a very interesting exercise. I just took a look and they have 6 pages of Toyota Priuses for sale. They do left hand drive as well, you have to specify if you want that.
The Japanese drive on the left !
I can't find the number of cars they sell per week, I think it is 12,000 to 63 countries.

Anyhow I only went 50 yards when I picked up again 2 girls one from Portugal and Hungary (I think) One being dropped off on the way to City West. A €20 fare.
It is a big problem working so far from the city.

Well perhaps if you planned your day you could go by bus,then where would I be?.

But young people and mornings? Need I say more.

On the way home I passed through Ballyfermot and saw all the posters and banners "Vote for Mary Byrne" She is a Tesco check out operator and an X factor star.
As I don't watch TV I looked it up on you tube.

Wow that girl can fairly wallop out a song.





Just coming back to my house when an S type Jaguar in front of me started doing strange things..I blasted the horn,but as I drove past she waved at me to stop.
I thought she was looking for directions but she wanted me to take her to the airport. She turned and went back to her house and parked the car.
"Quick as you can I only have 15 minutes to be there"
Whatever you do NEVER fall for that. Just go there at a fair speed, they will not pay your speeding fines or take the penalty points on their licence.
She had a big and small case, the effort was to check in the big bag first, we made it. Her problem was, and it was good thinking. That if she had to park the car she would surely miss her flight.
I have a son who misses flights all the time, some people are removed from time.
In case you are wondering I carried in her bag to the check in desk and the fare was €17.60 I got €20 and gave €2.40 change.

Tipping is like wiping your backside when you have a crap, some people just don't finish the job and they just stink.

As long as they are polite it doesn't really matter. You never know what is going on in peoples lives.
One old guy who rides in my taxi all the time never tips, never ever, then one Christmas he gives me €50 !
All your tips together.

Happy Christmas.

Any time I have done my very best they don't pay even on a double or quits basis.

Leave the fast driving to the guy in the Taxi movie.

The other day there was a big shot from the EU over here trying to tell our boys how to do business.
He went into the office of the EU on Molesworth st. just as I was driving past.
All the press men were leaning over to take photos through the window.
50 yards up the road was a TV camera, a proper big one, with no one around.
"Quick grab that camera and put it in the taxi" I said to my Chinese passinger.
After 2 seconds the penny dropped and we had a good laugh at the thought of the film crew returning to find the camera gone!

What good would life be if you couldn't laugh or dance

The storm passed over

Click on the photo to enlarge it. The small dots on the top tf the ship are people !
Can you fathom this, strong winds,the state of the art ship goes aground at Fleetwood near Blackpool.A ships captian who lives up the road from me told me that the wind caught the high sides of the ship and she had no room to manover, so she went aground. A brand new ship totally scrappedand and cut up.



A Triumph 2500 in Finglas






Well we were ready for the worst and it didn't happen.But the latest forecast is bad.
They had put sand bags along the coast, then big pumps with pipes a foot wide ready to pump water back out to sea. We got a storm sure enough, waves splashed on to the sea wall and sent spray over the houses on the Clontarf seafront.

The power of nature is an awesome thing for sure.

The Sea Cats were tied up for the duration of the storm and the Ulysses was 3 hours late coming in on that morning. Other smaller ships had to remain at sea for hours as they couldn't get back into port.

I likes to go by sea me. Rather than fly.
They never take your water away, or your aftershave.
They don't ask you to take off your shoes either.
Quite a relaxed way to travel.

Did you hear of the DJ who started to masterbate on an Aer Lingus flight?
Well he was chastised and later on he said in his defence he said.
(There should be a drum roll here.)
"Well if they say it happened, it must have happened. I don't remember"

There was a question about how willing the staff were in stopping him and how a guy out of his mind was allowed on the flight.

If it was a Ryianair flight he would have been bitch slapped so fast that he would have bee a born again Christian on landing.

Imagine going to America on a liner though!. (not a jet liner)
Just the thought of New York coming up on the horizon and sailing past Miss Liberty.

That would be something to look forward to.

A guy I met once is a magician, he works magic on cruise ships and liners.
He told me he looked at his bank balance once, he had never to spend his own money while he is on the ship,the best of company, fantastic food. He has never WORKED a day in hil life, think about it ? Find what you like to do and get a job doing it.

Well after the rugby I got a fair at the Hairy Lemon (Yes,its a bar) he was going far out of town €66 as it turned out.
He was 6 ft. 8 and built like like a Panzer tank. He was drunk in a good way,"I'm sorry to take you out of your way Mr.Taxi man He said sorry around 80 times between hiccups. As we came to Liffey Valley shopping center he asked me to drive in.
"I want to go to McDonald's he said. I told him it was closed as It was 10.30.
Then as we drove through the car park he said

"Where are we?"

Then the whys? Why did you come in here ? Etc.

Then I explained that he had told me to go there.

Then SORRY, SO SORRY.
Next we headed for Lucan where we found a MacDonald's drive thru which was open.
Much High 5s and shaking of hands and we left with a €21 order!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you imagine that! But his beverage was WATER.

I woke him up when we landed at his town and he directed me to his home where his wife was waiting with a face like thunder.
I reduced the fare to €60. He paid and we became BEST FRIENDS FOR LIFE !

I put the 3 bags of McDonalds into his beautiful wife's arms and got a big hug from her bear of a man.

As I drove out of his estate there was a big sign. "PRICE REDUCER BY €100,000"
How the hell must the first people who bought at the full price feel.
It would take me a long time to pay back €100,000 plus interest.

All was well, trips like this can go so badly wrong, he mightdo a runner or refuse to pay, you never know.

In this very area a Garda did a runner once apon a time and when the garda was found butt he arrested the taxi driver for assault.
The driver was later released and then when his wife heard what happened the taxi drivers wife rang her uncle who had strong contacts with the Garda commissioner.
The resulting investigation was a sea change in the policing of the Celbridge Naas area.

The taxi driver got paid and he also got paid again for coming back down to Nass.
If you are to believe the story, he heard the words "Sorry" from the Garda.

Now, that would be worth hearing!

What would you buy a deaf fish for Christmas?

A HERRRING aid !

What do you expect? I am not a comedian.

I am doing other things at present, driving a little bit, for pocket money mostly.
I don't watch soaps. I just talk to my passengers.

A hurricane a comin'

Seems like a great day.




I look at the bags and I see the gap at the bottom where a small dog could run through!









Years ago when Moses was just a boy a wise man has a wooden donkey in the garden to tell him the weather.

"It works like this he said, if I look out the window and I can't see the donkey I know that there is heavy fog or it is night time, or as once happened I had a bag over my head.
Then if I can see him I know that the weather is clear and It is daytime.
Then if I look at his tail and it is not moving I know that there is no wind.

So the next thing I do is to feel the donkeys tail if it is wet I know it has rained and if I get wet when I am outside I know it is raining now.

Then if the donkey falls over I know there is a bloody earthquake"

That is still the best way to tell the weather.

Sending satellites up into space are only an extra aid.
Someone told me his "glass" was back for fair weather, and that is enough for me.

We are facing a hurricane tonight so it is said. I think his name is Edward.
When I was a lad hurricanes were all Girls.
Perhaps they ran out of girls names with Catriona.

Sand bags line the shores in Clontarf and Sandymount.
They are damned if the do nothing and people say it is such a waste of money to do all this work without putting something in place which will do the job forever.

You should see the sea defenses that they have built in Blackpool and many other British seaside towns.

Fingers crossed that nothing will happen. (I think this works as well)

Well we had rugby. Ireland V Sth. Africa a good close game.
The only team who were beaten were the IRFU. They priced the tickets so high that fans could not afford to come.Empty seats all over the place.
This has happened with the soccer too.

There was an interview with an commonest on the radio the other day. He told us that our Prime minister was on a conference call to a bank in America.
They asked Brian Cowan a question and his reply was that this would not effect Ireland as we were an island. They were all stunned as it showed them how little of a grasp he has of fiscal matters.
He WAS the minister of finance who got us into this mess don't forget.

I must tell you about the drunken guy I had going to the country the other day.
Something is happening when I press "Publish post" loads of text vanishes.

Don't be too depressed.

Phillipa selling the bread from the Bretzel bakery.Try the turnover its to her left.




What would Oscar Wylde have thought


Vintage Volvo




The entrance to the Gibson hotel



When you see markets opening up it takes me back to the days of the Dandelion market which was held on the site of what is now the Stephens Green shopping center.

It is said that Bono of U2 fame once busked there.

Harry Crosbie has started a new market down at the site of his "skyscraper".
Markets are hard to get moving and this one is a bit out of the way, but you can get to it on the Luas.


It seems like only yesterday when Charles J. Haughey our leader at the time spoke to the nation about hard times and the need to be careful with money.
While he spoke in grave tones he wined and dined his kiss and tell mistress.
He had race horses,bought islands and had Charve shirts made in Paris.
He salted away millions in the Caymen islands for himself and his golden circle.

All was found our by Margret Heffernan when she came across a cancelled check which was cashed there. The shit fairly and squarely hit the fan after that.

But everything changes and everything remains the same

We are back at the start again.

A politician resigned in Donegal the other day.
His pension will be in the Reagen of €95,000 a year.

He is a doctor with a busy practice,not a retired person.

Another job which becomes vacant soon is the President.

We have a Prime minister as well.

Our President gets more money than Barrack Obama and our population is only 4 million.
Our Prime minister is in the top 4 highest paid in the EC, as well paid as the French, Spanish or German chancellor.

We should lock them up without pay and put a hairdresser and a taxi driver in charge until they have all been put on trial and then shot for treason.


Enough of politics!

When I turned 21 + I decided to hit it head on and to celebrate I went to Donnington Park to drive a Ferrari 360.
Well I am on their e mail list and this is on offer From Dublin you fly into East Midlands a. £12 taxi fare brings you to the paddocks.
The Lambo and the R8 look great, but at this price I will go for the Atom and the Lotus as well.
When you are finished the drive walk to the exit where there is the best motor museum I ever saw.
Then a free lift back to the airport from the park and ride across the road.
Then the Aircoach into Nottingham to the oldest pub in Britain.
"The trip to Jerusalem"
Yes folks they went there for one last pint of ale before heading off to the holy land.
When we went we got return flights from Dublin for €20.

Speaking about Germans and an odd sense of Humour.
Most people don't think its funny.
Then when you build a car that strong what do you expect.?

Time to think.

Just thought i would share this with you.

Thanks to Lethbridge taxi driver Canada.

I must say that driving a taxi has been an education.
Irish people too have mostly lost their lamguage.
Bit by bit we have allowed rights to be taken away from us, perhaps we might try to think more clearly about where we are going and also where we came from.

This is a great country with corrupt and incompitent leaders.

But you do have a vote