Out with the old

All set for the big feast !


Occupy London


I had a "Curb your enthusiasm" moment with this.
Yes we do have it, but with chicken !


Taxi sign in Dublin...He works everywhere !

Well if anyone still reads this blog I will just pass on some of the wisdom gained in the past year or so.
I am the person who observes the world as it passes along, my passengers who passed their gems of knowledge to me I give thanks.

I am amazed by what has happened in the financial world during the past 2 years, there WAS fraud, yet the guilty are being propped up by the state, more than one developer is being employed by NAMA on a wage in excess of €200,000 to sort out his mess.

Its the young people need help, families stuck in negative equity, not only here but in many other lands.

I have said it many times our leaders were feeding at the trough with the bankers and the developers, nothing will be done about this disaster because the corruption started at the very top.

Therefore nothing will be done.

So the small man will suffer, the teacher, the ill people, children with special needs and all the needy people will have to shoulder gigantic cut backs.

While our "leaders" will pat each other on the back and say
"Didn't we do well?"

There is no solution to this so don't get yourselves into a sweat thinking about it.

"No answer to the problem?" That must be a first from any taxi driver ever!

I went to a funeral on Christmas eve up in Bailieborough County Cavan where I came from.
It was the Mother of a childhood friend.
Her son lives in Sydney Australia and had to leave home with very little notice.
Without a doubt it was a mad dash, so close to Christmas with no reservations made.

It was a very nostalgic journey for me as well.
Everything has changed I knew almost no one and the town itself is a shadow of its former self.
Tesco built a huge supermarket on the edge of town and it has sucked all the retail business from the local shops.

That's progress, I wonder?

Perhaps this movie I found will educate you.




But I am an optimist and I hope that this coming year 2012 brings you wisdom and hope for the generations coming after us.

Hugs and kisses. (Except for you, ugly brute)

Christmas day

Here it is, Christmas day.

I hope it is a great one for you all.

Remember that a dog is not just for Christmas.



Have a good one.

The last Christmas cheer

Where would we be without this mad song



I hope this comes out.


something from Ry Cooder.


So my wishes and hopes for the future is that we will take better care of each other.
I also hope that we will have the courage to speak up on behalf of the opressed.
I hope that we can do something more to help young famlys who are stuck in negative equity, that is help the banks less and people more.

I hope Santa brings you everything you wanted.

See you all in 2012.

Lost property

To all Dublin taxi drivers

On Friday night 2nd December, my mother left her phone in a taxi which she got from South William St. to the Gresham hotel.
It’s an old Nokia-battered and not really of any value whatsoever.
Ordinarily we would just let it lie. However, on her phone are photos of my little sister who died in September and, as happens to us all my mother had not gotten around to saving them anywhere else.

I am asking all taxi drivers if they picked up a couple on South William St. on Friday night around 11 PM on 2nd December. Going to the Gresham hotel.
Please check down the back and under your seats. As we say it has no resale value, but it is so precious to my Mother.

Kate Clarke 087 2676747

Mary Leonard 087 6497587

Best wishes

Thanks for reminding me of that Paddy I have put it up for a few years now.
So lets give it a lash and put the rest up.










Happy Christmas to one and all.

Safe driving and happy passengers to you all.

Not long to go now

Dressing up for the occasion


Big cheese in East Wall


Early worker waits to be let in.


Toys for sale



Covent Garden

I drove over towards the Westbury to get a cup of coffee at the paper shop across the road. Not a chance to park, so I looped around and picked up a customer as I went around the corner. The guy had loads of bags and as he was getting in a car behind blew his horn.
"Mind these I'm going to kill that bastard".
I calmed him down and told him that sometimes arseholes begin at the top of the head and continue to their heels.
He began to settle down.
"He will get home and find a summons for speeding or a really big credit card bill he wasn't expecting" Drawing bad things towards himself he is, that's all.

He told me that he worked the doors at a casino on Auinger St. His mate was across the road talking to a big Russian guy and it looked like the situation would boil over, so he went across and dragged his mate back across the road again.The Russian guy who was out of his mind was insulting both of them so he dragged his mate back to the casino. The Russian followed them taunting and whistling at them. "So I told him to go back home to Russia where there was plenty of idiots there like himself he could fight with"
The guy then went off.
20 minutes later a police car came over to the casino. "Did you see a Russian man with a brown leather jacket, he held up a taxi driver at knife point and robbed him"
Well he had walked over to the casino where the cameras had picked him up.
He had even looked up into the cameras.

So the Garda have him in full technicolour.

I think I will go to the casino myself and get a copy of the photo for the Kesh (taxi holding area at the airport)
He is probably wanted in Russia as well.

Heading home the other day I picked up a girl who works in one of the children's hospitals, she was working in South Africa before this and her partner wanted to come and work in Europe, so they quickly married so he could get a green card and work in Europe.
A few weeks later he took a seizure and collapsed.
He had never had a headache, no double vision,nothing.

He had a brain tumour..After the operation he is fine again.
Her mother had a brain tumour only a few months before all this happened.
Now she thanks God for every day and takes nothing for granted.
She is a wonderful calm person in spite of it all and loves Ireland and the Irish welcome.

I hope the Christmas lights she bought in Woodies work well.

Another lady I picked up in James's St going to Liffey Valley, she was just going to Atlantic homecare and back. I told her that I would pause the meter while she was in the shop and bring her back home.
She had a story that would make your hair stand on end.
A neighbour of hers is a complete headcase, she has started a feud with another family. Instead of getting together over a pot of tea the situation has escalated to the point where a bomb was placed outside the flat.
The device was spotted and the bomb squad was called.
Everyone in the complex was evacuated for a few hours.
She told me that the army said that if the device had gone off it would have completely demolished the woman's flat the one next door and the one above it.

Wow that is a feud and a half.

One other passenger told me she was working in a well known top of the range department store, sales were low and management started threatening staff, cutting hours and laying off people.
She herself was breaking up with a long term relationship.
She read a book called The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma. She saw what she should do and handed in her notice and started work in Kildare Village.
Her life has become a dream. She enjoys her work. The new boss praises his staff and talks to them, looks for suggestions. Everyone is happy.

Happy staff= happy customers=higher sales

4 out of 5 who kill themselves are men

Girls toolbox with pretty feathers etc.


Pearly Kings


A bicycle for 6

A car tied up in cling film.


5 Dead on the roads in 24 hours yesterday.
Each one a tragedy, a mother taking her daughter and 3 friends to a dance skidded on black ice and went into a river killing the driver and her daughter.
Take care,slow down, better to be late than dead.

Christmas for me is not a good time, my skin gets thinner and I see the guys selling drugs to kids. The desperation in the family's where they have fallen into debt and Christmas just around the corner.All the lonely people on the streets, and the drinking to complete excess sickens me to the core.
I do suffer from depression,I am by polar.
Just so you know, depression is more like a bad dose of the flu rather than feeling sad, when you have it you cannot function. I take Lithium and it levels out my life. But I see so many people who have no one to love in their lives and they walk the streets of our cities in desperation seeking solace.
The true measure of any society is how they look after their young their sick and their elderly people.We do very badly on this.
I don't dwell on the doom and gloom that's going on at present, but there was a horrific case on the news the other day where a father and mother abused their children through their youth. One daughter bore two children by her father. Thank God that the Garda team had the tensity to follow the case through to its conclusion.
The father got life in prison, the mother was also locked up. I hope the children get the best of care.

For a crime like this against children a bullet between the two eyes would be the better solution, low cost, problem solved.

Ray Darcy had a slot about suicide he has put up a podcast.
Have a listen here. You are looking for the podcast of Dr.Harry Barry.

Did you follow that link on my last posting to send a message to a political prisoner?
Think about it, better than sending a card to someone you don't like.

Just as an afterthought. There was a guy who was kidnapped in our fair city and turned up dead a few days later.
Word on the street is that he was told to look after some drugs for a local gang. He hid it in the Green bin. But his mother didn't know that he had done this and she put out the bin for collection.

Short measure

Well most taxi drivers started using this petrol station again after it went from the dearest petrol to the cheapest,

From the Irish Times.

A service station on Dublin’s south quays has been fined €14,000 in the District Court today after pleading guilty to using fuel pumps which were “under-measuring” the amount of petrol and diesel being sold to consumers.

In an action taken by the National Standards Authority of Ireland’s (NSAI) Legal Metrology Service (LMS), the service station, trading as One Oil pleaded guilty to twelve charges of breaches of the Metrology Act, 1996.

The petrol station, located on Ushers Quay in Dublin, pleaded guilty to offences connected to the use of an unverified instrument and short measure on sale of motor fuel under Sections 13 and 28 of the Act, respectively.

The action was taken after the NSAI received a number of complaints from consumers about the petrol station.

In August 2010, LMS inspectors visited the station to inspect the premises and verify instrument compliance. A significant number of non-compliance issues were uncovered and reported to the garage owners, who were instructed to immediately rectify the non-compliances.

However, in response to further complaints from members of the public in February 2011, LMS inspectors revisited the premises and discovered that the previously verified and rectified fuel pumps had broken seals and were significantly under-measuring petrol and diesel being sold to consumers.

According to Maurice Buckley, the chief executive of the NSAI, its Legal Metrology Service visited almost 4,000 trader’s premises and tested more than 17,000 measuring instruments - such as supermarket weighing scales and taxi meters - where the correct charge or cost to consumers is dependent on accurate quantity measurement.

In addition, almost 8,000 fuel pumps at 1,300 service stations were also inspected last year. More than 2,000 warnings, which require corrective action such as minor adjustments or recalibration of equipment, were issued to traders.

There were also 13 prosecutions taken for non-compliance, where a trader did not take appropriate corrective action following a warning, with 10 of these resulting in conviction. Each of those prosecutions was related to non-compliant taxi meters.

Magic Paul

Yesterday saw the arrival of the celebrity magician Paul Daniels with the lovely Debbie Magee, she has Irish roots and she brought her cousins along to the magicians club.
He gave us a good talk about presentation and giving good customer satisfaction.
He is as quick witted as ever, a very entertaining man.

When we first met years ago he called the group to attention.
"I want to introduce John to you all. Note the way he is dressed,this is important to note, this is a sure sign of a wealthy man. He doesn't waste money buying good clothes like you lot do"
When I met him through the years I took a photograph of us both.
This time I decided not to take one as we were getting progressively older each time we took the photograph.
So to stop that ageing process I didn't take the snapshot.

"Magic is the best fun you can have without taking your clothes off" So he says

Here is a good thing you can do for Christmas.
Go to this website and write a Christmas card to a prisoner of conscience.
No this may be someone who spoke out against a corrupt politician, or policeman and now find themselves in prison.

Think about it at least.

Another thing coming up today is an art exhibition for the CFCP connecting the immigrant/experimental/emerging artists in Ireland.
You do know that when you find an emerging artist and buy their work your investment goes up fast.Plenty of Polish artists represented here.

I have an eye infection, I have been to the doctor and it is worse now.
The last time this happened a doctor in the eye and ear hospital told me that handling money is deadly.

Never wipe you eye with your hand, use a tissue, one end for each eye and discard it at once.
He told me at the time that I was only days away from loosing the eye as my resistance to infection was very low because the eye had become re infected several times.
Perhaps I will go back there tomorrow.
Talking about magic.

Did you ever hear of Ricky Jay?

Our great leaders

He looked at my ESB bill which was lying on the dashboard as he got into the taxi.
I thought I recognised him, though I couldn't’t put a name on him

“Hello Johnny, I hope you’re well”

From then on he was like a long playing record, no stopping him.
He just talked on and on.

At some point I recalled that he was one of our “Elected representatives”
.
When I got a break in his rant I asked him how he could put with all the abuse he gets from the members of the public when he went out canvassing for election.

Well his mouth took off as if it was in overdrive, he was in great form.

Why do I do it all you ask for the measly sum of £34,000 a year?
(£34,000 in 1981 was a lot of money more than 3 times the national average wage)

The £34,000 is not the issue for me.
You see I am also on the transport committee for which I get £16,000 a year.
The housing committee for which I get £14,000 a year.
I’m on the education committee for which I get £14, 000 a year.
Plus the lighting committee for which I get £12,000 .

I don’t even know what the lighting committee does, but they pay me anyhow.

This is in Irish Punts, the Euro has not arrived…

Real money

Now that brings my income up to £90,000 a year.
Now you might think that is a lot of money..

But it gets better.

Did you ever hear of appearance money, they call it attendance money, but I prefer to call it Appearance money because I consider myself somewhat of an artiste !

I get £116 per day for appearing in the Dail , plus travel expenses and subsistence allowance.
Plus a subsidy in the Dail bar and restaraunt.

Now you remember the committiees?
The Housing
The education,
The transport and we must not forget the lighting committee,

They sit on the same day as the DAIL.
I get appearance money for all the committies as well.

It all adds up to £51,750 and this on top of the £90,000 and you know what its all tax free!
That’s
£116 for the Dail
£116 for transport committee
£116 for the housing committee
£116 for the lighting committee
£116 for the education committee

Per day.

There may have even a few more committees as well !

Now we only sit for 90 days, so my yearly income I earn in 3 months.

But it gets even better….

Expenses !

£82 a day !
Over 90 days that’s another £7380
Now add the 4 committees £36,900

Now that tops my income up to roughly to £152,100 per year.

Nearly 10 times the national average!

Where would you be without the expenses ?

You need the expenses.

Sure I have to take taxis from the Dail to the transport committee then to the lighting committee .

Yous lads are not cheap either.

Then there’s my constituents calling to my house,

I converted the garage into a small office, the clinic its called. I put the electricity and gas meters on to the wall of the garage. So now I can claim for my heating water rates and electricity , even helping out with the old mortgage,
All legitimate expenses.
And sure if you need to extend the house you can say that it is to compensate for the space you lost by converting the garage…Of course you know who foots the bill?
Then I have to take out public liability insurance in case one of my constituents fall.

Another expense.

Who pays for that ?
The tax paying voting public that’s who pays.

Do you see the security cameras and the top notch alarm system ?
Who paid for that ?

Then there’s the phone in the house, in the office, the 3 mobile phones and the secretarial wages even though its my wife who looks after most things here in my house.

Did you ever wonder how we dress so well?

WE GET A CLOTHING ALLOWANCE !

Yes its very important that the people you elect dress well and look well groomed.
Well when you get your clothing allowance you can still claim for tax on the money you spent buying the clothes. Add to that the laundry, dry cleaning.

Now if I could only get the clothing allowance for the wife!
No she doesn’t get that .
But she does get tax deductions on the dresses and shoes she buys.
Its an expense you see.

And then there’s the jewellery allowance as well..

Well she has to dress the part.

Then there’s the charity functions, there good too.

Did you see me in the paper giving the personal cheque to the Simon community the other day ?

Refundable from party funds !

Then there’s the charity auctions, you get your picture in the paper, you get your money back and you get to keep the item, Not bad at all.

So I do 3 months work for which I get £152,100

If you could do a years work it would be worth more that £608,000

Now remember he was only a back bencher, not a minister.

He might only "Work" for 4 years and then he gets a pension for life, not when he stops working or becomes elderly.

But that was in the dim distant past, or perhaps it was all in a dream. I mean it couldn't’t be true, or could it ?
nd that is why our taxes go up and hospitals close, the elderly are asked to survive on less, just so they live like the fat cats.

Better cars and better drvers

I found the full clip of the Roma taxi drivers perfect day.





Boys and girls have a great weekend

Where did the big wheel go ?

On my sons fridge 2 bunny rabbits. Salt grinder and pepper mill


St Pauls cathedral at dusk.


This is the site of William Shakespears house! Ireland Yard, so he is Irish


Count down until the olympics in London


Ship in a bottle at Trafagar Square

Well here we are !
The Christmas tree in O'Connell St. is on and everywhere is Christmas.
In 4 weeks it will all be over.

But on Sunday they took away the big wheel.
It was erected in the wrong place from the beginning, very few visitors came to it.
That girl who fell from one of the pods and was killed didn't help matters either.


Those who rode on it just got a view of the docks, it is a pity it was not put up in St.Stephens Green from the start.

The taxi driver who was killed last week was buried yesterday, there will be very little of the Christmas spirit in that household for a long time to come.

In reality any driver who goes out to pick up total strangers and allows them to sit behind him in the dark has to be a bit crazy.

There but for the grace of God go any of us.

Things are warming up for an interesting Christmas for sure.
The budget will tax the poor, who can't pay.
They reckon that a hike in VAT is the answer !
All roads lead to Newry.
(which is in the UK)
If you are trying to get out of a hole you have to stop digging.

I am working on a piece about a politician,watch this spsce. Its really good.

More of that in a few days.








Now perhaps you will understand what will happen to that lady who gave out to me last week.

A piece of stone ?

What a varied and different day.
By that I mean that no one moment was the same as the next and the contrast between situations were so so strange.
I started on the Clontarf road where I picked up one of my favorite regulars.
Today as it turned out she wanted to go by bus as she had no money.
Well this may be end of our friendship as I told her she could pay me another day.
She is Polish and has the most wonderful laugh. If you make her laugh on her journey it creates ripples in your very soul, these ripples make me happy all day long.
I dropped her off and headed for Sandymount then back into town, from there to Heuston station. The station has become so bad that you cannot get on to the rank most times.
So I got on and picked up a lady in obvious pain. Walking with the help of a stick, she got in and we headed off for Vincents hospital.
She had a morphine pump to eases the pain in her back and with the drugs she is on she has put on 7 stone. Now she was not at all complaining of her condition.
Her mother and father are living with her family, her father has Alzheimer's and is difficult (to say the least)He jumps through decades all the time. Her mother had a bad fall so is in hospital for respite care and she put her father into a nursing home while she is going up and down to Dublin hospitals. Problem with her father is that the carers don't know what to do and keep asking her to come over and give them a hand. The people in the nursing home are supposed to be the professionals after all. This wonderful lady never complained about herself once during the journey, though she was in a lot of pain.
She told me that she had a thriving business selling bridal wear, but as she was ill she had to give it up. "I have a big storeroom full of the most beautiful Spanish wedding dresses, I don't know if I can ever get rid of them."
At the end of the line it was €14.20 I said €14. "Here keep the change"When I looked she had given me a €10 and two €5s. Look you have given me €20 take back the €5.

No keep it and thank you.

Bits and bobs later I had to visit Mabel my 101 3/4 year old friend, she is dying and wanted to talk to me about her affairs. Where she wants her ashes to go etc.
I told her a few tall yarns and we had a few jokes together.
"Mabel I will miss you but you have had such a full and long life that I will be happy to see yo go to meet Jack and your daughter Barbra again". She is a very romantic person and says good night to him every night, though he is gone for more than 30 years.

Later on that day I picked up a lady going to Blackrock. As we crossed the bridge going on to Northumberland Rd. A bus in front of me stopped short, which meant that my back wheels were on the pedestrian crossing. A young enough lady banged on the window and abused me. It went on for a while, my passenger was shocked by her bad behavior. I suppose you don't thing of the right thing to say at the time. But, I had just spent 2 hours with a dying friend. People do snap sometimes, she should be more careful.

What did I say to my passenger?

"Did you ever read a book called the secret?"

She had.

"Then you will know that she is attracting all kinds of negative shit upon herself?"

God I really don't know what happened after that, I started getting one fare after another for the next 2 hours.
I didn't get home until around 9pm.

but I am up at 4am for an airport run!

Now for a bit of trivia.

The first photo is of the archway at the top of the Mall in London, Buckingham palace behind you.

The second is of a piece of stone which protrudes from the right hand side of the left archway.









OK boys and girls what is its significance?

Ron McMillans 40th

At this time of year we remember the magician Ron McMillan.
His son runs the magic shop on Clerkenwell Rd.
The convention is held at the Mermaid theater at Puddle dock.
Georgina and Martin and the Mother are the nicest people you could ever meet.

A great line up, a wonderful city.
Great to see my oldest son as well.












They kept that take in instead of cutting it and put it on the show, every time there is a blooper show it has been repeated. The royalty checks keep coming in.
One of the greatest highlights was to be there on the night when Murray met David again after 20 years.
Murray even brought his jumper that he wore on that day...

There is a lot more to life than driving a taxi you know.

On this day 1963

Yuri Gagarin a statue in London


Another time.

Another place
I just had to remember that on this day the world was shocked by the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
We are as wise today as to what the exact circumstances were as we were back in 1963.

Occupy the streets London

Soon every crackpot in the England will come to St.Pauls to protest.
The problem is that there are so many oddballs there it is hard to take it seriously.

Where has all the money gone ?

Well it has come to pass that the police broke up the "Occupy Wall Street" protest.
It is also in London and In Dame street Dublin

There you have it again the might of the state oppressing legitimate concerns.
I remember the well fed white cops beating black people in America to deny them the vote and the troops shooting people in the towhships of South Africa, its time to stand up for ourselves.




So I am off to the bright lights of London until Tuesday.

Look after yourselves.

Meeting new friends

The biggest chess set in Dublin is Google HQ on Barrow St.


Oh what a beautiful morning !


Superman on a wall beside Crosby's house, there is a vacant room where U2 like to practice.


In LA this means you are near a crack house.


Sam Beckett bridge a Mecca for photographers.


After "Where are you going?" the next question is often "What country do you come from?" A very exotic lady I spoke with the other day, very beautiful. She was Kurdish. A much persecuted people, a race who do not have to seek their troubles.
Still we had a great laugh and she told me that it was the best trip she ever had in a taxi in her life. The pleasure was mutual believe me.

Here is an example of what I mean when I say she had a certain Exotic look.



Today I picked up a lady from Ethiopia she was a leaving cert student in Crumlin. Soon we were like old pals chatting away. Another country where evil stalks the land. War is a constant thing, famine follows through the region all the time.
Her father was killed in the war of 99, her mother never remarried, his second wife who was younger married again. But before she remarried she gave her baby brother to her first husbands maiden sister to bring up the child.
This leaving cert student saves $25 every week to support her aunt and 1/2 brother.
Every month she sends $100 to them.
The Arabs have a great love for charity, they give away 10% of their income to help people less fortunate than themselves.
As you know Allah will reward you by giving you greater blessings.

But the world is changing and mankind has started to worship money and power instead of God.
"A cup of tea and a biscuit will taste the same in the Sheraton hotel as it will in your own house, but think of the difference in cost" she declared.

I was very glad to have bumped into both of them in my journey around our fair city.

Google is hosting a big meeting at the conference center today and yesterday.
It is mostly facebook people. The first guy I picked up wouldn't even tell me what it was all about. The next guy asked me what I thought of Facebook ?.
"It's all hype, nothing more"
Although he works for them he was inclined to agree.
Ebay for example is providing a service to buy and sell, money changes hands.
Even the advertising that is hosted on Youtube and Facebook sites, I don't think it is so very effective.

Companies need to work on their customer service and look after existing customers.
In recent times I have found that I am far from happy after calling to a bank or utility company.

Like taxi drivers, if you don't work on your ability to communicate with your passingers they won't be taking your number and calling you up sometime.

Wrong way

Woolly hats for sale on O'Connell Bridge


This is the better view to the right of the other photo from the last posting


Englishmen arrive for a Stag do.


Guttering emerges from a forming machine in the back of the truck.


A poor Injuin out in the wind

One thing about driving a taxi that is very annoying is when your passenger says "Driver,why are you going this way? I have never been brought this way in my life! I know the way to go. You are going the wrong way."
The problem is that there is no right way to handle it.
And so it came to pass it happened to me yet again!
She got in near Zhivago's at the bottom of Parnell St.
She was going to a clinic on Westbrook Rd.in Ranelagh.
If she had stopped me 20 yards further back I could have gone up Capel St.
After a few hundred meters it started.
"Why are you going this way?
I know the way, I have never been brought this way before.
I am late and now you are making me very late."

Today I would stop the car and ask her to direct me to go in whichever direction she wanted me to go or get out and go in another taxi,yet you try to remain calm.

She was still pretty frantic as we went up Charlemont St., so I stopped the meter at €10, in spite of this she was insisting that she had never paid more than €8 for that journey !
There must be a formula for dealing with this ?

Once late at night I had a young girl did direct me,left, right and straight ahead until we reached her house. I laughed to myself because we had followed her bus route exactly, in and out of housing estates etc.
But I do know the feeling when the taxi driver starts taking the scenic route.

My most favorite recollection of just such an incident happened at the Conrad Hilton on Earlsfort Terrace many years ago.
I had stopped at the rank on a Sunday morning.
A car pulled up beside me and asked me for directions to Baggott St. As I was showing her the way the concierge started blowing his whistle.
I drove forward and he put the bag in the boot.
The man and woman got in.
"Airport" (No please or thank you.)
I told them that they were making a movie around the corner with 1920s cars and buses, so I drove them past Fitzwilliam Sq to see the sight.
As I got closer to the square the "lady" leaned over.
"Driver were not fucking stupid, you're going the wrong way"
I told her that I would follow any route she wished but to get to this point where we were I would have to go the wrong way down 2 one way streets.

Now in fact what I might have done was to stop and tell them that they have to get another taxi.

"You are telling me I am a dishonest person so we must part company"

I drove on anyhow and turned on the radio.
They were having a row, it was like the rumbling of a cement mixer going on all the time.
When we got to the airport I knew there would be no tip in in for me.
As I handed him his change and suitcase I said.
"I hope you are in time for your flight?.
The change of hour really fucked up my day"
"Whats you fucking talking about?" says he
"The clocks, they went forward last night, its Summer time"

As reality sank in the expression on his face changed from rage to horror in slow motion.

So you see what happens if you don't moderate your behavior.

Shit happens !

I did tell an actor once that he had too high an opinion of himself if he thought I would drive him around just to get a few extra pence, what I want is to be rid of you as quickly as I can and get on to the next job.

Strange thing happened I met the girl with the flat battery again yesterday, this time she was off to see her sisters new baby.


Today we are having the most beautiful morning ever.



This is the one I was looking for

First frost

View of the city from behind the Casino in Marino


Autumn frost in Fairview park


Elephants and Buddhas adorn a Dublin taxi


I reckon the person who never made a mistake never made anything.
On Sunday I did make a mistake !
A young girl going to Cappah to a boarding school.
We arrived in Cappah and she did not know where the school was. So in cases of difficulty you phone a friend...No good either. So we went into Cappah hospital and she suggested that it was in Cabra, just after you cross the railway line on the right hand side. Sorry to say I was still wrong, so I phoned another friend who suggested it was on the Navan Rd. When we went around the corner she knew where it was and directed me directly to it.
She was deaf and was lip reading as we went, to help her I had the light on in the car.
I would say she was 16 or so, a bubbly bright girl.
She told me she had 5 sisters and 3 brothers, so he came from a big family
So look in the mirror and say Cabra then say Cappa (as it is pronounced). There is hardly any difference.
So I had turned off the meter in Cappah and drove back and charged her €15
I did ask her to write it out on a piece of paper for the next time.
"St. Marys school, Navan Rd, after the Garda station and before the church on the right hand side, through the arch"
Evelyn Glennie the Scottish percussionist is deaf also, she feels the vibrations through her body, just like my girl does.
The joys of Youtube...


Some of us never even try to reach our full potential others excel in their endevor

I have replaced the battery in my car and my wife's car this week.
I think it is the frost that makes the weak batteries give up the ghost, but they have come down a lot in price over the years.

So it was no surprise that my first fare of the day was a schoolteacher who's car would not start.
Artaine motor factors carry a good range of batteries on the North side of the city and in Bond St behind Guinness Garry in the Harbor radiators will see you right.

The first frosty morning I saw 3 cars rear end each other 2 were new cars, a Volvo and an Opel brand new and shunted.
First frost can catch you out, like rain after a dry spell makes the road slippery you must take care.
Still it is nothing like that multi vehicle pile up in England last week.
One of my passengers told me that he has to go to New York on business once a month, then he hires a car and drives down the freeway for 6 hours. Bored out of his mind just sitting there while the car goes at 80 mph in 5 or 6 lanes going each way.

Poor old St Christopher has his hands full keeping us all safe.

What about the poor old taxi drivers in Australia ?,

Paste this to your browser.

http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8369595

Thank you Sam for that.