Gone away.

The Bottle Tower


Artists queuing with their work for the exhibition at the RHA


The last long journey


Rupert Guinness theatre


St James's Gate. Home of the black stuff.


Well here I am on the eve of flying off to London.

Lets hope my son behaves himself while We are gone.




It has come to pass that I got through the NCT at last.
First failure was because one headlight was brighter than the other.
Pay €28 for re test.
Second test, failure,the other bulb was then blown.
Yet another €28
At last a Pass, now it is off to the other place where they will judge the suitability of the car to be a taxi.

Yes, after ALL that they have to inspect it all over again !

The whole system is mad.

There was a woman there and her SUV had failed the test because it had been crashed and had been very badly repaired. Nothing in line. Not fit for purpose.

The policing of the taxi industry is REALLY BAD, we got a flyer from the regulators office a few days ago.It said that they issued 10 fixed penalty's or so for the whole island in the past year! That's MAD

On the way over to the testing area I saw a girl and I just knew she was going to hail me..It would all depend on how far she was going, I had some spare time, though not a lot.

So when she got in I said, how are you today nurse?

How did you know that?

Strange thing is, Doctors, Nurses,Schoolteachers all sit in in the front seat.
Plus Australians, both men and women.

Most other people sit in the back.

She has just graduated and is off to London, if she got the job she had just come from the job interview.
So it will be off to London New York and Australia for the class of 2011.
There is no work for them here.

Galway taxi drivers found themselves in trouble in the courts a few weeks ago.
They were setting up a taxi group and each driver paid €500 into the pot and they were supplied with a radio and they became part of the co op.
Then some bright spark decided that the didn't want any Africans in the group!
They asked for the radios back and the 10 Africans sued them for racial discrimination.
They were awarded €6349 each plus costs for their trouble.

It is a pity the Garda are not as quick to get my €90 back from the African man who is operating an illegal clamping company here in Dublin.

Here is a piece from the late Belfast Taxi man's blog.

Just in case anyone thinks taxi driving is easy.
__________________________________________________________

Two drunken women who made false sexual allegations about a taxi driver have been sent to jail.

Charlene Beal, became violent after she argued with Zubair Khan over the fare and then claimed he sexually assaulted her and exposed himself.

The 50-year-old cabbie was arrested and held in a police cell for several hours before police discovered he was innocent.

Jailing Beal, 27, for 19 months and her then partner Lisa McGuire, 26, for 11 months, a judge told them: "It was a wicked thing to do to accuse that man of what you accused him of.

"Lawyers acting for alleged victims of sex offences, he said, are entitled to say: "Read your newspapers, members of the jury, women make things up."

Recorder Cairns Nelson QC added: "You should hang your heads in shame."

Maidstone Crown Court heard Mr Khan had picked up Beal and McGuire in the early hours of February 19 at the River Tavern in Strood.

Neil Sandys, prosecuting, said Mr Khan, who was working for a Gillingham taxi firm, told the women the fare to Maidstone would be £30.

After Beal argued the fare should be £22.50, the cabbie asked for the cash up front.

Beal handed over £20 and said the rest would be paid when they arrived at their destination.

Mr Sandys said when they arrived in the town centre Beal and McGuire wanted to go further. Mr Khan said he would not take them anywhere until they had paid.

A struggle then ensued.

"Mr Khan was shocked and scared," said Mr Sandys. "From then on the incident escalated very quickly indeed."

About £750 worth of damage was caused to the dashboard, radio and meter equipment.

Mr Khan managed to get out of the cab but his mobile phone was thrown in the road. As he bent down to get it, he was pushed over. Beal kicked him in the legs.

She then made a 999 call in which she said Mr Khan had either attempted to rape her or sexually assault her.

Beal admitted perverting the course of justice and damaging property.

Beal also admitted assaulting Mr Khan and a public order offence.

Mary Jacobson, for McGuire, said her client played little part in the allegation of indecent exposure. “She was literally a back seat passenger,” she said.

“This was simply meant to be a fun night out which went dramatically wrong for all parties involved. She and Miss Beal were partners at the time. They have since moved on to new partners.”

Timothy Banks, for Beal, said his client knew there was no truth in her allegations against Mr Khan and that he was entirely innocent.

“She was struggling with alcohol addiction,” he said. “It is a disgraceful incident.”

Beal worked as a school dinner lady but it came to an end when checks were made and her criminal record was discovered.

“She knows what she has done was close to wicked,” added Mr Banks.

Cabbie Zubair Khan said afterwards he was pleased with the sentence but would have liked to have seen the two women get at least two years jail.

"I think as they have admitted what they did the sentence is OK. If they had been given two years it would have been better."

The ordeal of poor Mr khan aside these two women are an absolute disgrace and do great disservice to any poor woman who have been victim of sexual assault .

____________________________________________________________

It is very sad when someone leaves us suddenly when they have so much ability and promise.

Belfast Cabbie RIP
_____________________________________________

Spare a thought for the 5 Garda who were involved in arresting 2 Dublin women who were at the Shell to sea protest site. One got on to a tractor . The other woman was taking a video when they were arrested.
Then, as they were being escorted to the station in one car 5 garda in another were making their way to the station with the camera.....
But the camera was still running, full of bravado the conversation recorded showed them to be potential rapists,not at all the type of language you would expect from pillars of the law for sure.

The situation is not being handled very well at present.

If I was the boss I would suspend the 5 until the situation had been investigated by an independent body.

I would also issue an apology straight away to the women.

This would do something to give a bit more confidence to the public.