Bank Holiday weekend

One of the offices of Facebook...right here in Dublin.






The lady is carrying a harp in a black carrier bag.





The weekend is here again and this time it is our bank holiday, last weekend was the UK bank holiday.
There are events taking place all over the country,the Cat Laughs festival in Kilkenny. In Dublin we are having the World Champion street performers competition, free and well worth a visit. The woman's mini marathon, (plenty of hot women there) The Bloom festival in the Phoenix park. Look here for more.
Plus they are having a big Brazil festival in Galway.
Loads of things going on.

And the sun came out today ! WOW.

So on the taxi front for me business is up. "Herring days" are banished for a while.
I think that some people woke up to the fact that there are a lot of illegal drivers, some of them were taken away and many others are lying low until things cool down again.

Example of a classic scam.
A lady approached me (A plain clothes nun )
"How much to St.John of Gods in Stillorgan ? €20 to €25 it will be on the meter.
How do I know you won't charge me more?
Another lady came up to me, so I said Do you want to go in this car or the one behind me.

She got in and after we were in Ballsbridge she told me that last week the driver had taken her along the M50. Turning a €25 fare to a €55 trip.
So I asked her.
Did you not tell him he was going the wrong way?
Did you get a printed receipt?
Did you note his PSV number and the roof sign number?
Did you report it to the taxi regulator?

So it was no to all the questions.
So he lives to rob another day.

On the other hand in a positive note.
A blond girl got into my car around Blackhall Place.(There is a new traffic camera at the Luas line there)
Well I tried my usual trick "guess the nationality by their features"
Greek !, she took a few seconds, smiled and said. No! Brazil. But I like that you thought I looked Greek. It turned out she arrived here three months ago,alone, with no English.
Now she has a job in Sandymount and her English is coming on in leaps and bounds.
She has loads of personality and she is also very intelligent.
Great people the Brazilians.

I also know what these lady's love.....Football!

The tango event collided with the football last week and football won, but there is another event coming 1st. to 3rd July

Now this event will star Geraldine Rojas and she is more than quite good, they have booking from all over the World including a large group from Mexico.



I just want to share something with you today.
It is nothing to do with taxi driving, but more to do with the way standards are slipping and my fight to correct things, in this one situation.

I will give you part one now, and then drip feed the rest to you.
I have an astigmatism in my right eye, so as not to put too much strain on my left eye I wear glasses.
I went to Specsavers chain of opticians and I paid for new glasses.
When the glasses came I put them on and I said straight away. "These are not right".

The reply I got was that "I would get used to them"

So I went off not able to read street signs or car reg's.

I went back again 2 days later, this time they pulled out my prescription and put the glasses into a machine to check it.

"No they are correct"! I argued that my old pair which I had lost were perfect, so why were these ones so different.
Again I was told "It will take a while to get used to the new ones".

Then I found my old lost pair and I put away the other glasses.

Until I broke them.

Then I had to buy new pair of glasses...AGAIN.