Farewell 2015 welcome 2016

                 Once again Dublin is looking great..

                         Clontarf yacht club held a suicide awareness day.

      A new member to the €uro its Lithuania and Latvia is in as well.

    Here is a great idea if you're taking a month off. A solar powered battery charger

There will be a big festival in Dublin to celebrate the new year click here for details.
The site is not great all I need to know Where? Who is on? and When?

Looking forwards and looking back at this time can waken you up for sure.
John Lennon died 35 years ago..Many of us can remember that shocking moment.
By the way The Beatles are now on Spotify...Strawberry fields forever.

Soon the work will vanish for 3 months.
Many of my older mates head off to Spain to rest. An old guy explained to me that there are bargains to be had at that time of the year. "But don't go out in the sun or there will be no tips when you come back".

This year I have a plan.
Instead of just saying that I am writing a book, I will just finish it off.

All of my 3 sons went to Mount Temple school. The famous school where U2 met.
 youngest lad David was in the same class as Jack Doyle the son of Roddy Doyle the creator of the book and film "The Commitments"
We met in the supermarket. "How's the blog going?
"Not too bad I am working on the book, its very hard, writing, correcting and writing all over again."
All he said was "Tell me about it"
A funny guy to say the least.

We all know that there has to be at least 3 books in it.
From the tragic to the comical and on to the farcical. 

Today I brought a Brazilian girl to the airport, going home for good.
Often customers become friends and it is not a money making job, its a freebie.
Brazil is very very wealthy country but it is so corrupt.
She told me that one of her friends belongs to a wealthy family and the father groomed and had sex with a young girl. The father was never punished,"my friends brother is a judge and he quashed everything... I said this is so wrong, is there no God? But nothing changed,"
 
So many things pass your ear every day, still it is an education..

Best of luck for 2016  

Christmas wishes

 Happy Christmas, war is over !!!!!!





Irving Berlin made a fortune from this



 The usual video is gone, but you get the story



Lets not dwell on the bad things there is a lot of good things happening..

Have a fantastic Christmas 
And an even better 2017

Small change big fuss

 A giant washing machine wash all the clothes,the kids, the dog and the cat all at once.

 An old TV with the works taken out and an and an animated display put in its place.

Not the kind of Christmas lights we like to see

Well at this time the amateur drinkers come out.

A taxi driver dropped off around the Bleedin Horse and then headed for home.

Great!  I'm finished now off for a pint before the pubs close he thought.
Just as he started off again two girls just jumped in.
"Two stops Rathfarnham and Dundrum. no long way around and shut your fucking mouth, no talking"Said one of the girls"
So the driver tells them to get out and after much "You HAVE to bring us" they got out before the police were called..

A man gets on to a bus and pays in the machine and the driver doesn't give him his 5c refund ticket.
He calls the driver names and he is then is asked to get off the bus.

NO I WON'T GO !

This time the Garda come and remove him and the bus goes on its way 40 minutes late.
So he is full of rage and engages a solicitor and goes off to court.
Deformation of character !!!
So the judge listens to the saga, perhaps she saw the CCTV footage as well.

Let me explain something to you said the Judge.
Your own actions caused all this friction, you caused the trouble by not getting off the  bus when you were asked, so the defamation was of your own making.

YOUR CASE IS DISMISSED AND I AM AWARDING COSTS AGAINST YOU OF €20,000.

Then  
My own washing machine stopped, so I had a look, no go.
Off to the man, 36 hours later I get the call.
This is the problem 2x 1c coins stuck in the pump, "That will be €50!"

Sometimes small change causes big friction.

11 days to go

To all the taxi drivers out there and all the people working in bars and shops.

Thank God it will soon pass.

Phil Lynott 30 years gone

 Don't forget to buy your ticket for the "Vibe for Philo" concert 30 years on.

                                                        Trinity college

                A lion a tiger and a Jaguar.

Here is a story from the Irish Times (click it)It concerns a lady who was in my taxi.
She filled me in on her ongoing battle with her husband in the High court.
His previous partner had walked away from him with nothing fearing the battle.
Now she has fought tooth and nail, he has spent €800,000 on court proceedings. She now has a barring order against him. 
The war will continue.

In Dublin a few years ago we had 2 profoundly handicapped boys living in Dublin.
Christopher Nolan would sit and stare at the world while the "experts"said he was not capable of rational thought . Then he was given a drug which relaxed his muscles and boy did he start to write.
His poems have won many awards."Damburst of dreams"and "Under the eye of the clock"

Davern Hannahs (link) parents were told that he was not viable but his poetry was better than anything I could ever write for sure.I used to work with Jack Hannah a very intelligent man.

Yes folks how would you like to be a prisoner inside your own body unable to make yourself understood and unable to help yourself in any way.

So stop moaning for a while and help others.

A reality check for me

                                                                      Westbury hotel

Well Christmas is well and truly here. Greed, shopping and very little of the 
 real message of peace, goodwill to all men.

Whenever I get complacent about things I get a good kick in the arse from the man above
Yes even taxi drivers take things for granted and become grumpy, customers not coming out and cancelling after 4 minutes, little things like that.

Well last Friday I was humbled by what I saw.
A guy waved me down on the Clontarf Rd and there was a girl in a wheelchair beside him.
I jumped out to put the chair in the boot and the man told me that their would be a chair at the other end. He helped a young girl into the back seat and off we went, just me and her.
She was a beautiful young lady but she was profoundly handicapped, every small gesture turned into a big jerk and as I spoke to her desperately trying to decode her answers I was really humbled.
Nothing for me is any effort, picking things up, talking or walking.
Everything I take for granted is for her a battle.
She is really beautiful and I am so grateful that perhaps from now on I will not take my own life for granted.

May God bless you.
A guy in the car dropped a small credit card wallet on Friday and the next person in the car handed it over. There was credit and business cards in it so I sent him a text.
I got a reply soon after.
So then I dropped it back to his office.
No big deal!
Today as I dropped someone off the same man stopped me on the street to thank me, I said it was no trouble but he insisted on giving me €10.
Good man.

Beats the crap out of that doctor who dropped a wallet wit more than £1,500 in Irish and English notes years ago.  He never dropped me the smallest thanks.
One customer told me that this guy doesn't believe in God or Man. One day day you will be passing a shop and see a waving cat in the window and that will be him in the next life.

But one day recently I saw a waving cat and I bought it knowing that it was him in his new life..


Just in case you didn't understand the significance of last weeks post, here is some more.

Small battles and big victories.

Sometimes things happen which has no bearing on reality.
The other day I was at a 4 star hotel which was moving well, the porter came out and we put the cases in the boot. "Take these people to the airport and the hotel will pay the bill"
I asked him to repeat it and he said "The hotel is paying, bring the receipt up to the desk and you will be paid when you come back "
So I went off and Tommy who had put the cases in the boot was on a break when I came back and I missed him for the rest of the day. The next day I presented my bill again and I got a very nasty surprise.
"No we would never pay a guests taxi fare" No way was I going to be paid..€35.00!
Now to say I was a bit shocked would be putting it mildly.
I spoke to around 5 people and "Tommy"couldn't remember when he was phoned on his day off.
Two junior managers fobbed me off.
You would need to get something like that in writing one of them said.

I saw a senior manager and told him of my plight.

"No we would never pay a guests taxi fare"
"But there was another taxi driver beside me when the porter spoke to me" I said.

The matter was investigated and though they had no liability in law they said they would pay me as a good will gesture.
So perhaps without my witness the hotel was trying to screw me.

A porter at that same hotel once asked me to bring a customer to the airport a journey of approx €25.00. Don't start the meter if he asks you just say that its on the hotel bill. There is €30.00 in it for you and €20 for me.
I refused and put in a receipt for €21 and the porter told me that I would never get another good job from his hotel.
Anyhow I picked up a really interesting guy today going to an airport hotel and I told him my story.
I came here one day early, so I stayed in this hotel.
I usually stay at the Carlton and I have a meting there now.
I believe your story and at best they are incompetent and at worse dishonest.
He was wearing high end clothes and suitcase were Louis Vuitton. He knew of all the tricks used in this life by scam artists and crooks and I was telling him that a friend of mine had locked herself out of her car.
He had done the same and a taxi had to drive 400 Kms from his office in Luxembourg with the spare key.
I said use a courier next time.
When we arrived at the hotel I had to validate my parking and as we walked into reception a Pilot in full uniform approached us. "Good morning Robert here are the flight plans.
I will see you after the meeting."

During the trip I had told him about this urban legend that I once herd.

 Key locked in the car...Spare key at home.

Get the person at home to find the key and hold it up to their fone.

Then put your fone on speaker and ask them to press the unlock button.

Your door pops open I swear to god its true................
We did it today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyhow life is full of small battles and big victories.


Cabs are for kissing is a great blog written by a New York taxi driver,
His book is now published on Kindle.
 
Click here to buy Eugenes book




What kind of religion is Islam?

Look at this..11year old

She was put to death for dishonoring her family



then this

A sad week for Paris

Thinking back to the Paris terrorist attack it would be wrong of me not to comment publicly.

What an awful thing to happen, so many innocent beautiful people cut down in their prime.

May God comfort the injured and bring peace to the bereaved and comfort to the left behind.
They may find peace in the knowledge that the departed are in a place where there is no pain.
As for he the terrorists there is no hell bad enough for them.


There was a "Freedom fighter" in my taxi a few years ago called Sam, he had written a book a few years ago called "Soldier for a Summer". There was also a video made by French TV about his campaign against Gadaffi in Libya which won an award.
He explained to me how Gadaffi controlled terrorism around the world, how he trained supplied explosives and arms to the IRA and many other terror groups and how his intelligence service would hunt down his enemies around the world.
There is no doubt in my mind that what he was trying to do was just the right thing to do at that time.

Then a British soldier who had served in Iran and Iraq told me that the problem over there is bigger than you might think on many levels. It is a tribal country and like in the ancient fables if you cut the head off the dragon it just grows 2 more heads.
Meaning that the big leaders were just keeping all the different factions at bay,
"When you take one leader out there is total chaos"

And so it happened.

Islam means peace but like many religions it has more than a fair share of evil prophets who preach their evil gospel  from the Mosque they take young minds twist their logic until they are prepared to die for the cause.I don't know how they do it but there are training camps in Pakistan and Syria where they are trained to hate and to die.
There is a huge Arabic ghetto on the outskirts of Paris, one commentator spoke on the 
 radio of how unemployment and lack of opportunity leads the young Arab people onto the path to hell.
The British government have a great intelligence service, its the only good way to beat them.

But the won't stop me from going to London, Paris or anywhere else.

Below is Sam from Dublin

RMS Tayleur

I was in Howth Harbor the other day buying fish in Nickys Plaice when I saw this poster.

The talk is on tomorrow and the ship was the White Star shipping lines first "Titanic"
She sank on her maiden voyage and out of 650 passengers only 290 survived.
Howth is hoping to open a maritime museum soon.

Click here to read more about the ship.

Well the temperature has dropped and they say it will be 2c tonight.

Christmas cactus is in bloom

                              This is the entrance to Herbert park from the Herbert hotel

             Part of history is Walter Scotts voyage to Antartica and Tom Crean from Kerry.
The exhibition is at the ferry terminal building in DunLaoighre.

           Christmas is coming as the first flowers has arrived on my Christmas cactus.

Well the Web Summit has gone away, off to Portugal for the next 3 years.
There was many words spoken on both sides about its departure, each side was saying it was the other sides fault.But €20 for a bottle of water and a hamburger caused a few raised eyebrows.
Also they asked a few celebs to MC some of the gigs and they stated that there would be "No fee"for the job.

As for work, there was jobs in the morning with people going there, but you couldn't get near the place in the evening. Hailo was encouraging us to turn on the app. But why would you drive past 50 customers just to pick up someone who had called you on HailO and then give them a 12% discount on the fare?.
They could have done more by streaming the taxis in and out of the venue.

There was a lot of bullshitters there for sure. You could hear them in the back of the taxi setting up "Complex deals"
If they really were able to take over Google or Microsoft they wouldn't be talking strategy openly in a taxi.
It would be something like. "Mike I have one! I am texting the name, usual plan of attack."

Taxi drivers have heard it all. I was not impressed.

One guy who said he would never go again said that it a great place to meet 2 or 3 people and avoid the rest, he had his own company. The really important ones are the quietest

Really rich people are strange anyhow.
I knew a guy who bought the debts of a hotel in London just to sack the receptionist and manager.
A hard man to beat for sure.
But he hates paying tax he is worth around €25 million..
He detests living in Monaco but he won't pay Irish taxes so he can't live over here..Poor man.
I told him to grow up and give it to a hospice and come home to live among his pals.

"Its easy for you to say that, you have no money"

I still think I get more enjoyment out of life than him.

Stop press  Uber pop may be coming to town
 
That means that Mr.Brown driving his car might get a call on his Uber app and be able to pick up miss Jones who is going his way.
Uber says that Mr.Brown is sound but I know he is a rapist and a very violent person. Uber says that they checked him out, but I don't know about that.
They also say they will cover him for public liability in case his passenger gets injured in a crash.
I was checked out by the Garda a long time ago.
 

The web summit 2015

              You are never lost with a Garmin ?????

                                Filming Penny Dreadful in McDaids

                              A HailO taxi on the roof of a pub at the web summit

                      This fantastic building is the HQ for Irish lights (Light houses and Buoys)

This year is the last year that the Web Summit will be held in Ireland.
They move to Lisbon Portugal for the next 3 years.
Why? You might ask.
Well it is all coming out, like 2 guys having a fight in an old western they fall out on to the street in the end.
The government seems to be very much at fault, no minister has come to shake hands with the World leaders of the HiTec world.
It seems that they were watching the spectacle like tourists watching the sunset and not thinking that they should be taking part.
2 guys in my taxi told me that the WiFi had broken down again today.
I had a speaker in the taxi and when I asked his name he said "No one important" and what is your subject? "Gibberish" I guess that put me in my place.
A lady in the taxi told me that there was a smell in the back ! Like stale sweat, I almost said that she should have cleaned herself off before coming out.
Time to sponge the seats down and get out the old Fabreze.
"Wow! your taxi smells so fresh!"
3 Guys from Israel going to the summit, the guy beside me looked like a real gangster for sure, we had great banter and he told me that he was sitting in a restaurant on the Golan Heights yesterday, the view was fantastic and the lovely lady noticed the noise.
She didn't know that it was anti aircraft fire from Syria firing at aircraft overhead..
We all agreed that you are never too far from fanatics wherever you go.

Then I spoke about a wonderful Israeli singer from Yemen called Ofra Hazza who had the most fantastic magical voice.




But as is the way with things she died from Aids. If she had gone for treatment she might be alive today. What a waste.

Happy Holloween

Its the bank holiday and 1/2 of the city is  in lockdown  thanks to the marathon.

I am in a bit of a rush at present, so I will just share a few small  things with you.

I had a guy in the car that I was sure I recognized, when I said his face was familiar he said that this was the only face he ever had. He was with 2 or guys who were as pissed as parrots he was stone cold sober. I knew I knew him from somewhere.

70 last weekend Brush Sheils of Phil Lynott fame and many top line groups.

Brush would not drink or take drugs and Phil Lynotts love for both lead to a bust up in their friendship.
Click here to read about him .

In reality he is like a Honda 50 doing 120 mph.





Holloween you may know is an Irish tradition, exported to America and back home again


Here is a tale from Uruguay sent to me from Argentina (Don't turn off the light)

Junkie life

                                              A flower display in the Westbury hotel

                                 Homeless Jesus a statue at Christchurch

Driving a taxi is a very strange occupation.
You don't know what is coming next.
How much will I make today?

One guy could leave the house 2 minutes before another car. One would be picking up passingers one after another...The other guy might get 1/3 of the work.
Thats life.

Today I was out at Liffey Valley shopping center and I got a lift which brought me to Whitehall, it cost him €23.. Now compare that to the girl going to Celbridge who insisted on me going on the M50 Her taxi fare was over €65 even though I told her it was not the way to go

So today I was coming home on  the North Circular Rd and I was hailed by 2 great looking girls, the first one in jumped into the front seat and my heart sank....Junkies! the poor girl was so thin, not so thin that her skull was showing  but .by God she was thin as a model.
We stopped to buy smuggled cigarettes and when the girl in the back was out the really good looking one told me that they had been to see her doctor to get "Ensure" drinks and she was being cut from 3 bottles to 2..The doctor said she was fine at 7 stone and 5ft.7ins.
That doctor needs a good kick in the arse I said.
We continued and my mind wound on through her life???????????????????

In another time men would fall at her feet, she was as clever as a fox and at the risk of wearing you out she was really really beautiful.

I hope the guy that gave her the drugs dies in a lot of pain.

I hope she turns her life around.

There was €14 on the clock "Take 15, you've been great"

Say a prayer for the people addicted to drugs and the homeless on our streets.

Changing Dublin

                                Last of the graffiti around Windmill Lane studios, now all gone

                                                Smithfield beside the Cobblestone pub.

                                    Rialto cinema soon to feel the wrecking ball ?

Once upon a time everything was logical or so it seems. 
Today I am not so sure.

I went to Lidl in Coolock the other day and the security guard was blocking 4 kids from going into the supermarket the oldest kid was around 15  and he had 3 younger kids with him who were under 12 years old.

The oldest kid was high on drugs, but the security guard had him spotted and he was not letting them inside.
Later when I puled over to the filling station they came over to me to find out how much a taxi to Donabate would cost. I told them that I would have no idea but I was on my way to pick up a customer anyway.
Looking at them you could see 4 lives going down the tubes rapidly.

Where were their parents?, where are the people who should step in before everything starts falling apart?

Later I saw a guy stealing a bicycle, in the act but there were Garda checking for motor tax.
"No we can't do anything about that we are doing car tax."

A 15 year old boy comitted suiside, where was the help?

A 12 year old girl in Belfast felt unwell and the doctor told the parents that she was pregnant!
The parents are devastated and a 19 year old has been charged.

10 people died in  a fire on a traveler halting site. 5 adults and 5 children.
There is war about where other travelers are to be put until the situation is resolved.

A sad day for the people near Dundalk as they bury a Garda who was gunned down when he tried to intervene in a domestic situation.
There is a lot of sick and violent people around for sure.

It has turned out that he was out on bail while on a charge of supplying guns to criminals to be used in robberies. Hardly a charge that would allow for bail.
So the guys partner arrived at the house with her father and the garda they go in and the father waits outside.
All hell breaks loose,the partner shoots the unarmed garda and then shoots his own partner 6 times and then himself.
A lot of questions will have to be explored for the future as our police force is unarmed.

A gang of 6 crooks got jail totaling over 100 years for assaulting a family in their home, It was a horrific crime and the gang had hundreds of previous convictions, a few of them were out on bail.
As they were being transferred to prison their jail terms were being reduced.

I know a prison governor from way back and I asked him if he would help me to form a company to build a proper prison. A prison which would punish people. A prison that they wouldn't want to go back to.
"Every do good-er would close it down for infringing their rights"He said.
Its true...The victims have no rights.

Here is a really happy and positive girl.

Christmas around the next bend?

                                              Freshers week at Trinity College

                                                Octoberfest in Docklands

                                                    Santas in Lidl

                                             Christmas trees in Woodies.

I have been having trouble uploading photos to the computer, I reckon it was the lead as it worked when I tried a different lead.

All this talk of Christmas and its not yet Halloween.
On the radio they are advertising Christmas partys.

The new year for the third level students arrived, they are getting drunk, loosing their fones and giving themselves food poising as they don't have a clue about cooking.

The Autumn is really hear and the leaves are turning to many colors, be careful and don;t skid on them.

It is a time to rest up for the mad Christmas rush, until then many people are going mad for the rugby world cup..
Poor old England is out.
Sport plays such a big part in peoples lives.
Remember the guy guy who flew over from New York for the GAA football final. He had €1,000 for 4 tickets and his team (Kerry) lost to Dublin.
People come from Australia for it as well.

I had the manager of the Celtic football team in the taxi a few weeks ago, the guy behind me told me who he was.
"There's someone else coming, my taxi didn't arrive"He nsaid
Then as his beloved came out the door another taxi came along."Thats my taxi" he said and he got out.
He didn't say sorry or toss me a brass farthing or anything.

The 2 cars behind me got airport runs, the next job out turned out to be mine to O'Connell St. €7!

Ah well shit happens and other times you get 3 or 4 jobs when someone is jumping out someone jumps in.
The thing is not to take it personal.

I went to a thing in the lord mayors reception rooms celebrating Dublin 2020
Its about Dublins bid to be City of Culture 2020.

They made videos of ordinary people talking about Dublin and life in general.

Pissed and far from Copenhagen

                                                      Statues holy and otherwise !

                                        Statues from the Solomon gallery

Last night a taxi driver named as Martin Mulligan was murdered near Dundalk.
He was 53 years old and the Garda are investigating.
He was stabbed to death and the Garda believe that the motive was robbery.
The moment when this might happen to any of us is always present.

God bless him and keep his family safe.

Just a few words to fill you in.
I  have been plugging away as usual chasing my tail like a dog and getting nowhere.

A man got into my taxi the other day and he got me thinking that I really am a lucky guy.

I was passing into town past the Coachmans Inn and there was 2 guys waving down a taxi and I stopped,
The situation was a taxi drivers nightmare. One guy completely pissed out of his mind and the barman holding him up. But it turned out that he had missed his flight to Copenhagen and was now going back to the airport. He was gasping and fighting for breath and he was puffing at an inhaler as we went. He was coughing and getting no benefit from the inhaler.
I told him to relax and that when he got home he should buy an Aero Chamber which allows you to suck in the fumes without the "puff" taking you breath away and making you cough.
"It doesn't matter a damn I only have a year to live"he said.
I took a good look at him, he could have been a rock star, he was dressed like that.
He was younger than me too.

But why would anyone neglect a guy like this? Even an asshole like me could see that this guy had potential and a little bit of loving kindness would pay big dividends in the end.

But now today he was pissed and broke.

But he had a credit card.

Dublin port transport show

     Today folks

               I told you it was coming

 

The roof of the newest extension on Trinity college

Taxi drivers day out

 Well that was the big day out.
I went to the appointed spot to pick up my children only to be told that I was not needed.
So I went back to Parnell Sq for the start of the parade and drove down O'Connell St and then I went home.
I do hope that some kids were not left stuck with no taxi to bring them to the party.

Dublin beat Kerry in the all Ireland GAA football final and tonight Dublin celebrates with a big screen in O'Connell st and bands playing music in the streets.
I had a guy in the taxi. He had come from New York for the match he had €2,000 to buy 4 tickets.
The poor bloke he was a Kerry supporter.


Life goes on and the earth spins around the sun and next thing you know its Tuesday.

I met a wonderful lady going to the Rotunda (Our maternity hospital) She was from Oman and was an engineer.
I told her about a row I had with a Saudi man from the embassy one day.
He was a total asshole so I pulled the emergency stop cord and told him to get out.
In the argument that followed he told me that he would not get out and that it was no use calling the police as he had "diplomatic immunity".
One mistake I did make was that I didn't take him back and knock on the embassy door.
But we reached a compromise in the end and I brought him on his trip, then he apologized to me.
At journeys end he told me that I was an incredible man. "No one has ever stood up to me as you have done, I was wrong and you are a very strong person. Give me your phone number"
No way was he getting that.
I had another young guy going to the Saudi embassy a few months later and I told him about the asshole.
He turned out to be a very high up official in the embassy, he wanted me to come in and identify the guilty party.
I refused but he said he would take his staff to task and speak to them.

"After all we are visitors in your country"

So the lady from Oman said.

"In our country we have a saying.

THERE IS NO WEALTH WITHOUT MANNERS"

Suicide awarness week

Drivers next Tuesday is the big taxi drivers day out for special kids
Be there


last week was world suicide awareness week, a big thing in Ireland unfortunately.
Many lives are being saved by simple advertising slogans such as
"Its OK not to be OK
Its good to talk etc"

Many taxi drivers have done different things.
Tony Roe has done a lot to divert energy and cash to the Samaritans etc and he could tell you a thing or two about hard times among us lot.

Remember the taxi driver who pulled up to drop off his passenger near Corduff.
An assassin had his passenger on his hit list and he pumped 7 shots into him through the door.
The driver was not hit, and the guy was dead.
But he was traumatized by the affair and he couldn't work again and he nearly lost his home as the bank didn't care and wanted to be paid for the car..
Well Tony got him a few grand,,

He has another fundraiser coming up soon.




 Foil arms and hog

The trees are turning.

  This is one of the biggest cruise liners in the world, it had to back into the port as it didn't have enough room to turn around.

                                                    An architects dream?

                                         Wow!What a rest room ! So different from the Kesh.

                                          Johnny Cupcake in the Liffey Valley shopping center.

                                                  Herbie!  Is that you?
 I have been neglecting the blog for a while, that income tax took a lot out of me. 
I do many other things apart from driving a taxi and it all has to be accounted for.

Did you hear the one about the taxi driver who became a stand up comedian? 
One of his pals told him to declare his new found income to the tax man.
So he rang them.
"So you are working as a comedian and you are getting paid?
Make a list of all the gigs you did and how much you got.
Then make a list of your expenses, mileage, food, and hotels etc.
Add it up and subtract your expenses from your earnings and
Send us a cheque for that exact amount"

The really funny thing is that some people think it could be a joke..

No I don't resent it a bit. We have to pay for the really efficient Garda, like the one who told me that it was OK that a guy stepped out of the taxi owing €20, "Whats all the fuss about?"
I bet he wouldn't say that to a big store owner.
Or the other genius who let a Romanian gypsy walk right past him as I called to him.
"Stop her, she hasn't paid"
As she walked past him he said.
"Did you make a report?"

This year I am going to photograph Garda's ID numbers and record conversations, and make written complaints just in case something might be done.

I had a guy to the airport the other day.
He had taken the wrong suitcase from the carousel and was now going back to find his case.
With so many cases coming out why he didn't put a few ribbons on the handle is beyond me.
He assured me that he travels all the time and that this was a first time for him.

Dublin progressed to the GAA football final and Kilkenny won the Liam McCarthy cup for hurling.

A game of great skill..Take a look.
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We had visitors and a huge tidy up and now I can find nothing.

Say a prayer for Euron my Chinese friend he is very ill with cancer. 
He is around 35 and with Judy his wife they have 2 great young kids.
Brain tumors suck, perhaps a few words with a few Gods will help.

Makes you happy that you have only small problems.