Feb..flyes out

                 One of Dublins finest houses, home to the Canadian ambassador in Ranelagh

                                                  A ladybug car..

                           All the way from Liverpool a Liver bird in Dublin.

Taxi driving is very much hit and miss. Two people could travel the same route, one might have a crappy day the other the best day of his life.

Two taxi drivers were attacked in Finglas and Glasnevin over the last few days.
You never know the moment when you will be caught off guard. Syringe attacks would be the most frightening as you never know for sure if you are HIV positive.
If I had the chance I would wrap the car around a pole and kill the bastard.

The worst I ever felt was when a guy that had all the hallmarks of a junkie clambered into the car while I was hemmed in at traffic lights..I then found out that he had MS and he was very sorry for freaking me out.

Thank God the new roof signs and the CCTV cameras are off the table.
I had CCTV in my first Fiat Scudo and it is great...But it is another thing to be stolen at the end of the day.Learn how to record conversations on your phone, better than having nothing.

Today I had no float in notes so I went to a pass machine and put in my card, it gave me no cash and spat my card back out.As did the other cash point. The next few jobs has small notes and when I finished up I wondered if the bank had taken the money. So I went up to the bank to see. No luck with the Raheny bank so I went up to the Malahide Rd branch and got a mini statement. As I was walking back to the car a black gentleman asked me how much I would charge him to go to Skerries and back to here.
"You see my wife took my wallet and I am out of petrol"
Shit I know the feeling I said to myself, so I gave him €7 which was in my pocket and told him to drive carefully to Skerries.
What goes round comes round, he was willing to spend  €60 and he got a present of €6 because I was too tired to take him.

Cheltenham races are on and the sporting Irish are back for the fun.
A few years ago Foot and Mouth disease stopped the racing and a guy from Ireland rang his his hotel to cancel his booking.
He had paid in advance from the previous year and the hotel told him that he would have to pay again.
Bad business decision as he had booked out most of the hotel over the last 6 years.
Irish people are not known for being stupid, so he rang his brother who was a priest in England and his parish was near the hotel. He told him to round up 16 homeless scruffy and mad people and they are to have a weekend at the luxury hotel, if we can't come they can have it.
After a full head on confrontation with the hotel manager the priest got a full refund and his brother told him to spend all the money on the poor of the parish.

The Irish businessman rang the hotel and cancelled all future bookings,

Blackpool

                                                            Blackpool tower

                                          Pavement of fame on the prominade

                                               The entire cast of  Punch and Judy up for sale

                                                The bill toppers at Blackpool Paul Daniels 1983

Our flight home was FR557 and at 18/10 we Queued up only to be told that this is FR1557
Fine for us we sat back down. Then later we noticed people running forward, only to return scarlet.
They went for the wrong flight as well only to find that they were on the 17/30 which was now closed.
Thats the airlines for you, catch you out and you pay 4 times what your original  ticket cost you.

A guy in the taxi at the airport jumped in at arrivals. "Quick Dublin Port"On the way the story unfolded, he had brought his old out of date passport and they wouldn't let him on the flight.
He rang his wife and passed the address of the hotel, send the passport "Express post" He would get the high speed ferry and a train to Manchester and he would be sitting in the lobby when they arrived.
His reason for getting there so fast would be that he had chartered a plane Ha Ha

Blackpool is the bigggest magicians convention in the world. The Guinness world records says so.

For me it was a complete fiasco, just young kids jumping in and out of boxes illusions that you could buy. Thats not magic.
This is Magic with a big M


So simple, perfect timing and a big finish.

 Did you ever hear of Cyrl from Japan ?.
A really nice guy and very mischievous



Elections to follow and then the Easter rising celebrations.
It is a total tragedy how this country has been governed since 1916 
One corrupt or incompetent government after another.

Nothing to celebrate

Surge charging XXX

         Yes folks a piece of wire stick in a new tyre €80

                 Who wouldn't vote for a crispy base pizza

                         40 mins after the appointed time our public servants had not arrived.


So we had a meeting talking about Uber with a few of our elected people.
They were evasive and I think they were lying until after the election.

Then they will lie again to everyone. No lies there.

Did you ever think what it would be like if you could rate your passenger?
On HailO they can rate you as a driver.

Here is an amusing piece and it shows how clueless some people are.



Now just in case you think I am an Uber fan..

Uber education

Here is another one..




Now last week a Dublin customer told me that trains were off in London when they were there so they took a taxi to Gatwick.
Their daughter was also caught out so she called up Uber to get home and the driver started going the opposite direction.
She pleaded with him to stop and he shouted abuse at her. Then when she was being brought through a tunnel, so she texted a friend who told her to jump from the taxi at the next lights.
She jumped ! and ran over to a black cab.

When he got her back home he said.

"Did you learn anything today love?
Good, so don't do it again."

At journeys end he said "No Charge, education is free"

Regency shoot out

Last week at the Regency hotel there was  a weigh in for a boxing match.

Crime and the sport of boxing travel hand in hand and once in a while everything comes to the surface.
The video below shows the panic as 2 pistol carrying and 2 AK47 shooters came in and did their business.
I passed the venue a few hours later and picked up two men a woman and a kid, all the buzz was about what happened. The men were tough enough, both boxers and then one got a text.............Next thing he got a video of the shooting.
You could plainly hear a kid shouting "Daddy Daddy help me!"
It was the voice of the child in the back seat of the taxi.
I shouted "Turn that off, Son your daddy was there to protect you all the time. Don't you be a bit afraid."
The dad realized what he had done and said that it gave him a hell of a fright as well.
Their car was in the car park and was locked in and they had to go back to Galway and come back again and collect it later.
Then on Monday another shooting. It seems like bad blood problems need to be worked out.

Crime and boxing often come hand in hand look at Frank Warren the boxing promoter who was shot at one time.





I have had a problem with a porter at the Westbury hotel..
This is the problem.



So what can I say, a car pulls up behind me, he goes up to the porter and gives him something.
The driver approaches me and says"I have a booking but I can't park in front of the hotel, you know"
The next person out to the airport is for him.
This scumbag robber charges between €30 to €50 for an airport job.
Which should cost around €25
If they complain he says "This is a Mercedes, what do you expect?"

If I complain to the "Managers" they will say that it is nothing to do with them.

But the customer remembers that their hotel porter led them to a cab that charged them 50% more than normal.

This could become a bigger problem



Something lighter  

Death of the perfectionest

Tram lines going down on O'Connell St.Note the 30Kph sign

Clearys store stands closed and the removal men clear out the remaining stock from Boyers
which closed down last week.
Its an awful kick in the arse to be shown the door after 30.40 or even 50 years service.
I hope their ambition does not guide them towards taxi driving.
I wish them all the best of luck, its not easy for the young or old to find a job.



Here I am taking a break, not much work on the streets at the moment.
"Herring days"As they say in London.

You know its very important that you take life at a steady pace.
So I will cut my cloth and relax a bit.

Ambition drives many people on..
To be the best in the business, without doubt they are the best.
This is what it is all about!
Take the chef Benoit Violier (link) who killed himself just after his restaurant was voted the best in the world.
He killed himself as many believe he could not stand the pressure of failure.

I read once in the Sunday Times of a restaurant in Italy which was very successful.

If you wanted to eat there you had to book many weeks in advance.
One day a small gent was eating there and after his meal he asked to meet the owner.
The small man said "Good afternoon my name is Egon Ronay I compose the good food guide!
This place is a really first class establishment and we would like to honor you with two gold stars, an honor which has never been given to any establishment before ."
"Sir we are so happy that you have come to this quiet corner of Italy, did you enjoyed your meal? Yes?"
So they talked about food, about life and he introduced him to his entire staff.
"Now monsieur Ronay, I love this place, our staff are motivated,happy and keen to learn, The people who supply my food strive to be the best.Our clients are the best in the world. They have no great expectations when they come through the door, but mostly they leave happy and content.

Now if you put a great award into the equation things will change.
Food critics would arrive to critasie my food..Just to make a name for themselves..
Others would try to demand free meals just for a good report.
Perhaps you can see where I an standing now?
Here is your bill Mr Ronay. Please come back again, you will be very very welcome"

This was the first ever restaurant to turn down gold stars,
A Chef in France killed himself a few years ago when he lost one of his two stars, the father of beautiful twin boys.
As a mark of respect to his great art as a wonderful chef many restaurants in France gave back their gold stars.

So which is the best way to measure success?