A vampire walks the street

A shop prop

St. Thresas Gardens in the process of being flattened

He stopped me on Cork St. A poor sick junkie, I was surprised to see 2 small children with him.
He was taking the girl to the national school at the corner of Sundrive Rd.
Then"Wait for me"
He brought the girl in and then we went into St.Threasas gardens where he bought drugs.
The other kid was around 3 years old and he made his hand into a gun and shot all the drug dealers.
It seemed like he knew what was going on and he wanted to shoot them all and get his daddy back.
Then we were off again and stopped at a Centra.
"Back in a minute bud"
So I waited while €3 added themselves to the meter.
I was thinking of cutting my losses and driving away when he came out.
I said that I had given up on him as he got in.
" I wouldn't do that bud, I'm not a bad person, I am just sick.
I am going to die soon, probably before the years end.
I would like to have lived to 30 though."
God he has 2 great looking bright kids, I would have wished that things were different.

Perhaps when their father passes over they might be removed from the danger.

Every drug addict knows what is ahead of them from the first fix, in spite of this they pick up the needle and get that wonderful hit where they are transported to a beautiful peaceful heaven.
Then they find later on that they are addicts, that hit dosent come again and their lives are fucked.

A Dubliner called Bram Stoker wrote a book once called Dracula about vampires who lived on the blood of others and those that they bit into also turned into the un dead.
It is a thing that you cannot get your head around but people without a trade or profession can drift into it.
Then Doctors and Academics stick loads of cocaine up their noses as well.

A guy in the taxi said to me

"Here is my business card. When you find the solution to this, just ring me and we will travel the world. 
The best brains cannot crack this one"

Sir Arnold Clark RIP

Its time to take out the lawn mower !

Looks like a prison "Pyro Villas" a terrace of houses behind other houses on Cork St.

Like a gateway to Heaven

Paul Mathew found a niche market. He moves theater acts around Ireland and England.

A few months ago the porter from the Marker hotel called me over.
A stout gent jumped in and introduced himself and we started to chat.
He had been given an award as the top car salesman in Britain,plus best after sales service and as the conversation went on he told me he had 200 garages. There was a very intense conversation about how this could be managed.

"All my staff are motivated and trained again every few months, my staff talk to each other and each one knows what is expected of them"

He popped up again in the paper today, he had died last month.

Sir Arnold Clark no less.

Last year his 200 garages sold 250,000 cars he has crash repair centers and he employed 10,000 staff.

He had a great laugh when I told him how the Irish car salespeople treat prospective clients.
"Not in my world son, no way"

The were going to Brown Thomas and we talked between ourselves while his 2 sons and daughter in law chatted in the back. The meter read €10.10 when we arrived and while he was getting out I pointed his family towards Louis Copelands shop.
"Before you go into Brown Thomas take a look in there. all good quality clothes at a better price, with no snobbery" I said.
They turned to go and Arnold came over with 2 €10 notes.
€10 is enough I said
"and a €10 tip"
We shook hands and said thank you and off we went in different directions.
No bullshit with him he was worth more than a £Billion

Click here for more, well worth a read

I told an American about him once and he told me .
In the States we have a saying,
"First you buy the man, then you buy the car"
You have to believe in the person you are dealing with.

You would really like to deal with him for sure.

So on Friday a 16 bus swung out of Ballymun Ave past a bus stop leaving 3 people standing there.
I pulled over and asked the one who had his hand out to jump in and I would put him on that bus.
At the next stop he was slow jumping out so I raced him to the next stop pulling in in front of the bus blocking it and my passenger got out and on to the bus,as the bus moved alongside me I got dogs abuse from the driver.
"I have a camera and you will hear from the Garda bud"
"So have I bud"
There are assholes all over the world.
On my own road around 7 years ago the bus driver slammed the doors shut as an ex bus driver was getting on.
The poor mans leg was inside the bus as it drove off in spite of his other passengers shouting he didn't stop until he reached the next stop.
The guy died as a result of his injuries.

So boys and girls drive away slowly, coats and scarves get caught in doors.

A morning sprinter ...

A proper Chinese meal. Happy birthday Judy

A giraffe display in a store

A hotly disputed clamp with 3 sides arguing

Pints settle down in the local...No rush.

Easter is a time to go away so on Sunday morning the streets were very quiet.
I pulled into a well known hotel and waited for 15 minutes, no action so I started to move off.
At the last second I saw the concierge waving to me. I stopped and reversed.
A Turkish family heading to Istanbul.
Nice one.
So I drove them to the airport.

On the way back I cut through Northwood. There are plenty of airport workers looking for a run  to work. A young couple from Romania and showed me the address on their mobile phone. Bunratty drive Coolock. The were arguing among themselves a bit and then the girl exploded in Romanian at the top of her voice.
But as I didn't understand the language it didn't matter to me.
We reached the address and then I hit the meter.
"No I staying, turn around "he said as she ran off to the house.
He told me to stop at a place facing the house which would have caused a crash, so I moved around the corner.
He watched and looked out the back window.
Then I remembered that the cctv camera chip was in my pocket and I turned on the radio as I put the chip into the device and turned it on. I hit the volume as the sound of the camera starting came on and I had my hand over the mirror image while I turned the screen off.
After a while he rang her.
There was a slurping sound as she spoke, perhaps she was eating noodles or soup.
2 minutes she came out the front door her top down over her hips and she was legging it like an Olympic sprinter, bare breasts exposed in the bright morning sunlight.
She pulled up her top as she got in and we headed back to Northwood.
Her phone rang "No I am just talking with my friend in the taxi and I will be back in a minute"
Whatever she was doing she got well paid for it. She gave her pimp all the money.(I looked at image from the chip) So the fair was €28 with a €2 tip.

For me this worked out ok

For her I don't think she knows what she is messing with.

Dublin is a small town. He will see her some day and make a phone call to his mates.

"A body was found today with her throat slashed, Garda are looking for witnesses"

After that the day was boring.

For drivers, if you carry CS spray you could be sued with the angle that you carried the spray to attack people.
We all suffer from muscular stress and need to use that deep heat spray.
So you carry that just in case your shoulder starts acting up.
You get a bit of masking tape and tape a piece of thick string or wire to the back of the can over the top to where the nozzle is pointing.
So when you pick it up you know which way its pointing.
So if you shoot you wont maze yourself.

It stops you soiling your pants as well.

Blackmail or extortion

When you drive a taxi you learn a lot.
Some good things some bad things.
But you learn a lot as you go.

A rescue helicopter crashed killing all 4 crew members.
2 bodys have still not been recovered.

A customer in my taxi told me shortly after the crash that the rock that they hit that night did not show up on the satellite navigation system.
Time for a big think and fast forward to now.
All over the news today is the fact that the black rock is not on the sat nav system that was on the rescue helicopter.

Go back a bit
My man knew.
Did he tell anyone in passing?
You would think that something like this would get a red flag!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fix this quick..
But no
4 people are dead.

Common sense is not as common as you might think.

I may have told you that I went to school with a radio officer who worked on a ship in the North Sea.
A ship was approaching him one day with its bow doors open.
He radioed him on the emergency channel to tel him that if he failed to close his bow doors now that the wash from his ship would flood his car deck.
The door was closed and the same thing happened again later.
But one night no one noticed the doors open and the wash from a passing ship flooded the car decks and she went down..The herald of free enterprise sank.
Thank God the emergency channel calls were recorded and the captain got jail.

So a really strange thing happened to me a few days ago.
I bought 2 cars in Japan and had them shipped over.
The first one arrived and I got it ready to pay the taxes and get a number plate etc.
Then I got an email to say the second car would be with me in a couple of weeks.

Then I got an email from the docks in Holland that my car had been landed  but it wouldn't start to put it on the other boat to bring it to Dublin.
Would I pay €15 for a battery for the key fob?
I told them that you could buy 4 battery's for €2 and I wouldn't pay.
So then they reminded me that this was my problem not theirs and storage charges would be factored in.
Then they said that there was a bigger problem and they would put it on a car transporter to bring it to a Toyota garage to have the software in the gearbox re calibrated for around €300.
Don't forget your car is being charged for storage.

I rang the export company in Japan 2 times on Skype.
I rang the live chat line 2 times and I sent 4 or 5 emails.
Nothing! no reply at all.

I wrote back to Holland and told them that I wouldn't send them a penny.

The very next day my agent in Dublin rang me.
"John your car is here in Dublin port, come down to collect it". 

The car is absolutely perfect. 
The best example I have ever seen.

Depending on whether I get a reply or not from the company who sent me the car from Japan I will supply you with their details. 

The stress in dealing with this was terrible.
Blackmail is still a crime after all. 
At least I think so ! 

Twice on the same day

A thing of beauty for sure. A British built Citroen it might go back to the 30s
It had been driven from London with no problems apart from a flat wheel.



Sunday can be a funny day at the best of times, last Sunday was no exception.
A guy carrying 2 heavy bags approached me at the Pennys taxi rank.

I knew the minute I stopped he was a bogey one.
The smell of drink of him nearly made me drunk as well.
Where to? was met with.
"Where the big church is where you buy drugs with the police there."
I tell you no lie, many places in Dublin will match that description.

"I show you, No wrong way!!
Why everybody shut"
Sunday I said.
"Fuck Sunday" he said we go back home

No money, but a bottle of Jack Daniels bridged the gap in his finances.
He had a hell of a scar from his right ear to his mouth.
I guess someone had settled a score with him once.
By the look of things he was heading for far worse.

The second guy came off the ferry later that day.

There is almost no border control at the ferry port and the gangsters and crooks know it.

I would say he came from Albania. "City center and stop at a bank link"
At the filling station leaving the port there is 2 machines. I watched him. €5.30 on the meter
He tried one card after another while talking on the phone all the time.
Finally with €8.50  on the clock I stood on the gas and drove away.
The voice in my head told me I was mad to have picked him up in the first place.
Then I met a father and son walking out of the port.
A €20 job and no hassle.

A couple of days ago they stopped a hit man coming into the country by airplane, he had a chopping list.
By ferry he would have sailed through.(No pun intended)

There are a lot of people in Ireland who are not who they say they are.
Some people are even 2 or 3 different people.
In Las Vegas they developed a system called "The Griffin Book" to spot cheats coming into the casinos. It has been fine tuned on computer and people drawing benefits in 5 or 6 different guises have been caught,
Still you can get it badly wrong sometimes.
I remember a guy with MS getting in as I tried to drive away, I thought he was mad drunk.
I really felt such a heel as he was a real nice guy.

A shooter took a taxi to their targets house, shot his granny in the leg, had a cigarette and then went back to the taxi and drove off  again.
The word is that there is video footage.

In Venezuela they have only Summer, she said that they came here in October.
It was so cold I thought I would die. The trees were bare and I thought this is an awful place.
But now Spring is here and the trees have flowers on them
It is so wonderful.
WE don't have the seasons only Summer.
I had to ask her if she was a dancer, because of the way she moved.
She laughed out loud. I was a ballet dancer, how did you know.
Just the way you moved your hands, it was like you were dancing,

The might of right

I hold the pen in my hand and I start to dig like a spade

Mad as a march hare in the Solomon gallery beside the Westbury hotel

My granddaughter heads to the sea on full gallop

Sometimes you wish that you were not the one who confronted the bully or the abusive husband who is beating his wife.
When it happened all the hate turned on you and the friends who were with you did nothing to protect you.

Remember the Brazilian girl the other day? she worked in a bar for nearly 2 weeks and was never paid.
Wow I had 4 other girls from South America in the car who told me of the same thing.

Have we all gone mad!

Brazilian, Polish, Latvian etc are like the Irish were 20 years ago.
Hard working eager and keen to improve their position in this world.
I would love to organize a picket and a Boycott  on some of the places where this is common practice.
On a banner I would write..
"Maria worked hard here for 12 days and was paid nothing.
As a mark of respect we ask you to Boycott this bar"

Would it work?
Its worth a try. 

I would ask you boys and girls who went to England, America and Australia to treat migrants with respect. The kind of respect that you would have expected when you went abroad.

The London taxi drivers are trying to stand up to UBER and on the 6th they are having a protest 
David Cameron the ex Chancellor and and George Osborne had proven links to Uber.
When they stand up to the bully will we all look the other way?
I hope not. 

We had a big news story a while back about a girl called Grace, she was mentally handicapped and she was in the CARE of the state. But she was in the care of the state and was in a foster home where she was sexually abused and  in spite of people reporting the abuse she remained in the house for around 12 years. Even then after she had been removed other vulnerable people were placed in the care of the same abusers.

God give me strength that one day I may be one with a bloody nose standing up for for what is right
 

Bus strike !!

Spring has sprung and the trees are in bloom.

Time flies and its hard to believe that I haven't updated since St.Patricks day.
I thought it strange how many of our teenage American visitors were getting hammered at around noon. Their parents must never had told them of the dangers of over indulgence.

But enough of the past.We had a lightning bus strike yesterday.
Loads of people stuck at bus stops, lots of work to do.
If only we could pick up 4 people at a time and charge each one €5 into town things would be great.
Foreign students were the worst hit. They would not be listening to the Irish news so they couldn't understand why there was no bus. A girl from Brazil waved me down. She had an exam in her language  school. She is a teacher back home and wanted to get a cert for English to help her career.
She went through an agency as an au pair but her host family won't pay her and they will not give her definite hours.
So its a bad rap for her.
I hope she contacts her agency and perhaps they might have the moral backbone to get her the money she is due. She was a great kid, full of life and the joys of Spring.
I was up around Kilmanham when I was flagged down and the lady invited the others at the stop to join her. One lady did join her and we went over to Abbey St. The second lady apologized to the first that she had no money, only the bus card.
As the first lady payed me she leaned over.
"Going into town with NO money, not even the price of a cup of tea.
I will have to offer it up in a prayer..
Then she said something I haven't herd in a long time
Some people would live in your ear !"

Through modern science and the internet I bought 2 Toyota Prius cars in Japan around Christmas time.
One is in my drive and the other arrives today.
Getting the cars registered and all the taxes paid is tricky.
One car was nearly sold and the buyer had to think about it, as luck would have it. He walked away and then I found that the registration tax had to be paid (VRT) It was around €900!
By the time he came back I told him that his time was well up, I would have taken the hit for the VRT if it was deal done, as it was I was off the hook.

Every year since this thing happened I think of this English couple.
I had stopped at the Conrad Hilton hotel on Earlsfort terrace. A lady passing by asked me for directions to Baggott St. Then the concierge at the hotel started blowing his whistle.
I moved over and he threw the suitcase into the boot and as soon as the door slammed the lady shouted Airport ! No please or thank you.
I remarked to them that they were making a movie on Fitzwilliam Sq. 1920s buses and taxis.
As we drove into the square she leaned over again.
"Driver do you think we are stupid, stop driving us around in circles! We want to get to the fucking airport not a fecking sight seeing tour."
The proper way to deal with this is to take them as far off the main road as you can and tell Them to fuck off ! But I felt it in my bones that this might be an interesting journey, and it was.
They were arguing with each other, something had not worked out, a con of some sort.
It sounded like a cement mixer filled with gravel. They growled at each other.

As we reached the airport I picked up their change to have it ready and went to the boot.

As I lifted out the suitcase and straightened the handle. I said.
"I hope you left enough time for your flight"
"Course I have you fecking moron" he replied

"You see the change in the hour really fucked me up today"
"Wat's you talking about you stupid cunt?"  

 The clocks went forward an hour last night, Its Summer time now. 
It took a good 7 seconds for reality to sink in.
They had missed their flight. 

Later a word came into my head 
Karma