Sunday, December 29, 2019

Welcome 2020

Well it is all over for another year and there is a website which gives you a countdown until the next season of madness.

I am sick! Its the first time in years, but I am getting better slowly.

I suppose now is the time when you promise to treat your customers better in the future and not to take things at face value.
I was hemmed in in traffic one day when this guy came stumbling over and I couldn't escape. When he got in he said thank God, I couldn't get a taxi at all they think that I am drunk I have MS.
A really nice guy, he raced motorbikes when he was younger.

Your health is your wealth, look after it







Here is a tradition in German households around this time of year


Tuesday, December 24, 2019

A happy and pieceful Christmas to you all

 Peace in our time is a reality for us here and now.
For many thousands of people famine and warfare are all around.

Greed and corruption make the children suffer.

It is time to let Gerry Lynch tell the story of the time that piece broke out in the middle of madness.

May all the Gods bless you all




Friday, December 20, 2019

Just 4 days left

 I still have photo problems

Well the madness is coming to an end.
Google and Facebook and the hundreds of smaller companies have sent their boys and girls home to the four corners of the world.
Now it is starting to settle down.

Three cheers to a truck driver who sorted out a problem in a flash.
A girl was going to jump from a motorway flyover and the driver saw it.
How he thought of the solution so quick is a miracle.
He stopped his container truck directly below her climbed on to the container and blocked her.

A taxi driver saw a girl in distress, she had been robbed, phone and cash gone.
The taxi driver brought her to a police station and they took a statement. He took her to a shop for water and tissues, then they went to her sisters house.
No one would answer the door, so he drove her to Bray {A €50+ fair)
She said thanks and went into her parents house.

She forgot to pay him but was on the radio thanking him.

We all have kids and most of us try to do our best.

"God give me a chance to do good today"
A simple taxi drivers prayer.

Going on from the last post.
I had a charity worker who was working with desperate starving people in Africa.
He said that a group of celebrities came over, he hoped that the publicity would help.
They arrived and stayed in a five star hotel miles from the camp.
The money that it cost to host them for the few days that they were there would have fed the entire camp for a week. They went away without coming n ear to the camp.

His biggest complaint was that aid workers were exploiting young girls in a food for sex scandal.

Guess what ?
No one would listen to him.

Well someone is listening now it was in the news yesterday.click here

Anyhoo if you Google it there is more to find.


Saturday, December 14, 2019

A horror exposed

I am disgusted by a person I once greatly admired.

Johnnie Walker is going to prison for sexually abusing his adopted daughter since she was 11 years old.
Shit!
How could anyone destroy a life like he has done ?.
He took it to trial and made her go over the 40 charges she put against him, living the horror all over again.

His sentence was less than 8 years !
For destroying a young persons life it is not enough by far.

If I was the judge I would give him one year in prison and then fry him in the electric chair.
After all he is in his 80s

He was the organizer of the children's day out.
This event took mentally handicapped children out for the day.

God when you do that run once you realize that you yourself have no problems.

Here is Johnny 10 years ago entertaining some wonderful Liverpool girls and being himself.







Tuesday, December 10, 2019

People passing through

 That last post was from Mike a real native American Indian, he contacted me many years ago and sadly he passed away from Cancer.
He thought me a lot about understanding people.
I just thought I would commemorate him again.


The university exams are on and I got a run to the RDS exam center, The mother wanted him to be on time and got a taxi to be sure.
On arrival he got out and we went to drive away.
"Wait! stop he has come back out, something is wrong"
So she ran up to him, he had gone in the wrong door.

"He is a very nervous boy, his brother was much more self assured.
He was murdered in the Philippines"
I went into caretaker mode.
That is awful and I am so sorry to hear of your tragic loss I said.

"I tried for years to have his killers brought to justice, I am not rich and the Police are corrupt and lazy.
So I came to Ireland to put it behind me".
I suggested to her that she must draw a line under the horrible tragedy as it is probably affecting her other son far more than she might think.
She paid me and was hopping out when I said God bless you and a safe and happy Christmas.
It had a great effect on her, like a blessing from the Pope himself.
I wish them well for sure.

So talking of the Philippines.
I met a really tall girl from there and she had fantastic English.
God she could be a model, she is working in Finland and heading to Dublin in the hear future. 
I really wish her the best of luck with that. 
If you want to move here you have to know someone who knows lots of people, accommodation is so scarce. For example Google have taken a long term lease on a new development of apartments beside me. 
A 6 minute walk to the Dart and into Google HQ in 20 mins.
So you move in and you cannot leave or you will loose your apartment as well.

It has happened in America as well when the big guns arrived the locals get pushed out and rents soar.
Network, Network is the way to go.

A girl told me that she looked at a room and the landlord told her that "NO you don't have your own room, you have this side of the double bed, the other girl is from Poland, she will be back at 7pm if you want to meet her". She kept looking. 

I am sorry that there has been no photos for a long time.
In a few days I am having the existing photos taken off the computer and then it will be able to unload all the new ones.

A taxi driver at the airport was having a bad day and he took it out on his passengers.
At journeys end he told his passenger and his dad that they were a poor excuse for a human being!!!! 
Well they were both legal eagles barristers in fact.
So they had their day in court and the old judge fined the taxi driver something like €800 OUCH 

Then there was the guy who claimed to be a Garda who assaulted a taxi driver and walked from court click here to read about it

Here is the video
 

Sunday, December 08, 2019

Mike

 So I have arrived to a point where I give you a story from Injin Mike.

His blog is a testimony to his great humanity.


Alas he is not with us any longer.


This story is of self sacrifice and a reminder that other people are good and given the chance they will make the ultimate sacrifice for others.


God bless you Mike I miss your emails

 

 

 

Elise.....

.....arrived one winter day in March of my 11th year. It was a Saturday and my Uncle 'F' and his wife had gone to the small city on an 'errand'. Rather an unusual occurrence in winter, especially on the sketchy backwoods roads of Maine in the 1950s. Around two in the afternoon I heard his old Studebaker straining and spinning its way up into Uncle 'Rs' barnyard. Going out to see why he'd come here rather than his farm across the road, I saw a tall (to me) willowy slip of a young lady climb from the back seat.
   Being of the tender prepubescent age of eleven, I was immediately fascinated by this slender, but well shaped young woman. Breaking my through hypnotic reverie, F's wife was introducing this vision of wonder to me, me! I managed to awake from my stupor in time to hear that her name was Elise Cote and she was F's wife's cousin from France. The reason for her coming wasn't revealed then and I actually learned the details later from my aunt E. In those times you were thought, and rightly so, to be rude to inquire after such personal information. In many ways I miss things being that way, but in many other ways I relish the openness that has forced 'family problems' into the open. If you read the first few posts of this blog you'll find my reason for feeling so strongly about this issue.
    As the winter morphed into a gorgeous spring, I learned a deal more about our quiet guest. She spoke English with a smooth and lilting French accent, made all the more sensuous to my young self by the mellow, soft tones of her voice. She was nineteen and would be twenty in mid-summer, she read every chance she got. Aunt 'E' placed her in the room at the top of the rear stairs beside the 'dry' bathroom with the lime toilet. She decorated her room strangely in my opinion, simply a collection of mismatched dolls, stuffed animals, crinkled photos of groups of children, and other odd mementos of things from her past.
   As summer burst forth she and my, quite smitten, young self started to venture for walks in late afternoon before supper and evening chores. Our steps seemed to always draw us to a spot beside where the small brook emptied into our farm pond. There was a large flat rock and we'd just lie there in mutual silence watching clouds or sit observing the fish in the clear pond water. I didn't dare ask many questions, like why she always wore a headscarf that covered her face starting just behind her beautiful blue eyes. The scarves invariably were worn in the same manner and she never was seen (by me) without one on. Her features were near perfection and her hair was very dark brown and slightly wavy. She helped around the house and taking care of the elderly folks in residence at the time during the day and evening. Then she'd retreat to her room where I'd have been dispatched several times carrying buckets of hot water. I wondered if she bathed herself with the scarf on. One of life's mysteries.
    Another mystery was why a doctor from Canada came to visit her once a month and always entrusted my aunt E with a package when he departed. As a former nurse she kept a locked medicine cabinet where the packages invariably were deposited. Elise also seemed to shy away from fireplaces, stoves, direct sunlight, etc. At our rock she'd always remark how nice it was that somebody planted a huge oak tree so it allowed a great view of the sky while shading us from the sun's rays. Some days she'd even wade into the pond in pants and blouse, but never allowing her head to get wet. Another thing that worried me was that she'd often awaken screaming at night, but only my aunt had the key to her room. Sometimes she'd go down to her sewing room and come back with little packets, sometimes I could hear only E's voice calming her back to sleep. I knew something wasn't quite right, but also knew enough to refrain from watching and prying.
   Elise stayed through the next winter and into the summer. That summer she was noticeably paler and distracted. Toward the end of the summer she started to go to our rock earlier and I'd find here there after my chores were done. One afternoon was so different that it turned my world upside down for months and still remains in my memory as though it were yesterday.
    Elise had gone off earlier than usual according to aunt E, and she noticed she'd seemed especially troubled. That was also the only time she'd ever told me to leave my chores for others and go to check on our young guest. I hurried down to the rock and was relieved to see Elise laying in her usual manner, but when I drew closer I noticed something was amiss. It was too quiet, no happy greeting. I climbed to her side and my world shattered. She was cold to the touch and her eyes were staring into the skies unseeing. I don't recall running back to the house, but I do remember not being able to tell my aunt what was wrong, just took her hand and half-dragged her to the rock and Elise. As she got closer, she bent over and scooped up a tin that I recognized as medicine for the horses, especially the oldest workhorse who was lame.
    In the next few days my aunt paid special attention to me as I did little but grieve for my friend. Finally, she took me into the parlor where Elise lay and pulled back the colorful scarf for me to see. After I settled back down, I could understand the scarves. Her left ear was gone, as was much of the hair on that side of her head. In their place were terrible scars from deep burns. Her upper arms and back were badly scarred as well. My aunt explained that the Dr that came each month was a burn specialist and the packets were morphine vials and syringes so E could administer the drug when needed. Elise also suffered from horrible nightmares, what today would be known as PTSD. 
    On graduating from school at sixteen, Elise had gone to work at an orphanage where she mostly cared for the younger children. One night the place was hit by lightning in the barn area attached at the back. By the time the fire was discovered it'd spread throughout the rear upper level where the young children and Elise slept. Elise had carried children from the burning rooms by twos and threes and led older ones. After many trips she was overcome by smoke and exhaustion and collapsed just inside the rear area. A fireman found her there and carried her out to safety. After several operations and recovering some of her lung function, they could do no more. Today they'd be able to do far more, but things weren't advanced as much in 1954.
     The nightmares were filled with the screams of the frightened children and pain was mainly from nerve endings that had become heat sensitive or scar tissue that pulled the tissue too much. Aunt E explained what I'd already figured out, the pain and memories had become too much for Elise to bear and she'd taken the animal pain medications to end her suffering at a place she loved. Uncles R and F and the local minister buried her between the oak and the rock where the sun shone through in bright speckled dances.
     Later a man from the big city came and created a smooth spot on the rock above her head and inscribed: 
                                     Elise Cote
                                     1936-1957
                              Her pain is gone and 
                             the screams are stilled.
                              She joined those she
                                  could not save. 
   Not a sad memory for me, she gave me two magical summers of afternoons learning how to lay on a rock and quietly enjoy life's many treasures. I only wish it had been the 1990s or later so she could have found the relief she needed. At least a little of it. Until next time, take care and be well.  

Getting there

Only 2 weeks or so until the big day!

I remember something that happened around this time of year.
I got a call to go to the embassy of Saudi Arabia.
No problem at all.
Except there was an unmerciful clap of thunder and it lashed rain, traffic came to a standstill.
I kept going and 20 minutes later I arrived there and a guy came out and got into the car.
He had an attitude and screamed blue murder into my face.
I told him to get out, he got more abusive and I told him that I would call the Garda.
"I have diplomatic immunity"
was his reply.
I am not a violent man but I took out my baton and before I struck him I said.
"Your mother would be very sad to see you being so abusive to me"
He jumped back "Oh I am so sorry, I am not well, so much stress! 
Please forgive me"
So the journey began.
I told him that he was the biggest jerk I had ever met in my life, he was sorry.

So I had an idea.

"You guys will not be celebrating Christmas, but I have a suggestion for you.
You guys love horses.
There is a Christmas race meeting in Leopardstown race track.
Book a box, bring your friends, have a Saudi chef there and a musician to play your music.
You can bring your friends out on different days and have a hell of a Christmas" 
He took the details and asked for my phone number, so I gave him your number.

Years later I got a lift to the embassy and I told my passenger the tale. 

"Come into the embassy and put your finger on his picture and he will be on the next flight back to Saudi tonight. 
I am charge de fer of the embassy." 

I told him no. That he was distressed on that day and I had really taught him a lesson.

Good man John (My ID is there for all to see)

I know who it is, we have gone to the races every year since then.

Perhaps I will go there this year myself. 

Weather permitting 

Just a thought

Is God away on business ?



Monday, December 02, 2019

Christmas is also a time for prayer

My son has a nephew who is 12 years old and he has leukemia.
At that age he should not have a worry in the world.
Life is not fair for sure.
He has had 2 bone marrow transplants which have failed.
Now the medical team have told him that there is nothing more they can do.
God he is a brave little lad.
They told him the news. What did he say?

Look I believe in God and he can do miracles, I will pray for one.

I hope God listnes as he is running out of time

A really obliging guy who has a shop in town who has a daughter is also going through hard times.
His daughter of around 12 and she has a cyst on her brain.
Her face is ever so slightly twisted and she walks in a very unsteady way.
They cannot operate as it is deep inside the brain.

Not a good outlook for either child, the girl is a pretty little thing, beautiful blue eyes and the boy is so so clever.

So cut back on the spending and put a few bob aside for charity.
And say a prayer
God might surprise you.  

Perhaps people should look at things a little bit closer

Thursday, November 28, 2019

I won the Lotto !!!!!

It has been a very strange day for sure.
I checked my Lotto ticket on the app last night,

"CONGRATULATIONS YOU'VE WON"

Wow! for sure
I clipped the ticket to my float and went to bed dreaming of my new life and all the people who would be receiving mystery checks for Christmas

I slept well and woke up at 7am.

What would you do?
Well I checked again. and I had won..
Nothing about the amount though.

I worked until 10.30, then I went home for breakfast and I took the bus into town.
The 130 bus stops at the Lotto HQ.
Checking that there were no cameramen around I went in.

The lady took my ticket and checked it.

"You have won a €3 ticket for the millionaire draw."

Just like that my balloon was burst..

She told me that up to 10 am the next day they don't know the amounts, then I checked the ticket on the app again and she was right €3 ticket for the draw/
.
I didn't win there either !!!

So back to work again tomorrow. 

Saturday, November 23, 2019

A bad bad boss remembered

The good old model T

A new hotel opned opposite Guinness on Jamess St

Its called the pump house appartments London bridge rd.



I have been lying low at present.
This period should be a period of rest for taxi drivers everywhere.

Next month is Go Go Go

People are hard to figure out, for sure.
The other day I got a call on the FreeNow app and I went to the house. After a pause I rang the number, no reply. One ring is often enough to alert them to your arrival, but no, so I rang again.
When she came out she said that the app was telling her that I was 8 minutes away, if she had looked again she would have spotted that I had been outside for 8 minutes.
She was quite short and said that she was in a hurry and she was going to be late.

One day I will just stop the taxi and tell someone like that to get out and try to fly!!!

One story for the book and I don't remember if I told it recently.
I had a 6 seater taxi when I started off and I was flagged down at a McDonalds, a full quota of passengers and they were gloomy.
They could not believe what had happened.
Bit by bit the story unfolded.
This was the company night out and the boss asked to meet them all at McDonalds at 9 pm.
He arrived and he bought each one of them a "Happy Meal" (No I kid you not)
They thought it was a joke, but no With everyone with a happy meal in front of them he wished them Happy Christmas and walked out.
One guy calmed them down and we dropped the workforce home one after the other.
The guy with the knowledge told me what would happen next.

He was brought in at the last moment as the company was going under, when you work fora  computer company you must sign a non disclosure agreement.

BUT in the rush they had not asked him to sign one.

He had a list of all the customers, his total method of operation and in 3 weeks time as soon as Christmas is over he would totally sabotage the company and re employ all the workers.

When your workers burst their guts turning your company around the last thing anyone should do is to punch them in the stomach.

People do strange things for sure, no party would have been far far better.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Strange beasts roam the land

A good few years ago I brought an English lady to the crossroads on Sundrive Rd.

On the way in I asked the usual question "What do you do for a living?"

She was a criminal psychologist specializing in murder.
She had done in depth interviews with most of the infamous criminals in the 20 years prior to our meeting.
One person who took his thoughts to the grave was Ian Brady the moors murderer who with Myra Hinley killed a large number of children in the late 60s, Myra did talk to her at length for many months, a dark and disturbing tale that haunted her for years.

We spoke about her subject in detail and then she asked me what I thought of these mass murderers.

I said that if there is a God then there must also be a Devil, whether the killers are mad, or deranged .
Evil stalks the land for sure.
She was giving a talk to a group of Garda and asked me to sit in. But I was young and the business was hopping.

I had a car with a really good radio and I was listening to it when they stopped the music for an urgent appeal. an infant 2 year old boy was taken out of a shopping center by 2 other children.

The toddlers body was found beaten to death on a railway track.
Jamie Bolger a 2 year old child beaten to death by 2 10 year old children The boys were just 10 years old.

Then here we have a 14 year old girl raped and murdered by 2 boys who were around 13 years old.
The boys in question thought that they were too young to be punished they scowled at the judge and ignored the court.
But they got life terms in prison.

A trial is coming up of 2 parents who beat starved and raped their children, I believe there are over 200 charges pending.

Taxi drivers notice things
Keep your eyes open and take note
You alone might notice something and just by reporting it the pain for that person might stop. 

Monday, November 04, 2019

HALFORDS A warning

I had a headlamp out and one of the side lights as well.
A guy on the rank told me to go to Halfords in Coolock.
So I decided to give it a go.

The girl on the till said €9 for the main bulb and €5 for the small one.

So I said go ahead. Will I pay you now?
No you pay at the end,

Job done and I went in to pay. "That is  €36.41"

Yes that's right and she showed me the bill

Small bulb      €4.20
Main bulb     €17.20
Fitting bulb    €9.00
Small bulb    €6.00
                   €0.01 (Free car check)
VAT            €6.81

Total           €36.41

€36.41 is a long way from €15 for sure.
Which might explain why she wouldn't take the cash before the work was done.


Anyhoo as they say in Canada.
I won't be making that mistake again any time soon.
This is the year when I plan to switch over our entire fleet of 4 cars to LED bulbs
A brighter and longer life bulb

An interesting guy in the car going to Clontarf.
He told me that a few lads in a pub tossed out the idea of selling rings on line, when the net was young..
It seemed like a bad idea but they got a guy in Australia to do them a website,
To get your ring size you wrapped a piece of string around your finger and that gave them your ring size.
They got rings from Lebanon and Turkey and with good photography it started to work really well

Then (Before Amazon etc) they got a call from her majesty's VAT department. They wanted to know how the business operated and were told that it spanned the globe, now many companies do just that, but the man from England stopped him talking.
You have two choices Cece and desist OR hire a team of lawyers and we will do battle.

So now I work in internet security.

He told me that that Princess in Nigeria would never send the the €6 million

Its a Pity that

I was talking to a friend who worked in security (As I once did) and told him of a guy who had attended a house after an alarm activation, he looked around found nothing wrong, set the alarm and locked the door.

The next day he was called into the office there was an engagement ring missing worth €32,000
and he must have stolen it.
The police quizzed him and he was left in a room to think about giving it back.
In work their most trusted employee was supervised and demoted to more menial tasks.
After a month or so he went back to the police station to see if there was any way of dealing with this problem.
He met the Garda who had quizzed him.

"Oh its all right.
They found the ring the next day
Did nobody tell you?" 

The older I get the more I become Larry David

Friday, November 01, 2019

Ghools and vampires strut their stuff.


Gorge Bernard Shaw Poet Playwright

This is a restaurant in Northern Ireland

Bord Gas theater

Our conference center

The Sam Beckett bridge



Halloween is a Celtic thing !!!

The Irish brought it to America where it was put on steroids and it expanded to what it is today.
In Ireland we put a scooped out turnip with a face carved and a lighted candle inside it to scare away the evil spirits which walked the land on that night.

Talk of weird things
a schoolteacher got into bother for having sex with her 16 year old pupil.
So the legal minimum age for sex is 17, she was around 23..

This all should have been held "in Camera"(behind closed doors)
Already naked photos of the teacher have arrived on my computer.

Social media has warped the minds of young people,
"Send me a photo of your boobs" soon turns into a major blackmail situation.
Right or wrong I will not make moral judgment but if you ask any doctor in an inner city practice he will confirm that 13 and 14 year olds present as pregnant on a regular basis.

By the way the teacher got 12 months in prison and will remain on the sex offenders register for all of her life.

Well they saw the law is the law
They also say The law is an ass.
Make your own mind up

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Hello Netherlands





Look at the stats, we are a hit in the Netherlands now
Fairly big in Russia as well
I wonder where the Unknown Region is?

Netherlands
689
United States
246
Germany
238
Norway
229
Russia
202
Ireland
73
Ukraine
50
Unknown Region
21
Indonesia
21
United Kingdom
16

When you drive a taxi in Dublin it is like going through the united nations, every nationality under the sun for sure. It is very hard to believe how insular we were.
2 black men i Dublin Paul McGrath the footballer and Phil Lynott the rock star.
God some of those Polish, Russian and Lithuanian girls are so striking.
A psychologist told me that my genes are telling me that this persons genes are far removed from yours and this is what attracts you to them.
The bonus for you is that it works both ways.
I reckon in 30 years when we intermarry our grandchildren will be better looking than the Brazilians.

I saw the results of my sons taxi driving test.
He did really well, he got a few 100% but failed in a few modules.
So on the 2nd of the next month he can re sit what he failed then he will head for the high road.
The taxi drivers motto "I go that extra mile"

On Thursdays we drive up to Northern Ireland to visit the grandchildren, a 2 hour drive up and funny to say its 2 hours back down again.
We take a break at Applegreen service area in Castlebellingham  going up and down.
Once when we were coming home we pulled in and as we came onto the first roundabout a truck came thundering along and nearly wiped us out. I went up on the grass and the truck headed off going around the roundabout the wrong way..
I wrote a letter to Applegreen and the next time I went up I was introduced to the manager who gave me a free coffee. He said that the signage was designed by the NTA and he felt that everything was OK.
The next time we went there I noticed that a truck had crashed into a lamp while going out the wrong way.
So there are none so blind as those who will not see.
So I wrote another letter back in March and said fuck it !.
I found the letter and sent it off the other day.

A guy who was in school with me became a radio officer and one day he noticed a ship heading out to sea with its bow doors open, he used the emergency channel to alert the crew.
He spotted it again on a later day and they closed the doors.
They were leaving the bow doors open to clear fumes from the car decks, but there was no system in place for closing them.
Then one night as they sailed out with the bow doors open the wash from a ship going the opposite way just flooded the car deck and the ship went down.
The ship was called The Herald of free enterprise.
All the warnings were recorded on the emergency channel.
Its a bit like this situation.

A lot of my friends say "Just leave it"

Sorry I am not like that,I would always help people if I can

Friday, October 18, 2019

Stop the traffik

I have come across this happening three times, each time the police let down the girls.

I have just finished reading a book on my Kindle called Slave

This is one of many books in that section which deals with modern day slavery.
She was a well brought up kid just snatched off the streets of London and beaten and starved.
Then she was forced to work as a sex slave in Galway, Dublin,Cork and Belfast.

Getting no money for her misery, but abuse and beatings.

Then when she escaped she helped to bring in the toughest anti-trafficking laws to Northern Ireland.

Almost at the very end something is revealed that will make you very angry.

Click on this link here

My wife says"This is all bad news and misery"

I say "Life is not all ice cream and circuses"

Anyhow now I have that off my chest,

So download Slave from Amazon






Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Another day another Dollar


3 times I told the people running this restaurant that a customer would fall"  We don't see it as a danger/.
Pearse St rail ststion

Central bank (Old)

Trinity collage


Well my son is doing the knowledge and he sat the test.
He passed the industry knowledge part but failed on the maps section.
Good news is that he can just re-sit the part he failed.
Then he has to be checked out by the Garda vetting system.

So since I came back from Spain I have not been doing much, sometimes when you have a holiday you need another.
They have a huge Mosque in Cordoba, it really is fantastic, the people who built it were great engineers and they brought irrigation to the area and they grow a huge variety of fruits, cotton , figs, lemons and oranges to mention a few.
One kid said it just right inside the Mosque.
"Mom I don't believe it! This place is bigger than IKEA!"   (that is big)

One very pretty passenger jumped into the taxi at Connelly going to Heuston, will I make the 10 O'clock train to Cork? Well there is something very bad going on at Burgh quay and O'Connell St.
Stopped for such a long time. "What do you work at?" It turned out she is a chef and was going to Cork to make a TV program, we didn't make it at all ,but she was really good about it.

I gave her €5 off the €15 fare. (I must be getting soft in the head)

When you are nice to people they are often nice to you.

So Britain is leaving the EU ?



.

Wednesday, October 09, 2019

Not long until Brexit



Farmleagh Home of the Guinness family
Day dreamer
So I am a week back from the big wedding in Spain and I feel like I need another holiday.
On the streets the traffic is bad, with the schools back and the law courts coming back into action.
I have paid my income tax so I should be at peace.
But shit happens.
I hit a cyclist this evening, he broke the lights my passengers told him so and a car coming the opposite way told him as well. Then he tried to arrest me. My female passenger got upset so I drove away as he was uninjured. He chased me and I said that I would go to the police and they would sort it out.
Coming back from the airport I went to Clontarf Garda station and there he was giving out yards.
Rather than have a shouting match at the desk I waited outside until I was called in to tell my side of the story. I jusr said that my dashcam would show who was in the wrong. Gradually he calmed down.
Then a shake of hands, after a few minutes he started raving again.

I hope he has cooled down by now.

But in many cases they develop blinding headaches and back problems when compensation enters their minds.

By the way I did not win the €190 million,,,,but I tried.

The big house was one of the stately homes of the Guinness family,it was bought by the state a while back as a guesthouse for VIP heads of state,
Mrs Beahan said that the Guinnesss did a lot for Dublin
Brendan Behan said that he had done a lot for the Guinness family in his time




Saturday, October 05, 2019

A false start

Where are the photos John?
My computer won't upload them !

I  look after a house and the next door neighbor rang me to say that there was water flowing out the overflow into the back garden. 
So I went home and got my stepladder and torch.
Plumbers who have brains are few and far between.
In the attic there is a cold water tank. It fills the toilet and the shower, its a reserve tank.
The expansion tank works off the central heating. 
This can be placed on top of the cold water tank.
But.
You have to allow that if the cold water tank expands when it is full of water, so you have to put stop pieces on the expansion tank support. But no, the support fell into the cold water tank, and the glass fiber insulation went into the tank.I turned off the water and lifted the expansion tank, then I turned the water back on.
2 hours later the tenant rang . "No water in toilet"
So time passed and I located the blockage, no more time for taxi work.
But you know if the expansion tank landed on the ballcock and the insulation blocked the overflow.
What a disaster that would have been.

When you travel buy a travel book. €10 or €12, but it saves you acres of heartache.
I live in Dublin and the "Rough Guide  to Dublin" educated me, it really did.
We went to Spain with the rough guide to Andalusia.

 
 

Wednesday, October 02, 2019

Were back

We went to Nerja to a wedding, then we went to Cordoba then to Granada.
You know what?
The Spanish have some great towns.
Perhaps a bit too warm, then when we came home it was freezing.

If driving is your source of income it is important to have your taxi in good working order when you leave .
I put a solar battery charger in the taxi before I left,
Guess what?
The battery was completely dead.
After trying a few things I got it started.
But the meter is dead !
the clock has lost its bearings so I must go to have it reset. 

As they say in the movie "Gone with the wind"
"Tomorrow is another day"

We have a storm heading in tomorrow and they are arranging sand bags along the Clontarf seafront.
Years ago we were in Sicly and the restaurant owner told us that his daughter had moved to Dublin, he missed her so much. What part of Dublin do you live in? he asked.
Clontarf, we said.   
The next day he came over.
"I looked on Google earth at Clontarf " What are all the yellow sand bags for?
Are you expecting an invasion? 

They are still here

Monday, September 16, 2019

All packed

All packed up its a 3 am start so I have to go to bed now


If you are a Dublin taxi driver make sure to join into the taxi drivers special day out
Sept 21st Paddy Drac has passed away but Circus Vegas and the Garda band will be there.

The phone number I have is 087 1213344  or 086 3701215

One thing for sure you will never complain about anything when you see how these kids cope in spite of  their problems.

Its the first time I have missed it



And just to keep you thinking

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Off to Spain

Two chancy lads

A bicycle designed by a nutter.

Why would you think he was an electrician?

This is a house built from transport containers in Ringsend


Dublin V Kerry Replay on SATURDAY

Good luck to all

So here we are at the end of the Summer and the weather is fantastic.
I am heading to Spain for a wedding. then we stay on for 2 weeks visiting Grenada and the local sights.
The weather will probably better here, cooler and sunny.

I have still been thinking of a job I brought from Clontarf Castle hotel to the German bank in Eastpoint. She was very pretty and dressed so well.
At the end of the trip she paid me and said
"This is the best taxi ride that I have ever had in my life by far"
I have the child lock on the outside door on the back and I opened the door to let her out.
As she got out she slipped her arm around my waist and gave me the gentlest kiss on the cheek, it was like a butterfly touching my cheek..
"Thank you"
And she was gone.

Later that day I found out that the bank had sacked more than 200 traders.

JUST LIKE THAT
NO NOTICE.

I drop a note to my God to look after her.

My last bank Rabo bank a Dutch bank closed down their Irish operation because

"THE LEGS FELL OFF THEIR TRADING TABLE"

Well thats what an ex employee told me.

Well I was in a store and a big display was up selling Santa Claus baby grows with Santa hats.
The notice arrived last month about Christmas partys.

A good few years ago when I had a 6 seater taxi I was waved down by a group of gloomy people.
Their boss had invited them to McDonalds for their Christmas dinner!
They were sure it was a joke,
It wasn't
The boss arrived and bought them all a happy meal and left.

They were really angry, one guy was really witty he said

"He didn't even let me pick out my toy"

As they emptied out two guys went into planning mode.
One of them had been brought in to rescue the company from going bankrupt a year ago,
if he could save it he could sink it!
He joined in a hurry and had not been asked to sign non disclosure contracts.

"I will place a few bombs and he will soon find out that he has no company, then you guys will be working for me"
 When the last guy was getting out I asked him how long it would take?
"Six months, he will not see it coming"

What an asshole !
Why would you antagonize your staff like that ?

What goes round comes round  

Sunday, September 08, 2019

A simple tip

Toyota Proximity key front and back

Remove the concierge key

With a knife or screwdriver prize it open

there is the battery (Open from the back)

Here is something you can do.
Do it while sitting at a table so you are in control.
Try to get batterys with corresponding make and numbers I got 10 for £12 from Amazon.
Once upon a time I was told by a garage that they would need to replace the battery in my key.
They wanted £20, I just popped over with the spare key and when I checked the "Faulty" key fob they had taken the battery out..

One last thing. On a hot summers day you took off your jacket and threw it into the boot of your Porsche
You close the boot and the car locks itself ??????? They do that !
The keys are in your jacket pocket now locked in the boot and you are locked out.

Try this. Ring home and ask someone there to get the spare key from the desk.
Now for a drum role .
"Hold the key to the phone and when I count to three press the unlock button on the keys"

You turn your phone to speaker and hold it to your lock the magic begins

Not every car will pop open, sometimes you will have to do it twice

Worth a try anyhow.

always have a spare key if you have only one key and it is put in the washing machine the replacement process is around €2,500

Wednesday, September 04, 2019

Dublin is cosmopolitan now

Sometimes you wonder if the guy was qualified

This is a house in Ringsend made from two storage containers

An unfortunate accident, the Lexus is only a few days old

A money making machine on the Clontarf Rd

A really good idea

I had an unusual morning, the first job was from Istanbul in Turkey, internet chap.
An Indian lady going to Blanchardstown
Two guys from Uruguay to Ranelagh
Then a guy from Eritrea   
The last guy was surprised that I knew where it was or that I knew anything about the country.
Ethiopia beside Eritrea has many strikingly beautiful women, they are also the fastest runners on earth.
They are very hard to catch for sure.

I hope to be back on line soon.
This computer has been wiped but it is not working like it should work.

Saturday, August 31, 2019

GAA football final

Unless you have been in hiding or you live in Norway you might not know that tomorrow is the all Ireland football final.

Dublin V Kerry

One way that our forefathers tried to make us unique was to encourage Gaelic games.
Hurling and football.
The football has plenty of ball handeling with conditions.
The hurling is fast and furious

Soo take a look, I am sure you can pick it up on Sky

 

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Time to kick the bear I think

I am going down to Andrew my computer to have my computer exorcised and to have all the evil spirits banished in the hope that I can load photos again.

One day I saw a girl who was in the care of a group based in Islandbridge, she was in the care of a "minder"and as they waited to cross the South Circular Rd. he put his right hand across her left shoulder and started to fondle her breast. She shuddered and the lights changed.
Later on I went into the place but could find no one to complain to.
So I wrote a letter to the person in charge, re a serious sexual assault on one of your patients..
To this day I have had no reply.
The Garda in Kilmanham said that they could do nothing as they would have to see him in the act.

My son was visiting a friend in a laneway parralel to Batchelors walk.
I was waiting in the darkness for him to come out.
There are many call girls in the apartments along there.
A big black BMW came up the laneway and 2 guys got out. The driver went to the end of the laneway and turned and came back down, then he waited for the other 2 guys to come out.
Just as they walked to the car a tall goreign girl came over and started screaming at the biggest guy, then she threw a punch. The driver had come around behind her and he hit her such a punch I swear you could hear he neck snap. Down she went and they threw her in the boot like a bag of coal..
Then they got into the car and started to drive away.
I started my car without turning on the lights and got their number.
I dialed 112 and the muppet that took the call told me.
"We would need a missing persons report before we could act"

So outside a laundrette with a flat upstairs which had a video camera pointing at the front door.
Two travellers were in a white van, they had a Chinese girl between them, she was in floods of tears and they were shouting abuse at her.
I grabbed a pen and the newspaper and wrote the number down. I checked it with my passinger.
I explained that she had been trafficked, "How could that happen?"
There was a big publicity drive about anti slavery, so I wrung the number, no reply, I sent an email no reply. and I rang a few more times.. No result.That night I contacted the website "Stopthetraffik"in the UK. I gave them the details and at 9.30am I got a phone call from Scotland Yard, thanking me for my efforts and that they would intervene.
At 3pm or so I got a call from a very irate Garda. "What are you doing contacting Scotland Yard for?"  He went on, so I made a signed and sworn statement to be met with
" the regestration number you gave does not exist"
It would have to exist !!!
So where is this going ?

Now
A mental hostital in Northern Ireland Muckamore Abbey comes into the spotlight where it is alleged 1,500  crimes of a sexual nature took place in 6 months......I wonder how many whistles were blown before this came to light.  
In care of the state my arse
 

Monday, August 26, 2019

Is Summer nearly over?

I saw the first school girl in her school uniform wating for the bus home.
On Sunday I brought a German mother and their 2 daughters to their boarding school in Dalkey.
I must take a look out for the swallows going and the arrival of the Brent geese who come all the way from Greenland to spend the winter around Clontarf.
Time and tide wait for no man for sure, there are 2 things you can bet on for sure Death and Taxes
I have that mountain of papers out and on Wednesday I go to my accountant then I can sleep for another year.
I had a young couple in the taxi from Paris going to the Pheonix Park to see the deer.
When we found the deer and it was time to get paid the credit card machiene would not work, on all 3 cards ! "Sacre bleau"
So what to do?
They would be spending an hour with the deer and then I would come back and collect them. OK?
I did a few jobs and I got the call to go back.
On the way into the park I got a phone call from my first customer of the day Dublin port to the airport. "Is my wallet in your car?"
It was not in the car and he just said "Ive been dipped in the airport"
You have to be so careful. An American tourist was stabbed with a screwdriver in Temple Bar.
A beggar asked him for money and he gave him some change.
Then he demanded more money for his friend before stabbing the American in the belly.
He finished his Irish holiday in hospital.

On credit cards, if you are going abroad ring the credit card provider and tell them.
If they see "Unusial activity" they will block your card as happened me in New York

Two Canadian women in the car and I asked them if the Prius was a big deal in Canada.
Our dealership had one with one million Kms on the clock, no big repairs, shock absorbers and wheel bearings.
A customer crashed it one day and wrote Bernie off and it was like loosing an old friend..

 A Great Great car.

Oh yes the French couple? They went to the pass machine in town and got 2x€20 notes and fair play to the guy he corrected me when I was giving him too much change.
I was giving the change of €50. When you go out of your way to help people they will be loyal.

Doing the tax like I do, all at the end of the year is a killer.

I promise to be a bit more German in the way I do it in future.

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