Tuesday, April 30, 2019

A leak changes my plans

The search for the  new phone continues, the old phone develops more faults by the day.
Perhaps the old phone has eaten the new one.

I look after a house on behalf of a friend who lives abroad, there is a shower upstairs which has leaked into the sitting room below.
The tennants did not ring me and when I went down the other day I discovered it.
It was quite a disaster, I ripped down the celling in the sitting room to see how wet it was.
It was really bad, the Damp Store man sprayed the timbers and I tackled the shower cubicle, ripping it from its foundations I found more of its problems.
The shower cubicle had a corner entrance and I had bought a seal for the door on Amazon, but it didn't quite work. When I was ripping it out I found that the door had been hung upside down, so the magnetic seal was on the inside.
Wait!  Whats those 2 holes doing there ? The handle should have been fitted there and the "Handyman" had taken it off as it was blocking the sliding door.

So then the shower had not been properly "tanked" water had crept in behind the tiles.
So the tiles had to come off.

On Saturday I took out the hoover and found it jammed with dirt.
Out at the dustbin someone opened the back door.
A rush of wind and bang. The result was a broken door handle.
Most of the locksmiths are closed on Saturday, wow what a chase I had to find a replacement handle of sorts. which took another 3 hours to fit as the holes in the door did not match. Then I had to cut the screws to fit the door.
Fogertys in Dame St beside the Olympia, Dyno locks in Capel St do open on Saturday.

Phew !

The only good way to find a trradesman is to ask around
Not one will give you a reciept, I must pay cash.

I told the tennants who are beautiful girls from Brazil that they could shower in my house if they wanted. (Just to help) But they said that they would work something out.

Just an observation, Brazilian people are the most optamistic people you can ever meet, always happy and hugging. Their country should be the richest in the world but there is absolute poverty everywhere. The corruption is totally widespread.
Look on YouTube to see the kind of gun crime which is there.
Let me stop there.
Wonderful people, beautiful country. Total ecomonic devastation.

So the repairs continue into the week.
I really hope it will be right this time. the new shower screen and side panel cost around €800 !


Did you hear this one.

"A light plane has crashed into Glassnevin cemetry 400 bodies have so far been recovered .
Digging continues through the night"

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Useless peoples success stories


The natural history meusium or "The dead zoo"

The cartoon factory is where that yellow thing is.


Welcome back folks.
This Easter we had the most fantastic weather, fantastic for the young and the old.

So did I come across anything of intrest?

Indeed I did. in 1994 two guys were kicked out of Ballyfermot college of art for being useless.
Now into the second year of a three year course things didn't look great.
Cathal Gaffney and Darragh O'Connell they had an idea, putting things down on loose sheets of paper they looked to regester their company. Someone had pity on them and gave them a brown bag to keep their papers together.
They hadn't,t thought of a name..."Eurika !"
Brown bag film studio was born.
This year they are 25 years old and they had a big party in the mansion house for all the friends and staff. Their office is on Smithfield square opposite the Generator hostel.
They have a couple of hundred staff and at least 5 dogs working there.
The first time I came accross them was when I went into a local shop and was surrounded by hippies.
I asked one of them if I had stepped into a time warp ?
"No man we are all cartoonists"

I love stories of people being told that they are useless and then they go on to greatness.
Tim Martin was a very tall schoolboy, but they kept him on for the rugby.
One day a teacher tore strips off him and told him that he was the most useless boy in the school.
He remembered it and to rub the teachers nose in it he called every pub he opned after that teacher.
Weatherspoons
It says in Wickopedia that he employs over 38,000 people.
I guess Mr.Weatherspoon got that one wrong  

So I am not a religous person Tahank God, but once in a while you have to call up some of his army

So I bought a new fone and when I turned it on a lot of things would not work.
With St.Patricks day coming up I put the fone away carefully. After St.Patricks day I will get it going. So now the fone is missing,
3 weeks or more looking for it.
The patron saint of lost property is St.Anthony.
I promised him €5 nothing €10 still nothing €15 Now he has reached the limit. I will report him to his boss if things keep going on like this.

Do you know any more saints ?  St Valintine. His heart is in a shrine in Auinger St. church

Taxi drivers !
Saint Fiacre
In 1640, Nicholas Sauvage, who hired out hackney coaches, lived at the Hotel St. Fiacre in the Rue St Martin, in Paris. (Now 223 rue St Martin in the Marais, according to this post.) As well as being the patron saint of gardeners, Saint Fiacre is now the saint of taxi drivers. 

Saturday, April 20, 2019

Stranger than fiction


A young man talks to his sister

His statue beside the convention center. A long journey between the 2 photos




Happy Easter to one and all.
Still knocking around with no direction in life and no goal in sight.
Once upon a time I met a man who stressed that you should set out a plan foe your life and set goals, when you acheveyour goals you give yourself a reward.
Stress is a killer.
Make a list of things to do, then do the hardest things first.

So anyhow, something very strange happened, though not to me.
A taxi is waiting at the lights and he moves off on green.
A limosene hits him on the back wing of his taxi.
The limo driver said that the taxi broke the lights.
The limo driver was a retired Garda supernatant the taxi driver later finds out.
So anyhow the taxi driver tells the limo driver that his car is fitted with a special camera to monitor his driving and that the footage is stored by  a company in Wexford.
The limo driver takes great intrest in this.

When the taxi driver reports the accident it was discovered that there was a glitch of 1/2 hour which covered the period when the crash happened, nothing was recorded.
So for yourself at the time of a crash you should try and get contacts of people standing around.

Remember that if you have a dashcam to disconnect the power before taking out the chip as it might wipe the chip if you don't.

Another one that happens, the other person says" This was my fault get a quote, thare is no need to get the police involved."
Then 2 weeks later they say "Look you didn.t report it to the police I am not going to pay"
At the time it happned to me I just said. "No I did make a report in less than an hour after you hit me"
He paid straight away.
Take photos as well with your phone.

About Luke Kelly
Phil Coulter wrote this song to make people think about how they see handicapped children.
He chose Luke Kelly to sing it and he did a fantastic job,


Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Notre Dame gone

Here we are at Easter and Notre Dame cathedral destroyed by fire.
Tragedy on a grand scale.
Everyone has their own memories of that great city and I remember one Easter being there.
The entire French population took off and blocked the roads onThursday.
The city was empty except for tourists on Saturday.
Then this fantastic drumming sound echoed all over, following the sound I found myself at the cathedral where a large African group were drumming and it went on for hours.

I was a student there learning to speak French, then when I sat my exam I passed and got a job in the international telephone exchange. This was a great place to work as at that time there was no subscriber trunk dialing, a lot of manual hookups.
There was I a guy there who could speak 26 languages,Arabic, Chinese, Japanese all the European languages fluently and he could switch over in a second..
With a talent like that the world was his oyster.
What did he do?
Join the EU or NATO ?
No he worked on and then retired.
What a waste of a brilliant talent.

2 girls walking along the road, I thought the taxi behind me would stop, he didn't and when I stopped and they jumped in my heart sank.
Two junkies on a mission, to buy drugs.
"Turn here mister, then straight on"
Then they were whispering in the back.
I pulled my baton out so that my hand would reach it without effort.
The first  place we went was a no show, then after a few more turns we contacted their dealer.
The driver has to stay back around 50 yards while the deal is going on, its protocol!

So the deal was done and we headed home.
€16 on the clock and one of the girls says
"Mister will ya do it for €15"
I said yes indeed just pay me now and you can jump out when we arrive.

You should have seen the look on their faces. Hurry up I said I have the change.
Money exchanged there was no chance of a runaway passinger.

Another guy who has been in the taxi before, he must be one of the unluckiest people in the world.
I think the last time I had him it was FOC.
He was knocked down by an off duty Garda, she lied about the accident in court and now it looks like she will be done for purgery and her seargent  has come under scrutiny for lying to cover up her actions.
I wish him luck taking on the lying Garda, his injuries are substantial as he was thrown 15 yards and landed on his head.
When he was getting out I wished him luck and I hoped that he might find a good woman to mind him.
"My wife has been in a nursing home for the past 12 years"







Tuesday, April 09, 2019

Be careful for what you wish

I wish to win the lotto and unlike most people from Cavan I actually buy a ticket sometimes.

A man got into the taxi years ago going to the Charlemont clinic.
God but I remember details of the trip to this day.
It was like he tatooed his story into my brain.

Be careful what you wish he said.
I had 4 daughters and we all wanted a son, then my wife got pregnant and praise God we had our son.
Everyone danced for joy, a beautiful baby boy.
The girls could not have loved him more, he was hugged and kissed like no one else.
He grew up, playing football at 10,11,12 his sisters were on the sidelines cheering him on.

Then at around 13/14  he changed, he didn't want to play football and he went missing for hours at a time. We all made a big effort to connect but he evaded us.

I didn't work for the Garda but I was connected to them and the lads on the force kept an eye out for him. Arrested for intoxication, held overnight returned home.

He had become a heroin addict at 17 !

I am a wise person I can deal with this I said.

You have no idea how to deal with a heroin addict.

The advice I was given was to throw him out and he would come to his senses, the girls would let him in and feed him. Inside they were bleeding in greif, we all were.

Then one day my wife was coming back home on the bus and she saw him walking along the footpath, he looked like a zombie. 
She jumped off the bus and left her handbag behind on the bus with keys, money ,credit cards.

Soon after that she died.
It really was from a broken heart.

One day a Garda arrived at the door with bad news, but to me it was wonderful news Micheal was dead.
Thank God, he has no more fear or pain.

We gave him a wonderful fairwell.

Now John I have cancer and not much time to suffer.
We have a family plot.
My son lies beside his mother and he will lie between us both forever.

We both said God bless.

My prayers are with him

Saturday, April 06, 2019

Phones phones Phones


Cherry blossom A 9 day wonder

The tram was knocked off the track, both vehicles have cameras.


Way back in 1973 the first call was made from a mobile fone.
The joke was that it took another 2 years before the second mobile fone was built.
Now they are such a part of our lives.
The taxi apps have given taxi drivers freedom from the base man. The base man in the taxi dispatch center used to use his power to send his chosen friends the best jobs and make fools of the rest.

My present fone is over 10 years old and it is causing me problems.
I went to the phone shop and bought a Hiwaii one and she transferred all my apps over.
I would have to re load them and my MyTaxi app did not kick in.
So I put it away meaning to tackle it when I am not tired.
Guess what ? I don't know where I put it.
I have been looking for it for 3 weeks now.

Vic I feel your pain.

 I reckon that I am not taking enough rest time. 
Yesterday I had an American family going to the Hilton airport hotel ?
For some reason not known by me I had to ask Mr.Google !
I felt a bit embarrassed as I knew where it was, but I could not pull it up on my own radar.
When something like this happens I stop the meter and often charge them less than was on the meter when I stopped it. 
This is what diecent people do.
The guy was very generous, he gave me a tip and accepted my apology.   

Last week I mentioned 2 taxi drivers who deserved to be punished severly.
Today 2 heroes 
The first guy picked up a couple outside a bar when he notices a man pulling a girl down a laneway at the side of the pub.
When they closed the door the taxi driver said "Sorry about this, something wrong here "
He jumped out of the taxi and ran over to the guy and punched him so hard that he landed on the ground.
"Leave my wife alone ! If I see you again I will kill you"
He put her into the car with the couple and quizzed her.
Rohipnol was the old date rape drug and he had spiked her drink.
After he had dropped off the couple he brought her home.

A French lady in a taxi and she was saying "No I want to go home"
The guy was insisting so when thay reached the mans address the driver got out baton in hand and in no uncertain terms that the lady was staying with him.
She was not drunk but she was badky shaken