Sunday, July 28, 2019

Proximity keys again.

I was going for coffee to Cafe Java off Leeson St and I parked on Sussex terrace.
I noticed a 18 reg Jaguar jeep in front of me with his day lights turned on and the engine running.
When I came back it was still there with the engine running and no one around.
So I asked in the coffee shop and in the restaurant but no owner could be found.
So I phoned the police and told them of the problem. The engine is running and there is no one around. Well if its not obstruction traffic what can we do?
Well its up to you now the car is worth around€100,000 and if someone drives away in it the car with the engine running the insurance company will not pay.
You have the chance to do good.
I had a pickup to do and went off.
I took a look an hour later and the jeep was gone.
For better or worse.

Proximity keys are a pain in the arse.




Friday, July 26, 2019

Welcome from Aegentina



This is the coffee shot at the juction of SCR and Harrington St

GBS George Bernard Shaw

If you run a hoter or a concierge service copy this

So the other day I picked up a father and daughter going to the South Circular Rd.(SCR) for short as it turned out they were from Argentina and had started a coffee shop,they knew little about the links between our two lands so I filled them in.
It is hard when an economy crashes through no fault of the people.
Brazil, Venuezela and all the other S American countries have fantastic people but corrupt rulers.
But they are great people.

I wish them the very best of luck.

It started at 12.04 today and the journey ended at 1.55 almost 2 hours later.
The man needed a part for his respirator, and we covered 31.12 Kms at a cost of €76.20
I had this happen before a few years ago and that time we didn't manage to find part.

Now if you are in the hotel or hospitality buisness in Dublin I have copied the business card of the people who came up trumps an they carry loads of gismos which help you to breathe.
Look up "Sleep Apnia" to see the kind of problems that people can have.



Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Never a dull moment





Another day another dollar, no two days are the same for sure.

He was on the quays near Blackhall Place when he waved me down.
Going to Finglas and then to Liffey Valley bud, so we had a drugs run at 10 am.
We arrived at his sisters house, a house with 2 burglar alarms and CC TV looking around.
10 minutes later he came out and he gave me a €50.
In good faith brother!
Then off to Liffey Valley near Lucan. As we drove he pulled out a wad of notes and started to count it all.
Money was falling on the floor and I stopped him.
I got 6 boxes of maps from the tourist board and each 20 map bundle has a big elastic band on it and I had 10 or so on my indicator stalk. I took them off, wrap them up in €200 bundles with the elastic bands.
Now you are going places.
So with his cash counted he told me that he was going to buy a second hand car (Good story)
He went into the house and he came back out in 5 minutes. I asked him if he didn't count out the money.
Only his wife was there he said.
Sure enough 15 minutes later he got the call "Hey bud you left me €400 short."
Panic stations..Should we go back? Yes?No?
Head into town bud, we will sort that out later.
So on the way in he took 2 orders for drug deals and phoned them off to his foot soldiers.
Just a point for you. Drug dealers have the cheapest phones as they might have to throw it into the Liffey or off a as it holds vital evedance.
Then out cam a bag of Coke and he had a few snorts.
"You're a good man, you don't judge me"
Good luck with the car I said
I would give him around 3 years to live at most.
He gave me an extra €20 and off he went.

Later that day I was at Connelly and a girl from Russia was talking to the first guy on the rank.
He was not taking the deal and as she walked away she caught my eye.
She had bought a train ticket to Dalkey and the trains were not running.
Would I bring her for €20?
Just because she was good looking is not a good enough reason to refuse.
She is training to become a psychiatrist and we got on like old friends.
The meter was running and the full price would have been only €25
She had paid me and she packed up her bag. Then she put her knee on the seat and turned around and gave me a giant hug and a kiss. "You are wonderful"

Then she was gone with her beautiful blue Russian eyes.

A guy got in going to Heuston station and he told me how his cousin had sexually abused him when he was aged 5 years old and his cousin was 15.
Because he was a minor at the time he got a suspended sentance.

I as a 5 year old child I got a life sentence and my grandfather had a nervous  breakdown

There is no justice on this side of the grave son.


Three journeys on the same day each one so different

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Over the moon

House for sale, a Lotto win might get it

All this will be Google

A Fiat topolino

1920 well before the space shuttle


50 years ago man landed on the moon.
After all the developments which took place people said that it would be very hard to invent something that could be new.
30 years later someone put wheels on a suitcase !

No matter what there are people who can make things much better.
I will write more later 

I must fly 

Sunday, July 14, 2019

My new phone is gone


This Scottish car was brought from the legend  Arnold Clarke

A hero of Irish folk music Luke Kelly

This wonderful car is 30 years old !



This story started a few years ago...

So I have an old Iphone and it was giving me big problems.
It was my birthday, so I treated myself to a brand new phone.
I swear to God the salesperson in the Carfone warehouse told me that
"Everything will transfer over to the new phone"
2 hours later they told me that as I had over 300 contacts on the old phone and only 1/2 of the numbers transferred over. But now I was pressed for time and took the phone.
Before I left the store I turned over to the apps and found that the Halo taxi drivers app had not transferred over. "Well you see apps are in a different format. This is an Android phone"
I said that this is not what I was told, so I wanted to cancell the deal.
The manager came out and simply said.
"Once the seal on the box is broken there is no going back"
Then as I was talking to him he turned his back towards me and stood there with his back to me.

I was upset with him and I still am.

My youngest son got the phone.

I huffed and puffed with emails to the carfone warehouse who at the time boasted about their wonderful.customer service. I got nowhere,I typed a letter to their solicitors on Mount St. A few weeks later I got a snotty letter from someone to tell me that I could download the apps again on to the different platform.
I said that the logs and history would not be intact.  No reply

So I went back to my old phone and Andrew my Chinese tec guro did great work on the old phone, he took everything off. Put in a new battery,updated the software, scanned the phone for viruses and downloaded the information again and scanned it once more.
I was like a new phone !!.

A few years later someone told me that "COMREG" would have taken up my case, so now you know if it happens to you.

I bought a Hiwawi phone in February and I was adding things over to it bit by bit.
Coming up to St.Patricks day I started to use the old Iphone again to get me over the busy period.
Then when I looked for the new phone again it had vanished !!!!
I have looked everywhere since the end of March.
St Anthony was promised up to €20 but he did not deliver.
I told his boss (God)still no Joy.

So at last I bought another phone and I am going Android.

I really would never wish bad fortune on anyone but that store where I bought the first phone was in the Clearys building on O,Connell St. The store closed soon after and everyone was was kicked out.

This is just a great positive example of customer service.

Vista print make business cards etc and  I oreded some business cards to promote the blog.
(Have you got one)
So the order was due and did not arrive.
So I contacted the help desk.
"Your order was delivered on the14th"

So a couple more contacts later I got this.



Dear John 
There seems to have been a problem with your order.
As a long time customer of Vistaprint I would like to say sorry.
I am refunding the cost of your order to your credit card and we are reprinting your order today and we will send it to you by express post at no cost.

Now that is service.

With Guinness I had a flat can and I sent it back to them and I nearly had to take them to court to get a refund !

So there is my rant, normal service will resume shortly 

The King of comedy has died

The sad news broke last week of the passing of Brendan Grace
If he was not the King of Irish comedy he was defenately the Clown prince.

I just have to give you a sample in case he is unknown to you.





Have a Google if you want some more

Thursday, July 04, 2019

Happy 4th July

Happy 4th of July to you all






Tuesday, July 02, 2019

Gay pride



This is the old synagogue on Haddington Rd

A  little bit of art is great

Believe it or not this is a goat house influenced by a trip to Morocco

This weekend saw the gay pride festival which went down a storm.
Our prime minister is gay and our minister for children is also gay, so different from so different than it was 20 years ago or when a gay man was beaten to death in Fairview park and because he was a gay man the culprit got off almost scott free. There was a lot of anger at the time.
With all the hate against the churches sexual transgerssions sex has become a talked about and more open subject.


Its strange how as they say you speak of someone and suddenly they are front page news.
I was at the Westbury hotel and I picked up an American lady going out to a riding stabeles up in the Dublin mountains.
She has an idyllic life in the States, they have 2 horses a pony a donkey an emu a duck a skunk 4  dogs and a few other animals.
So I told her the story about a Japanese pop star who was making music video here in Ireland.
My van carried the camera man the electrician and the sound man, the chaufer car had the singer his manager the director and a Dutch interpreter of Japanese English.
On day 2 we went up to Meath near Tara to the show jumping stables of Paul Darra.
We waited while the powers that be discussed camera angles and lenses to be used.
A young blonde girl came along on her horse and on the second time around she passed me I gave her a smile and she smiled back. Nothing was happening so she got off the horse and sat down on a bale of hay beside me. After a bit of banter I showed her one of my very favorite magic tricks.
You fold up a €5 note and when you open it out again its a €50..It got a great reaction.

"Its been really wonderful talking to you, but I have to be somewhere else soon.
Tell them that if they don't start filming in 15 minutes I will be gone"

So I went over and spoke to the Dutch girl and she only half listned.
15 minutes later she handed me the horse and told me to tell them that she had gone.
This time when I told them they all woke up and in great panic called her back on the phone.
All smiles I popped her up on the horse ans within 20 minutes the film scene was complete.
She rode the horse over to me and asked me if I would ride the horse around for 20 minutes or so as he was very cold from all the standing around. Then I was to pop him over a few jumpes and take him back to the stables.
She told me that it was such a pleasure talking to me,
"I have to be so careful about who I talk to and where I go"
Strange I thought.
I rode the horse around for 20 minutes then over a few jumps ( I used to work in a National Hunt racing establisnment) and then back to the stabeles.
A stable girl came over and said "Wow the Princess must really like you. No one has ever been allowed to ride any of her horses, you are the first ever"
"Is that her name Princess?" I said.
"God no! Did nobody tell you? That is the daughter of the King of Jordan Princess Haya"

Well the King died a few years later and she married Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum the ruler of Dubai. He has 6 wives and she has 2 children by him.

So what has she done to be in the news?

She skipped off and ran away with her 2 kids and £31 million to Germany where she is lookind for government protection there, now she has moved to London.
The King is very strict and he is screaming blue murder.

The King made the news a while back when one of his daughters made a bid to escape from Dubai by boat.
He got the navy out and brought her home.

The story is told of the beaututiful bird in the guilded cage who is surrounded by beauty but has no freedom.