Sunday, December 19, 2021

Jerry Lynch - U.N. International Day of Peace - 21st September 2010



Well here we are almost at another Christmas, so I bring you Gerry Lynch who will remind you that things are not as bad as they might be.
Did you read in the papers how they decided to deal with the refugees who were trying to get into Poland?

The loaded them into airplanes and sent them back to Iran. After all the heartbreak fleeing from terror, they were just sent back.
Hardly a very Christian thing to do.

There was another child murder in Britain, this time a 16 month baby girl. I hope that they are well beaten up in prison.25 years.
So last week I went into the office and had my insurance changed back to social and domestic,
I will not be working until February.Its not worth the risk even with the screen in place.
We have anew granddaughter and we have been driving up to Armagh in N.Ireland a 400 Km round trip every week. My grandson Caleb has caught the bug so now I am in lockdown and self testing.
I feel fine though.

So happy Christmas to one and all
May 2022 bring you happiness and may all your wishes come true.
I bought myself a calendar with supercars on it. 
A special car every month.
I did tell you about the time we went to Donnington Park and I drove a Ferrari round the track?
Well the instructor asked me what thought of the car?
"Well its a super car, but I was expecting more speed.
What speed were you doing he asked.
Around 80 down the straight 
You were indeed. But it was 180 Miles per hour.
You can try this one over here that is 200 + after that its formula one for you.

May all your dreams come true.

Saturday, December 04, 2021

A tale so so sad

 




A small boy called Arthur Labinjo-Hughes aged 6 years old was beaten to death by his step mother.

Social services had been alerted but did nothing. His grandparents asked to take the child into their care all to no avail. Arthurs mother was in prison for killing her lover, so this is why he was sent to the care of his father.The litany of abuse that the lovely child suffered is beyond horror.

The cause of death was a fractured scull and in the post mortim they found 130 other injuries. The head of the department in the UK that was in charge has resigned as she had hard questions to answer.

A beautiful child with blue eyes and blonde hair.  All we can do is to say a prayer and move on.

Also in last weeks paper was the case of Tony Hudgell who had both his legs smashed so badly by his parents when he was a baby that they had to be amputated. He is a bright lad smiling while playing football with his crutches,

There were other stories and I came across a book on KIndle called Secret Slave By Anna Ruston.

Her story was that she came from a dysfunctional family and she was kidnapped by a Pakistani taxi driver. He held her captive locked in a room for 13 years while he beat her raped her and starved her.

She had 3 children during this ordeal and each one of the children were sold while they were only weeks old.    From a psychological point of view it should be reading for every police officers training.

The saddest part of the book is in the end,when she escaped that she could not face her accuser to have him locked up and the only time that she saw him again was when he arrived with a demand that she would never come and claim back her 3 children  (That he had sold) I hope she gets the courage to go ahead some day and send him to prison for a long long time.

So google this Guy Sebastiao Salgado He is a photographer from Brazil and he took the most amazing photographs, he was very celebrated and he photographed people in times of great personal tragedy.

There are photographs of children at deaths door looking at the camera, their eves pierce right to your soul

He was showing his work all over the world, his health started to fail, the doctors could find no solution until s friend of his wife's told him what was wrong.

"When I look into that dying girls eyes something inside me dies every time I see her. You look at the every day and you remember that she died and there was nothing you could do to help her, except to show her dying face to the world. You have to put this all behind you and rebuild your life"

So he went back to Brazil to where he came from. The rain forest had been destroyed and he has spent many years rebuilding the forest with its hundreds of different plants,

So like Sebastiano I will have to considerate on positive thoughts and happy things to allow my spirit to regrow. 

This photo shows thousands of native people carrying ore from a mine deep in the jungle. The cost of bringing in machinery was high while life was cheap.

Wednesday, December 01, 2021

The Pogues - Fairytale Of New York (Official Video)

Hi folks if you have been here before you will get this at this time.

So much sadness and utter despair around at this time of year.

I am out again as even though I am now triple vaccinated my wife wants to make sure that I am safe. That will be 4 shots that I have had.

Here is an exercise you should try if you have a modern car.

With the Prius you put your hand on the handle it unlocks. 

You put your foot on the break pedal and a light comes on on the dash...The car starts and off you go.

A driver who worked for the UN showed me how easy it was for him to copy my signal and drive off in my car. That was around 10 years ago.

Anyhoo as they say in Canada. I came up to the car. Nothing..! I took out the back up key and got in. 

Still nothing.

I was beside Halfords and got a battery. I popped it in and everything was go.

Later on I had a brainwave. What if this was to happen when I was not close to a shop?

I went down to the shop and bought 2 new batteries.

Then I opened the glove compartment and there for the world to see was a spare battery !

I must have been through this before.

Here is something that could save you a fortune in the future.

You locked the keys in the car (In a Prius you can't) There is a spare key in your desk.

Ring home.

Explain your problem and ask the person at home to take out the key.

Hold the key to the phone and press unlock. 

Then you put your phone on speaker and after she presses unlock into her phone you hold your phone up to the car and  HEY PRESTO..

Saturday, November 20, 2021

I found my watch

 One thing I like to have is a nice watch.

I would never spend a fortune on them, I had an Omega, but it is lost. A fake Rolex and a few of Aldis best.

The other day I found an old watch that I bought in a market for £40, I was pushing the boat out bit I liked the watch. It was a Boliva , I liked it anyhow. A few years later the watch stopped and I went into a watchmaker in Lucan to get a new battery. I asked if it was a good watch and he told me that it was only a cheap Japanese movement so it was worthless.So around 9 months later it stopped working again and I took it to the late Tommy Cummins in Fairview. 

His prognosis was not good. 

There is a broken cog on one of the wheels. OK I said throw it in the bin.

Well if I paid you £400 for the watch. 

Then I repaired it and put a quality bracelet on it.

Having done that I could bring it to a collector and make at least £300 profit.

Why did you want to throw it in the bin?

So I told him what the other watchmaker had said.

He needs to go back to watch school for a while.

Tommy died a few years ago. a real gentleman 

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Eric Bogle - The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

The eleventh hour

 Armistice day on Sunday and the dead of the first world war were remembered.

Quite an emotional thing, thousands of young men laid down their lives to protect their freedom.


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Wednesday, November 03, 2021

Back to the ing thing.

 My wife started giving me grief about the Covid again. Even with a dividing screen and the fact that I am double jabbed I cannot risk the problems that would follow if I brought it home.

So I return to paint ing clean ing garden ing etc.

This also means that we cannot visit our 2 month grand daughter.

Anyhoo as they say in Canada I will be getting the next (Third) shot in 14 days.

I went into town by bus last night and went to something in a hotel close to O'Connell St.Boys oh Boys rows of shops boarded up. This will take years to rebuild all this for sure.

I was very lucky tonight, I almost won the Lotto. I just missed it by 6 numbers.

A great happy story on the news about a little girl who was abducted from a campsite in Australia.

I am reading the worst horror story ever about a girl who came from a very dysfunctional family and she was kidnapped by a Pakistani taxi driver and held captive for many years, she was starved, raped and beaten and now in the book she is pregnant, She was held captive for around 11 years from the age of 15.

We as taxi drivers must look for the signs but alas any time I reported it I was told that there was nothing that they could do. I makes me so mad.

I saw a girl arguing with a gangster one night. She was standing near the back of their BMW and one of the guys walked around behind her and sucker punched her. The swing was around 4 foot.I still believe to this day that he broke her neck like a matchstick.They threw her in the boot of the car.I was parked behind them and I dialed 112 the clown who answered said that they would not help. "Look I have the reg of the car, I am following it" Then his wonderful logic clicked in.

"Unless we get a missing persons report there is nothing we can do"

I am glad that I am an old man, I feel that there is a change coming, an ex superintendent who lives up the road from me was raided and he was taken away in handcuffs, drugs and cash were recovered. It is alleged that he was passing on information to drug gangs for years.

One of the main escort websites is owned and controlled by a Garda, When he set it up he was a serving member of the force. A few years ago he was making €i million per year.

Perhaps a new dawn is coming.

Don't hold you breath..

Friday, October 29, 2021

Inside Dubai’s Supercar Graveyard




OK so I didn't win the Euromillions. 
But even if I did I would never flash the cash on fancy cars.
A really pretty girl that I met at Lidl from Romania was driving a Merc and she was putting loads of shopping into it. I remarked that she must have a big family with so much shopping.
Her story really affected me to this day.
She had a good job so she bought this expensive car. Then the Covid came and wiped out her income. Now she has to deliver groceries for Lidl, just so that she can hold on to her car. The video above shows the tragedy of what can happen when your finances run out of control.
I once met a very wealthy man in my taxi who told me that the success in financial terms is to live within your means. If you are on €1000 a week spend €800 and save €200. If you are on only €100 try to live on €90 and save €10. Sure your car breaks down and you have to borrow. Buy the best car that you can afford, not the flashy one and study your repayments.
Now that man told me a lot more during that journey and when you Google his name
His name was Chuck Feeney the one and only a superman among us mortals. 

The business is not back yet but the risk of picking it up seem to be as high as ever, so if I want to see my grandchildren I have to give it up again at least until I get my third shot 

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Did you clean your chimney yet?

 We have a wood burning stove and I pick up pallets all over the place and slice them up. Free heat!

Now that can't be bad.

"That chimney needs to be cleaned"says she who must be obeyed, so I got out my kit and put dust cloths all over the living room. Now the device I have is powered by your electric drill and it flails all the soot in the chimney. So I pushed up 9 rods and attached the drill "Whoosh" and around a gallon of soot came down. I hit it again and got more soot. Then I hit the mother load and around 3 gallons of soot came down. I could have got a job with the black and white mistrals. The soot escaped from under the covers and I have spent the day going over the carpets with the carpet shampooing machine. 3 times going over it and the water is as black as ink.Still it is not as bad as a local expert who came to clean a woman's chimney. He went up on the roof and jammed his brushes down. There was no soot and he said that it was clean, so she paid him and he went home. When her next door neighbor came in her living room was as black as a coal mine. He had gone down the wrong flue. Muppet.

I may have to stop again. My daughter in law is one of the at risk people and if I brought Covid back to the nest I would never live with myself.

But I contacted a person who is in the sound business and asked him if he could help me to do the audio book. He hummed and hawed, but as he is not busy he might slot me in to do a bit of 123,123 !!!

One last thing I saw today was a kid, half starving with a deformed left hand walking towards St. Particks cathedral. Man he was starving, not a bit of meat on him. 

Can nobody help him ?.

Well if I was only 10% madder and I had a gun I would shoot the dealer and put the addict out of their pain as well.

Just in case you think it was all bad there was some great people.

We have to clear the chimney for Santa.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Long haul, up and down

 So we have a new granddaughter, the drive up to see her is 2 hours and 2 hours back. After the trip I am fit for nothing. Still it is great to see your grandchildren and well worth the effort.

This morning I went out to work and I could not find my phone!

I had it and now it was gone. I rang it on the house phone, no ringing but on the line it was ringing .. So I went out like a hunter without his gun.Credit card payments are made through the phone.The apps on your phone bring work to you I am on Bolt which is slow enough but they only charge 10% as opposed to FreeNow charging 12.5%.

I have a lucky monkey in my bay window and when I give him a wave in the morning he looks after me. I picked up a lady on the N.Strand all the way to Sandyford. €25, what a start to my day, then on the was back to Connelly I got a Muslim lady going to a Covid testing center in the IMMI complex. I had stopped the meter when I arrived and I asked if I should wait and bring her back to Ringsend. So I waited and watched how things were unfolding in the car park. they were parked up 2 cars end to end then a vacant rank then 2 more. As the sections filled up the other earlier cars vacated the lot and they moved over. In around 15 minutes we were on our way. She had very little English and as we were near Sandymount village she pointed to the special needs school. "I have 2 kids at that school" I was glad at least that my fees were only €30 and did not include my waiting time.She was from Algeria.

Did you hear that a testing center in the UK has been closed down for giving too many negative results for positives ?.

Woops.

This bloody thing. When will it end?

Did you ever think that it would be a problem owing a pub or  nightclub? Some people are born lucky.

Still owing a taxi that I cannot work to capacity is not the worst thing in the world, not like owning a shop and still having to pay rent.

Saturday, October 16, 2021

Work is hard to find

I went out today thinking that it was Friday and all the usual things were not working for me. Then I went to the ordnance survey office to buy a map of South Armagh where my son lives only to be informed that it was Saturday !

Well that explains a lot.

I worked Heuston station and Connelly station as the Dart (Trams ) were not running, When business is slow I walk up and down along the waiting cars and if I meet someone I know I talk to them to pass the time. At Connelly station I met a guy and asked him to move up so the last car could join the rank safely, he did it begrudgingly. A few minutes later an elderly lady spoke to him and went away in distress, I tried to stop her but she walked past me and spoke to a security officer and they went away. Just so I would know I went over to ask him."She was only going to Heuston and I told her to get the Luas. There were no trams.I hate that kind of behavior, taxi drivers turning down credit cards and short runs, short rung often bring better jobs and bigger tips.

Later in the day I picked up 2 guys from Malaysia to St. Stephens green. When they are getting out I nearly always check the seats for phones or wallets, there was a Collibri lighter on the seat, look you left something on the seat. He picked it up and asked the other guy if it was his and then put it into his pocket. It did not belong to either of them and yet he took it.

Folks ! Beware of Karma, you ignore it and it will come and bite you in the ass so hard that you will not know what hit you.

I picked up a girl near Raheny once, she was running and being chased by a bunch of Gurriers. Jesus thank God she said and she told me that she had prostituted herself to get drugs and the bastard had sent those lads to rob her. She talked about this and that and I dropped her close to St.Patricks cathedral. when I went a bit further I picked up 6 lads going to Lucan. The journey went OK, then one of the guys found a fone when they were getting out. After some discussion one lad said that it was his. I know that it belonged to the girl. 

What should I have done?.

Show me the phone. Now tell your mates to ring your number, If it rings OK if not it goes back to the proper owner,

I hope Karma Zapped him good o


Then 4 guys in a taxi did a runner. a few minutes the taxi driver heard a phone ringing in the back somewhere. He found it and answered it.Hello Mr.taxi man I dropped my phone in your taxi. Would you bring it back to me and I will pay you what I owe you?

Ok said the taxi driver, but first we will have a competition See if you can identify thesr farmyard sounds? Mooo. Cow Very good. Cluck cluck  Hen Brilliant Bow wow Dog Fantastic. Now the next sound you will not identify. That will be the sound of your phone going into the canal,  GGGGGGGghhhhh

Monday, October 11, 2021

Taxing times

 Its that time of the year when we the self employed write up our tax returns.

Some guys are honest while others write in the greatest works of fiction that anyone could not believe. One driver told me what he paid last year and I had paid 3 times as much. "Yore mad to pay so much" he said. "Well will they knock on my door or yours?"On the day of a check up.

Chuck Feeney the most celebrated person I ever met (Google the name) he told me that stress is the one big thing to get you. I told him about my tax return due in next week. I had done no preparation.

"Death and taxes, you can't escape either. Do it daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly,then half yearly and you pretty much have it beaten and no more stress"

We had visitors this weekend my sons family, they were off to a wedding in Carlow and dropped off their older kids for 2 days with us. Minding kids is the work of the younger generation. But they are good kids.

Then my keys went missing! I did thank God have a spare set, but they really have vanished.I have often said to you if you buy a car with only one set of keys get a duplicate made straight away.

We had a car with lost keys here at my house and the owner asked me to ring a Toyota garage to get new keys made. The price came in at €2,500. Wow! It had to be towed to the garage and the locks changed, then the immobilizer changed.!!!

A few days later the keys arrived from China, she found them in her luggage.

Then the other big thing to happen was that I broke the washing machine, I didn't mean to do it but I was given a pile of sheets to wash and one sheet was folded up neatly and I just popped it into the machine, when it came to spin it was like a concrete block on one side of the drum and it ripped out the bearing.

Just so you know.

I  am starting the audio book of the Steering wheel university tomorrow, so give me 10 days?

Thursday, September 30, 2021

I am looking for a yoke !

I am sure this happens to everyone, you are looking for something and you don't know what its called. Its made of plastic and its orange, 2 ft.long with a scoop at the end. You use it to clear gully's.Ah yes said Mr Edge its called a gully gobbler and you can get it in Kellys building  supplys around the corner. I have 3 gullys around the back of my house all partially blocked.

In 20 minutes they are all freed again.Adam Clayton of U2 fame took his stage name The Edge from the hardware shop in Fairview. 

The photo below is the Google HQ

A teckie guy in the taxi listened to me while I complained how Google staff demand fixed prices and other concessions and with everything on the card they do not tip.

His answer still has me wondering. "When you work for a high profile company like Google you are entitled to discounts and you would be foolish not to avail of them" So I must give the highly paid discounts and their company do not pay their fair share of tax into the bargain




Wednesday, September 29, 2021

How lucky I am

 I had a lady in the car up to Raheny yesterday. She spoke of this and that and then she told me about how she was sent to a heart specialist and after he examined her he told her that she was wasting his time, you are perfectly well and sent her on her way. 3 weeks later she had a heart attack, lucky for her she was in the right place when it happened. 

If that was me I know 2 very high level solicitors and I would squeeze him for a good few bob.It is always useful to know people, that is why taxi driving widens the scope of your acquaintances.Thinker,Taylor,Soldier or Spy.

Tomorrow I have to go and have my bloods taken, blood pressure etc.

That time of life !!!!!

I had a lovely lady from S. America going to Vincents hospital, she spoke about how Bit coins worked. It is a thing that I do not believe in. I think it is like a Ponzi scheme, it keeps going while people keep putting money in. Who do you chase when it goes wrong?

So I said are you visiting? No I am a patient, a pause and then she that she was going for chemo therapy. Poor child. 

I will tell you about Ann Walsh in Australia, she was a nurse and she had a cyst on he ovaries so they went to operate.Sadly it was cancer and it was attached to her liver and her ovaries, the type of cancer was inoperable, so they sent her home.

Now she is a fighter and she took on the Bristol clinic diet plus meditation and after a couple of more depressing visits to the hospital she stopped going there. The cancer stopped growing after a time and started to reduce in size. Then she got pregnant and had a difficult time. But she chanced to continue with the pregnancy, the baby boy was born and the cancer took off again. She passed the child over to her sister and went back to her regime. Then the cancer stopped again. Then it got smaller and smaller until it is gone completely. The baby is 30 years old and she is healthy and surrounds herself with her grandchildren.

Stress is a big factor in our modern lives and we need to reconnect with nature.

Sunday, September 26, 2021

A trip to explore the mentally disturbed

 Sometimes you say something which unleashes a flow of thought that you had not expected.

He had worked in bars around Dundalk and he had come across a few lads who were active members of the IRA. He told me about methods that they use to recruit new members. Really interesting. He also spoke of Narcissism and how a girlfriend he had gave him a really hard time. Then he gave me the name of a box set Surviving Narcissism and another book called the psychopath test. The box set I downloaded on to Kindle and I have read a few chapters already.Sometimes you would need the help of books like this to get you through the day.

Bolt the taxi app is great, it doubled my income today. The first job I got I did not use it properly so I did not get paid. Down at Heuston train station there was a representative from FreeNow trying to recruit drivers and I told him of my gripe with the company. "I will fix everything" he said. "You will charge me 15% commission and not speak to me when I have a problem. Bolt only charges me 10% and they are happy to listen". Most companies when they reach a certain point loose their compass point and go off course.

A wonderful lady from Peru going to Vincents hospital. I asked if she was visiting, but no she was the patient. Going for radio therapy. We do not treasure our good health while we have it. I said a prayer to my God to bring you good health and happiness.

2 guys from Waterford going to the Mater hospital "Did you guys ever hear a person from Newfoundland talking?" They had never heard the accent. A truly broad Wexford accent.

They went every summer from Wexford to Canada to fish for cod which were salted and put into barrels. The British would capture the Wexford sailors and put them into the navy. So one year they decided to stay on.The winters are really cold in Canada and in the program I heard they asked an old Escamo. Were those Wexford men who settled here in the beginning tough?

"Tough ! They would go out on the ice and fish for hours. We couldn't do that.

They were fecking Polar bears."

I had a barrister in the car and he told me about a Garda cursing and shouting abuse at the taxi driver. He decided he would protect the driver and the Garda turned his wrath on him.

"Who the fuck are you anyway?" On hearing that he was a barrister he backed off.

I will make a report he told me.

He was surprised that I told him that this was common enough, 

Time to sack a few of the bad ones

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Halloween around the corner

 Halloween is coming up, time to dress up and have fun.

Not many people know that it is an Irish thing. A night for the dead to rise up and walk the earth. When it hit America it really took off. But it started here.

I went into the Hq of Bolt a taxi calling app and signed up.

When the first taxi app came along I joined it with great enthusiasm it was called Hailo, then it became MyTaxi and it changed name again to become FreeNow. Along wit changing name they also cared less about their drivers. Well they take a percentage of your taxi fare 15%

plus they used to take that 15%from your tips as well.

My gripe with them is that my car was wrapped with the MyTaxi logo and I went to have a screen fitted at a price of e50. When I went out the guy said that it would cost e100 because I had My Taxi logos on the car. I had removed the word my from the car so it was Taxi,Taxi.

No compromise there, so I paid and twice tried to get them to change their minds.I even wrote a letter to the manager marked private. He has not replied.

So today I joined Bolt and the app looks really good, the staff are friendly, so I feel it will be a goer.. So download Bolt on your fone, it works in many European citys. 

Drivers they are on 17 Percy Place, hook up with them.

There was a kid in the car on Sunday and she was rehearsing the alphabet right to Z, all the questions 20 to the dozen. I had to ask her mother. 

"She is nearly 2" What a knockout kid.

I saw another woman who was with 4 kids. I remember her. She is a traveler and when I brought her to Ballyfermot  years ago she was en route to America for a wedding, but she had no passport and had come back to Dublin to get one. She wanted to fly out the next day and she had brought very few papers with her.I doubt if she ever made it.

She was a very bright lady I guess her mind was on a different track.

There is really very little work out there I got 2 airport runs which are a bonus one off to California and the other off to Poznan in Poland. I often wonder if there are any plain girls in Poland as all the ones who came here are so pretty and well educated. They make shopping in Aldi and Lidll a pleasure. They are capable of much better jobs. 

God bless them all.

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

RIP Terry

Last Sunday we drove up to Coalisland Co Tyrone to lay Prof. Terrance McDonagh to rest. He was a professor of economics in Galway university, where he arrived from America to make the journey home from his ancestors came from in the black 1850s in the time of the famine. He married my wife's best friend and they moved to Galway.

He had many friends around the world and he was appalled by the great divide between the rich and the poor. His service was broadcast via the internet and we were joined by people in Japan, China, Peru, Venezuela, Canada and Cuba.

You could listen to him talking about how things should be,

He will be greatly missed.

Then on the way home (2 1/2 hours each way from Dublin) I heard a sound which I had not heard in years "Beeep" then the power in the car got less.

I had run out of fuel.

But the Prius has a battery which brought me into Swords !!!!



(HD) Toyota Commercial - It's a Trap! (Toyota Corolla)

Thursday, September 09, 2021

The devil might grant you wishes.

 You might remember a friend of mine from Africa was shocked when I said that I wished that I might win the Lotto. She was really upset and told me that a Njen might grant your wish and then it would destroy you in return. John you are the happiest person I know and all that money would take away all your joy.

A friend of mine won £4.5 million in old money and he let people know, he was hounded out of the country and he was a nice guy. Nice enough to be taken advantage of.

A lady in Northern Ireland was found dead in her house.She won £31 Million 2 years ago and gave away a lot of her fortune, but sadly there was no plan B.

The Lotto was €30 million that night and I checked my ticket.

Its a winner !

So later that night I checked it again, I slept well and in the morning it was still a winner. So I got my passport, driving licence and bank details and into the Lotto Hq. The girl took the ticket and said you won a ticket to the Millionaires raffle. 

I told them that the message should be you have won a prize, which is so different from Its a winner.

Just so you know the message has not been changed.

If you are a regular to my blog you will know of the greatest person that I ever met Chuck Feeney look him up.

I met him at a landmark moment in his life. He invented duty free shopping and became a multi billionaire. But he decided rather than live the high life that he would give away all his wealth to help people, but in secret. His first big thing he did was to build Limerick university, lots of scholarships, research into Cancer and Altzimers the satisfaction that he must have felt must have would been immense.

In Vietnam he was horrified to see the destruction and the injured people. To cut a long story he built a 200 bed hospital and he paid for the running of it for a period.
Well Mr.Obama brought out a law which would identify who was donating to other political partys. You could not give away more than 2,000 dollars without declaring who you were.
So I drove him to a press conference without knowing anything and the next day. I found that he had donated 8 Billion dollars to make our lives better. I stayed in touch with him for around 10 years, funny to say I still remember a lot of things he told me. 
What a guy.
I lost touch with him a few years ago when he closed down Atlantic Philanthropies which was his method for giving out the money.

So I am about to record a talking version of "the Steering wheel university"as I have found that modern people do not read books. One big advantage that the talking book will have is that there will be no spelling mistakes (The book has 2)

Sunday, September 05, 2021

What have John Deer Tractors and Apple computers got in common?

 My first born who lives in London came home for a very special birthday 40th.

We chatted and an interesting topic came up. John Deer tractors and Apple computers cannot be repaired by anyone but their own workshops. So the old John Deer is the biggest seller in the States and some agents can be hundreds of miles from the farm.

Now there is a court case going on in the courts to outlaw this practice.

Apple and a few others realize if they win this case any handy buck o who is handy with a soldering iron will be fixing their computers, and the tractors as well.

On the way home the boat was late which meant that people missed their trains.

So Irish Ferries paid for taxis to bring them to London  around 161 miles nice enough job, but it was a fixed price. And he had to drive home empty. 

Expecting a packet from DHL and I was out on Thursday so I missed them.I have been getting spam messages for the last few days. Pity is that they have not put a note in the post box with my tracking number.

Some companies when they get to a certain size they start to implode. I went out to their HQ and there was no one there and no post box at the office door,



DHL "Lost" My AirTag Parcel (but I knew where it was)

Friday, September 03, 2021

Licence renewal time

 Well I thought that my licence renewal appointment was today, but I just got a  text that it was yesterday ! So back on the roundabout to start over again to make another appointment.

This procedure is called a suitability test.

Fire extinguisher ? Is it in date? Check. Then first aid kit are the plasters in date? Check.

Tinted windows ? (The latest No No) Check!and so it goes on.

Here is a gripe that I had with the driving test people and the road safety authority which I was assured was noted and sorted. 

Reversing around a corner? Is part of the test, So on Mount Prospect Ave they ask the candidate to reverse into Dollymount Ave which is which is 20 ft from a blind bend. Traffic coming around the corner are faced head on with cars overtaking this poor sod doing this dangerous maneuver. So I wrote 3 times and then I got a reply. "Thank you so much, this will never happen again and all the testers have been informed not to use this location"

Well they were doing it yesterday !!!!!

I will tell the story again from a guy who used to sit beside me in school. He became a ships radio officer and one day on the emergency waveband he saw a ship leaving Zeeberger with his front door wide open (Bow doors) They were 20 minutes out of the port so he sent them the call to close the bow doors now or the wash from any passing ship would sink him.

Disaster averted. It happened again. But one night as a ship approached the Belgium port they passed another ship in the dark going out and the wash from the other sank the Herald of free enterprise, the ship, cars trucks and people were lost. But at the inquest it all came out. "I didn't know" was proven to be untrue as all the calls on the emergency waveband are recorded and stored and re played. The reason to leave the doors open was to clear smoke from the car decks. Nothing that a good fan could not do.

So will I rattle off another email to the road safety authority? 

Or will I save my breath to cool my porridge?

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Dublin vs Mayo | 2021 All Ireland GAA Football Senior Championship Semi-...

Like an asses gallop

Short and sweet like an asses gallop as my Daddy would say.

So I worked for a few days and God help me but I was lost half of the time.The mind is a strange thing, if you don't use it you loose it. I spoke to a London cabby and he told me that when he retired he knew every street and building in London, 6 months later he found it hard to find his way home. It was coming back to me though. Before I stopped again.

Licence renewal time again. You have to get the NCT, then go for a suitability test, then get the licence renewed for another year. This year the car passed out  without any faults.Next year I will have to buy a new car. That will be my sons problem as I do not want to keep going.

On Saturday we had torrential rain which drove the punters into the taxis. An air hostess for Delta airlines going to Pennys. Only when she got out did I remember that this is a thing with flight attendants heading for Pennys for clothes. At the end of the day I got a run out to Northwood with a lady from Moldova, gosh what a wonderful person.

It is so hard on the immigrant workers, the loneliness of being away from home and all that you once held co close. Thank God we have Facebook and Twitter to make contact for a few cents not like back in the old days when it cost a fortune to phone home.Still it is not the same as being there.God bless the wonderful workers and Ryanair

My return to driving will have to stop again for now. My daughter in law is expecting a baby in a few days, they live in northern Ireland and if I picked up this covid and passed it on to someone else who might give it to the new mother to be. Now that would place me in a very bad position.

The price of the pint has gone to hell €5.60 now from €4.80. I am not too bright "After all what would a taxi driver know?" But putting up the price will just drive people out of the pubs. Weatherspoons here I come (A cut price pub)

Friday, August 20, 2021

Went up North

We are expecting a grandchild so we went up North to visit as we will probably be needed as foster parents for a few days. 2 hours drive each way, which is not too bad I suppose.

If you ever come to Dublin you can't help but notice the number of drug addicts on our streets. I know they are everywhere, very little is done to help them. My charity money goes to Fr.McVery who seems to be the only person reaching out. But he is swamped.

A couple of years they decided to remove the tents which were along the canal. This is the thinking of a moron. It may be a tent but it was a home to someone. They were using a truck with a grabbing bucket on the back. As the operator swooped on a tent he could not hear the screaming of the occupant, luckaly a passer by ran up to the operator and stopped him. I am almost sure the guy in the tent died.

A few days ago I saw a girl who used to be in a class with one of my lads. She was with a junkie and the fury on his face would frighten a soldier, she looked totally stressed out.

In my book The steering wheel university I put in 2 stories about drugs..I could have filled the book with stories about them and nothing else. 

Now I am getting my income tax in order and getting the taxi passed out for another year.

I would have let it lapse at this moment but I have a son who says that he wants to take it up. He has failed the test twice but he needs to put his head down and do the work.While the taxi was off the road the meter went dead and I went out to Robinsons to have it re calibrated. While I was waiting I spoke to a girl from Brazil. I thought that she was waiting for someone. No she was waiting for her taxi. How fantastic is that! Coming to a land learning the language and the rules of the road..Passing your driving test..Then finally learning the streets of Dublin. Fantastic.

I have said it before the people coming in are just like we were when I was young. Getting up at 5 am, heading off to work in Sydney, NewYork London. Building roads and tunnels and dreaming of home.

Thursday, August 05, 2021

Still going strong

 Well I am regaining my knowledge slowly and some days are better than the old days.

I picked a person up at Heuston going to Naas of all places for an agreed price of €50

Well this person was a cross gender. male to female or the other way around it was hard to tell.

I am going to the church of the immaculate conception.

Whare is it? Just outside Naas near Punchestown.

I tried a few more times to get further guidance no result.

Onward and upwards to no avail.

Then at a crossroads near Punchestown I stopped a passing car.

Then and only then did the name of the town come out. Just 10 minutes later and he /she was gone.

The screen between the front and back made it very hard to hear most of the conversation.

I'm going to hell I lived a bad life. 

I was doing the pilgrimage in Knock and the priest stopped me and told me to make confessions to my own priest as he would not take my confession. It must have been very spicy. 

It went on and on like a few pages of Ulysses.

What kills me is that people who have little money tip well and folks with loads of cash wait for 20c.

A wonderful little boy with his mother up from Cork to the childrens hospital in Crumlin,she said that the hospital in Cork did not want to do anything but in Dublin they will operate.

Then she would take no change. I wish them both a long life and happiness they were both lovely people..

I picked up a drug addict on crutches and he was a wonderful young lad.

"Mister your car is spotless, its immaculate. Then on to his horror story. He had found his mother dead on the kitchen floor and the floor was covered in blood, I never knew that blood could be black."

Don't get me wrong he was a really nice lad. Just the drugs.

There was €6 on the meter and he gave me €10

"Just give me €2 back"

I wish him luck and I hope he gets counselling wherever he is going.

One from the rank, the conversation was on tipping. 

Once this driver had a gent in the car who made it a point that he was not going to tip the driver. "Thats quite all right sir, have a great day" he had only gone away for 5 minutes when he heard a mobile phone ringing from the back seat. 

The question is .

Did he get his phone back ?

Well there has been developments in the tipping and bullying scandal in the Edenborough  Michelin starred restaurant of Mr.Kitchen the proprietor who stood accused of taking the staffs tips and bullying. 

Michelin are going to remove the gold stars from any restaurant found to behaving badly.

I have removed the map of the world from the study was and replaced it with a map of Dublin so that my son can look at it and learn. The big world map was bought in Aldi and it was only when I brought it home that I saw that it was in German.

Aldi and Litl are facing each other in E.Wall road also in Rathmines, now they are building another Lidl at Annsley bridge 500 meters from the other one. The Panzer division will take over the world.

Another German owned company is called FreeNow its a cab calling app I joined them when they started off, they were called Hailo and they took no commission at the start then they took 5% and not long after 10% then up to 15% of the taxi fare.

I had old branding on my car from when it was was called MyTaxi and I went to have a screen fitted but the guys took exception to the old branding and charged me €100 for fitting the screen instead of €50. I wrote in 3 times and even explained that I had taken off the word My from the branding but they wouldn't budge. 

So I wrote to the head chief himself. 

No reply.

So I am deleting their app and moving to another company of which there are 4 others now at least.

Here is one for you. FreeNow is owned by Mercedes

Where they manufacture Mercedes cars in Germany there is a taxi rank.

The cars were all Mercedes, polished and shining, driven with pride.

The company brought out a new E class model and to save a few bob had the chip made in China of all places.

Then E class mercs with the new chip would stop for no reason, they would be brought back to the garage where they would reset the chip. Power down and then re apply the power.

Now this giant of car manufacture did not do a recall.

No! we are Mercedes and they let the customer suffer.

As a result of that and in protest the taxi drivers at the factory now drive Lexus cars.

Sometimes big companies make Titanic errors.

Saturday, July 31, 2021

The Galway races

 At this time of year there is a race meeting at Ballybritt its the Galway races, 2 taxi drivers headed off hoping to bankrupt the bookies.

You might almost predict that their wishes did not come true and they were heading off home stone broke.

Thre was a cheerful young lad thumbing a lift and he was delighted when he found that they were going all the way to Dublin. Its Crumlin for me as he settled in.

The conversation was mighty and he told them of all the races he had been to this one was the best ever.He hoped that their luck would be better next year.

This was before the modern roads and there was a bit of a traffic jam in Kilbeggan. There in front of them was a Garda and he stopped them.

"The reason I asm stopping you is that you have only one headlight and your tax disc is 3 months out of date, you have a bald tyre and a rear light not working.Give me your license. This is 6 months out of date as well"

So he took out his note book and wrote down all the details, he told them to drive on when the passenger got out and walked up to the Garda.

These are fine men they are giving me a lift and they are coming home from the races,

be easy on them and they will fix everything in the morning. No No said the Garda and the young lad started patting him on the back and on the chest, No I have to do my job said the Garda. With that the young lad jumped back into the car and started to direct them on a short cut back to Crumlin, sure across country through Clane and they landed in Crumlin. Pull over here on the left lads, turn off the engine for a minute and we will say goodnight.

The reason I did so well at the races is not that I picked winners, I am a pickpocket. Here I have both your wallets and I also have your wristwatch.

Now don't worry about that old Garda he will do nothing, because I took his note book.

It was a wonderful challenge for me as he had a button on the pocket. 

Now there is a story you can tell if you ever get back into the pub

One week down

 Well I am back and thanks to all my customers who directed me to their destination.

I was off for 18 months owing to Covid and I have forgotten so much of the city.

Building sites which have grown into apartments while I was away, streets have become pedestrian only and more.Thank God for the good people who kept me on track.

I turned on the SatNav on the phone a few times and it is a crazy navigational aid. I was going to Bishop St and I put it into the phone and it told me to turn around and go back the other way, so I said to the passenger "Is that not Bishop St?" Yes it is, but the SatNav is telling me to go the opposite way.  I am lucky to have you on board to keep me right

We have a new grandchild on the way and DV that all goes well.

I was lucky that I had the blog which helped me to write the book, its not brilliant but I suppose it kept me out of trouble. "The steering wheel university" By Paul Malone.

My youngest son was in the same class as the son of the writer Roddy Doyle and at parent teacher meetings we would meet. He read this blog and often told me to write the book,the only thing you will regret is that you never tried. So thanks to Roddy we have it.

My first born has a significant birthday coming up. He lives in London and there was a lot of doubt if he could come home or not, it looks like it is all go.They really grow up fast.

We dug up loads of old photos and have sent him photo books spanning the years.

Just keeping this short and I want you to say a special prayer for the mother and father

in Northern Ireland. For some reason of total madness the mother killed her 2 year old son and stabbed her baby.  As a father of 3 boys and 2 grandchildren it distorts all that we believe in.

I hope and pray that everyone involved can find peace.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

You are damned if you do and your damned if you don't

 I did go back and worked for a few hours, nothing too hard.

The funny thing is that I confessed and took guidance from my customers

I went shopping on the way home yesterday and when I was coming out of the supermarket there was a lady loading tons of stuff into her Mercedes car, I asked her if she was running an orphanage and we spoke for 10 mins.She was in fact shopping for online customers and delivering to their homes. Her work had dried up owing to covid and this low paid task helped her through the week. I was gobsmacked in a way I admired her bottle for getting out there and making a go of it.Most of us curse the dark instead of turning on the light.

Later on I met a lady who was speaking Arabic on her phone. When she finished her call I said the only Arabic words that I know,"Shockran Habibi" (Thanks honey bunch )

We spoke about this and that and I asked if she was a nurse or a doctor. She turned out to be an interpreter and she said that she would hate to work in social services or child protection.

The thing about that is you damned if you do and damned if you don't  

Then she hit me with this story.

Did you hear about the 16 year old boy who was taken into care because his parents were fighting ?

He really wanted to talk to his mother and they blocked him.

He was upset beyond all reason. Then he saw his chance to escape and went out down to the river Liffey and killed himself.

He was only 16 he needed someone to listen to him and to help him, not to be locked up. 

A mediator to be placed into the house for a few sessions might have brought around a more peaceful solution.

Sunday, July 18, 2021

This has gone on long enough

Well I finally have had enough and I am going back next week.

I am fed up being bored and short of pocket money.

I bought a different type of respirator which blocks viruses and bacteria. 

The cloth ones are useless or so I was told.

Amazon are a strange bunch a whole heap of stuff will not be delivered to the Irish republic, but I can get them through my son in the north of Ireland.

Mr. Kitchen the 3 star Scottish chef must be really feeling the pain of his actions over there in Scotland. Keeping the staffs tips was never a problem for him before. He and his wife took £700 each every month, the manager took another slice of the cake while his staff worked under dreadful conditions in the restaurant and were given a fraction of their gratuities. 

Morality is always for the other people. 

Another case of privileged people has hit the headlines. None other than Prince Fiasal Bin Turki Bin Abdallah Al Saud he is the grandson of the late king of Saudi Arabia.

His domestic staff fled his mansion in Paris and took refuge in Paris, they lodged a complaint of cruelty starvation and that his children were encouraged to beat them and spit in their faces.

The French are proactive about this kind of thing so we will see.

You know the story about the guy from the Saudi Embassy that I had a row with?

I stopped and asked him what would his mother think if she could see him now?

A few months later I had this guy in the car and when I told him the story he wanted me to look at the staff photographs and he would send him home.

This present passenger turned out to be the charge de fer of the embassy and he was very impressed that I would not let him be punished.

He asked me for my number.

I gave him yours instead.


About the talking version of the book! Not as easy as I thought.

I will have to find a producer and a sound man, as if something is not done properly it is not worth doing at all. I understand,I know nothing about sound production, I also need a neutral opinion about a professional actor  reading the part. 

I wonder if Gabriel Byrne has some free time ? 

Monday, July 12, 2021

Take my tips Mr Kitchen ?

 I love when justice comes to people who have sinned and deserve to be punished. Like the guy who overtakes you at a bad spot only to be noticed by an unmarked police car.

The guilty often go free, but when they got caught it brings joy to my heart for sure.

So in Edenborough in Scotland there is a 2 star Michelin restaurant there called Scran &Scallie the management are accused of taking the tips which were rightly given to staff. Mr Kitchen the owner and his wife it is alleged took £700 a month each. 

Well a whistleblower spoke to the Times, then other staff came forward with further allegations of bullying and violence against staff. 

Joe public is of the opinion that the stars be taken from him and the union has jumped up to defend staff.(Where were they until now)

In Dawson St. in Dublin there was a restaurant which was doing exactly the same, or so it was alleged.

I must go in and ask the staff how things are going now.

It is really nice to see the bully getting a slap, hotel staff are really badly treated.

Micheal Winner who used to write for the Times newspaper had a brilliant story about a place in Italy. The tables were always booked for many weeks in advance.

There was a bench on one side which seated 4 people. They were the reserve and if they had a no show the diners got that table. But at the end of the night those people would get a free meal if no table had become vacant all through the nigh, to reward their patience.

The Matre De went from table to table asking how they liked the food and he knew many of them by name. He closed the establishment for 2 months every year to rest the staff and have redecoration done. One day a small French gentleman was eating there and he introduced himself as Egon Rone of the Michelan guide and he was going to present him with 2 gold stars, this is very rarely awarded. "Please please keep your voice down". He then sat down at the table and talked to him and asked him how he could improve, you are very welcome to come back at any time and eat with us and I am so pleased to have met you. He brought him into the kitchen and introduced him to all the staff. Egon praised their methods and the cleanliness of the kitchen.He watched for 1/2 an hour as the staff worked their magic

We will not be accepting the award, this would be a poisoned chalice, my staff would be under pressure, people would come to judge my food, not to enjoy and be surprised and many of them would not want to pay. This will not happen here.

Mr Rene here is your bill, please do come back to visit us again, you are very very welcome. 

So you see two sides of the same coin.

I have an award so I will steal the tips of my staff. 

I take pride in my restaurant and look after my customers and staff

Saturday, July 10, 2021

No place like home

 I know that I have only been away for 6 days, but it seems longer.

My son lives in Armagh in Northern Ireland, so we got the jabs and we haven't seen the grandchildren much for the past 18 months.

That is a long time for small kids.

We visited two stately homes when we were there and had tours around parts of them.

You could not fathom the wealth of these Lords, one of them said that he could walk from his stately home to Dublin without leaving his own land. Thats around 150 miles!

The estates were broken up and death duties and inheritance taxes finally finished them off.

Northern Ireland is a complex country. Republicans who want to be in Southern Ireland and the the Loyalists who want to stay under British rule.

You would be a very clever person to be able to work it all out. There is a lot of innocent blood on the hands of both sides. 

Anyhoo I hope to start the audio book over the weekend and the the Steering wheel university will breathe a new life. I gave a copy of the book to a neighbor and he told me that there was 2 spelling mistakes !. I was stunned for a second and asked him how many spelling mistakes there was in his book.

I tried to share Paul Bradys song the island but you will have to go to YouTube yourselves.

Paul and I are the same age. just a few days apart.

He on the other hand is a very talented man.

Paul Brady - The Island

Sunday, July 04, 2021

Missed chances

Before I say anything

Happy 4th of July to all my American friends and relatives

Go to You tube and put in Yankee doodle dandy !



Everyone knows the story about the music director who turned down the Beatles, he said that there was no future in that kind of music.

One day I had the head honcho from EBay in the taxi and he asked me if I had ever used it.

Back then there was no Amazon so I had used it and what a great idea it was.

Then he said that they were going to celebrate 10 years in business and he wanted to treat 30 of the key staff to a meal out. Where do you think would be a good place to go?

There is a hotel in Ballsbridge that does a special taster menu, 30 or so dishes with different wines, I have been told that it is really special. I couldn't think of the name of the Dylan hotel at the time but I said that I would call in and get them to call him.

I did call in and asked to speak to a manager, no one was available, perhaps the catering manager? No. 

So I gave the number to reception and asked that they call, two hours later I phoned him and he thanked me, but they had not called. He told me that they had booked out Patrick Gilbeau restaurant. Your meal there in today's money would be around €200 a plate.

A university professor from Cambridge was going to the airport, he talked to me about property prices here, he wanted to buy an investment property. He gave me his card and I said that I would get someone to call him this evening.

This was before the internet took off !

There is an estate agent that I had used before at the bottom corner of the Malahide rd.

I went in and I could see my man through the glass, but the receptionist would not call him out. Then she just shooed me out of the office. I went up to another auctioneers office DNG, the guy knew me from having sold me my present house. He stood up and shook my hand and I told him my story. Then he took my number and a few days later he rang me back to thank me and he said that it looks like he is buying 2 propertys.

6 months later he rang again to thank me, he had made 2 sales.

That is good business, but you cannot dwell on the missed opportunity.

I am off to visit my son in Northern Ireland and I had such a job getting Sterling. I went to the post office and they told me 2 photo IDs I handed them in and the guy said that the ID has to be current and less that 3 weeks of issue. I know nobody that could do that. I went to a second place, same thimg.

The next day I went back with driving licence passport and 2 current household bills and got the money. At no time was I asked to bring bills or even on the website,

Anyhoo I am off to see the grandchildren  

Friday, June 25, 2021

Second in command is ready

My son has been driving for a few years and he still is penalty point free so he is taking another go at the PSV test. He failed it two times but now things are different for him.

He has been working as a delivery driver for Amazon and this has been quite a baptism of fire for him.

One side of the city right to the other 100 to 130 drops all over the place.

He loves it. A lot of the directions are on the SatNav but the experience has taught him a lot, he said that there is a few taxi drivers working there as well and they help each other out when they are out and about, its great to hear that.

So the book sales are very slow.(The steering wheel university by Paul Malone on Amazon) so I am going to do a talking book version, it will take a while.

I might have to get an actor to read it as most people hate the sound of their own voice.

Did you hear this one ?

"If the judge likes the sound of her own voice you will surely get a long sentence"

All in the future.Actors spend a lot of time in idle bliss and they might like the break.

When John Hubbard was young and could not drive I took him around with casting scripts.

A truly educational experience. I would go to the house and ring the bell, knock on the door.

"Nobody here." Kick the door he would reply. BANG BANG and the door would open 

"Why are you kicking my bloody door?" The face was instantly recognizable. 

John would shout out Greetings and the actor would change like the switch of a light. "Oh John How are you. Would you like a cup of tea "The actors were instantly known, very famous faces.

I often asked why they were just sitting at home "They are resting" was his answer.

John Hubbard and Stephen Spielberg (see the book) got together after I met him and did a movie called Lincon.

John and Stephen are both very clever people Johns skill to pick the right person for the part and Stephens ability to frame a great story.

Try and find Cinema Paradiso it is our favorite movie.


So in a month Jnr will take steering wheel and start his education.

Friday, June 18, 2021

A marker in the ground

So very soon I will go back. I have had enough of this boredom.

I need freedom.

Driving in the bus lane and picking up interesting people.

If it was not for my pill box I would not know what day of the week it is.

Of the thousands of people I have met one has come into my mind Martha was her name and she came from East Africa, I can't be sure but I think she was from Tanzania but it was a long time ago.

She was full of life and she had a really impish sense of humor. S he told me that the people of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia are wonderful runners and the women are the most beautiful on Earth. They are also the greatest lovers that can be found. But don't think of going there you will never catch one. 

Then a big burst of her laughter.

One day the Lottery was £1 Million (A lot of money at the time)

I said that I would buy a ticket and if I won we would buy an ice cream.

"John take it back now" I asked her why she was so upset and she told me of the Jen.

A Jen is a spirit which lives on the edge of society and when someone makes a wish they will grant that wish in a very cruel way. 

They use their powers and enter your life.

They suck the life out of your most loved person, wife or child.

But you cannot see, hear or find your Jen.

You are the happiest person I have ever met. 

I would hate for you to suffer or change in such a bad way.

Stop at this shop here and I will but the ice creams and you must promise me not to buy that lottery ticket. 

Around 6 years later her life imploded and she died from a drug overdose

Friday, June 11, 2021

Sometimes your heart breaks

 A dog killed a 2 month baby last week in Co.Cork.

The incident happened at 2 am just out of the blue.

Things like this are complicated, you need to introduce the child to the dog gently, slowly getting the dogs confidence. It is hard on the dog as well when he sees his master making a fuss of this new thing which came into the house.

Shit but it makes any of my problems seem like nothing for sure.

My life is starting to move forward.

I got my meter re calibrated so that I can move back to work when things pick up soon.

I have been painting and gardening for long enough.

My youngest son has found himself a great job. He is a driver for Amazon. For him it is really great as he covers the entire city. He is tougher than I thought he would be doing 10 hour days with no complaint finding his way around with goods from the great river.

He will fly through the taxi drivers exam in a few months, then I will retire.

When you see Amazon very often there is an arrow underneath, its called a swoosh and it shows that they have everything from A to Z. 

Clever marketing.

Ladies and Gentlemen keep an eye on your kids.

I found a spoon on the footpath outside the convent in Clontarf.

So what you might say.

It had burn marks on it. It had been used for cooking Heroin.

In the leafy suburbs of Clontarf and the upmarket Dalkey and Foxrock even in the inner city areas of Shirreff st and Grafton st. the city is awash with drugs.

Early on when I was driving a hackney I drove a guy around, on the phone and he lined up his orders in advance, out of the car and back in. Good areas.I suppose they had the money back then.

He looked at me at one point and said  

I didn't make these people take drugs,I only provide a service for them, and when I die there will be 10 other people to take my place.

Then after a while we drove into a house in Foxrock ( I still remember where it is)and when we were coming out again there were 2 kids waiting 10 and 8 He had something for them. 

I told him that it was way out of line. 

Its only Smarties. Which we all doubt.

If there is a God I hope that she gives him a long and painful death.

What people fail to understand is that criminals need taxis as the police would recognize their cars in a second and catch them.

Tuesday, June 01, 2021

1.5 million hits

 I just spotted on the stat counter that we have just had 1.5 million hits.

My oldest son would say "Thats a lot of bots Dad",


Give yourselves a good pat on the back.

Well done.

I will try and get a techie to show me how to put the photos and the videos back on the blog.

The old stat counter used to show me where the hits came from down to the street and the house number.

I often wonder what fascination a person in Moscow had with Dublin that they clocked in every time I updated the blog. 

Computers world is strange and wonderful ways.One guy told me not to rely on that Nigerian Princess who wanted to give me money. First of all she is probably not a woman at all and second the only money she would have would be your money. 

Take care and walk softly

Saturday, May 29, 2021

Its like early Spring

 I was in town yesterday and saw pubs,restraints and other shops getting the windows cleaned and painting their facades all in preparation for the big reopening.

The Lord loves an optimist.

For myself I do not see an opportunity to resume in the taxi business. 

On the bright side I do not have a landlord breathing down my neck looking for rent.

Oh for the joy of being an old fart !

Our woes will pass and in 10 years we will be able to laugh about our present fix.

I broke a tooth, one of the big ones at the back. It was not sore for 2 days and then it got a bit soreer.

I rang my regular dentist but he was busy, booked up, no vacancies..

1asked Mr.Google for help and he said Smile Hub Dental Clinic in Bayside.

They are just starting up.Open 7.30am  to 10 pm 365 days a year, with a doctors surgery and skin a treatment place in the same building.

That is one great idea. I really hope that it takes off.

Are you old enough to remember when the banks opened up at 10 am closed for lunch from 1pm until 2 then closed again at 4 pm for the day? Banks are closing down for good now all over the place.

The Central bank is keeping them under their thumb so they are not getting away with the sharp stunts they are used to pulling. I got my bank fined €200 by complaining to the financial ombudsman. Perhaps the next time they will not dismiss my request so easily.

Just on my local bank. The teller was very dismissive. "Put in your pin number now" The account opened with more than a €40,000 balance.Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Well hello. How are you keeping today?"

I was importing 2 cars from Japan so I had a fair poke of money and the next day all the money was gone.

I did OK with those cars.Toyota Prius forever.

One of my sons was on the phone just now and he told us about a guy he used to work with in Northern Ireland.

His specialty was tree removal and he was good at his job.He had an accident and his 2 year old son was killed..

Now that is real disaster God bless them and keep them.

Ask your God to pray for them

Thursday, May 13, 2021

The days before I drove a taxi


https://youtu.be/LwFxu0Dpp0Q

You will have to click on the link yourself

Well I have been sick in bed for around 6 days,different symptoms every day and my "Doctor" tells me its nothing. 

Ah the war of the sexes.

So I was thinking about what I did in another earlier life.

I drove an armored car moving cash and gold and other valuables around the world, 

I never had a day like that guy but I did have some strange moments.

So you sit in a van surrounded by steel plate and 3 inch thick bulletproof glass. The assistant is called the back man and he stays in the car while the driver collects the cash. Everyone starts off as a back man to learn something about how the system works.

In my time driving nothing ever went missing on my watch, but there were dickheads in charge who were sowing the seeds unknowingly for the destruction of the company.

One such bonehead came up with the rule, the last person to receive a package is responsible for it.

If it goes missing. Without further thinking the rule was adopted by the company..

One of the oldest and most respected guys was sacked when a packet of cash went missing from the vault. We all protested that at least 6 people had access to the vault and any one of them could have misplaced it. The bone head was delighted with himself until around 4 months later cash went missing on his watch.

Wow you should have heard him protest about his kids going hungry and he really needed the job.

He was kicked out and a more normal governance came into force,

I love when a company is run from the top down, that everyone knows the workings of the company, who the people are and how it all fits together.In my mind this formula breeds great success.

So I was there a few months driving and foreign guys came along. Many of them were great but some of them were missing the most basic thing, they didn't speak English. 

I never had any problems, but you can see that something might happen,

Each car had a radio and your backman was in charge of that. But he didn't know the city and with limited English there was a big problem. Your personal mobile phone would ring "What time will  you be at the King stores?"So you would give them the next one on the list and ask HQ to ring the next one and have the cash waiting. Then they would keep you 40 minutes waiting for the cash to be made up.

One day I had 5 calls from the HQ as to what time I would be at the same certain stop. 

I blew up. 

Just ask any of the other girls beside you in the office. This phone is being turned off.

On my return to the depot I was called upstairs to face the big boss.

I told him that he should have a tracker system on the armored car and not to be ringing me 5 or 6  times with the same question because the girls are not cooperating with each other.

Also I should have a hands free system.

His reply to me was classic.

"When we need a new manager we will call you, until then keep your ideas to yourself"

 Things went back to normal for a while.

The motor tax office was in a building behind the 4 courts back then and it was the beginning of the month, credit cards had not caught on so it would be a pick up of around £1 million.cash.

I went in with my helmet and my ID.and was told that there would be a 10 minute delay, no problem. When I went down to reception I was met by a guy in  a suit and the nicest pair of dress shoes I have ever seen.

"The regular guys are off I have the key of the door" He said. I nodded OK.

This is a robbery, a trick of some kind I thought.

To this day I did not have a plan when I went upstairs to collect the cash.But it came to me on the way down.

The procedure was that you should enter a room to which the security man had the key.

He locks you in, then you empty out the sack of money bags and bring them out in your explosive transport box 3 bags at a time out to the armored car.

As I hit the bottom step I tossed him my helmet to the guy and said "Waste paper for shredding" Out to the van and rang 999, 1/2 hour later they arrived. No security guard could be found, CCTV cameras all turned off .

\i had a perfect set of prints from the helmet as well.

When we got home they never said thanks to me, but one old guy who worked for the company asked me a few days later how I knew it was a robbery. 

I don't know anyone who would wear such good shoes to work, Is that all?. 

No there other lesser factors at play. No thank you John, no well done we will buy you a pint..

The police never asked me to look at mugshots of the usual suspects.

They never asked about other staff either.

In my own mind I think it could easily have been an inside job after all  £! million would have bought 5 houses back then.

I often drove into shopping centers where I noticed robbers waiting for me. Once I drove up to them and turned on my siren and blew the horn..

It is complicated some people are just dishonest, just live with it.

There was so much good work that could have been done there to make things great.

Like

Sending out your trip sheet up to the office, Hello Tesco the cash in transit van will be with you in 10 minuted. then ring the second number we expect your collection in 40 mins .Are you ready?

This would have streamlined the whole operation

A sure what would I know ?.

Then one day we were waiting outside the Credit Union in Lucan I got out of the car and went inside the newsagents and bought the Evening Press. There I saw Taxi for sale 99 Fiat Scudo for £12,000.

I thought that it was a mistake as a taxi plate just a few months earlier might cost you £90,000.

Deregulation was the word and things changed fast.

There were around 2.600 taxis in Dublin within 5 years it had mushroomed to 12,000

New York had only that same number of taxis for a population of 8 Million.


Oh Ho but the Russian mafia owned the plate or Medallion and the "Value" of the medallion was over $i million. 

What happened?

Uber came along and it was happy days for the drivers and the customers.

So I told them on the job that I was handing in my notice which caused a panic on the day.

You did not work out your notice! Just tell us when you are finished today and good luck.

So on the very next day I had my badge around my neck and I went to the Sackville Place rank and I got my first job. She directed me and I told her as it was my first job driving a taxi it would be free,,No No she paid and I was hooked.

It has not been bad to me I learned an awful lot and if I had paid more attention I would have loads of money as well.

Sometimes the lads from security would come over to me when I would be parked at Foster Place and stories of robberies would come out weekly and sometimes daily. One of the guys jokingly asked me to make it stop as there had been no robberies on my watch.. Just luck Just a bit more than luck.?

Then it happened!

A hold up with guns. The driver was not trained and he gave the van  over to the robbers.

The panic button was not pressed!

The isolation key which grounded the car was not deployed.

He never blew it in on the radio.

3 Days later the van was found in The middle third in Killester.

No Money.in the van.

The insurance company inspector came in from the UKwith his big note book and asked the questions about staff training. How there was not a second more experienced operator in the back.?

Then the big question.

Why did it take 3 days to locate the vehicle?

The satellite tracking was not working.

It is a condition of your insurance policy that the tracker in working

With that the insurance agent drew a line over the insurance policy.

Null and void.

God I would never have wished such an end to any company.

The owner was in the taxi the following Christmas and he did say how sorry he was not to have listened to me.

God they lost a lot of money.

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Justice What justice?

 I met an old friend today and I mentioned something about the boys in blue, the Garda Siocana. And we spoke of justice.

A mentally handicapped girl was sexually assaulted near St. Johns Rd I wrote 3 letters to the Garda HQ and to the place that the girl was going to at the time. I got a few replies and one bright lad told me that unless they could actually see it happen there was nothing they could do. My reply to him was that it is just as well that he is not in the murder squad.


So I told this to my friend and his reply was that a young schoolgirl was raped and she had bruises all over her body.

She went to the Garda station in Raheny where she made a statement and a doctor came and took samples.

She heard nothing and went back and was told that there were no witnesses and she should forget it. She persisted and the local priest intervened and told her that if she pressed this that people find out about it would be talking about her behind her back and be laughing at her and she could never find a husband.

"Just forget it " So she finally did.

That was 30 years ago and only a short time ago the mystery was solved.

The man who raped her was the younger brother of the Garda that she reported the assault to.

She will not fight it now as time has moved on.

Justice is a hard won fight.

You need a police force to investigate the police.

I has a lovely lesbian couple who had been through the rigors of the RCMP,

they spoke of how their love was discouraged an many ways.

One of them progressed and was in charge of investigating fraud within the force.

She would go in, tap the phones and computers and plant listening devices in police cars and under desks. If they accessed her records she came up as a rookie, but in fact she was one of the highest ranking officers in the entire Canadian police force. 

This is so they could not pull rank on her and impede her investigations.

They gave me a bottle opener with a Canadian flag on it.

I still have it among my souvenirs

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Did you get the jab yet ?

 So at last I got the jab and I feel fine.

I hope it goes well for you.

It will be May in a few days, I must line up my tanks and army to march through Red square.

What a load of crap all of that is and a total waste of money as well.

Like most folks I am emptying the garage and as I tidy I find many lost things.

Like a disposable camera which I kept in the car years ago in case of a crash, now redundant as all phones take photos and the dash cam never blinks.

Once when I was clearing rubbish my wife was yelling at me not to be looking through the bags,

"Just throw everything out"

Then I found it.

I had been doing a VAT return long ago when I got a call out and had to leave. 

I asked that everything be left there until I got home again.

On my return the table was cleared. Cash, Cheques,Bank lodgment books, check book and £2000 in blue pound notes. 

All gone and she could not remember where she had put it.

Around 5 years later I found it thrown behind the kitchen door in the back passage.

I had to go to the central bank with a passport and a bank account to have it changed to €uro, they don't hand out cash.

Many taxi drivers are working for Amazon and delivering pizzas. 

My son had a wake up call a few months ago. He was delivering a take away meal to one of the richest family's in Clontarf. 

"Dad the never even gave me a 20c tip"

Son the rich do not tip.

I went to great lengths to bring a phone back to its owner once, time wasted and fuel burned.

The woman just pulled the phone from my hand and I don't think she even said thanks as she closed the door.

There is none as quare as folks as the woman said when she kissed the pig,

The builders are back at work and I was up at a building supply center and they are flying.

They were never busier.

Must look at a new career. Where is there a need for something? 

I notice that there are no pork butchers in Mecca !

Perhaps that is a bad idea.

I once met a guy who said that if he had to live his life again he would just love to be a taxi driver. I said it is not a bowl of sunshine, He came back with a list of positives.

You can work as long or as few hours and no one is going give out that you did not start at a certain time or finish at a set hour.Every place in the world if I am looking for something I will ask a taxi driver. If they don't know they will know someone else who will know.

A good idea will pass your ear every few weeks. They may be doing it wrong, all you have to do is to grab that idea and run with it.

He was right and the next day I found out more about him.

Mr.Obama had brought out a law that you must make your name public if you donate more than $2,000 anonymously  Mr Feeney was on his way to a press conference to declare that he was the person behind Atlantic Philanthropies and that he had given away 8 Billion Dollars.

He invented something very simple DFS  Duty Free Shopping.

Funny thing as it turned out we have a mutual friend in common so I managed to stay in touch up until quite recently. 

Yes he did give a tip.

At least I will have an ally for when I win the lotto.

The Euromillions was at €30 million and I had a ticket. I scanned it at 11pm and it came up.

"Its a winning ticket" How much? I couldn't find the amount. 

I scanned it the next day and got the same result.

So I got my bank details, passport and driving licence and took the bus into the Lotto office.

So picture this? 

I hand her the ticket and say that its a winner, she scans it and says.

 "Yes you've won a ticket to the millionaire raffle"

I was like a goldfish, hardly able to speak and why did the Lotto app say its a winner ?,

The computer has to calculate the prize money. Scan it again and it said a €3 millionaire draw ticket. I really hope that they have re worded that announcement.

It was quite a shock at the time.

One thing Chuck told me to do and it worked so well for me was not to put up with bad manners and rudeness.

I had always bitten my lip and carried on but I have booted out 3 fares and I really felt better for it. The second guy was so surprised when I turned off the main road and told him to get out. He offered me €100 on top of the fair if I brought him. But I knew his game, at the Airport he would try to say that I had stolen his money.

One time when the Garda really helped at the airport a guy asked for a receipt for €30 A Garda was standing beside my taxi, but the man never paid. I jumped out but he was gone.

Did he not pay? said the Garda. You cannot run after him, so please wait by your car.

He got on the radio and gave his description. Let him get to security he said over the radio.

We chatted together and a good 1/2 hour later he was brought back.

He protested that he had paid and the Garda said that he was standing there and noticed the transaction and that there is a camera in the taxi if he would like to go down the the station to view the footage. So the man handed me €20. Let me see that receipt said the Garda.

You owe him another €10 don't short change the driver. So he paid me the money while all the time protesting at how he had missed his flight and that it was all our fault.

Sir just be more thoughtful the next time said the Garda giving me a wink and waving me on.