Thursday, January 28, 2021

Goats looking at thunder

 When you just don't understand something a good expression is

Goats looking at thunder

 

So here I am still stuck inside wondering what is going to happen next.

The pubs all shut. Schools and university's closed, the government are handing out shit loads of euro to people who are not working. 

But it is Europes money.

So everyone thinks that it won't have to be paid back..

Wrong! it will have to be paid back.

Thank God that I am only a stupid taxi driver otherwise I would be worried.

But I do know a Chinese lady who is a member of a very large Chinese company which controls Billions of Chinese Yuan. I helped her to buy a car once and she stays in touch. 

China seems to be coming out of this whole thing lightly. If you break Quarantine there they jump on you and beat the crap out of you.You will stay in the house the next time. Sues office is in Ballsbridge and they really opened my eyes on the proper way to make things happen.

I went to a local estate agent I knew shortly after I met them to help her to open dialogue between the Chinese company and his agency, the receptionist there just gave me the bums rush, you can never judge a person by how they dress. But I am still shocked.

Sue told me that they had bought a lot of hotels and around 400 houses for renting. Now they are buying land and developing entire towns !

So next week I will ring her up, the Chinese new year can not be far away.

She knows what is what, I really do not believe that BitCoin is the answer. 

To me it looks like a Ponzi scheme.

Anyhoo I don't have that much money to loose.

 

So my old flatmate caught Covid and spent 26 weeks in bed 1/2 a year.

I got that wrong, what he had said was that he closed his hairdressing business 26 weeks ago.

Not what we thought.

Monday, January 11, 2021

Gerry Marsden singing You’ll Never Walk Alone with Take That at Anfield

Stupid to the end

I am reflecting on things that happened, doing an audit of the past.

We have  a showground complex in Ballsbridge called the RDS.(Royal Dublin Society).

It has three main complexes and the horse show, the dog show etc. are all held in different parts of the complex. The main entrance is on the Merrion Rd. Then you have the Anglesea Rd entrance, and last of all you have the Simmonscourt Rd. entrance.

So it came to pass that I was dropping off this lady and I asked her to check her ticket and then we went over to the Anglesea rd entrance. As she was getting out one of the ushers was telling a very entitled lady "No you go other side. Other side"

She got in and said I am going to the conference center

Now I knew that usher was telling her to go to the other side of the building through the Merrion Rd. entrance. So I tried to tell her.

Look, can't you see that I am talking on the phone.

Could I just tell you something ?

I hardly think a taxi driver could tell me anything I don't already know. 

So I headed off to the Conference center on the other side of the river while she spouted on talking pure crap. At the end she was paying by credit card which created the moment for the second part of the story.

As the  woman got out another lady got in and said The Microsoft conference please at the RDS.

The entitled lady said. "But that is where I am going"

Yes I tried to tell you where it was at least 4 times and you told me that I could not possibly be able to tell you anything and that I was just a stupid taxi driver.

She didn't say sorry.

Look you can come back with me said the new passenger. 

I said that there is absolutely no way she was getting back into my car unless she paid the entire fair. She agreed.

The return trip was non eventful, no mobile phone and at the end she paid again.

On handing her the receipt she said that she was going to report me for being rude. 

Please do madam, do you see that camera over there? 

It has recorded everything that you said and did since you entered the taxi.

Now don't bump your head when you are getting out.

 

A bombshell some time later.

So 2 guys got in and I recognized one of them as once being from a boy band.

The poor kid had invested heavily into property and lost a lot of his money.

The older man was an auctioneer and was helping him to whip his portfolio back into shape. A phone rang and the conversation got very serious suddenly.

He hung up the phone and said excuse me. The follow up call was short and clear.

Tommy, you rang Lidl (or Aldi) We were going to sign the lease today and you decided to just put up the rent, by yourself, before the paper was signed you jacked up the rent.

The agreement we made was a good one, they were a great tenant and they are gone now because you decided to act the bollix.

The business relationship that we had is now completely finished. 

Look at your contract you signed with me and you will see that once a tenant has been found and a rent agreed 

You are liable for all costs 

So we all let out a gasp of air.

As he paid me he said

There is a limit to mans intelligence  

But Stupid goes on and on. 

Friday, January 08, 2021

Lockdown Hope of rescue coming

So to keep the spirits up we surf the net for good ideas !

Check the Lotto and dream of better days.

Be careful that you have a plan and that you can keep a secret .

My good old dad used to say that 3 men together can only keep a secret if two of them are dead and the survivor killed them. A wise man.

Say nothing and I mean that.

A guy from my old home town won £4.7 million in old money. He invited me to the party and even though there was a mini bus provided I could not go.

5 or 6 weeks later I met him by chance on Talbot st., he looked like he had been beaten up.

He said that the party that he threw was invaded by a shower of thugs who drank the pub dry and then smashed up the place. Two of 3 sack full of letters every day of begging letters and people coming to the door. 

He went to America to a place called Montana. That place has its own problems with drugs.

He is back in Ireland living the secret life.

I myself checked my lotto ticket on the phone app.

"Its a winner" 

I checked it 4 more times, same result €30 million or thereabouts!!!

I got my bank details, my passport and my driving license and went off to  the Lotto HQ.

My heart was soaring, thinking of that cheap house in Modica Sicilia and that 15ft yacht.

So I handed in my ticket.

"Yes indeed it is a winning ticket, you have won a €3 ticket into the millionaire raffle"

Wow, talk about my heart hitting my boots.

The girl told me that it takes up to 10 am for the computer to calculate the smaller prizes.

I argued that the system should just say "You have won a prize. Not its a winner"

Anyhoo (As they say in Canada) I went home an was asked a few questions. A few!

Where were you?

What were you doing at the Lotto HQ?

What was your plan? by not telling me.

To make light of it I nearly enacted the old joke.

"If I won the Lotto and gave you half my winnings would you leave me ?

Here's €1.50  Now fuck off.."

One has to have a filter between your brain and your mouth.

I got the silent treatment for around 3 weeks.

So I was just daydreaming and asked the computer if there was any yachts for sale? 

There was a 60ft one going for a few million in the Cayman Islands Which caused me to look it up on the world map. Just south of Cuba.

Then  there was a news station giving a bit of local news, this guy is a real clown.

I don't know which circus he escaped from. 

The speaker of the Cayman House of representatives Mr.Keeva Bush was on trial for assault.

He put in a plea of not guilty, after watching the video he pleaded guilty to 3 of the miner charges. The tapes started off with him staggering down the street, holding on to a pole before collapsing to the ground between two parked cars now with just his feet sticking out.

He gets up and pulls himself up to the bar where he grabs a staff member by the hair and punches her three times to the face. A but of a fight finds him subdued and arrested.

How did the trial go?

His main defense is that he doesn't remember it. 

So he was found guilty and has a 2 year jail sentence suspended for 2 years

A curfew from 6pm to 6am fined £700 for disorderly conduct also the judge gave the police a doorstop condition which is the power to enter his home to check on his whereabouts. 

He also had to pay the girl $4,279 compensation .Look up the Cayman Compass.

 So if you read the book you will know about my all time hero.

Chuck Feeney was in my taxi and he gave me advice which was worth thousands.

You never know who you are talking to, seldom you find about them. I was very lucky that day. Obama brought out a law that you could not give away more than $2,000 anonymously. He wanted to know who was giving money to the opposition.

A very clever move but none of his business really.

So Chuck Feeney went to the newspapers to declare that  he was the person behind Atlantic Philanthropies Chuck has given away more than $8 billion.

Now I know what you are thinking.(Did he give you a tip?) Yes a €5, but I spent  it.

There is a book called The billionaire who wasn't by Conor O'Cleary

I have heard great stories about him and one day I got a phone call from Tim Pat Coogan a writer (Wherever green is worn etc) John I am just back from San Francisco and I was having dinner with a friend of mine. He put down his fork and asked me if I knew you by name and how you were keeping. How the hell do you know Chuck Feeney?

Yes Tim Pat its a small world.

I will give you some of his gems.

Do your tax early, you will have to do it, so don't lett the stress kill you.

Live within your means and save a little.

People who live on credit cards might have to work 20 years longer to pay off their debts or pass those debts to their children.

OK your taxi breaks down and you might have to use up your savings and more to replace the car or the engine. But work on it and pay off the debt quickly. 

Be polite. Imagine how you will get on if you missed your flight and kicked the Ryanair desk?

 

He is the gold standard of what people should be like, unlike Mr Bush