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?