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 

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.

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.

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

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?