All in a second

 So I was on Copeland Ave. waiting to turn right and on the opposite side of the road there was a Chinese lady on her mobile pushing a buggy and a really small kid of less than 2 years old on a scooter following behind.

She came to the junction and crossed 2 lanes of traffic. Then she saw that the crossing was red at the other side and stopped. The small kid had followed over and she stood looking at the light. Nothing was coming and she crossed the road. She gave no instruction to the small kid and he waited for 5 seconds, (I started blowing my horn but she was engrossed in her phone)He started crossing as a car came over from the Malahide Rd. Then she saw him, she ran back and stopped the car from running over the child. As I turned right she was on her knees no doubt saying "My poor baby"

But there was only a second in it.

By the way Happy Chinese new year

Things that my customers told me.

Household fires.. 

The common things 

Faulty wiring, 

gas heaters too close to furniture or curtains. 

then smoking in bed

Tumble dryers with blocked filters

The last one I never would have guessed

Dishwashers Do burst into flames because the wires from the dials pass under the door, opening and closing the door breaks the wires and starts the fire.

So now you know. Turn on these things before you watch the telly.Not before you go out.

There was a huge fire in a newly renovated house in Clontarf and the insurance assessor reckoned that it was an electrical fault. So all the blame came on the electrician. 

His insurer had a retired Garda who investigated such cases.

He separated each person and asked what they had done that morning. 

No blame I just want to recreate what happened. 

The Au Pair said that one of the kids had wet the bed that morning and she rinsed the sheets and put them and the duvet into the tumble dryer before going to mass. 

The tumble dryer had a completely choked up filter and the electrician gave a sigh of relief.

A Plumber or a Barrister ?

 So back in the day when I worked the airport a flight came in from Spain late at night a woman and 2 small boys got into the taxi heading for Foxrock.

In an instant the boys were asleep that seemed to hit an on switch in her head.

This has been a hell of a holiday she said. Years ago I met this good looking lad from Crumlin, he was a plumber Jimmy was his name. One day he came to our house to collect me and my dad told him about a hot water problem we were having. No hot water in the tap and the tank in the attic is full of hot water.

No one can fix it said my dad. I can fix it without looking any further.

Either £5 or £150, take your pick.

He turned up the next day and put a one way valve on the hot water pipe. The mixer tap was faulty and the cold water pressure was pushing the hot water back up into the attic.

My dad said to me "Marry that lad" 

But my mother had other ideas and sent me off to school in England. There was some contact and then Jimmy went over to the USA where a relation had a big air conditioning and refrigeration company. By the time he came back contact had been broken and I had met my future husband and barrister and we both got on with our lives.

Many years passed and we had children and grandchildren.

Then I went on holiday with my 2 grandsons, on the second day at the hotel. There was great excitement as Jimmy arrived and was warmly greeted with all of the staff in the reception and 4or 5 small kids danced around him. When he saw me he was totally shocked, like he had met a ghost. Jimmys wife came over and he introduced them to each other.

Over the remainder of the holiday Jimmy came and went and his wife really embraced the three of us. Over the time I found out what had happened over the years. Jimmy had set up a plumbing business with his 3 brothers. Jimmys sister set up a wholesale business.

The family are very loyal to each other and that goes for cousins as well. Jimmy got sick and the cold damp air of Dublin was not doing him any good, one cousin owned an apartment in Spain so Jimmy came to recover his health.

After a while he started to work and he found that the jobs that he came to were all sub standard, so he started training people, little by little he started things moving. 

He bought a house, 2 stores doing bathrooms. a really big air conditioning business.

Then I found out from his wife as she drove us to the airport that all of our meals at the hotel had been comped. Then she looked at me Why not? he owned that hotel and another on on the other side of the island.

Carmel his wife told me that Jimmy is a very private person and he would never have told you that, so keep it under your hat.

On the other hand I now return to my legal eagle husband, stinking of whiskey. I wonder and wait for the next repossession order for the house will come from the bank.

Herring days

 For the London taxi drivers this time of the year used to be called "Herring days"

Business was so bad that they couldn't afford meat !

To be honest a few weeks in the South of France would be great. Good food and great wine.

A friend of mine used to vanish from Dublin for months at a time.

I asked him about it and he said from the second of Jan until Easter he would go off to Spain or Florida and return at Easter.People have hide away homes and I paint the place and pay the bills while I am there. In Spain he arranged golf tournaments and in the USA I arrange poker games.

He said to me that I must love the tax man if I keep on working.

He has a good point.

If you don't look out you cannot progress.

A story from life as best I can remember it.

A footballer broke his leg coming up to the final, his team won and he didn't get a medal.

He was very depressed and a mate of his who had a market stall asked him to come with him to Sheffield market to be a Shill,

On the way there he trained him in witty comebacks and he as a a shill would offer witty comebacks to the quips of the stall holder. Then he would take an hours break and go through it all again. On the way home the stall holder asked him if he had a passport? He had one and a week later they were in the van heading off to the south of France. The dealer family owned a villa and they took turns to chill out.Rule number one was to stay out of the sun. "If you have a suntan in February no one will trust you".

He trained him to sell Magnetic window cleaners with great jokes thrown in. Mike went to the markets and he had an idea. women's products were mostly sold in chemists shops with a great mark up. He opened a discount store which took off when the word got around. The shops were stocked up late at night and the shops started selling at 9 am and by 1 pm  the shops were empty.

He built it up and then he sold the business.

A short retirement and he went into the supermarket business, one of the very first in the UK. He built it up and sold it. 

I think that his next venture was JB sports a sportswear company and he put his stores on the first floor to get a cheaper rent.

His business advisors told him to"go public", he sold shares and stepped back.

But he noticed that money was being taken out of the company. So he put in surveillance and nailed to thieves. The share price of the company dropped. 

What did he do? He bought the shares back. He bought a football team Newcastle United and he now also runs leisure clubs in the north of England.

OK so Mr Google tells me that Mr. Mike Ashley now owns.

Sports direct  Karrimor,Kangol and Londsdale. A 4.6 share in Umbro. DW sports, Everlast fitness club.

So here is the list

Carlton

Donnay

Everlast

Gelert

Gud

Hot tuna

Kangol

Karrimor

LA gear

Lonsdale

Muddyfox

No Fear

Slazinger

Frazer group

So the Sunday Times rich list reckons that he is worth £2.7 Billion  Not bad at all

Mike Ashley Look him up

Brazilian girl murdered

 A girl from Brazil was killed by her X partner in Cork. She had a beautiful smile, but now she is dead. Her X partner followed her from Brazil and stabbed her to death. Imagine escaping from an abusive and violent relationship and coming  face to face with him again.

Bruna Fonseca RIP

There was another lady stabbed to death today, such a bad start to the year.

There are many evil people around, people with no empathy who take the lives of old and young. Years ago I brought a lady from the airport to Harrolds Cross, she was giving a talk to the Garda on profiling murderers. The piece we talked about took us 25 minutes and she invited me in to hear the talk. 

Sadly I had a job to do.

Have a wonderful 2023 and I hope that all your wishes come true

Well here we are in 2023, how did we manage it after the panic of 1999 and the threat of the Millennium bug going to wipe us all out. 

Now its the Covid bug.

I am going to share bits of wisdom which my passengers shared with me.

Money Live within your means. 

If you earn €100 a week or €1000, that is your budget and live within it.

Use a debit card, not a credit card...Then you cannot spend what you don't have.

In America most people live beyond their means and the banks profit. If you go to Walmart you will see people in their 60s and 70s packing groceries. 

They are in debt and when they die the bank will take the house.

The person who told me that was a billionaire, it makes sense

How do you know when there is a taxi driver on the airplane ?

Well what whining whining sound that you thought was part of the engine noise will follow you into the arrivals hall.