A Great Moment In History

Today is a great day.

The first black president takes the helm of the most powerful country in the world after China.

It will be no easy task, but I feel that he will tackle some of the thorny problems in the world and within America.

He is a man you can believe in.

At last Bush is gone now and you have a president who knows something!

It will not be an easy trip he will put the united back into USA.

Yo Do know he had Irish relations from Moneygall....

Goo luck to you all.

Now back to basics.

How did we let all this happen?
Police against the public.

Over the past few nights there is a police van parked at the bottom of Belgrovre Rd Clontarf. It is busy taking photos of passing cars.
Penalty points and hefty fines to follow.

Garda booking taxis en mass.
It gives the Garda an easy quota of fines for the month.
This is a revenue gathering exercise, nothing more.

If you loose your job you can buy a taxi plate and join the thousands of other taxis on the streets.
It dosen't matter that there are no ranks to hold the number of taxis which are on the street,or that there is not enough work to go round,morality does not come into it.
You pay and they take your money....There is no refund scheme.

I know a thing or two about taxi driving.
I also know that this business is dead.

Honest guys with 20 years behind the wheel are giving up. "If the standard of today means that a driver does not know where Temple St hospital, or Crumlin hospital is. The game is up.

There are no standards.

When the guy driving you home is not the guy on the ID on the dash, when he has no idea whether Raheny is Northside or Southside.. Something is very wrong.

So if you feel that a change should happen join the protest.



Here are the details. (Straight from Roys blog.)

Taxi Protest

Monday 8.30am 2 Feb 2009 Start in Parnell SQ, pass by the Dail proceeding to the Regulators Office.

Demands:

* Taxi regulator needs to acknowledge there are enough taxis and a moratorium should be put on licences.

* Government have to stop giving incentives encouraging people into business.

* Give incentives to keep drivers in the business

* Create more taxi ranks

Old Volks

Hows that! The car is a bit of a cheat parts were imported from Mexico, but the van is really genuine, owned by Ballsbridge motors and on show in the AXA HQ.

Hows about this..Noel Dempsey the minister of transport has no plans to cap the number of taxis on the Irish roads. Last night I drove around for hours for one fare,then I went home.

It is completely mad.
Well this time of the year is bad normally now is is incredible.

So the powers that be are calling a strike for Monday 2 Feb!

There are enough guys who do not care who will work, but if you care anything about your future you should down tools.
This will be followed by "hassle" from the Garda for sure.
This situation would not be allowed to happen in France or Spain.

It is one rule for our rulers another rule for the thousands of workers who are being put on the scrap heap every week.
Our leaders have not come out of their offices for a long time, we seem to have no voice.
The politicians seem to think that they belong to the old Soviet system,responsible to no one and not liable for anything.
They guaranteed the banks at the stroke of a pen putting the nation into debt.
Then they allowed bank officials to "Resign" with pension, perks and golden parachutes to boot. They "borrowed" over 100 million euro from their bank and did not even get quizzed by the fraud squad!

Then the government nationalized the bank...The shareholders now find that their shares are now worthless.
The small people get hit, they pick off one section at a time. Farmers. Fishermen, health workers... then they bring in "Yellow pack workers"
They get less pay or benefits while they are working,then they are laid off when they qualify for any perks.

Big Business has no heart,"you do it or there a thousand others who will do it and for less money".

TAXI DRIVERS HAVE VOTES TOO.

NOW IS THE WINTER OF OUR DISCO TENT.
(As the bard said)


Here is a link for the taxi survey, at least if you take part you will have been heard by someone.

While I am at it I suppose I should take a moment to introduce to 2 famous Cork people Jimmy McCarthy died last year and the other one Jack Doyle a boxer who rose to stardom.. Married Movita who was a suprtstar in her own way. Known a the Gorgeous Geal he spent his money on fast women slow horses and drink, until he died homeless in London. Later he was dug up from a paupers grave and re buried in Cobh by his boxing promoter.
Thank God you have friends and family to steady you.



A great song .

Next week I hope to review the links on the R/H side. A lot of guys have stopped blogging and there is loads of good things out there.

250 years

250 years.
If one is good think of what twocan do.
Roy has stolen my thunder. I had taken this photo before it was published on his site honest.


Full marks if you know where this bar is.

Guinness is 250 years old this year 1759 (one minute to 6) to 2009.
Kidding to one side The brewery is the most visited tourist site in Ireland.

Coca-cola. Gillette and Guinness are the top 3 brands in the world, no mean feat.

While we suffer the waves of the storm which is caused by the economics which prevail at present. out government are in Japan.

I do business in Japan too.

My account was down ,so I contacted Julie,

She had left the company....Not all lost I got reply..

Dear John

How are you doing today?

Thank you for your email and for the trouble that your undermentioned concern brought up for you then we are very sorry. Moreover, you may review and try your log in details below as what registered in your account and if you still have other concerns just flag me up.

(details taken out)

We want you to always remember that we are here to serve you with unrelenting passion to meet your expectations with our services. Please feel free to give me a call at (81) xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, or send me an email using my personal email address below, and I will take good care of the rest for you.

Thank you so much for choosing xxxx Japan. We truly treasure your business and hope this experience has been a great one!

Warm regards,
Kirby
Account Manager


Well how could I ignore unrelenting passion!!!!!!!!!!!

Surly the Irish Better Business Board could learn from this.

Kirby I would be happy if you knew what I was talking about.

"Driver I want to go home"
"What dy ya mean ya don't knoe where I live, I'm going to tell the regulator about you....."

Job opportunity

New job prospect on the horizon.
We head off to Canada next month to start training, then off to Alaska..



Just thought I would share this with you as things are slack
.
Here is something I have on my computer, listen to this.It is a good show.
How they arrived at this point I do not understand,but the NY cab driver is the nail. Struck on the head by all sides.
GPS tracking,trip sheets and the TLC always on their case.
Melissa is the original NY Hack blogger, have a look hereShe wrote a book and went away.


Here is Tina Lenert who took this simple act right around the world,Paris Las Vegas you name it.
With no words it works anywhere.

A little bit of Magic to keep you amused.



Well it looks like the taxi regulator is playing silly buggers at the airport.
Posing as customers at the departures area they engage a taxi to go to Swords (A short trip) then they ask him to pull in at the garage where he is confronted with a summons for picking up at an unapproved area. Thing is that even the guys who Marshall the taxis at the departure area send people up who want to make short trips.
The taxi that picks them up is happy with a short bonus trip where the taxi which has been through the queueing system would not be one bit happy.
The DAA would be better off catching people who are jumping the queue at the "kesh".
One guy holds back creating a gap to allow 2 or 3 of his pals to slip in. You hardly thought that the delays in going up were an accident did you?
One of my friends told me he was approached by an English girl this morning and offered e40 to take her to Swords,(well over the rate)He told her to go downstairs, lucky boy.
There are laws on entrapment you know.

If the regulator came out at night and pounced on blocks of taxis, checking their papers perhaps they would not prove me wrong.
I think that there are a lot of guys driving who have no licence whatsoever never mind PSV licence. I bought the Evening Herald to look at the taxis for sale page. There was 23 ads. for taxis to rent. How is anyone to know who is driving it after the rented taxi is taken away?.
Public safety is at stake here, no one wants ALL taxi drivers to be taken as rapists robbers or murderers, just because one guy does something who was not driving a taxi legally in the first place..


I had a rotten morning I couldn't get on to any ranks, had to drive past Heuston 3 times, annoying thing was that if the drivers were moving up instead of reading their paper I would have had space to pull on to the rank.
Well at least I can go home to do the dishes !

Taxi anyone?

Get screwed big time in Sandyford.

"Slum Clarence inner city"

New terminal rising at the airport.

Things may be bad but pity the poor souls in Gaza or in Zimbabwe, at least we can survive.
1900 jobs go in Dell in Limerick.
Waterford glass in receivership.

There was an old music hall performer called Harry Lauder around the time of the 1914/18 war who made loads of money. When someone asked him for advice he told them "If your act is not working you must work on your act"
True for today as well.
Quick tour of Glasgow. Capital of Donegal



Another thing you can do is buy tourist guides, they are often discounted just around now. I find the Rough Guide books very good. Education is a wonderful thing.

I have a few people who book me for runs to doctors and airports etc.
Why? Because I am reliable and friendly. If for example I hear of road closures I will be helpful and ring them up and suggest an earlier departure time. Look at Royhe is going to try tours of Dublin and a pub crawl of the more exotic of Dublin pubs.
Good luck with that Roy.

The Dubliner 100 best restaurants guide is out now.

Learn where the saddle room, Saba,Melody or Indie Spice restaurants are.
Even if you don't learn any of them it is good to have the book in the car. "Driver what do you know about Rolys Bistro?"You can pass over the book, or you could tell them that it is expensive,the tables are crammed into each other and they try to get you out very quickly.
One very funny guy told me
"I paid for my meal there with the skin of my arse" Ouch!
I tell people to try the pub lunches, they are cheap and quite good too.
Later on in the day go for the early bird menu, before 8 pm.
Cheaper is not often better.

So here are the top 10 from the guide.
They are not done by price thats for sure,
I have only eaten in Nr. 3 it was good, but then again good company makes a good meal.

1 Jo'Burger
137 Rathmines Rd. www.joburger.ie
ph.4913731

2 Chapter one
18/19 Parnell sq. www.chapteronerestaurant.com
ph.8732266

3 L'Gueleton
1 Fade st. www.lgueuleton.com
ph.6753708

4 Town bar and grill
21 Kildare st. www.townbarandgrill.com
ph.6624724

5 Cafebardeli
Grafton st, www.cafebardeli.ie
ph.6727720

6 The Unicorn
12bMerrion ct, www.unicornrestaurant.com
ph.6624757

7 Bentleys
22 St Stephens green. www.bentleysdublin.com
ph 6383939

8 La Mason Des Gourmets
15 Castle market (no website.)
ph.6727258

9 The winding stair
40 Ormond quay, www.winding-stair.com
ph.8727320

10 Saba
26/28 Clarendon st. www.sabadublin.com
ph.6792000

I would like to add
O'Connells new reastaurant at the
old Berkley Court hotel. www.oconnellsballsbridge.com
ph.6655940

And La Cave
Sth Anne St beside Vards
Fantastic French food great for lunch.

We all know that ones mans meat is another mans poison,so I give you this as I got it.
Perhaps the websites will help you to plan your night out.
One way or another it will be an education.

Looking back on last weeks posting of that house for sale, did you notice that even the for sale sign is covered in graffiti? You don't have to be very smart to notice that no one believes that this house can be sold at anything like the asking price.

Last week I had a lady going to a nuns funeral in Glassnevin. She was a great talker and a very happy woman,content in herself. When the topic turned to children she told me that she had 4 daughters but one of them had died."You might know of her, Veronica Guerin",well she was one brave lady. She was a press reporter she spoke out about the drugs lords who drive around immune from police hindrance. She named and shamed them, until they shot her.
They were immune no longer.
Things changed after that,for a while.
Veronicas mother is a very happy person in spite of loosing her husband at age 55 and her daughter to a violent death.
It would inspire you to be more hopeful of the future.
But the drugs war continues. 2 guys in bullet proof jackets were shot in the head from the back seat of their car in Summerhill last week, this is another page in the drugs war which is going on at present.

Tony Gregory who was an inner city hero died last week too. He stood up in the Dail and named the drug dealers, one of the guys he named at the time got shot the other day.

And thats all the news from here now,until I press the publish button

Herrring days

Just one last Christmasey photo.

Carroll singers, notice how the different races are creeping in. In 10 years there will only be 1 or 2 Irish faces.


Not much work around today.
There will be only herrings for dinner.

Well the video in the last posting should waken up some people.

The reality of the recession is hitting home in all sorts of ways. Plenty of stories of car repossessions and home foreclosures.
Cars which cost in excess of e80,000 selling at auction at e40,000 6 months old.
One girl told me that her aunt and uncle run a garage dealership in the UK. Things are so bad that if a customer came up to them and say the sticker price was 12,000 quid. If the customer had cash and was say from Ireland and offered 4,000 IE 1/4 of the price they would be forced to negotiate with him and sell for 6,000 taking a fair hit, but better than having stock which is not selling.
They cannot take cars as trade-ins at present.

The d4 hotels formerly Jurys and Tara Towers and Berkley Court are offering beds for around e20 Mon to Fri in n effort to bring back customers.
You might remember a Mr Dunne borrowed e400 million + to redevelop the site but he could not get planning permission to go as high as he wanted.Now he is a bit stuck.

Elvis is gone now CASH IS KING.
When the sales are over it will be bleak.

Loads of people were sick over Christmas including myself. It finished up with a cough which lingered, so I had to go to the doc who put me on an inhaler, the cough is going slowly but loads of people have it.



The house on Seafield Rd East is up for sale and no one cleaned up the muck on the path. I saw a potential customer nearly falling in the mud.
Not my job to clean it up says the builder, developer and auctioneer.
Looks really bad though.
The point about this house is that it is on Seafield Rd East and is on sale for a whopping 4.7 million euro

Up at the Berkley Court hotel and I noticed that someone had been sick on the path outside, right at the pedestrian exit. As I was coming out from using the rest room I told the porter(who was Indian not that it matters). He came out for a look and went back in and got a pint jug of water and just poured it over the sick. Well if it was me I would have brought out a deck scrub brush and a bucket of water.
Everywhere they are settling for second best in many things from the government down, not forgetting taxi drivers either who don't know where the airport is...


I have just remembered from long ago about our old dog Digger a Jack Russel terrier. He wanted to impress my wife so one day he brought in a dead rat. "look at me! I think you are great too. Here is a present" The good lady was not at all impressed, but I praised the dog....so much so that he came back in a few days later with a live rat. You never saw anyone picking up a brush quicker than I did that day.

Dropping off in Camden St reminded me about one time a woman came back on the train with a load of luggage. She lived up on the top floor and asked me if I wouldn't mind bringing up the bags for her.
3 trips up 2 flights of stairs and guess what?.

Your right NO TIP.

Over subscribed.

Here's a good one.
Do you still think buying a taxi licence is a good idea?

The video vanished , but you can watch it here on the top R/H side of Roys blog.

Many thanks to all who made this.
This is the reply I got when I asked the taxi regulator. It looks very wrong to me.
Thank you for your contact with the Commission for Taxi Regulation.



The Commission for Taxi Regulation took over as the vehicle licensing authority in 2006, therefore we only have figures from this date onwards. At the end of 2007 there were 25695 active small public service vehicle (spsv) licenses in the country. As of 1st December 2008 there are 27311 active spsv licenses in the country. This is broken down as follows;



Hackney – 4887

Limousine – 1331

Taxi – 19500

Wheelchair Accessible Taxis – 1593



As of 1st December 2008 there are 46583 active PSV driver licenses in the country. This licence is issued by An Garda Síochána and enables a driver to operate the vehicle licence.



I hope this addresses your query.

Take down the Christmas tree.

Who remembers this game? It was invented by a taxi driver,looked like it was going to make it to the big once upon a time.

A 2to3 mile traffic jam of cars from the republic crossing the border to get bargains in Newry.

All the garages in this group have put on a super Christmas display.

Well if you are reading this you have made it through the mayhem that was Christmas and new year.
This year we got a bonus in that on Christmas Day, St Stephens day and New years day started off om Sunday rate then the meter went quickly on to c rate. It meant that a e10 fare became more like e13.Punters were not best pleased, even though you explained that treble time is paid in industry for working Christmas day.
This year I did not have day release prisoners looking for heroin, like I had the two previous years. Its really sad I hope drugs never blights you or your familys lives.
On new years eve into new years day there was plenty of work when the clubs shut.
The plan is that you drive with your light off and try to spot someone walking who looks reasonably sober. Coming down Charlemont st. I saw a Chinese girl who looked OK. "Hop in"I said and she started waving at her mates to hurry up. This allowed 2 junkie girls with their 2 Lybian looking escorts to jump in. The other girl standing on the road was as startled as I was.
The next 1/2 hour was every ones worst nightmare.
They insisted that they wanted to be brought to another night club. They changed the law a while back making all the clubs and pubs close earlier. In the end they went to Oliver Bond flats complex where I got around 1/2 the fare in coppers. Glad to be rid of them I drove past James'es Gate where they make Guinness. The sign writer had changed the date in the middle of the night. 1759////2009. there is a multi million advertising campaign coming,250 years in business.
Sales of Guinness are falling anyhow as they have been putting up the price too often. The smoking ban have driven people home to drink as well. The Thomas Reed group of pubs is in trouble. They own many of the high profile pubs.
This recession may sober up the Irish, which would be great.

Tragic deaths and murders over Christmas, on Christmas day the body of a young mother and her 7 and 2 year old daughters were found in their burnt out farmhouse. The mother was dead before the fire it has now been confirmed.
I hope they solve that one soon.
Sadness continues for the family of Sophie de Plantier who was killed before Christmas around 10 years ago.Her killer has not been brought to justice.
The state Pathologist could not travel to examine the body for 2 or 3 days at the time as the roads were slippy with ice.
I feel that the government ministers were using the available helicopters at the time to attend to their business.
This country is really badly run I feel. You would get really upset if you thought a 5 year old could do better.
Nice to think of them away for 60 days holidays at this time of crisis.

Over the holidays I made a trip up to Northern Ireland to see My sons in laws. The photo of the traffic jam heading to Newry tells it all. Around an hour and 1/2 to clear it. The British Pound and the Euro are almost on par now.Prices are much lower in Newry so people are voting with their feet.
I bought 1,000 Pounds the other day and the difference was only 10 euro or so. A big difference from this time last year when it was around 1/3 extra..

Still this is a long way from taxi driving.

I hope to revisit the stats which were in the paper a few weeks ago, they could not be right.Starting with 13,637 licences in Nov 2000.
in the years up to Nov. 2008 they issued 150,112 new licences and they reckon that there are 46,583 licences in use.
Where did the other 103,529 licences go?

Well did you get your new safety pack yet?
Garry in Bond St told me he sold more than 200 in one week.
He sold out but he has new supplies now a few euro dearer, but still the cheapest around.
2009 Taxi drivers get plasters.

New years resolution to carry a note book and diary and keep accurate records of my actions.
Sunday night will be busy as the workers return to the city, the airport should be hopping too, though I am still happy I did not renew my pass.(e400).

I must make a plan on how to get through the coming 2 months,"Herring days"it will be so dead it won't be funny.

Will post some videos of the taxi jams in the new year.