Why Fly ?

Well,
The other day my youngest son was to fly to London.

Everything arranged for weeks!

So there he is playing computer games and I ask. "Have you got your passport ready?"
Much later on I asked again.
His reply was "Dad you don't need a passport to go to London"
The problem is that with Ryanair you do !

PANIC set in !

The entire house was turned upside down.

NO PASSPORT !

So up to the Garda station, forms filled in, up to Tesco for photos and off to the passport office to be first in the line.

Now boys and girls of the passport office.

Put the hours of business on the website and cull the bullshit !

According to the guy on the door.(who spoke to us through a sheet of glass with his mike off and a television blareing on ous side of the screen SO WE COULDN'T HEAR)
The doors open at 9.30 and the staff don't see people before 10.00 Not much feckin use if you are trying to get to Gadaffis funeral on time !

Not nearly good enough.

So with my great knowledge of logistics I speeded to the ferry wher I put the lad to be sent by ship and train to London Victoria return for €85...Not bad.

I think he was only 3 hours longer arriving.

So let it be a lesson to you all.

Boy scouts motto.

BE PREPARED.

Why do I mention this ?

As I speak a Volcano is rumbling and it is about to ?????????????????

Taxi driver beats the tabloids ?

A Dutch style house in Youghall


The Irish navy is in town.


A tight little alley


A modern build



Oktoberfest beer garten

There is defiantly a shift to winter today.
The fantastic blast of warm weather from last week is well gone.
I was up in Northern Ireland yesterday, we had planned to go to see the Giants Causeway, but we decided to wait for a time when the weather would be better.
Still,it is good to see the folks again.

On the driving front ?
The schools are long back and people are on the move in the mornings again.
Also the teachers who drive taxis in the summer are back teaching again.

Big news with regard to people renting taxis.
There is to be a big tightening up of that side of the industry.
At present one guy goes in to rent a taxi and 5 people drive it in relays, only one person is really insured. It is so dangerous and so SO wrong.
Still this industry is like living in a game of Chinese whispers, loads of rumors and nothing happens,but I do hope this aspect of taxi life is tightened up soon.

Johnny Walker is 76, still driving his taxi and refereeing foot ball matches.
I met his brother today, he told me that Johnny was in Spain for a birthday party, refereed 2 football matches at the weekend and flew to Sunderland today. He is still one of the main wheels which turn for the taxi drivers special day out for children.
Not bad at all for 76.

Up at the Westbury rank a taxi driver came around the corner and saw that there was no space to pull in, so as he drove around the small block he saw a space at Starbucks, but before he could pull in another car shot into the space. The taxi then noticed that there was now a space on the very end of the rank and drive into it. He shouted over to the guy who had darted into the space that he should be proud of his driving. The taxi driver locked his car and was heading off for tea when he was head butted so badly that he was knocked out. Thank God the other taxi drivers saw it all and caught the fucker before he made his escape.
The taxi driver as well as being concussed has a compound fracture of his thumb.
The assailant was of perhaps Moroccan origin. He has created a load of trouble for himself for sure.If he has no work permit his boss will suffer as well as the taxi drivers knew where he worked.

At the O2 on Saturday I picked up a girl going to the ferry, she was panting, though not out of breath. Then she told me of her plight.
She thought she could walk from Connelly station to the boat and set off along the quays.
As she passed by the Milano restaurant she heard a horrible scream and she turned in time to see a woman's body being flung into the air and it went right over a car and landed on the ground with an awful thud.
Whether the woman ran out from behind stopped traffic, or whether the car which struck her had broken the lights she could not say. She was in a bad state of shock.

Pedestrians walk blindly into traffic, cyclists go through red lights and accidents happen.

So lets take it easy.

Like the guy who jumped into the taxi at the Sunset House going to Vincents hospital. "Hurry hurry I am late"
I have a new policy on this, since the last time.
I told him that if he wanted to try another taxi he was welcome to leave with no charge, but that I was breaking no speed limits or red lights for him.
But we made it in good time in spite of him stopping me from making 2 good short cuts.
The cost was €11.90.
He hands me a €20 note and says "Just give me €10 back, because I am now late"
Well need I say my reply was mostly in a form of French which is the preserve of Algerian sailors. Then he headed off with a fist full of the smallest denomination coins that I could find in my coin holder.
I shouted after him that I would drive past him if I ever saw him again.
(Which none of us could ever afford to do)

Is this a first? Even before the tabloids?

A young couple were getting married and they had booked a castle for the event,
Then the hotel rings them up to say that another party wanted the castle for the same date.
Would they move to a different venue?
The other party would make it worth their while.
They said NO !
Then an offer of money came if they moved the event.

They still said NO ! The wedding was arranged and they would stick to their guns.

ONE LAST OFFER CAME.
How much is your house mortgage?

WE WILL PAY FOR YOUR HOUSE AND WE WILL PAY FOR THE RECEPTION IF YOU PUT IT TO ANOTHER DATE OR ANOTHER VENUE !

Now I can't say who it is, it's not a wedding it's a christening!
No he is not a film star, he's a footballer and he doesn't play for Manchester United any more.

Is that a first?

A wall to keep out the sea.

People of Clontarf are up in arms about plans to build an 8 ft wall along the sea front from the Bull Wall to the Alfie Byrne Rd.

Also with this great plan is a proposal to raise the land bank by up to 5 meters.

This would block the view of the sea and create a corridor where joggers and walkers could not be seen from the road therefore making them liable to attack by mad southsiders !
Take a look for yourself here

But I do feel I know what this is really about.

The Clontarf people have been blocking the infill of 50 acres down at the port. The were foiled at every turn by the late Sean Dublin Bay Loftus, now we will be told that if the 50 acres were filled in the sea would be kept at bay and the defenses would be reduced.

"Wouldn't that be better boys and girls?"

All those lovely sun rises lost forever.

Luas kills man

Look at this ! Barley for Guinness all the way from Poland.
How many days driving was that?


A nice bit of design ? Still you can't run down the stairs in the nip.



Tea break in Sandymount.

People are going for job interviews !
Great.
I had 3 this week.
I hope they did well.

The Dublin theatre festival is in full swing with all kinds of events taking place on the fringe.
I had 2 ladies heading off to give a workshop. One of the Ladys must have been "someone" as she was going to have an assistant assigned to her for the duration of her stay.
One thing I did overhear from them was that they do not give out free tickets to shows any more. When they did give out free seats people didn't come. So now they give reduced price seats.
If you give something for nothing it will not be appreciated, how very true.

People will walk out in front of cars and buses, earphones turned up to the max, moving in a world of their own tonight the Luas claimed its first life.
A man in his mid 30s.
It happened on Stephens Lane which runs up the hill to Jameses st from Heuston station.
It might be no harm for the police to pull up a few padestrians for Jay walking and walking out in front of traffic just to waken them to the dangers if nothing else.
I for one am sick of it,just walking out in front of traffic when you have a green light. Then if you stop you have to wait for the lights again.

You know we have to take life as it comes, there is no point in complaning about the weather, of how bad business is either.
Just try to change the things we can change and ignore the things we cannot change.

I met up with Seamus a retired taxi driver tonight. We spoke about taxi driving.

He told me about the worst drive of his life.
He was working for Near cabs and got a call to go to Navan.So Seamus picked up this lady in her mid 30s and she was saying that her husband was in hospital, he had had an accident on the way to work.
Earlier that day he had heard of an accident around Navan, later on he found that the driver was dead on arrival in Navan hospital.
In a few seconds Seamus had put 2 and 2 together. Turning off the radio and playing tapes all the way to Navan.
She was giving out yards that she was going to kill him when she got to the hospital.
She never liked him using the minor roads, but he was always late leaving and to avoid the traffic went the back roads.
He let her have her head and when she arrived at the hospital her husbands boss paid the taxi fare.

Seamus spoke about how their lives had changed since he left home that morning.
They had small children to be collected from school.

He sat in the car park and smoked 2 cigarettes before he went back to Dublin.
Perhaps we taxi drivers sometimes think to much.
Perhaps the others think too little.


There is an expression here. "He has a great face for radio"
Quite a great performance but very hard to watch



It should be stated here that the definition of a gentleman is someone who can play the accordion and doesn't.

Or that the definition of an optimist is a gentleman who plays the accordion and feels the need to buy a pager!

Nice though,

I am sure that I have bored you with the concept of the Sundance festival where writers , directors and actors get together and make something.
Here is one of the very best.
The actors, timing and music all perfect and a story line that unravels seamlessly.

Walking in Dublin

Anyone for a walk !


Good is'nt it

Darker mornings.

I went into the Oktoberfest tonight to have a look, loads of people, beer and sausages.
The recession must be over !

On the work side I picked up 2 guys from the Cork train this morning. They were tough as tough can be "Langers" is a word that came to my mind.
North circular rd. mister.
Its a long road, which end are you going to.
North circular Rd. mister said the other guy.
Where abouts on the North Circular Rd. are you going to? Its a long road.

Oh I see St. Patricks (juvenile detention center)
They had come to visit a pal who had been sent away.

On Friday I picked up an old regular customer, a Polish girl. She had changed her hair and I nearly didn't recognize her.
As she was getting out I said a very strange thing.
I wonder what kind of person I will pick up next?. To which she said. I hope it will be someone nice. Then I said, Perhaps it will be little red riding hood going to her grandmas house.
Down in Mount brown a girl with a red shawl over her head waved me down, she had red hair as well. I told her what I had said to my last passenger. I had better look closely at grandma when I get there so.
She was a financial controller for a large store.
The next guy was a financial adviser to a large telecommunications firm. He spoke about Nick Leeson the rogue trade who brought down Bearings bank.He knew him, he lives in Galway now, it is odd how he not only knew of him, but he had talked to him many times.
Trading floors are still policed in a very lax manner today. Look at the massive losses in UBS bank a few weeks ago. Even the smallest sweet shop in the land would have some way to prevent such a happening.
But little has changed as he said.
Today I picked up a lady on Whitworth Rd going to East Wall Rd. A couple of phone calls to arrange babysitters and she turned off the phone. Said she was sorry, but she had to get things fixed. She was off to her brother in laws funeral. 60 years old, dropped dead on Tuesday.He had had a heart attack earlier but continued to smoke and drink. Then he just keeled over dead. Me sister is in bits.
Still he had plenty of warnings to mend his ways.
Sad part is that all her kids have left the home, now she has an empty house, I can't get any of mine to move out. Now there's grandchildren as well.
Even 60 is not a bad age, there is nothing worse than burying a child.
Jesus you're right there my little girl was a week off her 8Th birthday when we buried her. She is at peace beside my mother in Glasneven. The only good thing about today is that I will spend some time at the grave.
Here we are now 8 euro. There's a 10 keep the change and God bless you.

There is a lot of humanity in decent working class Dublin women. Salt of the earth.

2 girls for Uruguay in the taxi tonight, not bad looking at all.
What do you know about Uruguay?
Well in Montavedo a young music student gave a transcript of a tune he had written to a local tango band. That song he then sold the copyright for the price of a packet of cigarettes.This tune is the most popular Tango tune in the world today.
Bravo ! You are a very wise taxi driver.
Here is a very good clip for you.


I bet you won't be able to guess what happens next !



So I went on youtube to see Dave Young ?


Yes he is there
The next time we meet he will be buying the tea, again.

Here's a piece I found about an English horse fair.

You see there are good Gypsies and the forth coming war on Chalk Farm will paint all Irish travellers as scum.

Steve Jobs RIP

Dublin City falling down


Artistic bus


Adare Co.Limerick

Sad to hear that Steve Jobs founder and the brains behind Apple computers has passed over.
I still have one of his first computers in the garage, I bet it still works too.
The first computers with their green screen never crashed and there was no fans roaring away while you tried to work.
Microsoft stole the edge from him for a while, but it was with I pods and the new I fones that he bounced back, giving the kids Gigabytes of music.
Sorry but the older the fone the better for me. But I see my kids flicking through pages of information all thanks to Apple.

You must all know the story about how he started off building computers in the family garage. He had found out that some people did not want to build the computers themselves, so he went into production.
Now things were getting hectic in the garage so he rented a factory unit.
Then came the big day to move his boxes of tricks out. So he hired a driver and a van to give him a hand. He was strapped for cash and offered the driver a share in his new company, Apple.
The driver must tell the story over and over again !

HE HELD OUT TO BE PAID IN CASH !
THE SHARES WOULD BE WORTH MILLIONS TODAY.

So whether you are rich or poor spare a thought for all the people around who are fighting Cancer, a special prayer for you Nancy, I hope your results are good.

Your health is your wealth, and all the wealth cannot buy your health back again.

So what else is happened to me today !.
A lady coming from a personal trainer nearly dying !
She is getting married soon and went to get toned up.
"MY God he nearly killed me! I had no idea I was so unfit"

A retired teacher from Galway who taught a Polish girl for her Leaving Cert. She got an A in Irish, she had only done the subject for 2 years as well.
I went through my usual rant about how the migrants are the ones with ambition, they work at 2 or 3 jobs just to give their kids the chance they never had. Boston is a great city to see how many of them have propelled themselves to excellence in the Legal, Medical and Financial institutions.
Yes we know many have fallen by the wayside,that's life, many more have progressed though.
A Polish man drinking Red Bull wearing a suit. He was going for a job interview.
The Red Bull was causing him to stutter. I hope he got a bottle of water to drink before he met the panel.

Young electrician going to hospital for tests. Bemoaning the fact that in spite of paying taxes while he was working. He now finds himself in the position where he is out of work and he is entitled to no unemployment benefit.
Even though he has always paid taxes on his work.
Then to add insult to injury he sees refugees coming into Ireland and they get houses and every damn thing handed to them.
So Australia is calling him and when he gets the all clear he will be away.

Another young girl off to Frankfurt, her job were looking for people and she saw the chance to better herself. Lucky girl things are on the up and up.

Two really funny women off to Pearse St.
They were just after a really hot curry.
I just had to say "If you think it was hot going in wait until it comes out and burns your arse!" This lifted the mood no end.
They were in tears getting out with the laughing, €4 tip for the good of it all.

This lifted my mood as well and I can reveal that more business came my way as a result.

On the news,
A woman who refused to allow the electricity company on her land was released from jail today, she had spent 22 days locked up because she refused to allow the ESB on to her land to cut down her trees. The court ordered her to let them on the land, she refused and had to go to jail. The neighbors and other protesters occupied the land and prevented the work from going on. So in the end they let her out.

Compare this with the Billions which have gone missing from the banks. 2 years later not one person has gone to jail. Many have retired with multi million pensions golden handshakes and gold wrist watches to boot,all because of greedy bankers, corrupt politicians, incompetent and corrupt civil servants.

Did you see that 5 people had been sacked from the income tax office? They had been lowering the tax rates for family and friends.
One woman crippled her ex husband for tax.
In their defense they said that everyone above them was doing it.

Not a great defense in a sacking situation.

I had a great evening with my Chinese friends and their 6 month old baby girl.
Really wonderful people. My wife is learning Cantonese from Judy, just for fun.

"I went into a restaurant and ordered the entire meal in fluent Chinese.
All my friends were impressed, except for the waiter.

It was a French restaurant"

Tommy Cooper

Stolen property

There was a big discussion in the Magic club last month about some magicians "stealing" others tricks.
I once saw a guy do another persons complete act, he did it very well but he is nowhere to be seen now and the original guy is still going strong.

I knew another person whose sister used to manage 4 comedians and there was war all the time when one stole anothers gag.
But it is difficult to say who owns what to a point.

o!

In the movie funnybones the main characters father comes on stage on his sons opening night in Las Vegas and tells all the sons jokes. The son then comes on to the stage and dies on the spot when his gags are met by silence.


On the other hand in Greece you can buy a pair of Chanel sun glasses for €5 or a Rolex watch for €10
If this continues there will be no point in putting adverts in the magazines to sell top of the range products.
China will copy, there Copywrite means" Make no mistakes copy it right"

If you can't do things well.

The least enjoy doing things badly.

OK everyone sing along !