A testing time for some.

                        A happy man with a captive clamp.

                                     Cowper Road where a home is a castle.

                   The radio mast of our national broadcaster, more dishes than a Chinese kitchen.

Another week nearly gone and Summer arrives.

I worked until late last night and I got a really interesting guy from (London)Derry in the car.
Software guy works near Google, he spoke of many things on his trip.
Heavy traffic to Crumlin €20.
He also had a strange eye condition by which he could not detect depth of vision.
In other words he couldn't tell by looking down the road how close he was to the car in front or visa versa, not a good thing at all.
But he did have a good tale to tell about the first trans Atlantic cable click it and about the laying of it.
It was done without GPS 1856 all the way to Valentia island in Co.Kerry
It arrived just in time to announce the American civil war.
The next passengers found his fone, it was locked and I couldn't answer it. but I spotted an email address on the screen, in the morning I got a contact and brought it back to his partner on the Bluebell estate. It would be a great idea to print your partners fone number and stick it your fone and you put your number on hers. Then they have an immediate contact.
Then as  swung to go home for the fourth time that evening I got a call on the Hailo app...
"Where are you I said"
"I coming" A young lady from Japan.
Then Where are you ?
I am outside your door, number 8
But I am at number 9
I can see the door of number 9
Can't you see my yellow taxi?
No  
What street are you on ?
Terenure Rd East.............
I will be with you in a minute.
It was over 600 meters away on a different road than the Hailo app had given me.
Then for her destination she gave me Hollybrook Ave
"Clontarf"? I said
she said yes and off we went.
Stop Stop you are going the wrong way. Hollybrook Ave is right back there in Ranelagh.
So it came to pass that my interesting journey with her had ended.
But she had no money! and wanted to go back to the start to find her stash of money.

Then the lady she was staying with came out with some money and told her that it was time to eat.
I imagined that most Japanese lady's would be well controlled and calm   Not her for sure.
But she was really nice and I am sure she will do well in life.
But its not easy leaving home and coming to a strange land.

Later on when I found the fone I rang the Japanese lady to see if it was hers.
It wasn't and did she find her cash?
Yes it was in her luggage
I told her to straight to go to the bank and open a bank account; she said she would.

She was now so happy..

Many foreign students arrive thousands of Euro to keep them for the duration for their stay.
Some of them loose it all to theft soon after arriving.

Today coming back into town I picked up a real panicky girl  from Saudi Arabia !!!!!
Quick Quick St. Patricks
St Patricks what? I asked
What do you mean what? she said.
St.Patricks Cathedral ?
I am a so late for my exams.
Si it will be St. Patricks college?
I don't know.
Trust me for exams that will be the place..

When we drove in she  started shouting "Where is the Disco? Where is the Disco?"
We asked four people then someone said "What is it?" (good question)
Its a store.... Oh you mean Tesco

She went into Tesco for cash and asked to be driven back into the college again.
You can run over in one minute it will take me 10 to cross the  road.

She hadn't slept all night her head was all over the place.....Forward planning  think !
Where are the exams tomorrow Habbi ?

Will the Garda respond?

    Just to show you what the buildings are like in Budapest

                    This is their money €15.90=Fl 5,000

                Models wait their turn to take off down the runway

                             Dublins latest landmark coffee shop..

Well what to say?
I had 2 Canadian Mounties in the car.. they trained together 40 years ago, retired now.
Having stayed in touch they are having a reunion in Dublin.
Yes they told me that as Mounties they always got their man..
I must thank them for the key ring and Mountie badge.

Their is a car on my road for more than 3 weeks so I phoned the Garda its still  there ?
In the local pub Toby told me not to hold my breath.
His story was shocking.
A girl was jogging around Kildare St. and noticed a man sleeping rough, she checked him out and he was cold and non responsive. She approached the Garda on duty at the Dail (Our parliament) and she told them that there is a dead guy over there and she jogged away. Two days later she came back the same way and saw the body still there and had a major fit..
The body was starting to decompose and the Garda had been standing 20 yards from the body for 3 days.. So don't expect them to look after a missing car.

The only thing our government is good at is a big coverup..

Anyhoo as the say in Canada we will give you rain if you could take it home with you.
A Saudi doctor told me
"If we had your weather we would be so happy"
He is right !! We don't get massive droughts like in Australia or heat that would kill you like in Texas.

We could export water!!!!

There was a report on the radio about the massive amount that taxi drivers make..

An old guy with more than 40 years at the game once told me
"Everyone makes the same, some good days some bad days.

Taxi drivers lie about three things.
1 the frequency of their sex life
2 the size of their penis
3 how much money they make

Its all lies go with your head"

Happy May day

to all the workers Happy May day,

As thousands of people flee war and face starvation around the world,,we have the Gumball rally click here in Dublin. I had the owner of the Bentley car above and his son in the taxi. They seemed OK tipped ok too for a change.

Just popped in to wish all the workers a Happy May day and a special thanks to the Luas drivers who are going on strike again.

All I want for Christmas

is me two front teeth,
or so the song goes.
So I started my dental work in Budapest...
When the job is finished I will give it the thumbs up or down and fill in the details.
So far it worked very very well.

                        A good man to hit a football.

Everything went according to plan except one night a taxi driver did an old switcharoo with a 10,000 note for a 500.
I am kicking myself as I knew what I should have done.
Lay down your notes before you go out and take a photo with your mobile showing the serial numbers.
Then when he says No No Sir you only gave me a 500 you say, I am calling the police and they will verify that you have taken the note with the serial number that is on my phone..
Then Sir you will be arrested for theft!!!
But I wascaught on the wrong foot this time.

Also give yourself a chance, get out of the taxi  before paying, open the passenger door and pay him there and not over the back of the seat as I did.

Worst taxi driver in the world.

Travel the world, drive a taxi

There was a couple in the taxi from Georgia on the Black sea the other day.
They asked me what I knew about their country.
Well you are perhaps the only one to have a white flag,,with a big red cross and 4 red crosses in each quadrant.They were had unusual features, slightly oriental, but they are squeezed between Turkey and Azerbaijan..Professors of peace negotiation and conflict resolution.
Perhaps they could sort out rulers and get them to work.

Russian, Indian, Iranian, Saudi Arabian, Polish Slovakian, Phillippino, Canadian and a few Irish were all in my taxi this week. All this insight into the ways of the world and you are home for your tea.

Once upon a time Phil Lynott the rock star and Paul McGrath were the only exotic Irish stars we had.


I have to go away on business now and I am getting ready.

I will tell all when I get back,

I hope that you can download this, you might have to go on your PC to get it.
A lot of taxi drivers are in a very dark place at present and this may help you the Hub also needs  any contrabution you can make, even a box of tea bags.

Click here   

The man from Limerick said it all




Then some people asks a direct question, see how they side step the issues

East Wall Rd.

                            When Aldi opens Lidl opens across the road.
                                 East Wall Rd. expands

                                   Oscar Wilde relaxes on a rock at the corner of Merrion Square

                                                Some of the wise thoughts from the great man

 A wonderful days rain had Joe public giving us the royal salute all over the place.
Just like Christmas eve it was.
But normal service has returned today.

I had a guy with a broken foot in the car, I picked him up at the Abbey theater.
A tough break for an actor I said..Even worse for a director was his reply.
I don't get to many plays I said but I went to the Arthur Miller play View from the bridge, it was really great I said. I directed that in the Gate he said.
Then all the way to his destination I told him about what I loved about his production.
At journeys end he told me I had missed my vocation.
Thanks Joe Dowling.

Today there was a fatal shooting outside Noctors pub off Sheriff St.
If you walked down there at any hour of the night or day you would see guys selling drugs..
Never a Garda in sight..
Now there is 100 Garda down there.
Where do they think the shooter might be ?
Hiding around the corner !!!

Law and no order is a joke here.

A moment from the back seat came from a wonderful Czech girl who had had a baby recently.
My baby is 8 months old, he is wonderful.
I could never have have imagined in all my life that I could love someone so much as him, its really amazing...
Well you can't top that.







When you see something so complicated as this done so well.

Now the next clip shows how something very simple can be done so badly.


Another taxi journey........This time in Paris where the driver is having a very bad day.
He is being teased and you can see how tempers might escalate out of control..
The driver might even bite off the guys thumb. (Ouch)  

Electric future ?

                                                             Our Italian Quarter.

I had a guy in the car who was showing cars in the RDS green energy show.
He told me he had a Tata car on display and I could put my name down for a test drive.
Its a 100% electric car..Eager to drive one I went in to the RDS in Ballsbridge (Merrion leasing))and the lady at the desk told me that they were not giving test drives in that car, but I could drive a Nissan Leaf.
The guy had also told me that the future was in leasing your car, no big outlay and you just hand it back when you are finished with it.
Ts and Cs apply and I bet my mileage would be too high and all the stickers on the door would be against their wishes.
But my next Norwegian passenger told me that the Tata had increased the battery size to give 200Kms range and now the car is extra heavy. You can learn a lot in a Taxi.

If I was telling this story in a pub everyone would say it was a joke.
Sometimes fact beats fiction..

In Philadelphia an Uber taxi was engaged to drive someone to New York
(Google tells me that it is 96.5 miles or 2 hours 11 Mins.)
So off they went  and after a while the driver needed a rest and asked the passenger to drive for a while. The driver woke up to police sirens blaring and the passenger driving like a maniac.
"Why are you going so fast?" said the driver "I don't want the police to catch me as I have been disqualified from driving" said the passenger.
Then he crashed the car...............

Stranger than fiction.

April fool

                                                             Howth

                                                      Blackpitts

     This truck has been spewing readymix concrete over the last 50 yards.

The first of April often brings out inventive pranks/ Liffey Valley shopping center had a "Massive event" 
"All the shops are giving away old stock today only and its on a first come first served"
April fool, and the center is packed...
 
Did you notice the number of crashes on Saturday and Sunday.
Oil on the  road, it rains and the car spins around. 
Be careful out there.

A taxi rear ends a bus and all the passengers get out, standing smoking on the roadside waiting for another bus. Along comes a gurrier and explains to them that they are all hurt and they get back on the bus and start screaming in "Pain", 3 ambulances and a fire brigade help the wounded to hospital. 
I would love to be in court when the bus company's barrister points out that the scumbag was not on the bus when it was hit.



 Well all the banging of drums and marching bands have departed and it is back to plain food and the same old crap...We had an election and we finished up with no one in charge.
Could you imagine having another election and coming up with the same result again.

If you have ever read this blog before you know how I bang on about people not doing their job, it goes on all the time from the taxi regulator to the courts. The guilty walk free and the victims stand there amazed.
Sometimes there is a small piece of justice. Like prison for staff who abused elderly and ill patients in an old folks home.
A man who sexually abused a downs syndrome girl who was also blind (for 10 years)
The person in charge of the girls welfare will it seems get prison as well.
In the UK a sex ring (LINK) of Pakistani men were grooming young girls over a long number of years, some of the girls were as young as 12 and the police, social workers and others sat on their hands until a few very brave mothers blew the affair wide open.
Now the shit has hit the fan, one brave mother was told by a social worker that she herself had done everything in her power to stop it. To which the mother said that she did nothing at all, she refused to help her and she had all the emails to prove it.
Heads are rolling but whether resignations are goo enough, sacking and loss of pensions might waken up some of these gobshites.

So drivers when you see something odd take a note, write down numbers, take a photo and report it,
But don't expect the Garda to take note or put it on file.
Perhaps things will get better.



London is having a positive spin where all taxis will be electric soon and they will be keeping the iconic black cab.