May 25/ 2008

 Time marches on for sure and now I find myself standing in 2022.

Why will I remember that date for so long? At the time there seemed to be nothing special, much later all was revealed.

An American guy at arrivals was asking each car in front of me something and then moving on to the next car. I was around sixth and the question?

Will you take American dollars? Yes ! Great, move up to the door and I will get the rest of my crew. A woman a boy and a girl all piled in. 

The next big bonus question.

Where are we going?

The K club came the answer.

I will show you the sheet so that you know I said. Its €80.

Thats $100 20 40 60 80 100 and off we went.

He was a really interesting man, he was playing with something, I thought that it was a game boy. No it was a Blackberry, the forerunner of the modern phone.

Thought I knew him. But he assured me that he was nobody famous, I did not think that he was famous, but I could not place him.

Its a good spin to the K club and we talked about most things.

I told him about the drug addict who told me of a story worthy of Bram Stoker the author of Dracula. He had a note book and kept notes. Wow he said if I live to be 1,000 I could never have thought of that.

He asked ma if I had seen any movies lately?

I had seen 2 No country for old men and Traffic. Both films about drugs.

One scene from Old country he walks across the desert with the bags of money. What a shot I said.. Yes that was done with such and such a lens with the aperture set at this.

No matter how it was done it was great.

I told him about a shoot that I was driving on with a Japanese pop star. The director was the boss and he never spoke to his crew. He was God.

Princess Hya (The King of Jordans daughter) was the main focus and I was sitting on a bale of straw chatting to her, otherwise she would have walked away. I had no idea who she was.

On the was back the cameraman told me that the shot would never be used as the wrong lens was used. He knew exactly which lens to use but he could not overrule the director.

My man said a very wise thing. Movies are made in cooperation, each person has a skill and when they work together the best result comes around.

I told him about John Hubbard in the distant past. He is a casting director and we would go around giving out scripts. It was some job to get those lazy people to answer the door to get the script from us. The change from "What the hell are you banging on my door at this hour of the morning" and "Its Hubbard Casting. we have a script for you"

So we arrived at the K club. It means Kildare club

John will you come back this evening and bring us back to Dublin and then back to the K club?  No that would be 4 journeys for me and I would only get paid for 2. They have a beautiful limo here its a Mayback and that will bring you up and down in style.

If you measure one leg of the journey I will give you 5 times that amount. The biggest taxi fare of my life. No I am sorry Its my wife's birthday and she would kill us both.

I will just stick this bit in here. the $100 was given to a magician from Las Vegas to help pay for the operation of his baby daughters heart. I met him a year later and asked how the baby was. I am the person who gave you the $100 for her operation

"That was a wonderful gift I put it into a safety deposit box and I will give it to her when she is 18"

So that night he took the limo to Dublin and appeared on the Late Late show and was introduced as Stephen Spielberg. Where he gave me a special thank you.

He is a clever guy, if I had known who he was I would have been asking him about ET and wondering if he had contacted him again or I might have been lounge tied.

One little extra thing. He asked me what was my favorite movie was. Without a doubt it has to be Cinema Paradiso and we both talked about it. He loved it as well and he admitted that it was his most favorite movie as well.We both had the directors cut.

Anyhoo as they say in Canada.

The book can be bought or downloaded from Amazon

The steering wheel university by Paul Malone

Vintage Checker Cab Driver Interview

Hi folks. We are heading 1/2 way through and the tourists are back in town.

All systems are go.(I hope)

So I was too slow to stop a tourist being scammed yesterday. She came out of a hotel and asked to be brought to St.Vincests hospital, but she had not gone to the first car. The driver was reading the paper and as I tapped on his window to get out of his car as she had a suitcase, before he reacted the receptionist came out and said "Madame I have ordered you a taxi, it will arrive in a minute" and she brought her back in. 

This was at the Hilton garden hotel. The scam is either she receives  a backhander from a taxi company or it will be from an individual driver. Either way the customer gets overcharged. 

Perhaps the Hilton Hotel doesn't care?.Who knows.

It has been widely circulated that the manager of the King Sitric restaurant in Howth is encouraging patrons to take a ride to the airport in his special SUV for €60. But the proper cost in a taxi is more like €30. But the taxi carries public liability insurance. The other car is not insured to carry passengers for hire. But the police and the powers that be are refusing to act.

I love stories in which the people in charge have been warned many times of an impending disaster,

"WE knew nothing about any danger warnings" 

Then they are handed all the evidence. No hiding place now.

A phone was dropped under the front seat of the taxi and the owner made contact. Perhaps a 4 mile drive to bring it back. He took it back and said thanks.

Not 10c for my time.

C'est La vie

Are there angels that move among us?

An American girl got into the taxi going to Rathfarnham.

She was a special needs teacher working with severely autistic children, non verbal etc.

She was from New York and her children had just gone through confirmation and she was so happy for them. 

As well as New York she had lived in Hawaii where she adopted a stray dog.

How to bring the dog to Ireland ? It took time ,shots and money. 

Nearly $2000 to be exact.

I very much got the impression that she has no rich daddy behind her, so it was all her own doe.

She had been sitting in the assassins seat directly behind me and when we arrived she was paying by card so I stood out to stretch my back and then I saw her.

Such beautiful pale blue eyes and such a caring wonderful person.

I really believe that she is an angel sent to help us all.

I should have brought her home to meet my son.

Jerusalem of Gold - Yerushalayim shel Zahav -Ofra Haza- with English L...

I turned on Spotify the other day and heard the wonderful voice of Ofra Haza. Her crystal clear voice rising like the lark on a spring day. I was enchanted and delighted.

Later that evening I remembered about a Jewish man who got into the taxi and I asked him if he knew Ofra Haza the singer? Oh my God what a voice and a really beautiful lady as well.

We will all miss her.

What do you mean, miss her?

Do you not know she died.?

Yes she died from AIDS, the sad part is that she would not take treatment in case people thought that she was sleeping around with many men. But the fact is that if she had come forward for treatment she would be alive today. One theory is that her husband gave it to her, the other theory is that she got contaminated blood after a miscarriage. 

So folks look her up on you tube and admire the gymnastics of her wonderful voice.

She was a great looker as well.

hings are coming back. At 4.pm the traffic was backed up from Heuston to Lucan and the tourist buses are back in great numbers as well.Perhaps life will begin again.

Our pay rise has gone to public scrutiny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did anyone ask me if it was OK to double the price of beer,or fuel?

Its mad !

I had a lady in the taxi going to Rathmines aged.........................102

She was all there and a lively old thing.. I wish that I could be as good at that age.

A neighbour nearly made it to 103.She gave up doing the simplex crossword at 100 as it was "A waste of time"and she had a good death, she just slipped away, God bless her.

The only joke that I know about death is

"When I die I want to go peacefully in my sleep.

Like my father did

Not roaring and screaming like his passengers!"

Where are we going?

Sorry I have just noticed that I published most of this story last week..

The trial of a mother is on in Ireland for battering her 2 year old daughter to death !!!!

Pictures of the child were in the paper smiling in her summer bonnet.

In the UK there has been 2 other high profile cases involving 2 year old children.

Perhaps the saddest one of all is the case of Verpy Kudi who was living in sheltered accommodation left her 20 month baby to celebrate her 18th birthday, the baby died of starvation and dehydration.It was said in the trial that the child had been abandoned so often that she would not cry out.

The judge was amazed as to why she was not looked upon while she was away, or why no one made any check on the baby in the time she was away.

Anyhow the mother got 9 years in jail, I hope she has time to think about her life, I hope she will be sterilized before she is released.

Anyhow I picked up a French family 4 people back into the city. The guy of about 30 sat in the front and he told me that he had lived in Dublin a few years ago. Getting out the lady in the back paid me and as I was closing the door she pressed a coin into my hand."This is for you"

10 Cents. Wow!

I said nothing, this has happened before.

What do you do or say? Sam it down their throat?

The best solution is to Say. 

Take this back I am so sorry that I offended you. Or just give it back and say you need this more than me.

I always wanted to go to Cuba and once we got a chance to go we went.

On research we found that 4 star is best as even 3 star rooms can have mold on the walls.

We stayed in a super hotel close to Havana and then we spent the second week at the Valadero beach resort. Then with about 4 days to go the maid who cleaned the room asked to be tipped, I said no and she said that she would be off when we were leaving.

As it turned out I had been talking to this Dutch guy as it turned out he was the manager, I was wildly impressed with the hotel and he shared his feelings with me of his first arrival at the hotel.

So I gave her around €20 tip.

Anyhow for the remainder of our stay she did not clean the room at all. I saw her chatting with the other chamber maids down the corridor. I could not tell the manager or rightly so she would be sacked.

I might wake up some day with the solution to that problem. 

Probably confront her with the manager and explain to the manager that you do not want her sacked but to be put on notice..

Life is a beach😡😠😵

May day.

So we arrive at May day and lets hope that Mr Putin and his soldiers go back to marching around Red sq and leave Europe in peace.

I went up to Lidl and I spoke to a retired fireman that I met there and I asked him if he knew my old flatmate called Mick Shore. "A big giant of a man and a thorough gentleman through and through. I knew Mick well. He died a few years ago." 

Time passes.

At that time the milkman delivered the milk to Achill Rd where we lived by horse and cart. The milkman picked up the full bottles and when he dropped in the empties the horse moved on by himself to the next house, automatic service.

I had a hell of a good day the other day,the good folks were heading off for the long weekend and around 4.30 I got a call from an old customer for a short run. Everywhere hands were up one job after another 

In 3 hours I had taken in more money than in the previous fortnight.

Luck is what this job is all about. I never turn down a small job in the hope of getting a bigger one, more often you do a short hop and it puts you in line for a better job.

I have to rush now but I will be back soon,

You never ever know.

 I have been only working half days for the last few weeks, so not an awful lot of news.

On Easter Sunday I cruised around and picked up a Phillapeno mother and daughter going to mass.

Her husband was a taxi driver and she is a nurse, making small talk I asked her how her husband was getting on with the taxi driving. She said that he was sick. "Covid" I said. No its Cancer.

The poor unfortunate folks. That cancer is an awful curse. It seems to hit the good people all the time.

The other job today was to the equestrian center in Ballyfermott. I didn't know where it was and we asked a few people.(Dr.Google was no help)

As we got closer he pointed me to a bus stop where he had been set upon by 3 men with batons. When they had beaten him to a pulp one of them phoned a girl on a video call. "WE got the bastard look at how we beat him" the reply came "That's not him you stupid shower of retards"

They just walked away after calling an ambulance. Nice people.

He showed me the bruising and scars on his body and arms and legs.

Then back to business.

Down from the equestrian center is the back wall of Wheatfield prison and an exchange of goods was taking place, when we were going back into town he remarked that he was only out 2 1/2 weeks and last week he got 15 mobile phones into the prison without damage.

The thing about this guy is that he will only live for another 6 months if he is lucky as he is doing all the running around and carrying cash and drugs and he is very expendable.

Now for the UK news

Another case where a little boy called Logan Mwangi was beaten to death by his mother stepfather and a teenage boy, his body was thrown into a local river.

The boy was on the list of vulnerable people

Then

On 6 th of August Verphy Kudu abandoned her baby of 20 months for 6 days while she celebrated her  19 th birthday by visiting friends the length and breath of England. There was no one to look after the child. When she came home the baby was dead. The one thing that is strange in this situation the place where she was living with her baby was supposed to be supervised. 

Anyhow she will not be doing any partying for the next 9 years.

It is not much of a punishment for killing a child

36 Years ago today

 My wife has the memory of an elephant, she never forgets anything. 

She reminded me that it was 36 years ago to the day that we moved into this house. It was the end of one story and the beginning of another.

Our first house was in Blanchardstown on the edge of a large public housing scheme and with a lot of hard work it was mostly paid off and we wanted to move up in the world.You can sell a candle or a box of matches you can also sell a house with no help from an estate agent. No internet back then, so we put a few ads in the evening paper, many people hung up when we said that the house was beside Corduff. We painted a sign and put it up on the embankment beside the house and a man came. "I've come to buy your house" (The kids later called him the cross man) Everything was put into motion to find a good house and we cornered one in Portmarnock beside the sea. Offers were made and rejected, while we increased our offer several times. No go.

Then we tried to get our buyer to pay a deposit of around £2,000. No he said. 

"Me word is me bond"

So I wanted to nail him down as he was moving from a corporation house and he was getting a grant.

I told my solicitor to take £1 deposit and he blew his top. My brother who is a solicitor in the UK told me that his purpose was to act on my behalf and he must act as per my instructions.So £1 was paid and we moved a step closer to the end. Two weeks later he told us that he would move in 2 weeks !

Back to Portmarnock NO GO ! A friend of ours who had been an estate agent told us to walk around the area day and night, there might be a drummer living next door, you only have one chance to find out.

Then on the way back home we cut up a road in Clontarf where they were putting a for sale sign on a house and the lady told us that she would let us see it on Monday. Viewed it on Monday, Survey done on Tuesday. We told the auctioneer that our house was sold and that we had been approved for a loan. So this was a cash offer.We could move in in 2 weeks another £300 closed the deal.

2 weeks later as we were moving out the phone rang and it was the auctioneer from the Portmarnock house to tell us that our offer had been accepted. Poor man was flabbergasted when I told him he was too late.

"You could not close a sale so quickly" he said. I said for him to ring back in an hour and talk to the new owner. 

I knew a guy who lived in the area and the Portmarnock house went unsold for a further 6 weeks.

Yes fun and games often backfire.

Caught myself out !

 Hello folks, nice of you to pop around. Did you get caught by an April fool gag? I fooled myself!!!

I went up to visit our baby granddaughter in N.Ireland the day before. Our roof signs are detachable and it is a 4 hour drive up and back so I took off the roof sign and put it in the dining room. There was a bit of frost on the windscreen in the morning which I scraped off and away I went, I noticed one or two punters putting out their hands and taking them back down again, I thought nothing of it. Then I got a job from Bolt and the customer seemed a bit reluctant to get in.

I got another 2 bolt jobs with the same hesitation before they got in. Then the bombshell came. Where is your roof sign? Back at home came the answer. But the final customer was easy with the situation, he was a part time actor, so I filled in the rest of the trip talking about what a great playwright Arthur Miller was. As it turned out the customer had acted in the Crucible. Arthur was never happy with his work, he kept changing and re writing again and again. I probably told you about picking up a guy at the Abbey theater once and I was raving about View from a bridge which I had seen a few months before. I was ecstatic about how good it was. Then he said "Thanks be to God that you liked it. I am Joe Dowling I directed it" I got a €10 tip as well.

Praise from someone who dosent know is true praise indeed.

Still when you see a great play done well there is nothing better, or a song well sung, done badly there is nothing worse as you sitting there knows knowing how great it could be.