RENEWAL TIME HAS COME AGAIN

 Its the little things that catch you out.

To renew your licence you have to have a tax clearance cert.

Then fitness for the road NCT

Followed by motor tax.

Taxi insurance etc. etc

On joining you would have to be vetted by the police. One taxi driver is facing prison at present.

It is said that he raped 2 girls and before he got his taxi licence he was found guilty of raping a 7 year old child. What kind of a vetting process did he go through?

My first taxi licence was Cxxxx and my present one is Jxxxx. When we first qualified there was a rule that you had to be unemployed and there was a bit of a limit to the licences issued.

A friend of mine bought a taxi plate and he handed it back in stating that he could make no money at all. A few months later he saw his plate on a new car being driven by the Garda from the carriage office. He stormed into the office and was detained until he cooled down.

The rules are loose for some and strict for others.

When you are driving along its great to share a joke with the passengers,

"I got a puncture the other day and went to a tyre place. He fixed it in a few minutes and charged me €25. I thought it was a bit steep and I said that the last time I had a flat it was only €5

"Thats right he said the puncture repair is still €5 but it costs €20 to blow up the tyre.

But what can you do Thats inflation for ya"

How to Crack a Combination Lock in Seconds With No Tools!

So the other day I had a 4 wheel combination lock and I locked myself out. I tried for an hour or more and I was on the point of giving up and buying another,

I had an idea and went to YouTube and in less than 20 mins. I had it open.

So here it is in case you need to know.

Famous people I met without knowing.

He was going to the VIP area at the airport and I asked him if her was meeting someone?

Why do you ask? Well I could wait and bring you all back.

"Good thinking, but I am going home."

I am opening a company here to employ 1,000 people and I am looking for an office to house them all. 

An enterprise like that needs to be split up, if your workers were in one office and a fire broke out you would have really big trouble. I am thinking of a campus situation.

I see where you are coming from now. So I gave him the name of Europes biggest commercial property company. 

Could you please give me your phone number?

I never give out my number so I just gave him a wrong number.

As we swung over to the VIP area I asked him what the name of his company was 

Its called GOOGLE. 

I never heard of that one I said. Oh you will.

A lot of the big guys travel incognito and pick up seeds of knowledge along the way.

Many of the big fish are polite and very interesting to talk / listen to

RIP Neno Dolmajian

 A sad case where a man from Montreal was beaten up in Dublin has died. 

He was 41 years old.

The Garda are useless, this happened in O'Connell st. right in the middle of Dublin.

I walk from Amiens St to O'Connell to go to the Magic society meeting. I carry a really good baton which slips up my sleeve it is retractable. Druggies, and thugs walk around with no curbs on them .  

But you have to be alert. I never ever saw a Garda there.

Years ago when assaults on taxi drivers became commonplace the Garda were stopping taxis and searching for weapons, which they then took, leaving the driver defenceless.

A couple of weeks ago a taxi driver got a run into the city centre and he tried to rob the driver at journeys end. A big fight followed and he escaped with nothing but leaving his fleece behind, A big call to 112 and they waited 45 minutes until they arrived. They then decided that it would not be worth their time to follow him as too much time had elapsed.

My abiding heartbreak with them is this.

I came up from the river to turn left on to Heuston station. At the lights there was a black min with one of the patients from the hospital which carers for mentally challenged people. As I stood there he put his right hand over  sholder and cupped her right breast. The look of sheer horror that came over her face will be with me until I die.

I went around via Kilmanham jail and into the complex. I didn't see them and I asked about 6 people where the office was, who is in charge? No help from anyone, The local Garda station were no help. I wrote letters to the Garda who told me that unless they saw it themselves there was nothing they could do. "Glad that you are not on the murder squad "was all I could say. I wrote to the Garda commissioner. He was of the opinion that the guy would have to be seen in the act.

Around 2 years ago a residential institution in Palmerstown almost had to be closed owing to rape and abuse of its inmates. 

If it was my guy it is something that could have been stopped sooner.

My son is driving the taxi now and the world is starting to open up for him. You see a hell of a lot from the drivers seat of a cab.

Dracula

 A book written by Bram Stoker when he lived in Marino.

It is a brilliant book which tells of the living dead.

In my mind I equate the living dead with the vampires. They infect more people and they then live off their blood.

The other day I went for a flat white. There was a tall girl in front of me and when I put in my order I turned to speak to her. God it was like a punch to the gut when you don't see it coming.

She was a drug addict, but one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen. 6ft.tall perhaps 5 st. weight wonderful blue eyes and her soul had been taken away. It really startled me.

Such a beauty, her parents must be going through hell, she is going through, you could see it in her eyes.

I saw a documentary on an American pop group, I wont name them but the name begins with B well they had 2 girls who followed them around. Then one day they switched them over to Heroin.   In the TV program the group members laughed about it.

I hope that there will be a hell fit for those lads, and it should be tough.

Orla Tinsley

Things that happen along the way lies dormant in the back of my head and then something happens to bring that moment to the front of your mind again. 

A girl got into the taxi going to RTE our national broadcaster many years ago. She was quite upbeat but very breathless. Have you got asthma? I asked. I wish to God that was all I had, I have CF Cystic Fibrosis. The rest of the journey was spent telling me about her condition.

On arrival at RTE I said that the trip was on the house and she was astounded and asked me why. So I told her that as sick as she was she never complained once and I wished her all the very best.

Her journey in life has not been easy. 

Guess what? she has written a book. Its called Orla Tinsley My Story on Amazon. 

I downloaded it last night.

So not driving around the mean streets has left me without the input that I would normally get. So I have decided to give you bits of knowledge that was given to me over the years.

If you have a dishwasher don't be kissing her like Adolf Hitlers brother did which got him the sack from the Gresham Hotel. (True story)

Dishwashers are in the top 5 causes of domestic fires.

Do never start it working and go to bed or leave it running when you go off to the shops.

It is a design fault. The wires go from the control and under toe door. After a while the wires break and short circuit,

Do you have a life insurance policy?

Where is your money invested? Well ask them to give you a print out of your investments and study them. So I did and looked.

If they make money it will be their bonus and if they loose it will be your money that went.

So I invested in Irish cement Gypsum and a whole slew of building companies. The investor rang me back telling me that building had been stagnant for a long time and he would only transfer 1/2 the money. So I went back at him telling him it was my decision not his and I would complain  to the regulator.

18 months later my investment had risen 150% and I took all the money and invested into pharmaceuticals again with great complaints from the investor expert and thank God for Viagra we hit another big winner.

Where did all the money go?

The tax man took it in a settlement.

Still it was better to have it.

D day

We have not had another world war yet in my lifetime thank God.

So many places in the world are suffering now. That war in Ukraine will cause widespread suffering and food shortages.

So many years ago we took our trusty car and went to France. It happened to be the anniversary of the D day landings and there was loads of veterans and WW2 vehicles on the ferry. Our son was very young at the time, but we were told loads about what happened on the day.

Later that day we stopped for a meal and we placed our order. A young English couple stood up and said how much they enjoyed the meal and asked "Ou est la bord de la Mer?" (Where is the seaside) The waiter took great delight to make fun of them. Walking down between the tables like a circus clown and in a loud voice. My wife speaks fluent French and she stopped him with a shout like a bullet would.

Masseur, are you completely mad ?.

But for the parents of these people and the sacrifice that they made in the war you would be speaking German today. The French did not account for themselves well during the war.

So we will not be eating here today and We will be contacting Ies routiers to inform them of your behaviour.

We left the Café to a huge round of applause.

You don't mess with my wife.

Blackrock clinic

 My wife is ill. Its not life threatening but she is bad enough.

She has sciatica its a pain in the lower back and down the left leg.

It has been going on now for 8 months and this is the reason that I had to hand the taxi over to my son.

We have been to different doctors and we are still no closer to a cure.

We went to the Blackrock clinic and they did a small operation, then 2 or more follow up consultations.

Then the bombshell came that they would offer us no more help !!!!

I phoned and asked that someone would ring me back. When this did not work I wrote again and threatened them with exposure on the blog.

A holy nun rang and spoke to my wife. Absolutely no apology.

We deal in accident and emergencies and special procedures.

We do not provide aftercare !!!

With all their skills and wonderful doctors we are on our own

Perhaps a little bit of thought

 There was a story rattling around about a fathers grief when his 13 year old daughter killed herself. He managed to unlock her mobile phone to find that she was being bullied without mercy. He read some of the texts and said that the phone records were in the hands of the police.

They were going to prosecute in the next few weeks.

It is so important to talk to each other face to face once in a while. Small problems can grow if a person is isolated. "Put away the mobile and talk to me "

There was a big fundraiser here in Ireland called "Darkness into light"

When I drove my taxi I had a couple of people who were suicidal, I started carrying leaflets from the Samaritans and handed them out. 

There is an amazing story in my book called The Steering wheel university (Amazon) about a taxi a taxi driver who was waiting for a job in The summit car park in Howth A lady in her night dress walks past him and.................