Its like early Spring

 I was in town yesterday and saw pubs,restraints and other shops getting the windows cleaned and painting their facades all in preparation for the big reopening.

The Lord loves an optimist.

For myself I do not see an opportunity to resume in the taxi business. 

On the bright side I do not have a landlord breathing down my neck looking for rent.

Oh for the joy of being an old fart !

Our woes will pass and in 10 years we will be able to laugh about our present fix.

I broke a tooth, one of the big ones at the back. It was not sore for 2 days and then it got a bit soreer.

I rang my regular dentist but he was busy, booked up, no vacancies..

1asked Mr.Google for help and he said Smile Hub Dental Clinic in Bayside.

They are just starting up.Open 7.30am  to 10 pm 365 days a year, with a doctors surgery and skin a treatment place in the same building.

That is one great idea. I really hope that it takes off.

Are you old enough to remember when the banks opened up at 10 am closed for lunch from 1pm until 2 then closed again at 4 pm for the day? Banks are closing down for good now all over the place.

The Central bank is keeping them under their thumb so they are not getting away with the sharp stunts they are used to pulling. I got my bank fined €200 by complaining to the financial ombudsman. Perhaps the next time they will not dismiss my request so easily.

Just on my local bank. The teller was very dismissive. "Put in your pin number now" The account opened with more than a €40,000 balance.Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Well hello. How are you keeping today?"

I was importing 2 cars from Japan so I had a fair poke of money and the next day all the money was gone.

I did OK with those cars.Toyota Prius forever.

One of my sons was on the phone just now and he told us about a guy he used to work with in Northern Ireland.

His specialty was tree removal and he was good at his job.He had an accident and his 2 year old son was killed..

Now that is real disaster God bless them and keep them.

Ask your God to pray for them

The days before I drove a taxi

https://youtu.be/LwFxu0Dpp0Q

You will have to click on the link yourself

Well I have been sick in bed for around 6 days,different symptoms every day and my "Doctor" tells me its nothing. 

Ah the war of the sexes.

So I was thinking about what I did in another earlier life.

I drove an armored car moving cash and gold and other valuables around the world, 

I never had a day like that guy but I did have some strange moments.

So you sit in a van surrounded by steel plate and 3 inch thick bulletproof glass. The assistant is called the back man and he stays in the car while the driver collects the cash. Everyone starts off as a back man to learn something about how the system works.

In my time driving nothing ever went missing on my watch, but there were dickheads in charge who were sowing the seeds unknowingly for the destruction of the company.

One such bonehead came up with the rule, the last person to receive a package is responsible for it.

If it goes missing. Without further thinking the rule was adopted by the company..

One of the oldest and most respected guys was sacked when a packet of cash went missing from the vault. We all protested that at least 6 people had access to the vault and any one of them could have misplaced it. The bone head was delighted with himself until around 4 months later cash went missing on his watch.

Wow you should have heard him protest about his kids going hungry and he really needed the job.

He was kicked out and a more normal governance came into force,

I love when a company is run from the top down, that everyone knows the workings of the company, who the people are and how it all fits together.In my mind this formula breeds great success.

So I was there a few months driving and foreign guys came along. Many of them were great but some of them were missing the most basic thing, they didn't speak English. 

I never had any problems, but you can see that something might happen,

Each car had a radio and your backman was in charge of that. But he didn't know the city and with limited English there was a big problem. Your personal mobile phone would ring "What time will  you be at the King stores?"So you would give them the next one on the list and ask HQ to ring the next one and have the cash waiting. Then they would keep you 40 minutes waiting for the cash to be made up.

One day I had 5 calls from the HQ as to what time I would be at the same certain stop. 

I blew up. 

Just ask any of the other girls beside you in the office. This phone is being turned off.

On my return to the depot I was called upstairs to face the big boss.

I told him that he should have a tracker system on the armored car and not to be ringing me 5 or 6  times with the same question because the girls are not cooperating with each other.

Also I should have a hands free system.

His reply to me was classic.

"When we need a new manager we will call you, until then keep your ideas to yourself"

 Things went back to normal for a while.

The motor tax office was in a building behind the 4 courts back then and it was the beginning of the month, credit cards had not caught on so it would be a pick up of around £1 million.cash.

I went in with my helmet and my ID.and was told that there would be a 10 minute delay, no problem. When I went down to reception I was met by a guy in  a suit and the nicest pair of dress shoes I have ever seen.

"The regular guys are off I have the key of the door" He said. I nodded OK.

This is a robbery, a trick of some kind I thought.

To this day I did not have a plan when I went upstairs to collect the cash.But it came to me on the way down.

The procedure was that you should enter a room to which the security man had the key.

He locks you in, then you empty out the sack of money bags and bring them out in your explosive transport box 3 bags at a time out to the armored car.

As I hit the bottom step I tossed him my helmet to the guy and said "Waste paper for shredding" Out to the van and rang 999, 1/2 hour later they arrived. No security guard could be found, CCTV cameras all turned off .

\i had a perfect set of prints from the helmet as well.

When we got home they never said thanks to me, but one old guy who worked for the company asked me a few days later how I knew it was a robbery. 

I don't know anyone who would wear such good shoes to work, Is that all?. 

No there other lesser factors at play. No thank you John, no well done we will buy you a pint..

The police never asked me to look at mugshots of the usual suspects.

They never asked about other staff either.

In my own mind I think it could easily have been an inside job after all  £! million would have bought 5 houses back then.

I often drove into shopping centers where I noticed robbers waiting for me. Once I drove up to them and turned on my siren and blew the horn..

It is complicated some people are just dishonest, just live with it.

There was so much good work that could have been done there to make things great.

Like

Sending out your trip sheet up to the office, Hello Tesco the cash in transit van will be with you in 10 minuted. then ring the second number we expect your collection in 40 mins .Are you ready?

This would have streamlined the whole operation

A sure what would I know ?.

Then one day we were waiting outside the Credit Union in Lucan I got out of the car and went inside the newsagents and bought the Evening Press. There I saw Taxi for sale 99 Fiat Scudo for £12,000.

I thought that it was a mistake as a taxi plate just a few months earlier might cost you £90,000.

Deregulation was the word and things changed fast.

There were around 2.600 taxis in Dublin within 5 years it had mushroomed to 12,000

New York had only that same number of taxis for a population of 8 Million.

Oh Ho but the Russian mafia owned the plate or Medallion and the "Value" of the medallion was over $i million. 

What happened?

Uber came along and it was happy days for the drivers and the customers.

So I told them on the job that I was handing in my notice which caused a panic on the day.

You did not work out your notice! Just tell us when you are finished today and good luck.

So on the very next day I had my badge around my neck and I went to the Sackville Place rank and I got my first job. She directed me and I told her as it was my first job driving a taxi it would be free,,No No she paid and I was hooked.

It has not been bad to me I learned an awful lot and if I had paid more attention I would have loads of money as well.

Sometimes the lads from security would come over to me when I would be parked at Foster Place and stories of robberies would come out weekly and sometimes daily. One of the guys jokingly asked me to make it stop as there had been no robberies on my watch.. Just luck Just a bit more than luck.?

Then it happened!

A hold up with guns. The driver was not trained and he gave the van  over to the robbers.

The panic button was not pressed!

The isolation key which grounded the car was not deployed.

He never blew it in on the radio.

3 Days later the van was found in The middle third in Killester.

No Money.in the van.

The insurance company inspector came in from the UKwith his big note book and asked the questions about staff training. How there was not a second more experienced operator in the back.?

Then the big question.

Why did it take 3 days to locate the vehicle?

The satellite tracking was not working.

It is a condition of your insurance policy that the tracker in working

With that the insurance agent drew a line over the insurance policy.

Null and void.

God I would never have wished such an end to any company.

The owner was in the taxi the following Christmas and he did say how sorry he was not to have listened to me.

God they lost a lot of money.

Justice What justice?

 I met an old friend today and I mentioned something about the boys in blue, the Garda Siocana. And we spoke of justice.

A mentally handicapped girl was sexually assaulted near St. Johns Rd I wrote 3 letters to the Garda HQ and to the place that the girl was going to at the time. I got a few replies and one bright lad told me that unless they could actually see it happen there was nothing they could do. My reply to him was that it is just as well that he is not in the murder squad.

So I told this to my friend and his reply was that a young schoolgirl was raped and she had bruises all over her body.

She went to the Garda station in Raheny where she made a statement and a doctor came and took samples.

She heard nothing and went back and was told that there were no witnesses and she should forget it. She persisted and the local priest intervened and told her that if she pressed this that people find out about it would be talking about her behind her back and be laughing at her and she could never find a husband.

"Just forget it " So she finally did.

That was 30 years ago and only a short time ago the mystery was solved.

The man who raped her was the younger brother of the Garda that she reported the assault to.

She will not fight it now as time has moved on.

Justice is a hard won fight.

You need a police force to investigate the police.

I has a lovely lesbian couple who had been through the rigors of the RCMP,

they spoke of how their love was discouraged an many ways.

One of them progressed and was in charge of investigating fraud within the force.

She would go in, tap the phones and computers and plant listening devices in police cars and under desks. If they accessed her records she came up as a rookie, but in fact she was one of the highest ranking officers in the entire Canadian police force. 

This is so they could not pull rank on her and impede her investigations.

They gave me a bottle opener with a Canadian flag on it.

I still have it among my souvenirs

Did you get the jab yet ?

 So at last I got the jab and I feel fine.

I hope it goes well for you.

It will be May in a few days, I must line up my tanks and army to march through Red square.

What a load of crap all of that is and a total waste of money as well.

Like most folks I am emptying the garage and as I tidy I find many lost things.

Like a disposable camera which I kept in the car years ago in case of a crash, now redundant as all phones take photos and the dash cam never blinks.

Once when I was clearing rubbish my wife was yelling at me not to be looking through the bags,

"Just throw everything out"

Then I found it.

I had been doing a VAT return long ago when I got a call out and had to leave. 

I asked that everything be left there until I got home again.

On my return the table was cleared. Cash, Cheques,Bank lodgment books, check book and £2000 in blue pound notes. 

All gone and she could not remember where she had put it.

Around 5 years later I found it thrown behind the kitchen door in the back passage.

I had to go to the central bank with a passport and a bank account to have it changed to €uro, they don't hand out cash.

Many taxi drivers are working for Amazon and delivering pizzas. 

My son had a wake up call a few months ago. He was delivering a take away meal to one of the richest family's in Clontarf. 

"Dad the never even gave me a 20c tip"

Son the rich do not tip.

I went to great lengths to bring a phone back to its owner once, time wasted and fuel burned.

The woman just pulled the phone from my hand and I don't think she even said thanks as she closed the door.

There is none as quare as folks as the woman said when she kissed the pig,

The builders are back at work and I was up at a building supply center and they are flying.

They were never busier.

Must look at a new career. Where is there a need for something? 

I notice that there are no pork butchers in Mecca !

Perhaps that is a bad idea.

I once met a guy who said that if he had to live his life again he would just love to be a taxi driver. I said it is not a bowl of sunshine, He came back with a list of positives.

You can work as long or as few hours and no one is going give out that you did not start at a certain time or finish at a set hour.Every place in the world if I am looking for something I will ask a taxi driver. If they don't know they will know someone else who will know.

A good idea will pass your ear every few weeks. They may be doing it wrong, all you have to do is to grab that idea and run with it.

He was right and the next day I found out more about him.

Mr.Obama had brought out a law that you must make your name public if you donate more than $2,000 anonymously  Mr Feeney was on his way to a press conference to declare that he was the person behind Atlantic Philanthropies and that he had given away 8 Billion Dollars.

He invented something very simple DFS  Duty Free Shopping.

Funny thing as it turned out we have a mutual friend in common so I managed to stay in touch up until quite recently. 

Yes he did give a tip.

At least I will have an ally for when I win the lotto.

The Euromillions was at €30 million and I had a ticket. I scanned it at 11pm and it came up.

"Its a winning ticket" How much? I couldn't find the amount. 

I scanned it the next day and got the same result.

So I got my bank details, passport and driving licence and took the bus into the Lotto office.

So picture this? 

I hand her the ticket and say that its a winner, she scans it and says.

 "Yes you've won a ticket to the millionaire raffle"

I was like a goldfish, hardly able to speak and why did the Lotto app say its a winner ?,

The computer has to calculate the prize money. Scan it again and it said a €3 millionaire draw ticket. I really hope that they have re worded that announcement.

It was quite a shock at the time.

One thing Chuck told me to do and it worked so well for me was not to put up with bad manners and rudeness.

I had always bitten my lip and carried on but I have booted out 3 fares and I really felt better for it. The second guy was so surprised when I turned off the main road and told him to get out. He offered me €100 on top of the fair if I brought him. But I knew his game, at the Airport he would try to say that I had stolen his money.

One time when the Garda really helped at the airport a guy asked for a receipt for €30 A Garda was standing beside my taxi, but the man never paid. I jumped out but he was gone.

Did he not pay? said the Garda. You cannot run after him, so please wait by your car.

He got on the radio and gave his description. Let him get to security he said over the radio.

We chatted together and a good 1/2 hour later he was brought back.

He protested that he had paid and the Garda said that he was standing there and noticed the transaction and that there is a camera in the taxi if he would like to go down the the station to view the footage. So the man handed me €20. Let me see that receipt said the Garda.

You owe him another €10 don't short change the driver. So he paid me the money while all the time protesting at how he had missed his flight and that it was all our fault.

Sir just be more thoughtful the next time said the Garda giving me a wink and waving me on.

No one cared and disaster happened

 Sometimes things are so bad that you don't believe that it could be true, then everyone with responsibility turns away and say 

It was not my job.

So here it is.

A girl called Verphy Kudi who was 18 went off to celebrate her birthday.

She left her 20 month baby alone in the flat and did not return for 6 days.

The baby left without food or water died of starvation!

Before you all go jumping up and down she had been placed in a special needs flat.

No one, her Parents or social services checked on the child.

Why did no one hear the child's cry's?

That was in the Times 4/4/21

Perhaps the mother has a drug problem?

We will know soon when she comes up to the court again in a few days.

A sad sad situation

It just goes to show you that there is a lot of evil around.

I hope I get back to work soon

Spring forward

So on Sunday the clocks spring forward one hour and we will have Summertime.

The EU wants to stop this habit, but it would effect us badly especially in winter time with the kids having to go to school in the dark mornings.

Still it is best to enjoy the promise of wonderful weather.

I haad to put on my plumbers hat when I got a call."John come quick,Gas leak"

It turned out to be a leaking water pipe under the floor, hissing like an angry snake.

I had to make 4 visits to plumber supply places and I can tell you the plumbers are all busy men. Plumbing is a tricky trade and good plumbers are hard enough to find.  

A customer told me that they had a big problem with little or no hot water, loads of tradesmen came and went. She met this lad who happened to be a plumber and he was collecting her to go on a date. The dad told the lad about the hot water problem.

It is one of 2 things which are easily fixed. If it is what I think it is it will cost £2 in parts.

It was a very simple solution. The water pressure coming in was pushing  the hot water back up the pipe through a faulty mixer tap in the kitchen. 

The solution was a one way valve on the hot water pipe to stop the cold water.

Everything is easy when you know how for sure.

She also told me that her Dad told her to marry the plumber, but she married a doctor.

Years later she was in a bar in Spain when she met her plumber once more. He was retired and had a villa in Spain where he spent his winters. She said that he looked great.

Regrets she had a few.

We have been blessed that so many wonderful people have come to Ireland,in Kellys of Springarden St there is a tall girl from Georgia working there with the most wonderful voice. I told her that she should be reading the radio news in the morning. Everyone would be going about their day with a big smile on their faces thanks to her voice. 

God bless the beautiful women from Poland and Brazil as well

Anyhoo (As they say in Canada) it might be a good idea for you to take up an online study in something, keep your mind active 

Charlie Landsborough - Isle of Innisfree

 

Here is the ultimate song for the immigrant 

Full of sadness and longing, whether you are in LA or NY the thoughts of home never go away.

This poem was written by a Garda called Richard Farrelly on a bus going to make a statement. The words came to him and he had a notebook and pen so he wrote it down. A friend wrote the music and Bing Crosby recorded it. They were in the money,

Then it thurned up in the John Wayne movie "The quiet man"

Then much later checks started coming in again. 

This time from the movie ET 

Just as well that he wrote it down when he did.

Happy St.Patricks day

 So this will be the second time that we have St.Patrick's day in lockdown. Such a downer, but it is not the black death or a bigger epidemic.

Before I start I will ask you to get a book called Wherever green is worn by Tim Pat Coogan. It is quite a big book but I think you can get it on your Kindle. The Irish dysphoria spans to globe form Che Gavaras Irish mother  being Irish.

The founder of the Argentinian navy, again Irish. 

I was fortunate to drive a taxi meeting the wise and the foolish, the rich and the poor. One day I picked up 2 girls from Canada and it turned out that they were Escamos (They were Inuit escamo means snow eater)Well they had come to Ireland because they had met so many Irish people. What did they think of the place?

It is so so beautiful and the people are so friendly we cannot understand why people ever leave it. 

So I said that we had bad neighbors and in and around 1830 we had a famine and this started a mass exodus which continued right until the 1980s.

When you go leave your home you have an ache in your heart to return, but this is the one day that gives you the opportunity to re-connect. 

Still things will get better,I feel it in me waters as the Moore St dealer would say.

By the way St,Patrick was a slave taken from Wales !

So I wish you all good health and that next year we might hopefully have the NYPD leading the big parade. 

I hope to see you all there.

Pope John Paul in a moment of foolishness decided to Un-saint  Patrick, but the nuns who worked in the Vatican let him know that there would be no dinner until he changed his mind and reversed that mad idea.

Jameson whiskey are having a virtual St. Patricks day

(sorry I could not find the link.)

In the West Indies statues of St Patrick are on display all over the place. Well to them it represents Kali (I think) who is a snake God.

Montserrat has a weeks holiday for St.Patricks day !!

I must try it out.