Transition time

It's that time of year again; Schools and Universities are back, gone are the abundance of babysitters and the vast majority of tourists, back is the really heavy daily traffic.
This means a lot of the current "day workers" will switch to the night shift and the average age of customer at night will go down by about 10 years.
Takes a while for all this to settle down and for nite clubs to adjust, we'll get all the "that place is full of kids now" complaints, as well as "they were old enough to be my Father..... dirty feckers" complaints, but eventually it'll settle and the students will take over the city again, thankfully in the meantime the GAA will keep us busy with the upcoming Hurling and Football finals.

Overtime

Doing six nights a week for the time being, in an effort to re-fuel the bank account after an expensive few weeks, worked last night (Tuesday) which is unusual for me and I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of business , I'm not on a radio so I depend on the streets for work(I'm a bit like a prostitute!) therefore I wasn't expecting much out of the night, however it turned out OK, around €200 from a 10pm to 5am shift.
Ever notice how when you are trying to get back on track the world contrives against you, with one bill after another knocking you back, this week alone I had my wifes car insurance, the sons school books and the TV license due for renewal.
Give me strength!

Wierdest job of the night!

Picked up a lad from the Merrion Rd going to Artane on the far side of the city, nearing his house he asked was there any good pubs open with "nice girls". I recommended Copper face Jacks and mentioned that everywhere would be lively given the weekend that was in it (see previous post!) He decided to turn the cab around and go there!
As we neared Coppers he made a phone call and following a discussion plans were changed and he was going to Larry Murphys on Baggot Street, a bit of a trek from where we were and I explained it was closed at this time...but he insisted.
On arrival at Larrys he called the guy again, explained we were outside, he was told to wait 120 seconds! I asked if the guy lived around there, as it was not residential and there was no-where open but as I was asking the bloke appeared with a crystal glass full of whiskey and sat in the back.
Merrion road! said the new chap in a very posh accent and continued to talk incessantly about nothing in particular for the rest of the trip, which happened to be to about 20 meters from where I picked the first lad up..........Fare €67 ! The first lad reached into his wallet to pay. at which point the lad in the back insisted that I should choose who pays, I chose the guy with the Whiskey as he'd pissed me off no end with his babbling, he said "CORRECT" and gave me €100 and told me to keep the change!

Absolute humdinger of a weekend!

Cleaned up!
Saturday night
We had the Damien Rice/ KT Tunstall concert as well as all the Kerrymen up for the match on Sunday (Dublin V Kerry semi final All Ireland) Dublin lost by 2 points, I should give a toss but in reality Cork V Kerry which will be the final is better for Taxi Drivers....the Dubs are here anyway!
Sunday Night
Another big gig ...Kaiser Chiefs and the Fratellis! As well as the aftermath from the big match....... the town was hopping!
Happy Taxi drivers everywhere!

The great debate, Turban or no turban

Easy knowing it's the silly season when the big debate about the place is whether or not a Seikh reserver policeman should be allowed wear his turban or not .
Argument for;
He must wear it as part of his religious duties.
Other police forces around the world allow it.
Ireland must integrate immigrants into society.

Argument against
Police uniform is just that a uniform supposed to encourage uniformity.
Allow it for one, soon the floodgates open with all sorts of requests for changes to uniform.
Immigrants should integrate into Irish society, conform to our ways.

I'm fed up talking about it now!
Anyone give a toss?

Foo Fighters and NIN make for a busy night

Special thanks goes to these two who played a double header in Marley Park for an unexpectedly busy Wednesday night.
I wouldn't know a Foo Fighters or a Nine inch Nails song if you hit me on the head with it.
I believe the Foo Fighters are derived from the Nirvana fallout after Kurt died and that the Johnny Cash song "Hurt" is a cover of a NIN track.
They certainly got a rub of the green with the weather, probably the first decent night in months!
Their fans although scruffy looking were really good craic and even appreciated my Led Zeppelin collection.
Apart from that it was the usual after work team bonding shite we always get on a Wednesday night.

I made €30 from Lapdancing!

Many of the lapdancing clubs in Dublin offer incentives to Taxi drivers to deliver customers to their door, most offer €5 per person.
Last night a beautiful young thing handed me the card pictured for the Barclay Club on South William Street..... offering €15, the reverse side of the card is particularly nice!
Coincidently the next job I got was two English lads looking for a Lapdancing club!
I promptly delivered them to the Barclay Club and collected my €30, plus the €8 fare, not bad for 5 minutes work!

Alternative Transport Pt. 2 ....The Luas

Luas is Gaelic for Speed and is the name for the relatively new light rail system in Dublin.

The Luas

I took the Luas from Abbey street going to the Red Cow in Clondalkin at 3pm yesterday.... Tuesday 20th of August.(collecting the car from the mechanic)
Abbey street is the 2nd stop but the tram was already heaving with people, I squeezed in and found my face in the firing line of a sweaty armpit, I took a deep breath and stuck a bit of Led Zeppelin on the I-pod....... unbelievably at each subsequent stop more and more people squeezed on, the stench of humanity becoming ever stronger and the air becoming thicker by the minute.....never again!

The Luas runs from 5am until 12:30am once again (like the buses and the trains)leaving the drunken youths to us Taxi drivers.

Wheel bearings

Finally got them replaced, cost €203....... not too bad, was reckoning on about €300.
Now I'm hearing that familiar clicking of the CV joint!
Will it ever end!

About last night

Finished early, the noise from the wheel bearing became unbearable, booked it in for tomorrow, not with Robbie though(my Mechanic) as he's too busy....... so god knows what the charge will be!

Cork won the semi final of the Championship as I'd kinda hoped!
So I had to put up with Cork supporters giving it loads, they're bad enough when they're not winning things..... arrogant swines!
Dublin or Kerry will meet them in the final...to be decided next weekend ....now that will be a real bumper weekend for us Taxi drivers ....WOOOOOHOOOO

More Car trouble!

After forking out €800 on Friday for repairs, last night the car developed a new noise!
It's coming from the wheel on the front (drivers side) ............go over 40mph and it sounds like a jet turbine!!
I reckon the wheel bearing is on the way out?
I'll try get it fixed early next week as the noise is driving me mental, I wonder how much this'll cost?!

Mick Jagger and the Gaa do the business

As predicted it turned out to be a busy night last night, lot's of Cork langers up for the match,(semi final of the G.A.A football Championship) the Meath heads will arrive today (Sunday) as they don't have as far to travel.
It's very hard for a Dubliner to know who to support......... we hate both teams equally!
I think I'll be supporting Cork....... spit spit!
The buses from the Rolling Stones gig in Slane started arriving to O'Connell street at around 12:30am........... they were still queuing for Taxis at 4:30! happy days!
I'm still on normal time after the holidays, I felt tired from about 2:30am and had to call it a day around 4:30am, even though there was still loads of work on the streets!
I wasn't really bothering with too much conversation either....... maybe I'm suffering from the post holiday blues??

Hoping for a decent weekend

Mick Jagger and the geriatrics are playing a gig in Slane castle tonight which will take a lot of the punters out of the city, (says a lot when Slane have added seats for the first time ever!) hopefully they'll be replaced by the bog munchers coming up to see the Gaelic semi final between Cork and Meath on Sunday.
Thank god the real football has started up again and I can discuss the beautiful game instead of pretending to like bogball!
I hope the bars have stocked up on Murphy's Stout! Those Cork langers won't let the Guinness pass their lips!

I'm so lucky !

Just before I went on holidays the car went belly up on me (another reason I wasn't posting here...dragging the pool for excuses now haha)
I started her up and heard a bit of an unusual rattle but drove on regardless, she was a bit sluggish at first then there was an almighty rattle from the engine and she died.
I left it with my mechanic Robbie while I was on holidays, it seem the pre-tensioner had gone??
He showed me these two pieces of metal that were once held together with ball bearings, but weren't anymore.
He also changed the timing belt... a few brake pads......filters etc
He said I was lucky it wasn't a new engine.
Whole thing cost me €800 ...........heaven help me when I get unlucky!

Stickers

Added some stickers to the car advertising this place.... so I'd better keep up with the posts!

What do you think??

Just noticed this picture isn't displayed on my wifes laptop! can you see it (whoever is reading this)

Been on my Holidays!

Hello again, I went on an impromtu holiday to Mallorca in Spain, the resort was called Cala Bona a very quiet place which was perfect for the relaxing holiday we had planned. Just 5 minutes taxi ride down the road was the livlier resort of Cala Millor although it's still nowhere near as mental as the resorts over the other side of the island ( Santa (Ponsa et al)

Some Holiday Snaps