Sunday, August 30, 2009

To the pound


This is the pound. park it right or come here.

These lovely girls from Japan were coming home from the world cultural festival in Dun Laoighre. I took a photo of them with my camera and then with their camera.
Next year for sure I will go see.

Right boys and girs this day week the 8th for the taxi drivers big day out.

Be there or be square.

Well the rest of the weekend went OK I worked all Saturday night and slept all Sunday.

The English bank holiday brought us much needed business.

You know Irish prices are very high and with the rising Euro the difference is more noticeable. For example in Wetherspoons in the UK a pint of beer £1.75 A pint of beer after midnight in Temple Bar cost a customer of mine €8.00,what a shock to the system that was! You can find many lunch time meals in the UK for under £8, there are deals to be found here too, but you have to look hard to get them or know where to go.
Prices creep up as the time goes on throught the night.
One customer asked the barman why his pint was more expensive after midnight.
The barman just looked at him.
"Cinderella Tax"

Anyhow Cider producers reduced the price of cider to improve sales.
The publicans put the extra money in their pockets.
Now the Cider producers have started an advertising campgain telling the public that the price should be lower.

Look Joe public is going to the supermarket on the way home and picking up a 6 pack, he sits in his living room smoking his head off in comfort.

Thats life.
No taxi home either!

Ban TVs in pubs, I love a pint in Kavnaghs Glassneven (Grave Diggers)No TV in bar or lounge.

Today I had a guy looking for the pound, he had a piece paper with Knockmitten lane written on it, so I trusted everything to technology and the clever little thing brought us right there.
It is a busy spot, so take time to look it up on the map now,its just off the Nangor Rd behind Woodies.
(Real taxi drivers don't use sat.navs.)

On the way back into town I got on to the rank at Heuston station and picked up a guy going to the "Tin Church" in Glassnevin.

He told me where it was, a friendly guy,retired ,slight London accent,when I got to the church on Ballygall Rd. I said where to from here?.
Whare are we?
Opposite the church.
OK let me think for a second,you got here very fast.
You see I am blind, I can see a bit, some people say I see to much.
Then he gave me directions, he is off to London tomorrow on the ferry, spending the night with his old mate who worked for 20 years on the buses in Cricklewood in London.
A very happy man, enjoying life to the full, we both said that we were very glad to have met one another.

Then I met a nurse from India, she has been here for 3 years,she even had a few words of the Irish language
I told her that I would love to go to India some time but I was afraid that a Tiger might eat me.
She had a nice laugh,she said she had never seen a tiger in her life.

You know why you don't see them don't you?
No..
They are hiding you see, waiting for me.
Then the journey was over.

Managed to get over to Aldi in Ballymun to get dog snacks and food.
For every €100 I spend there I reckon I save €60 compared to prices in my local shop.
I was buying a tray of dog food there one day and an auld wan said.

"Dats very dear dat dog food"
"No missus says I, the kids would eat nothing else....Meatballs"

Her jaw dropped as I walkednoff with a tray full of food.

Aldi do instant pasta meals for €1.50 and they are grand.
Lidl do Chinese meals for under €5

A sandwitch in Spar is €5 and a Chinese meal is €16.00
Buy Freeway 6 pack for .60c each compared to €1.60 in Spar

JONNIE WALKER IN FULL FLIGHT.
Jonnie has done more for the childrens special day our than anyone else.
Keep it up. Happyness, Happyness..............
Those Scouse girls have a lovely laugh.

And just in case you are thinking of buying a taxi.
Look at my video first.Look there is not even people waiting at the rank.

Friday, August 28, 2009

A day sick


A lane off Grafton St


A fine building off Leeson St.

It is a bank holiday in the UK and here I am at home sick.

Last night I did not feel great and when I got up to have an Alka Seltzer I got sick and it continued to get sick thought the night until I was empty, so today is a day of rest.

I got a chance to read the papers and I read about that famous Italian Village called Casalattico, between Roma and Napoli. It is from this village that the Macari,Borza,Morille,Fuiscardi and Fusco families came to Ireland to make fish and chips for the hungry Irish.
One other very famous person fron the area was the hotel magnate Charles Forte.
Fish and chips are not an Italian dish, they learned their trade from Scotland and England. One shop opens and becomes a success, the owner sends for his cousin to run it and starts another one. Reminds one of how the Irish started "speakeasies"in the days of American Prohibition.
Every summer the streets of the town would be full of Irish cars as the emigrants came home. Now the Italians have become more integrated into Irish society so the great grandchildren might not even speak Italian. Early on the grandchildren would spend summers with their grandparents in Italy.
Now the grandparents are gone.
The streets are quiet this summer and the population of the village is falling, the dream of gong "Home" for many is failing as they now prefer to spent their twilight years with their grandchildren in Ireland.
They told the story of Ireland playing Italy in Bari, the locals went to the match in 3 buses wearing Irish and Italian shirts, some Italian on the back and Irish in front. On arrival the police did not know which end of the stadium to send them.

The Irish are a strange lot. When the fans arrived for Italia 90 they were put into pens to be processed, one person went"Baaa" then another until everyone was baaing like sheep, the police just opened the pens and let them out. Irish fans can sit side by side at sporting events, (except with the English)our passion goes no further than the game.
It would be quite a place to visit one day, I am sure you would get a warm Irish welcome.

I found a magazine on its way to the bin about an AEG which lost 4 1/2 TRILLION $US
Now one million is about the size of a pack of 6 orange juice cartons.
A billion is 6 pallets of $100 bills
A trillion was around 25 by 30 rows of pallets of money.
Loses were being shown as profits and loads of fancy underwriting was going on in the housing market.
Then when it all became unstuck they got bailed out.
No one went to jail, they got bonuses and the money just went.

I treminded me of the big Enron scandal a few years ago.

Seems to me like bailing out the banks is not such a good idea after all.
Perhaps we should send Viper debt repossessions around to a few of their fancy houses to recoup a few of the billions owed, rather than ask people on falling incomes to bail them out.
The property developers made millions selling overpriced houses to our kids,a debt that they may never be able to pay off.
Remember the advertisements, "Get your mum and dad to remortgage their house to give you ahand on to the property ladder"
The government are in the pockets of the property developers,all the tribunals have shown us that,so resist the chance to support the bad bank NAMA national asset management agency. A bebt or bad loan is not an asset.

Lets not go down the route of AEG or Enron.

Oh yes and a green tax is just a tax,if they wanted to help the planet thy would buy the Amazon rain forest and stop it being strippd bare.
That place is the lungs of the earth,it has to be protected.

This is Not quite the finish I thought this would be !

Well what did you think?

Here is something not quite as bad.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Photos from the big day out

At the enterance a statue to motor car driver and the motorcyclist.

This is what I went to drive 360,it is a very heavy car,but still a thrill to drive.


his little baby went like the clappers and lapped the other cars


This is David being strapped in to be driven round the track by a professional
racing driver,David was grinning for 3 days.


Beside Donnington Park there is the biggest meusium of racing cars and motorbikes in the world, this is a big must see


















Fangios helmet was there as well, probably the greatest of all time.
I don't believe that i didn't mention the trip....

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Death and Taxes

Remember remember the 8th of September that is the date for the special children's outing and its the 50th one.
There are stars in big cars lined up Don't miss it.
086 8432175.

Every year at this time my heartburn gets worse and worse, I gather jotters and cover the dining room table with receipts which are fished out of drawers in the kitchen, bedroom and garage.
Then they are lined up with the totals from the meter and all totted up. The medical receipts clutch repairs and other great things are totalled and balanced and I go to the accountant and in a few hours later I emerge relieved making myself a promise to do the accounts weekly and monthly so there will be no pressure on me later.

I came across this from Australia.
I had a guy working on my extension a few years ago,Felix, his mate was a taxi driver they got together for a few pints every Thursday,at that time the tax clearance cert was coming on stream. Felix's mate had been driving a taxi for over 20 years and signing for unemployment benefit at the same time. Over 20 years drawing benefit and driving a taxi without paying tax.
He was as they say "between a rock and a hard place"

He decided that he would sell his own taxi and drive his brothers car when his brother had time off.
After all he couldn't declare 20 years of unpaid tax and fraudulent benefit payments.

Some pay tax, others use forged permits and because there is so little enforcement.
The people who cheat the system are well rewarded.
Those who comply die from a million small "knife cuts"

I must send for my "drivers manual" and it is for certain that I will have to do a course which will include first aid etc., at a cost to me.
While cloned cars and bogus taxis cruise past me all the time.

There needs to be roadblocks and guys with computers to properly verify documents.
Forged documents are good copies, too good to be verified with a glance of the eye.

A few weeks ago when cars were being stopped the number of taxis working dropped by a very noticeable amount, I then had an OK night..

All this illegal activity is bad enough until something happens, like a murder by an unregistered driver, then the Herald will be full of "Taxi driver scum"
Joe public will be making other arrangements and it will be harder times for all.

Oh yes I saw the Google Earth camera on the north strand today.
Its a red car with 4 cameras on the roof pointing each way. The cameras are on a stand around 5 feet up from the roof of the car, so they will be looking over the hedge at you.

Good luck with the twins.

I was just wandering around you tube and I found this haunting tune for you.


Perhaps I might become a magician too Lesson 1


And if you get really good you might become brilliant.

You just have to see Mr Green.How can he do that?


May there be magic in your life allways

Monday, August 24, 2009

Daily news Daily blues

The usual doom and gloom in the papers,3 guys from Portugal got killed in a crash with a truck.
A student kills his friend and stabs his X girlfriend and another flatmate before killing himself, all people from the better areas of town and all third level students.

Then a railway bridge collapses just after the train passed. That was a lucky one, had the train fallen into the estuary in the morning rush hour there would have been hundreds killed. The bridge was inspected last week!
One very plausible explanation I heard was that the viaduct is built on sand and it is used to transport copper ore to Dublin port, that train weighs 800 tonnes, so subsidence is a certainty.

The dock workers held a protest today, they are employed by a British company who want to outlaw unions on the docks. An English company operating an Irish port and telling Irish workers that they have no right to be in a union? I don't think so.
Next thing they will be bringing in stevedores from Mexico (or some other low paid country)and paying them the rate they would get in Mexico.
They have been on strike for a good few weeks now though.

As the end of the month approaches there is a change in the air.
There is a coolness now and the days are getting shorter.
Though we have had a few dry days.
The first of the pupils are arriving in Dublin to start the new year.
With all that's going on in the workplace a lot of people are going back to get PHDs and higher diplomas in education.

A World conference on Cancer is being held in Dublin now,staggering statics are being bandied about about how much money is being spent in the fight against cancer worldwide. In spite of this Cancer will be the biggest killer in the world next year.

Every day it would be easy to moan about how business is bad, but as long as you have your health and your family are well,little else matters.
Follow the link on the r/h side to the Irish Times newspaper to read more about the conference.

By Wednesday I should have my photo software sorted out.
Must take some photos

The way things are going I wil lbe starting a blog about painting, or fittting locks.

I got a phone call from Ruairi O'Connor Magician to go to the airport he is going off to Spain to do a show.
Lucky for me he did not vanish before I got paid.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Clerical Abuse

One small segment in time and a window opens.

A blind to another world opens up.

You peep in, it closes.

What did you see?

I thought he asked for Baggott St Hospital and I was talking away at the time.

As they say, 19 to the dozen.

A bloke that I would figure was an introvert, coming out of his shell slowly.

A nice friendly enough guy.

When we came up via Barrow St my brain hit a blank spot.

"did you say Baggott St."

"No Hollies St Hospital."(maternity hospital)

It was much of a muchness so I said it will be €5 stopping the meter as I had taken him on to the canal 200 m out of his way.

A happy event? I said.

"I wish it was.
No I am going to therapy in a place near there.

You see as a child I was abused by a Monsignor in the church.

He was higher up than a bishop in the church.

I had a lot of anger as a youth I coped with that through Kirate, I am a black belt 3rd Dan.

My aggression became channeled into that, but I never knew why I was so angry.

One day I started to get flashbacks.

Right out of the blue.

I took therapy and was then able to recall what was at the root of my problems.

I had been abused as a child.

Then later on,when I was well enough ot approach the clerical abuse redress board.

I went there.

First thing that was said to me was

"I suppose you want compensation like the others?"

How could they give me my life back to live again?

No I just want him named and shamed,I want to see him in the dock, explaining to a judge why he did the things he did the things to me a child of 11 years old.

I want the chance to tell him and the world how he ruined my life.

Then I might get my own life back again."

It was a lot to drop in my lap just like that for sure.

But that was it, another world and a truth that had been hidden for years behind the doors of the Catholic church,

The present Pope repressed many of the reports of child abuse, now he is worried about paying compensation, if he believes in what he preaches then the day of judgment may be more of a problem in the end.

How could you even begin to compensate for a childhood, when clerics who abused were shipped from one innocent parish to another to sin again and again? and then even protected?

The only comfort I could offer him was that some day the in future he must draw a line under all this, when it is over.

Start to live his life from then on, don't let it destroy him too.

We shook hands and with parted company, each leaving with more than we brought to the table.

Just a moment in a taxi drivers life

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Road Rage

If you are the girl from Clane who was in the taxi on Sunday.?
This is for you, I didn't manage to find the seargent in Clane doing his nut, but I did find the talking dog.

So send me the link please.

This should make you smile.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Donnington Park

Well I am just back in Dublin after a Ryianair flight to East Midlands airport, then a taxi ride to Donnington Park to have a Ferrari driving experience.
www.racing-school.co.uk
If you go there take the Audi R8 instead,I noticed that the Ferrari's were easily overtaken by the Lotis and Aston Martins.
We got a taxi from the airport £8 and drove up to the paddocks where the event was being held.
It is great to see groups of high powered cars revving up and roaring past on the track.
I got a drive in 2 Ferrari 360s one manual and one automatic, the gears were awkward on the manual as it had 6 forward gears and I Had to keep looking down to see which gear I was in.
One other thing that would have helped would be that the instructor just told me to change down or up.
With go to forth as an instruction,I had to look. Change up or down to forth would be better.

One thing I remember from the talk at the beginning is that because there no trees or houses close to the track you get the impresssion that you are going slow when you might be doing over 150mph.

Anyhow I will have to go back again in a couple of years to try again.

As for David my son, he had a ride in a Lotis, the racing driver wes from Cork and he wellied it down the track skidding around the corners overtaking all the "Quality"cars as he went.

David will remember that ride for many a day.

Well worth the trip, a great day out.

Then we walked to the racing car museum which is a good mile from the paddocks.

What a collection of vintage and modern bikes,cars and memorabilia.

Portraits adorn the walls, Senna,Fangio,Mansel and Coultard etc.

Sad to see Barry Sheenes helmet with his lucky duck in a display case.

Then when we left the place we pulled a stroke, we walked into the park and ride place across the road and took the shuttle from there back to the airport

From the airport the Skylink bus brought us into Nottingham 2 people return £7'
Not each, Both for £7

Leave an hour each way for the journey.

Then a chance to see Nottingham castle and the Oldest Inn in Britain.

The Trip To Jerusalem founded in 1189.
Called the trip because the Crusaders used to have one last pint before going off on the Crusades to take the Holy Land back from the Arabs.

So back to to the airport and Dublin.

If you do decide to book use this promotional code TRSSPECIAL09

So when I get the other computer up and working I will show the photos.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Irish American Jew


A detail from a shopfront on Grafton St.

I am working from a laptop and its giving me hell. The cursor jumps all over the place so 1/2 lines are popping up everywhere. Not good.

Can't load the photos either.

Another week gone without the summer.
Schools go back again in acouple of weeks and the swallows will be off on their travels again. Perhaps the Summer will come again when the kids are back.

I had an interesting crew in today, first girl going to the IFSC.
Turned out she came from Cavan, Cootehill in fact.
She worked in Japan for years and spoke of gentle and honourable people.

On coming back home she was shocked with the changes in the country.
The big houses 3 cars at the door etc.

Her own car had been parked in Sheriff St and the "kids" had tumbled it upside down on to its roof breaking all the windows. When she went to get a replacement car she got such conflicting advice on what was good or bad that she got the car repaired instead of replaced.
Last week loads of cars were broken into on Oriel St.and had goods taken from them, even though this area is an area of high Garda surveillance.

Coming back round I picked up a guy in IT who had gone back to university and done a masters,I got the feeling he is getting itchy feet and may go back to California.

Things are bad at Heuston station,you just cannot get on to the rank.

But I did manage to get on to the rank at Foster place where I picked up a lady going north side,interesting one this, she sells a domestic appliance which uses capsules,but her supplier has run into problems so she has nothing to sell, the store is not responding to her requests for urgent suppplies so she has to turn away scores of customers every day.
Problem is that those people will buy the goods on the Internet and never come back.
She had mislaid her purse and had come home early to look for it, I know the feeling only too well,I hope she found it in the house when she got in.
Funny thing is that I remember bringing her home before, its nice when that happens.

The last one was a rare one an Irish American Jew..They were over for a family Reunion, 30 came and they all had a great time.

You could have made a good TV programme with only her on it.
She had a folder with all kinds of documents and certs. I am giving copies to the Irish Jewish museum off Bloomfield Ave. she said.
One of her relations lived in Limerick in the 1920s during the time of the pogrom when Catholic clergy denounced the Jews from the pulpit.
Her relation had 2 sons and the father asked the local priest who was more broadminded to keep an eye out for the boys in case the got into trouble. It turned that the priest had been to Palestine and studied the scriptures in Hebrew,the priest obliged his neighbour by teaching the boys Hebrew, so you see unity hate and understanding were not thought the church or its people.
One story of her family was that they went to Johannesburg and years later they met a Rabbi who told tould them that he loved a girl once from Ireland but before he could approach her the family they moved to South Africa, he followed her but was unable to find her, after only a few more words they realized that it was their aunt he was talking about, how small the world becomes after all those years.
It was very hard for Jews to get into Ireland during the period of the second world war.
Eamon Develera who was our prime minister said that letting such people would "Destroy the Catholic ethos of the country"
Fine Christian thoughtst they were, sending people back to the death camps while setting off bombs in Britian with the IRA

Not many people know that it was the early Jews who brought the flax growing and linen industry to Northern Ireland.

I told her to try putting it all down on a blog,she said she would read this one so if you do put it up on the net drop us a line.

I thought I had a good day until I did the maths.
Just a few figures,

8 Jobs €64.80

Total distance 71.47 kms Paid distance 16.33 unpaid distance 55.14
That was for around 7 hours.


Thisis what it will be like to take a taxi in Dublin soon.



Have a look at Benini at the oscars

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

New faces


Did you ever see this work of art between Finglas and Cabra ?
Very native American

Hubs for wind turbines standing at Dublin docks.


Introducing Shaun who has opened a late night convenience store on Aimiens St,
Just beside the Chipper under the railway bridge.

TAXI DRIVERS WILL GET FREE TEA OR COFFEY ANYTIME,
OPEN LATE.
GIVE HIM YOUR SUPPORT,
WE NEED A LATE NIGHT REFRESHMENT POST ON THE NORTH SIDE.



Now if you are a Dublin taxi driver a note for you.

This year is the 50th taxi drivers special outing.

If you have a Yellow Cab,vintage car or a vehicle of note don't exclude yourself from coming.

The procession will be led by the lord mayor and the Garda band.

8th of September.

Bobby Sheridan 086 8432175 PRO
Johnny Walker 086 0846464
Mick Sheridan 087 2559875
Tom Colgan 087 2496965
Paddy Cullen 086 3854660
Brendan Cunningham 087 2496810

Those are the numbers,
You can give a hand or sponsor a cab.
Even join us for the day!

I do hope Ms Doyle will join us as well.

One thing that often happens is that the press don't pick up on the good story.
Pity that.

Only bad news is goon news for them!

Funny thing the other day,
Picked up a lady with 2 big kids going to Pierce st.
en route I spoke about what we were passing, as you do.
As we approached Windmill Lane where the U2 studios were I asked the girl in the front seat if they had ever seen the street, "We just want to get to our hotel, not a scenic drive" came the mothers voice from the back seat.
Well if you know the area it would have been 20 yards out of their way.
What do you do? Be rude and abrupt or show people points of interest that they might be missing?
Like the Winter Gardens just beside the Holiday Inn?
(look in the next time your passing)

A whole street built under glass.

Where the street has no rain.

Did they know Google was just up the road?.

Things have a way of coming back I feel, something called Karma.

On the way down is Liam Carroll the first spectacular developer to hit the fan.
(Landlord of Google)
Don't know how bad it is but its over 1.2 billion euro in the red.
This will cause a landslide in the property prices.

Did you see that hotel collapse into the river the other night in China?
That was nothing compared with what will tumble here in the next few months.

Just a mention of the girl I brought home from Barcode a few weeks ago now.

Started work at 14 sweeping up the hair in the salon and doing shampoos, her boss was an alcoholic who used to come into work drunk in the mornings and go to sleep in the back of the shop.
So she was soon pressed into doing more work than she was ready for but she learned fast.
It was a good lesson to learn when still so young, that drink can ruin your life.

Now she is the most qualified stylist in her salon and she was off to work with Vidal Sasoon in London for a week starting Monday.

Hairdressing is a good trade, a good stylist can name their price.
And travel the world.
I know of one salon owner in Dublin who was hair fashion adviser to 2 magazines and he did fashion shows and photo shoots all the time.
At night his exclusive clients used to come to the salon when they would not be recognized. Not a bad life at all Frank.


Oh yes and we got Ikea





Here is a repeat by popular demand One night on earth, Benigni.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Road Trip














A house in 2 halves on the road, other half is ahead









Click on the photo.Do you see Homer?











Just back from a road trip to Wales.
The trip has been planned to bring home the contents of my sons house from Mid Wales and return them to Northern Ireland

I went by ferry via Rosslare to Pembroke.
I would have done better going Dublin via Holyhead.
Then I could have shown you the town name sign for the longest place name in the UK LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGOGOCH or to English that for you, "The Church of St.Mary in the hollow of white hazel,near to a rapid whirlpool and to St. Tyilids Church,and near to a red cave"
It used to be the longest place name in the world but they have been beaten.

Next time you see Tom or Cathrine Jones ask them to pronounce it for you.

But I digress. I had rung around for price and found Avis one of the best, so I was allowed to collect the van on Monday the bank holiday to be on the boat at 8.45 am the next day.

Problem one came when they insisted on charging me 3 days rental even though we had agreed that it would be 2 days hire. But they relented and wrote on the agreement 2 day hire only to be charged. (The 3 day was for insurance reasons)

So up at 5 am and I got into Rosslare in plenty of time. Doing it through Holyhead I would have saved 150 kms and an hour in bed, plus a crossing in half the time.
The drive up to their house was good, but through the mountains in fog on bad roads, not a trip for winter by any means.

I had a rest and a bit of a walk about. I got into the van and tried to move it closer to the house, but it wouldn't start.
The key would turn but the starter would nor engage.
Later on I tried it again and away she went!

A warning for the future.

After eating something we loaded up the van for a 6 am start.

Out we came and tried the van....NOTHING.!

Just like the night before.

We were on a hill so I jump started it and off we went for 1/2 a mile then on a roundabout she cut out again.

A Welshman called Dilwyn Llewellyn who pulled us to the brow of a steep hill.Another big jump start and no joy. I ran the van off the road and decamped on to the grass.

So I rang some of the numbers which were on the windscreen...All in Ireland.......After much toing and froing The AA helpline rang me back from INDIA!

I am a patient chap but the only questions I wanted to hear was What is your AA 5 star policy number? and where are you now? Followed by "Help is on the way"

I exploded at be being asked to spell my home address phonetically as all the calls were being charged at the overseas rate. I hung up before I had a heart attack.

My son who had a UK phone rang back and Avis said they were on the case.

I did say that there was a red light flashing on the speedometer and the Avis people didn't know what it could be.

Now we were faced with missing the boat, so I read the manual.

The flashing light was the imobilizer and the keys were coded and the flashing light meant that the key I was using was not coded!
I changed keys and Eureka away we went, racing against time through the Welsh mountains looking at the sheep of Johnes and Williams and no doubt the sheep or farmer Llewellyn as well.

After 3/4 of an hour the Avis people rang us back from Dublin to say that they were organizing help from the AA and they would be contacting us soon.

I wouldn't like to be stuck up a mountain with 3 screaming kids and an axe murderer on the prowl and depending on the AA as my only source of help.

We made the boat and after the 4 hour crossing we went into The Whitford House Newline Rd,Wexford for food.
Why does it take 1/2 an hour for a waiter to take an order?
A good spot if you are not in a hurry.
Then straight up to Ulster where we arrived after midnight, the neighbours helped us all unload and then after a cup of tea it was a sleep until 4/30 and back home.

I had the van back before 8am deadline and like the day I took it from them the guys were having problems processing the form.

There is a limit of 300 Kms per day allowance on the van. In 2 days I had almost hit 1,000Kms and the didn't know how to remove the third day. The charge per Km is 7 cent.Also there was a fuel surcharge which would be removed when the van was given back full,which it was, he didn't know how to take that off.

But what do you know he did know all about the 2 keys and that one only started the van.

Rental companies are very tricky they said everything was Kosher, I don't know.

I will get the agreement back in the post tomorrow.


One thing which I observed in Wetherspoons pub.
A guy was talking to the floor staff.

"How are you? I ant seen you in a while." Naw Ive been in Afghanistan mate,just back I am"
There was a strange moment which should have been filled with.

"Its great you came home safe,,have a pint on the house".
"I hope you don't have to go back once is enough"
"Well done, the people here are proud of you"

Nothing, just a long pause. Then the soldier asked what were the specials tonight?..

Strange one that or what?