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Category: taxi
 Kuala Lumpur
Well I’ve arrived in KL safe and sound. Breezed through check-in at Phnom Penh airport, and the AirAsia flight was very comfortable. I even got the sense that the flight was quieter than they usually are – perhaps a newer model plane.
As it was pretty much dark by the time I landed in KL and seeing as I didn’t know the city at all I decided to wimp out and get a taxi even though the price seemed quite high ($23 approx). The taxi ride was quite amusing as the driver seemed to know the hotel I was going to but was determined to get his GPS unit to give him directions. So he basically spent the entire drive playing with the thing and entering different variations of the hotel name whilst the unit constantly did “route recalculation”. After a while I...
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Back in the day. When I was young. Grr. About 12. A friend invited me over to his house. Never been invited over personally to this guy’s house, by he, himself. Main abode. ‘Call over! We’re playing folf! Are you in?!’ Ehh… Yup. Ok! Sounds good, I’ll be over! Not sure what folf is, but sounds like...
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Quick warning - This blog post contains descriptions of Pukeology, part of the theology surrounding the Toilet Gods and may not be suitable for the queasy. Thanks to Norn Girl and Dave Gorman it does have a happy ending, so do read on if you think you can stomach it...It was Saturday, Somewhere Over the Rainbow finished and I ran up the stairs starting to feel the disconcerting lumpy mush enter my mouth via the back of my throat. There was no holding it back any more. It was now a race to see if I could make it in time to pray to the toilet bowl god and appease it, before its backup plans of sending me to work with a mop were enacted.I should probably mention at this point that the TV show was not in anyway responsible for me vomiting, it was just bad timing. Saying that, I don't like...
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Last night sitting in in the miserable rain and Hot Baby Roy off out for Hot Baby Roy time I needed something to cheer me up.I'd spent most of the day at the dole getting my money sorted out, the useless bastard hadn't put it through the system so I had to sit in the waiting room to get a cheque. Everyone there looked like they were waiting for Jeremy Kyle to call and offer them that one shot at stardom he so kindly offers everyone, (even his own wife).I was pissed off. I'd seen that cute girl in the rain but it wasn't enough. I sat around thinking that I was like some kind of stalker and that maybe if she knew I'd blogged about her I'd seem like on of those pricks who blogs about his top ten anime babes OF ALL TIME!! (even though it's only been around since the 60s).Sitting on the couch...
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 Members of the Irish Taxi Council are staging a protest at the moment around the country.
In Dublin, participating taxis are refusing to take passengers until around 3PM. They have promised not to engage in any illegal activity like last week when they blocked the Luas tracks on the northside and closed O’Connell St to traffic as a result during rush-hour.
The protest route will see drivers on a ‘go-slow‘ from Parnell St to Kildare St where they will loop back to Parnell St via Molesworth St and Westmoreland St.
An all-out stoppage of taxi services from ITC members is planned for Monday next.
Protest counter hits a lovely round number of 20 just over a year since...
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 SOCIALIST Party councillor Mick Barry this morning called on Transport Minister Noel Dempsey to accede to the demand of protesting taxi drivers and agree to meet the Irish Taxi Council.
Cllr Barry said that there should be a halt to the issuing of new taxi licenses and a genuinely independent review of the industry.
His comments came as taxi drivers Thomas Barton and Patrick Walsh prepare to go to the High Court this morning following their sit-in at the offices of the Taxi Regulator which ended last night.
Cllr Barry said, “It is grossly unfair to taxi drivers that new licenses are being issued at a time when the demand for taxis is in decline. Taxi drivers are having to work ferocious hours just to scrape a living.
“The Minister should meet the taxi driver reps and agree to a...
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Has anyone else ran out of patience with scumbag taxi drivers blockading our towns and airports?I rang the cops yesterday in a panic when I heard about their shenanigans in Dublin. My child was crossing town on a bus. Ten minutes later, and everyone on that bus would have been held captive for hours by the caprice of the cabbies.On the radio, I could hear interviews with baffled and frightened tourists trying to get to their hotels, irate parents trying to get the kids and shopping home, annoyed drivers blocked from moving in any direction by a completely illegal blockade.And what did the plod do? What do they ever do? Absolutely nothing. While our economy is going down the shitter, these mongs are permitted to block the airport and the commercial heart of the city without any punishment,...
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It seems that 92% of those taking the new taxi 'knowledge' exam are failing it first time, and some 80% are failing it even after repeating.At last, an exam in Ireland which doesn't suffer from rampant grades inflation.But sadly the test only applies to those who entered the industry since last July. The regulator wants all existing taximen to sit it by 2012. So far, so good.However, I see that SIPTU is warning that if existing drivers are made sit the test, they would 'withdraw their services'. Is that a threat or a promise to the public?Because if 400 taximen who are so afraid they don't know their way around decide NOT to work, I for one would be delighted. I'm fed up with dealing with 'You show-I go' merchants, or those who think it's okay to smoke and eat in the cab, or those reliant...
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Follow up to some long forgotten rants about taxi’s
THE TAXI industry in Ireland has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. According to figures from the Commission for Taxi Regulation, there were 4,218 taxis in 2000, before deregulation, and on January 1st this year there were 21,139. The face of the industry has also changed, becoming multi-ethnic in the intervening years, writes FIONA GARTLAND
During the boom years, although there were tensions as numbers grew and as more nationalities entered the industry, there was enough work to provide a living for most. However, the recession has seen a sharp drop in business for taxi drivers, competition for work has intensified and racial tensions are on the rise.
Anecdotes about African drivers are widespread within the industry...
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So I was drinking last thing in Maddens bar near the centre of Belfast. I’d stolen off to my favourite nook, away from my excellent sisters and the rest of my family because… Because sometimes you just want a quiet pint. And it’s late. And everyone else is tired. And tomorrow is Christmas Eve. So...
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 I went to a party on new years eve and had to walk most of the way home. I tried to get on the aircoach but the driver wouldnt open the door. Walking past the Westin hotel some American guy in his 40s was shouting at the porter “i need availability”. It was 5 in the morning and he was with two teenage girls.
As I got to St. Stephens Green the queue for the taxi rank was only a few people. One guy said he had not seen any taxis on the rank since 2 am and that there was someone waiting just a bit longer than he was. I asked the other guy how long he had been waiting as I didnt trust the first person’s answer. He said “longer than you”. I said “I just want to know how long it takes to get a taxi. He was rather agitated and said “you just got here,...
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Taxi drivers as a profession are not the most popular. They are probably up there with politicians, bankers and tax collectors. However I have come across quite a few decent taxi drivers in my time. However I have also come across obnoxious, ignorant taxi drivers who expect consumers to put up with dirty, smelly taxis, who expect you to direct them to your destination and who never carry any change. And don't start me with printed receipts...."oh the machine is broken"....and "do you have a pen I will write one out for you" As a native, I generally don't have to worry about being taken on the scenic route, but when abroad there are times when you know you are being taken for a ride in more ways than one!Some in the taxi business will say the problems here are a result of the...
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Lately, I have realised that besides food and drink, all the items I am looking into buying or have bought, are simply replacement purchases. Camera broke. Must buy a new one. Microwave needed. Must buy a new one. Microwave broke. Must buy a new one. George Foreman went missing. Must buy a new one. T-shirt...
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Last night was spent in casualty at the City Hospital. Hot Baby Roy called round looking like someone had kicked his fuck in. I was a bit pissed off because I haven't seen him in a while. I almost told him to go fuck but when I had a good look at him I felt sorry for him. He'd a big fuck off black eye and a real sorry for himself look on his face. There was blood pissing out of his nose and he couldn't straighten his arm properly.I put my coat on and took him to casualty. The taxi driver was a right dick. He almost didn't let Hot Baby Roy in because he was bleeding. I told him if he got any on the seats I'd pay for the cleaning (but I'd no intention of doing this).Once at casualty there was a sign up saying said we'd only have a few hours to wait. This wasn't so bad because there was a...
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 I thought that being in a hotel and not at home would mean a different routine. Mostly I was right but on one small front I was very much mistaken. There is this thing that happens when Bert and I are going out. Firstly I set a time to leave. Nine times out of ten it's not a time that is set in stone, it's just a suggestion, you know like "lets leave around 8ish?" As I'm writing that even I know I'm lying. It's usually not just set in stone but signed with a death penalty attached. Every now and then I do let up and give a time that isn't bound by any prime directive, although it's not often. Anyway, as I said, the first thing that happens is I set a time to leave. There is no point Bert setting a time as if we book a table somewhere for 8pm he thinks that means we leave the...
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 Got a taxi called out last night, it was €9.45 before it even moved. I asked the driver why it was so much as he took us on a roundabout route to show us Colin Farrels house (not at our request). He was playing by the rules so it seems: Initial charge €4.45, call out charge €2, extra passengers after first one €1 each x 3....
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 Taxi drivers in Dublin withdrew their services this morning in protest at a decision by the Taxi Regulator Kathleen Doyle (left) to increase the licence fee.The cost to obtain an Irish taxi driver's badge has recently been raised from previously € 3 to € 250 (!!!), at short notice, without consultation and for no good reason.Despite several public protests last month (see also my entry of May 9th), there has been no reaction and no sign of willingness to negotiate the matter from the utterly useless Commission for Taxi Regulation, which employs 23 people full-time for nothing else but to harass Ireland's taxi drivers and to make their lives more difficult and unpleasant.So the four main taxi drivers unions told their members in the capital not to work today - the day before the...
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If being named after a drunk isn’t enough trouble for an airport, then spare a thought for George Best City Airport, Belfast where they have just upped the ante on stupidity and greed by levying a new and more annoying gimmick to drive customers to distraction. The airport now adds a £1 surcharge on taxi pick-up and drop-off fares at its only terminal, the cost will then be pushed onto taxi customers. But onlt taxis registered at the airport can operate at the building. Being met by friend or family? Then you must carry your luggage - apparently there is a lack of trolleys as well - to an open air special zone in the nearby-by car park. Well known for its prevailing westerly winds and driving rains the Belfast airport’s regular passengers can expect to suffer routine...
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• ChristineBohan: @faduda True dat. Irish version would be overrun with dumb culchies, old men who know fuck-all and probably the exact same civil service.
• datbeardyman: @ChristineBohan lending box set around so I can rant without causing offence. Shout cunt at someone + it's off the HR these days. Wearying.
• MaggyMoon: @DoMyBooks Ha, ha, ha, thats brilliant, u should frame that, v cute
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• Ellz_Conneely: @A_Smurf ara a shoutout will do no harm shure! :) x
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• seanjnugent: Earliest ive gone to bed in the last week was like 1am, and i still manage to get up at 9am on the dot, strange.....
• branningeastend: Vote for me in Walford Used Car Salesman of the Year 2010 Awards in November please. If Darren wins I'm fucking topping myself
• DavidManley: @OldManRodgers Nothing beats the hobo life......stabbin' folks with mah hobo knife!
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• IMF Chairman agrees with my assessment that global economy is recovering. :) Pity Ireland is so far behind.
• RT @ConcernWorld U2, spaceships and Croke Park: all in a night's work http://bit.ly/10PiGY
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• Mercer Press pub'd book of short stories by "talented" young writer, Cork, will give copy to blogger who'll read & post about it
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• @Sinabhfuil Last time I checked we had found over 40k - but that's only the no. we've found. There's bound to be much more than that.
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