Author: Mark

“What did the right leg say to the left leg? Don’t talk to him in the middle, he’s a dick.”

“Better to be someone for a day than nobody for a lifetime.”

“If you keep on believing, the dreams that you wish for will come true.”

Emma, Bex,  Gilie,  Lauren & Natalie, Students of looove.

“If you need something from a dog, call him master.”

Mat, 26, Saudi Arabia

“The English farce only once every four years.”

“Life is not serious. I have seen no evidence to the contrary yet.”

Ken

Achieving your childhood dreams.

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.

A while back, I was given a YouTube address from a contact I acquired as a result of the Blackcabquotes project. It features a motivational speaker giving his last lecture. His name is Randy Pausch and his last lecture, (which may bring some of you close to tears) goes on for just over an hour, and is certainly more enlightening than the average omnibus edition of Coronation Street or Eastenders.

This is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo  and below are some quotes which I have taken from his last lecture.

“Be good at something as it makes you valuable.”

 

 “No one is all evil.” 

 

“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.” 

 

“If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself, the dream will come to you.” 

 

“When people give you feedback, cherish it and use it.” 

 

“Brick walls are there for a reason, they let us prove how badly we want things.” 

 

“Find the best in everybody.” 

 

“If you’re going to do anything that’s pioneering, you will get those arrows in the back.” 

 

Randy Pausch. Taken from his last lecture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

“The art of life is to find peace with yourself”

Charity, Nightclub owner,USA.

“You can’t beat a bit of luck”

Jay, Finance.

 

Merry Christmas x

^“Somebody had to go shopping !”

Mark.

“Never lock yourself out of your apartment, especially when you’re only wearing pyjama’s”

Kaan.

“Appreciate how lovely you are now, in ten years time, you will wish you had”

“Be nice to everyone, you never know when you’ll see them again”

Anonymous

“I must have shot a Robin”

Graham, Asset Manager. This is a saying from Yorkshire, and is used when someone has bad luck. On this occasion, it is quoted by his brother who is unfortunately suffering from Cancer.

“Per Aspera Ad Astra” “To the stars through difficulties”

Davide, Italy.

Johnathan and Tash- Glamorous, supportive and down to earth!

“I stand corrected said the man in the orthopaedic shoes.”

“Live, love, learn.” A Jamie Stevens quote

“The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” Oscar Wilde

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the fight in the dog.”

“Playing in a European cup final is not pressure, it’s the reward, pressure is trying to feed five children on a miner’s wage.” Bill Shankly

“I would rather die on my feet, than live on my knees.”

Jonathan & Tash, Clapham (the above six)

“Old age is not for sissies.”

“Bring back the Routemaster.”

“We got old by staying alive.”

“You have to be tough to be old.”

Gina and John (the above four)

“Size is no guarantee of strength.”

“Keep it clean.”

Lord Lyell (the above two)

“Ghothi Seauton” Ancient Greek for “Know thyself.”

Charlotte, Writer

“Know that yesterday is nothing but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.”

Amani, Palestinian/Lebanese. Amani told me this was a Khalil Gibran quote.

“When the going gets tough, the tough survive.”

Cathie, Event Planner

“We wish you less rain, more sun, and be more happy, you can do it.”

M Pelopidas, Cyprus

“You only get out of life what you put into it.”

Cilla Black OBE, Singer, Actress, Entertainer & Media Personality

Yeah, yeah, I know yesterday’s blog was a bit of a middle aged rant.. but in my defence,  I did make a  promise to all of  you, that I would produce something a little more harminous today.  Anyway, today the word beautiful has been swirling around my mind.  So this is what I’ve done with it…

B e

E ntertaining

A rtistic

U nderstanding

T rustful

I  nspirational

F  un

U seful

L oving.

“He who surrenders freedom, in return for security, deserves neither.”

Rupert, Barrister

“If you want to be happy for an hour, get drunk, if you want to be happy for a year, fall in love, if you want to be happy for the rest of your life, start gardening.”

Irina, Student, Russia

“Never waste a good crisis.”

David, Accountant

“In victory you deserve champagne, in defeat you need it!” – Napoleon

“Wine is bottled poetry.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

“Compromises are for relationships, not wine.” – Sir Robert ScottCaywood

Mark & wife. I received these quotes via e-mail, from Mark and his wife. (former passengers who I dropped off at wine bar.) No doubt a few glasses of wine helped them recite some of the above quotes…

Does unfair parking enforcement frustrate you?

PERSECUTION OF THE MOTORIST

If ever a London speech radio presenter is struggling to conjure up a subject to talk about, he or she will raise the subject of unfairly issued parking tickets, and within minutes the radio station’s telephone switchboard will be jammed with disgruntled Londoners battling it out for an opportunity to rage anger at their local council’s traffic department! As licensed London cabbies, we commit the cardinal sin of having legitimate number plates, and as a result are a very easy nick. For me, (a man who tries hard to turn negative situations in to positive ones) the only positive thing I can get out of these tickets is the opportunity to do some creative writing. By this I mean compiling appeals (often comical) on behalf of my friends and I. Recently, I was listening to a speech radio phone in show, when this very issue was mentioned. What was comical about the show, was the names that Londoners used to refer to their relevant local authority traffic departments. The residents of Camden refer to their parking enforcement department as the CAMDEN TALIBAN, Hackney’s finest refer to theirs as the HACKNEY HALFWITS and last but not least is the Westminster’s residents, who refer to their beloveds as the WESTMINSTER WEASELS! One caller even claimed to have moved his multimillion-pound business out of London as a result of (as he puts it) the flaming Gestapo!  Unfortunately a disturbing pattern seems to be emerging, with some local authority parking departments and private parking companies. It is known as the “MISSING LETTER SCENARIO”  i.e. letters which they claim to have sent, but never seem to be received by the appellant. This will normally happen, at the stage where the appellant is waiting for an answer as to whether his or her appeal is going to be accepted or rejected. Why would traffic enforcement people do this? Possibly because statistics prove that a very high percentage of people who do appeal against a parking ticket; end up winning their case.  So you receive no answer as to whether your appeal had been successful or unsuccessful, what you do receive is a letter saying that you have ignored their appeal decision reply and have missed the opportunity to pay a discounted charge. When you ring the relevant department to enquire, (that’s if they supply a number) they will tell you that the appeal was rejected and a letter sent out to you, they will then bring up the rejection letter on their computer screen, (COMPILED BUT POSSIBLY NOT SENT?) When the drivers explain that the letter was never received, the departments will ever say, “It was sent, and it’s now your problem”, blame the postal system, or just be plain arrogant. Had this been a one off incident with one local authority or private parking company, I would not have bothered to compile this piece, but its now becoming a regular occurrence. You’ve been warned. On a lighter note, I will try hard to dig out some of my more comical parking appeals and share them with you in a future blog!

PS – Tomorrow, I promise NOT to be a grumpy middle-aged old man, and compile a more harmonious peace!