Soundtrip
Isn’t that the dream? The everyday world is behind you, there’s a long road ahead, rising and curving to a far destination. Days and night stretch out, diners, service stations, motels, bridges, toilet blocks and a growing litter of wrappers and empty bottles in the back seat.
Hit the play button and let’s get this show on the road!
Foursquare follies
We’ve got a new game, my day driver and I. A game where cabbies shine.
Foursquare, funking off the iPhone’s GPS and social networking. It’s a scavenger hunt, it’s a map of your day, it’s a point-scoring exercise, it’s gathering facts and sharing info.
Wasted
I’m disgusted. I’m a night cabbie, and for the past year or two, ever since the last Commonwealth election, I’ve been driving home public servants, drunk and exhausted. I pick them up from Parliament, from government offices, from hotels. Long after midnight.
Penalties
ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said, announcing tougher laws, “We are sending a clear message to the community that Canberra’s culture of dangerous driving will not be tolerated.”
Himalayas
The Himalayan Mountains have moved to Canberra. Yup. Speed humps at Canberra Airport. In particular the last one when exiting the airport. For the life of me I can’t understand why they built that thing so friggin high. My taxi full of passengers and luggage has absolutely no way of clearing this obstacle without scraping the bottom of the car out. Once again it is quite obvious that Steve Byron does not have a clue.
Come Saturday Morning
Saturday is the day when I go out there and give 1.10 percent.
After a long week of long shifts, Saturday is my day for not caring. I do random stuff, maybe go shopping with my wife, a little housework, a lot of napping, reading the papers, drinking tea and just winding waaaaay down.
Rush job
We were sitting there, just enjoying the still, when a man comes running in from the darkness, smack into the automatic door, which of course was locked while the operator was outside. He looked around, and my companion sighed, got up, handed me the cigarette and went off to serve the guy.
Breakfast blues
Three young people from the post-midnight cab rank. They were in a good mood, continuing a conversation about tummy rumbles as they hopped into the cab. Young man beside me, sweet young thing in the back, and another young chap beside her.
Golden Horn
“He blows a golden trumpet,” I tell the passengers, and out of all jazz musicians, I think I love him most of all. He also sings, and some of his love songs are classics, full of emotion and wordplay. My kind of music.
It finally happened!
Well, that’s one more place on my cabbie blacklist. Certain addresses I just won’t touch. Homes where the residents call multiple cab companies, taking the first one that shows up. Homes of people who have been abusive. Clubs with lax security enforcement.
It was past half-time. Half-time for me comes after the Perth flight at 2230. [...]