I had one of those delightful taxi trips last night. After nine, so it was rate two, and I picked a gentleman up from a club, taking him home to a distant suburb.

It was open road all the way, just we two on an empty motorway speeding through the bushland of the Bush Capital, Miles Davis golden in our ears. Barely a word, just a shared joy in the experience.

I dropped him off, a smile on his face the only tip I needed, and headed back in. It was a quiet night and I was hoping for one or two from the bars in Kingston, before calling it a day ’round midnight.

While I was moving into a scoring position in Kingston the phone rang.

It was not my phone.

I pulled off the road and hunted it down. Not easily findable. Felt under the seat, in the back. Got out, opened the passenger door, looked under the floor mats. Finally found it in a crevice. A 32Gig iPhone down beside the passenger seat, under my computer which I stow there. Obviously been there for a while.

I rang back the “Missed Call” number and got an ecstatic young lady who had been worrying all day about her phone. I reassured her that it would be returned, and when I found she lived in Pialligo, not far from Canberra International Airport, I figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone.

She was glad to get it back, and though I didn’t ask for any tip or reward or even a reasonable fare to return the phone, that was good, as she didn’t offer any.

No worry. Making somebody happy is a rich reward in itself.

I looked in on the taxi rank. I could see that two planes had just landed, so I tailed onto the back, with about thirty cabs ahead. Unfortunately one of the planes was a Virgin flight, and the next to land (and last for the night) was another Virgin and as every cabbie knows, Virgin passengers generally ring up their rels to come collect them at the airport!

When the passengers had all walked out and left, I was the second cab on the rank, with no more planes due.

So I dipped out. Luck of the draw.

The thought crossed my mind that I was in a great position for the first flight of the next day, but doubtless my day driver would have words to say about that!

Foursquare on the iPhone

We’ve got a new game, my day driver and I. A game where cabbies shine.

IPhones each, we share apps. Sometimes they are classics. Shazam is just a brilliant piece of software. You want to know who sings the song on the radio? Just Shazam it for a few seconds and it comes back with the title, the artist, a link to the lyrics and a download button from iTunes. There are currency converters, weather forecasters, games a-million.

And now 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.

Once you download the app, create a new account with all the regular rigmarole of user name, password, icon picture etc., Foursquare checks your location, finds nearby places of interest, and asks if you want to check in. Meaning do you want the world to know that you are currently at that location.

It might be a bar or a restaurant. A museum or a supermarkt, a statue or a cab rank. If where you are isn’t listed, just add it. And then check in.

You get points for checking in. And for adding new locations. And for doing all sorts of stuff, such as checking into a location with “bar” in its title on a school night.

And for adding tips. Yeah, I know all cabbies love tips, but these are information tips. Drinks are half price on Thursdays. Ask for the Megaburger with Rickie’s special sauce. The receptionist has four breasts – she’s got a double-decker bust.

Interesting, useful titbits of trivia and advice. Invaluable as a handy guide to the traveller.

If you check-in at a place more times than any other place, you become Mayor of that place. My co-driver is Mayor of the Canberra Airport Taxi Rank. If you are Mayor of a bar, and that barkeep knows his savvy, you get a discount on your drinks. Sometimes the office of Mayor changes several times in an evening, depending on who has the quickest fingers on their iPhone!

Cabbies are good at this game, because we go lots of places and have time to check in while we are waiting for the next fare. To another place.

My Foursquare is here: Skyring.
M co-driver is here: PeskiePete.

–PeterMac

Taxi 18 at the Shine Dome