Caught Offguard

So much for my "Loser Spotting Skills".
I got flagged down in Notting Hill by a guy who was obviously out of his tree on some drug or other. He asked to be taken to South East London and told me he'd "look after me". Whenever anybody says that you know it'll mean the exact opposite. He waived a couple of his mates over. I think they'd been expecting me to refuse to take them. My instinct was telling me to drive off but I had pulled into a lay by and couldn't pull away without running the guy over. From the second they got in I got "How much you gonna charge us mate?" and "Do us a deal we're south Londoners" and similar requests. I told them it would be about £30 to Crofton Park which for those of you not in the know is between Peckham and Forest Hill, not my 2 favourite places in London. It was quite obvious that they wern't used to paying Black Cab prices and soon they were whispering to eachother which told me they were plotting to do a runner when we got there (Any of my readers ever done a runner from a cab??).
To cut a long story short, I don't like feeling uneasy in my office (cab) and just came out and told them I wasn't taking them all the way and that I would drop them at the best railway station for them to catch a train. They tried to argue but I was having none of it and as I dropped them at Blackfriars Station I could see two City of London Police officers standing near the station entrance so they paid up the £15 and skulked off. You have to go with your instinct in this job and in future I'll lock the doors and drive off as I normally do. Apart from that one the rest of the jobs were ok.
I recently bought Fleetwood Mac's latest album "Say You Will" and have been playing it to death in the cab. There's some great songs on there and after a few years experimenting with different line-ups the original band members minus Christine McVie have re-formed. Listen to Illume by Stevie Nicks which is a beautiful tribute to all those who died on 9/11.
Best job of the night was from Notting Hill Gate to Hendon £22.
I haven't done any shopping this week as the kids are away so I stopped off at KFC on the Harrow Road for a Fillet Tower Burger before I went home. Yummy Yummy!!