Friday, May 12, 2006

Singing to myself

I haven’t posted for a couple of days because I’ve been in the process of turning my body clock around. I did two shifts yesterday but on the second stint the old eyelids started drooping and I had to go home before I crashed into something. And typically I was miles away when it happened so I had to drive home from Claygate in Surrey singing to myself to stay awake (not pretty!!). When my head hit the pillow I was out like a light and never woke till eight this morning. I decided not to waste the day and went straight to work at 8.30am after dropping my daughter at school. These fads never last long and I will probably be back on nights within a few days.

Now, the weather is really hotting up here and with this older cab I’m driving there’s no AC. I really miss it. I was sweltering in the saddle today and what’s more I actually did a twelve-hour shift, the first time for at least a year. I have to take my hat off to all the cabbies that do twelve hours a day every day; it’s dam hard work.

I’m compiling a growing list of faults that I will give to the garage when I go there on Monday to pay my weeks rent. I did a job out towards Heathrow today, which meant a trip down the M4 motorway. At 60 miles per hour both the wings on the cab were vibrating so bad I had to slow down to 50mph, it was actually pretty embarrassing but the passenger never said anything. Also there is a strong burning smell coming from somewhere probably the engine, which will need sorting ASAP. One of the passenger interior lights isn’t working and I have a couple of warning lights on my display that are constantly illuminated. One is telling me that the passenger door is not shut when it is and the other light is supposed to go out when I’m driving along to indicate that the doors are locked. It’s a child safety feature to stop kids trying to open the doors as we’re driving along. It wouldn’t do to have my child passengers falling out at 60mph now would it?
When I collected the cab it was the only one they had available at short notice but they will give me a better one as and when one becomes available.

I did nineteen jobs in total today. Most of them were just short hops around town but a couple of them had a bit of distance involved. The best of them was a couple of businessmen I picked up in The City. One went to Crawford Street near Baker Street and the other went out to Feltham near Heathrow which is how I discovered that the cab was a “Boneshaker”.
An Oriental bloke gave me a two-pound tip today. He told me to put it on the lottery, as he’s sure I will win on Saturday. I can be superstitious at times and will make sure I put his tip on the lottery and do five or ten pounds of my own as well. If you don’t see any blog updates in the next few days then I will probably be sunning myself on a beach somewhere with my winnings. It’s good to dream.

Today is my eldest son Danny’s 21st birthday. It just seems like yesterday that he was born and he has never given me a day’s trouble, apart from driving my cab into the kitchen wall that is!! That goes for all my kids, I’m proud of the way they’re all turning out. We’re having a barbeque in Danny’s honour at my parents’ house on Sunday so I won’t be at work. I’ll still have Saturday to write about so hopefully something interesting will occur. Until then…then.

1 comment:

Mad Cabbie said...

When ever I try to stay awake while driving my cab, I fantisize about having sex with two hot chicks, trust me you can't fall asleep with a big bonner in your pants.