I only did a short shift tonight as I plan to do tomorrows shift in two parts.
In my last post I commented on the amount of Americans I pick up per shift and decided to try and ascertain the nationality of my fares tonight.
I only did 14 jobs tonight. Only two of them were American, one could even have been a Canadian I've never really understood how to tell the difference.
Two were European, I couldn't break it down any better than that seeing as I rarely talk to my passengers unlike Wil at Paradise Driver. That's probably the reason my tips are only between 5 and 10%.
Only two of my fares were actually English. They weren't even Londoners but from up north somewhere.
The other eight sets of passengers were all of Arabic extraction. I use that term loosely as they may not all have been Arabs but they had that Arabic look and complexion. Most of these pick ups occur in and around the Edgware Road area which has a large Arabic community. They are regular cab users who never go far but use us frequently. When the work dries up in August you'll find a lot of cabbies trawling around this area for work.
I had a little chuckle to myself earlier when I picked up three female Arabs with all the kit and kaboodle on and took them to the Marriot Regents Park. The fare came to £9.60 and they gave me a tenner. When I offered them the 40 pence change instead of saying keep the change one of them said "I don't need it" and gave one of those dismissive waves of the hand as if to say "don't bother me with this trifle". Don't you just love the different ways people have about them?
The weather has really cooled down compared to the heatwave we had last week. It started raining earlier and is still raining now, we badly needed it I can tell you.
So only a short post tonight with no photos I'm afraid. Night Night People.
4 comments:
Yes, Ive only recently learned how to tell the difference between a Canadian accent and an American one - when I was down Brighton beach and the canadian in front of me literally kept saying "eh?" after each sentence. I have to say, canadian accents rule!
LOL!
If they get in and say
"Hey, take me to XXX",
they are Americans.
If they say
"Take me to XXX, eh."
they are Canadians.
Using a bit of a broad brush, but you get the idea.
Other give aways:
ABOUT
"a-boot" is Canadian
"a-bout" is American
SCHEDULE
"shed-u-ill" is Canadian.
"sked-u-all" is American.
Americans always use the harder vowel sounds.
This is a really cool blog. I'm actually planning to do the knowlege in sept/nov once i get a mo ped. I'm currently working in the passport office so i see you guys in the taxi rank behind victoria station all the time. After handing the odd taxi driver his passport and sending him off on holiday and them telling me how much money can be made ( if you up for working your ass off ) i've decided to ditch the goverment and chase the dream.
I just hope by the time i grow an extra brain and learn that knowlege the game not up and the trade is ruined if not runied already
Its one of those things, i hate that knowlege for being so hard, but understand if it was so easy
easy, their would be a million cabbies trying to get a job at the passport office.
whats your take on the futire of the trade, would u advise any of your sons to do it if they asked for you adivce
You can also test them by asking their favorite brand of beer. But the about vs. aboot is the best way if they're not giving off many "eh's" that night.
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