A Hug From Mum

Enough already. Lets get another post on here and see if you can't all lighten up a wee bit.

Just a few lines about home life for all family readers. My eldest son’s meter reading job is going quite well although doing it in a big city can be quite hard work especially at the moment that the weather is very stormy. He has a PDA on which he is sent the details of where he’s working each day and also uses it to enter the readings, send in his expenses and to communicate with his boss. He has to complete 300 readings a week to earn more than his basic salary but that total is almost impossible to achieve as for one reason or another he can’t gain access to 60% of the addresses. Sometimes the people are in but won’t open the door. Others open the door but refuse him access which he has to report in case some sort of fraud is occurring. But all in all he’s enjoying the work and the fact that he has a bit of money in his pocket.

Son number two is still struggling to find work. He had an interview today for a trainee mechanics job with a coach company but apparently the company wants someone fresh from school aged 16 so they can pay them less money. I’ve got a feeling he’s missed the boat as far as apprenticeships go but we’ll persevere until all avenues are exhausted.

In the last post I mentioned owing my garage £600. I was going to leave it until Tuesday or Wednesday next week to pay them the £800 that it would, by then, amount to but my hand was forced. My electric window decided it wasn’t going to go up anymore thus leaving me exposed to a fierce gale on the Wednesday just gone so I had to slink in to the garage and hope none of the head honcho’s were about. They were both there in the office as I approached the garage and started rubbing their hands together in anticipation of receiving my overdue cab rent. I parked inside the garage and told one of the mechanics about the window and he got to work straight away. As I entered the office I announced that I only had half of their money and that they’d have to wait until next Wednesday for the rest. Their response? “No problem”. What an anti-climax. There was me getting into a right old lather about what might happen and they’re both as cool as cucumbers. Apparently they very rarely receive all the rent owed to them during the first few weeks after Christmas so me owing so much was nothing new. And further more one of the weeks I owed was only at half-rate so I only need to scrape together £300 by Wednesday and everything will be Hunky Dory. I mentioned that I was still having problems with my immobilizer and they rang an auto electrician and made an appointment for me to go and have the thing disabled once and for all, which I will do at some point next week.

Work is gradually getting back to some sort of normality but it’s far from pre-Christmas normal. Having said that, I’m still getting some juicy jobs. I’m still ranking at the two regular spots, Paddington and Victoria Stations and also any other ranks that are available.

I picked up a four-hander from the Raft (Gatwick Express side of Victoria) earlier after having waited for almost half an hour. Initially they only wanted Eaton Square, a stones throw away, but they instructed me to wait whilst two of them took their luggage inside. After waiting ten minutes they came back out and asked to go along the Fulham Road via the Tesco so that they could buy some milk for a cup of tea. One of them got out leaving the other three in the cab. At this point I was approached by an Oriental guy (Is that racist? STOP!!) selling pirate DVD’s. I stopped buying these a long time ago because the quality was crap. My punters lapped them up and bought at least half a dozen from the guy and spent the remainder of the journey arguing about which one they were going to watch first. I hope the quality has improved since I last bought one otherwise they’re going to be really disappointed.

An hour before calling it a night I nipped in to Paddington Station for a look-see and found no cabs and one passenger waiting. He had a London Underground map in his hand and was pointing to the last station on the Victoria Line (Northern End) which was Walthamstow, a £35 ride. He looked a bit rough so I asked him for forty pounds upfront which he handed over no problem. The ride was uneventful and the fare came to £36 so I gave him the change and bade him goodnight. I turned my light off and headed for the A406 North Circular Road not expecting to do another job.

As I turned off the 406 into Temple Fortune there was a young lady standing there with her arm out and a mobile phone stuck to her ear and she looked like she’d been crying. Ever the Sir Galahad I asked her what was the matter and she said that an unlicensed taxi had tried to get her to get in to his car saying that he’d do her a special price to wherever she wanted to go. She’d refused him but he was quite insistent and even aggressive which had frightened her and made her run away from him. She then asked me how much it would be to Kilburn to which I replied between £10 and £15. She was relaying this information to her concerned Mum who was on the other end of the line. She told her Mum that she only had £10 on her and that her Mum would have to come and meet her at the point where the meter reached £10. Had I not been on my way home I still would have taken her for the tenner, I’d even have taken her home for nothing as I’m a sucker for a damsel in distress. I told her that ten would be fine and she almost had an orgasm (probably the wrong word but define uncontrollable body spasms together with indistinguishable sounds?) Her Mum asked to speak to me and when I took the phone from the girl her mother couldn’t thank me enough and said she’d be waiting outside the house to thank me in person (and maybe give me the rest of the money?). The upshot of it all was I got a hug and a “thank you for getting my daughter home safe” from her nice looking Mum and just the agreed £10. The meter was saying £14. I drove home shaking my head in despair but also with a feeling of worth, for a change.