Hablas Español?

My “Supermechanic” brother in law recently took delivery of his brand new TX4. He brought it round so that I could take it for a spin and I was very impressed with the power in the new engine. It’s also supposed to have the best suspension these cabs have ever had but I felt that after a few weeks or months of driving over our pot-hole-ridden roads it would end up as shagged as all the other cabs out there. I hope I’m proved wrong. I think I’ll just content myself with renting for the moment and who knows I may try being an owner again in a few years.

I took my cab to the garage on Friday as the rent was due (times three). It broke my heart parting with six hundred quid but that’s my fault for letting it build up to that amount. While I was there I got them to change a few bulbs that had blown in the dashboard. The mechanic tried to fob me off because it was a “dashboard out” job but a quiet word with the owner, who was lurking around keeping the troops in order, soon changed the mechanic’s way of thinking. I have been driving around without a dash display for the last few weeks and have been unable to read the speedo. I got double flashed the other night by yet another speed camera and if they bothered to put any film in them, I, and probably many other drivers, would have received driving bans by now.

I was all set for a quiet Saturday evening in when my mate rang me to see if I wanted to buy an 80gig iPod. All my kids have them and I have recently been getting the urge to own one so I agreed to buy it and went straight out to work to earn the required money. I intend to put as many of my CD’s onto the iPod and play it through the tape deck in the cab with one of those fake tape thingys you plug into the headphone socket.

I was 1st cab on the rank at Waterloo tonight when a pair of people walked up to the window with a bit of paper.
Lady: Hablas Español ? (Do you speak Spanish?)
Me: Si (Yes)
Lady: O fantastico. Ahora nos podemos entender sin nadie poniendose nerviosos. (Oh that’s fantastic. Now we can understand eachother without anyone getting nervous)
Me: Yo nunca me pongo nervioso. (I never get nervous)
Lady: It’s a figure of speech my dear. (this was said in Spanish but I can’t remember the words she used).
So, my passengers were Spanish and classed me as one of their own. I had to give them my full life story (leaving out the gory bits), I had to listen to theirs (only mildly interesting) and I also had to give them the guided tour of anything interesting en route to their budget hotel in Bayswater. As expected, after exhausting my vast knowledge of all the places of interest we passed on the way, (London Eye, Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Marble Arch etc) I got sweet FA tipwise but a “come visit us next time you’re in Spain” and a business card with their address and phone number.

It was a pleasant evening all the same and and I made some good money.