Friday, March 06, 2009

Kippersnatch

What's happened?
Where are you?
Have you died?
All questions being asked of me on a regular basis. I'm still around just not feeling bloggy lately. Things are still happening to me whilst at work and are being lovingly chronicled for future postings. May as well get one in here and now.

Before I begin might I just make a comment on the new U2 album, No Line On The Horizon, which was released here this week. After playing it to death on my PC and in the cab via my iPod I have to say it's another gem of an album by Bono and the lads. There are potentially three or four classic tracks on there. Tracks to watch out for: Magnificent and Moment of Surrender. Superb.

Work, work and more work. That’s all I seem to do these days. Some people have commented on the higher rent I pay for my TX4 and if I'm finding it a struggle. If you add that to the countless other bills I pay weekly then I could really have done without it but it's still a far better cab than the others I've been driving so well worth the extra. The so-called better suspension is causing me a concern though as it seems to have vanished and been replaced with what all the other cabs suffer from. Some would say I'm paranoid about it and maybe I am but for that amount of money you expect nothing less than a smooth ride over some of the worst roads in Europe, or even the world. Since I’ve been paying the weekly rent via the bank I haven’t been near the garage for a month. I’ve had to change a few bulbs here and there but overall it has been a problem-free month, which one would expect with a brand new cab.

I've been out on the streets solo for the last month as Chris has been away in Thailand. He returns tomorrow but probably will need another week to acclimatize back to UK conditions. It's still pretty chilly here in the evenings and some parts are still getting snow although London hasn't had any more since my last post.

The radio circuit I joined about six weeks ago hasn’t proved to be as busy as I might have liked it to be. I probably get offered a handful of jobs per shift but these only reach me after having been rejected by half a dozen other drivers either because the pick up is too far away or the job is basically…shit, for example, E2 to E8 or SE15 to SE27. To those of you that don’t know London postcodes let me translate for you. S.H.I.T. Having said that it does occasionally throw out a little gem and I had a nice ride recently from Maida Vale to Teddington Studios for a well-known TV presenter who used to be in Black Adder (Baldric).

The first few days of the week seem to be the worst when trying to earn my daily bread. As Thursday and the weekend approaches then people start to venture out and it all seems worthwhile once again. There’s been a lot of “brooming down the line” lately and I’ve had to be on my guard with doors locked. Some of these cabbies have no shame about passing on their unwanted crap to the guy behind and I wish they’d do the honourable thing and pull away from a rank instead of remaining there for a better job. I was waiting on the point of the Victoria rank one day last week. I’d done a major bit of bird (as I call waiting too long) when a couple of drunk birds approached the cab. One of them was holding on to the railings she was that bad and there and then I knew they weren’t going anywhere with me. As the first one approached she couldn’t even remember the name of her hotel so she searched her bag for a card and it turned out they wanted the Royal National in Russell Square, a nice enough job if the punters aren’t two rat-arsed Irish girls. In this case I did the honourable thing and refused them and then pulled off empty and went back to the end of the line where after another longish wait I got a job to Waterloo.

I ruined a whole shift recently by getting myself boxed in at St Pancras Station. It was already pretty late but I saw a few cabs waiting and figured these guys must know that there’ll be work coming out soon so I settled in at number three on the rank. Four, five and six pulled in behind me to complete the boxing-in and there we remained for an hour and a bit as everyone except me stood outside of their cabs chatting. After said amount of time they all realised the work had dried up and decided to pull off empty handed and try their luck elsewhere, what a waste.

The luggage space in the front of the cab is resembling a rubbish tip lately with empty wrappers, empty coffee cups and various other bits and bobs there including jump leads which I had to use recently to jump start my brother Johnny’s Beamer. I’ve been getting the cab washed regularly by the guys at Sainsbury’s in Ladbroke Grove and they do a really nice job but they only do the outside as I don’t trust them enough to leave it open while I go shopping.

A Russian female passenger recently commented that the back smelt of fish, bloody cheek!! It did get me thinking though and after she got out I opened the back door and had a long hard sniff and couldn’t smell anything so I surmised that she may have been smelling her own fumes as she was sat on the edge of the seat with her legs open. Cruel, possibly, but we do pick up some mingers from time to time don’t we lads?

Be Lucky

L.C.

7 comments:

The Chief's Chef said...

Ooh, Baldrick is my favorite character in Blackadder! He seems like a great guy! (the actor, I mean!)

Dmitri said...

Hi!

Nice post again :) Have a good weekend

Dmitri

Anonymous said...

I hate drivers that broom jobs, Even if you pull off the rank the poor sod behind is still going to cop the rotten job.If they were drunk your in your rights not to take them anyway.If the driver behind wants to,well thats up to him.When my TX4 was quite new i got a few complaints that it stunk of fish in the back.I put it down to rubber or plastic getting warm somewhere underneath.Belucky

John said...

I will never pick up a drunk girl in the taxi. They can turn nasty as well as puke.
I remember a woman getting into my taxi at the airport when the car in front shouted "Thats my fair"
So I put her bag into his car and after helping her into his car I told him she wanted to go to Ballymun a short trip.
He was frantic.
What goes around comes around.

Anonymous said...

When i saw the title of this blog i thought it was to do with the lack of work at the mo but the last paragrapgh explains it all. I had a good story about brooming the other week. Old cabbie at St Pauls broomed Greenwich to me which i gratefully accepted as it went £25. The guy asked if it would be easy to get a cab back later on, i said yeah just wait by the one way system. Amyway i drive around Greenwich looking for another job and eventually end up in the one way system again and yes, you guesses it, i picked the same guy up again all the way back to Rotherhithe Tunnel this time! Took £41 for both jobs, all thanks to the old git!!

Anonymous said...

Russian open legs, Smelling of fish
I fail to see the connection can you elucidate...?
APW

Anonymous said...

yes, the comment about the Russian woman and the smell of fish... Charming. You're not as funny as you think.

Boring blog. Next!