An interesting discussion followed Mondays post on body odour. It’s a topic I've long wanted to cover but don’t have the vocabulary range to describe the various odours.
Despite being a smoker I can still smell the obvious difference between gut-rot and gum disease, the former akin to rotting onions and the latter, rotting flesh. Simply 'rank'. Moreover I can smell the subtle difference between someone who’s been dancing for hours and someone who’s been rooting for hours. (How do they do it ? Drugs).
Yet how to describe the distinctive odour of sex ? (Feel free to make suggestions). That old cliche, ‘musky’ springs to mind but little else. Maybe it’s ‘spermy’, ‘cheesy’, ‘sour’ or ‘oily’. I dunno but I can smell it, acquired from carrying hookers, their trademark odour.
As far as I’m concerned there’s either fresh sweat or stale sweat. Although fresh sweat is perceptible, I don’t find it overpowering like stale sweat. Stale sweat usually emanates from unwashed clothing, a nauseating odour I’m familiar with after working with homeless men. It’s unforgettable. So when someone wearing dirty cloths boards the taxi, I have no hesitation in dropping the windows.
In fact, on Sunday night I carried a homeless fella from Town Hall Maccas to Kings Cross. Aside from the awful stale smell I was acutely aware of the likelihood of disease, such as tuberculosis. The journey consisted of laboured breathing through the side of my mouth, directed to the open window. Try it for five minutes, it’s not_much_fun.
But most passengers would be unaware of one explanation for the number of smelly cabbies. Whilst it's easy to pick a driver who's been smoking or is sweating garlic, there’s another foul cabbie odour - stale sweat - where the driver is often blameless. It’s to do with the driver's seat-cover.
Occasionally when commencing a shift, I’m greeted by an overpowering smell of stale body odour in the cab, especially in summer. This is the result of an overweight day driver sweating through his shirt and into the seat-cover, day after day.
During the day when windows are generally open, the driver and passengers often don’t detect this disgusting stale odour. However for a night driver with closed windows such an odour is particularly noticeable. At these times I remove the offending seat-cover and put it in the boot.
Given many taxi seat-covers only get washed every few months, rather then every day in summer, this is one of the most embarrassing and difficult conditions to tolerate. Not only do passengers barely converse but they refuse to tip, understandably.
So next time you’re repulsed by stale body odour in a taxi, don’t hesitate to inform the driver his seat-cover needs washing. He’ll understand. It’s much better than saying, ‘Mate, you stink !’.
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