Cablog

Nirvana

It’s a rare week when I don’t hear a passenger exclaim how Australia is such a wonderful country. Whilst this observation is often from tourists marvelling at Aussies relaxed nature and idyllic lifestyle, the same sentiment is freely heard from overseas born residents. For them this is nirvana. 

Last night I carried an academic of Pakistani heritage home to the Eastern Suburbs. He’d been to dinner with friends at a Japanese restaurant and raved about the multitude of culinary choices in Sydney. When I inquired if he’d ever consider returning to his homeland, he scoffed at the thought.

Indeed, at this time of year with such beautiful weather and extended daylight you could be forgiven for thinking that everyone wants to live in Australia. But you’d be wrong...

Cowboy

After years of listening to passenger tales about cowboy cabbies I‘d become somewhat immune to their complaints and at times struggled to offer a sympathetic ear.

“Did you get his plate number?” is my first question. The reply is generally no, with excuses such as the passenger was too upset or just wanted to escape the troublesome encounter.

Thus I wondered just how serious the problem was and couldn’t help but feel a little cynical about their saga. However that attitude quickly changes when the shoe is on the other foot as a passenger...

Desperate

During the week I collected a young fella beating a hasty retreat from William Street in Darlinghurst. As I approached a notorious intersection he suddenly appeared from a side street followed by a couple of angry hookers and their pimps. He hustled into the cab barking, “Lock the doors! Go, go!”

At the same time a gap-toothed creature rushed to the open window and snarled, “Watch out, he’s a fuckin’ drug addict!” This had me laughing out loud. I mean, drug addicts loitering around William Street after midnight, who knew?

The passenger was around thirty years old with a healthy complexion and well dressed. When he ordered a ritzy inner city apartment complex I wondered why he would be hanging around such a seedy neighbourhood.

“I was trying to score some coke,” he responded. “My usual source was out of contact and so I tried to score down there. The usual girl wasn’t there so I tried to get set without that slag.”

I suggested this was pretty risky given the amount of scumbags and undercover cops who frequent the area but he didn’t care. “It was only a point,” he said. “It’s nothing.”

This desperate was going to pay $100 for a point (one tenth) making for a $1000 gram of street coke when the mates rate is around $400. And even worse he’d demanded the hooker first show him the gear before he’d hand over the money.

When she returned with the coke he then insisted on tasting it by placing a skerrick on the tongue, before deciding it was ‘icing sugar’ and refusing to pay. On the street that sort of behaviour is really living dangerously, hence his rush to escape the angry hooker and her mates.

“The stupid slut thought I was an idiot,” he growled, “but no way was I going to pay for absolute shit.” He then revealed how at home he intended to cook it and shoot it up as the only way of getting a decent rush. "I've been to a concert and just wanted to finish the night with a bit of fun. It's not like I'm a drug addict or anything."

Yet the hooker's humiliating warning was dead right. Anyone who is desperate enough to score and inject street cocaine is most definitely a drug addict. Hopefully he wakes up before it's too late.

Flat

Oxford and Crown St.

Here's a quick update to let you know I haven't been kidnapped or disqualified but simply having a time-out after endless shifts through the recent holiday period. Feeling a bit flat as a result. Strangely, the more I work the less inclined I am to chat with passengers, hence few posts. Back soon, cheers.

Brassy

Well that was one of the hardest weekends I’ve ever done, primarily due to the incessant rain rather than passenger issues. Any more rain and we’ll be building Arks.

The atrocious weather demanded 100% concentration for the full shifts necessitating many more breaks than usual in order to stay alert. This resulted in extended finishing times – 4am this morning and 5am Sunday.  

Still, I couldn’t jag a decent blog tale though to be honest, didn’t try that hard such were the demanding road conditions. One slip could mean a six month license suspension.

A recurring passenger theme of late is the number of young women openly talking in mixed company about getting laid. I don’t know if it’s the drink or drugs but boy, there’s some hungry gals in this town. And it’s not about love or romance but straight-out plumbing.

At the same time there were heaps of eligible blokes this weekend catching cabs to high-class brothels prepared to pay up to $500 for the same service. One admitted to spending all day drinking booze and browsing online porn only to develop cabin fever of the Tiger Woods variety. Another fella joked how after almost choking on two Viagras he’d gotten a stiff neck. Boom-boom.

A sixteen year old girl from the Central Coast first climbed in the back seat then immediately requested, "Do you mind if I sit in the front with you?" This momentarily spooked me and my first instinct was to trigger the record button on the phone before remembering a recent undertaking given to the authorities. O for continuous camera surveillance like that in bus and trains. 

Yet I need not have worried for she was just being naive in that country way displayed by kids on a visit to the big smoke. “It doesn’t feel right back there,” she chirped and proceeded to report on her provincial world.

One might be surprised, or not, on the amount of drug dealing at her school involving ‘mainly speed, eccies and weed’. And cigarette smoking is pretty much commonplace in the playground. Times certainly have changed in schools from the swinging sixties.

Speaking of the new order brings to mind another wide-eyed, Wollongong kid recently heading into town with mates. Upon spotting some hot girls walking along Oxford Street he wound down the window and sledged them. Instead of the old style, ‘Hey, show us ya tits’, it was “Hey, show us where ya daddy touched ya!”. Clearly an appalling remark.

Speaking of goats, here's two in Kings Cross yesterday.

Cabbie assaulted

It seems that every other day we hear reports of violence against Indians living in Australia. Whilst the majority of attacks occur in Victoria, with a few in Queensland, Sydney has also seen attacks on Indians.

Now the censored police and media reports of the Victorian assaults has led to Australian cricketers in India being threatened by local terrorists. This is lamentable because many of the attacks there are being committed by ethnic groups other than cricket-loving whites.

Around midnight on Monday night I came across the aftermath of an assault on a cabbie outside a Sri Lankan diner in Surry Hills, heavily patronised by South Asian drivers. A handful of cabbies were being interviewed by police with some giving statements of the incident.

As was related to me a passing chef requested a cigarette from a cabbie. When he refused the chef allegedly racially abused the cabbie and punched him in the face.

A scuffle must have ensued as there was a cook's uniform and takeaway containers of food strewn across the pavement. After which a number of cabbies chased and apprehended the chef whilst the police were called.

The commotion attracted a group of nearby restaurant dinners, two middle-aged white couples who thinking the cook was being attacked attempted to free him. Apparently this led to a further stink.

Anyway the police arrived very quickly and arrested the assailant. The victim was carted off to hospital for further treatment. The view amongst the cabbies was that the cook was off his face on drugs, 'most probably ice', to have reacted so violently.

One of the drivers urged me to report the story on Cablog, something I’m happy to do as there has been no mention of the assault in the major press or police media release.  

NB: The attacker’s ethnicity is not noted purely because I didn’t think to ask and wasn’t told. Given the alleged vilification I automatically presumed he was white.

Beat-up

Sorry, dear readers, but this beat-up is the best report on offer today.

Oh, plus another beat-up involving a recent arrest in downtown Sydney.

Final beat-up is found in a colourful cabbie's submission to the NSW taxi inquiry, where he managed to include Charles Manson and Sharon Tate!? Please, don't ask.