Update

Well the annual blog sabbatical is over and I return with an update of my new routine.

Whilst I haven’t been blogging the mammoth task of collating and editing some 600 Cablog stories is now well underway, so I haven’t been entirely lazy. Given I now have a dedicated office and the perfect environment for such a laborious task it was time to finally start the job.

The move to the North Coast is now well and truly bedded down and all is good, if somewhat dislocating. However relocating does not mean one automatically finds an equivalent wage in the country, hence my continuing to work in the city until something better eventuates.

As I explained to a passenger last night, I don't expect to live in paradise and demand the Government support me in lieu of work. It’s a simple matter of one must go where the money is.

To wit, the above passenger was a Sydney office jockey travelling to the Airport, returning home to Byron Bay for 24 hours to care for a sick wife. And with competitive air fares one can sometimes travel for the same price as a train ticket, so country living and city working is not uncommon these days.

Generally I work three consecutive shifts over the weekend interspersed with many breaks and a good sleep at my brother’s home. And being a relief driver I do extra shifts whilst other drivers take holidays.

In fact I’m presently working full weeks, despite having only three weeks remaining on my good behaviour period for loss of license points. To date I’ve kept out of trouble and last night calculated I have some 4,000 taxi kilometers left before recovering my full points, touch wood.

This current period has fortunately coincided with the Federal election campaign where once again I’m operating Cabpoll for ninemsn. The first video interview is up today and can be found here and will appear twice weekly. Otherwise I hope to return to normal blogging after the election campaign.

Finally, many thanks for the reader comments and emails with best wishes over my sabbatical.

Comments

[John]

Glad to see your back blogging once again Adrian.... look forward to your postings as always

[D Worrill]

I'd be really worried about this poll if I were the Government. I was in the back of a cab last NSW election, and aware of the cabbie's knowledge of the man in the street's thinking, I asked my cabbie who would win. He stated, "Labor' I said you've got to be kidding, they are so on the nose, but he said, NO. History tells us who was right.

[manlycabbie]

adrian i don't know where you now reside on the north coast and where your nearest taxi service is but i can tell you the money isn't to back in cabs on the nsw coast well not on the south coast anyway and its a lot less stressfull driving in the country(although maybe not as many cablog stories and no 3am cafe's to chew the fat at the end of a shift)