Cablog

Mixed

I started work yesterday at the Airport expecting a monster afternoon servicing hordes of returning AFL fans. (For what it's worth, the mighty Dragons have shaken their 'minor premiers, major chokers' tag by qualifying for the NRL grand final whilst my other team, Collingwood had a moral victory by not losing the grand final).

Rather than being swamped with endless work the Airport was painful thanks to VirginBlue's failure to have a computer back-up to cover their meltdown. At least that's the opinion of one aggrieved passenger after her 8 hour ordeal from Brisbane.

Just to compound her misery we drove straight into a gridlock at Central due to George Street being closed for a number of hours and causing a traffic nightmare. Still don't know why the busiest street in the City was closed for the afternoon but it was a shocking welcome for my passenger after a horror day.

Heard a funny tale from the Airport yesterday. An Indian cabbie was involved in a minor bingle with another vehicle whilst approaching the terminal. This resulted in the driver abandoning his cab and doing a runner! He's now a fugitive wanted by the police for allegedly not having a taxi license, and whatever else.

More frustrating than funny was the cheery Asian who boarded this morning at Star City casino, wisecracking and carrying on like Robin Williams. However after directing me to a backstreet in Chinatown he could only produce 20c for the $8.50 fare. The ol' 'left my wallet with the girlfriend' excuse.

I told him to piss off, threw the 20c out the door after him and headed straight back to the casino where I jagged an $85 fare to Bangor. Beautiful.

A weekend of mixed emotions.

Vacant

Here's footage of the Town Hall celebrating today's tenth anniversary of the commencement of the Sydney Olympics.

Of more interest to cabbies is that of the 15 taxis shown, 11 are Vacant. Well, it was late Monday evening but still, few drivers made a wage for the shift. The Government has been steadily increasing the number of new taxi licences this year with 167 extra plates due by Christmas. More taxis on the road, they announce, ignoring the fact there are not enough drivers for the existing fleet.

These days one wouldn't be a taxi operator for love or money.

Battling

Downtown Port Macquarie, home to kingmaking Independent, Rob Oakeshott. Mate, things are so tough in the bush we can't even afford a lousy $50m Opera House.

As for current broadband speeds, this post was uploaded over a home wireless network connected to ADSL2+, not much slower than I enjoyed in Sydney using a dedicated cable. Yet, even better, is news that the NBN roll out will not only cost considerably less to the taxpayer but will first start in the bush. Eureka!

Greasy

One of the hazards of driving taxis is those idiots who decide to target cabs with rocks, bottles, laser spotters, food, etc.

Late on Saturday night the cab was hit with chocolate cake and vanilla custard, greasy crap requiring much cleaning with soapy water, inside and out. The big surprise was the food attack occurred outside a school with one culprit wearing the school uniform!?

The school has now been contacted, as done with a previous incident also involving an Eastern Suburbs private school. Grrrr...

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Revenge

A recent passenger told of being booked by a council ranger over a marginal parking violation. “I only stopped to drop off a video and returned just as the fucker was printing out the bluey. So I fronted him and told him to shove the ticket.”

The matter went to court where my passenger, a genuine hard man with a previous criminal record, threatened the ranger outside court. That he did so in the presence of a police officer resulted in a second fine, increasing hard boy’s overall cost by ten-fold.

“Doesn’t matter,” he growled. “I got the c...’s home address from the evidence statement when I went back to court. And one day when he least expects it I’ll come calling. In the end he will pay.”

In the taxi game revenge is certainly entertained when drivers are robbed, scammed or dumped upon. Take the recent case of a cabbie who carted a messy drunk across town to have his family greet the hapless passenger with a beating. The driver was charged with kidnapping and assault.

Back in winter I had cause to lodge a report with Marrickville police over a fare evader. A Kings Cross scumbag had jumped in late one night when I was stuck in traffic. He was in shock, he claimed, after earlier spotting his sixteen year old sister and her boyfriend scoring on the streets of the Cross.

From the start I knew he was dodgy so I elected to entertain him in order to establish a rapport and avoid a possible assault. We talked tough and crude and I mentioned my background growing up in the area playing junior footy. He spoke of doing jail time for GBH.

At Dulwich Hill he had me enter a rear lane to a unit block where he said, “Boss, just wait here for a minute, I’ve left me key card inside.” Then he scurried off leaving a set of house keys on the seat. Attached to the key ring was a medallion with the name and phone number of a local gardening service.

I quickly jotted down the number before he returned for the keys and that was the last I saw of him. After waiting for ten minutes I headed to the cops thinking the gardening service details would enable them to take action, somehow.

This was total delusion as the cop treated me like an idiot, especially after hearing that the amount in question ‘was only $35..!?’. “What do you want us to do?” he scoffed. “We’re busy right now with other matters.” In the background three officers in police overalls stood around joking together. It was 3:30am.

He scribbled out a COPS event number and handed me a card without requesting my name or contact details. In short it was a humiliating waste of time and I left there wanting to pay the scumbag a visit one day.

Well, if I was a hard man with a tendency for violence I just might. Instead, sanity prevailed with the event being written off as a cost of driving taxis.