Halloween

Halloween was never a big thing over here until a few years ago it was called duck apple night or mischief night. 
No trick or treat back then that’s an American thing along with pumpkins, it used to be a hollowed out turnip with a candle inside. Still it keeps the kids happy heres a photo I took last year of my daughter Emma

Big Fella

The fare was a big rough fella he seemed a bit quiet, been fighting I asked looking at the scratches and bruises on his face. He said nothing for a while just looked at me. The girlfriend he said, yes what about her I said? She has too much to drink and she batters me I’m sick of it he said people think it’s me but no I just stand there and take it. That’s the third mobile phone of mine she’s smashed to pieces and about the tenth shirt she’s ripped to shreds. The next day she can’t apologise enough and always says it won’t happen again but it always does, I’ve had enough he said can’t stand it anymore.

Home sweet home

Talking to some people today about this house it’s the only one occupied in the street, They are all due for demolition but one family refuses to sell they say they need more money to buy a new house. They have been holding out for months now with neighbouring houses being torched and drug addicts hanging round. I don’t know the family but they must be sticking to there principles or just being bloody minded.

Pain

Picked up a guy and he seemed a bit nervous, were to? I asked he gave me an address of a local dentist, Oh the one they call the house of pain I said and watched the colour drain from his face.

The Beast

I had picked four guys up and one of them was saying how he had been talking to a 22 year old nymphomaniac in an internet chat room the previous night.
 His mates howled with laughter when I interrupted with the comment that it was probably a 22 stone transvestite for all he knew.
 There are still many gullible folk about who believe because they want to believe. 
 It reminded me off the young lady I took back to her home in Blackpool recently, which is about 70 miles from here; she had come through to visit someone she had met in the chat rooms and ended up staying the night.
 I said don’t you find that dodgy had you met him before or anything no she said we just spoke via the keyboard.
 Anyway as we drove along I had a better look at her in the rear view mirror and not to put to fine a point on it she was a beast!  So I don’t know how she had described herself to the poor guy but I bet he got a hell of a fright.
 She did tell me that he had paid the full £70 taxi fare so that says a lot to me.

The Bishop

Got a call to pick up a Rev D**** from a bank in town. Sure enough a guy comes out mid fifties grey suit gold rim glasses and dog collar. Bless you my son he said when he got in and asked to be taken to an address on Walney on the way he was telling me he had been a monk for ten years but now he was a Bishop and he then began reciting from the Old Testament. I began to get the feeling that I had seen him before, after awhile I remembered that I had picked him up a few months previously but back then he was minus the dog collar and he told me he was martial arts grand master. Should have known really not many Bishops have there palaces in a Walney council flat.

Left or Right

I am always surprised how many people don’t know there left from right lots of times people say turn left here and then point to the right. I had assumed that most people knew but I would say three out of ten don’t which amazes me.

Sunday

Sunday mornings are always good for a laugh. I pick up all the people that wake up in strange places with a bad head. Funny how all the girls try to justify themselves they tell me even though I don’t ask that they stopped at a girlfriends house last night. One lady "and I use the word loosely" hailed me early Sunday morning" Leicester St" she says, but that’s only a hundred feet away I said "so five pounds Leicester St" she replied. We get round the corner and there’s the irate hubby waiting on the doorstep, she then makes a big show of handing over the five pounds to make sure he sees, must have been making out she had come from further away, devious eh!.

Rabbit

A while ago I picked up from our local pet store (pets at home), the lady got in carrying a cardboard box ", what’s in there" I asked, a baby rabbit she says. I will have to find something to put it in when I get home, might be nice in a tin of curry I suggested. She wasn't amused!

Travel

In the recent past there have been a lot of job losses in the Barrow area and the local skilled tradesmen have been forced to travel long distances to find work. This was proven yet again today I picked a guy up going to the railway station, going anywhere nice? I asked. Just work he says, where’s that then? Kazakhstan he says.

Our Molly

This is our Molly our favorite fare a happy lady she uses our cabs five or six times a day. But let’s look behind the smiling eyes, born Salford in 1920 that makes her 85 Years of age. She lost both her parents at an early age mother when she was four and father at six. Taken in by an aunt for a while she started to suffer from epileptic fit’s the aunt told her she was to go into a hospital for a while, this ended up being for the next FORTY YEARS. Why? Because she suffered from epilepsy and back then you would be hidden away in an institute out of sight out of mind. Molly struggled when she was released because she had become institutionalized most things we take for granted like paying bills getting insurance, she had never done .At the age of sixty Molly was talked into marriage , she never even knew her husband could neither read or write until he was unable to sign the marriage register on their wedding day . This marriage lasted for nine years and then because of her husbands death and the fact that she was living with his parents she became homeless, but instead of going into care Molly found herself a flat and a community who adopted her and she has lived happily ever since on Barrow Island.

twins

Twins can be strange sometimes a while ago I picked up a lady along with her twins They were redheaded boys about two years old, I picked them up from a speech therapist and the mother was telling me that they had to go there because they were developing there own secret language .

They then started making strange sounds to each other which they both seemed to understand the mother said it happens now and again with twins and if its not sorted before they go to school they would have to be separated.

Captive audiance

Strange how some people open up to us drivers, maybe perhaps because we are a captive audience.
Picked a guy up today and within the space of a six or seven minute journey he had told me that he was a soldier stationed in Germany whose wife had left him because she could not stand the isolation of the army base life. 
He had been given compassionate leave to try and sort things out but he was not hopeful he got quite upset I hope he patches things up, nice to see the Army giving him some support though.

Nuts

 

 had never seen a squirrel in Barrrow before until a few weeks ago grey or red and now I am seeing them on a daily basis saw three today in different parts of town including Hollywood Park our retail area.Wonder where they have all come from?

Piel

Heres another small island this one I can see from my bedroom window. It comes complete with its own Castle a pub just five or six houses and its own King. This one is Piel Island.

Walney

Walney Island seems to fascinate visitors to Barrow even though it is only just over a bridge from the mainland. I suppose I get blind to it sometimes with crossing the bridge many times a day.Here have a look from above and take the panoramic tour.It is after all a lovely island.

Barrow's Old Rank

Here is an old Picture of the original Taxi Rank on Duke St Barrow circa 1898

First post

First post well here goes first some background name is Bob and I am 51 so been round the block a few times. I live in Barrow in Furness which is near to the Lake District, but hey don’t get the wrong idea Barrow is a working class shipbuilding town of about sixty thousand people. I work the day shift so don’t pickup to many drunks I tend to get them next morning when they are a bit subdued especially if they have woken up in the cells or casualty.