Snow on the hills

Snow on the hills up in the Lakeland hills.

Elve

Young lady this morning was telling me about the job she starts for a month next week, she works as a holiday rep during the summer and the company has given her a job in Lapland as one of Santa’s elves for the Christmas season.
Cool eh! wonder if she had to go on a short course.

Fergal what?

How about this from Fergal Keane the BBC New York correspondent," I have frequently heard colleagues complain about the tedium of listening to various taxi drivers as they travel to and from the different airports of the world." Exposure to some of the world's great bores in confined spaces is an occupational hazard." If you read his article it seems that all we have to do is be shot and paralyzed and this will make us all a lot more interesting. I think I will just avoid BBC journalists with silly names instead.

Clubs

The new licensing rules for pubs and clubs came into force for this weekend this found some clubs opening until five or in the case of the local floating nightclub six am. My first casualty of the Sunday morning 8am was the young lady minus shoes or jacket cut bruised and very drunk, who said she had been thrown out at 6:30 am and had been wondering the streets since. Next was the girl who having been partying again tills 6am I took to start work at 9am doubt if she stayed there long. And finally at 5 pm there was the lady whose partner had been out till 6am this led to a big fight and her packing her bags and going home to mum.

Mix

Interesting mix of people today, of note have been the Italian guy who is over here fixing machinery at our local soap powder factory, he's over here for a month and he must find it lonely living in a hotel particularly with the language problem. Maybe I should introduce him to the lovely Karen the beautiful beauty therapist who I also took to work this morning. I did read about a taxi driver who ran a dating agency from his cab a while back so I shall have to think about that maybe. Still feeling a bit guilty about the confused old lady though she wanted to go to a supermarket called Tesco but because it takes twenty to thirty minutes to get on and off their car park I just took her to another supermarket, Morrison’s half a mile away. She didn't seem to notice and I told the office where she would be when she needed picking up, but please don’t send me!

Roundabouts

Why can't our roundabouts be pieces of art like some of the French pieces pictured here?

Becky

I never watch soap operas on TV I used to think of this job as kind of watching a soap opera once. You see a small part of somebody’s life and then you have to wait till you see them again for the next instalment. But with some people I found you are not just watching them you are sharing some small part of their life’s. People like Becky who I have picked up now and again over the last three or four years. Shared a little bit of her good times when she was happy in a relationship and then shared a bit of the bad times when this broke up leaving her pregnant. Took her to the hospital a few times right through her pregnancy and shared the worries and problems. I shared a bit of her pleasure in the birth of her daughter and her new found happiness in her new relationship. And now I share some of the grief at the loss of her child due to a cot death at only twenty three months.

Social signals

Four giggling schoolgirls this morning one of them points to a boy walking past, she said look at his backpack what a swot. I looked at him and could see nothing to mark him out as a swot/geek and so I asked what they meant. They told me that only swots or geeks wear their backpacks high on their back, it'’s cool to wear it as low as possible. Anyone know anymore obscure social signals.?

Threats

There must be a generation of children growing up now who must be terrified of taxi drivers. There are lots of mothers who use the threats of the driver will shout at you, the driver will throw you out, the driver will hit you, don’t suppose we will get many fares of these children when they grow up.

Tips

Talking to another driver today about tips and we come to the same conclusion. The more they moan about things the more they tip you, perhaps they feel guilty about bending your ear. And we have both had people who have really moaned about the fare and that it is far too expensive and then they give you a good tip! There’s nowt as strange as folk.

Bird flu

The first cases of bird flu have been reported in Barrow today. This was at the local football ground where it is reported lots of Barrow A.F.C fans were sick as parrots!

Favorite passengers

These are my favourite passengers we get them now and again bit quiet though.

Dutchmen

Four Dutchmen were laughing today when I took them to our local airport. They had flown in by private Jet that’s the picture on the left from Manchester, They were saying were is the duty free shop the bar or the customs desk but as we pulled into the airport they couldn’t believe it when we had to give way at a small set of traffic lights while a plane landed on the shared road and runway in front of them and we then followed the plane to the control tower.

Court

Been in court most of today, as a witness I hasten to add. Back in July I went to pick up at a house and there was a lot of commotion from inside and a child was outside crying. His estranged father had assaulted his mother. A month or two previous she had been badly injured and hospitalized by him. She told me that the guy had been arrested for assaulting her seventeen times but never prosecuted the police don't like to get involved in so called domestics. I gave a statement to the police and because he pleaded not guilty was summoned as a witness; I don’t know as yet what the verdict was.

Pee shy

Pee shy, found on the web bet it's enough to make any man go shy.

New York cab redesigned

Shock...

She was a pretty young thing deep in conversation on her mobile when I picked her up. She stopped just long enough to tell me where she was going and then the conversation with her boyfriend I guessed, started to get a bit saucy. She was describing in great detail exactly what she was going to do to him when she got to his house; she seemed to be oblivious of me overhearing her. We pulled up at her destination and she asked the lucky guy to come out and pay her cab fare, I got the shock of my life when it was a girl who came out to pay. Still as I always say to gay ladies we have a lot in common and when they ask what I reply well we both like girls!.

Neverbe

A guy gets in the car today and says "Lakeland Drive Ratings Village please" I looked at him and said ohh! You mean the old Listers factory site don't you. He didn't like me calling his brand new fancy housing estate that but that’s what most people who remember the old factory it was built on call it. There is this thing they do off giving posh names to these places and adding tens of thousands to the price. There is one new estate with a street called Neverby Drive on; of course when we refer to it we call it Neverby paid for.

local newspaper

Our local newspaper finally printed a piece on a major road closure, which has been causing long delays and big detours for hundreds of motorists. This has been taking place within a mile of the local newspaper offices yet it has taken them five days to report on it. Make me wonder if there is such a thing as a truly local newspaper any longer.

Exotic Pet

A guy who was one of my fares today was telling me that his job is to deliver exotic pets like snakes and lizards to pet shops and private buyers all over the U.K.
 Last week he told me he delivered some rock lizards to a house in a rough area of Glasgow, the buyer asked him to come upstairs and he then showed him a thirty foot long Anoconda. 
Will you swap it for the rock lizards he was asked? 
He thought about it for a short while and then remembered that this huge snake because it needed the warmth would have to travel in the front of his van with him, he declined the offer. 
Yes I think I maybe would have as well.

The Sailor

The fare who I later found out was a sailor on his way back to join his ship in Plymouth must have been taking his last fond farewells from his lady friend. She was still naked hiding her modesty behind the door she waved him off, only problem being she had forgotten that the door was glass.
 He come out to the car got in we both looked back at her and then at each other we smiled and he said "daft cow."

Murder

As soon as I saw the guy come out of the White House hotel I recognised him, it had been a long while but I remembered him. Bit creepy with body language you can’t interpret and laughs at inappropriate times. He got in the cab and we set of for Askam which is about six miles away, Not seen you for a long while I said, must be twelve or fifteen years .No he said" I’ve been in prison " without thinking I said oh! What for?” MURDER” he replied. Silence for a while with me racking my brain for a safer subject. How’s your father then not seen him for a while I asked? It was him I was in jail for killing he said. Rest of the journey in silence.

Gypsys

Been stopped a few times in the last week or so by gypsy's trying to sell "Genuine leather three piece suites" I know they are overpriced tat but a lot of people don't. I have to hand it to them though when they went into the office and got the operator to put an advert out via our computer screens in the cabs. So this would have been seen by twenty or thirty drivers along with their passengers.

Our local M.P

Our local M.P. John Hutton has replaced David Blunket as the minister of works and pensions. This reminds me of the time I picked him up from Gleaston water mill about two years ago. He had been out for a Sunday walk with his partner and two friends they weren’t very far from his house but unfortunately they had got lost! Hope they issue him with a map down Whitehall.

Local movies

These local guys make their own short movies great stuff I think when you consider they have no outside finance at all.