Fathers Day

I was surprised to see how much fuss was made for Fathers day (which falls on the same day as in the UK) over in the states. Television and radio bombarded us with advertisements one even for a ride on coolbox . I even saw huge Fathers day cakes on sale in the huge Wal-Mart stores we visited. Restaurants had special offers on and it was mentioned constantly on by TV anchormen even during the news briefs. It never really took off in the UK I don’t think I have ever picked anyone up going out for a meal or drink for Fathers day which is in complete contrast to Mothers day which is one of our busiest days of the year.

Shakey Shades

My daughter Emma models the special shades.

Normality

Well, it’s been a week or so since I got back and things seem to be more or less back to normal. The eyesight seems OK but I have not been back to work since I got back and have been resting the eyes to make sure everything is one hundred per cent for when I start work tomorrow. Funny but people worry about riding with sightless cabbies and I may not get much custom if I wore the special glasses I was given.
Let’s hope it’s a busy weekend with the world cup football and two local carnivals going on.

Frankie

First Sight

I awoke next day and things were slightly better, I could see shadows and shapes but still couldn’t stand the light. My return to the eye clinic wasn’t until late afternoon and so I stayed indoors and kept up with the medication (which by UK standards was very expensive $400 or £215). Things got better as the day went on and by the time my friend Frankie the taxi arrived to take me to the clinic some of my sight had returned, and so I got to see Frankie for the first time and he never looked a bit like I thought he would. This time I felt a bit more like talking and found out that Frankie was originally from Columbia and had been driving taxi for thirty-two years a lot of them in New York City (that explained the swearing in Spanish I had heard) I can’t emphasise enough what a nice guy he was even giving me some dark classes to help my eyes and telling me not to worry about payment if I was short. On arrival at the clinic again it was nothing like I thought it was and the staff looked nothing like I imagined, but they were all really nice people and seemed really pleased that my sight had returned. After an hour or so back in the torture chamber I was given the ok to fly home as long as I went to my local hospital as soon as possible. The next day Frankie took me to the airport for the long flight home. The only panic after that was when I was told that I needed a letter from the doctor to say I was fit to fly luckily this was all sorted out by fax and eight hours later I was on my way home.

Torture Chamber

After what seemed like hours of anxious and painful waiting I was seen by the eye specialist. He began by giving me an anaesthetic in both eyes and this brought some of my sight back, but as he told me this would be short lived only giving him time to examine the eyes. I don’t know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing because all I saw for the next hour or so was needles going into my eyeballs. Funny but your natural reaction is to flinch when a needle is coming toward your eye, and so I was almost glad when my sight faded away again. His diagnosis was some kind of virus possibly picked up from one of the water parks, and he described it as like hundreds of blisters on the cornea of the eyes almost like a cold sore on the eye. He said it was very rare for both eyes to be affected and that he would prescribe some antiviral drugs. He then said I must come back the next day for further treatment, not that it mattered because my flight home had long departed. Then my new taxi driving friend Frankie was called and he came straight away to collect me for my second sightless taxi ride back to the hotel.

Blind Faith

As I lay sightless and getting more and more worried that this may be a permanent thing and how or if I could cope someone told me that I was to go to an eye clinic on the other side of Orlando. I of course, was thinking of our good old National Health Service were I would be whisked there free of charge by ambulance. But no “a taxi is on the way for you and that will be $123 please how would you like to pay?” Someone had to go into my pockets and count the cash out “I feel awful doing this” I heard her say, and then as an afterthought she handed me what she said was a fifty dollar bill from my pocket for the taxi fare.” Don’t let him see that you have much cash on you” she said, this didn’t really inspire much confidence in the local taxi service but I was in no position to argue. She couldn’t have been more wrong my taxi driver looked after me like a concerned father he asked my name and tried to reassure me on the twenty-minute ride to the eye clinic. At the clinic he took me in and up in the lift to the second floor then he explained that I was sightless to the receptionist and gave her his personal number to ring when I needed to be picked up. I myself have picked up sightless people in my own taxi but it was really strange to be on the other side of the fence, and I can truly tell you that it’s a frightening experience, you really do need to trust people without any of the preconceptions or prejudice that sight can give us all. You don’t know the colour of the hand that offers help or whether they are fat or thin gay or straight, and you care even less. After the receptionist filled in my forms for me she guided a pen in my hand to the paper and helped me sign in five places “crazy or what?” I was then guided to what would become for the next few hours my torture chamber.

Foggy

Well, I have lots to tell about my time in Florida but let's start with the bit at the end of it when things really turned weird. The day before I was due to fly home and we were visiting Blizzard beach in the Disney resort about mid afternoon I said to the wife "it's gone a bit misty hasn't it"no she said looking at me as if I were daft. By 5:30 it was downright foggy to me and so I called at a pharmacy for some eyewash and hoped all would be well next morning. Next morning and things were worse, and so it was off to a walk in medical centre down the road. After what seemed like hours with the flight time fast approaching I was finally examined by a doctor.What happened next would never happen in England, or in most other places for that matter and it really freaked out my wife and daughter. After putting drops of dye into my eyes and looking at them with UV light she shouted " OH MY GOD" and ran to tell other medical staff to come take a look. Well, I asked "can you give me something and I'll go and catch my plane." she said "no way if this isn't treated within the next few hours you will lose at least one eye" What a drama queen eh? at this point, it was decided that the wife and daughter would go back to the hotel to cancel flights and rebook the room, and so I was left awaiting a call back from a local eye clinic. Ten minutes later the last of my sight went and I was left totally blind.

Kidnap and Robbery

One of our drivers early on Saturday Morning was on his way back from Grange over Sands when he was given a job to pick up a fare in Ulverston. Shortly after he picked up a group of men a knife was produced and held to his neck from behind. He was threatened and then made to drive the ninety or so miles to the city of Salford, here he was forced to drive these animals around picking and dropping off other people as they drove around the city. At one point mention was made of going to collect a shotgun “my god” what thoughts must have gone on in his head then we can only imagine. Eventually, they let him go but only after robbing him of the eighty pounds or so that he had with him. This sort of thing rarely happens around here but it does bring it home how vulnerable we all are to this sort of cowardly attack. I believe the driver has been left traumatised by this and is thinking seriously about his future.
What does annoy me is that as is usual in this type of thing you always get the smartarses who say what they would have done in the situation, crashed the car etc, but nobody knows how they will react until it happens. I think that the ones with the biggest mouths are the ones who would fall to pieces the quickest.

Back at Last

Well, I finally arrived back in the UK late Friday and after the problems, I have had its good to be back. I have not been able to use a PC until now for reasons which I will explain more about later. But first some news from closer to home which I was told about when I dropped into the office to explain my absence and tell them I will not be at work this week.

Holdays

This may be my last post for two weeks I am off to Florida on holiday(vacation ) for two weeks from Tuesday and so unless I get into an internet café that's all for now, folks. And yes I do know that's the 6.6.06 and am I worried "well no not really" Oh any tips about Florida are welcome before Tuesday. Cheers folks

Gone Fishing

My first job this morning at 7; 30am was to take a guy up to High pond Roanhead he was going fishing. I knew where he was going straightaway I had picked him up many times before the amount of stuff he had with him seems to multiply, enough this time to fill the boot (trunk) and a good bit of the car as well. It has always bemused me the dedication of this guy he’s out fishing in all seasons breaking the ice if need be. Knowing nothing about fishing myself I’ve asked him about it on the many trips to Roanhead and was amazed when he told me that he doesn’t even get supper out of it the fish are put back in the water. The biggest fish caught there was a carp weighing 35lb 9oz “that would feed me for a day or two” and the pond isn’t natural its flooded iron ore workings last worked in the 1920s. I was still not sold on the idea of sitting there all day and kept asking him what he gets out of it “relaxation” he says. So today when I dropped him off I got out and had a walk round the pond and took a few photos, then I sat down for a while and you know what it really is relaxing. Still couldn’t be bothered carting all that gear about, though.

The Deutschland

The German cruise ship Deutschland

The Mall

The German cruise ship Deutschland visited us for a day today and the five hundred passengers had the choice of a coach trip up to the Lake District or a free bus into the town centre. I am sorry to say that one of the first they would see on approaching the middle of town is the hideous derelict 1970’s Mall what a disgrace. This has been in this state for years now and despite promises and grand but empty plans, it still remains to blight the rest of our mainly Victorian town centre. Sometimes when I have fares that are strangers to the town I try and avoid driving past it but when it’s unavoidable I really do cringe. The time for talk with its absentee landlord is over let’s be having something done with it now it surely must be top priority.

Windermere

A photo I took of Lake Windermere last week, let's hope it was as nice as this for the German visitors today.

Rank

Here's a webcam which should get interesting on a Friday and Saturday nights. It is in the market town of Newbury in Berkshire and one of the views is  a hotspot for trouble, a taxi rank next to two burger vans located near to the nightlife.

Night Fight

A passenger was telling me about a fight which took place in one of our supermarkets (Tesco) last night. Apparently a drunken couple started to argue with other customers at the checkout and this developed into a full-scale fight with groceries being used as weapons and vegetables being thrown at staff.
I took this with a pinch of salt and had forgotten about it until about half an hour later when I overheard two more passengers talking about it. I asked them and they said pretty much the same thing, adding that it took place between two and three in the morning. This leaves me thinking has it got something to do with the new twenty-four-hour sale of alcohol in these large supermarkets. One of my fares who works nights in one of these places tells me that that even in the dead of night he regularly sees teenage mothers with babes in arms shopping for cheap cider and wine. If this is the way things are going I wonder about the safety of the staff and customers, and think maybe they should be spending some of the massive profits they make on better security.

Any Flags?

On a visit to Kendal I noticed this shop and was tempted to go in and ask if they had any England flags. US readers won't get this but it's typical English humour, for example we find it funny when in a chain of shops called the pound shop (so called because everything is priced one pound) to pick things up and ask how much is this?

Empty Throne

I visited the Dock Museum today and noticed that the throne from the Ship Inn at Piel Island is on display. Let's hope this is a temporary home for it and its back where it belongs as soon as possible. I see the local council have an advert on their website for a new King of Piel and this leads me to think that they are looking at this as a revenue earner. Nothing wrong with that in principal as long as it doesn’t lead to local people being priced out as customers and as prospective tenants after all this Island does belong to the people of Barrow.

Holding the baby

Some stuff will never find its way onto these pages, some stuff which I see and hear would just be too hurtful to the folks involved. Other stuff can be told after the passage of time this is one such story. This took place three or four years back now and maybe the people involved have changed for the better, who knows let,s hope so. The job was to pick a fare up from a large house which was split into flats it was a rough sort of place and I had to wait a while before someone come out. Then two guys walk out carrying a girl between them who looked unconscious, they heaved her in the back of the car and told me the address she was going to. I went to set off but one of them almost as an afterthought shouted me to wait and went back into the house. The two guys both of whom were drunk then staggered out with a baby held between them.The baby of no more than twelve or thirteen months old was thrust on the lap of the semi-conscious girl. The girl was that far gone she could not speak or even keep her eyes open and so when we got to the address I was given, I took the baby off her and knocked on the door expecting someone to be there to look after both of them. After knocking for a while with no response, the girl roused herself enough to stagger to the door open it and fall in. She then tried to take the baby from me, but looking at the state of her I was not so sure that was a good idea. I had a look around the house in case someone else was about but found nobody. I then tried knocking on the neighbour’s door to see if they could help, but they didn’t want to know. Reluctantly I put the baby down and left, I suppose I was guilty of not wanting to get involved. But my mind wouldn’t settle I kept thinking about what could happen, but then I kept reminding myself that the child would probably be taken into care if the authorities found out. I radioed into the office and had a talk to the lady operator she didn’t hesitate “phone the police you’ll never forgive yourself if anything happens to that child” she said. I drove around for a bit longer but the more I struggled with it the more I realised that something had to be done. The phone call was made and I never did find out what happened over it, I just hope I did the right thing.

Numbers

A driver’s number or call sign can be very important to him; some drivers want their lucky number or a number that means something to them. This leads to drivers trading numbers and even in some cases swapping firms if they can’t get the number they want. One of our drivers swapped from number sixty-one to number fourteen because he said "it was too many syllables in sixty-one to say on the radio." You will find that not many taxi firms have a driver thirteen; I guess we are a superstitious lot, but round here thirteen is reserved for a call for help. So if you hear your driver shouting for a thirteen and giving his location you know that you have spooked him and that you will be surrounded by twenty bloodthirsty cabbies within minutes.

Hoodies

Early this morning I had to pick up from what I thought was a dodgy place. My screen just said school field Dalton and when I got there I could see nobody about, and was just about to give up when four lads appeared as if from nowhere. They all wore hoodies with most of their faces covered and looked dishevelled, I was half inclined to drive off but I decided to chance it. They all climbed in the cab and they asked to go to Askam which was about a £7 pound fare. I was pleasantly surprised when they paid up front and turned out to be a nice bunch of lads well spoken polite and friendly. So I guess it’s true sometimes you can’t always go by appearances.

Blocked In

Another super Sunday and the morning started off with lots of leftovers from the Saturday night. One of the first was from a house in Dalton but the fare was still not out after ten minutes, it was 8 am and so and no way I was going to blow the horn and wake people up. I was pressing ring back every few minutes and after a while I heard a phone ring, it was coming from the backyard of the house where I was supposed to pick up from. I got out and opened the door and there was my drunken lady fare, she must have expected me to drive into the back yard for her. She was only going up the road a half mile or so to a local hotel, as we got nearer alarm bells started in my head when she slurred that she was going to collect her car. But as we pulled in the car park she swore when she saw that her car was blocked in by four others. I let out a sigh of relief because I knew that the hotel staff wouldn't even consider waking up the paying guests to move the cars for some drunken lady.

Lost Tip

A nice old lady went to give me a nice tip today unfortunately as she went to hand it over she dropped two-pound coins. They both rolled down the middle of the front seats, never mind I said I will get them later. I had forgotten about them and had picked up three or four fares until a lady in the back seemed to stoop and take a long while to get out of the cab. Yes, you guessed it she stole my tip, what a dirty trick eh! The tip actually came to more than she paid for the fare what a cheapskate taking food from my mouth I could have had gravy on me chips tonight

oop North

A fare today was telling me that she was a barrister on business up from London and that it was her first time oop north. “Well what do you think” I asked,” well I was baffled when none of the taxis stopped when I hailed them I had to take the number off the side and ring for one” she said. I explained that most cabs here are private hire and that most hackney cabs also work for company’s when not on the rank. Then she went on to say (which a lot of visitors also say) how green it was and that she had been expecting a grey industrial town. At that point we were going down from the top of Hawcoat looking over Walney towards the Isle of Man, and she was impressed by the fabulous views of the miles of empty sandy beaches. “I bet it gets busy during the summer” she said and was very surprised when I told her that we get very few visitors.” Well someone wants their butt kicking “she said anywhere else and they would be promoting it for all they were worth.

Bad Job

And you think your job is bad.

Radio

I was talking to another driver this week, he works for a firm which still uses voice over radio. After about five minutes in his car my head was hurting and it made me really glad that the firm I work with uses computer dispatch. Some drivers say they miss the banter on the radio, but that’s a small price to pay for a lot less stress. Back when we used radio we had some operators whose voices tended to grate your nerves especially after four or five hours. You know the type you wouldn’t want them shouting you up for breakfast in the morning believe me. We can still talk to the office if necessary to make bookings etc, but some days I can work all day and not know who the operator is. This works the other way as well some of the operators tell me that drivers come into the office and they haven’t got a clue which driver they are talking to.

Pardon?

Today was one of the few occasions when I was lost for words, I usually have no problems understanding any nationality, but today the two lasses who got in the back of the cab might as well have been speaking Martian. In the end, they had to point to where they wanted to go. They started to talk to each other and it dawned on me that they were Irish, I’m usually Ok with the Irish brogue but the accent was one I had never heard before. Still we got there in the end, but this reminds me of the drunken lady I picked up a while back one day.
She was so drunk that she could not speak at all and she just waved her hands in the direction that she wanted to go. When we eventually got to her house she wasn’t capable of counting the fare so she just threw her bag at me to get the cash out myself. Next comes the bit I was worried about there was no way she could walk and I didn’t fancy carrying her into her house, you never know what you may be accused of later. After banging on a few doors, I managed to get some neighbours to help her in. If this is the state she gets in the middle of the afternoon I wouldn’t like to see her at night.

Small Change

I had a change juggler in the back of the cab today. I pick these up maybe once or twice a week and they always sit in the back and try to be discrete. What they do is they watch the meter obsessively and every time it clicks over they move the coins from one hand to the other so that they have the exact fare ready in small change. You don’t get much conversation out of a change juggler just the clinking of coins, but still they amuse me. What does catch them out now and again is when the meter adds the waiting time on when we stop and the meter goes up a few bob, that’s when they tend to panic and drop all their coins on the cab floor.

Haunted?

They say that the windows of a house are the eyes to its soul.
This house stands in the village of Leece whose only claim to fame in the last hundred years is that it was the scene of the infamous lady in the lake murder. Your car breaks down on a dark wet night and the only dim light is coming from this house “do you knock and ask for help”? “Go on tell me do you, really?

(click to enlarge)

Goth Moth

My daughter who's nine has the usual girl’s thing about creepy crawlies, and so when we heard her piercing screams we knew what the problem would be. But we were a bit surprised when she ran from the room shouting “Goth Goth.” We looked around and all we could see was a little moth on the ceiling, she heard us laughing and so popped her head back in and said” I meant moth “and ran upstairs. A bit later when the offending insect had been removed she ventured back down “where is it” she asked and was told that it had gone to hang around outside Forum 28 with the other local Goths.

Wedding Jitters

In contrast, to yesterday's funeral jobs I had a few wedding runs today. One was with the bride and chief bridesmaid going to the bride’s mothers to get ready for the ceremony. They were going Urswick which is a six-mile run and they seemed to get more and more nervous as we drove, they were on the phone making last minute arrangements and asking each other if they had forgotten anything. On the way we stopped at the hotel where the reception was to be and when they got out dropping something off a young chap that was with them and I just burst out laughing. Talk about stress give me a good funeral do anytime.

Crosslegged

A busy Saturday morning and it gets to 9.30 and I need the loo and so it's a two mile dash to Fell St public toilets. I get there and three or four other drivers are already there standing outside the locked loos and swearing at the locked doors. I don’t know the reason they were shut but the ancestry of the attendants was traced and cursed back to the Stone Age. They were shut for the rest of the morning and tell you what it’s hard driving with your legs crossed.

Bun Fights

Today was a busy day for funeral runs, not to the actual service but picking people up from the bun fights afterwards. You never know how the drinking afterwards will affect the mood of the fare and so I am always careful not to say too much until I have gauged how they are. Four jobs from three funeral do’s today and they all seemed to have had a drink and a laugh and enjoyed themselves. I think it’s something to do with the tension leading up to the funeral and the relief when it’s all over, and they can loosen the black ties have a fag and renew old friendships and reminisce with seldom seen relatives.

Lacquer

My passenger was a young lass of about eighteen and she looked as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. Where too I asked "Dalton” she replied and so off we went, as we got close to Dalton I asked her whereabouts she would like to be dropped at. “The lacquer knacker” she said “never heard of that “I said it’s a pub she said, I still never had a clue and so she said “The golden ball” and then the penny dropped. That was the first time I have ever heard it called that, must be a local Dalton thing.

Free Samples

My day off today and so I had a wonder to the visiting French market which is being held in the town square and quite a good one it was too. Two of the local professional cider tasters (alcoholics) were wondering round and I overheard them at various stalls asking for free samples, the French stallholders wisely decided to forget any English they knew. They seemed to quickly remember it again when paying customers needed serving.
Couldn’t help but notice that the fairly new stone paving is loose and dangerous in places, why this is I don’t know because the square is not overused a lot of my passengers complain that it’s like a wind tunnel. If these expensive surfaces are used surely they must be kept maintained, but I find the same in a lot of areas of the town centre, grants are used to put down these surfaces and then they haven’t the money to maintain them.

Hot Brick

First job for me this morning was a trip down to Manchester airport to collect a fare. Before I got the job three or four drivers threw it back like a hot brick when it was offered to them. This was because the job was to collect someone from the airport and there’s always the risk of a delayed flight or even a no pick-up leading to a two hundred mile wild goose chase. Luckily I recognised the name of the fare and so knew it was genuine. The guy had the good sense to arrange to be picked up from one of the airport hotels (what a stroke of genius) and this made it really easy to find and collect him from one of the countries busiest airports.
He had flown in from Australia via Singapore which is a heck of a long flight and one I wouldn’t fancy myself but he seemed quite chirpy but I guess the jet lag will hit him soon enough.

Goosed

Aww how sweet you say, yes but after the fifth or sixth time of being held up that's not what I say.

Hunger

I had a chav couple in the back of the cab today and I couldn't help but overhear the conversation that they were having. Girl chav" why didn't you eat the dinner I made you" Guy chav "cos it was crap luv" Girl chav "but starving people like you see on the telly would be glad of grub like that” Guy chav" I’ve got no sympathy with any of em why don't they just move like get a bus or somethin an go somewhere a bit more lush" Girl chav"oh yeh" and she looks at him all admiringly and is gob smacked at him for solving the world's food crisis.

Wrong Man

Had to laugh at the story about the London cabbie who suffered an awkward few moments of fame when the BBC mistook him for a computer expert and interviewed him live on the News 24 channel.
The real expert was Guy Kewney, a journalist specialising in computer issues who had been invited to comment on Apple Computer's legal battle with Apple Corps. Awaiting his moment in a back room of the BBC studios last Monday, Kewney glanced idly at the television and was astonished to see that the presenter was supposedly already interviewing him.
But the uneasy-looking black man on the screen bore no resemblance to the bearded, ginger pundit, though he was doing his best to answer questions.
In fact, this 'expert' was the taxi driver who had come to collect Kewney after his interview. But as soon as he had arrived at the BBC building, an excitable assistant had bundled him into the studio and equipped him with a clip-on microphone before he had a chance to protest.
CHECK OUT THE VIDEO HERE( CHEERS WIL)