First Cab Off the Rank
Posted by gigdiary on December 13, 2009
In thirty years of living in Sydney I can honestly say I have never met a bad cabbie. There was one, once, back in 1978 who scared the heck out of me by driving at breakneck speed from Bondi to Kings Cross, but in all fairness he was just trying to get me there on time.
These days, with the influx of Indian and Sri Lankan drivers, you would expect a certain lack of local knowledge, yet that is not the case. If anything, these drivers are more polite and knowledgeable than their Aussie counterparts. As I said, I’ve never met a bad cabbie.
Well there was this one, once. It was early in the morning, and I’d called for a cab to take me from Ryde to Roseville. The driver was a big bloke, he seemed friendly enough at first, but as I began complaining about the early hour he related a story which curled my ears. Seems it was his first day back on the job. He’d been disqualified from driving for some time. I asked him,
‘what did you do that was so wrong?’
‘I hit a passenger’.
I unbuckled my seat-belt and got ready to run.
Angela said
We got a cab one night and Andy asked the guy if he smoked – meaning ciggies.
Th guy pulled out his secret stash of whacky baccy and insisted that we take some home with us. It was a good night
5ft0 said
Oh Gig, you’re definitely a wonderful story teller.
The Original Susie said
Oh Gig, I wish I could say the same but in my younger days I had some horror experiences catching cabs in the wee small hours. Including one journey which ended with me legging it down Anzac Parade to get away from the creep who put the hard word on me. I was sober. Not sure he was.