Duck, Duck, Flu!!!!!!!!

Another night has come and past, whoooo hoooo can you imagine my jubilation, yes another slow night, But hey I did however meet a Duck. Well a rubber duckie that is. His name was Morease. One of my passengers had this little guy with her and I asked her what the scoop was on this duck? "Well" she said "I found him at work so I brought him home with me"

Ok yes a duck and if I found one at work I might bring it home too. Well maybe not, I have found some scary looking things in my cab so the duck may have took an early dip in the Saint John river, getting a head start on the annual Kenduckie derby St Joe's hospital has each year.

I guess it's better than bringing a man home from work, Imagine a Girl brings home a guy from work to meet mom. "Where did you meet Morease sweety?"
"Oh I found him at work so I brought him home."

Next our buddy Morease would find him self stairing at a beautiful girl in the bathroom the rest of his life destine to spend his life perched on the side of the tub.

Ahh so she let me photograph our little buddy seen here... The mystery girl declined to appear with her new found bud, must have been camera shy.

Earlier I picked up a Lab tech from the hospital and she was telling me of the floor closures due to this Norwalk type flu that has invaded the hospital. I imagine it will be through the city soon and I'll encounter it in the cab. I heard it was bad in Sackville this fall and I am not scared of the flu but the shits and constant throwing up doesn't make for many people wanting to get in your cab. We have had lots of trips to the hospital this past week so one never knows where you'll pick it up, but I am healthy now so all is good. Hopefully I won't have to say to my wife Patt "Yeah I found this Virus at work so I thought I'd bring the cute little guy home"

Influenza virus

To Tip or not to Tip that is the question?

This Tuesday night was like all the rest I made as much as I normally do. But I failed to get a tip from someone who I thought of all people would tip his cabbie. Now be sure to understand that I am not complaining, tips are a bonus and are not something I expect to get from my passengers. When they do it's great but by no means do I ever look for one. SO this brings me to my story, I picked up a guy from a reputable Hotel here in Saint John and he was all complaints as soon as he got into the cab. Blabbering on about his customers the staff he works with and the fact that his shift was so long. No this guy was not the bellhop nor the front desk clerk or the valet, he was they guy that everyone tips with out fail or question if they are indeed going to tip anyone in their life. Yeah he's the guy who brings up the room service. I know that these guys not only look for a tip, they come to expect it. SO here I caught my self thinking what kind of tip will this guy leave, because in this industry you get to know they types of people who tip. Most of the time it is the people who are rich and have loads of money but more oftan it is those who receive tips themselves for the job they do. This guy tried to bum a smoke off me and when I informed him I did not smoke he was yet again upset. SO at the end of the ride they guy counted out the fare to the exact penny and left and was gone leaving me thinking, wow I am not going to tip that guy if he ever brings me room service. Ahhh but then I caught my self a tip is a reflection of the service received. So maybe I will or maybe I won't, but as a rule I am generally a good tipper and I hope you are too.

Stuck Productions is now finished filming their movie in Saint John, The Movie "stuck" about a hit and run where a lady drags a guy home with her car should be out in a year or so. Hopefully it shows the good qualities of Saint John and promotes the city a bit. I know our company made a few bucks from stuck, we had one of our cabs in the movie all done up with 555 numbers as is common for movie phone numbers. Also they had a charge account with us to move their people around and I made about $50 from them last night taking them back to their respective hotels. Nice people I hope the movie does well.

A Nice Picture of Market square at 5am while I line up in front of the Hilton

Saturday Soaps

Yes, yes there is drama in the taxi cab. From a drunk guy trying to get his wife into bed after he just hit on a woman at the restaurant I picked them up at, to friends debating lesbian relationships with added twists, each night especially Saturdays could in fact be an episode from a soap opera. I know of the show true taxi cab confessions but imagine a show that followed a cab company's drives lives not just their fares. it would be a great show.

Tonight a couple girls invited me in to their home for a beer. I am sure their intentions were innocent or were they?? I'll never know cuz I am out to make money not entertain girls. Especially since I am married!

As predicted the night was crazy. I did well and I deserve a few nights off, before the push, the push being the month or so left before Christmas. The nights will be filled with Christmas Spirit and frustrations. Trunks filled with stuff from Walmart and taxi drivers trying to make an extra buck to get the last Christmas gift. Then a few short days of rest and then New years! I hope to share with you as much as I can.

Sleepy Friday

Man what a slow Friday, had the worst of luck today, had a flat I had to fix and I started late and business was slow. I always do well no matter the night, it is just a matter of doing well or great. I had a few regulars call me an kept me busy late in the shift but was it ever slow to start. This means Saturday night will rock it will be busy as it gets colder tonight.


OH yes go Vote for my buddy's blog Freddy beach his link is here on my list and go to http://cba.myblahg.com/ and vote away everyday, it's a super blog!

Success, Failure and Lobster

To start, tonight was great, I did well and I made lots in tips, did a few longer runs and had over all a great night. People tipped a lot tonight and that always helps. I dunno if I just ran into the nice people or I was just providing exceptional service. But regardless tonight was successful!

A guy I picked up who I told about this Blog told me to Google the word "Failure", if you want to try it your self you will be surprised by the first result, however I don't think it will remain the same once George W finds out. The people from Google are great!!!!!!!!!!!





Ahhh yes and Lobster, wonderful food and a great resource here in Atlantic Canada. It tastes great and the men who set traps and catch these delicious little devils tend to tip really good especially when they are on there way home from the local strip club. In 20 minutes these lobster fishermen gave me $45.00 for a 12 dollar fare. They insisted that they pay me more every few minutes even though I told them $12 was enough for the 5 minute ride and 15 minutes of laughter and time it took to get these guys out of the cab.
So god bless Lobster fishermen, and keep them safe so they can come home and spend their money in my Cab!

What did he look like????

I picked up these two ladies this evening at Sobeys, I loaded there grocerys into the back of my cab and I started to take them home. The Lady in front tells me she saw a mouse in The store. I told her I wasn't surprised they get a lot of them when it starts to get cold. She agreed but that did not change her fear of this mouse who decided to poke his little nose out from under neath the icing sugar the lady wanted to get so she could do some Baking. She's one of these people who get so scared they can't talk and her daughter made a point of telling me of her paralyzing fear of the common grocery store mouse.... I had to laugh at this next part.

They inform one of the grocery clerks in the front of the store, and he proceeds to ask her in these exact words "ahhhh what did he look like???"

She said she found it hard to keep a straight face but, informed this rocket scientist, that the suspect in question was indeed short, he stood 2 to 3cm was a Grey brown and had beady little black eyes. A shady character looked kinda ruff, sly and ruthless in his pursuit of icing sugar.

I laughed the whole way to their house. I don't know how this guy functions on a regular basis. Imagine looking for a description of this mouse. May be they have his mug shot down at the police station.

Guns N' Roses

WOW what a Tuesday night! Kinda like a cloned Friday night. Tonight Guns and Roses made an appearance here in Saint John, and on a Tuesday of all days. It was extremely good for business and a lot of funny shit transpired. I had a lot of extra fares tonight but a couple made my night.

GNR are famous for coming out late in a concert. The show here in Saint John started at 8pm and the Axel and the Boys did not make an appearance until 11:45pm or so my fares tell me. This did not hamper business as they had a few bands opening for them “The Suicide Girls” and the “Trews” and people were coming and going from Harbour station all night. A lot of the people who went did not make it to 11:45pm and we took them home quite intoxicated. I hear the beer ran out before GnR Came on stage.

So I did fares from the concert until about 3am and had a great time with a bunch of GNR Fans.

I had this girl jump in from the concert and she was pissed for some reason. She asked me how much it would be to go home and get her bankcard and then go to the bank and back home again. I told her the fare and she agreed and away we went to the west side of town. I took her to duke street west and she got her card and we went to the bank and then back home. Along the way I found out why she was so pissed. Apparently Her boyfriend disappeared at the concert and was nowhere to be found. He had all their money, so she had to go get her bankcard so she could pay me. She proceeded to tell me what she would do to her lost boyfriend when he appeared home later on this evening and it did not seem pleasant. I dropped her off and went back uptown.

An hour later this guy jumps in from the concert,

“Where to?” I ask

“West” the big man boomed

“Where west” I say

“Duke Street” he manages to blurt out

I then told him the address he was going to and he abruptly says “How’d the F$#@ did you know that?”

I then tell him I took his girl friend home an hour ago and he says

“The Hell you did, I left that bitch back at the concert”

I proceed to describe her and tell him how pissed she was at him for taking off and leaving her with no money to get home.

He still doesn’t believe me and says

“Ok smart guy how’d she pay you if she had no money, you didn’t take her home, that bitch is still back at the concert.”

I then tell him that I had to take her to get her bankcard and then it sinks in.

“Oh SHIT, You did take her home, Oh no, I am sooo dead…. What am I gonna do.”

I drop him off and he pays me and tips me and his parting words were

“Thanks for the heads up, but I dunno what good it will do, Cuz I’m a dead man. At least I’ll see it coming, Thanks!”

It never fails, some times we get both sides of the battle and this is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. It is always neat to know things about your new found passenger they thought you never knew.

The night saw just 10 arrests and they were the regular 10 idiots that tend to show up at every concert and make asses of them selves. Enough to keep Saint John's finest busy for an hour or two. So all in all it was a great night.

Addictions

More of the same being the first of the week. Slow Even for a Monday. But by midnight I had a few more bucks in than I did on Sunday so all is good. I want to post pictures here as much as I can, to give you a good look at my world. So shown here, you see a picture of me holding what I call “Wake up Juice” No Fear by sobe is what it actually is, it’s a high caffeine energy drink that keeps you going at the worst of times. To be a Cabbie and drive as much as I do, you need to be alert 100% of the time, and after 12 hours or so you really need a way to keep you firing on all cylinders.

I drink one of these when I need to be awake and it really does work. Tastes like rotten cranberry Juice but you get used to the taste to be able to reap the benefits of the drink.

Many would describe this as some sort of drug addiction. As you do find you body wanting it. But I don’t drink coffee. And all the Hacks I know do, so I guess I am just substituting for the 14 cups of coffee other people tend to drink in a shift.

A benefit to not drinking a whole lot is, clear, the less you drink the less you PEE. A good thing when driving cab, trust me as many a dark alley and road side bushes can attest to.

I Picked up a crack head this evening and took him to the new drug house near my house of all great places for them to set up shop, needless to say I ended up going all over the place for ½ the fare. Still I cribbed the call and I made 10 bucks.

Crack heads only have one thing on their mind that’s Crack, Getting the fare for the taxi driver always comes second. And if they don’t get what they want at the first house, you end up taking them all over the place looking for their drug. Some are good and want to pay you up front, and if your keen you’ll remember the faces of the bad ones and get the money up front but 9 times out of ten you’ll forget and your already waiting for them to come out of the crack shack with your money by the time you realize that’s who your dealing with.

Shady they may be, but sometimes you can make good money from them.

SLOW SLOW SLOW

Slow Streets of the Port City


Well what a slow night. After Midnight the shift was uneventful. Fares were just regular customers nobody out of the ordinary. This made the drivers who stayed frustrated with the slowness. This in turn upsets and makes the dispatcher cranky as he is constantly responding to drivers who want to know where their number is. So a cranky Sunday night it was and boring as all hell. Should have stayed home. I did however find time to do some surfing of the internet where I found some other Taxi blogs that I may want to add to the links on this site.

Drivin Cab In Saint John

Some say that the Job is dangerous, fares go on about the drunks, the nasty people, the ones who rip you off and so on. Well yes I have encountered all that and more. But driving a Taxi has been very interesting over the past 3 years. Endless stories and stuff that you would not believe. Been there done that wiped the puke off the floor of my cab with a T-shirt kind of stuff.

SO Here begins my Rantings of useless garbage and stories beyond the realms normal taxi driving.

So let me take you on the travels of this past Friday

The Night began with one of our regular customers who, literally informed me about 15 times that she was going to hong Kong later that evening, interestingly she always has a place to go. She was not impressed that I missed her house by one drive way. She's special and it took all the fiber in my being not to laugh at her , as I love special people they are the happiest of all people and they always will leave a smile on your face.

Traveling to Hong Kong, if that is her dream, let her have it and I hope no one gets in her way despite her funny way of relaying it to those who surround her, especially taxi drivers.

The night turned to early morning and it was busy, and 2am crazies were out and their king, who has made 100's of appearances around the world made an appearance early Saturday morning Uptown.
Those of you who have seen this rare drunken act will try to rip it from their mind for years to come, but I will say some thing must be said for some drunk ass idiot who assumes that the world needs to see him whip down his pants and show his hairy ass and then proceed to spank his own ass.

So the idiot King as I dub him will exist in all corners of the earth as long as there is alcohol to supply his uncontrollable need to show us things we need not see.


I'm taking Saturday off so I'll have to wait and see what Sunday Night brings to the eternal Taxi ride home.