Got Blood?

This time three years ago I was plowing through a horrendous snow storm. and I was reminded of that fact just yesterday as I went to take some blood to the hospital from Canadian blood services. Our company has a contract to transport blood up the hill to the hospital, we only get $4 for the short trip but we are doing our part to help.

Three years ago I took kidneys for transplant to the Hospital in Halifax normally a 4 hour drive, the trip took me 7 hours I took a friend with me and we made the run and returned to saint John safe and sound. The story hit the papers and made the news every were in Canada. I am reminded of it every year around Christmas. Rightly so the story made it into a book as well and you can see it online at Amazing Stories. I love that I got the chance to do my part and I still get to from time to time in the cab.

Busy?

The question most asked by fares, in fact almost all fares ask, "busy tonight?". Friday and Saturday were both busy, lots of Christmas parties and massive amounts of people. Saturday was nonstop from 3pm to 4am the only breaks I got were to re fuel the car which I did about 3 times and I traveled over 700km and I was all over the city from one end to the other.

A lot of the work was charge work where various companies pay for their employees to go to and from their Christmas parties. this made for some hefty fares, $40 calls $50 calls and the regular fares we get each weekend.

I was so busy my right leg fell asleep like 400 times and I had to get out once and a while when I was waiting for a fare to come out of their house and stretch my legs.

Made some Christmas money and the final week will begin soon I'll have to get out and finish my shopping between fares this week.

The Hat made some tips and I now realize that once you put it on in the cab, you then become the sexiest man alive and every one wants to ware it and try it on. Also guys on the way to the bar realized this too and offered me a lot of money for the kewl Santa hat.

I visited Christmas lane this weekend and dropped a passenger off there and that was the first time I had ever been on that particular street.

Also in my travels to the home depot to get a Christmas tree stand and a few stocking stuffers I took time to snap a few shots of my grand daughter who already loves driving as you can see. If you have never seen one before the car she is in is a shopping cart.

Ya Never Know

Why stay so late? Asks the wannabees They all leave as the day drivers arrive at 3 or 4 am. they aren't real cab drivers only rookies who don't know how to make money and it is great that they don't because it helps me make a living.

I come in at 4pm and stay until 6am. Yes I know that it is long but as one old cabbie once told me "you gotta stay in the car to make money" SO I do and the money follows.

Also a wise old man also told me this "Liam, Ya Never Know!" Meaning you will never know what will or could happen and there will always be surprises. If he reads this and he might, I wanna say it is the best advice he ever gave me, and I often find my self sitting in the cab saying to my self,

"Liam, Ya Never Know!"

Early Thursday Morning after the rookies went home I got a call to go to Tower St, over on the west side of the city. My dispatch said "89 head over to tower street and meet the police they have a passenger for you and have a nice trip"

Now most of the time when the dispatcher says "have a nice trip" it means your headed out of town. In this case I was headed to St. Stephen. A $120.00 fare. I arrived and was greeted by Saint John's finest. They kindly helped me load this lady's bags into my trunk and the lady cop put her hand on my shoulder and whispered " she's ok, just had a fight with her daughter and we had to come break it up...... Oh yeah......and she's a little nuts"

A little nuts??? Holy shit..... this lady was more jumpy than a sparrow on Jolt cola. She was very upset with her daughter and kept talking to herself about the whole situation. It was a stressful 75minutes to the boarder town. She constantly wanted to smoke in the car and she wasn't taking no for an answer. Fighting with her about My rules would have resulted in me putting duct tape across her mouth and shoving her in the trunk. So Asthma inhaler in one hand and a cigarette in the other she was lighting up like clock work every 15minutes. I really fail to understand smokers.

SO every 15 minutes she stuck her head out the window right up until I dropped her off next to the boarder.

Being the stupid genius that I am I neglected to grasp that I had already driven most of the night and I was low on fuel when I reached St. Stephen at 4am. After dropping off my Smokey cargo I went on the hunt for Gas. Well wouldn't you know there are no gas stations that stay open over night in St. Stephen.

They all open at 7am, a shitty notion at 4am but not with out a solution. A short trip across the boarder was in order. So here I was at 4am trying to explain why I wanted to enter the good Ol US of A just to re-fuel my jet and fly back to SJ. Our armed friends south of the boarder spent the next 30minutes turning my taxi upside down and hauling the carpet up in the trunk to find the 3000 pounds of invisible hash I had stashed back there. After finding out that I was not driving a stolen car and understanding I wasn't a criminal fleeing Canada they made me fill out some paperwork and let me pass, not with out giving me the absolute best directions to the closest gas station.

Concluding my business in America, I made for Canada and was back on home soil in a 10 minute round trip minus my 30minutes with US Customs. Returning to my home country was quite funny. Canada customs greeted me with a big smile at quarter to 5 in the morning and asked "anything to declare" and I said "Just cheap gas", she smiled and said have a nice day and sent me back out into the darkness and home to Saint John.

Here's a paradox Gas in the US was 10 bucks cheaper to fill the cab and it was the same gas that sells here in Saint John and is refined here. I have resolved that the boarder is a magic line that turns gas cheaper some how. Then I remember that Iraq's best friend "W" is the magician and the magical line we call the boarder is only an illusion.

"American Go Juice"

"Tastes like the Canadian counterpart with slightly more of a Gold taste"

AIR LIMO

Earlier before I headed off to work I watched my favorite channel "discovery" and the show daily planet. They had a story about this airplane turned limo. Some Mexican company buys weird stuff and turns it into cars and limos and other forms of transport. I guess it cost a $1000 bucks to rent the thing and it has all the wonderful amenities that you could imagine being in a limo of this size. They took a Benz bus for the engine and put the plane on top with I imagine a few minor adjustments. Found the picture so I thought I'd share....

Keep It Clean!

A CLEAN CAR 89

I don't take cabs much my self anymore for the simple reason I am always working and don't have the need. But when I do I only call my friends and co-workers who I know keep their cars clean.

I can't stand the guys who live in the car and can't keep it clean. I however have the clean bug. I must keep my car as clean as I can all the time. I wash it and rub the amour all into it's interior as much as I can. I share my car with a day driver and I will say this she is not as clean as I am. She is not nearly as bad as some of my other driving partners. I have driven with guys who were so dirty I had to clean the car as soon as I got it just to feel comfortable driving it.

A clean car gets you more money and tips from passengers. I fail to understand why the people of this little city put up with the cruddy drivers who are stinky and dirty. Most of the problem is the smoking issue here in this city. There are by-laws in place to prevent smoking in all public places of work in the province. These laws are not enforced and fail to purge smoking from the cab industry. People here still want to smoke in cabs and I loose a lot of fares because people want another cab that will allow them to smoke.

I have heard it all from customers begging me to let them smoke. "I'll roll the window down all the way and stick my head out" " ahhhh come on"

I hate these people they are fucking brain dead!

They don't care about anyone but them selves and don't realize that they dirty my cab and my lungs. I don't allow them to smoke and yes I loose business but at least I have a clean car and my health goes un affected.

" ahhh please can I take a shit I really have to go I'll roll down the window all the way, I'll even stick my ass out there in the cold"

The root of the problem is the drivers who smoke themselves and allow people to smoke. They ruin it for the rest of us and force people to get into big fights with non smoking Cab drivers.

I try not to have attitude with my smoking customers who have the nerve to ask. but some times I sound really pissed when they do and this doesn't help my case either.

SO whatever, it won't be solved until smoking and smokers are done infesting our planet.

So to you smokers and cabbies who allow smoking in their cab FUCK YOU!!!!!!

Don't worry it's ok I stuck my head out the window when I typed that!

Weekend finished

Had an uneventful weekend nothing too exciting. Most of the evenings fares were from Christmas parties, however people don't seem as wild as they used to be when it comes to the office party. I even had passengers talk about the regular party animals even going to lengths to tone down their antics. I think that people are listening more and more to the advertisements surrounding their drunken mishaps with co-workers. I have seen several news stories and TV shows that deal with the office party. The embarrassing drunk making an entrance to said party is no longer acceptable for some reason. This is by far not the rule because I know there are many out there who would beg to differ with stories and examples from this years batch of Xmas party goers. But Driving cab is no science and the possibility of not getting as many drunken fares is maybe just Luck, who knows. I will say this The season is far from over and the closer we get to the holidays the stupider and crazier people will get.

Port City Puncher

So the other night one of our boys gets a call to the local bus depot. Here he finds a girl shivering in the cold and looking only half awake and surrounded by luggage. As he loads her luggage into his car she begins to tell him her story.

You see she had a long day that had her spend a while coming home to Saint John on the Bus. The very tired girl arrived at 8:10pm, she awoke on the bus at 9:30pm on a dark bus cold and shivering.

She had a hard time figuring out what happened to her at first and soon she found her self struggling to find a way off the bus as it was locked. Eventually she found a way to open the doors and she rushed over to the bus station office, which was just locking its doors for the night. She explained her self to the guys locking up and they took her for some local crack head running around in the cold with out a Jacket. She persisted and explained that her luggage was in their office and they had better get in there to give it to her. Finally she points to the bus she had just left and shows them the door is open and unlocked. Then they believe her and proceed to get her things.

I have fallen asleep on a busy city transit bus and have ended up on the other side of town but this takes the cake. Apparently the bus driver was in a rush and failed to check his bus before parking it for the night. I later had this girl as a fare and she told me the whole story.

Another unrelated story,

Our city has a transit bus that runs after hours on the weekend helping the drunks from the bars get home. It goes from the east side to the university and makes stops uptown. It is a nuisance to cab drivers as it steals our business. The city exclaims that it is a method of prevention, to stop drunk drivers from taking the car home from the bar.

This is retarded since this bus provides transport to mostly UNB students and the majority of them do not own cars. So simply said it is stealing the bigger in town fares from taxis.

Well I had to laugh this week since last weekend a fight broke out on the bus and a few bloody noses had the bus driver calling police to help empty the bus. Which was happened quite fast since the bus occupants all fled the bus when the boys in blue arrived.

Freddybeach has told us about his “Vomit Comet” so I figured this would be a good opportunity to tell you about our bus and aptly name it the “Port city Puncher” Since it is a boxing ring on the weekends and it punches holes in our profits.

Winter Wonderland

Winter has begun in my part of the world and snow has infiltrated and stayed on the ground for a few days thus far. This has made it a bit busy for us and the money has been better. Tree lots have started their annual sale of Xmas trees and things are getting more festive looking around the city as Christmas approaches. Here are some shots to reflect what I have seen the past few days.

Lights at the Hospital

Early Morning Drive On the Highway

See if you can find Jack frost in the cloud

in the center of the picture.

Take me Down Town to Monkey Town!

Where have I been???? Busy with the other Job. That is Eastlink Door to door shuttle express! Yeah I move people around eastern Canada mostly in New Brunswick. Yesterday I was busy being Shuttle "C" for the Skate Canada Eastern Challenge. I bring people from one of the local hotels to the rink and then back again. I now know I do not want to ever be a bus driver doing the same short route all the time it would really begin to suck!

SO I have been in Moncton most of the weekend and I did have to take some time out to do another run to Woodstock while my boss took care of skate Canada. I missed out on a great night of Cab driving, the weather was horrible everywhere in New Brunswick, As Freddy Beach can attest to and he has the scars to prove it. "Poor guy" Read his last post and you'll understand.

SO I am here until late tonight and then it's off to Freddy to get a passenger and take them to Halifax on Sunday. Hope the weather holds off I am a master of winter driving but that doesn't mean I want to stick my head in the lions mouth or bash my head of a rear door hatch!

Yeah and I added EastLink's web site to the list so you can find out more about my other Job!

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.