.....enjoyed your company and our chit-chats..........

It is not often that I ferry so many different nationals from foreign countries in one night. It happened again a few evenings ago when I first fetched a tourist from Myanmar at United Square taxi stand to Holiday Inn near Cuppage Plaza, from there I drove to Takashimaya taxi stand where I picked up a young lady from Indonesia going to Gleneagles Hospital to visit a sick family member.
After that, just cruising past the Thai Embassy along Orchard Road, a Phillipina lady hailed me and wanted to go to her condominium along Nathan Road and this trip was particularly slow due to very heavy traffic conjestion at Scotts Road.
From Nathan Road, I went straight to Great World City taxi stand along Kim Seng Road where I fetched a middleaged German woman with her young daughter going home to her condo at Club Street. As I was about to leave the condo, a couple from Belgium asked me to send them to Changi Airport T1 as they were flying off to Bali for a short holiday.
After sending the couple to T1, I drove to T2 taxi stand nearby and was lucky enough to pick up almost immediately (no taxi queue at this time), this lady from Hong Kong who wanted to go to Suisse Hotel, I remembered her because she had a slight cold and coughed a little and I offered her a Fisherman's 'citrus' sweet, a new packet I bought earlier which she gratefully accepted. At the same time she requested for me to lower the air conditioner as she was feeling a bit cold. She told me that she was only going to stay for one night and will be going home the next day.
As soon as she alighted at Suisse Hotel, 2 guys, one from Vietnam and the other from Thailand together with a young lady from Indonesia entered straightaway into my taxi. The lady who sat in the front passenger seat asked me to send them to Robertson Quay Hotel which I did.
After leaving them, I drove straight to Clarke Quay taxi stand nearby where I picked up this very interesting gentleman from Canada who wanted to go to the first condo after turning into Bayshore Road. He told me he is a "coffee" blogger and gave me his website address: http://www.map2cafe.com/ He told me about his travels to as many as 54 countries to do his coffee research. We had a very interesting chit-chat during the journey, yes, all about coffee.
Next, I remembered ferrying 3 passengers, a Malaysian and 2 Singaporeans, I forget from where, but I know I sent them to somewhere... I think maybe Rivervale in Sengkang. It was indeed a very interesting and enjoyable day at work for me, getting to meet and chat with all the  passengers from as many as 10 different countries. Right now, I am still trying to remember from where I picked up my last 3 passengers ........ I think.... maybe, I better have a cup of coffee first.

day in the life of a cabbie.......

An actual account of what I do for a living.

Yesterday, Monday 4th of January, 2010, at 5.10pm, I picked up my first passenger from United Square taxi stand, a young lady who wanted to go to Leonie Hill, my metered fare was $6.70 after that, I drove to Great World City where I picked up another young lady going to Hong Leong Building, her fare was exactly $8.00.

Next, at Shenton Way DBS Building taxi stand, a caucasian man going to Sentosa Cove and his fare was $12.20 from there I drove out to Vivo City taxi stand, time was 7.00pm, sent this lady to Toa Payoh Lor.7 her fare came to $16.00. It was 7.35pm when I queued and waited at Toa Payoh Central taxi stand where I finally drove this young Malay boy to nearby Lor.1 for $3.80 by then it was already 8.05pm. This time, I started cruising slowly towards town and eventually ended up in the queue at Raffles City taxi stand at 8.45pm, imagine, all the way without a single passenger. About 10 minutes later, a Chinese couple boarded my cab to go to Hilton Hotel, fare was $8.30 and thereafter, also from Hilton, a young Indonesian mother with her daughter wanted to go for a ride on the Flyer, their fare was exactly $7.00. I then proceeded to Esplanade Mall taxi stand, time was 9.10pm, I waited till 9.30pm when a young Chinese couple with their two children wished to go to nearby Swisshotel for a fare of $6.00, and immediately after, two middle aged caucasian ladies boarded my cab to go to a Sembawang Road condo after passing Chong Pang area, their metered fare showed $19.60 but this paying lady insisted on giving me $22.00 which I reluctantly accepted. 
It was then about 10pm when I drove towards Mandai Zoo taxi stand to queue, and boy, it was a long, long queue. Anyway, I decided to read my New Paper as I slowly jogged along and finally picked up two European ladies wanting to go to Jalan Besar Road near Petain Road, their fare came to $14.60, it was then that I felt a bit hungry and decided to go to Syed Alwi Road coffee shop to have my dinner, a bowl of prawn mee soup $3.00 and a cup of hot barley drink 80 cts. After eating my meal, I ended up in the long queue at Clarke Quay, it was already 11.50pm when I fetched four young European ladies to Swisshotel for $6.20 and lucky enough for me, after a short wait I ferried this young Chinese girl to Ponggol Central at exactly midnight. Her fare came to $21.90, the time was about 12.30am, I felt quite tired and decided to call it a day. It was a rather unusual day for me as there was'nt much converstions involved throughout my working day. Despite the slowdown in taxi ridership, I still managed a fair but still quite low take home pay, can't complain too much though. 
Thank you for sharing this long journey with your friendly neighbourhood Cabbie and now its time for my cup of "Kopi".