Mall To Mall.

Saturday was simply incredible.
At 5.15pm, I fetched my first passenger, a young man from 6th Avenue to United Square and it started a continuous visit to different Taxi Stands at shopping centres and malls all over the island. Next was this Chinese young lady at United Square taxi stand who boarded my cab and wanted to go to West Mall at Bukit Batok.
From there, another young Chinese lady wanted to go to Lot One at Chua Chu Kang where I waited less than five minutes at the taxi stand when a Malay woman in her forties, with three young children, asked to go to Causeway Point at Woodlands. Yes, when they alighted, two middle aged Indian women came on board just as quickly and instructed me to send them to Sun Plaza at Sembawang.
As I was driving, I thought so far my passengers were all females and all of them alighting at shopping centres and being a Saturday, it was not surprising. When I reached Sun Plaza taxi stand, a young school girl waiting at the taxi stand wanted to go to North Point at Yishun and I fetched her there.
Now as I waited at the taxi stand at North Point, it was just for one or two minutes, two young Malay girls wanted to go to Compass Point at Seng Kang, they told me that this was their first visit. There were about five taxis already waiting in line at the taxi stand there when they alighted and I then followed the taxi queue. This time I had to wait for about five minutes. When my turn came, a young Caucasian woman together with her five year old daughter boarded my cab and asked to be sent to Parkway Parade Shopping Centre.
It was already 8.45pm when my passengers alighted at their destination and I thought I had better take a breather and headed to Joo Chiat Food Centre to have my meal as I felt quite hungry.

After taking my meal, a delicious bowl of prawn mee soup, I slowly sipped my cup of coffee and took a short rest. It was quite tiring ferrying my passengers almost non-stop and over long distances, but it was a good working day.

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".