One Of Those Days.

Saturday night, after fetching my passengers, a Malay mother and her young son to Woodlands Ave 1, I decided to head towards one of my favourite eating place nearby to have my dinner. Time was 9.30pm and I had been driving non stop for more than three hours already, now feeling a bit tired and hungry. At Al Ameen restaurant, I ordered a plate of Nasi Bryani and drank Teh-O. Below are pictures of my food and surroundings.

After my meal, I suddenly felt a craving for Durians which I saw just now around the corner, behind the bus stop and so I walked there to check it out and eventually bought three Durians of the D24 type for only $10.00, (an offer I could not refuse) which I brought home for my treat to enjoy after work. Feast your eyes on the fruits displayed. As I write, the smell and taste of these exotic fruits lingered on.

What and Where for dinner is always 'headache' time..........

Talking about daily meals especially having to eat out everyday because we have home cooked meals only occasionally. I always get a big headache when dinner time comes and I got to decide what food to eat. 
When you have been on the road for so many years every type of dish seems to be like the one you just had yesterday and you like to eat something different but then nothing looks different, they are all the same in every food centre and to eat in restaurants is not practicable due to time constraints although I sometimes do on special occasions. 
Travelling all over the island day in day out, I get to know of many interesting food joints offering special and exotic foods here and there, but when dinner time approaches, I seem to be lost or confused as to where I should go and eat and so sometimes I would just end up having a chicken sandwich or two pieces of toasted bread with two half boiled eggs, a cup of coffee in any convenient or available coffee shop nearby and that's it, a simple 'dinner' done. Disappointment is when you have decided early what you want for dinner, you get turned off when you see the long queue of other hungry souls waiting their turn. Or when you are there, they are closed for business exactly on the day you chose... 
So you see, sometimes, what you want is not what you'll get. Anyway, I better start thinking of what food I like to have for dinner tonight......

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".

slow night and cheap meals......

It was an extremely slow night for me yesterday but I still managed to cover my rental and made a little bit, so I spent extra longer time enjoying my 'lunch' 8.30pm and also my 'dinner' at 1.30am. For 'lunch' I had this very special cheap chicken rice meal which costs $2/- only at the Bendemeer Road market, maybe promotion going on indefinitely and it was not bad at all and there was also a small queue at the stall. As for 'dinner', I was having wanton mee, very cheap also, only $2/- at Henderson Road popular coffee shop, well known for its porridge and assortment of dishes. The wanton mee is from the same stall as the popular 24-hour duck and char siew/siow bak stall. This corner coffee shop is especially crowded with taxi drivers at all times and has been there for many years already, you cannot miss it as you drive along Henderson Road.

What's for dinner tonight?

Today was like any other workday with nothing very much to mention except for myself. I happen to fetch a passenger to Strathmore Road and so, I stopped by along Margaret Drive to eat at one of my favourite foodstalls, yes, the popular Char Kway Teow stall with a continuous long queue of customers patiently waiting for their turn to be served. The Char Kway Teow here is famous for its huge helping of cockles and nothing else. Anytime in the evening till 10pm everyday except Sundays there is this long queue and it never ends. You cannot miss it. Its stall is at one of Singapore's oldest food centre located alongside two churches. Sometimes it takes as long as half an hour's wait before your turn comes. It is self service with the cook working at his frying pan non stop. It costs $3/- per plate and you can request for more sweet soy sauce or more beansprout or additional eggs and less oil. I eat at this place at least once a week. 
There are many places where popular and famous food dishes can be found all over the island and I shall bring to your attention every now and then. Because of my night shift, I normally sleep at around 9.00am and wake up about 4.00pm everyday. My breakfast is usually only a cup of coffee, my 'lunch' at around 8.30pm and dinner about 2.00am. As I eat out all the time I therefore always try to seek out exciting and interesting places that offer exotic food. Incidentally, I am a 'must try' person who just simply loves to eat........

What shall I have for dinner tonight...? I usually let the passenger decide for me, so wherever I send them to, sometimes I'll ask them what food is good around the area... and if I don’t want to eat around there, I just wait for the next passenger to lead me...its like a surprise element each day.

Well, what do you know, there were no passengers taking up on my offer today, anyway, there is still 3 months more to go and who knows.