.....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.

More Caucasian missions accomplished.

I was still thinking of the incident with the previous caucasian while driving off from Tanglin Mall when a fat looking, also caucasion man knocked on my door. I wound down the door window and he said, "Could you fetch me to Four Seasons Hotel?" I said "Sure, hop in".

"Thanks, please open the boot, my bags?" I immediately released the boot catch, came down and assisted him with 3 of his bags into the boot. He then got into my cab together with his wife, who is also as plumb as him. 
As I started to drive, he said "Wow, Singapore has changed so much since the last time I was here, about 12 years ago. I was living at Upper Thomson Road and those days, it was not as crowded and the pace was very much slower and the people then were more of locals and much more helpful and friendlier than now."

"Yes, but now the population has grown to 5 million with more mixture of foreign expats and new citizens. See, the roads now so congested and look at the people walking around, so crowded. Yes, yes Singapore has changed quite a bit, where do you live now?"

"I am at present working in Kuala Lumpur and back here to do a bit of shopping and now I find goods here more expensive."

We soon reached his hotel, the metered fare was $5.15. "Oh, just give me $5 will do."

"No, no, no here's $6.00 thank you" said the wife.

I thanked her and got down to help unload their bags from the boot. The man shook hands with me and said "Thank you again".

I thanked him too, then got into my cab when the hotel doorman asked if I wanted to fetch some passengers to the Night Safari. I said "Sure, ok." and this family, the father from Kenya, the mother from Canada with their 3 young daughters then boarded my taxi. It was around 7.20pm when we left the Hotel lobby heading towards the Zoo. This trip with the family was pleasant and most interesting as I repeatedly joked with them that they were indeed an international as well as nomadic family, we were all laughing. We continued chatting and I learned that the father and mother used to live here for 1 1/2 years, and before that in many other countries and currently living in Sydney, Australia since 2003. We arrived at the Night Safari at 7.45pm the metered fare was $20.40 and I just asked for $20/-. We waved goodbye as I continued driving away from the Zoo... What a satisfying and spectacular day it was for me as I sped off towards Bukit Panjang to 'seek' my well deserved coffee break and maybe dinner?........

The Caucasian mission accomplished.

I had just dropped a passenger at Bugis Village when I spotted another waving to me near junction of Rochor Road and Queens Street, I immediately stopped to pick him up. He was a caucasian and looked to be in his late forties.

"Hello" I said as he boarded my cab.

"Hi, could you please bring me to Tanglin Mall by the quickest route possible, I need to get there by 7pm".

"OK, I'll try my best, if I were to turn left and go by Bencoolen Street, there is the ERP charge of $2.00 at this time but then it may be faster to get you there by 7pm."

"Oh, its alright, ERP charge no problem, just go by the fastest way, I have a very urgent and important appointment with my wife."

As I looked at my watch, it was exactly 6.45pm, I said "Meeting the wife for dinner?"

"No, an important meeting".

I then drove steadily through Bencoolen Street towards Orchard Boulevard amidst tight traffic conditions and finally reached the taxi stand at Tanglin Mall.

"We're here, and you still have 5 minutes to spare, time now is 6.55pm."

The metered fare was $10.30 and he straightaway handed me $12.00 and said "Keep the change, thank you, thank you so much, that was great driving, you just saved me from a possible ugly 'TIFF" with my wife. Thank you, great driving!" and gave me a 'thumbs up' sign.

"Its my pleasure, take care and good luck!" as he rushed off. I then proceeded towards the taxi stand at Orchard Towers feeling very good and happy that I've helped someone in a small way. Mission accomplished.