Cash or Community work - which is better...?

Talking about being caught throwing cigarette butts, well, I fetched this pretty young lady from United Square taxi stand going home to her condo in Simei Road. Along the way we began chatting and I told her about what happened to my buddy who was caught and fined $3oo/- 
"Uncle, you know what, my boyfriend and his friend were also caught throwing their cigarette butts sometime back. My boyfriend paid his fine, but his friend did not and was eventually hauled to court to face the consequences and what happened to him do you know?" 
"Double the fine?" 
"No, no, he did not have to pay the fine instead had to do only 5 hours of community work that's all!" 
"What?" 
"So when my boyfriend heard about it, he lamented that he should not have paid the fine and also just do 5 hours community work, what a waste!" 
I laughed and told her this was something new, never heard of before and I have once again learnt something new today. This young lady told me that she is a teacher teaching in one of the establishments in United Square and I invited her to go to my blog site and enjoy my stories including this one that I will post about. It was a pleasant journey and she is safely home.  "Remember, go to my Blog! Bye!"  


Wow, our F1 Races is back again, so fast, this 2nd annual historic street event promises to be even better this time round, you know, after all the controversies about what happened in last year's event, you bet I will definitely be watching the races, unfortunately on my TV at home, still, I can turn the volume on high and be engulfed by the zooming and screeches.........

Must know everything!

We taxi drivers are actually informants, perpetual answering machines, maps, intermediaries, counsellors and advisors, in fact Mr Know-alls. We need to be because we are always in touch with people all over the world, be it locals, PRs, expats, tourists etc. 
And especially myself, I am an avid reader of our local newspapers, The Straits Times and The New Paper, I always read my papers early in the morning before going to bed if not I find it hard to fall asleep. I am generally a very inquisitive and talkative creature and I can converse with anyone at any level, therefore I need to be very knowledgeable in any subjects here as well as all over the world, be it in everyday lifestyle, finance, politics, arts and drama, sports, love, gambling, food, shopping, theatres and movies, technology, internet, places of interest and oh, so many many more, but I keep learning through gossip get togethers and what have you. 
I have a wonderful and steady mindset and that is, to be happy always and I don't know the meaning of the words 'stress' or 'worry' in fact I am truly a very happy go lucky guy ! In fact, during my earlier years I pride myself as a Jack of all Trades but master of none. The mind can never grow old, it is our control centre and we are what we want to be in anything and everything except for our earthly body which is not. 
It is now 5am and I am looking for a snack, tummy grumbling, till then, Cheers! 
(stay tuned I shall be back with more 2morrow!)

Oldest trade in the world

Last night picked up a Malaysian young man, here in Singapore for 3 days. 
"Uncle, can you bring me to your famous Geylang, I want to see the girls there" 
"1st time here?" 
"yes" 
"'ok." 
Ah, you see, although Singapore is seen as clean and GREEN, we too have our RED light District. 24-hours alive and robust with beautiful girls from all over Asia. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, even from as far as Columbia, Spain and Russia etc...illegally plying the oldest trade in the world here. WHY? Money is good and customers flock here from all over the world. 
I drop my passenger along Lorong 8 and told him this is where he should start window shopping, this first Lorong are girls from China then proceed to Lorong 10 where girls are mostly from Indonesia and on to Lorong 16 where u find them from Thailand and so on and so forth. Enjoy yourself and Bye. 
He thanked me and there u go, another satisfied and happy passenger. 
Must go look for some bite now, yes! FROG porridge at Lavender food centre...yummy


*Lorong: an alley

5 Bad Habits of Taxi Drivers...only?

Here are 5 bad habits of taxi drivers that I can think of now... 

1. Talking on the handphone for a long period of time with passenger on board.

2. Driving recklessly, speeding and weaving in and out of lanes.   

3. Wearing round neck T-shirts which are not allowed and not proper or presentable.

4. Too talkative, don’t know when to stop talking even when the passenger shows no interest.   
5. Always showing impatience especially at traffic light junctions. 

If you know of other bad habits that I did not list, I'm sure there are more.... please do tell me!

Rest Time with my Taxi buddies

I have four regular taxi buddies and we always meet up around 12.30am at this 24-hr coffee shop where they have porridge, nasi lemak, western and a variety of Chinese food. We order our drinks and food and chat about our daily rounds. 
Last night, Peter, one of my buddies, received a ticket for throwing a cigarette butt near a food court in Jurong West. He had just sent a passenger home and decided to relax a while and have a puff just outside his cab in the neighbourhood car park. He finished smoking, looked around a bit and flicked the butt on the turf. Got into his cab and was about to start off when this young couple suddenly appeared from nowhere, knocked on his driver side window and flashed their credentials. 
"Hello, Environment officer, please come out and hand us your i/c. Sir, we saw you throw your cigarette butt on the turf" 
"Sorry, sorry Officer, give me a chance lah, I am old and had a bad day today, give me a chance, I will not do it again. You know I have many hospital bills to pay and it is really tough, please lah" 
The Officer was issuing the summons, kept quiet and when he handed the ticket to him said, "You should know better and there is no excuse for what you just did" and left with his colleague. 
Poor Peter, one look at the ticket and he nearly fainted. AIYOH! $300/- few days of hard earnings down the drain! We felt sorry for him and told him he should have been more careful. The rest period ended up with everyone talking about each others experiences and close shaves and reminding each other to be more vigilant as we can never tell who's watching us. Our usual get together thus ended and we went our separate ways. Peter says he will try to stop smoking, cos its too expensive as we wave goodbye. 
Well, this is part and parcel of our daily adventures and lessons that we learn each day....


"Hello, where to?" 
"Bukit Panjang, Petir Road thank you, wah, got midnight charge already ah" 
and so life goes on........

Late already!!!

"Uncle, uncle can you please drive faster, I am very late for my appointment with my boss, you think can reach there by 7pm?" 
"No way, so sorry, time now already 6.55pm and it will take at least 15 to 20 minutes to get there in this heavy traffic congestion, but I'll try my best ok?" 
This type of requests are quite often, and you can imagine how stressed they become each time the lights turn red. Well, we need to always be more prepared  and be aware of our Time to save ourselves anxiety and also prevent unwanted and unforeseen accidents. 
Sometimes passengers can be unreasonable and start to give remarks like:
"you should have taken the other route" or 
"why don't you keep to the right" or 
"that idiot in front so kayu*" or  
"Haiyah*, jialat*, sure big trouble afterwards" and so on and so forth. 
Sometimes, we drivers also get agitated and start hitting back like, "my fault is it", and also begin driving recklessly and at the end of the journey, both are totally exhausted. 
For me I have learnt to stay cool at all times and it really helps both of us, like knowing you cannot possibly go any faster and yet give your passengers the assurance that we are getting there very soon, 'don't worry, going to reach already', 'just after this junction or that traffic light ahead'. Driving a taxi is really very interesting as you get to meet the good, the bad and the ugly, and regardless, after ferrying your passengers to their destinations safe and sound gives you a kind of job satisfaction. 
And yes, I will list the bad habits of taxi drivers soon... 


This morning I need to go to NUH for my ultra scan at 9am, so I better get some shut eye for now. Time 6.35am.


Terms with*
kayu: (pronounce 'kah-yoo') means dull, stupid, block-head, dimwit. Popularly used to refer to a football referee. Eg. ‘Referee, kayu lah!  How can he red-card Zidane like that?’
Haiyah: (or Aiyah) an exclamation used at the beginning of a sentence to express despair, dismay, exasperation, etc.
jialat: (or chia lat)  Difficult, troublesome, or severe, to a great extent, very bad, terrible.

I help people get home everyday...

Picked up this guy from Orchard Towers, a famous and well known joint (4 storeys of whores). 
"Hello, where to?"
"Jurong West St 42 and Uncle...", as I started to do a U-turn, "I have only about $10, is it enough?" 
"Sorry", I slowed down, "the fare is something like $14 because already midnight."
"Aiyah Uncle, chin chai* lah, I already broke, got exactly $10.60, please lah*." 
Poor fellow quite high* and pleading. 
"OK lah, but you pay me first", he fumbled a bit but quickly paid me that amount. 
Along the way, he started telling me lewd episodes of the women he was with, including Lady-Boys*. There you go, I keep learning everyday about all kinds of things, and I tell you, it is very very interesting and sometimes mind boggling! This guy must have paid a bit for his lust until he is flat broke. Sent him home safely and he kept thanking me blah blah blah...... nearly 1am, a bit tired, so ended up in nearby coffee shop to have kopi and a puff..  incidentally, I happen to be a smoker  heh heh heh.


Terms with *: 
chin chai: a term in Hokkien dialect, means "not fussy", "easy-going". In this case, the term is used persuasively to mean "be more flexible" or "be easy"
lah: a Singapore English word behind any expression to generally assert one's intention more strongly
Lady-Boys: men, mostly from Thailand, who dress and behave like women and they look as pretty as girls, or even prettier

Pandan leaves in taxi cabs?

I was asked by a passenger why some cabbies put a bunch of pandan leaves in their taxi. I began to explain that the reason is because some passengers choose to eat in the taxi, although this is not allowed. The pandan leaves act as a repellant to keep cockroaches from infesting our cabs because they are attracted to the crumbs of food that litter our cabs.

This makes me think how some passengers are so inconsiderate. It would be even nice to just ask for our permission. Eating in taxis is not allowed, but people choose to turn a blind eye.


Here are some other bad habits of passengers:
1. Whipping out a $50 note for short distances that don't even add up to $5 and expecting change.
2. Trying to flag down a cab while standing at the bus stop, not realising that I can't stop there, I'll get fined. Then I get a disgusting look or an inappropriate finger because I kept the law.
3. Sweet wrappers and dirty tissues stuffed into the side slot of the door handle, or the back pocket of the seat in front...
4. Putting your wet umbrella on the seat.
5. Leaving behind your unwanted newspapers or magazines, etc.


To be fair I should list some bad habits of taxi drivers as well.
I need to get to a toilet now... will do that later.

One of only two Singaporean taxi bloggers!

There is another Singaporean taxi driver blogger and you can see his blog here. I wonder who will be the next Singapore taxi driver blogger to make it 3. 


Tonight, I found other cabbies who blog. I had only known of the New York Hack one. Didn't know there were so many others. I've created a column for my fellow cabbies, the world is getting smaller. 

For 30 minutes today, I was a cab counsellor.

Its nearly a year already since I had wanted to start this blog. I procrastinated for a year... but its never too late to continue.... 


Today a young lady boarded my cab from Shenton Way and she was heading to Sin Ming. All through the journey she was on her mobile phone crying and talking at the same time. Unfortunately, I am an inevitable eavesdropper, can you blame me? She had just found out that her husband was having an affair with her best friend. When we reached Sin Ming, my heart went out to her and I just wanted to make sure she was alright so I asked her if she was okay and what happened. She sat in my cab and told me the whole story - she had known her husband for 7 years before getting married for a year or so now. She had caught him red-handed with her friend. She was distraught, didn't know who to talk to, wanted a divorce, wanted to commit suicide, she was confused... I started talking to her almost as if counseling her and it lasted for a half hour. She started to calm down and thanked me. I told her to take care of herself as I left. As I drove off thinking about it, I then realised that I did not collect her fare of more than $10. 


I have had so many different encounters over these 12 years on the road... will tell you more later! Now for my supper...