"Striking" long time ago...

Nowadays, sporting activities in Singapore with the younger generation benefitting a whole lot more, getting more international exposures, wider news coverage worldwide, more sponsors, more new high-tech venues and fantastic monetary rewards. All these including The Singapore Sports School nurturing yet more new talents, has truly given a huge boost to our future sporting arena.

I remembered in those days, in my early twenties, I was very keen in bowling, even had my own bowling team, played in different league tournaments and spent continuous days and nights in different bowling alleys. I was good then, but hardly exposed to national tournaments let alone competing in the international arena where our Remy won high accolades and also very well rewarded and recognised for his efforts not too long ago. During my time, bowling became a kind of part time job where you can earn an extra bit of pocket money whilst competing with all levels of bowlers from anywhere. It was great fun and I enjoyed every bit of it, in fact, I was then unemployed but with my bowling skills, was earning an "Executive" salary every month for almost two years, including buying myself a brand new Toyota Celica 1600 cc car. When I first became a businessman, I continued to bowl occasionally whilst doing my own businesses for a while but due to work constraints and business pressures, I eventually stopped bowling altogether. I have not bowled for more than fifteen years now, but believe you me, I think I can still throw a few mean Strikes..........

Nearly conned...

One night, many, many years ago, I was with my brother-in-law Philip, two of my uncles, Bobby and Anthony. We were playing mahjong in my house at Thomson Road, when all of a sudden, there was this young man, aged maybe 16 or 17 years old, dressed rather untidily, I remembered with his short sleeves shirt not tucked in and also barefooted. He approached us, looking rather disorientated and in a sweat.

He needed to use the telephone very urgently to call his sister and we allowed him to do so. We also stopped playing at the same time and was listening intently to his conversation. He sounded panicky, agitated and looks like crying and shivering also, spoke shakily, "Hello sis, mother met with an accident, injured badly and is now in General Hospital emergency unit! Huh? you cannot rush to hospital now? I am in a very dificult situation and right now I don't even have a single cent on me, how to take taxi and rush there? Mother is alone and the hospital needs us to go and sign papers before they can do any surgery immediately otherwise she may die. I was told she is suffering and is in a critical shape. I was working and rush quite far to borrow this phone to call you because the company's phone is out of order. I told you I have no money with me right now!"

He started crying, "What to do now? How?". He hung up the phone and sat down on the floor as if in agony. We felt very anxious and sad after listening to his plight and was going to give him some money to help out, when another uncle of mine who was sitting quietly at a corner reading a magazine, stood up, caught the youngster by his shirt collar, and spoke very sternly to him. "Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do! I have been dealing with you guys for such a long time, trying to get sympathy with sad stories, and con people of their money. Tell me the truth now and I will give you a chance and let you go or I will bring you straight to the police station".

The boy suddenly shakened, immediately cowered, knelt down and pleaded for leniency and kept saying "Sorry, sorry, sorry". My uncle said, "Don't you ever let me catch you doing this again or you will be properly punished, understand?" He nodded his head repeatedly, "Sorry, sorry, dare not already" and quickly sprinted out of sight.

All of us were shocked especially with the acting and realism that this young man displayed, and to this day, this episode of real life con-in-action will never be forgotton. Incidentally, this uncle, my mother's younger brother, happened to be Inspector Hong of the Singapore Police Force. Cons and scams are still very active in Singapore, even with the local media at present still highlighting many cases and giving advice and cautions, we sometimes forget and continue to be conned! Nowadays, we have more and more foreigners getting into the act, preying and testing our gullibilities.......

this is true...

This will come as a surprise to you. Do you know that if you were in Toronto Canada, and if you happen to take a taxi, that Indian taxi driver can easily be a qualified doctor/surgeon/dentist/engineer, who emigrated to Canada, but was from India or for that matter from any country in the world, yes, even from Singapore. 
This is because, the Canadian authorities DO NOT recognise any foreign degrees (other than Phd) earned by anyone abroad and he/she has to be re-trained to perform his/her profession in Canada.

This leads us to why so many qualified people ended up as cabbies/pizza deliverers or something else just to make a living there. I was told from a very reliable source that a woman selling insurance in Toronto was formerly a Professor of Dentistry in Singapore University before she emigrated to Toronto. She was only allowed to work as a dental assistant, which she turned down. Then, there was this friend's family doctor who had his own medical practice in Singapore and with degrees from Singapore and England, but had to return to medical school for 4 years in Vancouver before being allowed to practice medicine again. There are doctors from Australia who likewise had to be retrained when they go there. AND yet, Canada is severely short of qualified doctors. Many of these overseas-trained doctors/surgeons who emigrated, are cabbies or pizza men or something else in Toronto. These too, include overseas-trained engineers. Sometimes we learn that to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

It's that time of year...

Today is exactly the end of the 1st month of my promotional offer of a $1 trip if I am spotted as "Uncle Frank, the Cabbie". There is another two months more to go, but unfortunately I seem to be invisible for the time being. I look forward each day to be surprised, but to date none forthcoming. Maybe this is because my blog is fairly new and I have yet to garner more readership. Still, anything can happen in the next 2 months. I suppose most of you are not dependent on cabs or opt for other modes of public transport, its okay, I am enjoying myself everyday as I await my 1st recipient of the promo. Maybe I need to show more visible signs to attract more attention, will work on it. Surprises every now and then makes our lives more exciting and fun as we go through our daily monotonous routine. Happenings, such as, festivals, birthdays, weddings, wakes, and etc keep us aware of our immediate responsibilities as well as remember that we still belong in the community. Imagine if none of these events existed, how boring life would be. Although we go about attending to what's going on, we always have that thought about how troublesome this and that is, and wished we were not involved at all. Now, the next big event is around the corner and we await the "lighting up" of Orchard Road. Shoppers frantically hunting and buying with intentions of sharing, giving and showering love everywhere when Christmas arrives. This is one festival that is universal, in that, all of us are involved in one way or the other. We wish our passengers "Merry Christmas!", help them load their shoppings into our cab, ferry continuous party-goers, performers, and the usual "last minute" people as we work in an environment of music and dance and good cheers during this period. It is also very true that during Christmas time, earnings of taxi drivers are like year end bonuses as all of us drive especially with more enthusiasm and less rest. It is this time of the year that taxis are greatest in demand.

troublesome and waste of time....

There was this guy, a caucasian, looks to be in his fifties, whom I picked up along Orchard Road near Centrepoint taxi stand one night and he wanted to go to Sixth Avenue. As soon as he boarded my cab, he immediately fell asleep lying down across the back seat. I thought he must be very tired and anyway Sixth Avenue is not that faraway. It was around 11.30pm. As I drove, I could hear his loud snores along the way. I took a look behind when I stopped at a red light traffic junction near Balmoral Road, and found him curled up in deep sleep. I continued on my journey till I reached Sixth Avenue, then called out "Hello Mister, wake up, we are here!" No response , and so I stopped my vehicle by the side of the road, switched on the centre lights and called him again. He did not even budge a bit. After calling out loud numerous times in an effort to wake him up failed, I decided to drive towards the nearest Police Post along Bukit Timah Road to seek assistance from the police.

As taxi drivers, we are not allowed to do our own body search, and so, after parking my cab just outside the station, two uniformed police officers began to call him and eventually hauled him up in a sitting position. The passenger sleepily said "Okay" and again laid down in the same fashion. After quite a while, the police officers managed to wake him up, asked where he intended to go. He said to Sixth Avenue but not the exact location. It was already half an hour spent and still the police could not gauge a proper answer from him. It was then that I decided to just ask the police to get $10/- from him as a token for my troubles. At the same time, I told them that I do not wish to ferry him again, and wanted to leave. The kind officers obliged, hauled the guy into the station to let him rest there, collected and gave me the money I asked. I thanked them and left.

It was already 12.30am and I had already wasted an hour or so, including loss of income. I decided to retire after going to a car wash to clean up and wash the vehicle as usual and drive straight home after that. This sort of incidents are quite common, and there is nothing much we can do except to get help from the police.

Taxi driving is sometimes very telling...

If your 1st passenger of the day is heading towards East Coast, then the rest of your other passengers will be from or going to, around this particular area. For instance, at about 5.30pm, my 1st pax today whom I picked up at United Square taxi stand, wanted to go to Changi Airport Terminal 2. He was an Indian National Environmental Consultant at present living in Malaysia and having some business here, now returning home, and his flight leaves at 7.30pm for KL.

After that, I joined the taxi queue at T2 which was quite fast and soon I was fetching this lady, without any luggage, to Tampines St.45. from where I then picked up this gentleman who wanted to go to Changi Airport T1. After he alighted, once again I drove to T2 to join the taxi queue. This time, it was even faster picking up my fare, a young gentleman with a single, medium sized luggage. He was heading home to Wan Tho Ave in Sennett Estate. After sending him home, I did a U-turn to go into Serangoon Road when a Chinese National flagged me and he wanted to go to Geylang Lorong 23. I sent him there and immediately after he alighted, I spotted a young lady with a really big luggage bag on the opposite side of Geylang Road. She waved in my direction and in the next instant, I helped her load her luggage into the boot of my cab. This lady, a Japanese, wanted to go to Changi Airport T2. She told me in a mixture of Mandarin and English that her Flight to Tokyo is at 6.00am in the morning. I said that it is still a long while yet and she told me that she would rather spend her time at T2 because of good air-conditioning, space to rest and also no problem getting a bite there. She actually lives in Brisbane, Australia, and her air ticket was a special round trip package offer from Brisbane, S'pore, Tokyo (to visit her parents) and then back to Brisbane.

After this trip, it was already 8.15pm. I decided to drive straight towards Bedok Ave 2, another one of my favourite haunts, a coffee shop, where you get excellent and tasty fish soup with seperate white rice, originally a very well known and popular stall from Upper Boon Keng Road and it has now moved here, directly opposite another popular eating place, Botak Jones. After my truly deserved meal, as I was driving out of the carpark, 2 guys flagged me and they wanted me to send them to Jurong St.61, with one of them to get off at Clementi St.3 first.

Now, this long trip towards Jurong will mean the changing to a different surrounding area for ferrying of passengers which went on till about midnight. It was an exceptionally good day and my takings were above average. I decided to call it a day........

Latest Blockbuster!

Another mobile handphone-glued-to-ear passenger boarded my cab from Paragon taxi stand.

"Hello.... hello? Hello? where would you like to go?" No instructions from her as I drove out from the taxi stand.

I turned around to look at her and again I asked, "Hello? Miss, where to?"

She quickly looked up and said "Sorry, Choa Chu Kang North 5 please."

It was 7pm and as usual, slow heavy traffic flow all the way to her destination. I couldn't help but listened to her continuous conversation with her girlfriend, it must be, because she kept calling her Kelly a few times. She was giggling and laughing and at times spoke about intimacies she shared with her boyfriend on their holidays abroad, if I am not wrong, in Phuket. She was apparently telling stories to her girlfriend about her boyfriend, and was quite elaborate in her details, which I think should only be heard under covers. Anyway, her excited, exhuberant descriptions about her adventures shows that she couldn't care less who's listening because she is deeply in love, and for her, love knows no boundaries.

It seemed like an extremely long journey and I was the patron, 'hearing' not 'watching' a non-visual love picture in motion, but alas, I was not to know its ending because we arrived at her place too soon. She looked at the meter and simply gave me $20/-, smiling and gesturing, keep it, as she alighted with her HP still glued to her ear. I could only call out "Thank you" as she she closed the door behind her and walked briskly towards her block. The End.

Well, this got me imagining and putting all data compiled into a Blockbuster flick as I head towards the nearest coffee shop, with my "On Call" sign displayed.........

Any way will do..

"Uncle, Yishun St.11 near the Shell Petrol station" as this young lady boarded my cab near Newton MRT. I said "Okay, and which way would you like to go, by the CTE or by Thomson Road?"

She replied "Any way will do."

"Fine." as I negotiated the circle and headed towards the CTE via Bukit Timah Road. After turning left into the CTE and driving along amidst heavy traffic as it was about 6pm, peak hour time, the young lady sat up suddenly and said aloud, "Why did'nt you go by the Thomson Road way? This way the traffic is so heavy." as though reprimanding. I was suddenly taken aback and replied, "Miss, during this time most roads and highways are always heavily congested, but so long as traffic keeps moving, although much slower, we are still moving", to which she added "You, as a taxi driver should know better which way got less traffic", to which I immediately rebutted, "Miss, before I made a move, I asked you which way you preferred, CTE or Thomson Road, and you said any way will do, I decided to go by the CTE. If you had said by Thomson Road, I would have done so. Anyway, either routes at this time of day experiences heavy traffic flow, and it can't be helped." "You taxi drivers are the same, always giving excuses in order to earn more money."

Straightaway I replied, "Hello Miss!, be reasonable and recall what you said, ANY WAY WILL DO, right? As for me, I find this way to be much faster than the other because its free of traffic lights and if there is nothing unusual along the way, you can reach home very much faster. Earning more money? by travelling this way? You are simply out of line."

"It's true what!" she continued.

I felt 'heat' and 'smoke' rising and chose to remained quiet and just drove. She tried saying this and questioning that, but still I chose to remain silent. She soon realised that I wasn't interested in having an argument, she simmered down and sat back but continued mumbling angrily to herself. What a relief when we reached her destination. She paid the fare, alighted, then forcefully slammed the door shut.

"Phew!" what a relief to be rid of her. To me, she is just one of those who likes to chide and argue unreasonably without realizing that she is truly 'Miss Bitch'. Driving during peak hours itself is already very stressful and tiring let alone having someone adding insult to injury, well, its just too much. Usually, after such confrontations, I try to look for a nice coffee shop to rest and slowly enjoy my cup of tea........ I have learned to discard hate and resentment, they affect you the most....

Cheated a second time

Just after midnight I was in the queue at the Orchard Tower taxi stand when two Malay men, I think in their thirties, boarded my taxi.

"Uncle, Jurong West Ave 4".

I said "Okay" and started driving. All the time along the way, the 2 guys just sat quietly and did not even say a word to one another. I looked in the rear mirror and noticed that one of them was in a reclining position, as though resting or maybe sleeping. I did not suspect anything unusual. As I drove near and turning into Jurong Ave 4, I asked them to direct me to where they wished to alight and one of them said, "Go straight and turn into 1st carpark on your left".

And as I turn into the carpark, the same guy said "Can stop near the rubbish chute".

I replied "Over there? ok" and came to a stop.

Before I can even tell them the fare, my left and right rear doors swung opened and the two of them jumped out and sprinted off in opposite directions. I was stunned, looked left and right and saw their shadowy figures running at top speed into the void decks of the HDB flats ahead of them and simply disappeared so quickly. What should I do? Chase after them? Which one, the left or the right? Its just a hopeless thought. I got down from my cab, walk around it to shut the two doors left ajar and then leaned against the driver side of my cab, had a smoke whilst feeling very disappointed and disgusted. Its not about the fare... around $18/- but the thought that this was indeed planned before hand and I was chosen as their target, that made me look stupid. I got into my cab and slowly drove around the neighbouring block of flats hoping to see if I could spot the culprits and after a while, I was thinking its useless to waste my time any longer and drove off. The memory of what happened that night will be hard to erase.

Time flies, be happy...

Everyday, as soon as you get up from bed, your first thought is, what time is it? late already! got to get ready for work, and this is normally the daily routine for nearly everyone of us, except on saturdays and sundays when you simply don't want to get out of bed but continue to laze because its your day off.

For me, there is no off days and so everyday is the same old story, and it has become a daily habit, so much so, you just want to go out and work, meet people and find out whats happening and wonder if the day is going to be eventful or just drab. The beauty of it all is, as soon as you start work, "TIME" also becomes your immediate companion, and you find that the day quickly runs into night at a steady pace and before you know it, you want to call it a day.

In between this period of time, the only relief is when you start to feel hungry and begin to decide what meals you like to have or where to have it, now this too becomes a problem because you just want to have your meal quickly and then start working again. You try not to eat your meals between 5pm and 8pm because that's when you can earn a little bit more from extra (peak hour surcharges). At the same time it is not feasible to eat in a restaurant because it takes a longer time for your food to be prepared and can be more costly. So, as usual, we end up at food centres. How I wish for home cooked meals where you can just enjoy eating any food set on the table instead of having to choose your meals outside, day in and day out.

At the end of the day, like everyone else, we need to clean up our cabs to prepare them for the next working day, fill up the tank and the lone journey home once again. How's this, "We do not stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing" always strive to be happy.......