The Mata Puteh Family.

Yesterday evening, as I was leaving for work, I checked again to see the bird's nest built near the top of my bamboo plant placed outside my gate. I have been regularly keeping an eye on it. I have always been happy to see a bird's nest, this is not unusual for me as this is the 5th time a mother bird has built a nest and grew her chicks on this same bamboo plant of mine, usually from two tiny white eggs till the baby chicks grew to baby birds and then the whole family would fly off to greener pastures. I decided then to photograph them for the first time when I return home tonight. These photographs were taken from my iPhone as soon as I reached home around midnight.

It Was Different Then.

How time flies, a wink of an eye and more than ten years just flew by. This picture of me was taken two and a half years after I first started driving a taxi in July of year 2000. From this photo, taken twelve years ago, on top of Mount Faber, you will notice the taxi logo, TIBS TAXI, yes, I started with this taxi company for many years till I switched to Premier Taxis, I was then driving a Nissan Cedric. When I first drove for TIBS and continued with them even after SMRT took over, I was supplied with two or maybe three white long sleeve shirts and two grey long pants each year, me and my colleagues need to dress alike, it is compulsory. We look very smart in them though, and each time we take our meal breaks or coffee breaks in coffee shops or food centres, we could be anywhere and nobody would guess that we were in fact mere taxi drivers. We were also instructed to greet and acknowledge each other anytime, anywhere whenever we met and also wave as we drive pass each other. There was then a sense of belonging I thought. We were then behaving and even thinking or looked more like office executives. At present, I can wear any type of shirts or pants as I wish and of course its much easier and more convenient as Premier does not insist on any particular mode of dressing.

The Unforeseen and A Pleasant Interview.

Had a rude shock this morning when my Relief driver called to tell me that our taxi was rammed from behind by a delivery truck when he stopped at a traffic junction along Upper Cross Street this morning around 11.00am. My Relief suffered a slight cut on his right arm and the vehicle was badly damaged. After making necessary reports at the office, he managed to get a replacement vehicle till repairs are done. Another unpredictable incident but luckily no bad injuries sustained. This sort of accidents are unforeseen and quite common especially so for taxis when we are on the roads nearly 24 hours a day.

Last Tuesday evening from 6.00pm, I was being interviewed in my cab by two young and lovely Australian ladies for about an hour whilst I drove and they eventually alighted at Junction Eight in Bishan after having travelled from the Orchard Road area. When I picked them up from their residence, I initially thought they were sisters but to my surprise, they were a mother and daughter pair. You see, the daughter, I shall call her Miss E had earlier wrote to me to ask if she could interview me and help her with some information in respect of the taxi profession in Singapore and also about my lifestyle after having stumbled upon my Blogspot. I felt very honored and made the appointment to meet up and also have the interview in my cab as we travel along and at the end of it all, they insisted on paying me the metered fare which I finally accepted at $20.00. Miss E needed my assistance to help her in her project and I hope I was able to provide her with the necessary information she needed. Both mother and daughter were also my first passengers and they were honestly, very polite and very pleasant. It was really my pleasure travelling with the lovely ladies, and I thoroughly enjoyed being interviewed by Miss E.

Whimsical Student.

Last Saturday evening I fetched an interesting young female secondary four student from a local school from Jurong Point taxi stand and she wanted to go to West Mall. During the journey, she asked me a host of questions in respect of the taxi driving profession. She said she wants to be a taxi driver when she finishes school after the end of this year as she finds it very interesting and most important of all she can have a vehicle to use without having to foot out a huge sum of money to buy one, only need a thousand dollars or so as capital money. I was shocked to hear of her intentions, her ignorance, I mean coming from a sec. 4 student. I told her that she will have to be at least 18 years old in the first place to apply for a driving licence and secondly she can only be eligible to apply for a taxi vocational licence if she is 30 years old, the minimun qualifying age, to which she exclaimed "Wah liao! like that ah, have to wait so long and must be 30 years old than can become a taxi driver meh?". I replied "Yes what, you think so easy meh?". I knew she was still very immature and childish and so gave her a simple 'fatherly' talk about the importance of education and not to think so much about starting to work and blah, blah, blah and so on till we reach West Mall. She looked a bit stunned and silly when she paid me the fare, but she did thank me for my bit of talk and advice for her as she alighted and quickly disappeared in the crowd.

Sleeping Buddha.

Fetched an elderly Indian couple from Clarke Quay early yesterday evening and they wanted to go to St. Michael's Road which is off Serangoon Road. I managed to ask them casually if they were locals and they said "No", they were visitors from Mumbai. They wanted to visit the Sri Lankaramaya Temple to see the sleeping Buddha. They cannot speak much English and so I could not find out their actual reasons for coming to this Temple. Anyway, when we reached their destination, I took the chance to take a couple of pictures of the sleeping Buddha. I asked if I could photograph them also, but they declined.

The Re-appearance.

The first passengers I picked up on Monday evening opposite Mount Elizabeth Hospital was a young Caucasian woman with her two young children, twins, a boy and a girl, together with her maid and they wanted to go Hindhede Road, entrance to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. After they alighted at a condominium nearby, and on my way out, I saw monkeys walking, running and jostling along the entrance of the road, I quickly stopped and parked my cab along the kerb, took out my iPhone and started taking pictures of the monkeys which I had earlier thought already vanished from this area. (Refer to my earlier post "Where Have All The Monkeys Gone")

I spent about 20 minutes watching the monkeys antics, wrestling with one another, chasing one another and also a mother holding her baby perched on the railings and it was fun and interesting just watching them at play. Yes, the monkeys are still there to entertain.

Relentless Shocks and Revelations.

Just ask these words "Heard the latest?" or "Have you heard?" and we get to hear all sorts of comments, feedbacks, criticisms, thoughts and suggestions. As a taxi driver, I chat and interact everyday with a very wide and varied audience, people from all walks of life and from all over the world, different races and religions. I get first hand news and views of any sensational stories past and present and yesterday, the topic was of course 'the shock' about misappropriation of City Harvest Church funds involving its pragmatic leader, Pastor Kong Hee  which in turn also brought about recollections of similar past episodes such as the NKF saga, Ren Ci and many others including recent fallen Top stars from government.

It was an interesting day of chit chats with so many of my passengers. I was flooded with accusations, criticisms and the like from my passengers and me too, adding extra contributions to our exciting discussions,  like in a mini forum. In recent times, there has been varied subjects, such as the 'Ferrari tragedy', death falls of 'maids', reservoir 'suicides' and numerous 'corruption' cases all of which makes for lively chats between me and my passengers. Its been a great pleasure ferrying and meeting cheerful, pleasant, intelligent and friendly strangers all willing to engage in healthy lively talks, enjoy laughter and discussions.    

Unforeseen Hiccup.

Three days ago, my PC which served me so faithfully for so many years broke down. I tried to rescue it by getting a very good friend of mine, a professional troubleshooter, to do everything possible to get it back to shape but to no avail. I had to sadly dispose of my PC and yesterday bought a new one, this time, with Microsoft Window 7 Home Premium, simplified. Stayed home last night to get to know my new PC after necessary installations and registration were completed. I am delighted with its performances and enjoying so many new features and now I can't wait to get back into action once again with my new partner.

I had to take leave and was only driving sporadically the past few days and had to suffer a bit of taxi rental loss and some income. Today, a Monday, I can foresee a slower, with a longer working shift to make some recovery back to normalcy but as usual, I will continue to provide good services to one and all, at the same time enjoy myself whilst doing so. Hope to see and meet you again sometime, till then, have a nice day.

By the way, did you know I am in Facebook? Do visit me and check out on my new Page (on the right, below "ABOUT ME') and also you know lah, please "Like" it, Thank you. Cheers!  

Violent Attacks Against Cabbies.

Early last Saturday morning, 16th June, a 58 year old taxi driver was attacked by his passenger brandishing a weapon. He was viciously slashed and when he tried to retaliate, his attacker struck again. The cabbie suffered deep cuts and damaged nerves on his left arm which needed surgery. This was an unprovoked attack and the assailant did not rob or even tried to take his valuables. No one has been arrested yet.
In an earlier incident, on 8th June, a 48 year old taxi driver was beaten unconscious by his passenger simply because he drove a "lousy" car. This attacker, a 30 year Korean was arrested and police investigation is still on ongoing.
These recent violent attacks on taxi drivers clearly shows cabbies' vulnerability, with the cabbie sitting in front with his seat belts properly fastened (its the law) it is futile to even try to retaliate against aggressors who attacks from behind, worst of all with hidden deadly weapons.
Well, still thinking of taking up a taxi vocational licence and become a taxi driver? It is scary isn't it after reading what happened to the two unfortunate cabbies. Yes, it is a dangerous job, very unpredictable, afterall, who knows who or what your passengers can do to you even without any provocations simply because they are from the "cuckoo's nest".
Taxi driving is also about knowing a bit of psychology, must be tactful, alert always and some ability to judge 'body language' as well as through simple dialogue. Overall appearance is not always a safe guide. Through experiences all these years plying my trade, I must admit I am lucky not to have encountered 'psychotic or mad' passengers.

"Xiao Long Pau" at Din Tai Fung Restaurant.

Its mid term school holidays and so last night at 7.00pm, I invited my granddaughter Jasmine (14) and my grandson Julian (13) for dinner at the chinese restaurant 'Din Tai Fung' at Resorts World Sentosa beside Universal Studios.
When we reached the restaurant, there was a long queue and we had to wait for 15 minutes before a table was available. Each of us had a bowl of noodles, each a different variety and also shared three trays of their world famous 'Xiao Long Bao', ten pieces in each tray. We were all good eaters and thoroughly enjoyed our dinner.
After that, we had ice cream just next door to the restaurant before we adjourned to Park Lane at Selegie Road to visit my nephew Brighton's Cyber Cafe called Spot On Gaming Pte. Ltd. to play the latest video games. I watched my grandchildren enjoy playing their favourite games till we left at 11.45pm. It was a terrific night of enjoyment, lots of fun and laughter for all of us. I have always cherished outings and spending time with my grandchildren.