Mini Cabs From HellWe've all taken a dodgy cab in our time. One guy asked me to give him a back-rub in exchange for letting me off the fare. I was like, "here's the cash mate." Another chappy claimed to be Paddy Patel - a child actor from UK TV series Tuckers Luck - he drove like a speed freak and regaled me with stories that "playing a black Irish boy. England wasn't ready for it." So go on - tell us your worst and we'll tell the world.
[edit: for those confused by the term mini-cab, London has two sorts of taxis: highly regulated, licensed and salt-of-the-earth black cabs that you see in films and a whole bunch of unlicensed, uninsured, random cars driven by nutters who aren't supposed to pick up from the street (you have to phone for them). They are universally rubbish]
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rob, Wed 26 May 2004, 21:44)
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When working in JapanI often had to take taxis to companies I taught at. Japanese cabs are weird. The drivers wear white gloves and the passenger door is operated by a handle by the driver's seat. Anyway, one day I settled back in the familiar plastic-covered seats for my short ride to the plastics factory - why they needed to learn English I'll never know. I was a little perturbed when we took a wrong turning and headed for the Tomei expressway, and even more so when we headed for Fuji city. My Japanese wasn't great so I tried to tell the guy that we were going the wrong way. Well, it eventually worked when I flashed the company logo in front of his face, but by then we had to wait until the next exit to turn back. Suffice to say I was little late to that class, not that the students probably minded missing half an hour of phrasal verbs.
I had other experiences with this particular cab company. One of their drivers was rather nervous (perhaps because he had a hairy white gaijin in the back) and would keep on twitching nervously while driving. When I had to ride with this particular driver I feared for my life.
(, Thu 27 May 2004, 10:32, Reply)
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