Thursday, November 15, 2007

The Secret to Life

"Hi. Good Evening. Where to?"

"Bukit Panjang please."

"Sure man," he said, as I noticed the flyer in the back of his cab that mentioned something about the cab being environmentally friendly."

"What's this all about?" I asked.

"Oh that! Funny you should ask. Ha ha ha! Its a new scheme. Nobody wanted to be part of it. So do you know what they did? They forced those drivers who's license is due for renewal to take part. Haha. So I knew what they were going to tell me when they called me to the office that day. Its a new natural gas powered taxi. Anyway. Do you know there's only one filling up station in this country?"

Shocked at the silliness of it. I laughed.

"Then, hear this. The Japanese engineer told me, through his translator, that the gas can last for 80km before a refill. Not too good, but its just a pilot scheme." Then the driver started to chuckle. "Guess what?" he said, "The gas only lasts for about 40km. So I went back to the filling station to tell the Engineer his calculation is wrong. He never accounted for all the stopping and braking and so on. His translator didn't dare to tell him. Ha ha! Anyway, the taxi is much nicer to drive."

"The clutch is easier because it's not diesel right?" I asked.

"Yes. Yes. Correct. Now my job is nice and easy. The secret of life is to enjoy your job and love your family."

Now thats some advice that I shall be heeding from this cool taxi driver.

9 comments:

Mad Cabbie said...

Good work dude! One of these days I would like to come to Hong Kong and visit...

Your blog is linked to mine.

Take care and keep the advices coming.

bob mullen said...

Good advice indeed Mark, go with the flow. I have added a link on my blog cheers!

NYC taxi photo said...

same here.

Ronald Matthew Kelly said...

I loved how the cabbie was so laid back. We're a little bit more rough and tumble here in Arizona. I'm certain that any one of a number of cabbies I know would have handled the meeting with the engineer a little differently.

I could see someone here throwing the engineer into the trunk of the car, and putting a rubber hose attached to the fuel system in his butt, allowing the cabbie to get extra mileage from the "ass gas" of the engineer.

I myself wouldn't do this. But the vision of it makes me laugh!

The Cab Guy
www.RoadRageTaxiTales.blogspot.com

Roy, Dublin Taxi Driver said...

Get yer ass in gear or I'll have to rmove you from the blogroll!
Kidding!

Roy, Dublin Taxi Driver said...

last chance!

maribert said...

Sorry to abuse the comment function, but I could not find an e-mail address to reach you. You might want to know that "taxiblogger.de", which you have in your blog roll, is no longer a Frankfurt cabbie, but is moving to Berlin. Thank you for your attention and sorry for the fake comment ... I'm sure you can delete it if you want.

Henry Krinkle said...

Beer and Cheese, that's what makes me happy. Unfortunately I can only enjoy the cheese part while i'm driving.

http://corruptionincortez.blogspot.com/

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