I’ve been living in Singapore a long time and I’ve never had a car. So I tend to take a lot of buses and trains; I also take taxis more often than people who own their own cars.
As a result I’ve met a lot of taxi drivers. Many of the are pretty lousy. Some of them are overly talkative, others don’t respond when spoken to (not sure if that’s too-cool-for-school or passive aggressive), others answer their cell phones and chatter away in dialect; most of them drive aggressively and break all of the rules (straddling the lane markation, turning without signaling, etc). When we get a good driver it’s part of the discussion we have when heading up the stairs – “boy, that driver was actually quite nice to chat with; he actually seemed quite clever, and he drover carefully and considerately.” I’m of the view that I’d rather be in the hands of a professional than share the road with other dummies like me who’ve been given drivers licenses that they’re basically not entitled to possess given their sloppy driving practices. Every driver on the road is a little spoiled egomaniac menace to society. Cars are the real weapons of mass destruction.
By now I’ve had a million taxi anecdotes, most of which are lost. But from now on I’ve got a page dedicated to taxi stories. For example:
May 10th – I took a taxi from Jurong to Holland Village at around 3:00 PM, I needed to get to my vocal lessons. The driver was a lady. I remarked to her how I very seldom see lady cab drivers, maybe one in 50; she shared with me that other passengers have remarked the same thing to her, although she’s had passengers say to her that “although I rarely get a lady cab driver, sometimes I’ll get one at the start of the day, and then another one at the end of the day.” Then, around 5:00, I was coming back from Holland Village, by bus, wandering around my neighbourhood, taking my time, picking up a beer, walking home, and in one of the small inner roads I saw her drive by! I flagged her down and we had a laugh – I, too, met a lady cab driver at the beginning and end of my day… and it was the same one!!! Har har har…