MAYBE I SHOULD DRIVE

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From the title of this blog I imagine you are all expecting this to be about our Aussie hosts and us getting lost on new adventures in the land down under.

NOT QUITE!

Don’t mistake this for a rant but we have had some unbelievable experiences in taxis here, we thought that they were worth a mention.

FIRST RIDE, NEWLY ARRIVED IN THE COUNTRY
Sydney airport, friendly taxi stand man says, “we have been waiting for you, here is your taxi.” He was joking of course because that was his job, but it still made us appreciate friendly service.

We tell the driver our destination without issue and off we go. He makes some feeble attempts at humour along the way, but we look past it. We are nearing the destination (we think), and he says, “so where is it from here?” To which we say “no idea, that’s why we are in a taxi!?” He hands us a Sydney map book and asks us to find where we are going. Which fortunately having passed Grade 6 geography, we are able to do. One short trip in the wrong direction, a u-turn and we finally make it. We surprise Maja…(see previous blogs). We write this first instance of taxi ineptitude off as fluke…

TAXI TRIP 2
We go for a fancy dinner at Café Sydney and decide to take a ferry back from the harbour past the Opera House to Manly. This means a very short taxi ride from the Manly end to home. We go to a taxi rank, get in, again no issues when we give our destination. As he pulls away from the curb he says, “so how do I get there from here?” Trying to stay calm we tell him the main street, which is massive and popular nearby, to which he responds: “yeah I am not from around here.” I am left thinking he must have been hoping to get one of his neighbours in the taxi, so he would be going somewhere familiar?

We manage to guide him to our destination, although he may still be unable to find his way home and to this day driving aimlessly.

TAXI TRIP 3
We need to go for a 20-minute taxi ride for Kimmy’s final bridesmaid dress fitting. We book the taxi for 09:40, having to be there for 10:00. 09:45, 09:50, 10:00, 10:20, 10:25 and still no taxi! Somewhere in this time Kim did try and contact the taxi company to no avail. We call the seamstress and tell her we will rearrange because we don’t want to waste our whole day. At 10:30 the taxi turns up and we decide to go for it. Tell him our destination: “no problem”. He is even driving quickly. Again nearer the place he says: “so where exactly is it you’re going?” We tell him again. “Yeah I don’t know that street.” So we tell him it is just off the main street, he then gets offended and says, “well I know where that is.” He pulls out a map and Kim points to the street we are going to, which is literally right off the main street. “AH no problem”. We are off again! He then proceeds to blow right by the street we need at 80 km an hour and is forced to turn around. Finally, at the destination he gave us a 90-cent discount on the rate.
We tell Steve and Maja our new taxi story later that evening and I suspect they are starting to think we are being melodramatic and exaggerating. THEY HAVE A TRUE KIM AND SHANE TAXI EXPERIENCE COMING…

TAXI TRIP 4
We go off to Canberra with Maja and Steve to surprise Cherie and Kanchan plus Baby Ethan (my new buddy). After the initial surprise, we go back to our hotel and get settled. Going back to meet up with Dutts that evening, we take a taxi. First I notice that he has got sat nav, sigh and relax…
Closer to our destination we turn too early into the subdivision: not a problem and easy to correct. Driver says “no problem I just punch the address into sat nav”. Their street is called CULTIVATION. He punches it in twice, “nope not there”. He pulls over to get a map book from the boot (trunk). To his credit he did stop the meter from running. In the book he can’t find it. This is because the whole time he has been looking for CULTIVATION but spelling it with a CA not CU. Grade 5 spelling lesson over for our Canberra taxi driver and we have a wonderful evening at the Dutt home. Steve and Maja slightly more sympathetic to our taxi bad luck.

TAXI TRIP 5 (LEAVING THE DUTTS)
After fantastic food, drink and catching up 2 am comes and we decide to book a taxi back to the hotel, which is in the Central Business District (CBD). This is an area about the size of the Square Mile in London, where all of the streets and destinations would be very popular and should be known.

As always, only when we are close does he say “I don’t know where your hotel is so I’ll just drop you off at a taxi rank”. At 02:30 no one in the taxi finds being dropped off at an unknown destination appealing. We give him the name of the cross street near our hotel: “nope that street doesn’t exist”. We tell him the name of 2 major pubs next to our hotel: “nope never heard of them”. Thankfully Maja spots the street that doesn’t exist and we all pile out and get back to the hotel.

Although now Maja and Steve have seen with their own eyes our bad luck and sympathize, they may never ride in a taxi again with us.

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