Ah yes here we are again the bane of my existence. My first passenger was a lighting specialist for a lady called Carmen Banks, a musical artist who travels the world to perform. The gentleman at first said an artist, but I thought painter. The only artist I know is Banksi. The graffiti artist that paints subtle images around the globe. No she’s a music artist. Oh righto, you got me all excited. He was going to Vancouver first, then Portland later. What sort of venues does she play in normally? Intimate settings or large stadium style performances? Venues of 2-4,000 people. That’s not bad really. I think why can’t I have someone I have heard of in my car? Admittedly it does broaden my scope of music, that’s for sure. Every time I hear a new artist or band I track it down and listen to it. I’m cultured like that.
After dropping him off at the car rental place I got a past passenger. Dorothy from Texas, she was in town again to help her mother move. She wasn’t expecting to be back so soon. I picked her up again at Frederick Myer. Her arm was a lot better than it was. She remembered me from a few weeks ago. She said I’m hard to forget. Oh how so? Must be my car. Definitely my car. She once lived in Hawaii and told me she’s sick of bananas because they grew in her back yard. So my banana flavoured Laffy Taffys, were not a hit with this one.
Next customer was a Swiss man wearing an All Blacks Jersey. I told him to not get in, but he obviously didn’t hear my joke and said something completely different. I told him I was Australian and that Jersey was offensive to me. He laughed and said actually when he went to see them in Auckland Australia beat them. I said that’s rare. I mentioned I worked with a Swiss Biologist in 2017 and that he served in the Swiss Army and that all military personnel get Swiss army knives. He concurred at this remark and said he had an office job in the military and also got one. Wonderful, if your keyboard is playing up you can use all the tools on it and try to fix it yourself. He told me he loved Australia and that he will eventually head back down under again. The gentleman also told me there’s no uber in British Columbia yet. Next month I think it happens mate, I responded. He had been in Vegas for 4 days and gambled a lot of money away. Fair enough.
Shortly after droppong him off my next customer was a firefighter. Said it was a slow year, not as many fires as last year. I said well that’s good. His was partner in crime is studying psychology. The firefighter however was stoked to see that I had Nerds candy in my car. As he left he said he is definitely taking my Nerds. Go for it mate that’s what they are there for.
Finally I picked up a former rider from a couple of weeks ago. He works at a tattoo parlour in town. He told me he used to live in LA and was down there recently to go back to his favourite restaurants. Yes California does have diverse restaurant options, that’s for sure. He seemed a little distant from last time, then I found out some driver gave him a 4 star review and didn’t say why? His rating went down from 5 to 4.9. Oh you poor bugger, we’ve all been there. I made sure I gave him 5 stars. It’ll come back don’t you worry mate.
In amongst me driving I decided to listen to some podcasts. One about Greenland and the lost American city that was built under the ice in the 60s. It was fascinating. I don’t want to spoil it, but look up Camp Century. No wonder Denmark wouldn’t sell Greenland to the US.
Moody Monday’s was slow but I had 5 trips.
