My day started with the call I’ve been waiting for. A company that wants to hire me for my archaeology experience. I’ll find out more later, but as far as I know my uber and Lyft days might just become a side hustle. It’s OK though I can share more of my archaeology experiences in the same blog or different one. My memory of my archaeology highlights including South East Asia and my Australian experience. From a smoking pipe to an ancient water embankment, to the iron ore ridden Western Australian desert to a convict hut in NSW. Oh and how I made a certain community in Victoria make me like me.
Anyway my first passenger she was from Minnesota. Yeah I know, another one. She had just driven a bus all the way to Ferndale from that state. Four days of driving because there’s no depot in North Dakota for some strange reason. My passenger is married to a Nigerian Prince who would love your social security number. Sorry I made this joke with her and she laughed. Her husband is actually much cooler and is part of the Minnesotan soccer team. He also is apart of the new military-centric 5G technology that’s being developed. She didn’t like it and was telling me all these conspiracy theories behind, which for some reason didn’t surprise me at all. My rider wanted lunch all the way down at the Chrysallis in Fairdinkumhaven, before her afternoon flight. She booked me for later which I agreed to because it was around 2 pm and I knew I could be back up north in time to pick up the Microsoft Executive. The day of repeat bookings was working out incredibly well, even though I hadn’t had too many bookings in a day before, it was surprisingly timely.
I’ll add more about her story later, because it’s an interesting one, especially about blood donations, more about Nigeria and their medical system. After dropping my passenger off I parked in my usual busy spot, where I noticed a homeless chap selling petrol from a jerry can. I couldn’t work out his deal, is he just paying for fuel and reselling it for a higher price? Why would you sell fuel for a higher price next to a gas station? Then my next passenger, who I’ve picked up before. You know the medieval literature major. She pointed something out, which I didn’t think of. “Maybe the man siphoned the gas from someone else’s car”. “Oh”. I was shocked to think of such a thing, but it was probably true. Also pretty sure that’s illegal to sell fuel like that. I told her this man had a child with him as well, what sort of an example is this man giving to his kid? My passenger said child services were called last week due to a domestic dispute a few doors up from her. Reminded me of when I lived on the Gold Coast, Australia in a place called Nerang. The neighbour had her kids taken away from her. I distintcly remember every now and then the lady would yell at her kids in the deepest voice and smack them. 1, 2, 3 whack! Someone in the street decided to call the police and Department of Community Services on her. That’s when I heard her deep voice, sobbing “don’t take my kids away from me”. Yes you were awful to your kids, but that gut wrenching plea was hard to listen to. The street was deathly quiet after the kids were removed from her.
I dropped my passenger off. Then ping! A student from Wyoming who guessed my country of origin in a heartbeat. Wonderful. Five stars for you my friend. Then he proceeded to tell me about how in Wyoming they’re setting kangaroos loose in the wild for hunting purposes. I said “what? They’ll take over Wyoming!” Kangaroos are resilient creatures that in times of severe drought can put a pause on their birthing cycle. There are at least 50 million kangaroos on the planet right now and ever since humans came to Australia their population has increased due to more water and the lack of apex predators hunting them. My passenger asked what they taste like. “Delicious, don’t ever overcook it, it’s extremely lean and don’t put it in a risotto. It doesn’t work, it’s better on a skewer or on a burger.” “I’ll have to try it.” He stated.
I dropped my passenger off at the mall, when I received a text from the lady from Minnesota. “Are you busy?” I rang her and said I can pick you up now. Drove down to Fairdinkumhaven to pick her up. My passenger went to request me before I turned my app on and got someone else. Arghhh! She cancelled it and I turned my app back on. Thank goodness she got me instead, otherwise it would have a wasted trip. On the way to the airport we talked about the medical system in Nigeria. If you go the the emergency room there you can’t leave until you pay them. They don’t let you walk out. There’s no pay later option. Essentially they can hold you hostage until you come up with the money. We got onto the subject of blood donations and that she mentioned she has a rare blood type. RH NEGATIVE. What? A- oh OK. Not sire what she meant by this protein in her blood. It’s apparently extremely rare and if she needed a blood transfusion it’d be difficult to obtain. Mine is O positive. I also should donate blood or plasma or something. One day I will. My rider was extremely thankful for my service to the airport. She got there on time and no dramas.
Then I got a gentleman at the airport heading north to Custer. This was perfect because I had a booking at 4.30 pm in that direction. It’s nice when things just work. The man was a Canadian bloke who works as a Front of House Mixer for Norah Jones and Allison Krauss. It’s basically like a sound engineer. He travels the country working closely with these talented artists. We chatted about his time in Australia. He used to live there in Westmead, Sydney and his landlord was Paul Larson one of the main villains from Mad Max Thunderdome. Small world. This guy was a breath of fresh air in my car. A new and exciting fella in my car who has famous connections. We talked all the way and is now possibly going to be a frequent customer of mine. Perhaps an opportunity to meet Norah Jones down the line? Who knows.
Finally my VIP the Microsoft Executive needed a pickup. He didn’t get to go to Vancouver this time around. He got see Canada from his room, but Canada will have to wait for him. The meeting went well over the past few days. My passenger told me how his next trip is to Washington D.C. for another meeting, and that he will visit the Smithsonian American Museum. His father was an African American and his mum was a British lady. My passenger told me he wanted to do a DNA test to see which African tribe his father was from. I said maybe try the National Geographic DNA test, because it’s probably more reliable than the others. We talked all the way to the airport and I said if you are ever back in town I’d be more than happy to pick you up again.
Another thirsty Thursday with 3 Lyft rides and 2 uber trips. It may not seem thirsty, but they were long trips with nice fat tips. Next is fruitful Fridays.
