Skepticab blog of randomness: 2 weeks to 14/5/16

My musings for the fortnight as I cart people around Harlow:

Tuesday the Third

Wasted life

I discovered that another of my regular customers is a World War 2 veteran.  Mr T served in the Royal Navy and saw 8 invasions.  He was telling me about one event he witnessed off the north French coast where US and/or Canadian paratroopers were dropped into the sea and most were drowned.  He doesn't know where they were as the sailors weren't usually informed of their locations.

Wednesday the Fourth

Wasted life skill

A young lady studied Hospitality and Catering for two years at college but now she only ever cooks spaghetti bolognese from a jar.

Road rage

D... rarely drives any more because he gets angry behind the wheel.  After therapy he discovered that it's about not being able to suffer fools gladly.

5 and 20 past

Mrs H says 'five and twenty past' rather than 'twenty five past'.  I haven't heard anyone say this since my gran died in the 1990s.

Russian racism

Although M is from Latvia, he stressed that he is Russian, not Latvian.  He was telling me that Latvians, Estonians, Lithuanians, Poles and Ukrainians really don't like Russians.  M is critical of Romanians who buy cars here, drive it home, re-plate it, tax and insure it in Romania but keep it here.  This is cheaper for them apparently.

Thursday the Fifth

Pub quizzes

Dave? does pub quizzes as a sideline.  Apparently he can earn £65-£75 per night.  Most people who run them subscribe to an online service that sends you quizzes to use, but people get wise to this and follow the quizzes round, scooping the pool on a regular basis.

Carers

I take a number of carers who look after people in need.  Today I took L, who looks after an adult with Down's syndrome who was severely neglected as her mother was ashamed of her and just left her in her bedroom all day every day.  Apparently the daughter is a very different person now.

Friday the Sixth

Hates Barbeques

Chris's brother loves holding bbq parties but doesn't actually like bbq'd food himself, so his wife cooks him something else from the kitchen instead.

Monday the Ninth

Unobservant

Today I had a fare, picking up at the Eye Unit at the local hospital.  As usual I sent the message to alert the customers of my arrival.  There were some people waiting there but all of them looked up at me and seemingly weren't waiting for a cab.  I got Metro to ring them to let them know I was there.  A lady's mobile rang a couple of times but she didn't answer it.  Metro sent me a different job instead.  I could have faffed about trying to sort it out but took the easy option.  I hope they got their cab in the end.  

Unclear instructions

A customer got irritated with me for not understanding her instructions.  Sorry, but I can't see which way you are pointing when you are sitting behind me!

Tuesday the Tenth

Hail spring and summer!

Jo was telling that she had heard that you can only get snow and hail in spring and summer, not in autumn and winter.  It doesn't sound plausible to me.

Bus lanes

The use of bus lanes by minicabs has now been made permanent. Yay!  This was contested by some black cab drivers apparently.  Minicab drivers and customers are happy about it.

Wednesday the Eleventh

Tears

Woman in tears, with (I guess) the boyfriend.  All I can do is offer tissues.

Belief in aliens?

A man in his twenties crossed himself as we passed a hearse.  He then asked me if I believe in God- I said no, I'm a complete atheist.  He replied "So, like me, you believe in aliens?"  I had no time to formulate a response as I dropped him off.  [For reference- I don't 'believe' in aliens but I would be amazed if the only life form was on this planet]

Friday the Thirteenth

Nobody commented on whether the day is meant to be unlucky or not.

Knob training

Teresa used to do training at Tesco.  She found humour worked best, getting them to remember worked best with phrases like "Don't push it until the knob's up!"

Concorde

C... used to work for BA, including on Concorde.  The night before the last BA Concorde was returning to the UK to be taken out of storage they managed to get approval to go on board to pay their respects and stripped it of all souvenir material.

Firewood

Mrs Munroe was in Tottenham during the war.  Her mum chopped up the dining table and chairs for firewood.  She would take a pram to get coal- sometimes she was able to get two lots without being recognised.

Break for a footy match

I took my boys out of school at lunchtime (with permission) to take them to the play-off semi-final in Sheffield.  Having children who are interested in football has revived my enthusiasm for my team, who I seem to have successfully infected with my Wednesday virus.  We won, yay!