Categories: uncategorized
Date: 02 December 2002 23:00:00
Now, taxi drivers here in west Yorkshire are an interesting bunch.
For example, last year I was up for an interview in Leeds on the day Nelson Mandela was in town ("It's great to be here in Liverpool!" is, I believe, the quote he gave). Driving up through the city after the event, the taxi driver was complaining how the visit had disrupted traffic around Millennium Square (it should be noted that the main square in Bradford is called "Centenary Square", presumably therefore the one in Leeds is ten times better). Anyway, taxi goes on muttering about this and then suggests that Mandela shouldn't have come on a Monday - "They should have put him up in a hotel and done the thing on a Saturday". I then had this bizarre image in my head of one of the greatest figures of the current age sitting on a bed in Merrion Hotel, flipping through the cable channels, raiding the mini bar and trying to amuse himself for five days just so as to avoid forcing the taxis to go around one extra circuit of the one way system.
And then there's the lot in Bradford. Have you heard of the Knowledge? It's a test London cabbies have to do, to prove they can take anyone anywhere. Sadly, this does not apply in Bradford. Three times I've taken taxis to work-related meetings, and on all three occasions my declaration of my destination (let the reader understand) has been met with a slightly bemused question and further discussion of where these places might be. Look, mate, I'm not the bloody taxi driver, and guess what? This white stick means I can't read the bloody street signs, so don't ask me to direct you!
*sigh*