T is for taxi
Ngabje had a point.
I got in the taxi and said to him, "Smith St, Collingwood thanks." He just looked at me for a few seconds and slowly nodded, before turning his head and pulling out into Spencer St. We drove through the city in silence. I don't talk much in taxis anyway, so I just looked out the window and watched the people. There was a card on the dashboard with a photo of the dark man and his registration number and name in CAPITAL letters. NGABJE 5463829 or something.
As we stopped at a light, I peeked at him from out of the corner of my eye. It was a little unsettling. His eyes remained focussed on the road, and he gripped the steering wheel tightly. He wore a big coat. Kind of reminded me of the one that Eddie Murphy wore in that movie Coming to America. I wondered if he was a prince in Namibia or somewhere and he had come over to find a Queen to take back to his palace.
But he was engrossed in the radio.
It was tuned to ABC, and they were discussing terrorism. Again. Apparently there are about sixty known militant terrorists residing in Australia. And technology is so advanced now that these terrorists are using Google earth to plan attacks on Australia's nuclear power stations. And other goodies. And that's not cool. Apparently.
It wasn't until we were nearly there that Ngabje spoke. I guess he was from some African nation, but he sounded almost Jamaican. His voice was deep and rich.
"You know, I'm going to get that Google Earth on my laptop."
He turned and looked at me.
"I could never understand why I would want to use a program to look at a bunch of house roofs. But now it makes sense."
"Yeah,.. and I bet you would never have even thought about it if you hadn't been given the idea by the media." I laughed out loud.
Then I had visions of Ngabje driving his taxi filled with explosives into one of Australias favourite nuclear installations. Setting his meter, whilst balancing his laptop on his knee.
Maybe there are 60 known militant terrorists in Australia. But I bet there are 60,000 militant taxi drivers out there with nothing to lose, and a full tank of petrol.
And surely that is more dangerous.
I thought I read that taxi-drivers were banned from discussing politics. But maybe I dreamed it. Ngabje continued on...
"You know human beings are destroying themselves. It will all be over soon."
I guess spending all day listening to the media, you get a bit involved.
"And you know the internet, that has caused a lot of trouble. They should pull the whole thing down you know."
I thought about that for a while.
Taxi drivers. They know everything.
I got in the taxi and said to him, "Smith St, Collingwood thanks." He just looked at me for a few seconds and slowly nodded, before turning his head and pulling out into Spencer St. We drove through the city in silence. I don't talk much in taxis anyway, so I just looked out the window and watched the people. There was a card on the dashboard with a photo of the dark man and his registration number and name in CAPITAL letters. NGABJE 5463829 or something.
As we stopped at a light, I peeked at him from out of the corner of my eye. It was a little unsettling. His eyes remained focussed on the road, and he gripped the steering wheel tightly. He wore a big coat. Kind of reminded me of the one that Eddie Murphy wore in that movie Coming to America. I wondered if he was a prince in Namibia or somewhere and he had come over to find a Queen to take back to his palace.
But he was engrossed in the radio.
It was tuned to ABC, and they were discussing terrorism. Again. Apparently there are about sixty known militant terrorists residing in Australia. And technology is so advanced now that these terrorists are using Google earth to plan attacks on Australia's nuclear power stations. And other goodies. And that's not cool. Apparently.
It wasn't until we were nearly there that Ngabje spoke. I guess he was from some African nation, but he sounded almost Jamaican. His voice was deep and rich.
"You know, I'm going to get that Google Earth on my laptop."
He turned and looked at me.
"I could never understand why I would want to use a program to look at a bunch of house roofs. But now it makes sense."
"Yeah,.. and I bet you would never have even thought about it if you hadn't been given the idea by the media." I laughed out loud.
Then I had visions of Ngabje driving his taxi filled with explosives into one of Australias favourite nuclear installations. Setting his meter, whilst balancing his laptop on his knee.
Maybe there are 60 known militant terrorists in Australia. But I bet there are 60,000 militant taxi drivers out there with nothing to lose, and a full tank of petrol.
And surely that is more dangerous.
I thought I read that taxi-drivers were banned from discussing politics. But maybe I dreamed it. Ngabje continued on...
"You know human beings are destroying themselves. It will all be over soon."
I guess spending all day listening to the media, you get a bit involved.
"And you know the internet, that has caused a lot of trouble. They should pull the whole thing down you know."
I thought about that for a while.
Taxi drivers. They know everything.
posted by Adrian at 10:17 pm
8 Comments:
ok...if i was in that taxi, i would have been very scared
taxi drivers know everything except the short cut to your house at 3 am, when although you may be tipsy, you suddenly sober up with the intent of navigating yourself home, avoiding the long way to save a few bucks!
yes, that was a long sentence.
A - are you in Adel or Melb?
Hi honeysmack,
I'm in Melbourne now, I suppose I should get around to changing my blog info. Does that mean I can't be on the Adelaide Index anymore?
I like your blog by the way.
well then, get a brain, little faerie.
well that was entirely uncalled for
hi Adrian
Its cool that you're still on the Adelaide reference thingy. I like to link with Adelaide people, even if they're far from home.
Thanks for the kind words about my blog :)
Its gutless, anonymous, to insult someone behind a closed identity.
...so your real name is honeysmack?
anonymous...do you actually understand what we are saying? honeysmack may not be her real name, just like littlefaerie may not be my name, but if the mood takes you and you are that interested you can click on our names and it will take you to information about us and then, to our blogs where you can find all sorts of information about us. our names, birthdays, kids:yes/no, what we did on the weekend, and it gives you the chance to get to know us and leave a comment there if you wish. which i think would be a better use of internet space rather than clogging up adrians comments box with your ridiculous comments.
you on the other hand have nothing. you hide behind 'anonymous' and spout out insults and jabs at other people with nothing to back you up. you can just click the button then run away and disappear which is gutless. if you really believed in what you were writing you would give other people the opportunity to comment about it in your space, not somebody elses.
if you wish to further this discussion, please feel free to visit my blog, find out about me, and then have an informed go at me. i cant say for sure but i imagine honeysmack would feel the same way.
if you're trying to make friends, you're going the wrong way about it
sorry for taking up all this space, adrian
xxxxxx
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