night shift

Driving a taxi on a Saturday night is a good window into society, and while it's often a lot of fun, it's not all pretty. Ferrying carloads of drunk teenagers home, or even worse, out to party further at 2am when they are already blotto, is just plain hard work. Obnoxious behaviour is par for the course, and sometimes it's all you can do not to just say 'screw this for a joke, I'm going home'. Of course, the lure of the money keeps you out there. Because it's a lucrative night. I can earn up to $400 on a Saturday night: up to half my weekly income in 12 hours. But it's very hard on the body, and hard to see humanity at its worst. The kids take the gold medal in the bad behaviour stakes, but that's not to say all the oldies are friendly, generous and polite. Far from it. Some senior citizenss seem to have perfected the art of twisted bitterness. Ahhh.. it's a tough shift. 12 hours straight. Last night I clocked up 650km. That's a lot of driving in anyone's language. I finally got to bed at 4.30am. Now it's Sunday afternoon and I soon have to go out there and do it all again. :)