Have You Ever Caught A Taxi In Melbourne?
I have, way too many times to mention and it is one of the most feared things to do in my life. Seriously. I’m shooting down there tomorrow for the day and considering - do I get a driver or RISK it and take a taxi? Expensive versus risking a nervous breakdown….. What to do kids? Before you judge and think I’m a lunatic, consider the following harrowing experiences:
1. caught a taxi from Crown (most prominent hotel/landmark in melbourne maybe next to MCG) to the airport. About 3 minutes down the road, the driver turns around to me and says “can you tell me how to get to the airport?” I kid you not. He needed only take one right and he would have been on the freeway and out to the airport. Instead I had him turn around and drop me back at the hotel, whereupon he decided I should pay him for the privelledge of being inconvenienced and when I said “ah, I don’t think so”, he actually got out of the taxi and started yelling the most abusive tirade at me. I actually thought he might hit me. The hotel called the police and he sped off when security came - his picture didn’t match the photo id and so couldn’t be traced. That was just splendid.
2. hopped into a taxi in the city with a mag fashion editor after a dinner. We asked to be taken to Crown again (note comments about it being a landmark). Driver had no idea where it was and so dropped us off at a spot where he told us it was a short walk through a deadend. This was at 2.30am and we had had quite a few wines (as you could imagine being 2.30am). Turns out we were about 3km and one very large wall that needed to be jumped off away. Surprisingly fashion editor had very sensible shoes on. I didn’t. That was… annoying and dangerous.
3. after a long Melbourne Cup Carnival campaign, we did actually have a fabulous driver (David is his name - if you’re curious) who dropped us by Crown (I wonder if they have frequent stay points?) to pick up our bags on the way to the airport. We jumped out and returned to the car with our bags. A taxi diver waiting at the rank thought David had just picked us up on spec and so jumped out of his taxi and threw poor David up against his car, had him around the neck and was yelling all sorts of abuse - well, I think it was abuse, he wasn’t speaking english - but he was very very angry. Bless Brad, he stepped in to help David and the taxi driver was chased away by Crown security. I must ask those security guys how often this stuff happens….
So anyway, you can see why I am anxious. I think I will call David to see if he’s available.
Oh i love this Melissa…ok i’m going to add to the brilliant taxi stories. I was feeling ok about Melbourne drivers until this fantastic experience. So I’m at a work function when my (Romance was Born, very cool) bag was stolen. At 4am, packed full of every ridiculously expensive item imaginable, so you can imagine my state of mind. Fury and despair quickly turned to disbelief two days later when a taxi driver called me from Melbourne (I’d returned to Sydney sans bag the next day) to say he had my bag with all of its contents. Turns out the slapper had been drunk and left it in his car.
Anyway long story short - in the space of a week he went from being my new best friend/godsend/i must send him a present to being my stalker. I’m talking, calling every day, texting every day, can I help-his-brother-get-into-Bollywood-because-I’m-a-music-publicist kind of stalker which ended in…”i know you’re avoiding me, it’s ok you should be.” Cops called, no more contact. Phew:)
I’m firmly in your camp now! What is going on there?!