Part of doing any job is getting into a groove. I'm a slow learner, so it takes me about a year or so to be comfortable doing anything new. Slow, but thorough. Once it's in my head, it's there to stay, especially if I have made some mistakes along the way.
Before this driving gig, I barely knew the area around me. The main arteries and the freeways were clear, but the different neighbourhoods were a mystery. Of course that's the way of things. I would have no reason to know the ins and outs of all the subdivisions around the place (Riverwood Glades etc).
But there's a quiet pride I take in knowing things now. The really nice parts of town are not where you'd expect them to be, but I can point you there. If I won the lottery, I have a particular house in mind to buy, one that I would not have found before. And the scary parts of town are actually way more scary than I would have thought, given the wealth around the place. Extremes, they exist.
There is a famous test that all London Cabbies have to take, called The Knowledge. I think it would be fun. But it would take me a year to learn. Drat.
If you're looking for a little diversion, you might like to sample my latest lens, concerning the disappearance of the two martini lunch. Let me know what you think.
6 comments:
Wombat's dream home?
Architecturally, probably not too starkly modern for the tastes of a T-M drinkin', 1950s lovin' fella.
Details, please.
Doc, a question like that should be discusssed over martinis don't you think?
Short answer: beautiful houses are everywhere. The houses that please my eye are those in keeping with their surrounds. So my dream house in the Pacific Northwest is different from the one in the Berkshires, and way different from my Floridian idyll.
I have taken a few snaps of sweet Gulf Coast wonders.
How do you have your martini?
That would be a short discussion, Wombat, as I am not a martini drinker.
Gin has a botanical flavor I dislike.
Over a nice glass (or two) of Veuve, however, I'd happily talk dream homes.
If your Floridian idyll is green (as in eco-friendly, not paint color), hgtv.com is running a sweepstakes for a custom-built one in Port St. Lucie.
I think you should win it, don't you?
Ah, you're in luck, Doc, because a glass or two of Veuve (or anything fizzy from around Épernay) is right up my beeswax.
MMMMmmmmm champagne.
Port St Lucie eh? I'm about to scurry off to find out what this hgtv.com person is all about, and why she's sweepstaking a house.
Yes, I should win it.
Invite us over for some of that champagne when you win. Or a good single malt scotch if you have one.
I've always heard that you have to buy a motorscooter and wear it out going around London to take The Knowledge successfully. Sounds like fun if it wasn't so damned rainy.
If I win the house, I'll be happy to throw a champagne AND scotch party, Don.
Now you mention the scooter, I think I saw something on the teev years ago about guys getting The Knowledge just as you describe. Yeah, that sounds like a task for a London summer. All two weeks of it.
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