Once a year our town becomes invaded by the Scooter boys (and girls) and that is what has happened this weekend. They start arriving on Friday and by Saturday afternoon everywhere you look there are people riding scooters, admiring scooters, talking about scooters and just having fun around scooters.
For our small taxi business it is the busiest weekend of the year not only because of the Scooter Rally but it is also the last weekend for the weekend caravanners. The season finishes and they close up their caravans for the winter. There have been Halloween parties in some of the pubs and on the camp sites so everyone wants to be where the action is, generally all at the same time. So between 6pm and 8.30pm they all want to go out and from 11pm they all want to go home. We could have done with a dozen taxiis in our business this weekend instead of two!!!
It is now 2am and the phone is still ringing but we have decided to call it a day, enough is enough as they say. Luckily the clocks go back tonight so we will get an extra hour in bed after our exhausting two days.

It doesn't seem to matter what time I have to go to Manchester Airport I always hit some traffic somewhere and then take longer to do the job than anyone else. Well this morning I left home at 6.00am, expecting to hit the rush hour I had allowed 3 hours to get there. But what happened it took me 3 and a half hours!! Typical!! The plane came in early and the customer said she had been waiting an hour. Don't really believe she waited that long as on the board the plane landed at 8.30 and unless it was a miracle I don't think she could of gone through passport control and fetched her baggage that quick. But I didn't argue and just apologised for keeping her waiting and told her about the traffic. Luckily it was a clear run home. She chatted most of the way home about her month long holiday in Barbados, she is hoping to go to America later on in the year. Only one problem she thought she had paid her fare on the way out but she had only given us one way, slight communication problem there as she thought that was the fare for both ways. Anyway she paid me what she owed but I don't think she was very happy. Wonder if she will use us again.

The other day when I was on the rank I took to watching some of the other taxi drivers. One or two of them can get so impatient with each other if they don't move up quickly enough when someone moves off. I thought there was going to be a bit of a punch up at one point but they just decided to shout at each other. One of the problems is that there is a cafe on that road so you have to be very quick running in and getting a cuppa or a sandwich before its time to move up a space or two. It also can get very boring if it is a quiet time which makes it easy to nod off. Some of the drivers have small DVD players or read or just stare into space. I couldn't do it every day, so boring, I ususally just do a few hours on a Saturday now.

It's been a long time but here I am once again. Still driving a taxi and enjoying listening and talking to my customers.

This last week I have taken people to town, to hospital and one person to their son's funeral. That was really sad as she said you don't expect to bury your children. She had her arm in plaster as well apparently she had collapsed and fallen on her arm when she heard the news. It was a long day, not far just to Doncaster, but there was a meal after the funeral which they kindly invited me to as well.

Three pick ups from the rank today. The first elderly gentleman told me he was 96 and had just done the shopping for him and his wife. I asked if he had any relatives to help him but he said sadly no one close, a couple of nephews but they never offered to do the shopping. He had lived in Bridlington all his life, his father had helped on the farm at Sewerby Hall. He also said that when he was a kid and a few of them were fooling around a policeman came along and booted one of them up the backside. They asked why he did that as they hadn't done anything wrong. His answer was that it was for later in case they did. As he got out of my taxi he said he could see it was driven by a woman as it was so clean. Glad I stopped at the car wash this morning!!

Next chap who got in smelt a bit of booze but otherwise seemed OK. Said he had just had his breakfast and was on his way home for a sleep after being on a bender for 3 days!! He had just received a windfall from the taxman and was busy spending it.

Last lady was one of my regulars who seems to spend her days walking into town doing a bit of shopping and then getting a taxi home.

People are so interesting and different and it is amazing what they can tell me in just a few minutes on their way home.

Where has the last year gone, can't believe it is now 2011 and I haven't done any writing for so long. The last time I wrote it was Spring, so Summer and Autumn have passed and now we are in the depths of Winter. At least the snow has gone and we can now drive safely once more but there is still February to get through and maybe more, dare I mention it, SNOW!!

Last week I drove down to Southampton, more people going on a cruise. One of these days I am going to take a suitcase with me and stowaway on one of those ships. They were going on the Independence of the Seas, a huge floating hotel. I wouldn't say no to one of those holidays. Just a word of warning, make sure you have plenty of time when taking people to a ship in Southampton on a Saturday especially when there is a football match as well. It took an hour to go about a mile along the road to the docks, I thought we were never going to get there.

After travelling all those miles along all those roads I can honestly say that Bridlington is the winner of the Pothole Competition!! I have invented a new game called Dodge the Potholes, you win points if you manage to miss the on coming car while missing the potholes on your side of the road, each pothole you hit you lose a bit of your car and now you can count how many potholes reappear after they have been patched!! Not very funny I know but it keeps my mind active while I am driving along.
Just after Christmas I decided that my four year old grandson was ready to see a Panto. I can remember going to one nearly every year when I was young, I even saw Cliff Richard as Alladin once, great memories. So off we went to The Spa to see Snow White and I wasn't disappointed, it was great to watch my grandson's face and by the second half he began to join in, with all the 'He's behind you, and Oh yes he is' in the right places, but he drew the line at doing the Okey Kokey even though his Grandma joined in!!! There was one point when he said in a loud whisper ' We must call the police, the witch has killed Snow White'. Can't wait until next year to go again maybe I will have two grandsons with me then, what fun.

Not a bad Easter weekend in my taxi, however if the weather had been better then business may have been better. Now the caravan parks are open at least the weekends are busier on the whole.

Was up at 3.30 this morning, took a lady to Manchester Airport, she was off to Singapore to see her son. She was very chatty for so early in the morning but at least she kept me awake!! Then a couple of hours after getting back I was off to York station. Not too bad traffic wise as I don't think people had started setting off home, however York was packed with traffic!! Was thinking about stopping to do some retail therapy but the car parks looked full and I didn't feel like walking too far.

Read an article in a newspaper today talking about how distracting roadsigns can be particularly when there are a few together. Some of them are really annoying especially when they ask you to slow down because of an 'incident' and then 5 miles on you are still looking for the incident!!

Then there is the one that appears all of a sudden that says 'FOG', regardless of the fact that you have been travelling along at 30miles an hour for the last half hour not able to see more than a few yards ahead of you. The most common one today was 'Slow down spray', surely common sense will tell you that if it is raining there will be spray!!!

Also I think it might be a good idea if they told you where the motorway is closed, eg near Nottingham, instead of junction whatever. I find it difficult to remember whereabouts each junction is, or is that just me???

It always looks so pretty with the snow and ice in the trees but it can cause such havoc at times.

I will certainly be pleased when the Spring comes as I have hated this Winter with all the snow. On one occasion it took me nearly 3 hours to get 8 elderly people home from a Day Centre because of the snow. The middle of our town just about came to a standstill for an hour and if it wasn't for a group of young lads I would never have been able to get over a bridge. They just appeared from nowhere and pushed the minibus over the hill, my faith in the young soared that day. I was certainly glad to finally reach home just 4 miles away, shut the door to the weather and when the phone rang I just said there were no more taxis available that evening.

Business has been really slow this month but at least I do get out and about most days. Roll on next month when the caravan parks open again, hopefully we will then be busier at the weekends once again.

I'm back!!! Haven't been able to write for a while but hope to get back into the swing of things again.
Now the holidaymakers and caravaners have gone our taxi business is quiet. One vehicle keeps fairly busy doing contract work, that's my husband and his minibus!! but I haven't a lot to do in the village now so I end up on the rank in the middle of town. The rank is outside Marks and Spencers and a 'greasy spoon', their cups of tea are not bad and they only charge taxi drivers 50p for them.
Patience is important when on the rank as sometimes it can take as long as an hour to reach the front of the queue and then you smile hopefully at everyone coming out of M&S. Some of the elderly ladies who come out of the shop are laden with bags or pushing a trolley but insist on looking for their favorite taxi driver by walking up and down the queue of taxis. I couldn't understand one lady yesterday who looked at my car and said to her friend 'We don't want that one!' I wonder what I had done to upset her!! The car had just been washed so it looked shiny and clean.
While I was sat their today a couple of policepeople (is that politically correct!!), Bobbies on the Beat!! came past, quite an unusual site but goodness they did look young particularly the lad!! he looked like a schoolboy, I must be getting old, even his helmet looked too big for him.
Did manage to do a few jobs particularly between 4 and 5 as the other taxi drivers must have gone home for tea by then!!