My review of the film Avatar

First of all, let me say - it is as outstanding as I had imagined. The new technique that Cameron has created to capture human emotion in a CGI creature is as good as I have ever seen, especially on the female alien Neytiri. Seeing Sigourney Weaver in her Avatar made me chuckle, as they had absolutely nailed that tight lipped smile that she is famous for. Now all Cameron has to do is create something that will sort out all the other movements of the body, which as usual are as floaty as every other attempt in film . I noticed that of all the creatures/aliens on screen, there weren't any that had fur or hair (except ponytails and weaving), which was probably what had to be done so as not to melt-down the rendering computers. I have only watched one other thing in 3D in the last 20 or so years, which was an underwater documentary at the Imax, but this badly strained my eyes and gave me motion sickness. Although the 3D in this was more subtle, I am still feeling the strain in the back of my eyes as I sit writing this. However, I did feel that because this feature was in 3D, it helped overcome that slightly flat look that CGI usually has on screen.

My fear was that from the trailers that this was going to be yet another excuse for a big budget battle sequence, and that the excuse for doing it was "well this one's in 3D, so it doesn't count". This wasn't the case; although there was the big battle, it didn't happen until the last 30 minutes of the two and half hour film, and was totally justified in keeping with the story line.

It makes no bones about the message it is trying to put across - we are killing our planet and we need to do something about it, but not by finding another habitable planet and doing the same there. It brings into the mix other big topical issues such as terrorism, "we need to fight terror with terror" says the military leader in order to rile his troops; something that I think George Bush said (or words to that effect).

This film is a brilliant way to get out messages such as these - arguably the most anticipated film of the decade, with a huge budget and marketing campaign, directed by the man who made the biggest grossing film of all time - people will flock to see it (old and young), and leave with the images they have seen burned into their psyche.

The film closes with a totally unsympathetic view on how we humans have treated our planet, and I think this is the only way to do it; I remember thinking "good, that'll teach us"!!??

My thoughts on the German film 'The Lives Of Others'

My wife sat and watched it for about 5 minutes, she then gave up and headed into the bedroom because of its slow pace; it never really got any faster. My expectation of this film was that is was going to be an 8-9 out of 10, but I would only give it about 4 because the story was very basic. I say basic because I found I could predict what the next line of dialogue was going to be several times during the running of the film. This film beat ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ at the Academy Awards for the best foreign film picture in 2007, but even though I am one of the few who weren’t impressed with 'Pan's Labyrinth', it was definitely better than ‘The Lives of Others’. Although foreign films have a rawness and edge to them which real movie buffs rave about, I am sorry to say that they are simply not as good as Hollywood films, especially in the writing. Yes Hollywood churns out a load of tosh, which you simply have to sit through to get to the good stuff, but when you do, it beats all foreign films hands down. Basically American writers are the best there are, that coupled with good budgets, a mixture of the best actors and actresses from around the globe, and soundtracks containing Western music (again the best in the world).

Review of the film 2012

The film was exactly what I was expecting in terms of special effects and storyline. The director ‘Roland Emerich’ had made the films ‘Independence Day’ and ‘The Day After Tomorrow’, and his structure is always the same: present the characters with all their various dysfunctional stories; gradually build up into a special effects laden destruction of the planet; this in turn is supposedly what it takes for them to reassess the way they are and change. I guess, in a blatantly obvious way, the intention of these films is to show that we can only come together as a species when the world is in great peril. I heard a couple of sniggers (me included) in the audience when we saw that it was a black president in this film played by Danny Glover; not a racist thing, just obviously a reference to Obama. Then one of the two main protagonists was black, a scientist played by British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. With each new film of Roland’s we are introduced to more characters, each smarter than the next, who are not white. In ‘Independence Day’ we have Will Smith as the top ace fighter pilot, then in ‘Day After Tomorrow’ there is the Arjay Smith, who points out ‘Sir, I am president of the electronics club, the math club, and the chess club. Now, if there is a bigger nerd in here, please point him out’. Finally in this film we have the black president, the top black scientist, the top Indian scientist (who saves the remaining Americans just before he dies), and finally the Chinese family who save John Cusack. One of the American’s also points out something along the lines of ‘I didn’t think we could get the ships built so fast, well that’s the Chinese for you’. Besides John Cusack’s character, the only other white person of note is Oliver Platt’s selfish politician; a role regularly filled now by white men. I will say that even though Hollywood may be casting much better roles for black and Asian male actors, they seem to have trouble picking roles in which there is a black woman in an important role. Yes we have the likes of Halle Berry, and in this film Thandie Newton, but they are lighter skinned from a mixed race background. Anyway, all I will say is that this film is a decent enough watch, but just be prepared to suspend your disbelief, in fact, just through it out of the window before you go.

My review of the film Harry Brown with Michael Caine

Watched ‘Harry Brown’ at the cinema, and was very impressed; I think my sister would be happy that I couldn’t really find any flaws with it. It was gritty, the cinematography great, and it certainly didn’t hold back when it came to showing disturbing scenes. The cinema experience itself also went hand in hand with the film, that is, when walking into the foyer and finding it empty, I was surprised to find the actual screen room 80% full with pensioners. I was also to discover that there were also some much younger people in the audience, and just like in the movie, they were disrespectful to the older generation among them. Just before the film actually started, I heard a voice followed shortly by a much louder one – ‘what, I can’t eat popcorn in the f***ing cinema?’. There was another little exchange that I couldn’t quite make out, but it soon ended with a couple getting up and moving to another seat; I was actually really embarrassed, but what could I do? Then just before the film started I heard the lady sitting next to me say ‘could they have made the text any smaller?’, referring to the beginning credits being actually very small, even I had to strain a little – didn’t they think about their target audience?! I wondered if the “senior” members of the audience were watching this film as it was a fantasy of theirs, that someone would come along to help them. If I was watching this film at home it would have been more comfortable to watch, but as this was a packed cinema, I had to sit through old people dying and the C word being used over and over again (along with all the other lovely words). I suppose in a way that this was really how it should be watched, with people from both age groups to hear how they both reacted to it. Many people have been pointing out that this film glorifies ‘the vigilante approach’, but it doesn’t, even Michael Caine himself said the film was about what could happen. My sister said I might wonder ‘how the hell could a pensioner could do those things’, but his skills and reactions were exactly as you would expect from someone about his age; thus the reason why he ended up in hospital after a shoot out.

Knowledge Boy's story of Sat Nav

This was emailed to me today-

I’m on the K just waiting for my second ever 56th .......I saw your sat nav v knowledge videos on the Anderson shelter and just wanted to say I thought they are brilliant. I also wanted to let you know of a absolutely true story that happened to a mate at my work. Keep in mind this is not a myth, folklore, hearsay or anything else. This is cast iron and stonewall sure straight from the horse’s mouth.

My work colleague calls a minicab to our call centre at Pratt walk, SE1 and ask to be taken to London Zoo. The driver barely speaks at all, let alone English but insist on the full post code. My friend has neither postcode or address of this rather main tourist attraction and explains “you got to know where the zoo is, inside the park with lots of animals”.



The driver mumbles under his breath but appears to have got a response from the sat nav and takes off. Strangely he drives Juxon street and then turns right on Vauxhall walk. From there he works his way down to Black Prince Road and even weirder turns left onto Albert Embankment. He then goes around the gyratory by Vauxhall, over Vauxhall bridge, past Victoria station, Hyde park corner, Park Lane and proudly stops on the right next to the central reservation on Park Lane and points to the “Animals at war”-monument and asks for, brace yourself, £ 22.

Needless to say my friend gets out and refuses to pay and, surprise, flag down and London taxi to find regents park!



Keep up the good work

I went to see ‘Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs’ at the cinema today; an animation, but one that has had good reviews. After purchasing my unlimited card I had been concerned that there wouldn’t be enough on to warrant it, but the more I look, the more I see there is worth seeing. I pushed my luck a bit with the timing, by getting to the ticket counter 15 minutes after the start time (adverts would last 15-20 minutes) I was appalled to find one person running both the ticket and food counter. There were 2 separate adults at the front, followed by a woman with 4 children, and the guy was seriously faffing about. I stood there for 2 minutes, looking all the time at the ‘ticket-ripper-guy’, wondering if I could get away with showing him my pass; but I knew he would give me the company policy spiel. 5 minutes passed and I was now panicking and starting to fidget, so I made a move when I saw the ‘ticket-ripper-guy’ not standing at his post. As I got to within 10 feet of “the border” he suddenly appeared with a broom in his hand, but there was no turning back now, I just strode confidently past him as if I had just popped out for popcorn (wait a minute, I had no popcorn in my hands, okay, so a chocolate bar I had hidden). It wasn’t as if I had stolen anything, I mean, I had an unlimited pass so no money would have changed hands anyway, but that didn’t stop my heart from pounding for the first 10 minutes of the film. A decent enough film, which had lots of ideas nicked from various others such as ‘The Matrix’, ‘Revenge Of The Sith’ to an almost identitcal scene from ‘The Toughest Man In The World’ where Mr T’s character (this time Earl Devereaux) runs through a giant Dorito instead of a wall –

htp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Q6DGOfp6k

Loved the inverted Mohican on Mr T’s character by the way.
I couldn’t help thinking about Alice in Wonderland most of the time, as it was striving to be as weird and wacky as that in many of its concepts. This film, like many I have seen recently (the last being ‘The Invention Of Lying’) was blatantly shoving current issues in our faces – in this case a child being bullied for being studious, children eating too much junk food, television only wanting dumb pretty girls, etc… The film unfortunately didn’t come close to the brilliance that was ‘The Incredibles’

My review of the film 'The Invention Of Lying' by and staring Ricky Gervais

It was off to watch ‘The Invention Of Lying’ today, which wasn’t something I particularly wanted to see, but there wasn’t much else. I thought I would give it a try as I remember something Ricky Gervais said when questioned by Jonathan Ross a while ago, about the quality and success of his previous films. He had only played minor roles in these films, and that when he chose a film to star in, it would be a different matter. Well, the film completely took me by surprise, even though I went in there half expecting it to be a rip off of ‘Liar Liar’; Far from it. I will say that there has to be a complete suspension of disbelief, as there are many events/inventions/designs that simply wouldn’t have happened in a world without lying. Also the film is about not telling lies, but much of the film is people offering information that they simply didn’t need to. Another thing that got on my nerves a bit, but maybe part of the reason it got financed, was the blatant product placement by Budweiser, Coke, Pepsi, and most blatantly of all Pizza Hut – could those pizza boxes have been anymore waved in our faces. Other than that it was well written and presented, and didn’t attempt go too far with the religious connotations.

London Black Taxi Cab TX5 rumour

Question put to me by SuperKojak2009 (Youtube user)

Hi, Before I ask my question I must say I think your videos are excellent and very true. I hold a Green badge and have been driving for 26 years. Rumors spread like hot cakes in this trade. I need to purchase a new cab, I have until February to do it. I am not keen on the Vito and agree with everything you described on your video.
I have also driven the Vito and was not taken by it even though it was a lovely drive.
OK.-- Please do you know if LTI are bringing out a TX5? or upgrading the TX4? I do not want to by a TX4 if LTI a bringing out a new or upgraded cab. I have heard a Nissan engine will be used? I thought who better to ask, as you seam to be in 'The Know '
Any help please?
Andy.

Stormcab's reply

I have have not heard anything about this at all. I am in contact with about 60 other black cab drivers on Twitter, who are on there because there are the most tech savvie cabbies out there, and I have not heard a peep out of them about a TX5. I bought my second TX4 in December 2008, and apart from a few niggles that I had sorted this week, it is fantastic. The problem is that anyone else who has had issues with their TX4 will have something less nice to say about it. I always say that if anyone has the right to moan about the TX4 it would be me, especially after I had several breakdowns within the first year with my first TX4, and finally loosing it altogether in a fire. The problem is that the TX4 is a good cab, if it is screwed together properly, I haven't heard anyone moaning about the engine, the problems are in other places - radiators/turbo pipes/electronic engine management - which will go wrong in any car if it isn't put together properly. So the TX5, if there is going to be such a cab, might have the much sought after Nissan engine, but it's the rest of the cab we have to worry about. If this cab has a different engine, it will most definitely have a different radiator, therefore a different grill design, so after 3 years of the TX4 being out, and the engineers finally getting their acts together and dealing with the common problems, they will have to start over again with any new cab that comes out. My example is the Mercedes London Taxi - I drove my rented one, brand new, out of the dealership, and within days had issues with the doors sticking, the rear wheel steering system refusing to work at times, and the parking sensor having an attitude problem (and those were the mechanical issues aside from my niggles about the overall design of where everything else was). I have spoken to a driver who said his friend had a Merc and that it was the worst decision he had ever made, and I spoke to a TX4 owner 2 weeks before buying my second one, who told me his TX4 was the best cab he'd ever owned. It baffles me that in the LTDA magazine the Mole in the Merc has only met other Merc drivers that love it, I sense conspiracy. I sure as hell didn't understand this fuel saving issue either - I put £20 of diesel in my cab when I fill up, and when I had the Merc I was filling up at the same intervals? The only conclusion I can come to here is that maybe it's drivers who live far from London and have to drive in, so the Mercedes is better on the run??

SuperKojak2009 response

Hi Thanks so much for your reply. I agree again with all you say. I deff will NOT by a Vito. I have up until end of Feb to bye a new cab. I am sticking with LTI. I called into M7O's last week and they assured me the problems with the Radiator and the problems with hot air coming out of the vents has been sorted. I hope this is so, and not sales pitch.

Keep me informed please if you hear anything happening. I'll keep watching you videos, and may even see you out on the Streets of London. ( I work nights )
Thanks again
Be Lucky.
Andy.

Response to person wanting to scrap the 'London Black Taxi Cab Knowledge'

Sat Nav is of absolutely no use to black cab drivers, as it is too slow to use. Many of our journey's are over by the time it would have taken for a driver to type in the info to a sat nav device. I have it on my PDA and would love to have it out to help me, but if I sat there for 30-90 seconds typing in an address/place if interest, the customer would be screaming at me.
The difference between us and Addison Lee is that they get their job sent through via a pager or similar device (I worked for Express National Carriers and they did this) so they have an exact pick up and drop immediately so they can find the address on the way by stopping and having a look in the A-Z and plan their route accordingly. With regards to Black Cabbies and their properties abroad, these drivers bought their property years ago when prices were a quarter of what they are now, whereas I, having been a cabbie for 5 years only own a small one bedroom flat, and will probably struggle to ever buy anything bigger.
With regards to driving in London and learning the routes anyway, I was a minicab driver in London for 7 years, and when I started the knowledge, I felt I might as well have never even lived in London with the amount of stuff I didn't know. I have met several controllers from several large minicab firms that started the knowledge, and said they couldn't believe just how much of London they didn't know. I have already made a video explaining why sat nav would not would not work with the knowledge, and I am putting together more reasons why for another video. If people are still unconvinced I will take my sat nav out at work and film myself with customers to demonstrate the problems. The reason why everyone from the minicab industry is disgruntled is that they have no centralised leadership or representation.
Your argument that minicab drivers should be able to get out and be the same as black cab drivers, is like saying why couldn't a nurse become a doctor but just with an internet connection so they can just look at the symptoms on line. It is those that are complaining that don't deserve to be cab drivers - why? - because they are obviously too lazy to get out there and do the knowledge, like most people in Britain today - why should I study, why should I get up off my arse, I should just bloody have put in my lap. Well I work hard, I studied hard to get the knowledge, and I know that we provide the best service in the world, as confirmed by every foreigner I have ever had in my cab. Because we know we provide the best service, we are going to defend it, that's why we have all joined to form several unions to fight any half arsed lazy upstarts that think that can destroy the best taxi industry in the world.
I will be out there on the front line too, playing my part as a video maker and photographer, so I will jealousy defend what I have worked hard for. So I say again, don't complain, go out there and do the knowledge.

This was my response to the comment below left on one of my Youtube videos--

Noone's saying you should scrap the knowledge, but every reason for keeping it can be solved by replacing it with a combination of sat nav and a 6-8 month knowledge. You only need a basic knowledge plus a satnav. Addison Lee prove that and provide good service and none of them have done 'the knowledge'. They've already taken loads of your work. They should be able to pick up at designated ranks. Try getting a cab in the west end on fri and sat nights. The CBI say it is the biggest criticism of London. But black cabs say that there would be no living in it if the knowledge was speeded up and the streets flooded with cabs. What they mean is that they wouldn't be able to make the huge amounts of money they do at present. Why should they make so much when they don't do much. Just drive people around. Any old idiot can do that. Have a 6 month knowledge, a sat nav in every cab and let 20, 000 of the minicabs become black cabs. All prolems solved. Then your supply restricted scam would be over along with your lies and arrogance and overseas properties. Once again, every reason for keeping the 3-4 year knowledge can be solved by making it last 6-8 months and using a sat nav. You learn all the routes by doing the job anyway. Any experienced mini cabbie knows where to go even without a sat nav. Black cabs and the knowledge should go the same way as water transport. ie down the river......... Your days are numbered. Black cabs and mini cabs will merge and become the same thing. The only question left is how to break the freemason conspiracy between the cab trade, the police and the politicians that keeps it going artificially.

London Black Taxi Cab diaries, no 6

As soon as I hit the Mcdonald’s on Rotherhithe New Road, I was confronted with a queue of non-moving traffic. I couldn’t think what could be causing it, but I took no chances and headed back to the Old Kent Road. The traffic news was that there had been an accident on Lower Thames Street! What, and it was affecting traffic that far away. I didn’t want to work anywhere near all this so headed towards Victoria. Where did my first job from Victoria Street want to go? Bloody Southwark Bridge! On the way up York Road another cab driver intentionally stopped next to me, which at first I thought was so he could have a go at me (what had I done that I had already forgotten about?). ‘What does your number plate say?’ came the unexpected query, ‘Stormcab’ I told Reggie and Ronnie Kray’s long lost triplet. He turned his head back towards the road ahead with a look that said ‘another stupid muppet wasting money on a number plate that doesn’t mean anything’. I was now embarrassed in front of my customer, so I through out ‘I have put a few videos on Youtube under that name. Immediately his face changed to that of someone who could have been my best friend ‘OH, DARTH VADOR, THAT VIDEO WITH THE TAXI WAS HILARIOUS’! I didn’t really want to correct him (it’s a stormtrooper actually) as I had just got my pride back. I then spent the next 5 minutes explaining to the customer what had just happened. A similar thing happened on Bishop’s Bridge Road, as I was about to drop off at Paddington Station. A burgundy TX4 was waiting in the rank next to me and the driver said ‘Alright mate’, I acknowledged ‘Alright’, then he said ‘I saw your Mercedes review on Youtube, you’re the reason I bought this… you are’. Thank god he looked pleased, because for a second I thought ‘oh great, is he going to tell me what an idiot I was’. Anyway, the point is, this guy could read what was on the number plate, so it’s not that obscure. The pubs in town were spilling over into the street because of the nice weather, and I thought I should really have my camera out. I told myself that I would wait until something convinces me that I should have my camera out; that something would have made a good little photo – Alan Davies getting into a cab in front of me!

London Black Taxi Cab diaries, no 5

On one of my many trips down Piccadilly I had a BMW 5 series blatantly jump the lights on me at Berkeley Street. I was angrily beeping and flashing him as I followed him, but soon realised he didn’t care as he was part of the huge contingent of Paparazzi trying to position themselves outside the Wolseley restaurant. I had conflicting reports from customers that it was Kelly Osborn, the Princes Harry and William, and Paris Hilton?!
Later I picked up a smart Asian man with a very pretty blond from a club in Kensington, and took him to Victoria. After dropping her he told me he couldn't believe he had pulled her, but had to be up in the morning so couldn't spend the night. He told me that at one point in the night this girl went off to the loo, and he went up for a dance with a slim and pretty girl who was already up dancing. When the blond returned from the loo and he went back over to her, she asked ‘do you know who that girl is? Kate Middleton’. One of my jobs was an Italian man who asked if he could pay by credit card, he also asked if I could take him to Heathrow at 5am. Now, I was trying to change my shift a bit ready for an up coming trip, but I couldn’t turn down a £50-60 job, so I accepted. It did tick over quite nicely until I got to the Washington hotel where he was, and luckily he did come out 15 minutes early. The bit that caught me off guard was when he said ‘terminal 5’; I’d never been. I tried desperately to get the map to the right page while I was stopped at lights to see where the building was located, but in the end I came to the conclusion that it would be very clearly signposted – which it was.

London Black Taxi Cab diaries, no 4

I picked up a well spoken women from Whitehall, who immediately asked if she could tell me about her day; I am happy whenever someone asks this. She started telling me how she tried to get her friend a cab on the Strand but couldn’t, then she tried to get one for herself… I couldn’t really follow her, but then she came out with ‘My husband has just left me after 7 years of marriage, yep, he was gay’. She went on to tell me it happened 2 months ago, so she was obviously still in shock at it all. They have 3 children together that are all under 2!! And he has known he was gay since the age of 8!! He may have been gay, but 3 kids in such a short space of time, wow.

London Black Taxi Cab Diaries no 3

A surprise was picking up Dave Berry on Berkeley Street. He flagged another cab down but l recognized him just in time to catch him. It was easy to see why he had done so well in the entertainment Industry; he was such a nice guy. He went to the same sixth form college as I did, then a couple of years later would drink at the pub I worked in. During the next couple of years I would pick him up a few times as a minicab driver, just as he was starting out his now successful career. I had recently sent him an email at XFM where he is a DJ, and he responded within a couple of days. He remembered from my email that I got married and asked me how I met my wife; and I asked whether it was true that he was dating a Sugababe, he was, for the last 5 years. I told him about my video editing hobby and that I would be making a movie for Comic Relief-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2LAYrgqSk0&feature=channel_page&fmt=18

Just before we reached his destination he asked me 'are you not charging me? (the meter wasn't on) I said 'old times mate'. But then when he got out he handed me a £20 note and told me to put it towards my Red Nose Day donations. I also got a photo-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stormcab/3334805726/

Duplicity, short film review.

The film was a decent enough film, not too predictable, but mainly held together by the great cast. There was a particular part in the film that Mark Kermode had commented on which made me laugh when I saw it. Several scenes in the film were set in different cities around the world, and the way they presented each location was to show some footage of the place, followed by the name of the city. Also, each place was where something had happened in the past; so the sequence would be – footage, name, how long ago. The thing that Mark pointed out was after about 15-20 seconds of footage showing black cabs, red double decker buses, Big Ben, etc… ‘London’ came up, followed shortly by ‘3 months ago’! All the other places could have been anywhere in the area of the world they were, but London was BLOODY OBVIOUS. In my opinion the ‘3 months ago’ should have appeared at the exact moment ‘London’ appeared.

Confusing labelling on supermarket products

We went over to Sainsbury’s to do some shopping, where besides buying food for the next few days, we looked at the nutritional information of dozens of products. My wife would pick up something and say ‘what’s the fat in that?’, or ‘how much sugar in this?’ Myself, I was on some sort of crusade, I was looking at things to see if they were clearly labelled, for example, there was a pot of noodles that pointed out on the front that there was less than 5% fat. I looked at the nutritional information on the back and there was 7% saturated fat per pot! That’s more than a third of an adult female’s daily allowance. I couldn’t figure out where they got this ‘less than 5%' figure from. All I could see was that the actual fat content per 100g was 3.8g, so technically it was less than 5%, but you would be eating 7g saturated in a whole pot – really cheeky labelling. I also had another look at some of the differences with the fat content of dark and milk chocolate. On everything from chocolate digestives to chocolate bars, the dark chocolate versions were all higher in saturated fat!

London Black Taxi Cab Diaries, no 1

I found myself driving around the backstreets away from the main roads dominated by lit taxi lights. I eventually spotted a group of people standing outside the Embassy Club in Old Burlington Street as I drove along Clifford Street. Ordinarily I wouldn’t have bothered as I knew it was one of the clubs that was swarming with minicabs and a marshal (or clipboard Johnny); but it was too quiet not to try. I drove by very slowly and had to double take when I was flagged down by an elderly gent, dressed in what I can only describe as hunting gear and looking like Alan Wicker. Basically the only thing that was missing was a shotgun draped over his arm. What was a man like this doing coming out of the Embassy club? As he came to the window and said ‘Balham please’ I could see he was holding a pipe. When he got in I could immediately smell the strong tobacco; so strong in fact that I thought it was still alight and nearly turned to ask him to put it out. I was a little intimidated by him, and was worried that he might question my route or start telling me which one to take. He had a very stern demeanour, almost like a teacher from the old days, that would rap you over the knuckles when you had been disobedient. I suppose it’s fare to say that the way I drive is sometimes dictated by the passenger I have in the back. I drive quite fast when I have younger more rowdy clients, more carefully when I have older or richer ones, and in between, it depends on my mood. In this case I drove carefully and at regular speeds, and used my no traffic light route through Belgrave Square and Lower Sloane Street. He had told me the name of the road in Balham, and I didn’t know it, but he did tell me it was off Balham Hill. So the first chance I got I had a quick look in the A-Z so at least he didn’t have to tell me the final part. As soon as we stopped outside his house he said to me ‘That was a very good journey driver… and I mean that in the nice way’. Firstly, I greatly appreciated his kind comments, but found it amusing that he had to add the second bit just to confirm he was in fact not being sarcastic; why, I don’t know. Just before I drove off he gave me another compliment ‘that journey usually takes a lot longer’.
Next I picked up a young man with an accent, from Regent Street, and we headed down to Clapham. He told me he worked in one of the big stores in Oxford Street, and I asked him how the economic downturn was affecting his store; apparently it hadn’t. Eventually I found out that he was from Rome, and although he said he loved it very much, he was a little angry and disappointed at how much of a mess the country as a whole was in. I asked if he meant organised crime and corruption, i.e. the ‘The Mafia’, and he replied ‘yes, but there’s more than one, there’s four’. He asked if I had heard about the rubbish problem in Naples, which I had, and he explained that big companies and industry don’t want to pay such high taxes to have their rubbish taken away. What they then do is pay the Mafia a much smaller amount and they come and take it away, but then dump it on the streets. I told him I had heard a news story a couple of months ago, about the arrest of several police officers in Rome, because they had been altering the traffic light sequences. They had raked in about 200 million Euros in fines because the lights were changing quicker; my passenger had strangely not heard about it. Anyway, an interesting journey; and it was good to hear stories about another country that you wouldn’t hear on our news.
One of my last jobs was a short journey featuring 2 young Australian men, who waiting outside the Walkabout on Shaftesbury Avenue. They looked very unkempt and sweaty, as were most of the people who come out of that place. It’s probably one of the few places in the centre that allows people in, who look like they have just slept in their casual clothes in the back of their cars. As soon as they were in the swearing started-

Big guy - “You’re a ****ing idiot, oh man, what the **** is wrong with you”
Smaller guy - “Wait a minute, no, no, I didn’t…”
Big guy – “Shut the **** up, you’re a ****ing ****hole”
Smaller guy – “no listen a minute…”

This went on for a minute or two, then the bigger one, much to the other one’s horror, said to me “hey mate, what do you think of this….?”. But before he could finish, the smaller one started protesting. I assured both of them that what ever it was I couldn’t take sides, because it would be completely unprofessional to give an opinion. I was told the story anyway “We’re best mates yeah, and we have recently become friends with these 3 guys we were out with tonight. This ****** here goes and calls one of them a ****, but he didn’t realise he was standing right behind him”. The smaller one’s protests that he didn’t weren’t convincing, even to me who wasn’t even there. Just before we got to the end of journey the conversation got really surreal –

Big guy – “Look mate, shut up, or I’ll going to punch you in the face”
Small guy – “Okay, do it mate, do it, and I’ll shake your hand”

Just before getting out they both apologised to me for the racket, and handed me my payment – a damp, sweaty, and screwed up £10 note; nice!

Video version - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGhbsVPVvNM&feature=channel_page&fmt=18

London Black Taxi Cab Diaries, no 2

I was doing the Dean Street, Soho Square, Greek Street circuit for the 5^th time tonight, but was glad to see an outstretched hand from halfway down Greek Street. It was a young man and woman, but the woman got in alone and asked to go to Earls Court. Immediately after telling me where she was going, she said ‘those bloody minicabs, they are so in your face; thank god you turned up when you did’. ‘Yep’ I replied, ‘they are blatantly touting but are somehow allowed to get away with it’. I continued ‘The funny thing is is that they are not cheaper; many a time I have picked up someone going somewhere that would cost them about £7-10, but before getting in, a tout had quoted them £15-20!’ Touts obviously don’t have all the costs to cover as we do, so why are they giving such high quotes? The next thing I said was a bit of a gamble, as it was something I was ashamed of as a London Black Cab driver – ‘did you hear about the London Taxi Driver who was giving women passengers drugged Champagne?’ She had, and she said she couldn’t believe women had actually been falling for it. She went on to say that she knew the only girl that got away, that just after refusing the drink, she pretended she saw a friend of hers on the corner and asked the cab driver to stop, then legged it. I was impressed – ‘so this girl didn’t just refuse the drink, she knew something was up?’ I asked, ‘oh yeah’ came the proud reply.

Video version - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7HcOQY-ax4&feature=channel_page&fmt=18

Landlord and Managing agent problems, and forming your own right to manage.

We have had a problem with overcharging by our managing agent, who has been appointed by the landlord to manage our property. They had charged us for work they hadn't done, and the work they had was sub standard. I took photos as evidence, kept all emails and mail, and then contacted the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT) -

http://www.rpts.gov.uk/about_us/lvt.htm

I lodged a complaint with them then filled out the necessary forms to dispute the "reasonableness of service charges". I had to do a lot of paperwork and get all my evidence together, but we won, and had a lot of the charges refunded. The problem was that the managing agent would remain our managing agent, so to get rid of them we decided to form our own company and forcibly remove their control. This is called right to manage. You can either put 'right to manage' into a search engine or go to the people we used, the Leasehold Advice Centre-

http://www.leaseholdadvicecentre.co.uk/?gclid=CLfVhP3-tpkCFQiF3godLCuP4w

They do everything for about £1200, but if you can understand all the legal jargon and be bothered with all the paperwork, you can probably get it all done for a few hundred pounds.

BP and Marks & Spencer garages change mistakes.

Count your change before you leave the premises! you should obviously do this at every shop, but on 3 of the last 4 times I visited an M&S in a BP garage, there have been mistakes with what I have been charged, or change I have been given. I emailed BP direct and they emailed me back to say they would contact area managers to be more careful and accurate.

Gatwick car parking payment machines conspiracy

Was at Gatwick recently north terminal recently, and was angry to find that the car park payment machines had been moved from the inside of the terminal. They are only available from inside the car park which is approximately an extra 30 seconds walk away. This to me is just a a way of creating some more funds. How many people are within that last 30 seconds of the 30 minute payment increase? and now will miss it and have to pay the next payment tier - cha-ching!

Youtube code hack for high quality playback

Do you know the Youtube code for high quality, no?, it's - &fmt=18 - type this into the end of the video URL and not only do you get the high quality option that wasn't there before, but it plays smoother.

Here's a video I made explaining it-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbYSKj7eU6A&fmt=18

For the first time in history

For the first time in history 11 year olds are an authority - computers and the internet. Heard on a BBC podcast.

Taxis in Thailand

The taxis in Bangkok have meters, but if you do not pick them up from a rank or hotel, they will quote you a price (which is generally 3 times what the meter would say). If you ask for the meter to be put on you will always get some resistance, so a trick is to go into a hotel and ask them to call one over and tell them to put the meter on.