Yearning for twelve hour shifts
Sep. 23rd, 2006 06:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyringI picked up my wife from the airport yesterday. She was full of complaints about one thing or another, so I pretty well just shut up and let her run on. One of the joys of being a husband is listening to your wife, and though we might have long, funny, rambling late night talks about everything under the sun, every now and then she comes home and lets the frustrations of her day wash over me.
She's been away in Sydney for a couple of meetings, having to stay overnight in some hotel. "The pillows were toooo soft," she moaned. "Poor Kerri," I replied gently, "It must have been awful!"
I took the opportunity to look at the cab rank. It's a five car rank at the airport, with a commissionaire for the busy times. The rank was empty, but there were a couple of cabs in the feeder, and of course the cab parking area was chockers. This time of day and week there are people racing to get planes out of Canberra, and the planes arriving are full of passengers who, like my wife, have been out of town on business.
I figured, as we drove past, that the commissionaire had ducked inside to take care of urgent personal business and so the switch that controls the lights to summon more cabs from the feeder had gone unpunched. In such situations cabbies are supposed to use their own initiative and move up onto the rank without being summoned. Not like cabbies to sit still when there is work to be had.
But that's what I'm doing now. It's been over five weeks since I submitted my request for a police check and until it arrives, there's nothing I can do. It will be a minimum of three and a maximum of ten days before I can start work after I receive it. As it stands, next Friday is my earliest possible start date.
I am so frustrated by this. It's not just a matter of wanting the money so I can start making plans for my next trip, I also want to start work. Looking forward to it. At any one time one cab in seven is off the road because there aren't enough drivers, one bit of the government is harassing the cab company to improve service, and another bit is sitting on its hands.
Maybe I'll change my tune after my first week of getting up before dawn and driving around town for ten or twelve hours. It might take the edge off my enthusiasm a trifle. But dammit, I want to have the chance to see for myself.
I drove my wife home, listening to her describe the shortcomings of the conference venue, the speakers, the delegates, the work that was piling up in her absence, the way the plane home had been delayed by headwinds, and bounced around in the air...
I poured her a drink when she got home, made dinner (sliced chicken thigh fillets in honey mustard sauce with mushrooms fried golden in olive oil with a touch of cognac, served on rice with peas), and gave her a backrub.
OK, dear reader, it's my turn. I've had a good old whinge and bitch about things to you; where's my dinner and backrub, hey?
She's been away in Sydney for a couple of meetings, having to stay overnight in some hotel. "The pillows were toooo soft," she moaned. "Poor Kerri," I replied gently, "It must have been awful!"
I took the opportunity to look at the cab rank. It's a five car rank at the airport, with a commissionaire for the busy times. The rank was empty, but there were a couple of cabs in the feeder, and of course the cab parking area was chockers. This time of day and week there are people racing to get planes out of Canberra, and the planes arriving are full of passengers who, like my wife, have been out of town on business.
I figured, as we drove past, that the commissionaire had ducked inside to take care of urgent personal business and so the switch that controls the lights to summon more cabs from the feeder had gone unpunched. In such situations cabbies are supposed to use their own initiative and move up onto the rank without being summoned. Not like cabbies to sit still when there is work to be had.
But that's what I'm doing now. It's been over five weeks since I submitted my request for a police check and until it arrives, there's nothing I can do. It will be a minimum of three and a maximum of ten days before I can start work after I receive it. As it stands, next Friday is my earliest possible start date.
I am so frustrated by this. It's not just a matter of wanting the money so I can start making plans for my next trip, I also want to start work. Looking forward to it. At any one time one cab in seven is off the road because there aren't enough drivers, one bit of the government is harassing the cab company to improve service, and another bit is sitting on its hands.
Maybe I'll change my tune after my first week of getting up before dawn and driving around town for ten or twelve hours. It might take the edge off my enthusiasm a trifle. But dammit, I want to have the chance to see for myself.
I drove my wife home, listening to her describe the shortcomings of the conference venue, the speakers, the delegates, the work that was piling up in her absence, the way the plane home had been delayed by headwinds, and bounced around in the air...
I poured her a drink when she got home, made dinner (sliced chicken thigh fillets in honey mustard sauce with mushrooms fried golden in olive oil with a touch of cognac, served on rice with peas), and gave her a backrub.
OK, dear reader, it's my turn. I've had a good old whinge and bitch about things to you; where's my dinner and backrub, hey?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-09-22 09:39 pm (UTC)If I lived closer, I'd run right over and give you a backrub. Too bad I'm on a different continent, eh? ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-09-22 09:44 pm (UTC)And you'd need it once you got off the long plane ride to New Jersey!
no subject
Date: 2006-09-22 09:46 pm (UTC)Thanks for listening!
no subject
Date: 2006-09-22 09:51 pm (UTC)GReader, on thumbing through your LJ, I figure you need some gentle hands soothing away your cares a lot more than I do!
But then again, I'm not averse to a beautiful woman offering me a nice shoulder rub.
Cares/caress. There must be some sort of linguistic karma going on there.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-22 10:00 pm (UTC)I will offer a hug though. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-09-22 10:05 pm (UTC)As well as that, having so many of my BC and LJ friends around me has me siling all day long.
No way will you escape without a hug from me!
**SIgh**
Date: 2006-09-22 10:41 pm (UTC)Be careful what you wish for...It just may come true.
Re: **SIgh**
Date: 2006-09-22 11:39 pm (UTC)I won't be an employee, so much as self-employed, hiring the cab from the owner. I can pick and choose.
Every shift is different, every fare a new adventure. Mike has been doing it for a year and more and he still wakes up in the morning eager to start work.
Let's put it another way. Kerri's annual pay is more than the salary of a Cabinet Minister. Anything I make is gravy. If I work 12 hours a day, six days a week, it will be because I like the job, not because I have to do it.
If I don't have a fare, or they don't want to talk, I'll be dreaming of my next trip.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-23 12:29 am (UTC)What a good hubby you are, listening and a back rub! I want one like you lol
no subject
Date: 2006-09-23 01:18 am (UTC)Ah, well, I'm lazy, disorganised, spend far too much time reading or mucking about on the interweb...
no subject
Date: 2006-09-23 01:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-23 01:41 am (UTC)No complaints from me about my time in Toronto, neither. Talk about a spicy mix of people - that means great dining too, and I went to a Korean BBQ place with Sonora, and The Greek Islands with thebiblioholic, tzurriz and jfroebe, and a few others, and that great English pub...
***SIGH***
no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 10:00 am (UTC)Must admit, your whinging and bitching is pretty low key. I didn't even really notice it until you mentioned it!
The paperwork'll come through, and this (bloody annoying) waiting period will be over, and you'll be stuck into the job. (And I *am* looking forward to reading your posts when you do!)
no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 12:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 03:49 pm (UTC)It's just that it sounded funny in a Goldilocks kind of way!
I forgot to ask yesterday - how crowded was the hostel?