Beginner's Luck

[skyring]

Last night, somewhere around ten, I picked up a couple of young women from The Ottoman, a Turkish restaurant, and took them back to their hotel, the Hyatt. I carry so many people between these two places that I think that there might be a standard recommendation at the Hyatt for a good restaurant, because the Ottoman is an old public service cafeteria in the middle of office buildings, the area absolutely deserted after six PM, and about a kilometre from any other establishment. And yes, it's in Canberra's central area, just outside the Parliamentary Triangle. Canberra has a lot of open space in its heart.

They climbed in, I started off and after a little while one of them said, listening to the music, "That's Norah Jones, isn't it?"

It was indeed. Norah has a voice of honey, sings love songs, and the music is silky smooth. I love her.

"Yes," I replied. "But she's dangerous for a cabbie. I'm not allowed to play her after midnight."

They listened for a second or so, and chuckled. "Puts you to sleep, does she?"

"Yes, she's like valium. But, oh, she's got a lovely voice on her!"

"Mmmmm. She does. But what do you play after midnight? Italian for Beginners?"

My jaw dropped about two metres, and you could hear it bounce off the floormat and clatter around before it climbed back up.

I made no reply, but advanced the CD player four disks and one track. There was a chime, and then a bland voice announced, "Introductory phrases. Good Morning ... Guten Morgen.."

They laughed over this, and we chattered on for the remainder of the brief trip.

"Thanks for that ride," one said, adding a generous tip. "You made our night!"

And they made mine. I love carrying happy people around Canberra. Driving through a beautiful city along wide and empty roads, sweet music playing, cheerful people in the back -- what more could a cabbie ask for?

Comments

Hehe

[discoverylover.livejournal.com]

thats awesome!

Re: Hehe

[skyring.livejournal.com]

Maybe they read my previous blog entry. But probably not. I'm not "famous" yet.

Picked up a couple last night and talked about BookCrossing. He remembered reading about me in the local paper about a year back.

Off for another night, then Harry Potter with the family, then I'll sleep for a week in the afternoon.

Re: Hehe

[discoverylover.livejournal.com]

Lol, just famous in bookcrossing then! I'm hopefully going to go see HP next week during the week (was waiting for school holidays to end so I don't have to suffer through 2 hours of kids pretending to be quiet!). Enjoy your sleep (you should start banking up the sleep so you don't have to sleep for the whole weekend in Melbourne! I'm going to start in the next school holidays!!)

thats hilarious!

[whimzykat.livejournal.com]

I love coincidences like that!