Hi everyone,

It’s been really difficult recently to blog, with the run up to moving and my involvement with the RMT and now moving in to a new house,it’s been a bit hectic to say the least.

Back in July2011 I got my moving date and that was the 5th of August 2011, it has taken me since the beginning of May 2010 to finally sell and move.

After giving away my wardrobe,Freezer,cooker,washing machine,table,sideboard and corner unit, all of which wouldn’t have fitted in my new house, all I had to do was buy a new washer/dryer,cooker and hob, the rest of the house was ok and in good condition.In my new house there is a  fitted wardrobe in the main bedroom and the small room I use as an office as before in my old place, my garden is a lot smaller but that suits me, I will eventually turn it into a paved courtyard with potted grape vines,Olive trees and exotic plants and of course a water feature, hopefully thats all I will need to do, sounds great,doesn’t it.

I’m looking forward to visiting my brother Mark in New Zealand sometime in the next couple of years, so I need to start saving, I’m hoping to take my mum,son and friend with me.

Every day since moving it has been busy, not so much work wise but doing things round the house, just putting things in order and the never ending chain of mail coming through my door, change of addresses etc.

Moving on to my usual winge section.

Some cyclists are getting more careless on the roads, I’m getting more close encounters then ever, only last night, a cyclist turned up Kensington Church Street at the same time as me but on the wrong side of the road, no lights on and driving down the middle of the road, waving me on past but not looking to see if I acknowledged her.

one thing I hate is when cyclists use the pedestrian crossing in Hyde Park as a cycle lane, only last week a cyclist pulled in-front of me in Hyde Park, she didn’t even notice I was there.

It’s not always cyclists that drive carelessly, quite often I’ve seen Rickshaws  zig zagging down the road, no wonder people fall out and injure themselves, there seems more and more people jumping red lights, even Taxi drivers, a couple of weeks back a black cab nearly drove into me after jumping a red light.

I picked up a couple of guys in Kensington Church Street the other day, one of them asked me if I took credit cards, I told him I did,he then asked to be taken to the Charring Cross Hotel, so off we go,on our way there he was asking me lots of questions, one of which was why don’t all cab drivers have card machines, I would have thought anyone with an ounce of intelligence would be able to work it out, not he.

It was like an Spanish Inquisition,he didn’t shut up, when we reached Pall Mall East, he asked me to stop the cab and said he will walk the rest of the way,that nearly always happens these days,as soon as I reach a traffic jam, they want to depart.

He said what do I do now,this guy was playing games with me, he could not be that thick, I said put your card into the machine and follow the instructions, so he did but the wrong way round, when he finished putting in his details, he told me he was instructed to take his card out, even tho my reader in the drivers compartment said it was still Processing the transaction,for some reason I couldn’t take his card details, so he said can you now take me to a ATM machine, he suggested the one in Chandos Place.

Off we go, because of the heavy traffic round Trafalgar Square, I decided to reset my meter and treat it as a separate job, he asked what I was doing, I said I’m treating this as a second job because you need to get cast from a machine,it’s normal procedure, he said that he would only pay me the £14 on my meter, I said in that case I’ll take you to charring Cross Nick, he said ok then, it didn’t seem to bother him,you’ll understand later why. when we arrived at Chandos Place,where the nick is,coincidently, It’s where he wanted me to go to, for the ATM machine, he said again, if you want ,I’ll pay you £14 cash and thats all, being that I only clocked up a further £3 on my meter, I said I would take it.

When he payed me, I told him he was braking the law by not paying me the extra fare, he said it wasn’t his fault that my machine didn’t work,I said that doesn’t matter, you are still entitled to pay the full fare.

He and his partner raised their eyebrows as to say I’m wrong, he then flashed his police Warrant badge at me then walked off.

If I could have seen his badge no, I would have reported him.

Later on in Queens Gate I was flagged down by a young lady, she looked distressed, she began by telling me that her car was towed away and if I could help her find it, I googled and found a number for her to call, It’s the towed vehicle tracing service. 020 7371 5678. As I pulled away, she was pacing up and down the road,on the phone. Hopefully she found her car.

Two Minutes later, I was passing a cyclist, he was on the near side of the road, all of a sudden he stretched his arm out to turn right,that was before looking to see if there where any vehicles on his right, I was there, the idiot shouted something at me, then when he caught up at the top of the road he swore at me, I politely told him to go away.

Be Lucky out there.