Hi everyone

As I was driving up Park La north bound a car decides to cut in front of me, one of those boy racers showing off in front of his mates no doubt ! then he keeps braking for no apparent reason, and as we approach Grosvenor Gate he turns right through the no entry sign, lucky for him there were no cars coming towards him, for what I could see he turned right back down Park La.

Later on driving up Chalk farm Rd, one of those tiny G Wiz cars pulls in front of a double decker bus making him come to a halt, then the car driver jumps out and starts angrily banging on the bus’ windows. I can only speculate that the bus probably pulled out on him earlier on for him to react like that.

Chaos on the roads, I get a message on my terminal telling me that there has been a really bad accident on the A40 Westway, 5 bikes and 6 cars involved, lots of casualties. I just hope that there were no bad injuries.

Still Monday, I just dropped in Howland St when this slightly pissed guy comes up to me and asks to go to Southwark Pk Rd and if he can he put his bike in. I said yes, no problem,  so he crosses the road to pick up his bike and then just stands there, staring at me kind of waiting for me to come to him. A few seconds later, after realising that I wouldn’t,  he comes over and puts his bike in and off we go.

On our way he asks me my name, I tell him, then he tells me he’s been doing the knowledge for 3 years  while working as a fireman and that his name is Dave. Then he starts to explain to me what happened to him before I picked him up  – that someone took a swipe at him while he was drinking his beer, for no reason at all, and he goes on and on…

By the time I got to Tower Hill I’ve got a headache and then he says, I don’t have a lot of money. I asked him how much he has , he says around £10, I said why didn’t you tell me before you got in the cab? he says, I forgot to. I said no, I don’t think so. You knew what you were doing to what he says, where do you live?   guessing what was coming I asked,  what that  has got to do with anything, he said I’ll post you the money. I said there’s no way on this earth you will do that and he still had the guts to ask me to take him home first.  I just said, I’ll tell you what: I’ll drop you in St Katharine’s Way, you give me what you’ve got and you can cycle the rest of the way, to my surprise he agreed without throwing a tantrum.

I managed to get £12.40 out of him with £20.40 on the meter, his lasts words were:  I feel really bad!  I said just bugger off!  if you’re really genuine about doing the knowledge which I doubt, and the same thing  happens to you,  you’ll no ecxatly how I feel. Was he having a laugh or what

As I turned into Tottenham Ct Rd from Goodge St a car came speeding towards me in the wrong direction, I flashed my lights and sounded my horn until he stopped. Can you believe that he didn’t seem to comprehend what he was doing wrong? I accept we all make mistakes from time to time but to drive down one way streets with arrows pointing in the opposite direction takes some beating.

Still Tuesday, I got flagged down by the enemy in Dover St . A young lady comes over and asks what I’d charge to take her to the Oval, I said around £20 then she asked if I’d do it for £15 because the miniscab driver wanted £20 - I said ok.  Anything to take work from them!

On our way she got chatting and must have forgotten what she  had originally told me and said, I’ve only got £20. I said that should be enough and it actually went to £16  but she still gave me the £20. Crazy eh

Pretty unaventable day apart from when ranking outside Nobu in Berkeley St, a passing white cab stopped to pick someone up, only just a few yards past us. I know it’s an unofficial rank but  play the white man. It’s bad enough fighting off the minicabs!

You would have thought that things were bad enough already, with our roads being dug up and blocked off  but well,  now we’ve got to put up with most of the city being shut down while they have the Great City Race ! between 18:30 and 20:30 it’s going to be chaos in the City of London.Temperature’s will be running high, all for a good cause though,thats all right then isn’t it.

While driving through Sth Woodford I was following behind a BSM learner driver car, I noticed he kept looking at the instructer while driving and at one point he went through an amber light and taking into account he was only doing 25 mph, every time he stopped at lights  he kept  edging forward. No wonder why we have such bad drivers on our roads, the instructors can’t instruct properly.

Later on I was at Kings Cross only second in the queue, the cab in front of me decides to pick up in the second position, leaving this guy standing on his tod at the first position, that was until the station marshall, a rare site these days, tells him to move along. He did so reluctantly, got his passenger in the back, chatting away, forgetting about the rest of us who can’t pull away until he moves his arse. I had a feeling he was probably going south of the Thames.

While driving down the Edgware Road towards Marble Arch I had to stop at the lights just before the Marleybone flyover, this guy comes up to me and says are you going to K ings Cross?  I said that I have someone in the back already. He says,  I know. Can you believe his cheek !

I was back outside Abacus last Thursday night,  half a dozen minicabs were parked up outside, there were no taxi marshals, it was only when I drove further up Cornhill that I noticed two vehicles parked on the rank and our two marshals standing there twilding their thumbs, looking fed up.

I asked one of them why they were here and not outside Abacus, he told me that the PCO  ( God almighty ) want them to  stay there. Well, we all know about that rank don’t we? as I understand the City of London Corporation placed this rank here with the PCO’s blessing.

The rank is facing East and is about 50 yards away from Abacus, a total waste of time, I haven’t seen one taxi parked on it apart from tonight.

They told me that they have managed to get three punters into cabs tonight, as opposed to 90 last Thursday night, when they were outside their door.

They also told me that the city police can’t target just the minicabs because it would seem to be bias towards us, so if you want to work the city be aware you might get a pull and free MOT in the future.

From what I’m hearing , for as long as we break the rules and regulations concering ranks and parking, the police will not side with us. That’s going to be difficult because we need a lot more ranks and they have to be put in their correct position in the first place, it’s a bit like catch 22 at the moment.You just know that the PCO,TFL,Met police,city police,Westminster Council and anyone else I’ve left out are saying,If you can’t convince them, confuse them.Well I’m Confused, in their logic. A quote ,Clever people master life; the wise illuminate it and create fresh difficulties.

Just like the song it’s not fair! we’re the ones being made to suffer.

cabbies reported to have been attacked and robbed  at the Iron lung (toilet) in Horseferry Rd last Thursday night. This has happended in the past and it will probably happen in the future, just be on your guard.

That’s all for now folks, be lucky, Steve.