Last week I thought of giving up smoking. Not because of my health, but because I wanted to have a valid reason
for feeling like shit.
I was succesful...
in finding a valid reason.
I realized that I am
not meant to succeed
at anything.
Excuse me while I light another cigarette...
And yes... I am the freak in the picture.
12.11.06
Cabbie Comedy
A few days ago, I had to pick up my friend, T, from her house in Mandaluyong so that we could bring her PC tower to a house in Q.C. so that I could (or at least try to) fix it there. The tower was quite heavy and it was raining so we decided to take a cab.
We hailed a cab about a block from her house and told the cabbie to take us to UP Village. After we got in, the cabbie asked us which route we should take. We told him to take the EDSA - East Ave. - Heart Center route. He nodded and then said... "Paki turo nalang yung daan papuntang EDSA". T and I looked at each other and I'm guessing that in our minds, we were saying the same thing -- "Shit. This is going to be one of those cab rides. May the lord give us enough self-restraint to not bitch-slap this cab driver until he cries out for his mommy".
In case someone out there is reading this and is surprised by our reaction, consider this: EDSA to most Filipinos is what the North Star was or still is to sailors (I figure they use GPS gadgets now but they may still need to use the stars in case these gadgets break down). When people get lost in Metro Manila, the easiest way to become "un-lost" is to get to EDSA because from there you can pretty much get anywhere in a variety of ways. So, for a cab driver to not know where EDSA is, is really irritating because it pretty much means that you have an idiot driving the car and you'll end up having to guide him on every turn he has to make to get to where you need to go the whole time instead of just relaxing, which is the reason why most people take cabs anyway. And it wasn't like we were coming from somewhere in the middle of Malate where he would have to deal with one-way streets, it was BONI Ave. You could actually walk from there and get to EDSA in 10 minutes.
Anyway, T took care of guiding him on how to get to EDSA. While we were on EDSA, we got to sit back and chat because it would be a little while before we would need to tell him to make a right on East Ave. A few meters after we passed Aurora blvd., the driver pulled over and asked to us to just take another cab. I was pissed. I told him that he should have just refused to take us so we could have taken a different cab. I was about to demand that he subtract the extra 30 pesos that we would have to spend if we changed cabs off the fare when T asked him why we need to change cabs.
T: Bakit po ba manong? Eh konti nalang nasa East Ave na tayo.
Cabbie: Lipat nalang po kayo. Kase #$#%#%... #$#%#%#...
ME: Huh?
Cabbie: #$#%#%... #$#%#%#...
ME: Ano ho?
Cabbie: #$#%#%... #$#%#%#...
ME: (Irritated as hell) Lakasan niyo kaya kase hindi ko kayo maintindihan.
Cabbie: #$#%#%... #$#%#%#...
ME: (looking at T) Ano daw? Naiintindihan mo ba?
T: (Shakes her head)
ME: (To the driver) Ano ulet?
Cabbie: #$#%#%... #$#%#%#...
ME: Ano? Lakasan mo nga eh kase hindi kita marinig!!!
Cabbie: Masakit kase paa ko.
ME & T: (Laugh our guts out).