Passengers doing coke in the front seat

“A couple of months ago I got a booking at around 5.30am from Buġibba to Sliema to pick up two foreign girls. I could tell that they had been partying all night. One of the girls sat in the front, connected her phone to the car and put up the volume to the highest level possible. She was singing and dancing in the car throughout the whole way.”

“As soon as we got to Sliema, one of the girls opened a small bag of coke and took two lines before stepping out of the car. She couldn’t care less about passersby watching her.”

A post-election encounter

“The Monday after the General Election I got a booking at around 5am to pick up someone from a Local Band Club. This guy comes in the car, he was still celebrating from the night before. I spent the whole trip holding my breath because I could not take the smell of alcohol, especially at that time of the day.”

“He spent the whole way telling me that he was supposed to meet his friend in Valletta for the inauguration at 7am and repeating it over and over again and laughing all the way. When we arrived at the destination he emptied his wallet and gave me all the change that he had.”

And those hospital trips…

“Then there are the trips from the hospital, which are usually booked by the elderly to go for their hospital appointments and they all tell you the same thing; ‘La tkun l’eta tagħna tiġi ħafna l-isptar’ – “when you get to our age you’ll come to the hospital a lot.”

“I’ve also heard about conditions and illnesses that I didn’t even know existed. I must admit these sadden me a bit.”

“But then I also had trips of young couples coming out of the hospital with their newborn babies and these are the kinds of trips that fill me with more positivity throughout the day.”

A lost iPhone returned to the owner

“During the Lost and Found weekend, I got a booking to pick up some guys from Bora Bora Hotel to Preluna Sliema. One of the guys had left his iPhone in my car and I contacted our operations centre to inform them of this. They got hold of the client and agreed to meet at Preluna again to hand over the phone.”

While I was waiting outside the hotel, this girl comes up to me, panicked. She asked me if I was free to take her home because her phone froze and she could not contact anyone or book a cab herself. I explained to her that I’d be happy to take her home if she waited until I hand over the phone.

“On the way home, she was telling all about the hard day she had, she was also taking care of her friend’s cat while she was away, and was also upset because her phone was still new.”

“When we arrived at the destination she took out the money to pay me, but I told her that I got a good tip from the guy for returning his phone, and I wanted to ‘Pay it Forward’ to her. She did indeed have a very hard day, so I wanted to put a bit of a smile on her face especially since it was Saturday evening.”

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