Have You Ever Seen The Rain?

Taxi driving is a sedentary profession. That's a fancy way of saying that you sit on your arse almost all of the time. I'll be sharing a seat with my butt for 98% of my shift. I will exit the cab to help a disabled passenger or a person with a lot of shopping. I will leave the cab to buy something to sustain me through the night. Like chocolate. Too much chocolate, in fact. As my waistline will confirm. I'll leave for a call of nature. Either to a pub/hotel or a welcoming quiet spot behind a bush. Other than those reasons stated above, I will rarely leave the cab. Perhaps on a quiet night, on the rank, to chat with other drivers. The job is not physically demanding, but it IS mentally tiring. Especially in winter time, when visibility is poor, due to lack of light or heavy rain. The rain and Subsequent poor visibility requires you to concentrate more and therefore you get tired earlier. And in Scotland, it rains. A lot. I think it would be wonderful to drive a cab in Southern California or some such sun-drenched land. I'm often asked if I like the bad weather better because it leads to more hires. Actually, sometimes it leads to more work and other times it doesn't. Allow me to explain. If it's a traditionally quiet night, like a Monday or Tuesday for instance, and people are at home, mulling over the notion of going out for the evening, and they look out the window. It's raining, and they think, 'This is a night for the house'. On a Friday or Saturday, most folk want to go out because they've been working all week, and maybe have something booked. So they'll go out regardless of the weather. That's when we can have a busy night. Also when the rain comes out of the blue. That helps. If I'm having a quiet night, I get out and do a rain dance. That presents a pretty picture, doesn't it? Me dancing around chanting, with a head full of feathers. I suppose it makes a change from having a head full of broken bottles! In any case, we need never worry, for very long, about a lack of water in our beautiful country. No hose pipe ban is ever on the horizon. Which is why Glasgow is known as the 'dear green place'. The rain makes for greenness among the flora. It's the same with Ireland. Known as the Emerald Isle. It's so green due to the rainfall. This year, the year of the commonwealth games in Glasgow, we were extremely lucky to have great weather for the vast majority of the 11 days the games were staged. Many visitors from all over the world came to our dear green city, and hopefully left with a good impression of Glaswegians and our old city. Even the weather was good, as I said before. Hopefully, they'll come back in their drives and tell their skeptical friends. "Hey, see that Glasgow? I was there and the weather was grand!"  We fooled them, folks. We fooled 'em all.