It’s been a while since I’ve written.  It’s been a while since Tipoy has written too.    Anyway, I just wanted to share some very amusing experiences I’ve had with cab drivers.

Experience 1:

One day I was running late for a 9am training so I hurriedly hailed a taxi got in and barked my destination to the driver who seemed to me like a harmless man in his late thirties.  Boy did I underestimate him!  Mr. Suave pala itong si kuya!  He started out by saying, “Ma’am are you from Cebu? What’s your province?”  I thought, he was just being friendly so I said, “No I’m not from Cebu.  I’m from Negros Occidental.  How about you?  What’s your province?”  He said he was from Cebu so I thought he was just making small talk. Small talk indeed.  I was completely caught offguard by his next comment he said.  “Oh I thought you were from Cebu because Cebuanas are really beautiful and ma’am I believe your beauty is Class A.  I think you have a lot of suitors.” And he went on and on about how he felt that I was kind and pleasant to talk to.  I told him of course that I already had a boyfriend but he still kept on asking me details about myself, the place where I lived, where I worked, what my occupation was, etc etc.  And of course my paranoid self took the better of me and I supplied all the wrong information about myself.  Hahaha! I’m good at fabricating naman!  Anyway, what took me by surprise was his most hurried proposal as we were nearing my office building.  He said, “Ma’am we’re nearly there, but let me just say, I was taken by you.  Love at first sight. And before you get off, let me just say, “I lab you.”  Hahaha! Honestly and truly …  I was amazed and l laughed out loud.  If it wasn’t because he looked like a harmless man in his late thirties I would have gotten off that cab.  Needless to say, I looked up to heavens and said, “Thanks for bringing a smile to my face Lord, despite the stress at work you still find ways to shake me and take my mind off it for a while.  Thanks for the laugh!”

Experience 2

Now, I didn’t expect to encounter another flirtatious cab driver as I thought I’ve already heard it all from the first.  But I was in for a surprise as about three days passed with no close driver encounters, then suddenly when I rode the cab on the fourth day, the cab driver told me.  “Ma’am, I love the perfume you’re wearing.  It’s so refreshing.  It’s not overpowering like the perfume of my other passengers.  I’m picky with how my taxi smells like.  I don’t even buy air fresheners because I feel that they’re suffocating.  I don’t like passengers who smoke too.”  I only smiled at his comments.  But he went on to say, “Ma’am can you spray some of your cologne in the backseat?”  Hahaha!  I look up to the heavens once again and said, “Lord, this is simply amazing.  You truly know how to make a lively start to my day.”

Experience 3

Now while we’re at it, I just remembered an incident several months ago with a cab driver who was perhaps in his forties.  I was waiting for a taxi when this cab stopped in front of me with a lady passenger in it.  The lady passenger asked me to climb in the taxi as she was getting off a block after.  Every bone in my body was screaming, “NO!!!!” But somehow, they seemed harmless, and yes, stupid though I might be I climbed in the cab.  The driver was really friendly and they didn’t pull a sham on me.  The girl was really friendly too and she really got off a block after.  The driver told me that all his passengers were like that, they were trying to help him out and always offered to do that for him that way he’ll never run out of passengers.  Well … as for me, I paid a lower rate because I was charged only after the girl got off and I learned one thing, sometimes people are really plain and simple kind.  I looked up to the heavens again and said, “Lord, thank you for teaching me this lesson today.  I’ve been putting my guard on and have failed to realize the goodness in others.  I always feel that they have motives if they seem too kind and they’re people I do not know.

The Lord has given me lots of reminders these past months. There are more important things to life than work! Hahaha! Say that again?  There are more important things to life than work!  Of course!