european holiday....over

  A long flight home, consisting of two hops.   The first leg was the longest, about twelve hours.  By the time we alighted from that plane in Singapore, we all had very sore bottoms, and stiff legs and joints.  We had a very short stopover, less than two hours, and then back onto another plane for the leg home.  We are very impressed with Singapore airlines, except for the hot chilli dish that TRO selected for one of the meals.

 

 

Mark was waiting for us when we came through customs, having food to declare took a whole five minutes longer, there were no concerns with chocolate, wine, pesto and stroopwafels.  Having watched "Border Control" more than once, we were very careful filling in our passenger declaration cards.

 

Aysha's family were very happy to see her home again, and after dropping Mark and her off, we were very happy to hit our home, with its sweet smell of the good old Aussie bush as we got out of the car.

 

Our poor garden is looking a little worse for the heat, despite being watered regularly by our house sitter.  The roses were due for their summer prune, so I have worked hard the last two days doing just that.    There are a couple of green waste loads to go to tip, with all the bark that the trees have dropped, and the garden clippings.

 

I thought I would show you a few of the London Cabs, traditionally of course they are black.   On our first journey in a cab, Aysha and I jumped in the back where there were only two seats, telling TRO to get in the front.  When he tried to do exactly that, he discovered that there was actually no seat in the front at all, so had to get in the back with us, and sit on a small fold down seat.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackney_carriage

 

 

 

Right up till the late 1950s vehicles licensed as London taxis were required to be provided with an open-access luggage platform in place of the front passenger seat found on other passenger cars (including taxis licensed for use in other British Cities.

 

When I decided to photograph the cabs, the first opportunity that presented itself was this one carrying a huge advertisement for UGG.

 

 

 



 

 

And the traditional Black one...

There are over 20,000 black cabs in London and they  are the most efficient taxi service in the world with every driver required to undergo serious training and test to master the London roads.

London taxi drivers go through stringent training to obtain their licence, they need to pass “The Knowledge”, a test which is amongst the hardest to pass in the world, it has been described as like having an atlas of London implanted into your brain. No two days are ever the same for London cabbies, they just never know who is going to be climbing into the back of their cabs.

 Taxi drivers meet people from all walks of life, the rich and famous, arguing couples and tourists who always have a question or two that they would like answering. Add this factor to the amount you can earn as a London taxi driver and it is a career many feel is well worth the effort.

An effort that requires you to memorise every possible route through the city as well as memorising landmarks and points of interest, museums, parks, police stations, churches, theatres and schools and not just the famous landmarks like Buckingham Palace and Nelsons Column. The hardest of all taxi driver tests in the world is how many have described “The London Knowledge” a reputation which very few would argue with.

It takes the average person between 2 and 4 years to learn the knowledge, a lot however depends on how much time and effort they are willing to dedicate in learning it.

 

This is the one that took us to Liverpool St Station, the driver was very friendly and chatty.

 

 

 

We look forward to visiting London again, and using the cabs.