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"It was the night Michael Jackson died,
about 22.30 hours," Paul Burrett (G72) told Call Sign.
"My music radio was rife with breaking news and rumours about the
singers’ death as I set down a passenger in Kingston. I checked my
MDT and saw a trip in the bids for SE50, so I accepted it. The
details said urgent, so I moved swiftly towards the pick-up address
in south east London." Paul continued his story: "When I got there, it turned out to be a film job for a TV programme – Come Dine With Me - where four celebrities gather together, each taking it in turns to cook a meal for the remaining three guests, while those three guest celebs give the host celebrity a points score, according to how they rated the host’s culinary skills. "The winner was the person with the highest score and they went home with a cash prize, which they then donate to a favourite charity of their choice. |
DaC’s Paul Says Come Dine With Me! |
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before I returned to the host’s house and picked up
another celebrity - only to repeat the round the block procedure
again! I’d never seen the programme on TV, so it was quite an
interesting hour and a half’s work," he added with a huge smile! "My final celebrity of the evening for the back of the cab filming bit was actress Laila Morse, who plays Mo in ‘BBC TV ‘s Eastenders, where she plays the mother-in-law of licensed taxi driver Charlie. When the filming was wrapped up and in the can - see, I’m even using film jargon now - I took her home to southeast London." We asked Paul whether he had learned how to cook a nice Xmas lunch so he could invite all the DaC drivers to test it? Sadly he sped off before we got his answer...! ©Call Sign Magazine MM9 |
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My
task after the dinner was to transport the film crew of three and
one celebrity at a time in the back of my cab, around the local
streets while each celebrity talked to the camera, judging the
host’s efforts for the evening and awarding a points scorecard based
on cooking ability and their opinion of the way the evening went.
Each local drive took about 15 minutes, |
Dial-a-Cab 2009 AGM |
Marshalled taxi ranks in run-up to Xmas |
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Hopefully, and subject to no more postal
strikes, all members should have received the Notice of Annual
General Meeting 2009 advising that the meeting will again be
held at The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London EC1 on
Sunday, 7th February 2010 at 11:00hrs. The meeting this year will consider an agenda excluding the election of officers, but including as usual, proposed Rule Changes and Propositions. Any proposed Rule Changes and Propositions must be received at Dial-a-Cab House on or before 09:00hrs on Friday 4th December 2009. Any member putting forward either a Rule Change or Proposition and wanting to give a brief explanation of it in the January Call Sign, may do so by emailing it to the Editor by 15:00 hrs December 11th. The Editor asks that you keep any explanation to a maximum of around 350 / 400 words.
Howard Pears |
The Christmas timetable for marshalled
taxi ranks has been published and drivers are being encouraged to
use these ranks to pick up business during the festive season, one
of the taxi trade’s busiest periods. The London marshalled taxi ranks in Cranbourn Street and Liverpool Street will be in operation to help organise taxi queues and provide assurance to people waiting for a late night taxi. The initiative is a part of the Safer Travel at Night campaign, the partnership between the Mayor of London, Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police Service. John Mason, TfL’s Director of Taxi and Private Hire, told Call Sign: "Late night marshalled taxi ranks continue to prove popular for passengers and London’s taxi drivers have been instrumental over the past few years in making these ranks operate smoothly and efficiently. By working together, we are helping drivers get business and giving Londoners another safe option to get home after a night out." TfL has worked with the local police to set up these ranks over the last few years and they have proved extremely successful, in particular for women travelling alone at night. In addition to the marshals helping to coordinate taxis and passengers, the ranks are also overseen by CCTV. |
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The marshalled rank timings are: |
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Cranbourn Street
Friday 4 Dec – 22:00 to
03:00
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Liverpool Street
Wednesday 2 Dec – 22:00 to 02:00 |
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