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With rumours among
driver’s partners that the age of romance had long been overtaken by
reports on traffic problems at the Limehouse Link or waiting times
at Heathrow, Call Sign decided to put it to the test
and picked several Dial-a-Cab drivers at random to see what
surprises they had in store for their other halves on Valentine’s
Day. Several of those we spoke to said they had nothing planned,
while one bright spark said he’d been married over 40 years and
"...I’m not starting all that business now!" Then there was the
driver who told us he had just split up from his wife the previous
day and yet another who said he’d had ten wonderful years with his
wife "...but the problem is that we’ve been married for over
twenty!" Feeling rather dejected and wondering whether romance had evaporated like the December snow, Call Sign’s hack hit the streets determined to find the answer to the question of whether love was alive and flourishing? We soon met Phil Butcher 
(A98), who when we asked how long he had been married, had to
check the inscription inside his wedding ring for the
date! "Oh yes, 2005," he said fairly convincingly, "so that’s 5 years, although sometimes it feels like 10." he grinned. "But I still love her dearly," he said just in case she reads the mag! "We have no plans for the 14th February for several reasons - my wife, Fran, is expecting our second child in March and we have a 2-year-old son, which makes baby minding a bit difficult too. Anyway, in the past we’ve always ended up with some sort of disaster on the Feast of Romance so we’ll just do our own thing as and when we can. Love is a year round thing, not just for February," he said grinning. Next we spoke to Rob Pearman 
(E28), who was taking Carla, his girlfriend of three
months, for a meal at The Cricketers restaurant in Clavering,
Essex."It’s owned by Jamie Oliver’s parents. Carla knows we’re going out, so that’s not a surprise, but she doesn’t know where I’ve booked." Alfie Harp (T57) also planned to 
take his wife Tracy out to lunch. "We celebrate our silver
wedding anniversary in April, so 25 years means it needs to be
something special," Alfie told Call Sign. "I’ve let
her arrange it and |
Who said romance was dead as Call Sign asks... What happened on Valentine’s Day? |
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we’re going to The Chequers
pub/restaurant near Much Haddam in Essex. Having won awards, it
should be somewhere special for someone very special," he told us,
almost bringing a tear to our typesetter! "She’ll probably guess
that I’m bringing home a bouquet of flowers, but she definitely
won’t be expecting the bottle of her favourite perfume from Jo
Malone!" We found newcomer to DaC, John Gibbings (E01), next. John 
has only been on DaC for 1 month and was planning a surprise lunch
for wife Miranda and their two young sons. "I’m cooking lamb with all the trimmings from a recipe book so that I get it just right. Of course there will be wine and candles on the table - although the youngsters might not get to drink the vino! And courtesy of Dial-a-Cab’s special ticket offers from Tom Whitbread, we’ll also be going to the theatre, so I’m doing it properly - the whole business!" Next into the Call Sign equivalent of a court of law’s witness box stepped Michael Kennedy (M30). His plan was to 
buy wife Liz a book - " but it’s one that she really wanted,"
he told us. "It’s called The Master and is written by Colm
Toibin. It’s about five years in the life of American author Henry
James and will hopefully be a big surprise for her, because I’ve
said absolutely nothing about it." Obviously the practical type,
Michael added that an expensive card was nice, but he preferred to
buy something she would make
use of and keep! Last in our mini-survey was Tony 
Easter (G27) - another new recruit to DaC, his taxi just being
fitted as we spoke to him at Roman Way - and another practical
driver!"We’re going out for dinner on the Monday evening – the day after Valentine’s," he said, "because I’ll be working on the cab on the Sunday and Lynne, the lady in my life these past 18 years, is studying for her degree." Then showing Call Sign his logic, he explained that you rarely needed to book a table on Mondays! The romance showed through when he told us that he had let Lynne choose wherever |
she would like to go – provided it
was around the Bexley area!"Mexican, Greek or Italian – I’m easy,"
he said! So give or take a bit, it does appear that romance is still in abundance with DaC’s finest - even in these straitened times. Cupid obviously still has some arrows in his quiver...! İCall Sign Magazine MMX |
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ALBERT BRIDGE CLOSED FOR 18 MONTHS! While four other crossings only have roadworks!
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London’s most
picturesque bridge, Albert, has now closed to all traffic except
bicycles for 18 months while a support timber structure is built
beneath it, the road surface is renewed and the whole bridge is
repainted. Albert Bridge is not alone with roadworks. Hammersmith has suffered with weekend closures, with Battersea and Waterloo Bridges having daily congestion while maintenance work is undertaken and of course you don’t need Call Sign to tell you about the Blackwall Tunnel. It used to be said that taxi drivers did not want to go south of the river – now it seems to be more of a case that we can’t even get there! A TfL spokesperson told Call Sign that there were only a limited number of Thames crossings and the heavy traffic carried meant that occasional closures were necessary and they did try to coordinate timings with the affected boroughs. The Albert Bridge repairs are estimated to cost around £7million. It was barely three years ago, in April 2007, following a spate of DaC drivers receiving tickets for crossing Albert Bridge in "overweight vehicles" that Call Sign had a meeting with Kensington and Chelsea council officials, finally getting them to change to weight restrictions from 2 tonnes up to 2.5 tonnes – meaning that we could use Albert Bridge. It looks as though once again our Chelsea and Battersea passengers taxi bills are going to shoot up... |
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