MY FIRST UBER

               UBER  more than in German.
 Sunday was the boys birthday celebration,drinks including rum,my favorite,finger food,black pudding ,jerky,and houmeli,you could not say it was standard fare.
Sam trialed his new charcoal barbecue.with rosemary flavoured sausages.With a chocolate cake to finish.
When it was time to exit my standard proceedure was to walk 50 meters to the bus stop and opal my way 5 kilometers home.But this time it was different,David had ordered a Uber.
My thought were I had lost control,but in David's mind he may have thought he was protecting an ancient individual.
I was not allowed to sit in the front seat with the masked driver,but directed to the back seat.This was dissappointing as in my youth as a student, I learnt the taxi trade driving a Green Cab for Dick Smith.
It those days your companion was the taxi meter

This meter had to be understood,there were four settings of the control arm, 12 o'clock  waiting for a fare,3 o"clock engaged and showing 2 shillings and six pence flagfall,6 o'clock where the meter would tick over at 1shilling and 3 pence per mile travelled.and 9 o'clock where you had completed your journey and were waiting to be paid.
It was only in frank and open discussions that you learnt as the old drivers said(you are in control of the meter) that the meter could be moved from 9 O'clock back to 6 o'clock where the owner's take would be superseeded by the drivers take.Especially on wet days when business was brisk.
There was always discussion between passangers and drivers in egalitarian Sydney,in fact taxi drivers were regarded as the barometers of Sydney business,they knew when the money was flowing.
But not this time,no conversation,no meter,only a mobile phone showing a plotted route.A bit sterile really.Those that know  no history would be unaware.
(c) copyright Tim Williams