In November 2008 I joined Twitter using the handle @londoncabbie, adding @cabbieblog the next year, and for a time both accounts hung around in cyberspace untroubled by my interaction.
Later I started tweeting trivia on an old Nokia handset to the @cabbieblog account, and without the Twitter app, did I realise that you’re supposed to join in with strangers who, with others, are minded to engage in a pointless conversation.
Today that daily trivia has been ‘tweeted’ uninterrupted for well over a decade, but it was not until I had an i-phone that I’ve realised that people actually bother to comment on both my accounts.
The Sun and Guardian newspapers had tried to contact me, as did the BBC World Service, although I still don’t really understand how you can monitor the mass of messages received, and take the time to reply, but there again, I was born half-a-century too early.
Looking at the replies that my ‘followers’ have been minded to bring to my attention, I have discovered a plethora of well-meaning, and not so informative information, regarding the trivia on @cabbieblog and links to blog posts on @londoncabbie.
The favourite that I’ve unearthed takes me to task with my ability to compose acceptable prose in 140 characters:
@cc_said:
poor grammar
then:
funnily enough no
1 last try….
and finally:
Pathetic you still cant get it right, your lucky the cab trade saved you and gave you a job….not the sharpest are you
While this table dancing venue made me an offer it seemed churlish to ignore:
@theredrooms
Thanks for your twitter add,looking forward to your tweets-we offer 100% of ££ customers you bring us pay at the door
My hippocampus was at the centre of a discussion between a professor and someone undertaking a post-doctorate:
@hugospiers, the professor
Why choice to do the Knowledge training? – that is I think because they love the joy of problem solving a massive jigsaw of London. The freedom to operate and roam London they really enjoy. @CabbieBlog & @EvaGriesbauer might have more to add…
@vikbladh replied
Isn’t it hugely time-consuming and costly though? Maybe this isn’t right, but I thought drivers had to just drive around for weeks unpaid to learn the streets.
@hugospiers the prof clarified
its about 2-4 years! Its crazy and hugely expensive to train. It does pay reasonably well at the end and you are your own boss, so it is attractive to many still.
@vikbladh
But you could still have licensing but not necessarily based on the knowledge? I would never challenge that acquiring the knowledge isn’t an impressive feat, but is the benefit for the industry worth the cost for individuals who have to take it? How do people think about this?
Apart from getting my day in the Sun newspaper, these opportunities were missed:
@benchmarkgame
EXCITING NEW C4 GAMESHOW WITH PADDY MCGUINNESS WANTS YOU- CHANCE TO WIN THOUSANDS!
To become a zombie cabbie:
@BBC_casting
New BBCThree series I SURVIVED A #ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE is CASTING NOW. Go to bbc.in/1v63ZNF to apply. PLS RT
Or as a tour guide:
@holidayslondon_UK
Hi guys, I’m putting together a visitors/beginners guide to London taxis, do you have any tips?
While some were more suspicious:
@georgekendle
Wots your blog about?
That link looked a bit dodgy to me…
Others were more gushing with their praise:
@younglondon
Just discovered your blog, its a great read! Added it to my top London blogs
@londoncab777
read your blog your quite an asset sir to the trade in my humble opinion
@john19576
More please, i love this sort of trivia,
@cabmirror
You’re too kind, Gibson Sq! If I were not a cabbie though, I would have no inspiration…
@bho_history
Some people just don’t know a visionary when they see one!
@guidoacasa
@CabbieBlog doesn’t even tweet his own blogposts. Odd, because they’re great.
This driver offered this rather quixotic advice:
@taxidermista
If I was u I wouldn’t be able to resist slipping the odd pile of bollocks in. I trust u hv greater resolve than I…
Apparently, a lyricist follows me:
@vonback
Can you imagine Ray Davis and the kinks singing strand bridge sun rise , it would have fu**ed up a great song
Unsurprisingly, London cabbies did not keep their own counsel on Twitter:
@dc51cab
I was always convinced that “keep your feet off the seats” was Spanish for .. “Put your feet up immediately” … Lol
@seataxi
have you seen the signs in exhibition rd? “give way to pedestrians”. Ridiculous. So are we now driving on the pavement?
@silvercabbie
I apologise mate for my language Iv been a little quite lately it’s just twitter can sometimes ware you down with muppets …
@londoncabby1965
1829 v 1654
So we as a trade have 175 years seniority yet still get treated like ……
@wolfduderick
you can still turn right but you won’t be able to soon cos its going to be a contraflow bus lane which we cabbies can not use.
And to emphasise his point:
@wolfduderick
just to make you even happier no left turn from Hampstead rd in to Euston rd, dont you just love tfl?
@jay_the_taxi
and the best taxi service in the world gets discarded by @sebcoe and his cronies! I hope you get plenty of stick
@mbr644
thank you, you’re a real gent, and theres not many of us left.# be lucky
@danielkemp6
Have they moved Manor House haven’t been there for 38 years?
My favourite from an ex-London cabbie, who claims to be part-owner of a Hebridian Island:
@laird_of_jura
I had that Fred Housego in the front of my cab, once . . .
On 28 June 1830 PC Joseph Grantham became the first British policeman to be killed on duty after intervening in a fight in Somers Town
On 28 June 1994 McDonald’s sued Greenpeace for alleged libel printed on leaflets, this became longest civil case in British legal history
Waterstone’s elegant premises in Piccadilly was the world’s first steel-framed shop built at the time for Simpsons the previous owner
50 Berkeley Square is reported to be the most haunted house in London, the attic room is haunted by a young woman who died there, and a whole range of deaths followed throughout the 19th Century
The Thames is the second oldest geographical name in the country only Kent pre-dates it. Julius Caesar called it Tamesis, no one knows why
Lilian Baylis, the manager of the Old Vic, cooked her meals backstage during the show and the aroma filled the theatre
The Great Eastern Hotel once boasted two Masonic temples, its own railway siding and weekly sea water deliveries for its natural brine baths
Old English skittles, once popular in pubs across the southeast, but now confined to a single alley at the Freemasons’ Arms in Downshire Hill, Hampstead
A taxi rate of a shilling (5p) a mile was established in an Act of 1662 by King Charles II it was not increased until 1950 nearly 300 later
St. Margaret Pattens Church in Rood Lane has a memorial to James Donaldson, a ‘City Garbler’, and a person who specialised in selecting spices
The Japanese term for a business suit is a sebiro, a simple transliteration of Savile Row a street famous for London’s finest tailors
CabbieBlog 