43. The jovial taxi-drivers at a Christmas Eve dinner

Dec 24, 2006. Christmas Eve dinner at a friend's place, Singapore.

Usually, an uneventful dinner for adults. But the hostess had a very long dining table able to seat 20 people. And 3 other smaller tables for the children. The adults were having tea and dessert after dinner.

I just record the event for my later years to remember.

Taxi drivers and chambermaid supervisors have a lot of stories if they know how to tell them.

Starting with the chambermaid supervisor. She was all alone past midnight at the hotel. The Japanese client said "I wish to f..k," she started her story.

"Do you wish to fax?" she clarified as she was worried about being alone at this late hour.

"No, no, no," I wish to 'f..k', the Japanese handed her the note.

She replied, "First 'f..k' is $30.00. 2nd one is $5.00 per 'f..k'."

All could not help laughing.

The taxi-driver told the most jokes. "There was one man who had lost his front teeth, so he could not pronounce properly. One night, he could not find a parking lot and asked the HDB parking warden, "Where do I 'f..k'?"

The lady warden was irritated by his uncouthed language. She told him off, "You can 'f..k' anywhere."

Another one was about the Japanese who asked him to drive her to "Bed OK."

"You want to go to the hotel?" he asked her.

"No, Bed OK." I want to go to bed OK!

This taxi driver would not provide escort services.
We were all puzzzled.

He explained, "She wanted to go to Bedok, a Singapore town."
We felt enlighted. The Japanese pronounced Bedok as "Bed ok".

This taxi driver told another joke, asking for the Indian guest to pardon him if he became offended. The guest was all right.

"You want to tell a racist joke?" I asked him.

The taxi driver said, "This Indian said he was from Australia, but he did not speak like an Australian. So, I said "Good dai mate... as he mimiced the Australian slang.

"We should be proud of our origin," he said. "The Indian said he was born in Bombay. It is no more Bombay. It is Mumbai now..."

My hostess said, "I don't want to be your passenger." Neither would I. The taxi driver did not reply.

Another educational joke he related was when he sent a watch to a 2nd-hand shop buying such things. A passenger had left it in his taxi and he did not know who. The buyer donned his eye lens to examine the watch. The buyer shook his head, "$50.00".

The taxi driver sought another opinion from the watch dealer. It was worth $2,500 when new. "So, don't trust those who 'professionally don on eye lens and use equipment to valuate your goods for sale," he educated us.

"So how much you sold?" I asked him. "$600 at another shop."

As regards watches, the 2nd taxi driver guest looked at my friend's watch.
"A Frank Muller of 10 years old. Quite valuable. Around $6,000. May I offer you $600? I used to buy a distressed-sale watch worth $20,000 at half price. Unfortunately, I needed the money and sold it for a small profit."

I don't know a Frank Muller watch could be so expensive. I would have just thrown it away. Another guest was very knowledgeable about such watches too. He has a Cameron Heur watch or some name. I know of Tag Heur watches due to extensive advertisement. But a Cameron Heur was more valuable as it was the original or something like that.

"Any good stories from you?" I asked the 2nd taxi driver.

"The only one I remembered was this American couple with 3 children alighting at the Roxy Hotel. The whole family left leaving the toddler behind. If I had driven off, the child would be lost...

This Christmas Eve dinner opened my eyes to be more knowledgeable about watches and understood more about the life of taxi drivers --- a self-employed group of over 40 years old. Not easy for them to get employment. Taxi driving gave them freedom and flexibility of time. They are a great bunch usually, I think.