Have you ever been really frustrated and infuriated? A colleague and I had just flown to Sydney for a day last Wednesday and we decided to hire a cab to get to Sydney University for our meeting. We got in and the vehicle itself was fine as we told the driver where we wanted to be.
Nothing odd about that, but the response was odd! "Where's that?", said the driver in somewhat halting English! Well, Neil and I glanced at each other in astonishment as SU is one of Sydney's landmarks and it's very close to the city centre. The traffic was heavy during the morning rush hour and what followed next was frightening. Our driver got out his street directory and proceeded to drive with it balanced on his knee and a finger flipped the pages and as he scanned them. The other hand was on the steering wheel much of the time, except for when he wanted to adjust the GPS.
As we alighted at our destination in one piece I was tempted to make a rude remark like the following: "I know you arrived in Australia last Sunday, but what time last Sunday?" But I stopped in my tracks. He probably wouldn't understand what I was saying and probably wouldn't follow local humour. Thankful to still be alive, we wandered off into the campus.
AS
No comments:
Post a Comment