# Back in the Saddle - Ch. 01 - observations, experiences & musings



## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

Well, I just got into town about an hour ago
Took a look around, see which way the wind blow
Where the little girls in their Hollywood bungalows
Are you a lucky little lady in the City of Light​
A week ago, after a wonderful hiatus of nearly six weeks in the wonder and wilds of the two largest of the 23 countries of Nth America, I reunited with the beautiful, rich productive soils, the smells and familiarity of the Adelaide plains and vales. Travel can be wonderful sustenance for the mind and senses, but home is home whether a birth home or adopted.










As a driver, the intimacy and comfortableness of your own city's streets truly is a joy, as you slip effortlessly into the routine and flow of the natural movement of your own traffic, which becomes so painless, it is like your own blood flowing through your veins. You don't even need to think about it. It is your birthright.

Here it is. It is yours, your very own city. You own it.

During your Über 'apprenticeship' you have been challenged. You have experienced the highs and lows of countless trips. A broad skill-set is required to be attained and you are one of the few who has come through, proudly to claim your stake as a driver in your wonderful city. This learning and experience should never be diminished. You are driver, navigator, confidante, adviser, tourist guide, and many other things to your riders. Sometimes, riders desire ever more. They expect so much of you, and you constantly deliver - beyond expectations, under budget and in a timely and safe manner.

At times, the pax may be involved in 'phone, conversation, private thoughts or whatever, but you and I are many animals in the one skin. Ready and willing, able and happy to engage whenever and however the pax may wish.

Navigation and the ability to 'read' the traffic are fundamental and can be learnt, but I am inclined to think there is also a natural ability component involved. And so often, you find yourself in a quite moment with a pax in the car, smirking to yourself at the crazy and ridiculous manoeuvres of some of the less skilled of the motoring set around you.

We may be communicating with and perhaps entertaining the pax, whilst simultaneously reading the traffic - looking two sets of traffic lights ahead - watching the right lane - are there signs of brake lights for an interrupted right hand turn? - what is this bloke on the left likely to do? - and so it goes on. All of these observations and computations are happening whilst you make a joking remark or flattering comment to your very lucky rider.

All of the little idiosyncrasies of your city's signalling, signage and traffic restrictions come flooding back as soon as you enter the realm of being *the driver*. There is comfort from a perhaps short, but now very close association. It is now in fact, intimate.

Daily, you have visited your city's boulevards, terraces and the broad avenues of the inner suburbs and flowed along her bitumen arteries with your overwhelming desire to bring her closer to you, to make her one with you and your pax.

You caress and gently, oh so gently tease her until, like a skilled and hungry but thoughtful lover she opens and welcomes you with enthusiasm and longing and brings you wave after wave of pleasure at seeing the satisfaction and fulfillment you bring her. Your ultimate gratification takes a back seat whilst you concentrate all your energies on her. And her alone.

The pax of course, is totally oblivious to your deep and continuing relationship with your city and will only over time appreciate the efforts you make to learn and update knowledge on the ever changing dynamics of your wonderful city and workplace. This city is your city. It is your office and your backyard.

I have lived in many cities , but I don't ever feel as comfortable and relaxed as I do in the 'City of Light'. I have written about this before, so I won't walk previous trails, but I feel truly at ease and confident here, as one with the car and the pax. And this is, I believe the difference between someone who drives and a driver. One happens to be in control of a vehicle and the other has a simpatico relationship with his surrounds and how to traverse them.

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And so after a time of absence, saddling up last Thursday brought feelings of expectation and excitement together with feelings of a little nervousness. My account had obviously been in a state of limbo and I was keen to fire it up and create some new adventures.

*Ratings - badges / notes*

The whole ratings / comments / badges thing I find is more than a little confusing with the addition of the badges / medals. I really don't understand the objective here. I do understand, the subliminal control exerted via a constant game of a need to excel or at least belong to the 'gang'. I do, at times find myself bitten by this bug. There is a uplifting feeling if someone has taken the time and effort to make comment about you or your efforts to please them.

It is like an intimate kiss and thank you from a loved one. Sensuous and treasured.

Most of us are after all, human and Über skillfully plays upon these emotions.

What I don't understand is the need to now raise this rating system to a third level.
*1. Rate me* - OK one to five. 5 - cool. 1 - bite me. OK, I get it. Move on.
*2. Make a comment* - usually flattering or meaningful . Can be coded and are always useful.
*3. Badges* - WTF?

As this is new, I just cannot help but think it is really badgers. Now, this ends me on a bit of a trek into that fabulous novel - The Wind in the Willows. After Badgers, are we next to be tempted and titillated with Moles, Rats and Toads?

My initial thought with the introduction of the badgers was to 'dumb down' pax, whereby they would not have to bother with actual real text and instead just 'tap a tat'. Judge, jury and executioner at the tap of a button. With six weeks out of the app and a clean (badger) screen last Thursday, I was a little apprehensive as to how this new metric would treat me.

*Awesome music* - forget it. My music, my time, my selection.
*Cool car* - I doubt it.
*Expert Navigation* - very subjective. One person's short cut is another's wasted deviation.
*Neat and Tidy* - lame...
*Top extras* - I wasn't going to cut it. Other than the wonder of me, I offer nothing.

I have never had any issues with the 5 star rating system. I have rarely acknowledged its existence, and I have rarely spoken to pax about it, but at the same time I have never had any problems receiving 5 stars. I genuinely enjoy this gig and I think the attitude shines through. I have a very high 5 star rating to total trips but paradoxically I don't have a very high driver rating. Some driver ratings on the forum here, I could only dream about.

This doesn't worry me, as I tend to call a spade a shovel rather than an articulated digging instrument. This puts some pax offside and they are not reluctant to follow through with a one or two star rating for me. Yes some times I piss people off. C'est la vie.......Just ask your own wife........only kidding.










And so.....first day Back in the Saddle. A cracker! Driving again on the right correct side of the
road and I get a trip from the plains to Aldgate in the Adeliade hills at about 5:30 pm. arghhhh....I will never get a trip back to town. Somewhere around the turnoff to Algate I found myself inadvertantly on the right (incorrect) side of the road. Pax laughed nervously when I explained, but I found a number of issues in the app later - safety, navigation....

Five minutes before set down of that trip another request ......untimately to Nairne....getting closer to Melbourne... And so it went.
By the time the session was over I had earned myself two issues, six 5 stars and five medals badgers.
Getting 5 or 6 5 stars per shift is pretty routine so no biggy there. But no comments 
Seems my theory may be correct and so for the following 5 days, I dumped the idea of of checking for any recognition and just concentrated on the magic of me.

Anyhow, at the end here are the results of the 7 days.










No. 1: - I am saying nothing other than, I thought this was very mature. Europeans are more liberal in their attitudes.
No. 2: - Obviously.
No. 3: - The redacted is not my name. How this got through the censors, I will never know.
No. 4: - Spelling mistake? No. This is from Dianne, who wants me in a 'gee' as her driver. Ongoing story.

The rest can wait.

Gotta laugh. This is the best low paid gig on the planet. 

edit reason: spelling & grammar


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## Jack Malarkey (Jan 11, 2016)

Who is John Galt? said:


> Now, this ends me on a bit of a trek into that fabulous novel - The Wind in the Willows. After Badgers, are we next to be tempted and titillated with Moles, Rats and Toads?


Who is John Galt?, thanks for yet another evocative and magisterial post. I share your delight in 'The Wind in the Willows'.

At ANU in Canberra, there's a student residence named Toad Hall. Wikipedia gives an accurate account of the background of the name as follows:

'The University Council allowed the hall of residence to be named Toad Hall following the recommendation of the first residents of the hall where the setting, with the long line of willow trees between the hall and Sullivans Creek, was evocative of Kenneth Grahame's children's novel, The Wind in the Willows.' (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toad_Hall_(ANU))

I sometimes receive a ping from current residents of Toad Hall. I find, to my distress, they are completely ignorant of the origins of the name of their very accommodation. So I shine light into the dark vale of ignorance.

And they invariably respond, 'The willows are still there'. Given that willows these days are treated as weeds and deracinated and cast aside, that is a truly remarkable achievement: perhaps the willows of Toad Hall have received a stay of execution because of their historical, literary and cultural significance.

I even had some engineering students from Hong Kong tell me that they would purchase a copy of the fabulous novel and read it. That day, I revelled in being an Uber driver more than ever.

Just imagine if Toad ever became an Uber driver.


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## justanotheruberdriver (Sep 30, 2016)

Thank you both for an enjoyable morning coffee read.


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## Jack Malarkey (Jan 11, 2016)

A photo from the early 1970s of what is now officially Toad Hall at ANU:










The photo also illustrates how easy it was to get free parking near the city centre of the Canberra of the early 1970s.

My father was the driver of the Holden just behind the sign. He was between cars and the dealer lent the Holden to him until the replacement car became available.


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