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Showing posts from February, 2012

The joys of driving a “taxi”

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In many countries, taxis are very distinctive, such as Germany where they are all a standard off-white, or the UK where they’re black (or covered in advertising) but generally look like an Austin Marina on steroids. In the Netherlands, there is no colour distinction, so for practical purposes, dark colours are favoured. While most taxis have an illuminated roof sign, “executive taxis” can often only be identified by their blue number plate, a subtlety that escapes many tourists and even locals. There are several obvious reasons why C or E-Class Mercedes Benz station wagons are the “preferred model” for taxi drivers anywhere from Amsterdam to Moscow, the least of which being that you can sit in the thing all day and not look like a question mark when you get out. The same reasons of preference apply if you prefer motoring trips to flying. The space is also handy after one of my quarterly visits to Sainsbury’s in the UK for Fray Bentos pies, Bovril or C

An unsettled soul

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I am an unsettled soul, At peace that I will never fully understand myself, Yet constantly testing just how far my search can go: Not content to just believe what others tell me But always to delve and ask and wonder why. I am an unsettled soul, For as a medium seeks spirits, I seek elusive Truth, And Light, and know there’s always more. Though as I see through the mists of duplicity, spin and lies, The liars do not thank me, those lied-to even less. I am an unsettled soul, For surely it takes less strength to live in the land of the blind Than in one where the many have been raised not to see: Yet when the lightning strikes or the dam bursts, Those who otherwise eschew me often seek my counsel. So let not my eyes grow dim, nor my hearing dull, Nor my wits feeble, nor my memory vague, Lest in the peace and the silence, I cease to be an unsettled soul!   - AMB