Thanet to Sandwich via Canterbury

If you have any plans to drive a car to Sandwich from Thanet, Don't bother until after Christmas.

The roadworks between Cliffsend and Sandwich at Richborough power station are officially due to start monday (29/09/08) for 8 weeks, however nobody told the workmen. Work has started, chaos already reigns. Traffic is already queueing from the Lord of the manor roundabout, to get past the temporary lights at the power station. So the alternative is Ebbsfleet lane (between Minster and Cliffsend) except the whole lane was is currently a queue of traffic, also the lane will be closed from the 29th anyway for 8 weeks.

Other alternative is to go down the A253 towards Sarre, turn off for Plucks gutter, head for Wingham, when nearly at Wingham!!!! Turn off for Ash, head for Sandwich.

My advise is get the train.

Do they take us for fuels!

Obviously the price of fuel is a major concern to me, with prices rising by approx a third over the last nine months it is hitting taxi driver hard (where it hurts most, the pocket).

At this point I could start raving about the amount of money which is taken for tax in each litre I buy, but the government didn't rub it in, they froze the planned tax increases. The major fuel suppliers seem to be squeaky clean, after all it has been well documented that the price of crude oil has rocketed. So who can I take my frustration out on?

Well the major forecourt company's have come to my rescue. Much to my joy, the national press have been highlighting the fall in crude oil prices. Having seen how quickly the price increases were added, surely this week would see at least a three pence a litre decrease on the forecourts. Ok my naivety is here for all to see.

Anyway the most cynical marketing ploy is awarded to the garage on the A28 at Birchington. The price here for diesel over the last couple of weeks has been £1 24.9 a litre (and to be fair this is the national average). So with all the hype over falling pump prices, imagine my surprise when on Thursday I see they have increased the price to £1 26.9. Slightly miffed, I drove past and filled up at Whitstable at £1 22.9 (this price has been the same for at least two weeks). Then on Friday the price decrease arrived at Birchington, Yes the much reported three pence decrease to £1 23.9.

Do the fuel giants really believe Joe Bloggs public are that fuelish, that they will not notice their blatant profiteering. With Tesco's trying to recuperate it's losses over the dodgy petrol scandal, there appears very little drive for price competition at the pumps in the south. So I guess my pocketss will be hurting for a while yet.

Only 100 days to go.

A very quiet week on the taxi's. It makes me wonder with Christmas (sorry for mentioning it) being thrust down our throats by the supermarkets already, how much the 'credit crunch', 'recession' or temporary economic blip (depending on your view) will affect us all, leading up to the season of goodwill to all men (including councillors).

Poor economic conditions or not the kids are writing their letters to Santa. The youngest at Taxi drivers abode, says ' you have to send it early, so Santa can save up'. Oh to be that naive again! Mrs Taxi driver is starting to get stressed that this years top toys will already be sold out, surely she has worked out by now that it is now a seasonal tradition that you have to wait until Xmas eve, to see if you can get little Jonny the latest all singing red (must be red) Dalek, that of course 'all his friends will have'.

My guess is many people will struggle this winter with bills, mortgages and the like, but come Christmas the majority of us will have coped ( we are very resilient, us humans) and we will be hoping the New Year brings a change in fortune.

Westcliff Dick

With David Green and ECR doing such a wonderful job cleansing the Eastcliff of the undesirables and miscreant chav element of Ramsgate, a question springs to mind, where have they all gone?

Well I believe I have the answer. Not Australia (unfortunately) or Afghanistan, not even Margate (due to potential turf wars), they have relocated to another part of Ramsgate. Taxi driver has recently observed during his many hundreds of miles a week around Ramsgate, a mass migration of Ramsgates finest citizens upon the unsuspecting residents of the Westcliff! From drunks on the old motor museum terrace to large gangs of feral youths hanging about Government Acre, perverts frequenting the sunken public toilets and selfish dog owners leaving Fido's mess on the clifftop.

So if the Eastcliff has DG and ECR as its champions, who will step into the role of the Westcliff's champion? I may be wrong, but I cannot see anybody currently who has stepped up to the plate, where is Westcliff Dick?

Sad:- Watching the end of the summer weather that never began.

Funny:- Watching 50 smokers fit under 1 umbrella, in the sodden Ramsgate, Cafe Culture bars.

The sweet smell of successful licencing.

That's it I have had enough, all Rugby players leaving Indian restaurants are now banned from my taxi!

I am going to start a campaign to ban smelly and loud flatulence from taxi's. I will start by lobbying the council licencing officer to get the above sign made compulsory. The next step would be for the Council licencing officers to have the power, to issue on the spot fines for all offenders.

As the council licencing officers have already enjoyed much success in applying the smoking ban, I am sure they will relish the opportunity to have their noses up the taxi driver's customers behinds.