Sikh and ye shall find...

The one thing about trying to save the world and be all green and consciencous about carbon emissions etc, is that if public transport goes off-line then you are screwed.

That's what happened tonight. I finished my shift at 6pm and got to the train station at 6:30pm. However, when I arrived, there was a train at the platform and two others on either side of it. None of them were moving anywhere and in the distance a fourth train had arrived and sat on the outskirts of the station doing nothing.

After waiting for 20 mins in confusion there was an rubbish announcement that said something along the lines of, "Erm, Hi. I'm afraid that the we will not be moving. We will inform you when we have some more information."

Well I waited about 20 minutes more and there was no announcement and still no movement. I phoned the help line and an automated message told me that there was a carriage broken down on the Harbour Bridge however they had put no buses put on as yet and they had no idea when the train problem was going to be sorted out.

After an hour of waiting I decided that I was going to have to take a taxi home. Normally I would have had my bike with me but the bloody thing had a flat this morning so I had taken the train to work. I walked out onto the main road and waited for another 10 minutes for a taxi to go past. Eventually one turned up and stopped for my hail.

It was a Sikh bloke in his 50's and he seemed quite decent. He was Punjabi and once he heard that my dad was Indian his chat became diamond.

The ride took about 15 minutes and in that time he passed on some of the most amazing advice ever. His points were (in no particular order)...

1. Don't ride your bike in Blacktown as it will get stolen from you.

2. Money isn't everything - you can't have anything if you don't have a life?!?!

3. Australia is a great place to live.

4. You don't understand why you Dad behaves the way he does until you are a Dad.

5. Have a son before the age of 35 and he will be strong.

6. Have a child soon just to "try it out".

7. Don't eat in restaurants or hotels as they recycle unused food from your plate.

8. Hotel owners don't eat at their own hotels - they only eat at home.

9. Don't trust anyone's cooking except your wife's.

10. Isla should cook all my meals.

Quality. It was pretty good banter and it killed the time. However, I didn't realise that the meter was spinning round at warp speed and when we eventually got to my street it was touching $40. Crap.

At least I got home. The cabbie had told me that there was 1000 people stranded at Central station and I was glad to pay the fare. My street is right by the station and there were at least 50 people standing waiting for cabs. It looked like he was in for a rich night.