My Age in Hair....

I am 42. Or i think I am. My birth certificate says I was born in 1971 so I must be. Is my real age 42? Is my age mental or physical? And how do I know. My dog is 3 so in human years he's 33, so does that principle work the same way for people? Because in my mind I am still 21 does that mean I am actually half my physical age? So when I'm 60 I will only be 30???? And more importantly does this matter???? I didn't think it did, but my 9 year old daughter just told me whilst playing the wii just dance game that "wake me up before you go go" was a really old song. No it isn't!!!  it is a song from when I was young and that wasn't that long ago was it??? What makes me old??? Is it the tired cynical outlook I seem to have adopted as life goes on, is it the fact I now get stressed and tired when previously I would have taken on the world and won? Or is it the fact that my ears and nose are now sprouting hair quicker than my head does? This I am convinced is the real true test of getting old, the more hair that grows out of my ears the older I am in real terms.So now when I look back on holidays from my youth, the drunken all nighters in the arms of some anonymous woman, the feeling that I could do anything and go anywhere, I won't feel sadness that I don't feel that way now and can't do those things I will feel sadness that those were the days my ears and nose were hairless.
Stay safe and be lucky.....

Back to the Future

Well after a few weeks of dithering and deciding, I finally made the move back to dispatching on nights so I can concentrate on cracking on with the knowledge.
Lots of people have asked me why I have done this, and stepped down from a great position with the firm I work for, and why have I taken a pay cut?????
The reasons for this are very simple really. Why I first started working for GetTaxi, the whole reason was to pay the bills while I concentrated on the knowledge. I started working nights so had time to call over, do map work,plus was able to go out in the morning and crack on with the runs. Those of you that read this regularly will know that I smashed the first three books and was making great progress. Then the Olympics happened and my situation at work changed, for some really strange reason they promoted me, not once but twice!!! and although I loved doing the job ( and again for some strange reason they thought I was good at it) and the money was good, it took all my time and left me no time to get out on Aunt Sally and move the knowledge forward. This wasn't in the plans I had made for my future and I was beginning to get to the point where I had to make a decision, either concentrate on building a corporate future (and to be honest the thought of having a boss and spending my life in an office filled me with dread) or commit myself to doing the KOL. The main reason for me starting the KOL was that I didn't want my income and my future dependent on someone else and I was beginning to be back at that place, so I decided that the time had come to step away from being Mr. Corporate and get back to being a proper committed knowledge boy and eventually get to the point where my income is down to me. Obviously that took a bit of time to put into place and couldn't happen all at once, there was no way that I was going to leave the GetTaxi team in a fix with my decisions, so once replacements had been organised, I was able to go back to where I started.
Now I am happier than I have been in a long time, I am able to spend the time the knowledge needs, and I am already getting back into it as I was previously.
So now I have given a quick history lesson what am I up to now? Well now my days are filled with trips out to different postcodes, trying to pick up different points in each, so that I have a strong foundation ready for the dreaded map test. I know everyone has a different way of doing it, but although my method seems a bit weird and long winded it seems to suit my brain, and as I have been told a million times there is no right or wrong way of doing it, I just have to find my own. Calling over is now becoming a habit again, I try to call a book a day, plus doing the points I have found, and having the time to drive around getting to grips with different areas is definitely proving worthwhile. Having spent all last Tuesday driving round NW1 in the pouring rain, at least I have a better idea of Camden and the fun that is all the one ways.
Anyway it's time for me to dive back into book 4 and finish the last 40 runs, so thanks for reading and hopefully now I have more time to call my own I will be able to keep this blog updated more regularly.
Keep safe out there and be lucky....

The joys of pointing....

Well now that I have finished all the runs, I'm off out pointing. For those that don't know pointing is learning all the points of interest on the roads that I've learnt ( in fact on all roads lol). This brings about many different thoughts and worries. The first is now I understand just how big a task the knowledge actually is and just how daunting it all is. Let me explain, I never thought that it was ever going to be easy, but the other day I decided that I would do some pointing in NW5 because it's near where I work and in my head I was thinking that there isn't that many points in that area. How wrong was I!!!!! I picked up about 50 in about an hour and a half!!!!!.Then when I got in I had to listen to what I had recorded on my dictaphone, write them all up onto flashcards with the entry and exit routes on them, now all I have to do is learn them all. I guess that these are just more of an ever increasing jigsaw of London that I have to learn. I was speaking to a few guys that are out and they have all told me to only do bite size amounts of points otherwise my brain won't cope ( in truth I think maybe learning three or four would fill my tiny brain up lol), so now I am going to visit each postcode once to start with and collect maybe 20/30 points each time, learn them and once I have visited each postcode once go back and learn more. To me this seems to be the way I will learn best. This brings me to the other fear I have, what if I am doing it wrong???? I know everyone has their own way of doing the KOL and each school has it's own way ( all of them seem to think that their way is the only and best way to do it by the way), but I have a fear of spending all this time out on Aunt Sally and it being a waste. I guess time will tell and if I am learning points and roads then I must be doing it right.
I must admit that doing the points is so much more interesting that doing the runs, I get to explore and see things that "normal" people will never get to notice, so that makes it more enjoyable.
I have managed to get into a routine now that I have cut back on work, getting up a bit earlier in the morning to call the blue books and also dong an hour of calling over when I get in of an evening. I only call 20 runs each time, again it's the bite size principle and considering I will be calling these runs for the next two or three years then smaller and sticking in my brain is definitely the way to go.
There isn't much humour in this post but the cruel part of me saw something that had me in fits of giggles last Thursday, someone coming out of their very posh house somehow managed to fall down the steps at the front and was lying there spread eagle  with the briefcase open and papers flying everywhere. Possibly not funny but made me chuckle never the less.
Anyway feel free to comment on this and any advice is always welcome.
Till next time.......

Finally finished the Blue books....

So after nearly 14 months when I set out on Aunt Sally for the first time to do Manor House Station to Gibson Square I have finally completed all the runs finishing up at Charing Cross Station. The last book which was the same size as the other three (80 runs) has pretty much taken me 6 months for various reasons, which I will talk about later. According to the information I have got 70% of people who start the knowledge quit, of these 60% quit before they have finished the blue books, which if my maths is any good means that 41 people quit before finishing the runs. To have completed this much of the knowledge gives me a feeling of immense pride, particulaly as those of you who have read previous posting know I tried once before and gave up. I am very very aware that I am still just past the start of it now and I still have a long long way to go, however pointing ( for those readers who know nothing about the knowledge pointing is when I go out and find points, which are places of public interest ( just think how many of them there are), and find out where they are and the best ways to get to them) does interest me more than the runs because to all intent and purpose it's just exploring.

So why did book four take me so long? Well there are various reasons for this, I had to take a break while the roads were closed for the Olympics, as there were places I couldn't go so it would have been a waste of time, BUT as anyone who is doing the knowledge knows once you take a break it gets very difficult to get back in the saddle, and it is very easy to forget everything that you have learnt.
Then I went away, although I did do a bit of calling over and I bought myself a postcode jigsaw to do while I was away, this is a jigsaw that has your own chosen postcode in the center and extends to about 2 miles either side of this point. Although it took me about four hours to do (without having a map as reference) it was a really good, but different way of doing some "knowledge stuff".
The last and probably main reason though is that I got caught up with work and I let it take over. As regular readers will know I work for GetTaxi and during the Autumn I was promoted to fleet and customer service manager ( with a little payrise!), which meant I was responsible for everything to do with drivers and everything to do with customers. With all the reorganisation I had to do this took all my time, and I can see how easy it is to put the knowledge on the backburner. However now that both of these departments are running really well, I can stand down, take a step backwards at work, and get my head back into the knowledge. As great as working in my current role has been, my aim is to become part of the best taxi service in the world, and I need to crack on and get my badge. Those of you that are reading this and work with GetTaxi, I will still be invoved with the drivers, but in a lesser role.
I guess the reason I haven't mentioned as to why book four took me so long was the fact that naturally I am a lazy sod! Can't really moan about this one, all I have to do from now on is get myself back to being organised and pull my finger out!!!!

So what have I learnt about myself and the knowledge while doing the runs? The main thing is that with the knowledge there is only one way of doing it - you either do it properly and let it take over your life or you don't bother. Someone said to me that while I was working I should do the knowledge as a hobby, well I can tell anyone who is thinking of doing it that way that it doesn't work. If I dont' call over regulaly ( which I haven't been but am now) then I forget, and if I forget then what was the point in driving the run in the first place???? It is so easy to be side-tracked, to make the knowledge less of a priority than it should be and I can only speak for myself, but I want to be a London taxi driver and to become that I need to concentrate on doing this properly.
Also that there is no right way or wrong way of doing the knowledge, each school seems to have it's own way ( and no I haven't joined one yet), but they all seem to think that their way is the only way, to me the best way of doing the knowledge is the way that I feel comfortable and learn the most, even if it's a wacky as some of the ideas I have had.
I am still in love with the knowledge and every time I ride around London I find something new and fall in love with the city even more. Although I have let my knowledge slide, I am still in the game and am now pushing on to hopefully doing my map test in the summer.
There has never been a truer word spoken than the phrase - You can't fail the knowledge, you can only quit, and I won't do that.
I will try not to leave it so long till I write again but in the meantime take care out there, be safe and be lucky.