Views From A Cab

This book is a collection of the most memorable moments in a Brisbane cab driver's fifteen year long career that began at the time of the Brisbane Expo 88' all the way to and after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001.

Having just arrived in Australia as an asylum seeker, fleeing the East European communist party for his outspoken views, George, a former photographer and landscape artist, arrives in Brisbane, Australia with nothing more than the shirt on his back and the dream to start a new life and find work.

Straight away, he encounters the first major obstacle: the language barrier. Unable to secure a job in his old profession, and desperate to provide for his family, George turns to the highly sought after profession of taxi driving which is in high demand due to the flocks of international visitors arriving for the World Expo 88'.

As the story develops, we get to know George better, and as his English skills improve, he begins to communicate more and more with his passengers who begin to tell him the most outrageous, intimate and secret stories in their lives. On the way, he manages to have a few outrageous incidents of his own with drunk, abusive, and sometimes seductive passengers who try to take advantage of him.

The book is an insight into the lives of the average Brisbane cab drivers and how they deal with the daily pressures of their profession and the risks involved with it.
George is no longer driving a cab and is semi retired. He is my father, and he lives in Brisbane's Southside in Springwood.