This morning, whilst in the cab on the way to soccer, the driver yakked away.

He was telling me about his 4d exploits (or rather aspiring exploits) and how he bought a number '7889' and the 2nd price came in as '7888', or something along that line. He said he felt like jumping when he saw the results. I told him that maybe it was a sign that he should stop playing. On his side, he intepretes it as having a close shave with victory and therefore, he should buy more. On my side, I was trying to tell him that maybe God was telling him, "look, you ain't gonna stike the prize, so I'm telling you that even if you come extremely close to winning, you'll still not"

I hope he remembers today whenever he feels the itchy-backside-near-miss-and-want-to-bet-again impulse.

Carrying on, he was telling me how driving a taxi is good and he can earn $2.4k to $2.6k a month. He even urged me to consider driving one next time once I hit 30 (or was it 35?).

I suppose from the way I talked to him, he really felt like I was sussing out the taxi driving market for a potential career. I told him eventually that I had just graduated and was working in a white-collar job. My intention wasn't to gloat(if it even was anything to gloat about in the first place anyway), but rather to see what kinda reaction I would draw from him.

From that instant of reaction from him, I could suss out what his impressions of me were before my telling him.

Interesting. I discovered the stereotypical views of another taxi-driver in his 50's (possibly).

Tip to bargain hunters: chat with the taxi driver more and he'll probably round down your fare to the nearest dollar if it's a few cents above.