Electric Dreams
In my family, as a major luddite, I am usually the last to embrace any new technology, and so it was with finally relenting and downloading the Uber taxi app to my phone on a recent trip to Spain.
The first short journey was from a local village to the apartment which we were staying in. Being of a sociable nature, I thought that I would try and engage the taxi driver in some conversation. As is traditional for a British national abroad with limited knowledge of the local language I initiated the conversation in English.
“Are you having a busy day?” I tentatively enquired.
He turned and looked at me quizzically. Not wanting to be defeated by this language barrier I resorted to Google translate on my phone. “¿Estás teniendo un día ocupado?” I tried. He looked at me confused again, my English accent losing something in the translation. I repeated the sentence more slowly with an attempt at a Spanish accent which was more Manuel from Fawlty Towers, hoping this may help with being understood.
Success! “It’s ok, Marbella to Malaga, Malaga to Marbella, now this.” he replied.
I watched forlornly as he then sailed past our street.
“You missed the turning” I noted.
“I know, I talk to you.” He replied irritatedly. Pete successfully breaking down barriers between nations.
The next journey was a longer distance. At the start, the Uber driver enthusiastically handed out sweets and to my delight started playing an 80s Spotify playlist. The first song was “Together in Electric Dreams” by Phil Oakely and Giorgio Moroder from 1984. This initially set about a discussion with my wife about the 80s film soundtrack that it was included in. I decided it was the film Mannequin but on Googling subsequently discovered that I was wrong and that it was indeed the film Electric Dreams. Doh.
I do enjoy an 80s karaoke so I then proceeded to sing along to the music, the accurate lyrics again provided by Google-is-your-friend. The taxi driver must have been enjoying my singing, I thought, as he turned the music up even louder.
Next up was another favourite of mine, Cameo’s “Word Up”. Again, I cheerfully sang along to the music. What could be better? It was sunny, I was on holiday and fantastic 80s music was playing whilst being driven to my destination. Again the volume went up and this time the taxi driver accelerated even faster down the highway. Hmm, the taxi driver may not be appreciating my singing as much as I thought.
“Hey,” I said to my wife “it looks like if you sing, you get to your destination faster”.
“Yes,” she replied “or alternatively you get dumped on the hard shoulder.”