2009/08/25 Victoria
Three daughters
Adventurers
“In winter time I’m a ski teacher,” the taxi driver said.
His name is John, he was born in the UK but he has been in Whistler since 1975.
He said: “I have three daughters, 12, 15 and 17. I take my medicine, that’s how I manage to survive them. Yesterday the oldest said: ‘Dad, I’m going to do some cliff jumping today.’ Whistler is a place for extreme sports. We had a young man in our community who was very skilled at base jumping. We had, I said. Base jumpers don’t get old. Adventurers come to this place, you know.”
The taxi driver didn’t ask me one question. He must have thought: this man is not involved in extreme sports. This man is not an adventurer.
I didn’t take it as an insult.
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15 comments 
No questions
Not asking any questions seems a rather polite behaviour for a taxi driver (assuming he knows where he's going). The same applies to hairdressers of course. Would you have liked - if probed - to possibly surprise him with your best adventures? Personally I also prefer to react to questions rather than telling stories spontaneously.And yet you wrestled with Mieke Dutoit! Not an achievement to forget easily.
Aah, a taxidriver who loves (his) language. The repetition of "we had" was, once again, necessary for me to fully read this text. My mind is deteriorating. I'm not an adventurer and I'm getting old.
Bernard
I thought Arnon would let me win, the gentleman that he is, but I , man, was I wrong. I was completely taken by his burning eagerness to defeat me.Mieke
Would you consider this the hight of your life up until this point?Dens
Would you consider being beaten the hight of your life?If I had won, then maybe. Now I consider it an interesting encounter.
Adventure
Although: "Between 1981 and 2009 there have been at least 133 (8.4.2009) fatalities related to the sport.[11] BASE jumping is one of the world's more dangerous recreational activities, with overall annual fatalities in 2002 estimated at about one fatality per sixty participants.[12]" (Wiki) - being a chamber maid in a hotel or a masseur might still be more adventurous than base jumping or sky diving.Deciding to live like a hermit could likewise be more of an adventure than becoming an F1 race driver.
And wrestling some woman to the floor be more exciting still.
bhe
'hight'
Sorry, but shouldn't this be 'the HEIGHT of your life'? Better still: one of life's highlights?bhe
I'm sorry, ber hesper. Of course I meant what you are saying. I should pay more attention to my language.
Mieke
If you had read his work carefully, especially his letters in 'Omdat ik U begeer' , you would have known he would fight to the bitter end to defeat you, no matter that you're a woman.Mr. Grunberg
Do you regard life itself as an extreme sport?Did you meet the Travis Bickle-type-of-taxidriver who always talks, even to me? Be glad though that this guy has another - fulltime fullfilling - job in wintertime. The other guys who havent got that dreamjob are only riding those taxi's, 20 hours a day, 365 days a year. Always with ego's the size of a Greyhoundbus, always busy letting the passenger's ego shrink to the size of a rabbit so they can hunt them down.
Or wasn't he that type and did you have a very silent ride after you talked about the death of his would-be-son-in-law - who will say? - and was he mumbling to himself while looking in his mirrors, with fear?
Or wasn't he that type and did you have a very silent ride after you talked about the death of his would-be-son-in-law - who will say? - and was he mumbling to himself while looking in his mirrors, with fear?
M. Hordijk
Arnon gave me a copy of that book that evening after the wrestling.I bungee jumped when I was on Vancouver Island, strange experience.
Getting old
Getting old is only in our mind.Age never prevented people from doing things:
http://www.whatwasdone.com/
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