Taxi-ing Time

Three times a week, Tom takes a taxi to work as I steal the car and head off to the stables.  This is normally a simple procedure where I call up from the car, book it, and it collects him.  Sometimes the driver might call to clarify our whereabouts, as we really do live in the a@@e end of nowhere.  Yesterday was different.  I called up to be told "there are no taxi's in your area, call back in 30 minutes..."  The fact I was booking it 90 minutes in advance didn't make a difference.  I dutifully called back in 30 minutes...."still no taxi's in your area, call back in 30 minutes."  My request to just send one from a different neighborhood did not compute, so I took a different tack and called another company.  They took the booking right away, no problems, or so I thought.... Just before the booking time of 9:30, Tom checked his cellphone - 11 missed calls, presumably from the taxi driver.  He called him back, confirmed his whereabouts, to be told, "10 minutes away."  After 10 minutes were up, Tom called again, to be told, "5 to 10 minutes away."  A third call resulted in him being told, "5 minutes away."  Ok, so it's nearly 10:00 now and the guy is no nearer than he was 30 minutes ago.  One final call, and Tom was told, "Not a taxi, wrong number."  The security guy called and spoke to the 'taxi driver' in his native tongue, still to be told, "Not a taxi."  It is amazing how in the space of 30 minutes one person can go from being "taxi, 10 minutes" to "not a taxi."  Maybe he switched career that very morning, decided it wasn't for him after all.  Who knows, but suffice to say Tom hopped on a rickshaw and then luckily passed a colleague in his car who took him the rest of the way to the office.  Thankfully Tom's colleague decided that he could be "taxi driver" for just 10 minutes!