Sensitive Souls

7 days has a story about an Austrailian guy who just last week was deported for giving someone the middle finger in a traffic situation.

I know this one is an obvious choice for she who has well documented road rage issues - but I couldn't resist! Deportation? Seriously , this man has come to the country to work as a nurse - is on the way home from a 13 hour shift and has to encounter a boy racer with an attitude problem. There was a time where I would have said " there isnt a jury in the world who would convict you ! " AAh but I forget where I am , and need to realise that things are not so black and white!

I'm all for respecting the laws of a country etc etc, but isn't this one going a little too far ? 24 days in jail and deportation- for a raised middle finger. What exactly is it about the ego of those who feel the need to report a hand gesture to the police? Get over it - be offended by all means - but why involve the law - are you THAT bitter ? Stop driving like an a-hole and you might not get flipped so often !

I understand that the other driver must have had rage issues of his own - what with following the nurse around a roundabout 8 times, driving up his rear and so on, but if he was in that much of a rush , how come he had the time to stalk someone all the way home?

I would love to see attrocious driving being targeted with the same venom as the " meany hand gestures!"
I can't imagine how poop scared this guy was as he was followed home by this maniac , knowing that he probably was in big trouble , despite the fact that HE wasn't the one endangering lives. I am so delighted that my drive to work is approximately 3 minutes long and if I so wish I don't have to go near a main road for weeks on end! I frequently wonder if I would have made it through another month of commuting here without finally losing the rag and doing something stupid!

The logic of this escapes me : driver proceeds like a maniac , weaving dangerously between cars , causing a near accident , other driver raises his middle finger - Who should take offence? Well , I must be out of touch with reality because last time I checked - I could brush off a rude gesture , but a broken collar bone, couple of cracked ribs and a wrecked car ( at best ) were not the kind of thing I could dust myself off from so easily!

What is this place coming to? And to the victim , Darren O'Mullane, take your hard working rear end back to Austrailia - this country doesn't deserve you or people like you !

Eye Opener to the kindness of strangers

We all know how easy it is to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life , particularly here in Dubai . We rush around, trying to sort out our own problems and its generally a "me, me , me " existence. Well yesterday, one of the guys who works in our admin came to me and told me I had a puncture just as I was preparing to leave and start my weekend .

The next 5 ( count 'em , 5 ) hours were a nice lesson in patience and empathy for me ! It seems that the spare wheel on my car is more than just a little complicated to access. Changing the tyre on the car is the kind of thing I don't practise - and I will put my hands up and admit it - I simply don't want to / cant do it !After one hour where my boss and several of or security staff and cleaners had their heads stuck under the rear of my car , I finally called 24 hour assistance - and they headed home - genuinely deflated ( pardon the pun ) that they couldn't fix my problem !

And so I sat , in my school's car park - for about 2 hours , watching the comings and goings of the neighbourhood. In that time , I was brought countless cups of coffee by our stellar security guard with whom I have never had much more than a passing "hello" relationship. Turns out that this guy , who hails from Madras in India , has a B.A. in English Literature, a penchant for country and western music , and gets up in the morning at 3.30 ( yes, you read that correctly ) to prepare for his 12 hour working day.His is such a wasted mind in this country , and it has everything to do with his passport! He was telling me that of his 1000 dh pay cheque , 700 dh wings its way home to support his parents, wife and to pay for his sisters M.A. This is the same guy I whinge to when I arrive after my battle with traffic each morning . I get up at 5 and am at work by 6.15. He gets up at 3.30 and is at work by 6.15 thanks to a bus that wanders everywhere. This intelligent and grateful man lives in a room with 8 other men and has taken to sending all his valuable possessions back to India after he got tired of them being pilfered in his own accommodation . Incidentally, I have never once heard him complain - on the contrary , his disposition is positively cheery !

At long last , to the back drop of the iftar call to prayer , my knights in shining armour came and speedily sorted out my spare wheel . I happily set off , thinking my "hardship" was over. I drove for long enough to get onto the main highway , when I smelled burning rubber - yes, my spare tyre has burst . Discovering I had no call credit and very little battery on my phone- I decided to stay put and hope for another knight in shining armour. I didn't have to wait long - two young local guys skidded to a halt and reversed back up the highway ( I couldn't bare to watch ). They immediately set about jacking up my car again and tried to remove the spare wheel - making their dish dasha's filthy - before I finally got it across to them that I needed to get to a tyre shop. I made the necessary calls and they went on their merry way .

Next helpful passer by was a South African man , who was gung ho and ready to work - pulling up his sleeves as he hopped out of the jeep - I again explained the situation and he too went on his way.

By the time the recovery vehicle arrive ( take 2 ) I was jetted off to a repair shop in Rashidya , where I opted to have a new tyre. The tyre shop was small, grotty and had no AC , the Pakistani repair guys were so helpful and efficient.The recovery guy kindly drove around the area trying to find a bank machine that didn't reject at least one of my cards ( a big thank you to citibank for not telling me they had cancelled my account due to the security breach ! ) Finally , 5 hours later , I was on my way home , got lost twice , was harassed in the lifts by an over zealous Egyptian and fell in the door where I found a clean apartment and a cooked dinner waiting for me .

I really need to stop whinging ... life could be a lot worse and when I put my head down on the pillow last night , I felt more than just a little embarrassed about my excessive whining about petty things that bug me here.

My own personal road rage

I thought about putting a title picture on this post. The only on that comes to mind is a picture of a white ( through rage ) knuckled hand gripping the steering wheel of a car !
The thing is , I have had almost 24 hours in which to calm down about these events - however I can feel the pure unadulterated rage is still very accessible to me , even at this point .
Allow me to share the scene , its the first morning of Ramadan , most offices don't begin until 9 - my place of work will open its doors at 8 . I approach this with a naive and gormless optimism - I mean surely this means I will spend less time in traffic - right? If I give myself enough time to pull out of my parking space ( has been known to take up to 20 minutes - thank you very much courteous fellow motorists ), and then one I get onto Emirates road , it should be plane sailing !

HA! How frigging stupid of me to let my imagination place me on Emirates road without a hitch . Didn't my addled brain realise that I would have the automatic brigade driving so far up each others arses , that even my most aggressive driving skills would mean that my pushing onto a slip road would take well over half an hour ( I am , at this point , still walking distance from my lovely , lovely home in Sharjah), but this , I can recover from . The following , however , took its toll on my mental health that morning !

IF , on the 1st of September , YOU found yourself blocked on the hard shoulder by an Irish woman in a battered old sports car , yes, it was me . I was the one with steam coming out my ears - who sat , 500 metres from the entrance to Emirates road for over an hour , while YOU in your generic landcruiser and or newer flashy f&*king sports car sat behind me flashing the lights and sitting on your horn for 5 minutes at a time. These idiots fly up the hard shoulder ( lets not even bother to address the issue of those special little people who wait until they are AT the exit to join the queue ) and make the rest of us sit for hours at a time.
So, note for this coming morning
1) I don't care if you are a top exec in some oh so important job - you clearly should never have been given a licence and I'll be damned if I'm going to let you through this morning .
2) Kindly note , that due to the fact that it is Ramadan , I will not be smoking my way through traffic today - however , I will still be stuck in my car - IE : don't piss me off
3) Please be aware , that two toots of your horn , and I will get out of my f^&king car and verbally harass you at your drivers window, and I WILL be questioning why the hell you feel you have more of a right to get to work than me, and why it is you feel it should only take you 10 minutes to do so !

And finally , please note , that I am all to0 aware that while you sit , a good head and shoulders in height higher than me in your ridiculously huge jeep , you don't have a bloody leg to stand on , nor do you have the balls to do anything more than throw me an ice cold stare as I block you from making a fast get away down the hard shoulder while the rest of us idiots queue like morons because we were under the impression that the rules of the road apply .

This coming morning , if the situation calls for it , I will be lighting cigarettes and tossing them into car windows to express my annoyance . Don't give me the " I'm fasting excuse " - this will all be at 6am - you wont be hungry by then and this morning - I am taking no prisoners.

Who says Dubai doesn't make you racist? I will play a little game with it this morning. When I find somebody trying to bum rape my car on the approach to said exit on emirates road , I will close my eyes , and predict with 95% accuracy the ethnicity , gender and age group of the offender - no cheating - I swear . And just watch , I will be correct in my estimations. I don't care if you started driving when you were 10 years old in your home country and have some bad habits .. this morning , I will be calling the police on your sorry ass - and I actually don't mind getting in a fender bender with you in the name of road safety and fairness. I MAY drive a sports convertible , but I was still in high school when my car was in its hay day - I'm not beyond getting a few bumps and grazes to prove my point - I ain't THAT precious about it !

GAME ON!!

To Wii or not to wii....?

I woke up this morning and once again was faced with a grey/white sky that looked like it belonged to a gloomy morning in December in Northern Europe. The only difference being that humidity has shot up once again , as have the temperatures. Now, we all know what summer in the Emirates is like (and for those who don't - the answer is 'uncomfortable'). But what are some of the consequences of living in such a harsh climate - for a least a good part of the year.

I know its a global problem - but one that is sinking its teeth nicely into the emirates is the problem of obesity , particularly diabetes! The unbearable weather , coupled with not very many footpaths for pedestrians- UAE is not exactly condusive to healthy living. Yes, yes, before you say it , there are no shortness of personal trainers and fitness centres here, but if you DONT fancy giving your hard earned cash to Fitness First and its ilk in order to achieve what should be perfectly attainable without their help - you're between a rock and a hard place in Dubai!Furthermore, as a resident of the lovely Sharjah , I would rather come home from work and be able to catch an hour of non-working activity before heading to bed. A detour to the gym is sure to lead to hours of traffic and delays on top of what is an already hellish commute.

For fear of this turning into a 'reasons why I shouldn't exercise" post, allow me to make my point!The only way I have ever been able to exercise , has been through a brisk long walk - which, contrary to popular belief - its brilliant aerobic exercise. Its also 'do-able' just about anywhere. Anywhere , that is , except most parts of Sharjah , where you will take your life into your hands and risk being run off the road by those lovely trucks with the dangly jingly decorations hanging from the back! Heat , of course is also something that is a strong deterrent for me to get out onto the roads . Also, being in Sharjah, I have noticed that I am distinctly uncomfortable walking as a woman on my own. Am not appreciating the stares of some who cant keep their eyes in their heads. The obvious answer to this would be to throw on an abaya , but seeing as heat is a detterent for me , well thats not going to improve my personal situation now is it !

Enter the Wii. As a teacher by profession , anybody who knows me , knows that I am anti - computer games, and I'm basing that souly on having met ten year olds who cannot conduct a normal conversation due to hours of sitting slack jawed in front of a screen perfecting their thumb dexterity and becoming shockingly desensitised to violence. However, I feel nintendo have somewhat redeemed themselves with the wii. Anything that makes you get off your rear and start to move is a good thing in my book , add to that the fact that if you miss a day - you are asked what happened! Well its working for me!

It has , in the past, come under harsh criticism in recent times in the UK because it allegedly called a young girl "fat". I dont think any parent with a brain should be putting their kids on the wii BMI monitor - it IS fairly honest - and perhaps , as described, inaccurate for developing kids.

But in my book, the wii remains untarnished - anything that gets you moving, and is fun and interactive is a keeper!

Lets face it , if healthy living and an active lifestyle is the norm in your household - then why on earth would you even need to test your BMI on a computer game - let alone allow your children to do it?