Notice To You All

After last week's debacle, I have decided that I can no longer handle doing my weekly and monthly shopping at Carrefour.

It's now just out of hand - nuts!

No trolleys left when I got there in the mid-afternoon. Waited for the yellow-overalled trolley squad to arrive.

I think that anyone in a yellow zoom-bag is of the "special needs" category so I will not make fun of them - although I do believe that allowing them to roam around the carpark with a giant metal train of trolleys is taking things a stretch too far.

And on the subject of special needs - City Centre security staff riding around on the golf-cart at 30kph while families are trying to get to the shops - not funny, not clever, not safe.

You are supposed to be there for safety. I almost killed you with my car the other day. It almost came down to you or the mother and two kids if I had to swerve......and guess who I would have chosen?

Inside Carrefour is now a joke.

You have been here eight years.......time to get it sorted out folks!

Ramadan: Sponsored By Carrefour

I've just come back from Carrefour. Bedlam.
People are acting like the place is going to close down tonight and disappear. Panic buying of the highest order - I even managed to receive an elbow in the face from one individual who is lucky that he is not celebrating his first Iftar through a tube in the Royal Hospital - a high price to pay for a box of strawberry jelly. Yes - he wanted the entire box!

It was quite amusing to have a look at how similar the trolley-loads are.
I have worked out that there are some vital things that need to be purchased:

Vimto - about 50 bottles should do the trick. (They actually have built a 20 foot high Vimto pyramid.)
Foster Clark's Powdered Orange Drink - and you all wonder why your kids are on the ceiling!
Jelly - by the palette. Enough for at least 300 people.
Creme Caramel Desserts
Strawberry Milk
Eggs - thousands of them
Yoghurt - again, enough to fill a small ship should do the trick.

Before leaving for Carrefour, I think the locals either take some form of stimulant or maybe just a five litre drum of coffee.
Whatever it is, it has to have the effect of making one edgy, nervous and then pushy.

One month of chaos. I think, just like Christmas around the world, that the spirit of Ramadan is gone.

Oops, I did it again.....

.....I crashed into the barrier, now what will I do?.......

Oh yes indeed, there has been another collision at the "safety" barrier outside Carrefour - but this time, the amazing forethought of the designers was brought into play as the vehicle in question only hit the first "Warning" barrier, which still happened to be made of heavy grade steel and did just an efficient job of thrashing the cab of the vehicle in question.

The next question I have now is......are these barriers legal? Who puts them up? Is it Carrefour? is it Muscat Municipality Road Section or whatever they are called? Is it really the truck driver's fault for slamming into an unexpected  mini-steel bridge while still technically on the road to Carrefour?

Here's my solution. If you look at the total cost of the barrier, versus say, the 60 rats a month that they pay one of the Kalhat "Boys in Blue", then I reckon a flag waving wee man from the Sub Continent would do a far better job of policing the strip than a silent but potentially deadly red and white steel RSJ through the cab of some poor bastard's truck.

Carrefour Follow Up

Sorry about that folks! - was away for some nice R2I, I mean, R&R.....yes, that's it - for the past few weeks.

Ah, but no sooner did I get back to beautiful Muscat that I had occasion to drive up the ramp to Carrefour once again. This time, behind a Toyota flat-bed lorry with about 300 four-metre lengths of black, plastic piping. 

The scene unfolded with my sub-continent friend ripping across two lanes of the His Majesty's Highway, with the customary tap on the brakes just as he pulls in front of me - to add to the infringement, and also to my stress.

I flick my high-beams to warn him about the "you're gonna have a bad day" limitation device, and with seconds to spare, he cops it and slows down - his sidekick sticking his noggin out the window to gauge the space. They made it by what I imagine to be about 5mm, but from my distance it looked an imperceivable amount.

A quick flash of the hazard lights and a wave through the mirror and all was well. Jet Driver's good deed for the day had been done. 

However......there is another limitation device at the top of the ramp and logic would dictate that it would be the same size as the other one, and I am assuming that it was this logic that was at work as our main character sped up the tarmac towards Safety Device Number 2, with wild abandon.

He made it through the last barrier with 5mm to spare, so no reason why he shouldn'.....

The plastic pipes hit the top of the barrier at around 60 kph, and the resulting needle-like shrapnel shower would give any scene from "The Matrix" a run for its money. 

Time slowed down. Everything now in very slow motion: my avoiding action, braking and swerving, dodging shards and other chunks of debris, then full chat as the traction control kicked in - almost through, ahhhhh, sidekick is opening his bloody door, more power, blast the horn, brakes on again, quick look in the mirror. Daniel Craig would have been proud. 

"Everything ok, mate?"

"What I tell boss?" was all he kept saying as I drove away.

The Steepest of Learning Curves

Just a quick post...

I have just driven out of the airport and along the highway to see that the red and white striped, high visibility, reinforced steel height limitation barrier that they put up at the flyover entrance at Carrefour, now has a truck embedded underneath it - both vehicle and barrier are thrashed. 

This is the third one that has been put up! When will they ever learn!