Another Hamster Wheel In The Making

Well, I said it before, and it would appear that my words are starting to hold true again.
A few years ago, I wrote a blog about what has now become affectionately known as the Shatti Hamster Wheel. 


A place where there are lots of westerners and not-so-westerners in clothes that do not consist of a black curtain ensemble, is always going to attract the usual sexually-oppressed teen boys, even though they have no financial means of affording the girl sitting there holding the Starbucks Frappolatté!


So the only release from the pressures of a swollen wang for these poor souls was to drive around in a circle passing Jawharat Al Shatti and Sarooj: with a group of six chipping in a rial each to buy petrol for the car. 
Multiply the above scenario by three hundred and you get a kilometre long 'Bombay carbonfibre' road-monster which moves at 20 kph.


Looking at the geography of Muscat, it is not difficult to find out where this monster was spawned: Mawaleh. 


And it does not take a rocket scientist to work out that if it was possible to move the whole Shatti Circus closer to home, then that would save a ton of fuel and wear and tear on the Mustangs, Corollas and Serions. 


They've fantasized about it for years. 
The hopes of a new hamster wheel to go round and round on. A place where girls in bikinis drink cappuchinos under parasols and the roads are wide enough for 'modified rims, nigga!"

And finally, their prayers have been answered.
Ladies and gentlemen.....welcome to The Wave!

You can rationalize or even argue to deny it's existence, but the eye does not lie. There is a hamster wheel in the making down at Costas on a Thursday night...and it is getting bigger....and they've even made the route circular for them!


"Ah but there's security booths at the front entrance of my 250,000 rial villa." 
Be that as it may, but tell me exactly what is a security guard going to do about stopping a car full of young men who are on their way down to Costas to buy a coffee? 
And what about the rumours for the shwarma and other fast-food outlets?


I can see the Indian sales guys at eMax rubbing their little paws together at the thoughts of all those JBL bass cannons that they are going to sell now that the Mawaleh possie don't have to spend so much on gas anymore!
"I love it when ya call me big Poppa".......


That area is PUBLIC ACCESS! They can go wherever they please, and mark my words, in six months time they will be coming in hordes. And they're going to, pardon the pun, drive you nuts...
...assuming you can hear them over the F-16s that are going to be ripping the roof off your villa when the new runway gets built!


"I feel the need! The need......for speed!"


Oh yeeeeeeah!


JD

The Incredible Shrinking Wave Project

Once again, the common regional neglect for the laws of fair play and good practice appear to be at normal levels - this time at Muscat's premier freehold extravaganza, The Wave.

Today, I was speaking to a very nice couple who have recently sold their previous home having been told that their new villa would be ready by December, but have now had their moving in time deferred yet again until sometime in February. 

A pain in the ass for sure, but the delay pales in comparison to what they discovered earlier this week.

The garage on the villa that they bought has shrank - and so has every other garage on their road. 

They now cannot fit their cars inside.

The excuse from the agent, acting on behalf of The Wave, was that when you buy a property off-plan, all of the measurements on the plan are outside measurements and not inside measurements - and that it was the fault of the buyer in this case.

The agent could not, however, explain why there is now an extra villa being constructed at the end of their street!

(Shave a bit off each one, space for a whole new villa left over, multiply that by ten streets and that's a tidy bit of extra revenue methinks.)

How many more buyers could be getting a raw deal out of this? 

Better go and have a look at those plans again, folks.