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!

We're Running Out Of Petrol!

Oh....my......Gawwwwwd!

Just had a look at this:

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/09/03/23/10297494.html

More UD's type of thing, but......should I go and fill up the car?

Dubai: Oman has shut its 116,000 barrel per day (bpd) Sohar refinery for unplanned maintenance because of a technical fault at its gasoline-making unit, trade sources said on Sunday.

The 75,200 bpd gasoline-making residual fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) went down sometime last week, which led to the shutdown of the refinery, traders said.

"We don't really know what the problem was," a Middle East-based trader said.

"It should be down for at least another two weeks, maybe longer, although in the best case it comes back online at the end of the month," the trader said.

Refinery officials were not immediately available for comment.

Traders said they expected to see Oman issue an import tender if the refinery does not come back online by the end of the week.

Oman typically imports 95-octane gasoline and even 92-octane gasoline.

Asia's gasoline reforming margin or the premium of a barrel of 92-octane grade fetches over Asian naphtha prices, rose for four-straight sessions last week, closing at $9.76 on Sunday -- the highest since February 24.

Traders were also expecting to see Oman issue a sell tender for at least 200,000 tonnes of straight-run fuel oil, which is the primary feedstock for the Sohar refinery's gasoline cracking unit.

"That fuel oil will likely get picked up for blending and will move either to Fujairah or Singapore, but more likely to go to Fujairah," a fuel oil trader said.

"Bright" Omanis

Was reading through some of the comments on Muscat Confidential (the best blog in Oman by a long shot), when I came across, as usual, an anonymous comment which stated "it is not easy to find bright Omanis......to put it mildly."

The above comment is, to put it equally mildly, bollocks!

There are thousands and thousands of highly capable and extremely bright Omanis in this country and further afield. They are even within the lines of the blogs that we read each day. 

Muscati? Abdullah? Amjad? - anybody want to go and have a face to face debate with any of those chaps?

My colleagues in the sky? Sharp as tacks. No problems there. Would trust each one of them with my life and in fact, on most days that is exactly what I do. 

Air traffic controllers on the ground. 

Muscat Tower - manned completely by Omanis. Hundreds of aircraft movements in a day.

Not an expat in sight. They do a fantastic job. 

The Armed Forces in general - enough said. Great bunch of chaps.

The ROP Coastguard? Did I mention the rescue of the Russian Ambassador's wife? 36 hours non-stop searching in conditions that most other experts gave zero chance of survival or location in. They did it. Everyone got out alive. 

Security guards in City Centre. Most of them speak about four languages. That's a security guard folks! The same bloke in the UK would be a school drop-out or a failed squaddie. 

Difficult to find bright Omanis? - Spare me!

Room Service in Hong Kong

The Jet Driver has to travel a lot. And while I know that there has to be some give and take and understanding and, of course, respect; I thought that you might like to have a read of this conversation which took place at a five-star establishment in Hong Kong:

RS = Room Service ; JD = Jet Driver

RS: Morny. Ruin sorbees.

JD: Sorry, I thought I'd dialed room-service.

RS: Rye...ruin sorbees...morny! Jewish to odour sunteen?

JD: Uhhh, yes. I'd like to order some bacon and eggs please.

RS: Ow July den?

JD: What?

RS: Ow July den? Pry, boy, pooch?

JD: Oh, the eggs! OK. How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled please.

RS: Ow July dee baychem? Crease?

JD: Crisp will be fine, yes.

RS: Hokay. An San tos? 

JD: What?

RS: San tos. July San tos?

JD: Err, I don't think so.

RS: No? Judo one toes?

JD: I feel really bad about this, but I don't know what "judo one toes" means.

RS: Toes! Toes! Why jew don juan toes? Ow bow Engrish moppin we bother?

JD: English Muffin! Got it! You were saying 'Toast'. Fine, yes. An English Muffin will be fine. 

RS: We bother? 

JD: No....just put the bother on the side.

RS: Wad? 

JD: I mean, butter...just put it on the side.

RS: Copy?

JD: Sorry?

RS: Copy....tee....mill?

JD: Yes, coffee please, and that's all.

RS: Won minnie. Ass ruin toofohfai.... strangle ache, crease bayhcem, tossy singlish moppin we bother honey sigh, and copy...rye?

JD: Whatever you say.

RS: Tenjewberrymud

JD: You're welcome.

The Dying Art...

There was a time, many moons ago, when cans were all within reach and cardboard boxes were piled high on shelves because backroom warehouses did not exist. 

A man in a short white or sometimes, light brown overall jacket would walk around sweeping away old dust and replacing it with new - the smell is something I will never forget.

Even then, little old ladies and gentlemen of a sort would stroll around the aisles, stopping here and there, chatting and commenting on prices and how things are not the same as they used to be. 

A tin of custard here, a can of peas there and along comes to the next customer, wheeling their way down the tiles with a hello and a smile and the day goes on like that. 

I can remember it like it was yesterday. 

Today was different. 

"Fifty what? Fifty baisa in case I run off with it? Oh...ok. Here you go!"

"The wheel doesn'.....hey!, I said the wheel doesn't turn!"

There are over one thousand trolleys in Carrefour and about eight of them actually work. 

Some people should not be allowed to use shopping trolleys at all.

Let me give you some examples:

Mr. Indian Construction Worker Trolley Person:

You fill your trolley with chilli, mangoes, six kilos of onions, hair tonic and enough rice for the sixty guys you are shopping for.

Multi-tasking is not your forté. You cannot look sideways at shelves and drive the trolley at the same time. 

Bang! "Sorry sorry" Bang! "Sorry sorry" - all through the aisles.

Mrs. You Are All Beneath Me From Muscat Trolley Person:

Trolley full to capacity. Housemaid driving. Can just see over the pushbar. 

"You are pushing it wrong!" "Get me some of those biscuits there. I know you are four feet six and I can easily reach them myself but what do I pay you sixty rials a month for?"

Then you block half the aisle with the trolley and the other half with your fat arse. 

Indian man bumps into you! Bang! "Sorry sorry".

Mrs. Expat European Three Kids Housemaid Husband Friend From Work Trolley Person:

You can't come to Carrefour without an entourage of at least seven. Make sure that you give your kids at least three cans of Coke each before you leave the house, so that they are in a state of extreme hyperactivity when they get to the shelves. Let the housemaid deal with the fifty cans of powdered milk that have just collapsed after being run through by "Timmy".

Keep chatting with your friend. Don't worry about your husband - he is busy wondering how the housemaid would look naked in front of him.

Mr. Local I Couldn't Be Arsed About You Trolley Person:

You have a trolley - but you can't seem to be able to buy anything except giant bags of marshmallows, creme caramels and strawberry milk. 

You wonder why your kids are all on the ceiling at home. Are they jinns? Who knows?

Drive the trolley anywhere. Phone rings - just leave the trolley. "Ahhhh Ahmed, how are you...." 

Maybe someday I will get onto the subject of cars in City Centre but for now, I am off to get some work done.