Driving

I've just realised my blog must seem like a constant gripe. Don't get me wrong, I'm having an absolute blast. I just seem to typify the "Grumpy Old Man" who enjoys a good moan. Which brings me to todays blog post:

I've had my licence for just over two weeks now and I've been an incredibly restrained driver up till this morning. Today I used my hooter for the first time, whereas the rest of the population use it about as often as they use the brake pedal!

The traffic was impossible this morning, it took me two hours ten minutes to drive the 20km to work. If it wasn't 40 degrees and 80% humidity outside I could probably have walked it quicker. I'd travelled about 50m in half an hour and this huge black 4x4 with totally blacked out windows forced his way aggressively in front of me from a side street, but because his vehicle is such a behemoth, couldn't turn within a single lane, so was trapped in my path at about a 45 degree angle for about 5 minutes. I lined him up in my sights and let rip on the hooter. While it made absolutely no difference to the traffic situation, it made me feel better. Have I just become one of THEM?

The bus driver who takes the other staff to work from the same hotel left 40 minutes after me and arrived at work 15 minutes before me. He drives like Michael Schumaker and getts a regular hooting at. Perhaps it's me that needs to change.

The main street in Sharjah has been blocked off and dug up and will be closed for 2 years. I have a SatNav which insists on directing me back to this main street that you cannot travel on or cross. It's hopeless. Why don't SatNav's allow you to program in streets to avoid? The roads / diversions change here on a daily basis with diversions and new construction changing continuously. SatNav mapping can at best give you a rough idea of the direction you should be heading.

Worlds largest construction site

It is often said that Dubai is the worlds largest construction site and that a quarter of the worlds tower cranes are here. Even if it's not true, I could easily believe it. The amount of construction work is truly mind boggling. Quite who is going to live in these buildings when they are all finished intrigues me.

At the moment there are hundreds of thousands of Expats working here to do all this construction work (myself included) and we need place to stay, but who's going to live in all these properties when the construction industry slows down.

Burj Dubai (under const.) currently the worlds tallest building.








We are also in the process of constructing the worlds largest traffic jam. The transport infrastucture around all these tower cities is limited to say the least. Most towers have sufficient basement parking for the occupants, but in my humble opinion, the service roads seem totally inadequate (apologies to any Dubai Transport Planners reading this). An ex-colleague of mine used to tell a story that 'Elisha Otis', the man who invented the safety elevator, was also responsible for inventing the traffic jam, as high density accomodation became a reality.

Jokingly the other day I said to colleagues that I hoped that Dubai wasn't in a seizmic zone or else we could be in for the worlds largest game of toppling domino's. What happens today... we had an earthquake. OK, the epicentre was across the Gulf in Iran about 120 km away, but we cerainly felt the tremors. Fortunately there's been no damage that I've heard of, but it does make one think.