My Little Blue Book

[Lachlan09]

Good advice. Mixing it is just going to cause heartache ! At least I can drown my sorrows !

Hmmmm maybe I should invite them round for a "pork disguised as lamb" party ! - Wuah hah hah hah hah !

Seriously, I realize I’m in their country, their World and I’ve been here with my family 3.5 years. I won’t cause them to raise eyebrows and will show respect etc. What you read above is by and large frustration, mainly as a result of the breathtaking arrogance of the local driving by nationals.

Oman has one of the highest road-death rates in the World and you can see why. Despite organized driving lessons, good roads, safety-designed vehicles and government initiatives to make driving safer etc, the standards of driving and traffic care are deplorable. Unrestrained kids leaning over the front seats while Dad has an infant on his knee while on the mobile phone and driving at 130kms/hr is not untypical, severe tail-gating (1 metre distant or even less !!) at speed (usually in a land-cruiser or such) to push other users out of the way is common, as is changing lanes at will, no lane discipline, no signals, drifting across lanes at curves in the multi-lane highway, shooting red lights, even reversing down slip-roads to get back to the highway – you name it, they do it. Also, many don't wear their seat-belts. In a survey by an Omani university (GUTech) one interviewee said she didn't wear her seat-belt because it wrinkled her clothes !!! Many accidents involve “roll-overs” where vehicles bounce over and over and also vehicle overshoots at speed into ravines etc. Also head-ons and pile-ups. The majority of dead are men 25-50, though many young childen are killed too, usually by flying through the windscreen or being crushed etc (see above). Last month, the police reported 69 road-deaths for the month of December in a total of over 200 serious accidents the same month – not bad for a small country, mostly all locals involved in crashes. Between 2000-2008, 6,000 men, women and children died in traffic accidents and 70,000 were injured, many seriously. They will not solve the terrible accident and fatality rate because of arab arrogance. Even nice quiet guys get in their cars and then it’s like Jekyll and Hyde ! To quote Wikipedia "It (Oman) has the second highest death rate from traffic accidents in the world (surpassed only by Saudi, followed closely by the UAE). "

Oh Lord let me live till I’m old and let me die peacefully of natural causes !!

Time for a MacAllans I think in the comforting surroundings of my favourite chair !