"Taxi"

Today is a lovely day temperature wise, a balmy 33 degrees.  As it's Friday and the best day for grocery shopping I headed up the road to the bus stop just after 10am.  I didn't mind walking today as it isn't too hot.  Ignoring all the silver taxis I waited about 10 minutes for the bus to arrive then caught it down to Mushrif Mall.

Here in Abu Dhabi the taxis cruise the streets looking for their next fare. Liken it to sharks circling their next meal. Often on a Friday morning they are scarce as they don't work as there are not many people out and about, being Holy Day.  This morning while I waited for the bus I 'hid' behind a tree to stop the constant honking at me.  What happens is as the taxis drive past you, particularly westerners, they toot.  That's a gentle hint they are available and also alerts you to the fact that you might want to hail one, no not one, that particular one!

This can be useful if you are walking to find one but when you are waiting for a bus it becomes really annoying.  Hence the ducking behind the tree.  You also get random people in vehicles honking at you.  There are other gold & white taxis that take several passengers at once and you negotiate the fare.  They are much cheaper but don't have air conditioning and are supposed to be being phased out.  Only locals seem to use them.  They stop at the bus stops and people just seem to know where they are going to.  It is an education on its own to use the taxi system here. 

Then there are the randoms.  These appear to be anyone with a vehicle who wants to make some money by taking passengers.  I've no idea how these work but I presume if you wave one or walk up to one when they stop you can negotiate the price and destination.  There is probably some unwritten code that the Indians & Pakistanis know that we don't.  And I don't think I'm going to make the effort to find out. 

I'm sticking to my silver taxis and making sure they use the meter.  I no longer use my regualar taxi driver who was picking me up from the hotel and taking me to work then meeting me after work.  Mainly because I am lucky to get a ride to work and I just hail any taxi now if I need one to come home.  My taxi driver was lovely but was getting a bit too friendly!  Not sure if he really was but my friends kept warning me to be careful.  He offered to take me to Dubai on his day off and all around Abu Dhabi at his own expense.  He didn't seem so keen when I mentioned I had a 'man friend'.  Now don't get all excited...

How this came about was I'd been to Al Ain and mentioned it to the taxi driver the next morning.  He asked if I had a lady friend who had a car and I replied, "No, I went with my man friend."  Next morning he wasn't there to pick me up.  My 'man friend' had been telling me to be careful and to make sure I didn't tell him I didn't have a husband here.  He laughed when I told him this story.  Was it a case of, "I told you so?"

Of course there is no 'man friend' in the sense you are all thinking but the moral of the story is to wear a wedding ring and have a husband coming.  This isn't a society that is very accepting of un-married woman.  Neither men nor women can understand why you don't have a husband.  Where to start???

So now I'm back home with  my shopping and what a mission to get it from the taxi into the apartment.  That is a whole challenge on it's own, especially trying to keep the lift open to get all the bags in.  I've got smart and now get the taxis to drive me down into the car park and unload there so I don't have to lug everything inside the building while watched by all the workers sitting around outside.  They must think we are so excessive with our purchases and to them we must be.  They earn peanuts for working outside for 12 hours in that heat.  The ones who work in our building are the lucky ones as they have it so much easier than the construction workers.   Would you believe that they've had men outside on the road in over 40 degrees with wire brushes removing tiny spills of concrete from the road?  As the concrete trucks come continually to the sites here it is a never ending job and one wonders at the mentality of whoever has them doing this job.  It is nothing more than slave labour at its worst.

The grocery store was relatively quiet as the only ones shopping at that time are the Westerners and Indians & Pakistanis who have reasonable jobs and incomes.

I've purchased a stockpot so now can cook something like a soup or chicken.  We've been managing with one small frypan.  I likened it to student flat cooking, not that I've had any experience with it but with no oven it was a challenge to keep the mushrooms warm while the tomatoes cooked for breakfast, then the eggs.  For a toaster I've been toasting the bread in the frypan, one slice at a time.  So very resourceful still.

There are plenty of gas stoves for sale second hand at the moment due to the large outflux of teachers home at the end of their contract.  The funny thing is that most advertised haven't been used!  In our two apartment blocks we have gas fittings but no gas so all these teachers (our two buildings have only teachers in them) have purchased brand new ovens with all the trimmings then not been able to use them.  Some have clicked onto the fact that you can use a gas cylinder but most can't be bothered with the hassle of getting it organised.  So I may purchase an electric oven if I decide to buy one.

We had some excitement the other night.  I'm just getting ready for bed when the fire alarm goes off.  Nothing unusual there.  Then it stops which is normal.  Then starts again.  And keeps going, and going, and going!  Then the message says to evacuate the building.  Do not use the lift, take the stairs.  We waited and looked outside.  No-one seemed to be moving and I couldn't smell smoke.  Still it kept ringing and it is sooooo loud!  Eventually I roused my son from the couch and said let's go.  I grabbed a bottle of water, my bag & the keys and off we went.  Down the stairwell which is next to our apartment.  Still I'm wondering where the rest of the apartment dwellers are?  Lo and behold if it isn't dark in the stairwell.  Thankfully there was light coming through from each floor as we passed the door (they have a glass panel) but the lights in the stairwell didn't turn on, even though I hit the switch at each floor.  As we neared the 3rd floor the lights went out completely.  I was wearing a long dress and it was difficult to move quickly down those stairs and incredibly dangerous.  Funny what springs to mind.  It made me think of the Christchurch earthquakes and people trying to get out of buildings in the dark.

We finally reach the ground floor to find the watchman and 2 others.  Yes, 2 others!  The alarm was still ringing and I expected to find hundreds of people and a firetruck.  The watchman went off to check out the apartment where the alarm was and returned to say it was a false alarm.  Obviously they were doing something to set it off but the building wasn't on fire.  One woman went mad about having the alarm going but the other man said what if it was a real fire?  Well the 'debate' raged for about 1/2hr while I watched on in disbelief.  As there's been a few fatal apartment fires here since I've been here I think I'd much rather be inconvenienced than burnt to death! 

It made me conscious of how difficult it would be in a real emergency so (go on laugh...) I've now got my headlight torch hanging by the front door ready to grab next time. 
Once a Brownie, always a Brownie (Be Prepared!).