Driving lesson #101
OMG! I’ve just had the most unusual driving lesson ever - and I’ve had plenty of them over the years.
It all began back at the teenager’s school when I picked him up an hour late today as I’d had a meeting. As the carpark was empty I suggested a driving lesson but then changed my mind and said wait till we get home to Reem Island as there’s less traffic.
Let me start at the beginning. Last week I made the momentous decision to buy a car. Which was a drama in itself. To cut a long story short, I’d purchased a Chevrolet Malibu with high end specs (you know what I mean - leather seats, sun roof, keyless start, automatic this, that and the other thing). I must say it’s lovely to drive and I love the new leather smell each morning. Plus the rear camera is a godsend for parking here.
So I duly drive home and once we’re on the island the teenager is hounding me to stop. Eventually I pull over on a little used road and let him take the wheel. Now he’s driven plenty at home in NZ but hasn’t since we’ve been here. So off he goes. We’re on the other side of the island that I can see from our window. As I’d spied someone having lessons there at the weekend it seemed like a good starting point.
So he’s driving down these roads and there is a lot of construction happening so the road is quite full of debris, stones, bits of cloth on the manholes and other such obstacles. Having no idea where the road goes I just keep on saying go straight.
I’m enjoying not driving and admiring the scenery. I look across at the “Sea Palace” and say WOW! That’s impressive. Then I ask the teenager why there are so many cars parked there? As he usually knows everything it seemed like a normal question. Having no idea, he continued driving down the road.
This road is in much better condition and clean without the debris so I say keep going.
Oops! A dead end onto sand so I say do a u-turn which he does. Suddenly two Indian men appear out of nowhere walking alongside the road.
Then even more suddenly an Emirate man appears and begins to cross the road with a determined look on his face. As the teenager doesn’t have a licence to drive here yet I’m getting a bit worried. So the Emirate crosses the road and stops the two men. There is much gesturing and pointing. Fine I think, he just wants directions. But he’s standing in the middle of the road, blocking our way. Then he approaches the car - drivers side. OMG! I’m thinking to myself. What now?
He asks where are we from? NZ or down the road? Which is the correct answer? Any form of officialdom here makes you nervous. The teenager suddenly seems to be mute so I reply that we live on the island and are just looking around.
We are then instructed, yes ‘instructed’ to turn around and go back through the sandy road and construction camp. I protest and say we’ll just go back the way we’ve come but no!
So next thing the two Indian men are jumping into the back seat and directing us along this back road. I’ve got visions of having to ring my roadside rescue to get us out of the sand. (Only in the UAE does this come as standard along with running out of petrol)
My phone starts ringing and it's one of my teachers from work wanting to talk to me about something. I can't concentrate on anything as am watching the driver, listening to the men in the back, listening to the phone, watching the Emirate, yelling directions at the teenager, telling him to make sure he doesn't run over the Emirate while doing a three-point turn, and just generally freaking out.
Remember, this is my brand new car.
Finally we leave the sand track and reach a road of sorts. The road gets considerably worse then very high speed bumps appear on the bumpy tarmac. The teenager is still driving and I’m feeling very nervous so tell the teenager to go to the side of the bump to avoid ripping out the bottom of my car. He does so then the men in the back begin yelling, bus, bus, bus. WTF? A bloody workers bus is just about through my door. Where the hell he came from I don’t know but the teenager never saw him. It was so close to running over us it wasn’t funny. The Indian men wondered what the hell they were doing in this car with us. I was wondering the same thing!
Then the teenagers phone starts ringing - cell phones are such a @#$%&% distraction when you are driving - and he wants me to answer it. No way, focus on your driving. Continuing through two sets of traffic lights we drop off our passengers then continue onto home, all in one piece.
Anyway, the story was that the Sheikh and other royalty were meeting over at the Sea Palace. Now remember this is a building across a stretch of water from where we were driving. However, no-one, and I mean no-one, was allowed to distract them by walking or driving by. And I had asked why all the cars were there? It also explains why this stretch of dead-end road was so clean, just in case they spotted anything moving in the wind or saw some rubbish.
So us arriving, driving by very slowly with blacked out windows, probably caused a bit of unease on the part of the Emirate man whose own 4WD was parked behind a fence now that I think about it.
What a hoot! Lucky we weren’t the next international incident!
OMG! I’ve just had the most unusual driving lesson ever - and I’ve had plenty of them over the years.
It all began back at the teenager’s school when I picked him up an hour late today as I’d had a meeting. As the carpark was empty I suggested a driving lesson but then changed my mind and said wait till we get home to Reem Island as there’s less traffic.
Let me start at the beginning. Last week I made the momentous decision to buy a car. Which was a drama in itself. To cut a long story short, I’d purchased a Chevrolet Malibu with high end specs (you know what I mean - leather seats, sun roof, keyless start, automatic this, that and the other thing). I must say it’s lovely to drive and I love the new leather smell each morning. Plus the rear camera is a godsend for parking here.
So I duly drive home and once we’re on the island the teenager is hounding me to stop. Eventually I pull over on a little used road and let him take the wheel. Now he’s driven plenty at home in NZ but hasn’t since we’ve been here. So off he goes. We’re on the other side of the island that I can see from our window. As I’d spied someone having lessons there at the weekend it seemed like a good starting point.
So he’s driving down these roads and there is a lot of construction happening so the road is quite full of debris, stones, bits of cloth on the manholes and other such obstacles. Having no idea where the road goes I just keep on saying go straight.
I’m enjoying not driving and admiring the scenery. I look across at the “Sea Palace” and say WOW! That’s impressive. Then I ask the teenager why there are so many cars parked there? As he usually knows everything it seemed like a normal question. Having no idea, he continued driving down the road.
This road is in much better condition and clean without the debris so I say keep going.
Oops! A dead end onto sand so I say do a u-turn which he does. Suddenly two Indian men appear out of nowhere walking alongside the road.
Then even more suddenly an Emirate man appears and begins to cross the road with a determined look on his face. As the teenager doesn’t have a licence to drive here yet I’m getting a bit worried. So the Emirate crosses the road and stops the two men. There is much gesturing and pointing. Fine I think, he just wants directions. But he’s standing in the middle of the road, blocking our way. Then he approaches the car - drivers side. OMG! I’m thinking to myself. What now?
He asks where are we from? NZ or down the road? Which is the correct answer? Any form of officialdom here makes you nervous. The teenager suddenly seems to be mute so I reply that we live on the island and are just looking around.
We are then instructed, yes ‘instructed’ to turn around and go back through the sandy road and construction camp. I protest and say we’ll just go back the way we’ve come but no!
So next thing the two Indian men are jumping into the back seat and directing us along this back road. I’ve got visions of having to ring my roadside rescue to get us out of the sand. (Only in the UAE does this come as standard along with running out of petrol)
My phone starts ringing and it's one of my teachers from work wanting to talk to me about something. I can't concentrate on anything as am watching the driver, listening to the men in the back, listening to the phone, watching the Emirate, yelling directions at the teenager, telling him to make sure he doesn't run over the Emirate while doing a three-point turn, and just generally freaking out.
Remember, this is my brand new car.
Finally we leave the sand track and reach a road of sorts. The road gets considerably worse then very high speed bumps appear on the bumpy tarmac. The teenager is still driving and I’m feeling very nervous so tell the teenager to go to the side of the bump to avoid ripping out the bottom of my car. He does so then the men in the back begin yelling, bus, bus, bus. WTF? A bloody workers bus is just about through my door. Where the hell he came from I don’t know but the teenager never saw him. It was so close to running over us it wasn’t funny. The Indian men wondered what the hell they were doing in this car with us. I was wondering the same thing!
Then the teenagers phone starts ringing - cell phones are such a @#$%&% distraction when you are driving - and he wants me to answer it. No way, focus on your driving. Continuing through two sets of traffic lights we drop off our passengers then continue onto home, all in one piece.
Anyway, the story was that the Sheikh and other royalty were meeting over at the Sea Palace. Now remember this is a building across a stretch of water from where we were driving. However, no-one, and I mean no-one, was allowed to distract them by walking or driving by. And I had asked why all the cars were there? It also explains why this stretch of dead-end road was so clean, just in case they spotted anything moving in the wind or saw some rubbish.
So us arriving, driving by very slowly with blacked out windows, probably caused a bit of unease on the part of the Emirate man whose own 4WD was parked behind a fence now that I think about it.
What a hoot! Lucky we weren’t the next international incident!
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