Wandering Duchess :: lmunshower.com

Rain.

The weather has been really unseasonal this spring. The climate is taking its good old time getting really hot, and only in the past week have we gotten into the 100s. There’s a drop to the low 90s predicted for the coming week – not that I’m complaining about that. I enjoy hot weather, but 100 is about my limit. Additionally, we’ve been getting a good deal of rain very late in the rainy season (hah! that it can even be called that). Rain after February is pretty rare, but we’ve been getting lots of it lately, with a bit more to come, apparently. I really hate to complain about the rain, because it is a serious treat to have rain and thunder in Dubai, but I would be remiss if I couldn’t find some way to complain about it. While the rain is lovely, the city is, in almost no way, equipped for it. The lack of decent drainage systems means that roads flood, people drive like complete jackasses as if they’ve never experienced rain before even if they’re from a country that gets lots or rain or even has yearly monsoons (remember, most people living in Dubai are not from this region), and buildings – in my case, my place of work – leaks like a sieve. And it’s seriously flooding, like it has fucked up our floors and electrical wiring big time in the past.

Basically, the reason my place of work floods during any heavy rain event is because it’s located on the ground floor next to a drain pipe whose exit, to pretty much no-one’s surprise, has been poorly constructed so water leaks its way into my work’s floor space from the drain pipe exit.

Needless to say I have complained on various occasions to the building management, and they did eventually try to sort it out.

The fix? Tin foil. Seriously.

Wonderful! Why properly fix it with caulking or a pipe extension or, I dunno better construction from the get-go, when you can just half-ass it with some tin foil? Wait, sorry, I’m being overly generous. Half-assing it is way more effort than I see here – it’s more like quarter-assing it. The Dubai Way. Clearly this is not something anyone would consider a permanent fix, but I bet you that’s the fix we get to live with. Until a sandstorm or cleaner removes the tin foil, anyway, aaaaaaand we’re back to square 1.

So now, rain and thunder storms, a normally joyful occasion in the desert, just bring feelings of dread and worry. Especially if it rains when it’s outside of my office hours, because then I just stress that I’m going to have to deal with a rain-related work crisis on my time off (which has happened, and in the most inconvenient of circumstances).

Driving.

I witness appalling driving here in Dubai on a daily basis. I consistently hear people whine and bitch and moan about the poor driving in Pittsburgh (spare me, seriously) and Philadelphia (still not that bad) and pretty much everywhere else, but there has been nowhere in America (or anywhere else outside of Asia) that I have experienced where the local driving can can be compared to the unbelievably atrocious and arrogant driving that I face daily in Dubai. I especially find it unbelievable that people complain about their fellow drivers in Pittsburgh, because from all my driving experience at home and abroad, for a city, Pittsburgh is a treat to drive in (unless you factor in the confusing roads and city layout). Generally speaking, people aren’t arrogant behind the wheel, they don’t tailgate too badly, they often use turn signals when they should, speeding is as under control as I’ve ever seen it and in fact, I find the drivers in Pittsburgh to be quite polite and calm. When I switch from Dubai roads to Pittsburgh roads and I want to merge onto a highway it’s like, “Holy shit, you’re letting me merge into your lane in front of you?! No fucking way! You’re not going to speed up because you think you’re better than me and you don’t want me getting in front of you? You’re flashing your lights because you’re going to let me go, not because you want me to get the fuck out of your way? Well, thank you sir.” – that is truly unheard of behavior over here.

What set me off this morning was a a two-lane off-ramp/on-ramp area just off a highway. There were two cars side by side of each other in the lanes, and they both wanted in the other lane. Neither car would move and/or change their speed to allow the other car into their lane to accommodate a civilized lane swap. It was unbelievable! Instead, they each just tried shoving the other car out of the way as much as they could without actually touching, all the while each smashing their hands on their horns without letting up. At the last minute, as the lanes were splitting to go their separate ways, one car sprinted forward and forced their way in front of the other, allowing each to finally get in to the lane they desired. The absurdity of the bullying was kind of funny, except for the fact that they came very close to causing an accident, which I likely would have been a part of as I was only two cars behind. It is so infuriating to witness.

The entirely infuriating and dangerous “shoving” and “bullying” tactic is a very common one here. I sometimes go stretches where I experience it daily. Someone wants into my lane, they don’t see a need to use their turn signal (this is a rarely-utilized function here, because why ask when you can just TAKE), so first of all, I don’t even know they want into my lane so I can’t anticipate their lane change to act accordingly on my end, then they refuse to speed up or slow down, to get in front of or behind me – no, they want my spot in the lane RIGHTNOW. So, they start shoving. And they basically just sidle their car more and more into my lane, against my car, until I have no choice but to give way to them, either by slamming on my breaks or swerving into the other lane next me. And they know what they’re doing. It’s not me being in their blind spot, or them being simply unobservant (although there are unobservant drivers a-plenty here, too), because if I honk to let them know they’re about to hit me, they keep trying to shove. They don’t give up. What makes this worse, or more aggravating, is that I drive a really cheap rental car. Cheap car = human inside who is not worth as much as me = how dare you drive your car in front of me, a superior being. When I had my Mercedes, or even when I now drive the boyfriend’s SUV, it’s a different story entirely on the roads. The bullying and “get out of my way” light flashing is considerably less, people treat me/the car with more respect, driving with (somewhat better) distance around me. Drive a cheap car here and be prepared to be treated like a waste of human life on the roads.

Again, well done Dubai.

Twitter.

I always said I wouldn’t join it. That I found it so abhorrent and childish I must take up my own personal stand against it. But, the other day I caved and joined. And I am annoyed at myself for my weak, weak nature. I wanted to stay on top of news from various art galleries and artists, and as much as it kills me to admit it, it is a really efficient way to do so.

This does not mean I feel like any less of an ass for for joining it, though.

You can follow me and my pointless (I mean, really) twittering @WandringDuchess. Yes, that is spelled incorrectly. Yes, it drives me nuts. Apparently 15 characters is the limit for a handle. Damn you, Twitter.