Today I came back to my apartment feeling like I had some success. Mind you, this was the second time I returned home. The first time I felt absolutely frustrated. Just like many other days when I’ve had to deal with a certain area involved in visa processing, etc.
But anyway, back to the positive. Not only did I walk a new way home from the nearby shopping centre without getting lost. I also managed to achieve almost everything on my shopping and to-do lists that had failed me for almost a couple of weeks.
My trips to the shops have usually ended with me giving up cause I can’t find what I’m looking for, can’t get in and out of the shops without waiting an enormous amount of time, or can’t find someone with even basic English skills or the willingness to answer a simple question. Actually quite a few of my trips have combined all three.
I talk about it like a tremendous success, but in normal everyday life getting some passport-sized photos enhanced and printed; and buying things like a dish drainer, water bottle, and cotton buds are pretty minor things. But here, when I have searched the web for info, and gone into plenty of shops and failed to find these everyday things to the standard I want, tonight’s purchases seem like fossicking some huge gold nuggets.
Actually I referred to not getting lost like it’s a strange thing for me. It actually hasn’t. Elle refers to me having a bad sense of direction, but it hasn’t been an issue here at all. I guess there’s no alternative to finding my way around. I’ve even helped out the occasional limo driver, who haven’t known where basic landmarks are.
It’s not entirely related to the topic, but typing directions made me think of it. As I was walking through the carpark on my way out of the shop, I probably pass about 20 – 30 drive straight in car spaces. I would say, tonight when I passed these spaces, almost a third of all the cars were pointing in various directions – other than straight ahead. No word of a lie, a couple were driven in and left at around a 40 degree angle! This adds to the examples of bad driving that you see everywhere, and that I’ve written about previously.
A few of the guys have asked more than once when I’m going to change my driver’s license over and hire or buy a car. My position is getting more concrete everyday, I’m going to put it off for as long as humanly possible!
But in reality, once the family arrive, it would be a good time to get more daring. There’s more to see in Dubai than the vicinity of Deira and the creek, and where I’ve been able to impinge on the kindness of others who have driven somewhere else.
The prices to hire cars is quite expensive, so a couple people I know hire the small and basic cars. It might be a good idea until we get used to the roads, driving on the other side of the road, but most importantly, all the other crazy drivers.