You Can Drive My Car. Really. Please.

I have been meaning to do a post about driving in Oman, but first I must mention that it was my mom's birthday on the 28th.  I think it would be rude to say how old she is but she was 30 when I was born, so if you know how old I am, you can do the math.  We made her a banner and a video that blogger declined to upload for some unknown reason.  You might all be happy not to see it, though, as it ends with a very loud "HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA PEE-PEE" from my daughter.  She has learned potty humor from her older brother and now inserts it everywhere, effortlessly.  However, she finds it very offensive when Tommy mentions poo so the truth is that potty humor is even more irritating to me than I imagined it would be.

So.  The roads have been a little nuts out there.  On Saturday morning, Eli and I went with an Omani guy (hired by the project to help employees get through the government processes we must complete in order to stay here) to get my driving license and to get Eli's liquor license (so you don't need a liquor license to be able to stay here in the legal sense, but you sort of do need it).  On our way to get the liquor license, we watched a guy tailgate (at a distance closer than you would be able to believe, I'm going to guess about six inches) an oblivious lady while going at least 120 km/hr.  He flashed his lights at her and was probably yelling in his car but of course I have no idea, and finally he saw that he could change two lanes to the right and get around her.  As he pulled in front of her, he actually bumped her car with his car.  On purpose.  Still driving at least 120km/hr.  And the Omani guy who was sitting in the front seat beside Eli got very upset and started saying horrible things about Omani drivers.

I had to take a 'vision test' to get my driving license.  It consisted of correctly identifying two letters that were up on the screen while I waited for the officer to get his papers organized and do my test.  Of course, I did not study the letters as I did not believe those would be the letters used for my test.  Because don't they have to switch them?  No.  Anyway, ever since I went to the best optometrist in the world, I know that my eyes are really, really horrible and while I can normally see fine, when I am presented with a vision test, I get a little bit worried.  And this time, that worry was for no reason because guess what?  I missed one of my two left-eye letters so he asked another one and I got it right. No problem.  Drive on!

This is last week, in front of one of the three grocery stores I visit regularly.

I took this while Eli was driving, but I'm so sad I didn't get a photo the day before when there were some laborers in there, trying to unclog it.  The water hit them at mid-thigh.  It was CRAZY.  But I was driving, so no photo.

This is one of the worst places I drive.  Everyone in the far right lane is trying to get into the left lane to get onto the highway.  I was stopped at a light here.