The War Of The Welds

No-one would have believed that in the early hours of a Monday morning, sleeping expatriates would be kept awake by CONRETE PUMPING TOSSERS.

I apologise now for the tone of this post, but I have had the worst night's sleep since I landed here. The Martians were back with a vengeance last night, banging and clanging, hooting and whistling away. I hoped that they would finish their evil doings by 10.30 or 11.00pm, but I was wrong. I was lulled into a false sense of sleepy security, only to be woken aat 12.30am by the sound of the Concrete Pumping Machine splattering its sloppy load all over the waiting re-bar.

AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!

This went on till around 5am. I managed to sleep in small bursts, but didn't get any refreshment for it. When I'm faced with the Ras Laffan expedition every day, I really don't appreciate this kind of thing. I mean, for crying out loud, they are trying to build this place, but WHY do they have to ignore common decency and consideration when they do it? It's like the bubble syndrome I wrote about in my Dubai blog. You can see it in the way these people drive and behave in shops. They withdraw into the bubble, put on the blinkers, and don't think or seemingly even care about the effects of their actions on others. Unbelievable.

So I slept in for an extra hour. Fuck it. I'm not risking my life (any more than I have to) by driving to RL half asleep. If they dock my pay by an hour, I don't care.

Of course, the driving was to its usual standard this morning. I was cut across by some nutcase at a roundabout. He decided to switch from being inside me on the roundabout to the outside of me when he exited. A few choice words were uttered, I can tell you, before I noticed that the driver was a Westerner. If you can't beat them, shoot them, I suppose. I'm going to explode some time soon if I don't get my anger under control. I rolled my window down last night to shout, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" at some woman who pulled out of a parking space without looking and then pulled over again within 20 yards without indicating. She just looked at me with a blank expression; no acknowledgement; no reaction whatsoever.

Every journey by car is interspersed with dozens of examples of people seemingly intent on crashing into you. I am turning into a foul-mouthed racist idiot, because on most occasions I can guess which nationality is doing which particular bit of reckless or just plain crap driving, and I end up making comments I would be ashamed to hear from others. Always in the safety and anonymity of my car, I must add.

Phew.

That's it off my chest. Back to the grindstone. Back to counting the days, hours, minutes and seconds.

Until next time.