7th to 9th January 2009

It's been a rough week I have to say. My eye is getting better and I can now see white bits where once there was deep claret, which is always good. No sooner had the healing process started and I picked up a bad case of Indian Man Flu. It was not good I can tell you. My head felt like it was in a vice and someone was tightening on the hour, every hour. I had a stuffed up nose and my throat felt was clearly trying to push down the golf ball/cactus hybrid I must have somehow inadvertently ingested. Not good! I am getting better but I now have that extreme lethargy you get when you are recovering from these things. Think an early night is in order.
We are in the grips of a fuel crisis out here. The tanker drivers have been on strike for over a week and fuel is in short supply. There are long queues at the petrol station, and (you had better sit down for this), the drivers that take me to work have been instructed not to use the air conditioning in the car in order to save fuel! It is surprising just how much you come to rely on that I can tell you, even if it is allegedly 'winter' over here. Those of you who remember the fuel shortage in the UK back in 2001 will know exactly how bad it is out here right now. I read in the paper yesterday that this city is normally served by 300 fuel tankers every day, and on Thursday, only 6 made it through. I have heard stories of people being driven down dark streets by their cab driver, only to be met by a fleet of vehicles and men with baseball bats. It transpired that these vigilantes were protecting a small local garage that had managed to procure some fuel from somewhere. Imagine what would go through your mind though, it's late on a Friday night and you are taken somewhere you have never been before, by someone you have never met before, and you are greeted by this gang of thugs with bats. Personally, I know my sphincter would have been flapping like a windsock in a hurricane and I am not ashamed to admit that!
The good news is that the strike was called off late on Friday but it will take a week or so I would imagine for things to return to normal. It's a shame in a way because this strike has meant that I have been able to get home much quicker in the evening because there was little or no traffic on the road. Selfish ain't I?
It is because of this fuel shortage that I was driven home in a local taxi after work on Friday. Our own vehicles were being used sparingly for obvious reasons, and they were kind enough to make provision for me to get home anyway. I have to say though, it was probably the most nervous I have been in a vehicle out here. I got in the car, not entirely sure the guy knew where he was going but I had to trust him. He then proceeded to drive so fast (and weave in and out of traffic) that he overtook the Starship Enterprise that was being joyridden by a teenager on speed! a. That seemed odd to me as I assume he was just as affected by the same fuel problems everyone else was and I would have expected him to take it a little bit easier? The car itself rattled and groaned at every gear change, every bump in the road and well, just everything really. It had seat belts, but nothing to plug them into. Despite that I gripped onto what I could and just sat back. To be honest I was so tired I did not have the energy to muster up a state of panic. In my opinion, the car would have been scrapped in the UK long ago......or used for stock car racing at best. It did have one unusual safety feature though, a fire extinguisher strapped to the left hand side of the windscreen. They must be a standard requirement for all taxis as this was not the first time I had noticed one....if it is not required then I guess it can only amount to a vain attempt to reassure the passenger that the owner/drivers do care about who they carry. Strange really when the car was held together with nothing more than prayers and good will on the part of the chassis!!